It’s not that Bucky disliked Namor. It was more, he had a hard time understanding him. Not the way he spoke or the language he used among his people, more the way his head worked. They were both men out of time, decades, centuries older than most of the people they surrounded themselves with. Yet where Bucky still struggled with the way things had changed in the world outside of Wakanda and the places he’d once known, Namor seemed wholly unbothered. The man, god, mutant, whatever he classified himself as, was over 500 years old but if Bucky hadn’t seen the proof himself, he never would have believed it.
“Are we really sure Namor is as old as he says he is?” He asked Shuri one day as they walked along a trail together. She was gathering samples of, something, and he was there to keep her company (“keep her safe Bucky”).
“The artifacts he has are as old as he claims. This bracelet alone is from the mid 1500s, I checked.” She held her wrist up without looking up from her tablet, the jade bracelet sliding down and clicking gently against the vibranium bangles she wore today.
“You know if he hadn’t given T’Challa a similar one I’d think he was trying to flirt with you.” He teased.
She scoffed but still he saw the tips of her ears darken. “He is much too old for me and imagine what I would tell Peter. Oh I am sorry it did not work out with us, but I am actually going to marry a 500 hundred year old god-king from an underwater civilization.”
“With all the shit the kids seen, he probably wouldn’t even bat an eye. Well he’d do that thing where he pauses and then reacts. Is that a spider-man thing or a Parker thing?”
She stopped walking and suddenly turned to venture off the trail and into the jungle, eyes on her scanner.
“But it's kind of weird isn’t it? I mean I’m a fraction of his age and sure I missed like 2/3rds of that time but I feel like I’m out of place sometimes still. How could he have lived this long and been so isolated that it just doesn’t bother him?”
“Do I need to invent a time machine to send you back to your time period old man?” She stopped at the base of a tree that looked to him, no different from any of the hundreds around them. “Stop your wondering and just ask him yourself. Maybe you can bond over being old. Now boost me up, I need to take a sample of that fruit.”
~
“Am I the only one still struggling to wrap my head around fish people or are we past that?” Erik asked him, sitting on the soft earth beside Bucky. They’d ventured out into the bushlands of Wakanda, somewhere between the mining tribelands and the Jabari mountains.
“No no, so am I. You know, there was this guy, back in my day, who wrote these wild stories in the pulp magazines about societies and cities beneath the sea. He always made them into these terrifying, unknowable creatures. And I look at the people of Talokan and yeah they’re blue sometimes but otherwise they look just like you and me. And then you look at Namor and he’s like us but he’s like them but he’s got those wings and it’s like what the hell have you gotten yourself into now James?”
“I’ll drink to that man.” Erik replied simply, lifting his glass to Bucky’s. They sat in companionable silence, watching the sunset and the stars appear.
“Do you think the world is ready for them? I just can’t help but think back to the history books of what happened when white people decided that black people weren’t worth respect because of a little melanin. Yeah shits different now, at least mostly, but what if-” Erik trailed off, looking down at his bottle and shaking his head as if trying to convince himself.
“It won’t be like that. We won’t let it be. And more importantly, they won’t let it be. The world is better now.”
“I came to Wakanda to make a change to the world. Shit maybe I coulda done it different but in the end we’re making changes. We’re doing good. Maybe this time, we can do that without any of our people or theirs getting hurt.” It's a whispered hope, one that meant more than shouted words and false bravado ever could. At its heart, its proof of the man N’Jadaka had become.
Bucky sighed deeply and leaned back on his hands, digging his fingers into the soil, feeling the roots and the grasses beneath his skin. “And to think, people are scared of you.” Bucky teased “the fearsome Killmonger, hoping for what's best for his people and allies.”
In another time N’Jadaka might have reacted poorly to the taunt, now however he knows it for the lighthearted, backwards compliment it is. “Killmonger’s as dead as the Winter Soldier. Only N’Jadaka and Bucky Barnes left.”
“Soldier’s not dead, not until I am. That’s a part of me no matter what I did or want to do to change it.” He sighed again, tipping his gaze upwards to the stars. “I like to think that James Barnes died in Azzano and it was Bucky that walked away, all this was just a journey to get back to Bucky. In the same way I think Erik Stevens died to the Black Panther and it was N’Jadaka that chose to survive.”
