The Other Rogers

Chapter 37

There is a power and a brilliance in the tranquillity, a place of stillness even in the roar of the water.

Normally Anya could watch this streaming water even in her sleep, a beautiful infinite dream, but what was usually her escape of the world turned into a nightmare.

Leaping from rock to rock, she slowly made her way down the crevices, facing death as she stared down and saw the whirlpool, pulling anything and everything into the middle, free-falling.

Taking a deep breath, she took a moment to send a message that she knew wouldn't reach James, but it worked in calming her down before she pushed off and sailed through the air. Gravity pulled her down, water descending on top of her as she plummeted into the water.

The first time her head bobbed beneath the waves Anya wasn't worried. She'd dived before, she wasn't scared of a little water over her head.

After only thirty seconds more she was sinking again, her legs tired and struggled to bring her back toward the sun-speckled surface. She couldn't hear the music and chatter from the river and land above her anymore and her hair rose like seaweed upwards, rippling in the currents.

With superhuman effort she broke the surface again, gulping at the summer air and then with barely a splash she was under again. This time she sunk faster, and the panic had her heart hammering against her ribs.

Nobody was looking, no-one had seen, they had all accepted the new leadership and left. Left the beloved T'Challa to the jaws of death.

When she could no longer hold her breath the cold water rushed in, all illusions of surviving were gone.

NO! She couldn't give up, the survival of Wakanda relied on her finding T'Challa.

She knew the man was stronger than this, she knew he would survive. Swimming against the current, she peered into the dark and unforgiving water as a figure was pulled to the centre of the earth, as the mother of water bought him back to her never-ending grave.

She didn't have enough time to think of how cold it was, even with the serum she was barely hanging on herself. Her eyes glowed purple, the luminescence bouncing back against the water lighting up the path in front of her. Now she could see him clear as day, and pushed herself towards him, prepared to fight the fates for him.

Wakanda needed him, so Bast would have to find another sacrifice.

Gripping onto his shoulders Anya pulled them both back up to the surface, the water forming into what seemed to be faces of their ancestors.

She didn't know if it was the lack of oxygen or if she was truly watching as her parents and T'Chaka smiled urging them to the surface.

Taking a chance, she followed their directions and found herself in an air pocket where the shields were still holding; pushing back the onslaught of water giving her the perfect opportunity to find out if she was dragging a still living king, or was she pulling him away from his right; as a spirit.

Laying him on the ragged rock, she placed her finger under his nose exhaling in relief when she felt the slightest of breeze against her flesh.

He was alive, but she could hear his heart barley beating and knew he wouldn't last for very long. There was no way she could take him back to the palace lab, they would both be killed on sight.

Sighing she remembered the mountain she had once spied from a distance, she remembered that the Jabari tribe had isolated themselves from the rest of Wakanda; and their leader technically owning T'Challa his life.

Fighting the water, Anya called a portal to her, praying to god that the other end was where she wanted to go; but the sound of water cracking at glass alerted her to the integrity of the shield was failing.