Chapter 3
Five years later
"We're landing in one minute, your Highness," Okoye announced as she expertly guided the Royal Talon Fighter down towards its landing point on the roof of the building.
"Thank you, Okoye," T'Challa murmured, distracted.
It was T'Challa's first time back in America since that diplomatic trip with his father five years ago. The memory of that single, unforgettable night he had spent with Erik back then still stirred up long-buried feelings of sadness. It only intensified as the Royal Talon Fighter approached its landing point.
Five years ago, he had woken up from his sleep to discover that his bed was empty, his omega gone. All his messages to Erik had gone unanswered. Evidently, Erik had wanted nothing further to do with T'Challa once his heat had passed.
Hurt and confused, T'Challa had briefly contemplated using his vast resources to track Erik down. He had a name, an age, a photograph, and Erik's general location. He also knew that Erik was a student because of Erik's mention of his academic advisor - probably an MIT student, given the location of their hookup. T'Challa had more than enough information to enable Shuri or his War Dogs to track Erik down.
However, in the end, T'Challa had decided to respect Erik's wishes to be left alone. Erik had made it clear from the beginning that he wanted nothing more than sex. Even though T'Challa had been completely charmed by Erik - by how Erik had alternated between fierce stubbornness and sweet submission, how he had been at once passionately aggressive as well as achingly vulnerable - it was obvious that Erik did not feel the same way about him. Clearly, Erik had only wanted an alpha to see him through his heat.
It was almost pathetic how much T'Challa missed Erik, even to this day. He truly felt that Erik would have been the perfect mate.
Back then, T'Challa had seriously considered revealing his background to Erik once his heat was over. He had planned to ask Erik if he would be willing to date him. To try to pursue something serious.
It was too bad that Erik turned out not to care about him at all. He had probably forgotten all about T'Challa within a week of his heat.
If only...
Sighing, T'Challa shook off his feelings of melancholy. He was here on a mission. He had a job to do.
Just this morning, T'Challa had received an intelligence report of a mislabelled vibranium artifact from Wakanda which was currently on exhibit at a museum in Washington, America. This ought to have been a simple retrieval operation that could have been handled by any of his War Dogs already in position, but there was a complication. T'Challa had received a separate intelligence report from his War Dogs that Ulysses Klaue was in the area, and could potentially be making a move on the artifact.
Because of this, T'Challa decided to personally handle this artifact retrieval mission. Klaue was an extremely wily man who had escaped capture by Wakandan forces for over a decade. On top of that, Klaue had access to stolen vibranium, and there were rumours that he had constructed some sort of handheld weapon out of it. T'Challa did not want to send his War Dogs into such a risky situation.
Also, T'Challa wanted an excuse to try out his new Black Panther suit in the field.
Light as a feather, the shielded Royal Talon Fighter touched down gently on the roof of the National Museum.
"The artifact is in Hall Three, on the first floor," Okoye said. "I'm running scans of the hall now. You can go in when it's empty... Wait. There's something odd."
"What's wrong?" T'Challa asked.
"The ship's scanners show that there are five people in the hall. But the surveillance feed from the museum's CCTVs only shows the museum curator alone in there."
"Klaue is already here," T'Challa said in realisation. "His team must have hacked the surveillance footage. I'm going in now."
T'Challa activated his new Black Panther suit as he exited the ship, letting it flow over his skin from the teeth of his necklace.
"The fire escape is on your right," Okoye told T'Challa via his earpiece. "Four flights down."
Distantly, T'Challa could hear the wails of ambulance sirens approaching their building.
"An ambulance is pulling up at the front of the museum," Okoye reported to T'Challa. "Looks like someone's injured."
If Klaue had already started hurting or killing civilians -
"The fire escape is too slow. I'm going down the building," T'Challa said tersely.
"The fire escape is the way down the building -"
Ignoring Okoye, T'Challa took a few steps back, then made a quick run for the edge of the building, gathering up momentum. He took a flying leap off the edge, spinning in mid-air so that he was facing the building itself. His vibranium claws scratched down hard against the concrete surface of the building as he fell, throwing up showers of sparks in their wake.
T'Challa landed in an alley, crouched on all fours like a cat. His suit absorbed the sound and the impact of his fall.
Hmm. Shuri's new sneaker technology was really very good.
"Impressive," Okoye said dryly in his earpiece. "Now go towards the ambulance at the front. The two paramedics loading the stretcher into the ambulance? One of them is Klaue. He already has the artifact."
Rising to his feet, T'Challa raced out of the alley. He was just in time to see two people dressed as paramedics preparing to load a woman on a stretcher into an ambulance.
One of them was Klaue, whose eyes widened in crazed delight as he spotted T'Challa. The other "paramedic" was a man wearing a strange, horned mask. With his keen herb-enhanced senses, T'Challa picked up a faint waft of sweet omega scent coming from that man.
That scent was...somehow familiar?
But there were more important things to worry about at the moment. Klaue reached into the back of the ambulance and grabbed two guns, tossing one of them to the masked man. Both of them immediately started firing at T'Challa.
T'Challa didn't bother to duck or evade the sprays of bullets. He let the bullets bounce harmlessly off his suit instead as he stalked towards the two men, allowing his claws to flash outwards as he did so.
"Don't bother shooting him!" the masked man snarled. "His suit is blocking it! Just throw the fucking bomb!"
That voice...
Klaue flung a small, ticking grenade towards him. It rolled towards T'Challa, stopping only a few inches away from the stretcher bearing the unconscious woman.
Oh fuck.