“She wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about that, neither was T’Challa.” Erik didn’t look at him, mirroring his sightline while keeping his posture curled inwards.
“We all made a choice to survive and do whatever it took. You, me, Namor when his people were at risk. We made choices and maybe they weren’t always right but they are a part of us and nothing will change that. All we can do is learn and not let it happen again.”
Instead of a sigh, it was a deep sardonic chuckle that left Erik’s lips. “Fuck man, shit’s not fair when you actually act your age. All wise and shit. Can’t believe you got me thinking about how we really aren't all that different. Damn.”
~
“So, underwater civilization then?”
“Oh Steve you wouldn’t believe it if I told you the half of it.”
“You could have called us, you and T’Challa both. We would have come and helped.”
“It didn’t involve anyone besides Wakanda and Talokan, let alone the Avengers.”
“Buck I’m serious, that King of theirs has wings on his ankles. You woulda been a sitting duck if he had decided he didn’t want to play nice.”
“Can’t believe I have to give Captain America a lesson about giving people a chance. Someone call the tabloids, America’s moral compass has fallen to the perils of liquor and sin.”
“Alright calm down, you know I don’t mean it like that. You have no intel on Talokan, no one does. No one knows a thing about Namor or anything, he could be-”
“Steve, you didn’t see the way his people look at him. It’s like, it’s like, there’s nothing I can even compare it to. He’s their god and their king but they look at him with this kind of unconditional trust and belief and it’s like-” Bucky stopped and looked the hologram of Steve in the eyes as the dots connected.
“Like they would follow him into the jaws of death.”
Steve’s expression changed at that, from concern to understanding. The smile he put on was clearly forced but still he said “Well, then I look forward to meeting him.” He looked thoughtful for a moment and then his expression morphed again, to something light and joking. “So those pulp magazines we used to read, about the underwater cities?”
“I said the exact thing to Erik about that! No, that guy must’ve been on something to come up with that crazy stuff.”
“Crazy or not, it was fun to read.” The hologram looked away and Bucky heard the scribble of pen on paper.
“You’re going to try and find his work again aren’t you.”
“May as well.”
“Send it to me if you remember what they guys name was. I’m sure Shuri’ll get a kick outta it.”
~
Bucky meets Attuma and Namora before he ever really meets Namor. At the first of many many meetings to establish the alliance between their countries they each stand at one of Namor’s shoulders as the Kings of Talokan and Wakanda discuss the terms. On T’Challa’s side, Shuri and Ramonda both sit with Okoye at the Queen’s shoulder and Ayo at the Princesses. Both Erik and Bucky had been excused from the meeting if they wished but yet here they both stood, mirroring the arrangement of Namora and Attuma.
Tensions flare more than once, Erik unable to stifle an unamused sound at one proposal leads to calls of disrespect from Namora, which only flares tensions further until they nearly reach their breaking point and Bucky is holding back Erik while Namora puts herself between Attuma and the table. It leads to all four being banished from the discussion, as well as Ramonda, Shuri and both Dora. The rest of the agreements would be reached by the Kings and Kings alone.
That’s not to say the tension fades the moment they are removed from the room, it turns to a simmering distrust and eventually hardens into something so thick you could cut it with a knife. It’s Bucky who finally can’t take it anymore, crossing the invisible dividing line in the room with a hand outstretched.
Attuma looks at him and his hand with disgust so plain on his features it's like he hasn’t even bothered trying to hide it.
“Someone’s gotta be the first to break, may as well be me. Bucky Barnes, Namor said your name was Attuma?”
“Attuma.” He corrected Bucky’s pronunciation sharply and still eyed his hand with mistrust but his posture had relaxed ever so slightly.
And that’s all it takes.
When the doors eventually do open, the sun long set and food long past overdue, the scene isn’t quite one of friendship but the hostility is gone. On one side of the room, Namora is already teaching Bucky the basics of the Mayan dialect the Talokanii speak while on the other, Erik and Attuma have their hands clasped together in an arm wrestle, tally marks scratched into the wood beside them.
