Mistress of the Elements: Storm/Ororo fanfic

Chapter 11- familiar stranger

"She has been down there too long." T'Challah stated as he paced the length of the blackbird. "We should go in after her." Okoye stayed silent but stood to the side. It was her place to protect the King, and yet, she also worried about the weather witch.
"Umm, your greatness," Jubilee started, "none of us would be able to breathe so long below the water, and the blackbird going all submarine would be suspicious right?" She asked all too knowingly for a young woman. The king could feel his defenses rise- Of course she could do this with no thought at all- she was raised by Ororo herself. "If you're really worried you can check the sonar. Storm hasn't completely shielded herself from us at least. We can pick up just a trace of her below the water."
T'Challah moved to the front of the plane to confirm. He identified the small dot, emitting no more waves in the water than a large fish. It flashed- one, two, then something strange happened. It flashed twice and disappeared. Several moments later the image returned and in the same pattern but in a different location. The king watched this process happen 3 more times before exhaling the breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Guess we can't all be pretty and smart." It took T'Challah a moment to realize that it was the Wolverine who spoke. Perhaps it was the first time he heard him speak since arriving in Wakanda.
"Well then, if we want to rescue Storm and the children," T'Challah easily deflected, "I would suggest you put your purse away." And with that he returned to pacing in the back, every now and then looking up at the sonar.
****
Ororo moved along the channel, allowing the current to glide over her body and through her skin, but it was eerie being in the deep water. She could sense the bodies of her ancestors laying at the bottom of the trench- kidnapped, chained, and thrown overboard when they were too sick or too heavy for the slaving journey. Although it was not her power, she could feel their presence as deftly as an empath- cries of the pain and injustice blurring the corners of her vision. How could she have forgotten this part of being in Africa? It was one of the reasons she so willingly left with the uncanny X-men...With the exception of Wakanda, the brutality of colonialism, and the ghosts she perceived of them in the pit of her stomach, dulled her senses. In her youth, she meticulously built mental blocks to protect herself from this loss of power. In Wakanda, she had learned to find strength in it.
Storm's body pulled at the energy gathering around her. The spirits of the ancestors absorbing through her skin like electrical currents and reinvigorating her as she continued on.
Just five years earlier, she would be desperate and gasping for air below the water's edge- totally unaware of her true nature yet to be revealed. Later, despite months of training, when the medicine man and head somaye (traditional women's healer) held her down in the lake, she thought she would drown. She knew she could manipulate oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, but it wasn't until the moment she decided to surrender to death, that she really allowed those elements- her children- to protect her. In that split second, she stopped struggling and trusted them as they responded in kind.
Crack!
Lightening suddenly came slicing through the water and crashing down from in front of her. Impossible! She thought, lightening under the sea? She told herself. Yet, despite her disbelief, she looked to the origin of the bolt.
Ororo saw a man smiling back at her. His hair was blindingly white and yet he was certainly as ebony as she. The molecules around him seemed to bend and shield him, just as they did for Ororo.
How could she have been detected? She had complete control of the surrounding water, making sure there were no disturbances and no traces of her approach. But this man seemed to know she was there? How?
Storm paused and allowed the man to approach.
He was beautiful up close. His eyes were blindingly white and almost glowing through the depths; his dark brown skin was even and muscles perfectly toned. His power was a gentle tide radiating from him in the surrounding water.
Had the underwater lightening come from him? He had no weapons that she could see, and the elements gave nothing away about his intentions.
The stranger pointed to the closest breach in the underwater tunnel system and motioned for her to follow.
Soon the two had broken the aquatic barrier and were standing inside an oxygen- filled pocket of the tunnel. Ororo and the stranger stared at one another with curiosity, neither seemingly wet or gasping- as others, human or mutant, might be.
As his clouded eyes became blue, the man spoke first, "who are you, enchantress?" He spoke in the Xhosa trade language and smiled as he studied her. Storm chose to close off most of her powers to him. She was intrigued, but it would do her no good to allow a stranger to know the true extent of her capabilities. She remained calm and feigned receptiveness as he smiled and circled her. She could sense his arousal mingled with curiosity but nothing else.
The air was strange- oddly dry, and motionless. Almost as if it was unable to choose which of the mutants to follow.
"I am Ororo I'quadi, and I have come in search of my nieces and nephews who have all but disappeared from their villages in Kenya." She replied evenly.
"Ah Ororo." his handsome face smiled broadly. "A fitting name for one such as you... Tell me, Ororo, how did you come about? I have never known you and yet you are Yaxola." He stated in wonder. "Are you a shape shifter? Or perhaps a psychic?" He paused for a moment and grabbed his chin. "Surely I would sense it if you were using your powers for anything but suppression."
Ororo's eyes widened slightly in surprise. He could sense her suppression?
She spoke cautiously, encouraging him to go on, "I am from Kenya- yet I've never heard of the Yaxola you speak of. Who, may I ask, are you?" She asked using Wakandan formal gestures. Somewhere in her mind she hoped that his people had experience with the kingdom of Wakanda, as many mutant tribes had. It was a risky move, as she might have been considered a spy, but she went ahead hoping she could request to establish kingdoms to kingdom negotiations.
"Aaaaah, A panther follower?" He inquired ina husky voice as smooth as his muscular chest. "A Yaxola Panther? How can that be? ... They are such a primitive people," the man mused before her, still revealing nothing.
He was beautiful.
But hid amusement was met with the Goddess' stoney expression. "Alii Ororo," he held up three fingers on his right hand as he greeted her and then slid them from left to right shoulder before holding them up again. "I am Jongikhaya chad er a Yaxola of the first tribe," he pressed his three fingers to his mouth and extended them to her as if blowing a kiss before dropping it back to his side. "And now that you know who I am, I will be escorting you to the elders for further discussion." He looked to the far end of the air pocket which seemed to be growing and merging with the next.
"And am I your prisoner, Jongikhaya chad er a Yaxola?" She inquired despite his distraction.
The man opened his mouth to speak but closed it again and looked to the end of the tunnel. A thin wall of water opened and another man walked through. This man was much older, with his white hair falling below his shoulders and blue eyes hazy with age. As he stood in front of the 2, the younger man held up three fingers in the same salute he gave Ororo a moment earlier.
The older man nodded in acknowledgement and beckoned the weather witch to follow him through the tunnels with Jongikhaya following close behind.