Archive of Our Own ^beta

PART 1: THE KENGE

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Chapter 1: Awake

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Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.

Her ears woke first. A sudden cacophony of sounds exploded into her lethargic consciousness. It was the unrecognizable scritching and scratching sound that first inspired her to open her eyes. She struggled, as if her eyelids were dusty from disuse, like a rusty curtain rod.

She blinked.

Golden light danced off a thousand floating, swirling specks of glitter in the air. At first she thought she awoke into a blizzard, until she realized she could see the brilliant purple of a jacaranda blooming in the distance.

Dust. She could see the dust. Every single, individual particle exuded a myriad of shades of ochre, taupe, beige, and ivory in the rays of light.

She lifted her eyes and noticed the intricately woven grass thatched roof above her, attached to circular wattle and daub walls. An open doorway revealed the jacaranda regally raining violet petals on all her loyal banana tree subjects below, violently green in the late afternoon sun.

She became conscious that she not only could see the banana trees, but she could see the individual veins of each leaf, each ant crawling up the base, and even the delicate pairs of antennae on each ant.

Her brain momentarily swirled like the dust particles in the anomalous sensory overload.

Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.

Bella quickly sat upright and found herself on a simple foam mattress covered by a plaid blanket on the dirt floor of the hut. Squatting directly across from her came the source of the noise.

Silver claws drew patterns in the dust at the feet of a figure garbed entirely in black, darker than the shadows that first shielded him from view.

She sprang to her feet and automatically crouched into a defensive posture, surprising herself both in the litheness of her movement and the existence of the defensive instinct. She stared at her stance momentarily before turning back to the figure.

He continued to crouch in the shadows, flecks of light reflecting off of claws and the silver claw-like necklace around dark shoulders.

"Who are you and why am I here?" Bella asked, her throat suddenly on fire as she took in the scent that surrounded her and heard the rhythmic beating of a heart. She threw her hands around her neck in surprise and tried in vain to swallow the flames.

"I could ask you the same question," the figure replied in a deep, male voice lilted in the soft cadences of an accent she could not identify.

"My name is Bella Swan. I do not know where I am and I do not know why I am here."

The figure stood to his full height, towering at least a foot taller than Bella. The entirety of his broad, muscular body remained veiled by form-fitting black regalia crowned with a cat-eared mask.

"Bella Swan, you are in the kingdom of Wakanda," he replied. "And we do not know why you are here."

---

"T'Challa, what have you done?" the old king asked wearily. He rubbed his creaking hands over the thick crease lines on his wizened forehead.

"Nakia said…," T'Challa began to respond, but the old king interrupted.

"Hapana. Do not tell me Nakia had a dream. Nakia will not be the one to deal with the tears of the mothers who have lost their children as prey to a young mazimwi," T'Chaka replied. He slowly lowered himself onto the brightly cushioned chair near him, gripping the sides of the chair to maintain his balance. His eyes, now dulled by a lifetime of being the eyes of his people, strained to see the distant mountains past the villages guarding the borders of their fortified capital. He turned to his son.

"You should not have let her live through the first night. Why did you not free her spirit to join her ancestors and give the girl a chance at peace? Instead you have condemned her to a life of blood. Sometimes death is the greatest mercy."

"Baba, if it was any other dream, I would not have hesitated to free her from her changing body. In my heart, I know I have done the right thing, though I do not yet understand it."

"Sema. Tell me her dream."

"Aya. Before the girl was found, Nakia came to me. In her dream, the spirit of the Black Panther came to her. She bowed and Panther bid her to follow him into the bush. He took her to the base of an acacia tree. There, Panther bowed deeply to a lion larger than a bull elephant. The Lion licked the forehead of Panther and then gave Panther a gift wrapped in bark cloth. Panther unwrapped the gift and found Kenge, a monitor lizard, and Panther tried to throw it away in disgust. Lion took Kenge in his paws, tore off the skin, and Kenge transformed into malaika wa vita."

T'Chaka paused to weigh his thoughts, though they felt like grains of sand being swept by wind in the dry season.

"You are wise, my son. I spoke out of fear and not out of wisdom."

"Nakia's dreams have never been wrong, or I, also, would have been guided by my head and not by my heart."

"How did the girl come to us?"

"We do not know. A boy from the borderlands between Wakanda and Uganda went out to herd his goats and heard a woman screaming. He found the woman writhing like the lost tail of a lizard and he thought she was possessed by a spirit. He fetched the village elders and the mganga. One mzee recognized the bite on her neck and the scar on her hand and called for Zuri. Zuri and I went immediately.

"Zuri first tried to see if his medicines could cure her. But at that point it would have been like telling a half-formed butterfly to become a caterpillar again. She was too far in her transformation to return. So, we took her to a village deep in the bush somehow near Rushenyi. We evacuated the residents and set up a 40 kilometer perimeter to keep her enclosed. We've also placed a tracking device in her earlobe so we can see if she manages to break through the shield. Zuri left me to guard her till she woke and we could see how she behaved."

"When did she wake?"

"A day later she quieted her screams and it was very little time after that she woke and stood. We spoke briefly before she disappeared like a leopard in the forest."

"Did she attack you?"

"Hapana. She found a herd of impala and drank from about three before she hid herself in a tree for a day."

"Did she tell you how she came to our borders?"

"Hapana. She is not from here. She looks young, not much more than twenty. Her accent sounds American."

"Wewe, simwafrika? She is mzungu?"

"Ndiyo."

T'Chaka cursed under his breath. T'Challa met his father's dark eyes with his own.

"Another thing, Baba. The village elders said there were no human footprints in the area the girl was found. There were no vehicles. She did not walk there. The only footprints they found were those of an unusually large lion."

 

Five mosquitoes hummed in the humid night air surrounding her. There had been ten. The other five must have given up and moved on to find a creature that did not share their diet.

Bella frowned and went back to watching the delicate patterns on their wings as they flew. At least the mosquitoes did not fear her.

The quietness of her isolation weighed on her like a winter blanket on a frosty morning. She no longer needed to run. Never again would she be forced to relive her past through her dreams. Never again could her unconscious resurrect horrors that woke her in screams and cold sweats. Already, her human memories were fading like the stars at dawn.

A box of warm pizza. The sound of a televised home run. The smell of blood. Three corpses strewn in pieces across the living room floor. The night she lost her world, her life, her reasons to live. Her feet hit the pavement and never stopped running. She had some memories she would not miss.

She wouldn't miss sleeping, or the constant sleep deprivation. She wouldn't miss eating, or the constant hunger. She could live forever in this hut, staring at the thatched grass, and basking in the peaceful stillness.

---

It rained. The water poured out of the sky in a torrential downpour that seeped and dribbled through the unkempt roof. She didn't mind. She heeded neither the heat nor the cold. Flashes of lightning momentarily lit the inside of her home while the answering thunder shook the ground beneath her.

Home. This was now her home. Had she been here one month or three? She lost count some weeks back, before the rains began.

She heard the footsteps first, then she smelled the rich, pungent scent of human blood again. A flash of lightning illuminated a dark figure entering her doorway. She saw his cat-like mask before the room was once again wrapped in a dim, stormy gray.

"You are still here," a deep voice uttered.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I have nowhere else to go."

T'Challa crouched on the floor across from her and slowly took off his mask. Bella saw a flash of coffee-colored cheeks before black eyes met hers, piercing her with a quiet intensity. She met his gaze before dropping her eyes to the mask in his hand.

"Do you always dress like a cat?"

T'Challa looked at her in surprise, a laugh quietly slipping into the tremulous shadows.

"No," he replied, placed the mask on the ground, and leaned against the dirt wall. "My father wishes to speak with you. Will you come?"

Five sunrises later, T'Challa returned with a sand-colored Land Cruiser and three companions.

"Hodi," he called out before he ducked his head to clear the shallow door. He came to crouch beside her on the floor of the hut. "Bella, how are you?" he asked politely, meeting her gaze without averting his own.

"Fine, thanks," she answered, sinking her eyes back to the dust beneath her feet.

"The heat is not too much for you here?" he asked, waving his hand to the doorway where the sun glared angrily off the dry, red dirt.

"The weather doesn't bother me anymore," Bella said and shrugged. She fidgeted with the slightly wrinkled kitenge dress she wore. "Thank you for the clothes you brought last time. I needed them."

"You're welcome," T'Challa replied. "Come. You will meet some of the Dora Milaje."

"The Dora who?"

"Dora Milaje. In our language it means, 'adored ones.' We see them as the mothers of the nation and the ceremonial wives of the throne. They are an elite force of our most skillful warriors. They serve the throne and protect our kingdom with their lives."

Bella followed T'Challa out into the midday sunshine. The exposed skin on her face, collarbones, and forearms exploded into a million facets of colored light, dancing along the packed dirt of the walls and ground. Self-consciously, she tried to cover her arms with her equally exposed hands.

Three women stood with a statuesque stillness, clutching spears as if they were scepters instead of weapons. The sunlight reflected off of the gold and silver of their armored bodies, burning into the scarlet and leather of their uniforms. Beads of sweat trickled down their bare foreheads and splashed onto their metal breastplates. They faced Bella with expressionless faces, as if the frigidity of their stares was enough to freeze her in place.

"Bella, this is General Okoye. She is the commander of the Dora Milaje," T'Challa said as he nodded towards the one woman shining in gold instead of silver. Her nostrils flared slightly but otherwise, her posture remained unmoved. "Together, these three soldiers are the most powerful bodyguard to the King of Wakanda."

"I don't believe you," she said, almost in a whisper as she dropped her eyes back to the ground.

"About them being our bodyguards or about them being powerful?"

"No. You said you don't always dress like a cat."

T'Challa chuckled and then shrugged. The motion caused the fierce claws circling his shoulders to glint in the sun.

"This is my armor," he explained. "Just in case."

He lifted one eyebrow and gave her a side glance. She nodded.

"I hope it's stronger than it looks."

"It is," he replied. "Or my father would not have sent me to welcome you to our kingdom."

"Your father?"

"Yes. My father, T'Chaka, is the king of Wakanda."

"Oh!" Bella said. "Wait, so does that mean you are, like, the prince or something?"

T'Challa nodded.

Bella wrinkled her eyebrows, forming a small 'v' indentation between her eyebrows. "I'm a little nervous. I've never met a king before. Then again, I'd never met a prince either. I suppose today is as good a day as any. Where will we meet?"

"My father would like you to come closer to our capital city, Birnin Zana. There is a small homestead on a lake about an hour drive outside the city's suburbs. You will be close enough for the king to not struggle to meet you, but far enough outside of the city to still be near wild game and away from prying eyes."

"Ok."

During the three hour drive, Bella held her breath while her companions held their tongues. Hot air poured in through the open windows as her young senses drank in the passing villages, grasslands, valleys, and hills. The car bumped over uneven dirt roads, forded streams and dry riverbeds, and finally found the smooth relief of tarmac.

"This is all Wakanda?" she asked, her voice breaking the silence like a rock on a frozen pond.

"Yes," T'Challa replied.

"It is truly beautiful."

---

Bella sat in the center of a colorful woven mat underneath a brilliantly white tent. The brightly patterned green, orange, brown, and cream designs on her dress clashed with the pink, purple, and white zigzags of the mat beneath her. She carefully arranged the folds of her skirt again and picked a small flower out of the grass by her hand. Her skin reflected the sun in a million tiny pinpricks of light as she moved. She was a living disco ball, she thought to herself in irritation.

As the main event, the central attraction, Bella sat surrounded by more than twenty of the Dora Milaje armed with spears. She inwardly chuckled at the thought of being attacked with a spear. She was fairly certain it would be the spear and not her impenetrable flesh that would leave that fight injured.