~
It’s becoming startlingly commonplace to see Talokanii citizens walking through the streets of the Capital. As part of the alliance, both groups had agreed to make out-reach centers akin to embassies. It turned out that it was much harder to replicate the conditions of Talokan at a large enough scale to be useful than it was to find a way for Wakandan’s to visit Talokan. Shuri of course was spearheading the project alongside a team of her best scientists and a team from Talokan. So far the foundation of the out-reach center was a curious and otherworldly mix of Wakanda’s futuristic tech and Talokans own, more traditional looking style.
Of course Shuri was always one to get fully invested in any project she worked on and easily lost herself to this new challenge. And Wakandan’s, the adaptable people they were, did not take long to adjust and befriend their new neighbors and offer hospitality where they could. Routine set in so quickly and simply that soon enough, no one saw a single thing as out of the ordinary.
That was when Peter Parker arrived for spring break.
Peter Parker is not used to seeing the blue skinned Talokanii.
Peter Parker is not used to seeing the immense scaffolding that was slowly being filled in with plates of vibranium etched with Mayan symbols.
Peter Parker is not used to seeing people enter and leave the river that winds through the Capital city with no regard of if they're in air or water.
So Peter Parker does the only logical thing and calls his girlfriend to calmly inform her that he appears to have stumbled into another dimension where Wakanda is populated by “fish-people maybe? I can’t really tell yet.” and that he will probably be late for dinner with her family.
Shuri sends a ship to pick him up and only teases him a little while she wraps up with her work for the day, Peter looking curiously over her shoulder at equations for water pressure differentials at different atmospheric heights.
“Princess, the calculations have completed.” Both Shuri and Peter look up when one of the Talokanii scientists enters the lab. Peter’s eyes widen first at the appearance of one of the ‘fish-people’ he’d seen but further still when Shuri doesn’t even look remotely phased.
“Thank you Ixchel, are you headed home for the evening?”
Peter understands the words that are being spoken, even the accented English and the way it is slightly garbled by the mask around the blue skinned woman’s nose and mouth. But something about this whole situation makes him feel again like he’s slipped out of his own reality.
And Peter Parker becomes the first person outside of Wakanda to meet a Talokanii.
~
Riri Williams really needed to keep herself out of trouble. It was the only advice her mother had offered when she’d left for MIT. And she’d tried, hell she’d tried. But c'mon it was just too easy to set up a little side gig and make a good chunk of cash on the side, how the hell was she supposed to know that her professor had the same idea? Yet here she was and while most of her was fucking terrified, part of her was excited as hell. She was in Wakanda! The princess of Wakanda had seen her designs and been impressed! How the hell could she not be excited?
The wildcard had been the intimidating cousin that had come along with the princess. He didn’t have the accent the princess had. He didn’t carry himself with the easy regalness of the princess. If Riri didn’t know any better she would have thought he was just some guy from back home. He just didn’t make sense. The princess didn’t seem scared of him, in fact she told him off for trying to scare Riri instead. But when Riri tried to protest going with them, she’d seen the way something in his eyes had sharpened, like he almost wanted her to try and run. She’d decided against fighting them after that.
She’d been so entranced in the sights of Wakanda as they’d landed she completely forgot the reason she was here in the first place until they got off the ship and a whole ass entourage was waiting for them. She recognized the King, she’d seen him on YouTube and social media plenty of times. She was surprised but also recognized the fucking Winter Soldier who stood beside him. And the party of red and gold armored women that stood behind them both were a hell of a sight to behold. But then there was the other group, who didn’t look a thing like anyone else here.
Most of them were blue first of all, which, alright, who was she to judge by skin color, but they all had these weird mask looking things over their mouths and noses and with the way they were dressed they seemed like they’d belong better underwater. Except for the guy who she assumed was their leader. He looked more, well human, than the others except for the gently fluttering wings at his ankles and the slight point to his ears. He was looking at her with a sort of intense unhappiness that she’d only ever seen from her mom that time in high school when she’d nearly gotten herself arrested. The thing was, she’d never seen the guy before in her life. What the hell had she done to deserve the death stare currently directed her way?
And then there were introductions and she realized just exactly what she’d done.