T'Challa leapt on the grenade at once, covering it with his body. He sent a small prayer to Bast that Shuri's suit was indeed as impact-absorbent as she had bragged.
Three...
Two...
One.
The grenade went off with a flash, sending purple shockwaves snaking through his suit. The sound of the blast was completely absorbed by the vibranium, but the impact of the explosion was still powerful enough to knock T'Challa over. T'Challa rolled over several times on the ground, completely dazed.
"GO!" the masked man shouted over his shoulder at the driver, taking advantage of T'Challa's temporary incapacity. He backed away into the ambulance, dragging Klaue in with him.
As the doors of the ambulance slammed shut in front of the masked man, T'Challa caught sight of a very familiar ring chained around his neck, glinting in the sunlight. The ring was jet black, threaded with jagged silver streaks of what was undoubtedly vibranium.
It was the exact twin of the royal ring which T'Challa wore around his finger.
What?
T'Challa froze, stunned.
At that very instant, he suddenly recalled exactly why the omega man's voice and scent was so familiar.
Erik?!
"Contact Shuri, now," T'Challa told Okoye tersely as he entered the Royal Talon Fighter. "And turn this ship around. We're going back to Wakanda."
"Actually, I think we can probably still catch up with Klaue," Okoye said. "He can't have gone that far. Hang on, I'll turn on the ship's scanners."
"No!" T'Challa snapped. "We're going back right now!"
Okoye blinked in surprise.
T'Challa took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart. "I didn't mean to snap at you, General," he said. "But something has just happened which is much, much more important than tracking down Ulysses Klaue. We have to return to Wakanda immediately. And call Shuri now."
"Yes, your Highness," Okoye said formally, turning back to the ship controls. T'Challa could tell that she was displeased, but she was too professional to let any trace of that show through in her demeanour.
No matter. T'Challa decided that he could explain everything to Okoye in due course.
The moment Shuri's holographic projection appeared in front of him, T'Challa immediately started issuing instructions.
"Shuri, I need any information you can track down on an American man named Erik, alias Erik Seven. He was in Boston around five years ago, on -" T'Challa paused, searching his memory. "- on the dates of 16 to 17 July, 2013. It's likely that he was a student studying at an university in the area at that time. Height of about 1.8 metres, presentation: omega. I have a profile of him, which I'm sending over to you right now. This man is a known partner of Klaue and possibly has some connection to Wakanda. They are working together and both of them are armed and dangerous. You need to make this your top priority."
"Sure, brother," Shuri said, her eyes wide with surprise. "I'll get right to it. Wait - is that a heat dating app profile? Seriously? How did you even get that?"
T'Challa winced. "Don't ask."
Shuri began to read aloud from Erik's profile. "Want alpha m dtf 2 or 3 days. heat fuck ONLY no strings attached. hotel or motel (ur paying)... Oh Bast. Don't tell me you hooked up with Klaue's man!" Shuri exclaimed. "You hooked up with Klaue's partner through OACupid?! You slept with Klaue's omega?!"
"I meant it! Don't ask. Just look up Erik for me, please," T'Challa said through gritted teeth. "And don't bring that up again, ever. Bast. I'm never, ever going to have a one-night stand again for the rest of my life."
T'Challa switched off the projection and turned back to face Okoye.
Okoye's eyebrows had gone all the way up. "You -"
"That includes you, too. Don't ask me," T'Challa said tiredly.
"I'm sorry, T'Challa. But I can't just let this go. This is a matter of national security. Even if you recognised that man, there was no reason for you to call the entire mission off. If that omega seduced you - if your history with that man has compromised your objectivity -"
"He didn't seduce me!" T'Challa protested. "If he was trying to do so, he did a very bad job of it. We haven't been in contact at all after that one night. And I didn't call the mission off because Erik compromised me. I'm calling the mission off because I need to return to Wakanda and speak with Zuri in person. Immediately."
"Zuri?" Okoye said, with some surprise. "Whatever for? What does Zuri have to do with all of this?"
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out," T'Challa said grimly.
Deep in thought, T'Challa let his head fall back against the back of the throne.
The pieces were starting to fall into place, now that he had received Zuri's confession and Shuri's report.
Erik Stevens - Killmonger - was his cousin. Prince N'Jobu's son.
Erik undoubtedly had a huge grudge against Wakanda. Against Wakandans in general, and T'Challa personally. After all, his father had been killed by T'Challa's own father, without even the show of a trial. Summarily executed in America, and his corpse left behind for the young boy to discover.
T'Challa's heart clenched in sorrow and pity.
And after that, Erik had spent at least five years training and operating in service of the CIA. Hardening himself into a killer.
And now he had joined up with Ulysses Klaue, another enemy of Wakanda.
T'Challa sighed, rubbing his temples. It didn't take a genius to figure out what Erik wanted.
Revenge.
Revenge against Wakanda. Against the throne.
Erik was, without a doubt, a serious threat to T'Challa's country and to T'Challa himself. A monster of their own making, indeed.
Even so, T'Challa still couldn't bring himself to feel any animosity towards his cousin, who had already suffered so much at their hands, and whose anger and grievances were completely legitimate.
Okoye was right. He was compromised.
There was absolutely no way that T'Challa could bring himself to hurt Erik, even after Erik had shown that he was completely willing to shoot T'Challa and try to blow him up.
T'Challa sighed. What was he going to do now?
At that moment, his kimoyo beads buzzed, signalling an incoming call from W'Kabi.
"A man has shown up at the border," W'Kabi informed T'Challa tersely, the moment that T'Challa picked up the call. "He's one of ours, and he's brought Klaue's body with him. He demands an audience with you."