LONG LIVE THE KING ▹ BLACK PANTHER ⁴ ✓

i. eight

ᴇɪɢʜᴛ — ᴏᴜᴛsɪᴅᴇʀ

♛ ♛ ♛

AS SHURI PLACED another gem into her creation of Vibranium, Iyawa stood by the wall of Ross' table, overlooking his vitals. Upon hearing Everett stir awake, she quickly hovered her hand over the hexagon tiles, making them flip over to hide the holograms.

Everett sat up, feeling his upper back for his bullet wound. Studying his dry hands, he rubbed his fingers together thoughtfully. Everett jumped off the table, quickly turning to see Iyawa stare at him with a smile. "He—"

Iyawa lurched forward, gently placing her hand over his mouth. Slowly removing it, she motioned over to Shuri, who was engrossed in her creation. Everett looked between her and the other scientist before shooting her a confused look.

Iyawa rolled her eyes, shoving him forward. Everett panted slightly, stumbling forward and looked around. He saw Shuri, and stomped forward. "Alright, where am I?"

Shuri jumped, turning in her seat, watching as Iyawa walked out behind the man. "Don't scare me like that, colonizer!"

"Colo—my name's Everett." he said, walking towards her in long strides with pursed lips. Shuri gave him a look before lifting a brow at Iyawa. "Yes, I know." she turned her back to him. "Everett Ross; former airforce pilot. And now, CIA."

Everett hesitated. "Right."

He turned, looking around the shared lab of the two best friends. "Okay, is this Wakanda?"

As Iyawa let out a small yelp of laughter, Shuri rolled her eyes. "No, it's Kansas."

Everett closed his eyes in annoyance, turning away momentarily. Iyawa moved past him. "Good job, colonizer." Everett shot his hands out. "I'm not a colonizer!"

He watched her walk up to Shuri's stations, pulling up a stool to sit close to Shuri. She looked down at Shuri's work, marvelling in her invention. "Okay, how long ago was Korea."

"Yesterday." Shuri said monotoned. Iyawa snickered, leaning close to her. "What a turn out that was."

Shuri snickered along.

Everett rolled his eyes again as the two turned to face him with slight glares. "I don't think so. Bullet wounds don't just magically heal overnight."

Shuri nodded. "They do here. But not by magic," she motioned around the place. "by technology."

Everett moved forward, looking around the white and black coloured room. Shuri turned to him. "Don't touch anything, my brother will be back soon."

♛ ♛ ♛

ARETTA AND T'CHALLA sat on a cliffs edge, overlooking the vast hills of Wakanda. Aretta hugged her knees, sighing contently as the breeze passed gently over her chocolate skin.

"He killed his own brother, and left a child behind," T'Challa said with sadness, breaking the silence. "with nothing."

Aretta turned her head, looking at his side profile for a long moment. She watched as T'Challa thought deeply. "What kind of King...what kind of man does that?"

"No one is perfect, T'Challa. Not even your father." Aretta barely said before T'Challa looked at her. "He didn't even give him a proper burial. My uncle and N'Jobu betrayed us, but my father..." she noticed tears lining his waterline. "he may have created something even worse."

"Hey," Aretta said in a hushed breath as T'Challa looked away. "look at me."

After a pause, his brown eyes met hers. "You are not your father. Only you get to decide what kind of King you are going to be."