Lush forest foliage surrounded the little clearing where their tent stood. This new world was a bright, lively emerald green. It nearly danced with the rich, red earth beneath and the pale blue of the shallow equatorial sky above them. Her old world, or what she could remember, was a different green. That world was a dark, mossy green, framed by the impenetrable fortress of gray made by the sky and the sea.

A caravan of vehicles bumped along a nearby road. Car doors opened and shut and footsteps approached. T'Challa stood and warmly embraced a man crowned only in cotton-white hair, surrounded by a dozen or so heavily armored soldiers carrying guns.

The king wore a European-style grey suit with a red Lion King tie. Bella hadn't expected that. She didn't know what to expect in a king, but it wasn't that. Someone brought the old king a chair so he sat above her, about ten feet away, surrounded on three sides by soldiers.

"Baba, this is Bella Swan," T'Challa said after the king finished greeting the rest of the officials in attendance.

"Child, I have heard much about you," came the ruffled, worn voice of the king. Bella lifted her eyes and nodded. "Now, Bella Swan, I think it is time you told us where you are from and what has led you to Wakanda."

 

---

 

Bella's ruby eyes wandered away from the present and meandered into the blurred edges of her past. The king sat in rapt attention to the motionless zimwi. His soldiers attempted to feign professional disinterest, yet they too were internally focused entirely on the narrative of the foreigner.

"My memories are fuzzy, like trying to make out faces in a faded antique photograph," Bella began. "I feel like I ought to know more but it's hidden under the surface of my mind. It's almost as if my mind has shielded me from the details of my past."

"What is it that you know?" T'Chaka prodded gently, slowly rubbing his short beard with his nobbled fingers as he spoke.

"I know I come from Forks, Washington, in the United States. I know that Forks is too wet, too green, and too cold. I left because I was being chased and I wandered around from country to country trying to stay alive. I know that when I woke after the burning, I no longer needed to be afraid.

"I see brief glimpses of colors and pictures which have deep emotions attached to them, but I don't necessarily know why they are important. For example, I see bright red hair and I feel fear. I see a pizza box and I feel panic. I see golden eyes and I feel a profound sense of rejection. I see a motorcycle and I see hope. Then I see a completely different set of golden eyes and I feel an even more profound sense of acceptance. I just don't know what connects the dots."

"Do you know who caused you to change?" T'Chaka asked.

"A vampire. A female vampire and I feel like I should recognize her. I know she is connected to all the other glimpses I get," Bella said, and rubbed her forehead as if suddenly weary. "But I don't remember."

"Do you know how you came to Wakanda?"

"Ummm, I'm sorry if this is a very ignorant question, but where exactly is Wakanda?"

The assembly around momentarily lost their mask of indifference and murmured in amusement. General Okoye rolled her eyes and made a clearly unflattering comment in a language Bella could not understand. If Bella could have blushed, she would have.

"Our kingdom is in central Africa. We are bordered by Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo," T'Challa responded.

"Thank you. That is helpful. I think I flew into Johannesburg sometime before, well, you know. I remember carrying a backpack, which, wait, did you find a backpack with me?"

"No."

"Well, there goes that idea. Anyhow, I carried a backpack and I remember trying to hide and trying to run and I was hungry and tired and afraid. The next thing I remember is red hair, gold eyes, burning pain, and lights going off. Then I woke up in that hut."

"Thank you for sharing your story with us," T'Chaka said, crossing his hands on his lap and interweaving his fingers together. "Can you tell us why you have abstained from human blood? We have never heard of one of your kind behaving as you do."

"It's hard to explain. When I woke and realized what I was, I knew I didn't want to hurt anyone and I knew that I could survive on animal blood. I don't know how I knew that, but I have the feeling somebody told me once."

"Do you have family back in Washington?"

"Ummm," Bella paused and looked at a branch of a nearby tree where she could see a little yellow bird. "I used to, but they are not there now. They are gone…they…they…they wanted pizza…," she stuttered. Suddenly Bella wilted forward like a dying flower and began to tearlessly weep. "They are gone. It's my fault. They are gone. I killed them. She came because of me. I am a monster. They are gone. I am alone and she's coming for me."

T'Challa and T'Chaka looked at each other in sudden surprise and concern as Bella wept.

"Bella," T'Challa said, "Bella, be at peace. You are not in danger here."

His words failed to calm her. She rocked herself in a panic, her arms wrapped around her legs as if she were a frightened turtle hiding in her shell for protection.

"She is not in her right mind," General Okoye said with a frown, stepping forward with her spear to prod the rocking creature into sanity. "This is not safe for any of us to allow it to continue."

"At ease, General," T'Chaka said. His guards drew nearer to his side as they saw him stand. He motioned for them to step aside. They obeyed but their objections were painted clearly across their faces.

T'Chaka crossed the rest of the distance to where Bella sat. He gently knelt beside her on the mat.

"Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. Bella, you are safe," the old king said.

His General's stance jumped into rigid attention as the king reached out his rough, warm hands to touch the dangerous creature. The bare skin of the zimwi's smooth, frigid forearm melted in the human touch. Bella's weeping ceased. She hesitantly unfurled her head, looked into the dusty eyes of the king, closed her eyes, and sank her head against his shoulder.

"Shhhh. Shhh. Shhh. Binti, shhh. Uko sawa hapa."

---

"My King," Okoye spoke as she nodded in respect to her sovereign. T'Chaka sat on his throne surrounded by T'Challa, Zuri, W'Kabi, the elders, and the Queen.

"General, you wish to speak?"

"I do not like it."

"I knew you would not. That is why you are a good general," T'Chaka replied with a half-smile.

"Mazimwi are dangerous! She is too close to our people. You do not keep lions in the same pen as goats. She may look harmless but it only takes one moment for a lion to strike," Okoye said, striking her spear against the tiled floor to emphasize "strike".

"We have watched her for half a year now and she has not hurt a person," T'Challa responded. "She has not killed anything except impala, gazelle, antelope, and the occasional wildebeest. She has never wandered more than twenty kilometers from her hut and has never even threatened a human."

"It is not natural," Zuri chimed in, standing to his feet in a passion that caused his dark brown robe to flutter around his feet like tree branches in the wind. "I have contacted as many of the tribal elders and waganga as I can think of who may have knowledge on the mazimwi. I have made inquiries as far as South Africa, Ghana, Italy, China, and America. This zimwi lacks nearly all the traits that accompany rebirth and youth.

"I do not trust it. She may have feigned her transformation when at our border to try to gain entry. She may be pretending to be a wounded animal so that she can garner our sympathy and attack us when we are not aware. She may be a spy seeking entry into our secrets to betray us to our enemies. I do not think she is good for our nation," Zuri said, sitting down to punctuate his completed thought.

"My King, you are wise and kind. I will obey your final decision, but I want to speak my fears first," Okoye said.

"A truly wise king will listen to many voices before reaching a final decision. This council has gathered to bring many voices together. Continue speaking," T'Chaka replied.

"I agree with Zuri. If she decides to strike, how many will die before T'Challa can arrive? Is T'Challa even a match for her strength? I say we end her now. If we do not want to end her life, at least banish her from our kingdom so she is not a threat."

"General, you would have the girl punished not for what she has done but for what she is? Eeeeeee! That is a treacherous path to travel. When the citizens of Wakanda are guilty because of the group they belong to and not because of laws they have broken, then our kingdom is no longer on the same side as justice. Those kinds of 'precautions' have led to the bloodshed of entire peoples who were judged guilty simply for the evil they might possibly do in future. No, that is not who we are."

"My king, she is not human."

"So said the Hutu when they cut down their Tutsi neighbors in the Rwandan bloodbath. No, the girl is not less human simply because her soul is inhabiting a stronger house."

Okoye nodded and pursed her lips.

"General, do you know the story of Opondo's children?"

"Opondo? That is a Luo name, yes? I do not know the tale."

"Yes. Opondo and his wife bore many children. However the couple was disgusted when the babies were born not human but kenge, monitor lizards. Year after year, they threw the new babies away and killed them. After many years, Opondo and his wife began to gather grey in their hair. They decided to let one baby live before their years increased.

"Their son grew into a very large lizard. One day, neighbors came to Opondo and told him that they saw his son as a human boy. When the boy went to swim, he took off his kenge skin and underneath he was a very handsome youth. His parents followed him to the pond the next time he went to swim, stole his kenge skin, and he remained a human boy for the rest of his days. But Opondo and his wife grieved in their hearts for all of their other children that they had thrown away."

"Aya, Bwana. I understand," Okoye said.

"Do we have other voices who wish to speak?" T'Chaka asked.

"Where will she stay?" the Queen Mother asked.

"We will let her stay in the hut on the lake for another three months and keep watch," T'Challa said. "We have discontinued the perimeter fence since it has not been necessary thus far. She has been told not to approach any of our people without one of our guard in attendance and to continue to be discrete. We are still tracking her movements."

"What will happen in three months' time?" Zuri asked, skeptically.

"Sasa, Secretary Norris is researching her past and we will begin to research her present. General Okoye, you will visit her weekly to test her strengths and weaknesses. Teach her what she needs to know to be on the margins of Wakanda," T'Chaka said.

Okoye raised an eyebrow, slowly nodded her head, and then crossed her arms over her chest in salute.

"In three months times, we will meet to determine her future," T'Chaka said with finality as he dismissed the council.

 

"Zimwi, watering your clothes will not make them grow," Okoye said with a scoff as she leaned against a banana tree and looked down the hill towards the little homestead besides the lake. Five square huts sat lined up in a circle surrounding an open clearing of grass. Their doors all faced towards the center of the clearing and towards the small green lake. The dense foliage of the surrounding forests cut off the homestead from the view of any one passing by on the dirt road running past a few kilometers away.

Bella sat cross-legged on the ground, focused intently on scrubbing suds through a blue piece of clothing in a blue plastic bucket. She looked up in surprise as soon as she heard Okoye speak to her. This was not Okoye's first visit to her home. The past few weeks had brought Okoye as a distant observer, as unengaged and silent as the hawk that hunted in a nearby tree each evening. This was the first time the General had deemed Bella worthy of any form of communication.

"I am trying to wash them," Bella responded, creating a soapy avalanche of bubbles as she threw in her t-shirt in disgust. "I may not sweat anymore, but this red dirt is impossible."

Bella pointed over her shoulder to where a lopsided rope hung between two trees. It sagged under the weight of clothes dripping with soap suds and muddy water.

Okoye momentarily forgot her dislike of her assignment and burst into a laugh so loud she scared the weaver birds off the nearby acacia tree.

"Mzungu! Unafanya nini hapa?" Okoye said, continuing to laugh so hard she held onto her protesting stomach as if to keep it from bursting. Okoye descended down the hill with quick, light steps and came to investigate the dripping clothes. She poked a pair of jeans with her spear and grimaced at the sprinkling of brown water that fell from the ankles. "Nguo zako ni chafu. You do not know how to wash your clothes?"

"Sure I do. With a washing machine."

"My two year old nephew can wash better than you. Kuja hapa," Okoye said, opening and closing her palm, beckoning Bella to come. Okoye grabbed an empty 20 litre jerrican and motioned for Bella to bring another. "Let's fetch some more water before we begin."

They walked to the muddy shores of the lake and filled their jerricans to the brim with the lake water. Okoye gracefully swept the heavy, yellow container onto her head and walked back to the hut with one hand carrying her spear and the other keeping the container balanced precisely on the purple cloth ring she had made to wrap around her head.

Bella watched, thought for a moment, and then proceeded to carry the jerrican in her hand.