“Well done Riri, you managed to piss off two whole entire nations because you couldn’t just let that critique go.” They’d gone inside to discuss how this was all going to go and she had been asked to wait in a room nearby. She’d decided to not get offended by the two warrior women who were guarding the door. “Mom said stay out of trouble. And you promised you’d do your best. She knew it wasn’t a guarantee but this goes so far outside the realm of okay trouble. Fuck.”
“If you are quite done, they are ready for you Miss Williams.”
She paused in her pacing and hand wringing and looked at the door. She hadn't even heard the warrior lady come in. Riri gulped and it must’ve been noticeable because something about the woman’s stern expression softened just slightly.
“I will not say you are not in trouble, Miss Williams, because you are in a great deal of trouble, but I promise no harm will come to you. Wakanda is not in the habit of killing college students who are too smart for their own good.”
And it shouldn’t have been as reassuring as it was, but somehow it was just enough that the knot in the pit of her stomach loosened to a point where she felt like she wasn’t going to throw up anymore.
“Awesome, good. Not good that I'm in trouble but like good that you’re not going to kill me because that would suck and my mom would be pissed because I promised her I wouldn’t get in trouble and-”
“The Kings are waiting, Miss Williams.”
“Right, sorry.”
It was somehow more intimidating sitting at a table with the people who’d ‘greeted’ her. Despite both Kings and their respective advisors (at least that what she assumed everyone else in this meeting was) sitting at an equal level as her, they all managed to command such enormous presence it was hard to even sit up straight and not flinch back.
“Do you know why you are here Miss Williams?” King T’Challa was the first to speak, looking her directly in the eyes. His expression gave nothing away, she knew he was obviously mad but he hardly looked it.
“Uh, kinda. Princess Shuri said that the vibranium detector I designed for class got built by the US government and that they used it to try and mine vibranium in the ocean. And that vibranium belonged to y’all.” She looked away from King T’Challa to meet the intense gaze of the other King.
“And you understand why both Talokan and Wakanda do not wish this technology to spread?”
“Because the vibranium is y’alls?”
“My sister tells me you are an accomplished scientist Miss Williams, I think you have at least some idea of what vibranium is capable of in the right applications?”
“I mean sure, anyone who studies it knows how incredible it is, I mean look at this place. But you’re not talking about the cool stuff right, like Wakanda is doing their whole out-reach program and that’s super cool of you but like everyone knows that even those centers hardly have any actual vibranium. It cause you can make some dangerous shit out of it.” And maybe she shouldn’t have let her brain start to work like she would in her workshop but nevertheless pieces started falling into place. “Oh shit, they don’t want it for the helpful stuff, you think they want to make weapons so obviously you don’t want anyone else to have it. Look I promise I had no intent of making weapons I really just wanted to prove my professor wrong and wasn’t ever going to do anything with the design after I turned the project in.”
And despite her rambling, she saw the slightest upturn of a smile on King T’Challa’s face. He held up a hand to stop her and she’d never shut up so quick.
King T’Challa looked at Shuri, who had a smug little smirk on her face and then to King Namor. “I am sure Miss Williams is willing to be reasonable and work with us to erase her designs.This is just an unfortunate misunderstanding.” He looked back to Riri “and that this technology and methods will not be shared or recreated in any capacity.”
“No sir. I promise. Look I’m not supposed to because I got in huge ass trouble last time but I can even help y’all hack into the CIA’s database and try and delete anything they’ve got saved. I’d rather chance it with them than with anyone here.”
There’s more discussion about the future issues they may encounter. After all Riri had figured the technology out on her own, she couldn’t be the only one when scientists all over the world were trying to figure it out and even if most believed it impossible that didn’t mean they weren’t still trying. Princess Shuri was the one to ask exactly how Riri had developed her technology and what she researched and her methods, basically her entire start to finish process.
“I can create an algorithm to look into anyone who begins on a similar path. If this is so far the only method proven to work we can stop anyone before they get too far.”
That is finally the promise King Namor needs to agree.
“I have nothing against you personally Miss Williams, but I must put my people’s safety above all else.” The ‘above you’ is an unspoken threat.
