sinking|namor

|PRELUDE|

KALPANA ALIVINCIA REVEUR. She was the illegitimate daughter of a Wakandan woman and her American love. A young girl with no sense of self or place in the world. She was never accepted by society though she embraced cultures and had grown up in Wakanda, she looked far different, and it was well known her upbringing.

HER mother had abandoned Wakanda, preferring eroded Texas to the high-tech civilization. She had left behind her home, risked providing information to outsiders, and fallen in love with a short, scruffy outsider of a man. When she fell pregnant, he abandoned her, leaving for a new life. Kalpana could hardly blame him. From what she understood, her mother was a cruel and worthless woman, but she choose to believe she was good.

BUT WHEN the woman looked past the facade of freedom, and realized the lack of supplies and unscrupulous surroundings of the place she had once dreamt of as home, she came to her senses. Seeing it unfit for the raising of her child, dragged her back to her old home and groveled at the feet of King T'Chaka. She begged for her child to be accepted into her birthplace. For her to at least have a better life. Kalpana had supposedly been a toddler, but she didn't remember a thing. Only blurry flashes. A glimpse behind a curtain never meant to part.

SHE was not accepted back, but her daughter was most graciously welcomed. Despite the hatred-filled looks, constant unabashed flirting of Prince T'Challa, and anger of the grand council members, Kalpana was proud to be there. She spent most of her time with Princess Shuri, who had been fascinated by the girl's vivid imagination and prognosticating. She'd finally found a freind and a home. She knew her spot and her worth and she never misstepped.

THE duo kept secrets from the rest of Wakanda and aspiring to be finally accepted, the both of them, as Wakanda's saviors, labored relentlessly in the Princess's lab. So much so that Kalpana forgot her mother, her poisoned home in Texas, and her petrifying nightmares. She instead adopted the dream of being a superhero, magnificent and adored. Her and Shuri savings the world. Together. Free of the burdens of society and the limiting restraints of age and class.

WHEN the meeting addressing the Sokovian Accords took place, Kalpana and Shuri watched from the side. Observed a mysterious news truck pull up. Saw the equipment being unloaded and positioned. Screeched at the screen and begged them all to run. Clawed at their faces when the people ran as the papers the Black Widow had gathered flew, and the bomb exploded. And finally, tears streaking, they looked on as King T'Chaka died.

BLOOD-CURDLING. That is the only proficient word to describe the screech that flew from Shuri as she sobbed. Kalpana crumbled to her knees, paralyzed as she processed the death of the man who had twisted Wakandan's rules for her. The weight of her father's death drove Shuri further into her lab and the two spent the next month locked away in the lab.

ONCE Kilmonger had been defeated, Klaue drove to madness, and everyone brought back to good health, Kalpana hoped it would be the end of the trio's constant issues. T'Challa had already been through far too much. He had suffered grave injuries, "died" and been challenged twice for his throne. Then, he'd had to kill his cousin and deny the spirit of his father his support. She desperately hoped, for Wakanda, that they would not be put in further danger.

BUT unfortunately, Earth invited the universe to challenge and coerced opponents, and of course, the "Mighty" Avengers couldn't handle the issue. And instantly, they decided to be cowards, and Shepard Thanos over to Wakanda, where they could hide and use their resources. Cowards who used the Wakandan kindness as a shield, forcing T'Challa to don an unnecessary burden.

IN the end, however, half of Earth's population was whisked away, including Kalpana, and both royal siblings were Blipped, torn from their lives. The Avengers couldn't stop it and the Wakandan issues continued.

AFTER the Avengers had finally defeated Thanos, placing the universe back in order, and stowing the infinity stones away in their rightful places in time, the group found themselves in a far-evolved Wakanda. But T'Challa came back with a mysterious sickness, technologically uncurable. The girls brainstormed, deciding to work on recreating the heart-shaped herb. But some lives are already lost, and their advancements progressed far too slowly for fate, and Shuri's brother fell from her weakened grasp.

THEY were far too out of time. Unable to quickly catch up with the changes in Wakanda, deprived of information and scarred by the horrific events of their lives, Shuri buried herself in the duties of the Black Panther, while Kalpana spent her time at the sand bar's perimeter, watching the graceful ocean and its jade tides, and escaped reality.

BUT it's hard to evade enemies with a crumbling, leaderless Wakanda, and the ocean buries many secrets. Some are difficult to know. Kalpana cannot escape fate forever, and some things are eventually impossible to keep under wraps.

©eminentz