The White Wolf

XIII

Ava couldn't exactly remember how she got to where she was. She couldn't remember how she had left the pool. She didn't remember any of it. All she knew was that at one minute she was there, screaming for Zuri, and the next, she was standing beside Shuri and the Queen, wrapped up in a large, fur coat as the wind and snow bit at her skin. They slowly walked into the wilderness, frozen tears on their cheeks. "First Baba, and now my brother. Mama, we didn't even get to bury him." Shuri choked out sadly. 

Baba. Ava closed her eyes, her chest tightening painfully at the word. His body was probably still in that pool. The crackling of twigs caught their attention, the three women whipping around in alarm. "It's just me!" Nakia hushed, being followed by Agent Ross. He was wrapped in a thick, Wakandan poncho for warmth. 

He looked at Ava, noticing her reddened, swollen eyes, and the heartbreak on her face. "Who is this man?" The Queen questioned, still hesitant of strangers after the events of just hours before. In that time, night had fallen over them.

"He is a friend." Ava said quietly, her voice raspy and raw. It seemed almost painful to use her voice with the damage she inflicted on her own throat from screaming. "He s-saved Nakia's life."

The Queen looked at him, nodding slightly. "Where is Okoye?" She asked Nakia.

Nakia shook her head with a small sigh. "Okoye is not coming. She and the Dora Milaje will serve the new king." She said. "Wait here."

The three women and Agent Ross stayed put as Nakia slipped away, back into the bushes. Ava stared down at her feet silently, blinking back fresh tears as she processed what Nakia had said. The new king. Her heart sank further when she remembered. She had fled with Shuri and Ramonda, leaving everything behind under the rule of Erik Stevens. That included Sergeant Barnes. Ava felt her stomach twist in knots, knowing that even though the frozen man was well hidden, he still had the chance of being found. That, and, without her and Shuri, he wasn't getting the treatment he needed to reprogram his mind and allow him to come out of cryo. She had failed him. 

"Ava," Shuri said, her voice cracking. Ava shifted her eyes to her younger friend, blue meeting brown. "Are you okay?"

Okay? Just yesterday she was with Zuri, laughing together. They were doing what they always did. They talked about what was on their minds before they went off to bed. They told jokes, exchanged smiles. They were father and daughter. They were family. And she had just witnessed him be murdered right in front of her, unable to even say goodbye to him, unable to hug him and tell him he would be okay. In the blink of an eye, she was parentless, a fugitive, and a terrible friend for leaving Barnes behind. 

Ava didn't have to speak for Shuri to know that she was not okay, and Shuri took it as a sign to not ask about it for a while. Instead, she reached out and grabbed Ava's hand gently, nodding to her with sympathy, for she too was not okay.

Soon, Nakia crept out of the bushes and returned, cradling something in her hands. "I took the last one. Killmonger, he... he burned the rest." She said, opening her hands to reveal what she had. Sitting in her palms was the deep purple blossom of the heart-shaped herb. The plant that gave the powers of the Black Panther to those who ate it or sipped it's nectar. "We must take it to M'Baku. He is our only hope left to claim back Wakanda."

"The Jabari?" Queen Ramonda hissed in fright. "Are you sure about this?" 

"They have an army of strong warriors. We have nothing. What choice  do we have?" Nakia responded sadly, tilting her head a little. "Come, we need to go quickly."

**********

"Where are we going again?" Agent Ross spoke up as the group continued hiking along the frost-bitten path.