“Sure yeah I get it, no harm no foul, you’re a king, gotta put your people first.” She hopes no one else picks up on how forced and awkward the acceptance of his ‘apology’ is.
“If we are done here, I will take Miss Williams to my lab and we’ll get started.” The Princess said, looking to her brother. When both King’s nod their acceptance and agreement of the terms, the Princess is quick to stand and quicker to pull Riri out of there.
The moment the door shuts something in her posture changes and she sighs deeply “God that posturing and formal stuff is exhausting. Come, you will lose your mind when you see my lab.”
~
Of all the ways Bucky thought he would actually meet Namor outside of meetings, this hadn’t been one of them. In fact he’d never planned to spend any time with the King outside of the meetings or formal events. He’d heard a lot about him though. Namora had taken a begrudging liking to Bucky and came up once a week to work on her own English and his Maya. She spoke highly of her king, as if he could do no wrong, well at least no wrong when he listened to what she and his other advisors said.
“K’uk’ulkan is,” she paused, eyes furrowing as she struggled to find the word “stubborn. He fears change that might bring us harm.”
Change was scary, he’d wanted to assure her, but she knew that. She’d been one of many Talokanii who had cautioned against this alliance in the first place. She still did not trust much of Wakanda or her people. Bucky was the unlikely exception. But she did trust her king and would follow him no matter what, to the ends of the earth and into the jaws of death. Bucky didn’t think it important to explain the analogy or its importance to him but he figured if he had, she’d agree. He admired her for that. He knew better than anyone the power and strength of loyalty.
Bucky had less conversations with Attuma but the man often sparred with Okoye and N’Jadaka both and N’Jadaka had a lot to say about him.
“Man’s built like a fucking tank, even a full blast from the suit barely makes ‘im stumble. Me ‘n Okoye are faster but that's ‘bout our only chance ‘gainst him.” He rolled his arms in their sockets as he spoke, wincing slightly. “And wild thing is they’re not even half as strong as their king. Him and Namora are battle trained like most of ‘em are, but the King apparently is really an actual god. I know Shuri gave us the whole rundown that he gave her and T’Challa, but I mean c’mon. It’s a damn good thing shit didn’t go down differently because we may not have had a great time.”
So all Bucky really knew about King Namor as a person was that he was some sort of literal god, he was stubborn, a couple hundred years older than Bucky himself, and that everyone had a healthy sort of caution around him. And now here Bucky was, alone on the riverbank with the man, god, King, himself.
He stood from his spot on the damp earth to meet Namor as he emerged from the river. “If you’re looking for T’Challa or Shuri they’re not here. Usually around this time of day they’re in the palace.”
“I have not come for your royalty, White Wolf.” Bucky can’t help the chuckled exhale that leaves him at the title.
“Just Bucky. Some of us have two names, without the suit I’m just Bucky.”
The King looks confused for a moment, mutters something to himself in Maya that Bucky can’t quite understand but it sounds similar enough to the phrase Namora mutters when she’s frustrated with something he does in their lessons but the tone is softer, amusement instead of annoyance. “Bucky then.”
“Is there something I can help you with?”
“Perhaps, I was speaking with your King and Princess about the possible threats the rest of the surface may have that Talokan is not equipped to defend against. I believe there is little that can be done or used that we cannot counter but your Princess was-” he paused, as if reliving the conversation though Bucky was surprised to see a small smile instead of the neutral expression the King usually wore. “She was quick to assure me that I was wrong.”
And that explained the look, Shuri was confident in her own designs and the capabilities of Wakanda and her resources but she’d seen and learned enough about the rest of the world to know better than to underestimate them. She’d probably made that plenty clear in that blunt ‘are you dense’ tone of hers, King or not.
“But yet she refused to elaborate. I believed it to be a strategic omission but your King suggested that I come speak with you and that you might have more insight than most. I understand you are not of Wakanda but I am curious as to what exactly he meant.”
Bucky sighed heavily, this was not how he had planned to spend his afternoon. But anything he could do to help this whole alliance, and if T’Challa thought him the one better suited to explain, alright then.