"You are too mzungu," Okoye said as she flicked her eyes back to see Bella easily carrying the 40 pounds of water in one hand. Bella rolled her eyes and sped up, blurring easily past Okoye.

"Eeeee!" Okoye exclaimed and then clicked her tongue. "You can move as silently and quickly as a cheetah and yet you do not know how to wash your clothes. Now, empty your buckets. We are starting over."

An hour later, the properly washed clothes hung, securely fastened with clothespins, on the straightened clothes line. They no longer dripped water, soap, or mud but instead swung in the breeze, drying in the heat of the midday sun, filling the warm air with the scent of Omo.

Bella looked at the line in relief. Her new hut came stocked with more of the daily necessities of a regular human life than her last, but that didn't mean she understood how to use them.

Okoye rinsed the remaining soap off of her battle-scarred hands and picked up her spear from the ground.

"Thank you, General," Bella said. Okoye nodded.

"Now, the reason I came was not to wash your clothes," Okoye said as she pulled out a khaki knapsack and handed it to Bella. Bella opened it and squeaked in happiness when she saw a hairbrush, toothbrush, shampoo, conditioner, a solar radio, and a notebook. She hugged the contents to herself.

"Thank you!"

Okoye watched her with pursed lips and one eyebrow raised.

"What?" Bella asked, noting her expression.

"You are supposed to be a near-invincible creature of the night. You do not instill fear by squeaking like a young meerkat."

"I do not want to be feared and I am not invincible," Bella responded, her voice fraught with the fragility of a crystal glass. Her eyes scanned the green and brown ripples churned up by the midday breezes over the lake.

"I know your people do not want me here and you are afraid of me. I am not asking you to trust me or to welcome me here with open arms. I just…I don't know the words…," Bella said and bit her lower lip in thought. "My body may have changed into a mythological monster, but on the inside, I am still only Bella and I am far from invincible." She turned to face Okoye, "I didn't choose this life, but now I have it. And I am here."

Okoye turned to her with a fierce, unsmiling gaze. "The first secret in becoming invincible is to instill fear," she said. "And to make others think you are invincible. You may know you are not, but do not let your enemies know."

Bella nodded.

"Now, I will need to run a few tests on your body and abilities. The King would like to know as much about you as he can," Okoye said she pulled out a hand-held computer and began to swipe through various screens, projecting a 3D image into the air between them.

Bella's eyes grew wide. "I've never seen a computer like that. What is it?"

"We develop our own technology here. You will not have heard of it."

Bella gave Okoye a quizzical expression as Okoye continued to enter data into the projected screen.

"Zimwi, you wish to speak?"

"No."

"Your face is speaking even if your words are not."

"It's, I don't know, you just taught me how to wash clothes by hand and now you are working on an oober high tech computer thingy. I find that rather ironic."

Okoye rolled her eyes. "I can wash clothes with my hands or a machine. I can kill my enemy with a handmade arrow or a finely calibrated laser. What your people would call 'primitive' our people call 'flexible' or 'versatile'. Forgetting how to survive without technology will not aid our survival. My troops can move just as easily through New York City as they can through the deserts of the Sahara because they know how to adapt to whatever environments, peoples, or technologies they have available to them."

Bella nodded again and kept silent as Okoye began to poke and prod her arm with some kind of small, black sensor. It beeped and shone a green light as Okoye brushed it across her skin. Okoye entered the results into the holographic screen.

By the end of the afternoon, Bella felt a bit like a performing zoo animal or a lab rat after Okoye finished her arsenal of tests.

"Now, the last thing I need today is for you to place a sample of your venom into this vial," Okoye said as she handed Bella a small glass vial. Bella carefully placed a sample into the vial and handed it back to the General.

"Shika. This is for you," Okoye said and handed Bella a small pile of black fabric.

"What is this?"

"A body suit, and a burqa. You hardly inspire fear by sparkling," Okoye said wiggling her fingers in the air. "You also aren't exactly inconspicuous. I'd wager at midday I could see you shining all the way to Kilimanjaro. Now, the body suit fabric is tight enough to not be snared on thorns, strong enough to withstand animal claws, but flexible enough to let you run. The burqa is to cover yourself when you are near people. If you walk around in a body suit, people will ask questions. If you walk around in a burqa, everyone will assume you are a very strict Muslim and no one will ask questions. You can walk even through our capital without drawing attention to yourself."

"Thank you," Bella said, slipper her hand into the smooth, soft cloth.

"Don't thank me. I am only the messenger. Shuri sent it."

"Who?"

"The king's lastborn. She is too curious for her own good. We caught her listening outside the door of a council meeting and before she could be caned for her tabia mbaya, she suggested we give you these."

"Thank her for me."

"I will, but I have a feeling that the msumbufu may sneak past security soon in order to try to meet you herself."

Bella laughed. "If that happens, what would you like me to do?"

"Eat her. It would be a just punishment for filling all the soap dispensers with henna powder last month."

Ooooooooooooooooooooooo

The sun burned the grass around Bella in its midday strength. A chorus of insects and birds sang in harmony from the dense undergrowth enclosing her compound. She could smell the warmth of the dirt drying from the night's downpour and the damp grass. She quickly finished her cold bath and dressed herself before climbing a tree to watch the mosaic of animal and insect life around her.

She heard a pair of booted footsteps approaching before she could see the figures. One set she recognized as T'Challa's. The other set belonged to a stranger. She waited till they were within eyesight of her perch and dropped noiselessly to the ground.

T'Challa's companion jumped in surprise before ducking behind T'Challa. T'Challa clicked his tongue and pulled the man forward. He was a short, stout man, barely taller than Bella. His skin shown three shades lighter than T'Challa's in the sunlight and he compulsively pushed black, thick-rimmed, square-framed glasses further up on his stubby nose. His round, dimpled cheeks gave him a youthful appearance, in contrast with the immaculately shined black dress shoes and freshly pressed collared shirt and tie he wore. His hair stuck out in all directions, rolled into thick, short dreadlocks that resembled an army of caterpillars marching around his head.

"Bella, let me introduce you to Secretary Norris, Director of Technology and Innovation for the Wakandan government," T'Challa said. T'Challa stood straight and firm as he made introductions, once again garbed in his cat-outfit, holding his mask in his hands.

Bella nodded at the visitor and held out her hand to shake his. He looked at her gloved hand as if she would burn him with her skin, before shaking it as quickly and limply as he could.

"Secretary Norris, it is good to meet you."

"Please, you may call me Chuck."

"Chuck?"

"Yes. My given name is Chuck."

"Wait, are you telling me your name is Chuck Norris?"

"Yes."

Bella failed to stifle her giggle. "Is there a story behind your name?"

"Secretary Norris' parents have an affinity for American television," T'Challa interjected with a smile, noting the man's embarrassment. "All his siblings are named after their favorite heroes."

Now, Bella burst into a peel of a bell-like laughter that bounced off the nearby trees. It took a moment to recompose herself. She welcomed the men into her hut, motioning for them to sit on the golden-colored foam couch while she sat on a wooden stool and removed her black veil. Her dark brown hair cascaded down her back as she pulled off her mask.

"Well, Chuck Norris, for what do I have the pleasure of this meeting?"

Norris sat momentarily silent, staring at Bella's face, before being roused by T'Challa's intentional throat clearing. He blinked, then glanced at T'Challa and back to Bella, shifting his weight as he sat and shuffling papers in a binder nervously.

"Ms. Swan, I am in charge of a project researching your origins. I am about to commence an exploratory journey to your last known habitation to find the information that I cannot obtain from government and internet archives. Before I depart, I would like to inquire into your ability to recall your previous life experiences."

Bella looked at T'Challa.

"You have been researching me?"

"Yes."

She nodded and wrung her hands together.

"First off," Norris said, "The police reports and news said your father and two companions died in a fire at your home," he said, fiddling with his glasses on his nose again. "Do you have any memories of the fire?"

"I never saw a fire. I saw three bodies in the living room."

"You are sure?"

"Yes. There was so much blood. I was afraid and I ran and then there was something large that came and took me away."

"Something large?"

"Yes, like an animal. A dog or a wolf or something. I'm sorry, I know I'm not making much sense," Bella said, furrowing her eyebrows as her golden eyes unfocused, trying to see a past that was now hidden from her.

"Do you remember what happened to you in Phoenix?"

"Phoenix? Oh, my mother lived in Phoenix. Is Renee still alive?"

"Yes. Renee and Phil Dwyer are alive and well and living in Florida."

Bella exhaled her unnecessary breath and crossed her hands over her chest, lost in thought again.

"Bella, do you remember how you were injured in Phoenix?"

She looked at them again. "I was injured in Phoenix? Yes…" she trailed off, compulsively rubbing her wrist. Suddenly she looked down and flipped her forearm over to show the perfect crescent scar.

"This was Phoenix," she said. "That's all I remember."

"Thank you," Norris said, jotting down notes on a small tablet.

"Now, Bella, we would like to test your strength and speed against a more formidable opponent than the General," T'Challa said. "Would you be willing to spar with me a round or two so we can get an idea of what you are capable of? Secretary Norris will record footage to bring back to our lab for analysis."

"You make me sound like a lab rat."

"Well, yes, you are."

Bella blew a strand of hair out of her face. "That's awkward. But, ok, with one condition."

"What's your condition?"

"I would like to know what you learn when you finish your analysis."

"I am amenable to your request," Secretary Norris said, jotting down another note.

The three stood and went outside into the sunlight. Bella burst into a million colors that shifted and danced off the red dirt of the hut and the inky darkness of T'Challa's Panther Habit. Secretary Norris stood mouth agape again before shaking himself and pulling out his recording device and pushing some buttons.

"I am ready," he said, standing back as far as possible from the pair.

"I don't want to hurt you," Bella said to the Panther. "And I don't really know how to fight."

"I am more durable than a normal human, Bella, and my suit is impenetrable, even for your teeth," he said, pulling on his mask and beginning to circle around her.

"Good to know," she said and crouched into a defensive posture.

T'Challa lunged and knocked Bella to the ground. She lay momentarily stunned as she internalized the speed and strength with which he moved. She leapt to her feet and ran towards him in full pursuit, letting a slight growl slip from her lips.

All Chuck Norris could see was a blur of black and shards of light and color. Birds in the trees squawked in protest of the sudden explosion of crashing bodies of stone and power and they took wing in a fluttering and flapping above them. The trees shook violently and threw out leaves as they collided with the swirling figures.

T'Challa suddenly broke into a sprint and Bella followed, overtaking him in only a moment or two before he leapt into a tree branch and she followed. They swung through the branches of neighboring trees before a branch proved unfit for their combined weight, cracked, and poured them both to the deep undergrowth beneath.

T'Challa and Bella sprung to their feet and picked leaves and sticks off of themselves. T'Challa removed his mask and looked at Bella, a brilliant white smile upon his face.

"That was awesome!" she suddenly exclaimed. "How did you…how can you…what are you?"

"I am the guardian of my people. I have the power of the spirit of the Black Panther within me that gives me the strength and skills I need to be their protector. Yet, I find you are a match for even my strength," he said, and bowed his head towards her. He reached out to slide his palm against hers before sliding into a handshake.

"You…wow…I just…That was amazing," Bella paused, still staring at her opponent with a look of undisguised awe. "Wait, Panther? That explains the cat-suit, I guess. I really wondered."

"Eeeeee. Cat suit? I like to think I am much more intimidating than a house cat. The Panther Habit is a special armor that gives me added protection."

"So, I guess I should take it as a complement when you chose to visit me without wearing it?"

