Revamped!
Chapter 22: African Storms Part Six
Wakanda - 8:32 AM
Iqadi always knew her presence was electrifying. She was always the lightning striking the Earth. She was always a storm. She was always a force paving her path with lightning.
Iqadi steps forwards. She takes a deep breath before planting her feet firmly on the ground and holds her hands up. Iqadi feels her eyes turn white and all the elements are in the control of her fingertips. She and her mother are no longer fighting each other for the power because it now belongs to her. She pours all that she has left into the storm that will send it away. And the juices of the herb give her much more. Her swirling vortex is powerful to stop the rain, thunder, lightning, and wind, but the dark clouds remain.
A wave of energy surges through her veins, pulsating outwards. She can feel it in her fingertips and her lungs as she screams out in fury. Power incarnate. Infinite strength. Boundless wisdom. Clarity cascades through her mind and she feels like she's going to explode. Tears blur her vision as the sensation of the herb expands her strength even more than she thought she'd have. It'd be endless, fathomless power.
Then she hears a scream from above. Iqadi squints her eyes and watches as her mother's arms drop and she starts falling.
"Mother!" Iqadi yells.
She sends a gust of wind her way to ease the fall but, thankfully, her father runs over and catches Ororo in open arms. Imanu runs over to them as T'Challa wraps her arms around his now-frantic wife.
"Ororo, listen to me!" T'Challa yells firmly, taking her head in his hands.
As he tries to explain everything, Ororo only stares. She doesn't see T'Challa holding her. She sees Ehioze taunting her as the flames continue to grow behind him. Her anger grows strongly.
"You killed my husband!" Ororo screams like an animal, breaking out of his arms.
She pushes him over and rises to her feet. Iqadi and Imanu pause as Ororo keeps her dark and clouded eyes on them. Her gaze turns to Imanu who remains still as Ororo approaches him. For a moment, Imanu catches her strong wall of rage break and her face softens. The storms calm, clouds turning from near-black to light grey.
"Foolish child, I told you to run," Ororo says to him softly. "Get out of here."
Imanu exhales, realizing that Ororo sees him as himself. He remains calm the whole time as Ororo gets closer to him. He decides to use this to his advantage.
"My Queen," Imanu starts, holding back Iqadi and T'Challa. "You are being deceived."
Ororo stops as those words hit her. She looks around at her surroundings. The fire she thought was there slowly disappears. When she faces Imanu, something in her bones says to strike but as she raises an arm, she stops herself.
"There is someone or something in your mind," Imanu explains to her. "You need to listen to me to understand the truth. King T'Challa is alive. He survived the fight. Fire is not what is destroying Wakanda. You were."
Ororo continues to stare at him, soft rain falling on her dampened hair. Her breaths are slow as her muscles loosen up. In her mind, the fraud flames disappear for good and she sees all the damage she caused. She brings a hand up to her mouth in shock as she falls to her knees. She screams and a navy spirit escapes through her throat. It constructs into Ehioze.
It all clicks together. Nobody saw Ehoize leave from The Warrior Falls because he never left. He possessed Queen Ororo while in her tornado.
Iqadi turns, still having her elements fresh on her fingertips. Her eyes are still bright white but she looks over her shoulder and sees her father standing behind her and glaring daggers at Ehioze.
"You have used all of her strength and power!" T'Challa exclaims. "Now feel the wrath of mine!"
T'Challa charges, making the first attack at Ehioze who only throws his arms up in defence before returning his attack. Iqadi is about to join the fight but takes a quick look at her mother and husband. Imanu is tending Ororo on the ground with soothing words. It's up to her and whatever heart-shaped herb is still in her to return Wakanda's skies to how they were.
Iqadi turns around and sees her father knee Ehioze in the face. Ehoize gives T'Challa one punch and, because her father was still in pain from their previous fight, he flies in the air and slides on the ground. He grunts in pain, holding his side. T'Challa, covered in mud, struggles to get up as Ehioze charges at him.
It's giving her flashbacks of what happened during this fight the first time around, appearing in her mind like lightning strikes in the sky.
"Do not hurt him anymore!" Iqadi screams at him.
Iqadi throws an arm towards their battle and sends lightning bolts their way. Knowing his daughter, T'Challa remains on the ground as her bolts fly over his head. T'Challa is about to stop her but she silences him the way he did to her earlier. When Ehioze hits the ground, Iqadi charges over and kicks him across the face. She spits out some blood to the side as her hair drips on him.
"You have taken our nation and brought catastrophe to it!" She yells at him. "Not anymore!"
Iqadi turns her eyes white again. Before he could make a run for it, she twists her fingers and lightning eats him up, burning him to a crisp.
She can't believe she did that. Nobody can.
Iqadi's breathing slows down as her eyes turn back to dark brown. She faces her family. Imanu holds Ororo on the ground, talking to her softly. T'Challa crawls over to his wife and takes her hand. Ororo looks at him and smiles lightly with tears of joy in her eyes. She immediately goes to hug him, kissing him all over his face. Iqadi sighs to herself, looking up to the grim sky bittersweet but then she hunches over in excruciating pain.
"Get this herb out of me!" Iqadi screams, throat straining.
Her body begins shaking and she falls onto her knees. Before anyone could approach her, she blacks out into the mud.
