The White Phoenix 13: A Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Fanfiction

Chapter 10: Rising With Revenge

The meeting room of the Jabari stronghold was crowded. M'Baku and the leaders of the Jabari tribe stood on one end of the room, and the Wakandans on the other. I was with some of the Wakandan elders, standing to the side along with the Dora Milaje, and Shuri was in the middle of the room, in her new Black Panther suit. 

'Namor believes Wakanda is on her knees,' Shuri spoke. 'Our queen murdered. Our capital destroyed. He believes we have no protector. But now, now is our time to strike.' 

'How, when we don't even know how to find him?' one of the elders asked. 

'We'll bring Namor to us.'

'Here, again?' another of the elders asked. 

'No. A distant location, at sea.' 

'All right. Let's say this does work,' M'Baku said as Shuri came to stand beside him. 'Assuming we can kill this man who can fly and is potentially as strong as the Hulk... is murdering him the right solution?' 

'You were calling for his head when his only crime was intimidation,' the elder bit back. 

'What has changed, Lord M'Baku?' another of the elders asked. 

'His soldiers did not call him General or King. They called him K'uk'ulkan.'

'What is that?' an elder asked. 

'The feathered serpent god,' I said, and they turned to look at me. 'He's a mutant, like me.' 

'What? Do you think because we're living in the mountains, we do not have access to books?' M'Baku sniped. The room erupted in small chuckles. 

'Elders, with your permission, I would like to talk to Lord M'Baku alone,' Shuri said. Slowly but surely, the people in the room filtered out, leaving Shuri alone with M'Baku. He turned to her. 'Namor's not finished,' she said. 'He promised to destroy the surface world. Now is our opportunity to take him. What are you afraid of?' 

'War. If Namor is indeed a god to his people, killing him will risk eternal war.' 

'And so what? Was my mother's life not worth eternal war?' 

'Of course, it was. Of course, she was. But it is not what she would have wanted for you. And it is not what I want -' he said, crossing to the throne and sitting down upon it, '- for my people.' She turned to him. 

'You speak of my mother as if she's still here. Of what she would have wanted for me. Her hopes and her dreams. But she's dead. She's gone! Namor drowned her, right in front of me! So, her dreams... her goals, her hopes for me... it doesn't exist. It doesn't matter anymore. What matters is what I want, and what I want is Namor dead. And you're going to help me get it.' There was a beat of silence. 'Are we clear?' she added in Xhosa. 'We leave in the morning,' she said, then turned and left. 

The fight began in the afternoon between the soldiers of Talokan, Namor, and the Wakandans, including the Jabari, myself, and Shuri as the new Black Panther. Riri took to the skies in her new suit and turned the tide of the fight when she blasted Namor from the skies and into the Royal Talon Fighter. 

'It's on you now, Shuri!' she called through the comms. I watched Shuri jump from the side of the ship onto the Royal Talon and the jet flew away with her on it. I turned, slashing one of the Talokanian warriors that had gotten onto the boat. Riri landed. 

'Yo, we got him,' Riri said. 

'Good!' M'Baku exclaimed. 

'Namor has been captured. Retreat!' Nakia called through her Kimoyo Beads in Xhosa.

'Back to Wakanda!' I screamed, and we began our journey back, only to hear a small commotion moments later. M'Baku, Nakia and I gathered around someone who held up her Kimoyo Beads to show a holographic design of the ship. 

'What's going on?' M'Baku asked.

'The sonic emitter has been destroyed,' she replied. M'Baku turned to us. 

'That can't be good.' Seconds later, water erupted all around us, and the ship leaned violently to the left. Some fell from the boat and were swiftly executed by the waiting warriors of Talokan, while many others stayed on as the boat righted itself. But then, several more warriors of Talokan made their way onto the ship and I heard one of them yell, 

'Sink the ship!' in their strange language, and they attacked. 

Shuri got up, exhausted from the sudden crash of the ship. She got up from the dry, cracked earth, looking everywhere for Namor, but saw nothing. That was, until he crashed into her, swooping down on her like a great big bird of prey, and she hit the ground again. She rose once more, but then he grabbed her, taking her up into the sky, and the two kicked and punched each other, hurtling from the skies and falling to the earth once more. Namor continued to punch her mercilessly, but she easily wrestled herself from underneath him and slashed with her vibranium claws at his ankle, which severed one of the wings from his ankles. He cried out, and she easily flipped him end over end, and he fell to the ground. They continued to fight, until Namor found a vibranium spear, thrusting it easily into Shuri's suit, pushing her back against a rock. She cried out, and for a moment, it just seemed like all was lost. 

Until there was a mighty yell behind Namor, and he turned to see me there, wings spread, white with black tips, claws unsheathed, and dark, stormy red eyes, fangs coming out of my mouth. I roared again and charged him, and we fought, easily trading blows. I was hit in the face, but I got him back by sinking my fangs into his shoulders and neck. But his pure rage overcame my strength, and I was knocked away, slamming into a rock, and falling down, lying motionless.