T'Challa laughed. "Or you could take it as a complement when I wear it to visit you. It is a rare occasion someone is dangerous enough for me to feel the need to arrive armed."

The two returned to find Chuck Norris weak at the knees, his arms shaking as he struggled to keep the camera still.

"Secretary Norris, we are done here."

"Yes, sir."

---

"I would like a report on the progress of Bella Swan. What have we learned in the last two months?" the king asked his General and his Director of Technology and Innovation.

Norris pulled out a meticulously organized printed binder and began to flip through pages. He pushed his black, thick, square glasses further on his slightly stubby nose and began to speak.

"My king, I have quite exhausted the information available on the worldwide internet databases. Thus far, I have gleaned that Isabella Marie Swan was born September 13, 1987 to a Renee and Charles Swan in Forks, Washington. Renee and Charles filed for divorce during her infancy and there were no other children born to either parent. Isabella lived in Arizona for most of her childhood. Her mother remarried and, shortly thereafter, Isabella returned to Forks to stay with her father in 2005.

"February 2006, the authorities were called to the home of Charles Swan where three bodies were found burned along with the home. The bodies were later identified as Charles Swan, William Black, and Jacob Black. After the incident, there was no trace of Isabella until the next day when her personal vehicle was found in the ocean after being driven off a cliff. Inside, they found traces of a struggle and some personal effects, but no body. The police declared her dead and a funeral was held in March, organized by her mother and stepfather.

"Bella has no memory of a fire and claims the deaths occurred before the fire. She also remembers being assisted in her exodus by a companion, of sorts. Based on her medical records and the scar on her wrist, it appears she had interacted with mazimwi before and survived."

"Thank you, Secretary," the king said, rubbing his hands through his beard.

"Did your sources mention who called the authorities?" T'Challa asked.

"Ah. Yes. A man identified as Sam Uley notified the police both of the fire and the car accident. He confessed to being a family friend," said Secretary Norris, pulling out a picture of a large, dark haired man. "Though Bella did not recognize his photograph. She did, however, vaguely recognize photographs of all three deceased men."

"You will go to Forks and speak to this man. Find out what you can about what he saw. Go as soon as you can and report back to me what you learn."

"Yes, my King."

"Now, General? What do you have to report?"

"My King, I have visited the homestead weekly. During my visits, I have educated our visitor on the basic history, geography, and ecology of Wakanda. I have taught her how to wash clothes, build a fire, heat water, sweep her hut, and flat iron her clothes. In addition…," Okoye cut off and turned to glare at Secretary Norris who sat snickering behind his palm.

"What do you find humorous, Secretary?"

"Hakuna, General," he replied, failing to stifle his humor and instead grinning even wider. "My imagination is simply conjuring the image of Wakanda's most talented general teaching a deadly zimwi how to flat iron a pair of trousers," Norris said, breaking into a full belly laugh.

Okoye crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, muttering something about her job description under her breath.

"Secretary, tosha. General, you are fulfilling your assignment with honor. Continue your report," T'Chaka said, sternly staring the Secretary into solemnity before motioning with his hand for Okoye to continue.

"As I was saying, I also have conducted some preliminary tests of her abilities. She does not need water, sleep, rest, or food. She is impervious to temperature changes and climate. Her speed and strength rival, if not exceed, the Black Panther. She also has enhanced hearing, sight, smell, memory, and mental capacities. She can detect changes in her environment as far as five kilometres away.

"In addition, she is a voracious reader. I bring her stacks of books every week and she finishes all of them, committing them to memory with perfect recall. She has learned all the skills I have taught her with great eagerness."

"Thank you, General. Have you felt in danger from the zimwi?"

Okoye's stern face broke into a small grin. "Yes, my king. When the zimwi tried to start a fire for the first time in her hut, I felt we were all in great danger of the hut catching fire. It was almost as dangerous as her attempts to chop down firewood with a panga. It is good she is more durable than a human and so managed to retain all her appendages."

Norris began to laugh again until T'Chaka hushed him. "General?" he said, his voice laced with authority to quell the mirth in Okoye's face.

"No, my king. I have never felt myself to be in danger for my life or person or those of anyone in our vicinity. She has shown nothing but self-restraint and an unwillingness to use her powers to harm people. She lacks any technical skills in fighting beyond what her nature has instilled in her.

"I also would mention that she does not have the ambitions of a warrior. I believe she has the heart of a mother instead. She will fight with fierceness for those she loves but not for her own honor."

"Very good. Thank you, General. Now, we have received reports of rebel soldiers transgressing our borders trying to loot resources from the Congo again. You are to take ten of the Dora Milaje to investigate the disturbances. I want to discover if these rumors are valid and if so, find out which government or rebel group is responsible. We will not tolerate another bloodbath like the Second Congo War."

"My King," Okoye said, crossing her arms over her chest in salute.

"Another thing, General. You will take Bella Swan with you on your mission."

"My King?"

"I would like for you to test her heart as well as her abilities."

 

T'Challa and Nakia sat at their favorite table in their usual spot. The bustling city life of Birnin Zana swept through the street two floors below them like a clamorous river of polychromatic chaos. Brightly clad Wakandans milled around street corners, bustled between shops, and chatted happily with companions at sidewalk cafes. Vendors weighted down with baskets of food and trinkets shouted advertisements of their wares. Automobiles and bicycles skittered between tethered cows, free range chickens, and the occasional Vervet monkey. The oil sizzled as it fried samosas and the smoky, salty aroma of grilled goat filled the air.

Nakia sipped on her spicy ginger chai and threw another piece of popcorn at T'Challa after a particularly lame joke. She laughed as he struggled to remove the kernel from his head. Nakia's freshly braided hair hung down to her waist, neatly twisted into patterns of dark brown, deep blue, and royal purple, perfectly coordinated with the delicate flowers covering her kitenge dress. She glowed with mirth as she threw another kernel of popcorn when T'Challa's head was turned.

"As I was saying," T'Challa continued, brushing the kernel off his shoulder to meet its companions on the floor. "Shuri has managed to find a buyer for her latest project. You remember what I told you of it?"

"I think so. She has too many projects for me to remember all. You mean the one where she combines the technology for a computer with a mobile phone all in one device?"

"Yes. She found some American company who would like her designs. Since it was her pet project and not technology that will compromise our security, Baba said she may sell her designs and use the proceeds to refurbish her lab with all the new toys she has been asking for."

"Has she been negotiating the contract herself?"

"No. Baba does not trust her that far. He was concerned she would do something that would reveal the company is dealing with a seven year old Wakandan child and not the international technology company she is pretending to be. Secretary Norris has been assisting her and reviewing all the contracts to ensure all the legal necessaries are attended to. If the deal goes through, Mama has agreed to let Shuri complete more of her studies in the lab to develop her skills further. She's already bursting with new ideas she wants to investigate."

"Aye! That girl! She will be a true asset to Wakanda with her brain."

"If she can survive to adulthood…she is not making friends with her mischief. She managed to break into the palace communication system last week and changed all the clocks on all connected technology to three hours ahead. It caused chaos for the household for two days until we discovered who the guilty party was and forced her to change it back."

Nakia covered her mouth with her hand as she laughed. "My absence came at an unfortunate time," she said. "I would have enjoyed seeing Shuri hold the entire palace hostage."

"Well, Mama held her hostage afterwards. She received a thorough caning before her exile at Mama W'Kabi's shamba. She had to spend three days digging up cassava, weeding potatoes, and herding goats before Mama let her back into the palace," T'Chaka answered with a grin. "She came back so humble and well-behaved that Mama thinks we should send her there at least once a week and maybe twice during holidays."

"If I remember properly, you spent some very grueling days with Mama W'Kabi after you tried to sneak a snake into Aunty Josephine's handbag during one of the palace dinners."

"Eeeee! Don't remind me! I think my blisters grew blisters from all the time I spent in her shamba. I do not think there is a woman in Wakanda that I fear as much as Mama W'Kabi!"

"Yet, I believe I have caught you there sitting in the jackfruit trees even when you were not being punished," Nakia said.

"And how do you know I was there willingly and not under duress?" T'Chaka responded, his eyes glinting mischievously in the dim light of their favorite corner.

"Wewe! Mama W'Kabi would not have let you leave with me to go hunting for mangos if you were still under her supervision. You were there because you wished to be there," Nakia said, poking his shoulder and straightening the green wrap around her head.

"Ni kweli. I admit. I may have gotten into mischief a few times on purpose simply because I enjoyed spending my days there. Listening to Mama W'Kabi tell the old legends by firelight is one of my favorite boyhood memories. And now, Shuri will create her own. She may need to become a permanent member of the household until she learns some discipline.

"You know, I've caught Shuri three times trying to sneak out to go visit Bella, the zimwi. Mama has caught her twice, and Okoye has caught her more times than she can count. She is too curious for her own good and the more we discourage her, the more she sees her goal as a worthy challenge. It is almost a game for her now."

"Do you think she would be in danger?"

"No. I do not think Shuri would be in danger, but I cannot say the same for the zimwi. Knowing Shuri, she would probably want to conduct experiments on her and end up setting her on fire or blowing her up just to see if she could."

"Mmmmmm," Nakia said, raising both eyebrows before chucking another piece of popcorn at T'Challa's forehead.

"Nakia, you would have me traverse the city with popcorn in my hair," T'Challa responded and threw the kernel back at her. It bounced easily off her shoulder and onto the floor. "And you will have us refused as customers here in future."

"I do not think this tiny place will refuse their future king from taking chai here, even if he spills a bit of popcorn. You could even pour the whole teapot and they would still welcome you back."

"True-but they may not allow you back, especially if I tell them not to."

"This would no longer be a very good meeting place if I am not allowed to meet you here," she replied.

"Maybe I come for the chai and not the company," he said, his full smile reflecting his insincerity.

"Aye, bwana, ninaenda saa hii. You take your chai in peace without my company," Nakia said as she rose to leave him. T'Challa caught Nakia's hand and pulled her back to her chair. He failed to release her hand when she sat. He carefully analyzed the crevices and lines of her hand as if she carried a map to a treasure within. He placed a kiss on one finger before raising his eyes to meet hers.

"Now, Nakia, tell me. You are laughing but your laughter does not reach your eyes. What is making your heart heavy?" T'Challa said, growing serious.

She sighed and lost herself in the city-scape for a moment before she replied.

"Words are insufficient. There is nothing that is amiss in my waking life."

"Are your dreams heavy?"

"Yes. My sleeping hours do not permit me to rest. I feel as though my soul within me travels around half the world until I wake. Something is happening or is going to happen. I do not know what, but I know that we are in danger."

"Tell me your dreams, or at least what you can," T'Challa said, still clasping her hand.

"Aye, it is too hard to explain all. Last night but one I dreamed of a wooden box dug out of the ground. Inside, it was full of green and yellow circles. I do not know if they were bracelets or rings or something else entirely. They shone with a light too bright to be natural and they reeked of strong magic.

"The second day of the week before, I dreamed of an acacia tree frozen in ice. It thawed in the sun and we planted it by a lake where it bloomed.

"Then, last night I dreamed of ice again but this time it was a woman, paler even than mazimwi, and it was not that she was frozen, it was that she was made entirely of ice and she froze all she touched. It was so cold…My sister woke me then because she could not bear my screams. I have been troubled since morning," Nakia said, pulling her hand from his and rubbing her temples with her fingertips.

"Your third eye is both a blessing and a burden for you. You help us all to see truths that we cannot see with our two eyes, but you suffer from it, I fear. Come, take some more chai," T'Challa said as he poured another steaming cupful for her. "Then, we will go out of the city and walk along the mountain road. You will feel the sun and forget the ice till you must sleep again."

