Driven Mad (Book 1 in the MAD Series)(An Avengers Fan Fiction)

T'Challa

T’Challa slowly awakened, something he didn’t expect to ever do again. He smelled antiseptic and heard the low electronic hum of fluorescent lights. He closed his eyes, piecing together his last memories. The panther’s spirit took over when Clint’s arrow exploded and he threatened Ororo… Then everything went blank for awhile. Then he remembered awakening again in Ororo’s arms… Then, in the midst of a battle, he married her… Then everything after that went blank until he found himself there, alive somehow, unless he was in Heaven...

His muscles ached, his head throbbed. His mind slowly came into focus, and a million thoughts ceased to race in his mind. He could hear beeping, like from a heart monitor. How could I live? I remember dying… I think. Is this what Heaven is? Impossible. Well, maybe it’s impossible. Where am I? How did I live? T’Challa knew that it was impossible, because each of his ancestors had died when the Panther’s spirit was unleashed; the power was always too strong for them. A power like that is too strong for anyone. It tears people apart. A power like that is something not even the most skilled warriors on Earth can control, but I remember the Panther unleashing itself from me… How could I be alive? This must be Heaven, but I didn’t think Heaven be like this…

As T’Challa regained his consciousness, he felt a sudden burst of energy seem to explode inside of him. He struggled to lay still, afraid. What is this? What is wrong with me? Shouldn’t I be in Heaven by now, walking on the streets of gold with my father? This cannot be happening. What is wrong with me? T’Challa felt the energy pulsing through his body. I’m supposed to be dead. Why am I not? I… I lived… No, it’s not possible. It’s… It can’t be possible. I should be dead… But thank God if I am not. I need to be with Ororo forever… I can’t make my lovely wife a widow.

He breathed in and sniffed. He smelled antiseptic, like a hospital. This cannot be what Heaven smells like. Why would Heaven smell like a hospital? Could it be possible that I am, in fact, alive? T’Challa, no longer able to resist, looked up and saw a flickering fluorescent light staring down at him. He shifted his gaze to the right and saw Ororo, his wife. She sat at his side, and he realized that one of her hands held one of his own and the other rested on his chest.

His own wedding replayed in his mind. It was nothing they’d planned. It wasn’t the traditional Wakandan wedding that they’d planned. There were no gowns or priests. He didn’t get to watch Ororo walk down the aisle, dressed in white, her brother, Judah, at her side since her father was dead. He’d imagined her walking down the aisle in the church of the Wakandan palace so many times, but it had never happened…

Instead nothing on their wedding day had been planned, nothing at all. They weren’t supposed to be married for another month. But that had all changed. Instead of Ororo covered from head to toe in white, walking down the aisle, they had sat on the cold, stone ground of Jotunheim, T’Challa dying slowly and a battle waging around them, angry beasts attacking, struggling to get to them… They’d wed themselves, and they weren’t even legally married, which didn’t really matter. They’d married in the middle of a stone-cold, bloody battle to the death, dead attackers lying all around, one of their own compromised and another standing with the enemy in a desperate attempt to help win the war… And it was perfect.

“Good morning, T’Challa.” Ororo whispered.

“I lived?” T’Challa asked.

“You did. You’re alive. You made it.”

“How did I live? The Panther… It’s impossible.”

“You can thank Tony Stark and Hank Pym for that. Do you remember…?”

Ororo’s voice trailed off. T’Challa smiled, raising his arm. He pushed her white curls from her face and smiled. She looked like she’d barely slept in days, maybe weeks. Her brown eyes twinkled energetically when she stared at him, though. She smiled despite her exhausted appearance. The room felt warmer as she stared back into his eyes, like she was somehow heating up the entire earth.