White Wolf and Arctic Fox

8

[Sorry, this is a short chapter. It's intense though, so deal and move on. 😋]

Soon, we find ourselves back on Warrior's Falls. Shuri, Queen Mother, and I stand with the rest of the Elders. Erik, who is watching as T'Challa is approached by Zuri, breaks the spear he's been given to fight with.

"He will never beat T'Challa," Shuri says confidently. "He should have just come to the first challenge and gotten it over with."

"The king will now have the strength of the Black Panther stripped away," Zuri says as T'Challa drinks from the bowl again.

We begin the light dance as the drums  play, just like before. When he's ready, T'Challa stands again.

"This is your last chance," T'Challa tells Erik. "Throw down your weapons, and we can handle this another way."

Erik sets his weapons down. "I've lived my entire life, waitin' for this moment. I trained, I lived, I killed, just to get here." He begins taking off his vest and shirt, revealing hundreds of round scars, and picking up his weapons again. "I killed in America, Afganistan, Iraq. I took life from my own brothers and sisters right here on this continent. And all this death, just so I could kill you."

T'Challa looks at Zuri and nods.

"Let the challenge begin," Zuri states.

A brutal fight begins, but no blows are landed for a while. Just sword and shield clanging together. T'Challa eventually knocks Erik on his back.

"Yield!" T'Challa orders.

Instead, Erik leaps to his feet. T'Challa lands a cut to Erik's cheek. Erik knocks T'Challa down. Once T'Challa stands, however, Erik cuts his inner thigh.

"Snap out of it, T'Challa!" Shuri yells as the fight continues.

Erik cuts both of T'Challa's biceps, causing the man to yell out in pain. He stabs T'Challa in the stomach, and Shuri and I grasp each other's hands. T'Challa falls to his knees as Erik punches him across the face.

"This is for my father," Erik shouts, lifting his sword.

"Erik!" Zuri yells, disarming him.

"Zuri, no," T'Challa says.

"Zuri, don't," Queen Mother shouts.

"Erik, I am the cause of your father's death, not him," Zuri admits. "Take me."

Erik pauses. "I'll take you both, Uncle James!" he yells, stabbing Zuri.

"No!" T'Challa shouts. "No! No! Zuri, no!"

T'Challa grabs the sword, but falls as he swings it at Erik.

"Is this your king?" Erik asks as T'Challa swings again. "Huh? Is this your king?" He punches T'Challa. "The Black Panther who's supposed to lead you into the future?" He knees T'Challa in the face.

"Come on, brother!" Shuri yells, crying.

"T'Challa, get up!" I plead.

"He's supposed to protect you!" Erik yells, picking T'Challa up and carrying him to the edge of the Falls.

"No!" Queen Mother screams as Erik throws T'Challa over the edge.

"Nah. I'm your king," Erik announces.

"We have to go now," Nakia tells us as Queen Mother holds Shuri and I close. "We have to go!"

Nakia pulls us to the passage back into the mountain and out to the jungle beyond.

"First Baba, and now my brother," Shuri cries. "Mother, we didn't even get to bury him."

Footsteps enter, and Queen Mother draws a knife.

"It's me," Nakia assures.

"Nakia, who is this man?" Queen Mother asks. I look up to see Ross.

"He's a friend of T'Challa's, he saved my life," Nakia explained. "Okoye told me Killmonger has stated that if he sees Ayana in Wakanda again, he will kill her, and if he knew about him, he'd kill him, too."

"I'm Everett Ross," Ross greets.

"Where is Okoye?" Queen Mother asks.

"She is not coming," Nakia explains. "She and the Dora Milaje will serve the new king. Wait here."

"What has happened to our Wakanda?" Queen Mother asks sorrowfully as Nakia leaves us again.

I shake my head. I don't understand. I mean, I understand what happened. I don't understand how someone could become that cruel. That evil. To have so many scars, each one representing someone he's killed. Now, I guess, he will have to add a new one. For T'Challa.

What exactly happened to Eric to harden his heart? I know he found his father dead, abandoned by his home. But if my brother can be redeemed after everything Hydra did to him, can't anyone?

I guess I'll find out, one way or the other.