Nakia smiled and took the cup, holding it closely in both hands as it warmed her. "Asante. I would like that."

---

Bella returned to her home after a long night of hunting. She ran as far and as fast as she could, making her way across the border to Lake Nyanza and back again before dawn broke and forced her home. She inhaled and exhaled, filling her senses with the rich, dense, fragrant morning air. The dawn hummed with the early explosion of bird songs, welcoming the warmth of the early sun.

She pulled off her dirty shoes before she heard a rustling sound in the bushes behind the homestead. She swung around and caught a whiff of an unknown human scent.

"Is someone there?" she asked, but no answer came.

Her normal visitors waited for her inside or nearby her hut, not in the bushes. They also came long after dawn. She had a feeling this was not a normal visitor. She heard a heart race faster but still no voice spoke. She noiselessly crept towards the direction of the heartbeat. There, her perfect eyes picked out a small figure buried in black cloth and huddled in the bushes.

"Who are you and what are you doing hiding in the bushes?" Bella asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

Slowly, the figure rose, shaking slightly as it did. A T'Challa's mask hung over the face and the figure seemed to almost be swimming in the corresponding habit. The legs and arms of the armor were bunched fruitlessly around the much shorter limbs and the mask hung loosely and wobbly on the tiny head.

"Why, Prince T'Challa, to what do I owe the honor of this early morning visit?" Bella asked with a smile and a mock bow.

The figure cleared their throat twice before attempting to speak in a low, deep voice, "I have come to request your presence in our capital city today."

"I suppose the King has sent for me?"

"Ummm, yes. Yes! Baba…I mean…the King has sent for you to come…today…with me…now," the figure said, failing to maintain the deep voice and slipping into the high pitched voice of a young girl.

"I see. Before we go, Prince T'Challa, you never told me you were a shape-shifter. How did you manage to turn yourself into a child?" Bella said and with invisibly fast speed, she removed the loose mask from the face of her visitor. A little brown, dimpled face covered in a head of short braids appeared.

"Are you Princess Shuri?" Bella asked.

"You've heard of me?"

"Yes. The General warned me you might visit and she gave me strict instructions on what to do."

The girl began to pull off the Panther habit, or rather, step out of the Panther habit. She looked at Bella with a wrinkled nose.

"What did she tell you to do? Tell on me? Call my brother? Make Okoye come fetch me?"

"No. She told me to eat you," Bella said, laughing as Shuri's face momentarily exchanged stubborn defiance for awe.

"She wouldn't! You wouldn't!"

"Well, she did tell me that, but no, I would not. You do not look very delicious," Bella said, wrinkling her nose. "You, however, are not supposed to be here, are you? How did you get here?"

Shuri flung herself onto the ground, leaning on her elbows to support herself, obviously intending to stay for awhile. Bella sat on the damp grass a few feet away and turned towards her tiny visitor.

"This is my twelfth try," she said, pursing her eyebrows together. "I finally managed it. I disabled the palace and the city security systems so no one could tell I left. Then, I took one of my brother's spare Panthers that I'm trying to upgrade. It makes me undetectable to our security system, in case they discover the shields are down and turn them back on. I had to walk most of the night to get here and then you weren't even here. Why not? Where did you go?"

"Hunting."

"Ooooo! What did you hunt? Did you eat somebody?" Shuri asked, lighting up with her excitement.

"Yes!" Bella said, feigning enthusiasm to match her new friend's. "I drank two antelope and a small gazelle."

Shuri rolled her eyes. "That's not exciting. Anyone can catch an antelope. I'll bet even Baba could and he moves as fast as a tortoise."

"Well, sorry to disappoint you," Bella responded with a laugh.

"Iko sawa. How did you know I was here?"

"I can hear you and smell you," Bella said.

Shuri sniffed herself. "I can't smell anything," she said. "Besides, I had a bath yesterday."

"I can smell that too. You still smell like soap and Vaseline."

Shuri thought about this for a moment, then jumped to her feet again. "Uko tayari?"

"Excuse me?"

"You are coming home with me."

"I am?"

"Yes. I told Baba that I wanted a pet. You are much more interesting than a cat or a monkey. I can keep you in my room and catch you food and make sure you have baths and have your hair brushed and I'll make clothes for you and…"

"Shuri, I am not a pet."

"You could be! And I'd be the only mtoto in the Kingdom with a pet zimwi! Safi kabisa!"

"I think I prefer to bathe and dress myself, thank you."

"But you can help me in my lab. I am coming up with a new kind of flame-thrower and we could see if it works on you and then we could test out my new vibranium armor design to see if you can penetrate it with your teeth and…and…then…."

Bella's eyes grew wide and she shook her head quickly. Before she could reply, a beeping sound came out of the Panther mask on the ground. Shuri stuck out her tongue at it.

"Is that someone trying to find you?" Bella asked.

"Yes."

"You should answer it."

"Fine," she said and picked it up off the ground and pushed a button. Bella could hear T'Challa's voice through a speaker within, slightly panicked.

"Shuri, where are you? Are you ok?"

"I'm fine."

"You didn't answer me. Where are you?"

Shuri rolled her eyes again and cut off the communication with a flip of a button. The mask immediately beeped again. Bella grabbed the mask from her Shuri let out a flurry of Swahili words under her breath that Bella was glad she could not interpret. Bella pushed buttons until she heard T'Challa speak again.

"Shuri?"

"Hi. This is Bella. Shuri's trying to kidnap me. Don't worry, I'm safe, but if you don't come soon, she may decide to hold me for ransom."

T'Challa's relieved laugh floated through the speaker. "Thanks. We'll be there as soon as we can."

"Traitor," Shuri said as soon as Bella returned the mask to her.

"Runaway," Bella retorted. Shuri crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Bella. She pursed her lips and attempted to look menacing. However, her thin, short frame, button nose, and three missing teeth all diminished her capacity to intimidate.

"You do know that if we are going to have a staring contest, that I will win, right? I don't actually need to blink," Bella said.

"Prove it," Shuri said, squinting her watering eyes and forcing them to open again with her fingers.

Bella sat as motionless as a statue until Shuri gave up and stomped her foot. The sun broke over the canopy of the trees, illuminating Bella's exposed skin and Shuri immediately forgot about the staring contest.

"Wow! That is so cool! I feel like it doesn't even follow any of the laws of science and that makes it even better!" she said and ran her fingers up the cold, hard skin of Bella's arm, delighting in the way the light refracted off of her. "Is the body suit working?"

"Yes. Thank you. That was a really great idea," Bella said.

Shuri suddenly pulled out a tiny magnifying glass and notebook from her pocket and began to scribble notes in it. She then proceeded to pull out some kind of scanning device and ran that over Bella's arm.

"What are you doing?" Bella asked.

"Testing the composition of your skin…I wonder if I could design some kind of sunscreen for you."

"You know I can't get sunburned. I mean, I can't even tan."

"Hapana, not that kind of sunscreen. I mean a sunscreen to keep you from reflecting light. Like an anti-sparkle spray…hah! That sounds funny! Maybe it could be a glitter inhibitor? Tee hee hee. Glisten prevention?" And here Shuri fell to the ground and began to roll on the grass in laughter. "A de-shimmerizer? I'll keep working on a name. Theoretically, it could work," she said, wiping away a tear and restoring her composure.

"Right," Bella replied. "I hear a car. I think my rescuers have come."

 

The birds woke first. The vibrant night songs eroded into the noisy cacophony of birds competing to see which would best welcome the new day. Then the sun burst through the dawn with a steamy violence. The night rains still dripped from the green leaves, burying their campsite in a wet canopy. The Dora Milaje stirred with the sun. Soon chai and porridge boiled over wood fires. The warriors took turns cooking, bathing, tearing down camp, and keeping watch.

The past three weeks of mission left them all weary of heart and body. They agreed it was time to return to their home to share what they had seen on the borderlands. The reports would not make T'Chaka's heart any lighter and they would need to see what could be done to keep peace between their neighbors.

Bella was not sure she would ever fully understand the conflicts, both local and global, in which she now found herself. Their small company had explored the borders of Wakanda. They had traveled over 3500 kilometres (2100 miles) to investigate reports of disturbances. Already, they had come into contact with at least fifteen distinct ethnic groups, each with their own language, history, customs, and view of the world. And that was simply the borderlands. She could not comprehend what complexity she would discover as she traveled further abroad.

She asked as many questions as she could, but still she found herself immersed in a world so entirely new to her that she did not even know which questions would be the right ones to ask.

"I don't understand," Bella said to Okoye as they sat with the Dora Milaje by the morning fire. Okoye slowly drank her porridge, still dressed in her loose night dress and sandals.

"You have asked questions for weeks now, Zimwi. You are more curious than my small brother's last born. What do you still need to know?" she replied.

"When T'Challa first introduced the Dora Milaje to me, he said you were the 'mothers of the nation and the ceremonial wives of the throne.' What exactly does that mean?"

"Ah. You wish to know of us. That is ok," Okoye said, loosening the dignified tension in her shoulders and sinking deeper into the damp grass where she sat. "The Dora Milaje were formed not long after our first King and Black Panther took on the role of guardian of our people. The first Black Panther, even with his extra strength, knew guarding the nation was the job of many and not of one. He spoke with the elders of each of the four tribes and asked them for advice.

"A woman named Busara, rich in years and wisdom, listened as the elders debated the strongest warriors, the bravest men, the most skilled priests. Then, she spoke and said, 'The fiercest of warriors are not the strongest or the bravest or the most skilled. The most loyal warriors are those fighting to protect those they love from harm. The fiercest warrior of all is a mother protecting her children, who does not fear her own death so long as her children are safe.'

"So, the Dora Milaje was formed of women who could be taught to be strong, brave, and skilled. First and foremost, they are the mothers of our kingdom who are willing to sacrifice themselves in order to keep our people safe. They are wives of the throne, dedicated mind, heart, and soul to protecting our kingdom from harm, inside and out. We have continued this tradition till today."

"So, they are married to the king?" Bella asked, wrinkling her nose.

Okoye laughed. "Not in the way you are thinking. It is a ceremonial, or symbolic, title. It means, when they take their five year oath of service, they will honor the throne of Wakanda and the people of Wakanda with the same diligence they would give to their own husband and children. During that time, all other relationships must be secondary so they can give their full attention to their duty."

Bella continued to ponder Okoye's words while she rolled a flower between her fingers.

"You are chewing on a thought as a cow chews grass. Speak, Zimwi."

"You speak of being a mother as if it is a greater honor than being a warrior," Bella said. "That surprises me."

"It is. In our culture, becoming a father or a mother is the highest of honors and the greatest of duties. If we have no children, we are like a tree with no roots. We are the bridge between the past and the future of our people. Our ancestors, the living dead whose spirits remain with us, they connect us to the past. They remain in the world of the living by their relatives who still honor their memories and know their names.

"Our children are our future. They will keep us connected to the land of the living through their remembrances of us when we are gone. They ensure we have deep roots in our land and deep roots into the future generations of our people. What will our great cities and great works and great men accomplish if there is no one who remembers the names of the ones who built them? The works of their hands may still live, but their spirits will be lost and forgotten, wandering the earth with the nameless dead. No, it is better to stay small and be remembered for many generations, still beloved by one's descendants than to achieve greatness in one lifetime and be forgotten for many."

"But what about people who cannot or choose not to have children?"

"We are one people and one nation. My sisters' children are mine as mine are theirs. I do not need to bear life from my own body to give life to the young. I can still protect, teach, and grow those around me. I still remember the name of my grandfather's sister. She bore no child of her own, but she spoke truth to me and treated me as her own. I honor her memory. My role with the Dora Milaje means I am still fulfilling my duty as a mother to my people. If I do it well, I will have many children who will remember my name and honor my memory."

