LEGACY ─ marvel

III. Divided We Fall

Chapter Three
Olivia

When my eyes flutter open I feel my heart stop dead in my chest. Zy's face is incredibly close to mine. At some point in the night we turned on our sides towards each other, with my head resting on his arm, our legs almost intertwining. I should really move away from him, but I don't want to, in fact it's the last thing I want to do.

He's so handsome, the kind of handsome that you think only exists in movies, with his dark skin, his sharp features, his hair, the curves of his muscles, his full lips that are curving into a smile, and most of all, his deep brown eyes that now lock onto mine. I begin to panic, realizing that he knows I was staring at him, but he doesn't seem to mind. He brings his free hand up and tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear, his smile growing.

"Morning." He whispers, still on the process of waking up.

I try to keep my voice steady as I say: "Morning. Sleep well?"

He nods, opening his mouth to say something else, but he doesn't get the chance to, because the door to his bedroom bangs open, revealing my brother. Stevie's expression is distressed when he enters, but his features freeze for a second and turn into confusion, gesturing to the two of us in bed together: "Is this what I think it is?"

I bolt up in bed, putting as much distance between Zy and I as I can in the bed. "No, no of course not, I just slept here."

Stevie doesn't look entirely convinced, but he doesn't seem to care right now, his expression returning to distress as he informs us with some shocking news: "Mom and Uncle Alex are gone."

I share a look with Zy before returning my gaze back to my brother. "Gone? What do you mean gone?"

"I mean they're gone. We can't find them anywhere, we can't contact them, we have no idea where they are," Stevie explains. "Everyone else is downstairs in the throne room, you should come down...whenever you're done with whatever you were doing."

I glare at him, gesturing towards the door. He nods and rolls his eyes, exiting the room as quickly as he entered it. Zy and I don't waste time to discuss what we think might be going on or what's happened, we both bolt out the door after Stevie, following him down to the throne room. Everyone is indeed waiting here, most of them still in sleepwear themselves. I realize that it's still relatively early in the morning, only seven. Everyone's expressions are confused and exhausted, none more so than Dad and Uncle Khari, who look incredibly worried.

I approach the former, who is sitting down in one of the council seats, wearing sweatpants and a tank top, his metal hand grabbing onto mine once I reach him. "Dad what's going on? Stevie said Mom is missing."

Dad shakes his head. "I don't know. I woke up at five and found your mother gone. I waited an hour before I started to get worried, so I looked around the palace and couldn't find her. I called Alex but he didn't answer, Khari did, and he said he had been looking for Alex for the last hour. We woke the others up and have searched through all of Wakanda, still nothing. We did find their Kimoyo Beads, they were in the field next to the northwest section of the barrier."

"We found stuff missing in my lab as well," Aunt Shuri tells me. "The files and formulas about Soroya and Alex are gone, but I don't know who took them. There's no camera footage."

"Do we think someone took them?" I ask, the silence that accompanies this question gives me the answer I need.

"Who would take Mom and Uncle Alex?" Stevie asks, his voice just above a whisper. "And why?"

"I don't know," Dad responds. "But we're going to find out."

"Who's 'we'?" I inquire.

"Your Uncle Khari and I. We're going to leave in an hour to go look for them."