“Shuri could have told you all about the weapons the rest of the world has created, but I think what she and T’Challa meant is more what the rest of the world is willing to do. It’s a bit of a story, your highness, might want to settle in.”
Bucky made them both a cup of tea and they sat at the river’s edge.
“I was born in America in 1917.” Namor looked at him in surprise at that but Bucky continued. “The world went to war in 1939, America joined in 1941,I was drafted in 1943.”
And for what might be the first time since Shuri had removed the words from his mind, he told someone his whole story start to finish. Everyone around him knew the basics, N’Jadaka knew slightly more, Shuri knew more than most people alive. He hadn’t planned to tell Namor everything but there was something cathartic about telling someone who had no preconceived notions about his life or his experiences his point of view.
The King said little while Bucky spoke, small changes in his expression the only tell that he was actually listening and comprehending. Even when Bucky had told Shuri, he still didn’t, or hadn’t been able to, put the real horrors of war into words. Now the words came shockingly easy.
The sun had long set when he finally reached the end of the story, waking up in Wakanda to Shuri smiling down at him in the lab.
For a long time the King said nothing, processing and mulling over what he’d heard. Bucky would have filled the silence but he found he had no more words to speak. He felt empty, as if he’d been holding his breath for years and finally lifted the pressure from his lungs.
Finally the King spoke, quietly, as if any louder would shatter the calm of the world “And the Princess, she returned your mind to you?”
“She did. We’ve tested again and again, not a single one of those words work on me.”
“The men who did this to you, do they still live?”
Now that was a question Bucky expected but the tone, the undercurrent of anger in Namor’s voice, was a surprise.
“No, HYDRA is gone for the most part. Steve, Captain America, and a few of the others continue to hunt and destroy any remains but the ones who hurt me directly are long dead.”
“A pity,” The King said flatly and for a split second Bucky’s mind turned to the worst. “Their defeat would have made Talokan’s power known to the world well.”
Despite himself, inexplicably, Bucky laughed.
“You know your highness, I think you and I are gonna get along just fine.”
“Please, Bucky-” and the King looked at him with a sly sort of grin “just Namor.”
~
In his time spent in Wakanda and with the royal family, Namor, the K’uk’ulkan, has found himself learning much. It is not that Wakanda is more advanced than Talokan or that they have anything Talokan could truly need, it is more that he never could have expected the similarities they shared. Both cultures grew out of Vibranium and a shared use of a plant rich with its powers but on the surface the similarities ended there. For a long time, he understood that to be the truth but now, having walked among them and getting to know the ones the people looked up to, he had realized how mistaken he was.
King T’Challa was fiercely protective of Wakanda in the same way Namor himself was of Talokan. He had warriors willing to do anything to keep their home safe, including several elite fighters who were closer to family than anything else. The way he tells it, he had his own event to force him to make his choice of exposure but it had included far more bloodshed of his own people than Talokans attack on the US research ship had. As the Black Panther, the protection of Wakanda fell almost solely on his shoulders and he wore the mantle with honor and the respect it was owed. It all sounded so very familiar of a life to Namor’s own.
Wakanda was a powerful ally to have, he had been right in that regard, but it was because of more than just her technology. It was the nobility with which their King held himself and his beliefs. It was the mind of their Princess. The loyalty and strength of their guard. The experience of its protectors and their insight to the world outside their borders. Perhaps as he’d imagined, Talokan could have succeeded in the destruction of the surface world, they had the might and the training to be unstoppable but what would that have truly done? He had no desire to rule the surface world, only to keep his own people safe and to let them live in a world without fear. He understood now that a tidal wave of battle and war would not have accomplished his hopes for his people.
It would not be easy going forward, King T’Challa had been very clear about that. He had shared the struggles Wakanda still went through as they slowly but deliberately opened themselves to the world. He was wary of what threats may come but still wholly believed that it was the right path forward. Namor had heard many sides and opinions of this choice from his own people. A vocal minority still disagreed with the idea of treaties and alliances and exposing themselves but he knew, because he knew his people as he knew himself, that the quieter majority were ready to show the world the beauty and wonder of Talokan.
Wakanda had proved it possible. Talokan would follow in her footsteps and learn from her mistakes to strengthen them both.