"Thank you for explaining and being patient with my questions," Bella said. "I have a lot I still need to learn."

"Karibu," Okoye said. "We must leave soon if we are going to make good time. I would like to return home by sunset tomorrow."

---

Okoye left Bella by the fire. She went to the nearby lake to draw a bucket of water for her bath, eager to rinse off the sweat and dust before donning her uniform. She turned and gracefully placed the bucket on her head. She began to make her way back to camp when all of the sudden, she heard a sound like that of a snake sliding on slate rocks. She glanced back over her shoulder and her heart stopped as she saw two black clawed fingers holding a grey shape near the water's edge. She threw her spear with enough force to pin a man into a tree. But this was no man.

The sound of a woman's scream pierced through the heart of camp. The warriors leapt into action, grabbing spears and running towards the sound. Bella sprinted full speed, arriving at the side of the lake within moments. She saw Okoye struggling with an opponent and lunged in preparation to attack.

At first glance, it seemed almost like a man, but he gleamed like an eel in the morning light. A large, muscular torso reflected the sun like well-polished black marble before it curved into the scaled, slippery tail of a fish. The tail glistened in brilliant shades of indigo and turquoise as it wrapped and coiled around the bank of the lake, maintaining the creature's hold on Okoye. His tail slapped at the water, making a sound like a gunshot reverberate off the nearby trees, punctuated by Okoye's screams.

Then the creature smiled. The narrow slits of eyes shone with a bright yellow light, as if a candle lit them from within the pitch black face. The face lacked any nose save for two small holes. The lipless mouth opened cruelly to reveal two rows of jagged, pointed teeth.

Claw-like fingers scratched and pulled at what Bella thought was the ground until she realized he was pulling something. The gray form writhed as Okoye continued to scream and struggle. The shape mimicked Okoye's movements exactly, and Bella realized it was Okoye's shadow caught in the creature's claws. His muscles coiled as he yanked fiercely, the distance between Okoye and her shadow growing.

"Bella! Help! He must not get my shadow," Okoye shouted, eyes wide in terror as she continued to beat at the creature's arms with all her strength. "Do not let him pull my shadow into the water."

Bella lunged, tackling into the creature with full strength, only to find herself rebounded flat onto the muddy bank without their bodies even meeting.

"Zimwi," the creature hissed. He released one hand from Okoye's shadow and began to reach for Bella's shadow with his other. As he braced to tug on both at once, his eyes flashed and he hissed again, translucent gills extending down his neck and flapping as he gurgled. His second attempt once again brought him no closer to his goal.

His narrow eyes suddenly opened, like arrow slits on a castle wall. He then jumped faster than even Bella could have imagined and attempted to dig into her shadow with his glistening teeth.

Before Bella could even try to fight back, his throat gave a gargled scream, half way in between a screech and a choke. He released Bella's shadow and grabbed Okoye's with both hands. Bella crouched and attacked, only to once again be repelled. The space between Okoye and her shadow inched farther and farther apart as the shadow sank into the lake.

The creature murmured something unintelligible and widened his teeth into a jagged, deadly grin.

"No!" Bella shouted desperately and jumped, this time towards Okoye instead of her shadow. Bella covered her with all the physical strength and all the mental energy she could muster. "She is mine!" Bella shouted again, burying all her thoughts into protecting Okoye.

A scream of anger erupted from the lake and the shadow suddenly flung back to Okoye, reattaching itself. Both women stared as the creature began to writhe and leap towards them again only to hit an invisible wall and fall to the ground again and again.

"I don't know what's stopping it, but I don't really want to wait around to find out. I'm going to carry you and run," Bella said. Okoye nodded and Bella grabbed both the woman and her spear and sprinted as fast as she could. They could still hear creature's furious squalling and protesting from the lake below. A circle of soldiers armed with spears surrounded them halfway between the camp and the lake.

"Are you alright?" Ayo asked Okoye.

"Yes. I have a few cuts and I will have an impressive scar on my leg, but I am alive."

"What….was….that?" Bella asked, eyes still wide, and still clinging to Okoye. She slowly set Okoye on the ground where soldiers began to bandage her wounds.

"That was Nyelu," Okoye responded, breathlessly.

"Sometimes he is called the 'Soul-Eater,'" Ayo added. "He lives in the waters, both underground and on the surface of the earth. He steals the souls of the people whose shadows he can grab. He takes the shadows deep underground to his caverns where he imprisons the souls in calabashes. The body can only survive a few days without its soul before it returns to the earth."

"But Black Panther banished Nyelu from our lands five hundred years ago," another woman said, amidst the flabbergasted murmurs of the surrounding soldiers. "And the Alur bound him into sleep a hundred and fifty years ago. It is impossible!"

"Our experience this morning would suggest otherwise," the General responded. "The real question is who has woken him and how did he gain entry back into Wakanda?"

---

Nyelu screeched and beat his powerful arms against his chest until he saw the little encampment of spears and shining heads depart. In all his tens of thousands of years, not once had he failed. The spindly life force of a shadow belonged to him the moment his claws made contact. As he turned back towards the lake and slithered towards his bank, he flapped his tail angrily against the squelching mud. Suddenly, his yellow eyes grew large again as his scales met not the warm, muddy water of the shallows, but the unyielding, frigid cold of a substance much too cold to be rock.

His claws and tail slammed down again and he found the rim of his lake had been turned into solid ice, a hazy brown color from the muddy shallows. He swung around, looking at the steaming heat rising off the tropical, equatorial land nearby. Yet, beneath him, his lake sat frozen through. He screamed again and tried to break through the barrier which left him so exposed to the dangers of the evaporating sun.

Suddenly, a white face appeared beneath him in the ice, whiter than an egret's feathers. A woman's eyes, more piercing than daggers, met his own and he drew back as he felt the power of her magic trying to entangle him in her nets.

"Nyelu, Soul Eater, why are your claws still empty?" the woman asked in a voice colder than the ice beneath him.

He growled and tried to punch through the ice to reach the woman's face. The woman laughed, a laugh that simply infuriated him more.

"You cannot reach me that way," she said. "Come, you are as hungry as I am. Let us work together. I will help you fill your calabashes. I will bring you prey and you will eat as many as you desire."

Nyelu looked at her with one eye and scratched at the ice with his claw, drawing a long, thin, screeching line across the smooth surface. Suddenly, the ice vanished and he found himself sinking into the warm waters beneath.

 

"T'Challa will speak with you, but not until after the holiday," the General said to Bella as she escorted her to her next assignment.

"Holiday?" Bella asked.

"Yes. We must bury the year that has passed and celebrate the birth of the Mwaka Mdogo, the New Year," the General said. "You are to assist Mama W'Kabi with preparations for the celebration."

"Who?"

"The mother of W'Kabi," the General said, as if that would clear everything up to Bella. Bella, having no idea the identity of W'Kabi, decided not to ask any more questions. They walked slowly on the rutted dirt road, overgrown with palm leaves and papaya trees. Soon, they neared signs of life-a teenage girl wearing a flowered dress with a yellow jerrycan of water on her head, a small boy trying to ride a bike too big for his short legs, an old woman with white hair rubbing sweat from her forehead as she leaned on her hoe.

Chickens and goats foraged in the undergrowth as the forest gave way to man-made clearings. Square grass-thatched huts ruled each clearing, surrounded by gardens bursting with red and green cassava plants, tall rows of maize, weaving vines of beans and purple-flowered passion-fruit, and banana trees bursting with green and yellow bunches of fruit.

"You are to pretend you are human," Okoye whispered to Bella. "You must pretend to eat, sleep, grow weary, and struggle. Practice our language and our ways, and learn all you can."

Bella nodded.

"You are to ask all your questions. This is the best place to ask them. Mama W'Kabi is Wakanda's deepest wellspring of the stories of our people. All of our warriors are trained by her. It is your turn to be trained."

"Yes, General," she said, crossing her arms across her chest in salute.

"Eeeeee, Okoye, sasa!" shouted a large, powerfully built woman with gray twinkles and wrinkled edges as they neared a hut. The woman left her basket, walked towards them, and buried them both in her embrace.

"Poa, Mama," Okoye said, lowering her head and eyes in deference.

"Habari ya bwana yako? How is that husband of yours?"

"Mzuri sana. Habari ya jamaa? How is your family?"

"Fine! Fine! All are well. Umekuja? Unataka nini hapa? Why are you here?" Mama W'Kabi boomed, turning her golden eyes onto Bella. She stared for a moment as if looking through her instead of at her and then turned back to Okoye.

"You have a new charge, Mama W'Kabi. You have heard of the King's mgeni, sikweli?"

"Ndiyo," Mama W'Kabi responded, turning her massive frame once again towards Bella. Her gum boots dug into the dust at her feet as she kicked at the dry soil. She rubbed her weathered hand across her brown headwrap, pulling out a few more strands of grey-black curls.

"Mwalimu, kumfundisha," Okoye said, meeting her eyes. They both stared at each other in silence until Mama W'Kabi began to shake her head.

"Aye, aye, aye, aye? She is to work? Mzungu hawezi. She will not be able."

"Anaweza. She is stronger than she looks. Teach her as you have all your pupils. She will remain until after the celebrations for Mwaka Mdogo."

Mama W'Kabi nodded and looked at Bella again. "Mzungu, unaitwa nani? What is your name?"

"Bella."

"Mmmmm," Mama W'Kabi said, raising both eyebrows. "You are too thin. Tell me, are you a woman or are you still a girl?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you a mother or are you still a child?"

"I don't understand."

Mama W'Kabi rolled her eyes and muttered something in Kiswahili under her breath.

"Come, we will prepare food for our guests," she said and took Bella's hand to pull her into a nearby hut. "Okoye, you tell my son that it has been too long since he came to visit me."

---

Bella sat on a woven banana-fiber mat surrounded by a mountain of cassava, plantains, beans and rice. Village women came by each hour with large baskets on their heads to deposit another batch for her to peel and sort. A little herd of children shadowed her as she worked. They stifled giggles as she struggled to manage the knife on the fibrous peels of the green bananas. Wary at first, they crept ever closer until the braver ones reached out to feel her hair and her cold skin. Before the sun reached directly overhead, she found her entire head plaited into fine braids and twists. Five children sat happily helping her peel and sort, trying to correct her clumsy attempts and showing her the "correct" way to peel.

When the sun sank into the bananas leaves, her new friends had taught her four songs, dozens of new Kiswahili phrases, and how to pound sun-dried cassava into flour in preparation for kalo. As instructed, Bella struggled to maintain the human façade, even when faced with steaming bowls of stew and chapati.

When the moon exchanged places with the sun, Mama W'Kabi set her in front of the large bonfire where a dozen or so other family members and neighbors sat eating stew and sharing stories. Quiet whispers, raucous laughter, and children's games intermingled with the wild songs of crickets, frogs, and birds.

"Nyanya, tell us a story!" one of the children said after the night's meal had been cleared away.

"What story?" she asked as she pulled the little boy into her lap.

"The story of Bashenga and how Wakanda was born," said a girl nearby.

"No! Tell us about the Lizard and the Chameleon," said another.

"No! I want to hear about the Baobab!" another chimed in.

"Let me tell you the story of Opondo's children and the kenge…" Mama W'Kabi said as another log was added to the fire. All voices hushed as Mama W'Kabi's voice poured into the fire and all eyes turned to watch the sparks and the night sky swirl around them.

---

The bonfire set in the wide open field crackled and spit out sparks as tall as a jackfruit tree. It took the majority of the day for the men of the village to find the largest, driest tree trunk possible. It took the remainder of the day to light it on fire. It began to smolder and spark just as the sun sank behind the rolling, green hills, engulfing them on every side.

The women of the village had worked for three days to prepare-sorting the beans, rolling chapati, killing chickens, and chopping vegetables from their gardens. Rice, cassava, steamed plantains, and kalo buried communal platters while steaming sufirias of fragrant stews begged to be dished onto shared plates. The men grilled meat from sunup till sundown, sharing communal jars of fermented millet porridge as they laughed, sang, and told stories. The children painted all the huts (and themselves) with intricate patterns of white and red clay.

"This is both a funeral and a celebration of birth," Mama W'Kabi told Bella as she helped with the preparations. "The old year has died but it will live on through our memories. The young year is greeted and welcomed by the village. The rainy season has been replaced by the dry and the harvest will be plentiful again. We have gained another year of life as a village and a kingdom and we must stop to remember and give thanks."

As dusk neared, the men, women, and children of the village poured into the open field like an avalanche of white flowers. The women came wearing gauzy white cotton dresses, hair braided with flowers, and the hands and feet of all painted in intricate patterns of orange and black henna. The men wore soft, white robes, embroidered with black and blue patterns down the fronts and tied together with golden sashes.

They gave thanks together, pouring the first serving of each dish onto the soft earth in the middle of the field while they remembered the names of each soul who was now buried with their ancestors along with the soul of the old year. Then they gave thanks again, eating a serving of each dish with their hands as they remembered the name of each new soul to join their village.

Then the feasting really began.

When they could no longer eat, then they surrounded the bonfire housed in the trunk of the tree and the dancing began. Musical instruments appeared-the adungu, djembe, engoma, ensaasi, mbira, enkanzi and amalinda sang in celebration. The shroud of night clothed the company as they filled the darkness with song and dance. The tendrils of the firelight cast silhouettes of the dancers into momentary spotlights as they stomped, sang, shouted, ululated, clapped, and leapt.

"Now, you will learn to dance," a voice said to Bella as she watched from the shadows. She was pulled into the circle of dancers. Women and men with rattles tied around their ankles and skirts of feathers and grass tied around their waists surrounded her, a flowing river of bodies, and carried her into their songs, casting rhythmic spells of boiling life through the community. Songs and dances never ended, only morphed into the next as the village celebrated as one body made up of many souls.

When the sun grew tired of sleeping, the dancers still pounded the ground and circled the glowing orange coals of their bonfire.

So, she learned.

 

 

Bella spent three dozen sunsets walking. She walked the length, breadth, and depth of Wakanda, lost in her thoughts, minding neither torrential rain nor blazing sun. She walked through the golden grasslands, the impenetrable forests, and the rocky highlands as she sought refuge within herself.

When her bare feet came upon the first outcroppings of the Rwenzori Mountains, she began to climb. She climbed higher and higher until the lush banana leaves were replaced by groundsels and lobelias and the air chilled from the windswept glacier peaks. She sat on the highest peak she could find, eyes lost in the clouds swirling between the rocky behemoths.

She let thoughts and memories roll off her like the condensed clouds slipping off her skin in crystal drops of water. She thought of what she'd learned of her past life, her experiences in her present, and what she should like to see in her future.

Another sunset came and went before she heard a human approach. She knew the footsteps before she saw the face.

"You have been lost," T'Challa said as he sat down beside her on the icy rock. He came dressed in layers of coats and blankets to ward off the biting chill of the wind, obviously prepared for where he knew to find her.

"Yeah. I have," she said, rubbing at a smudge of dirt on her pale forearm. She tucked the tattered remains of her white festival dress around her ankles, grateful her new body remained impervious to the elements.

"Mama W'Kabi said you worked hard and learned well."

"I didn't know it was possible for someone to be more intimidating than the General. I was wrong."

T'Challa laughed, a full, hearty laugh that echoed off the rocky crags and silver glaciers.

"Who do you think taught the General?"

"That makes sense," she said, her golden eyes falling upon the silver spear in his hand. He held the spear in gloved hands and tapped it silently against his leg as he sat on the ground beside her. It was identical to the spear carried by the Dora Milaje and he had never yet carried one in her presence.

"The General said you wanted to talk," she said, before T'Challa had the chance to speak again.

"Is that why you have been wandering every corner of Wakanda this past month?"

"No…yes…maybe...," she said, pausing and biting her lower lip as if her thoughts were rebelling against being forced into verbal acquiescence. "I needed to think and I think better outside. I think I know what you are going to talk to me about….you know I'm not going to leave."

"Why would I know that?" he responded.

"Where would I go?" she said.

"Wewe, daraja si maskani…a bridge is not where you dwell. It is true that you woke in Wakanda, but does it follow that Wakanda is your home?"

"Are you going to ask me to leave?"

T'Challa laughed. "No, I am asking you where you want to plant your heart. You can choose to stay where you are, as you are. You can choose to leave. Or," and here he paused to hand her the spear. "You can choose to become Wakandan."

She held the spear in both hands and watched as the sunlight glinted off the curves and edges. T'Challa met her eyes again.

"You are free to do as you please. You can decide to join your own kind and wander their paths wherever the wind blows. In your old life, you knew mazimwi who chose not to live as nomads. You can find their new homestead and reconnect with the zimwi who once held claim to your heart."

"You mean the family that literally left me to the wolves? No thanks," she said, pulling her knees deeper into her chest. "I don't remember much of the Cullens. I don't remember their faces or names, but what I do remember is pain and abandonment. I don't necessarily want to go running to rejection, you know?"

"You do not know they would reject you," he said, his deep voice dripping with kindness.

"Maybe they wouldn't. Maybe they'd be happy to see me, but even then, what kind of life would I have? Constantly hiding, seeking darkness and cloud cover, pretending to be something I'm not and running from what I am? That doesn't sound like much of a life.

"And wandering off by myself? I see even less benefit to be gained from that," she said. T'Challa laughed and gestured towards their isolated position on the mountain peak.

"Dada, you are sure you do not like to wander by yourself?"

She laughed with him.

"I really have been using this time to think. I know I've given the impression that I prefer to be alone, and maybe I do sometimes. I've come into this life with a lot of baggage from my last and the quiet of this past year has been what I've needed to come to terms with who I am now and what I have become. But I don't want to stay alone forever and the last few weeks of wandering has only made me know that more. I know what I want now.

"Wakanda is beautiful, in every way. I love it here. And I don't have to pretend. I mean, obviously not everyone knows what I am, but enough know where I don't have to hide all the time. You've offered me the opportunity to use what I am for good and you have given me a home and a place to belong. I'm very grateful for the chance you've given me at another life. I want to stay. I want to be helpful in whatever way I can."

T'Challa nodded.

"If that is your choice, then we will plant your heart here," he said. "You will need to become a citizen of Wakanda and you will need to see the real Wakanda. Once you enter our capital, you can speak of what you see to no one. You will be swearing your loyalty to Wakanda for life and the penalty for treason is death. And yes, we are fully capable of fulfilling that penalty," he said, meeting her gaze with eyes dark as cobalt. "You are not the only one with secrets to guard and who has to pretend to be something that they aren't for their own protection."

"I'm assuming this secret has something to do with the fact that you look like everyone lives in grass thatched huts but you have some crazy technology that can set up invisible perimeter fences, track vampires, and develop vampire anti-sparkle spray?" Bella said with a sly grin. "Or how Mama W'Kabi has a super fancy weapons lab hidden in a mabati outbuilding behind the goat shed? Oh, then there's the whole 'we turn the prince into a superhuman panther man that can take out half a city' thing."

T'Challa looked at her from the corner of his eye and his cheeks indented with a hint of a smile.

"Why do you do it?" she asked.

"What?"

"Keep secrets."

"Ah! In this, we are not so different from the mazimwi. Not so long ago, only half a millennium or so, the mazimwi learned that to survive and thrive, they must remain hidden. Their power and their survival is in their secrecy and not their brute strength. Those Italian overlords that shepherd the mazimwi, the Volturi, as they call themselves, they recognized that direct and open domination would invite direct and open warfare. While watu wote, the peoples of the earth, may be smaller and weaker as individuals, they are strong together and if they unified, could threaten the very existence of even the mighty mazimwi.

"Our people learned thousands of years before the Volturi were even suckling babes that our technology, weapons, wealth, and even our Black Panther are both strengths and liabilities. They are only strengths when they remain hidden. When they are exposed, they become our weakness. The weapons of the world would descend upon us like vultures on a fresh carcass, eager to devour us to the bones, and never looking back to remember what they have consumed.

"We have watched as kingdoms around us have risen and fallen like grass in the savannah, Wafrika, Wachina, Wahindi, Waraabu and Wazungu. They have all fought and died and shed blood to own the lands and the peoples around us. The mazimwi are not the only creatures who suck the life blood of others. There are human mazimwi who would stop at nothing to engorge themselves on the deaths of those they deem beneath them. They become drunk with their own power and conquest and insatiable in their thirst for more.

"These human mazimwi, either they want the land and its resources, making the people dwelling on the land an obstacle to remove. Or they want the labor of the people, their bodies, and so they are sold as livestock and their lifeblood is poured into the greatness of others until their spirits are gathered to their ancestors.

"Our people, we watch quietly and we have long memories. We watched as Meroë lit it's first forge, as Great Zimbabwe laid its first stones, and when Axum erected its first obelisk. Wakandan ambassadors traded with the Sultans of Songhai and visited the libraries of Timbuktu. We watched the first dhows cross the Indian ocean, followed by Omani sultans and white sails of the Portuguese explorers. Our people, we've seen wars and conflicts come and go like the dry and rainy seasons. Alliances are formed and broken, tribes gather and are dispersed.

"We warned the kingdom of the Kongo, the great cities of the Waswahili, and warring factions along the Atlantic coasts of the dangers of selling human bodies and sacrificing human souls. We warned the Hutu and the Tutsi, the Igbo and the Hausa, and the kingdoms of the Baganda and Bunyoro about the price of winning their fight against their enemies by forming alliances with the thirsty Wazungu.

"If a people choose to find their greatness through war and exploitation and conquest, if they sell people, their own or others, to gain power and wealth, they will reap the fruit of the seeds they have planted. Unfortunately, sometimes their bad seeds destabilize entire regions and nations and hurt the innocent along with the guilty.

"We have watched as the mazimwi of the Wafrika, Wazungu, and Waraabu bled the lifeblood from our neighbors, insatiable in their thirst for more gold, more power, more weapons, and more slaves. We have watched as peoples around us have sold their birthrights and been taught to hate themselves because of who they are, how they were raised, and the color of their skin. There is the conqueror you can see with your eyes and the conqueror you feel with your soul. The former is fought with guns and swords but what can conquer the latter?

"Wakanda-we are different than our neighbors. Our tribes voluntarily aligned and chose to establish our own country together. We were not forced by outsiders arbitrarily drawing lines on a map thousands of miles away. We chose our borders and we defend them. We created our own political and economic system based on our own values and what makes sense in our culture. Our unity, our desire to work together for the good of our nation, has been our greatest strength-more so than any amount of gold or diamonds or vibranium or gunpowder.

"We desire a country where both our land and our people are sacred and mutually work for the good of all. The king is dependent on his people and the people need their king. We do not want to become parasites that weaken and kill the very beings we need to support us.

"We also do not want our greatness to come at the cost of the freedom of other peoples. We do not seek to expand our borders or conquer our neighbors. Those within our borders are there willingly. What you plant in your garden will bear fruit and growing a kingdom through conquest means one day you will be conquered. Our strength must come from within and not from without or we will not survive the next millennia.

"We try to help our neighbors where we can. We send our ambassadors, we do humanitarian missions, and we speak quiet words of wisdom to the rulers we befriend, while still preserving our secrets. There are some who think we should do more, that it is time to dispel the cloak of secrecy and become who we really are.

"But that is dangerous. If we show our real selves to the world, it would take very little time before all the kingdoms of the world will come knocking on our doors with an excuse of why we should not rule ourselves. Even with our wealth and power, we cannot possibility take on the whole world at once. A nation or two at a time, yes. A continent or two, no problem, but not all.

"It is because Europe looked upon us as a nation of farmers that we escaped colonization. The most desirable conquests are those which are the most powerful and most valuable. If they knew what we held within our borders, World War I would have begun a generation earlier and we do not want to see our blood or the blood of others spilled if we can avoid it.

"Some are worried. General Okoye does not think it is an accident that the most deadly war the world has seen since World War II happened around all our borders this past decade. She feels someone has been stirring up bloodlust among our neighbors in hopes it will overflow into our borders and provide inroads into our kingdom. She thinks there is someone or some nation that knows our secrets.

"Whoever they are, they know they cannot hope to win by open warfare but think they can penetrate our defenses through guerrilla warfare and subterfuge. I would call the General paranoid, but Nakia continues to dream of dangers that will soon fall upon us. She has never been wrong. Her dreams grow darker and heavier of late.

"My role as guardian of our people is to protect Wakanda as we are and see we continue into the future. I would be a fool not to recognize how valuable you can be to us, more especially, as we anticipate darker days in future. You are welcome to be part of us for as long as you wish. For one generation or a hundred, the Kingdom of Wakanda would welcome your presence among us. Your secret is as safe as ours here."

Bella soaked in the ocean of words T'Challa shared. She turned the spear over in her hand a few times before she turned to T'Challa again.

"You already know my decision, don't you?"

"Have you made one?" he asked.

Bella stood, held the spear in her hand, and nodded.

T'Challa rose to his feet as well and nodded towards her.

"You have a job already in mind for me, don't you?" she asked as she began to follow T'Challa down the mountainside.

"I might."

---

A small gathering of Wakandans in formal attire gathered around a shallow grave facing due east with the afternoon sun behind. Their deep violet, burgundy, emerald, and ivory colored garments draped off shoulders and poured onto the dusty ground. Four of the King's Guard finished digging a shallow grave while four of the Dora Milaje stood at attention at each corner, their spears facing towards each of the cardinal directions.

Mama W'Kabi, Okoye, W'Kabi, and Chuck Norris exited the dilapidated homestead carrying a figure wrapped entirely in barkcloth. They knelt slowly and placed the unmoving body into the shallow grave.

Shuri walked out last, wearing a barkcloth wrap and painted in designs of white clay. Her attire matched the little bundle she carried solemnly in her little hands. She knelt into the soft dirt and placed her bundle at the feet of the figure.

The King's Guard shoveled clumps of rust colored earth back into the grave. When they finished, they placed an engraved slab of marble to mark the head.

Isabella Marie Swan

September 13 th , 1987-January 31 st , 2007

Each person present poured a small mug of obushera onto the grave and joined into a chorus of prayers in each of their mother tongues over the soul of the deceased. Zuri's raised hands instantly called stillness over the tongues of the mourners. They gathered in a circle around the grave and turned all eyes towards Zuri.

"We are here today to remember the past life of Isabella Marie Swan," Zuri said in a solemn tone. "Death wears many faces and causes many seasons. Sometimes death will steal only the spirit and leave the body. Sometimes death will steal the body and leave the spirit. Sometimes death will come to one's place, one's position, an aspect of one's identity and who the person was before is no more. Death can visit slowly by slowly or in an instant.

"All death must be grieved. We grieve the death of social ties and connections, the myriad of ways their soul was incorporated into the lifeblood of the souls around them. We grieve the loss of what used to be and is no more.

"But we also remember that all death is also a door that ushers in new life, new roles, new seasons, and new relationships. Today, we release Isabella Swan from her past life," Zuri said as he opened his palms and sprinkled cassava flour over the grave. The powder floated across the grave creating lines in the shape of a cross.

Silence buried the small company as they meditated together in the sacred shroud of grief. Zuri allowed the silence to sink in deeply before he picked up a medium sized drum from the ground and began to pound, quietly at first and then louder and louder until the echoing thuds reverberated off the surrounded tree trunks.

"It is time to be reborn," Zuri shouted, speeding up the rhythm even further. The company began to sing together, a song sung to commemorate the healthy birth of a new child during the ceremony that welcomes the child into the life of the community. As they sang, the burial mound shook and a head emerged, followed by the slow rise of a barkcloth-clad body painted in brown clay.

Bella rose, leaving the small bundle in the grave. Inside the bundle lay the torn, bloody clothes she first wore upon her arrival in Wakanda, a picture of her with her father, a single lock of chestnut colored hair, and the dried skin of a kenge. The King's Guard reburied the mound, patting the dirt firmly into the ground.

Mama W'Kabi stepped forward, took Bella by the hand, and walked her into the hut she first called home when she came to Wakanda. There, she was washed and dressed in fresh, white embroidered robes, softly flowing over her like dandelion seeds on a light breeze. Her hands and feet were painted with red henna in flowers and swirls. She was given a string of beads to wear around her waist and a garland of yellow flowers to place around her head.

Mama W'Kabi then took her by the hand and brought her back out to where the small company sat on banana leaf mats and wooden stools.

"One this day, the fifteenth day of third week of mwezi ya tatu, 2008,I present Isabella Marie Swan, born in Wakanda," Mama W'Kabi said, pulling her to the center of the circled Wakandans. Zuri came and anointed her head with the ashes of the leaves of their sacred heart-shaped herb. Then Zuri spoke in a deep, authoritative tone that made the leaves shake above them, "Isabella Swan is now Wakandan by birth rite and citizenship. She comes under the full protection of the goddess Bast. Isabella, do you swear loyalty to the throne of Wakanda from this day forward? Will you protect the secrets of our kingdom, the lives of our people, and the sanctity of our lands with your own life, if needed?"

"I will," she responded.

Chuck Norris came forward with a tiny laser, specially formulated, and engraved her inner lip with the mark of all citizens of the kingdom. Then, he placed a bracelet of kimoyo beads around her wrist.

"The old has gone, the new has come," Zuri declared. "Let us feast and celebrate tonight and tomorrow we will return to Birnin Zana."

A cheer rose up from the small company. The General sidled next to Bella and whispered something into her ear. She nodded before turning to towards the gathered company, crossing her arms across her chest in salute, and shouting, "Wakanda forever!"

---

 

PART 2: THE ACACIA

---

Chapter 11: Snow

---

The snow around him glowed so brilliantly white that it nearly hurt his eyes. Snow covered hills fringed the horizon in the twilight air. Bucky Barnes groaned. He hated this place-this isolated, abandoned corner of Siberia. Nothing good ever came of being here.

Icy wind swept swirls of snow past his face as he began to crunch footprints through the snow towards someplace he didn't know. At least he was alone. He noted no weapons on him, no sign of a recently completed mission, and no friend or foe besides him.

He nearly stumbled as his boot caught on a metal trunk. He looked around again and could see no signs of human inhabitation. Confused at the presence of the trunk, he bent and fumbled with the clasp until it flung open. Inside, he found a stack of photos.

He picked up a handful and flipped through them. Men, women, children. Some were black and white, others faded sepia, and others brightly colored and freshly printed. He could almost watch time flowing as he flipped between decades and lifetimes. At first, he did not recognize any of the faces until he landed on one he knew. He had seen those eyes before, a lifetime ago it seemed. He knew those brown eyes…

Stark. Howard Stark. The name suddenly rang into his mind, as clear as a cowbell. Images of a busy war room, men in khaki, and maps filled his mind.

Bucky's mind returned to the photograph when he realized it was melting. As he held the black and white head shot in his hand, it melted into a trickle of red that dripped down his hands and marred the glaring white purity of the snow with shouting dots of crimson. With horror, he realized the photo had turned into blood. He threw it down into the trunk.

To his horror, the rest of the photographs in his hands also began to melt. The crimson river trickled from his hands, overflowing into the stacked photographs in the old trunk, which also began to melt. The red, bubbling river of scarlet blood seeped towards the rusted, metal fringes of the trunk and over the edges, trickling down the faded green paint.

Bucky's heart pounded as he ran to the trunk and tried to close it, but there was no way to keep the liquid inside. The first drops that reached the snow merely faded into a delicate pink, but soon, the snow couldn't contain it either. It gushed out like a fountain. He tried to build a snowbank around it to contain it, but it simply tore a pathway through it. Soon, the entire untouched valley would be scarred and he could not stop it. He worked himself to the point of exhaustion and he could not stop the flow.

Maybe if I drink it, it will stop, he thought to himself. This, too, was to no avail. Blood painted his hands, his boots, his jacket, his forehead. He tried to wash his hands off with some of the clean snow but his hands remained stained.

In anger and frustration, he kicked the metal trunk and pain shot up his leg. He fell to the cold ground, placed his head into his soiled hands, and wept.

"I can't do it," he shouted, unsure to whom. "I can't stop the blood. Please, make it stop!"

Bucky woke with a start.

There are some deaths that happen in an instant and some that happen over years, decades, and generations. Bucky had the unsettled feeling he had been dead, at least in part, for a long, long time. He needed to get out, get moving. He left his little flat to find some breakfast, the crisp Romanian morning air bringing at least a nominal sense of normalcy to his weary thoughts.

Then he saw the morning paper.

"Winter Soldier Strikes Again."

---

"Mama…." T'Challa said as his mother's soft eyes and brown skin filled his handheld screen. He wished he could be there in person to lend her strength and to borrow from hers. Tears glistened in little rivulets down his cheeks, pooling freely on his shoulder. "Baba, he…I tried to get to him in time…I failed him. Mama, I was not fast enough. Pole sana, Mama. I am so sorry. Nisamehe."

"T'Challa, what are you saying? What has happened?" the queen's voice rose in panic as she neared the last syllable. Shuri and Bella dropped their computer screens and looked at both Ramonda's face and T'Challa's projected image in concern.

"Baba…there was a bomb. It exploded just as Baba took to the podium to speak."

"T'Challa, Baba anaenda wapi? Where is your father? Is everyone alright?" Ramonda said, covering her forehead with her hand and collapsing wearily in the nearest chair she could pull to herself.

"No. Baba, he has left us to be gathered to our ancestors."

T'Challa heard a swift intake of breath. The eerie silence that seemed to grip both was shattered by a loud wail.

"No! Sikweli! Bwana wangu! Oh, my husband!" the queen mother said as her normally composed features descended into sobs and bathed her mahogany cheeks in tears.

Shuri ran to her mother and laid her head in her lap and began to weep. Bella lowered her head with her own tearless sobs as she mourned the second loss of a father she had gained too late and lost too soon.

"Pole, Mama. Poleni sana, dada zangu. I am so sorry, my family. I have failed you. I have failed Wakanda. But I will revenge our father's honor. We know who has planted the bomb and this Winter Soldier, he will pay in blood."

"T'Challa, no. Come home to us. We do not need to mourn two men instead of one. We need you here," Ramonda said, stretching out her fingers towards his image as if that action would be enough to coax him to return to her, where she most longed him to be.

"Mama, I will come after I finish my work," he said, halting the transmission and leaving the palace room in stunned silence punctuated with sobs.

"Tosha. He does not only belong to us," the queen mother said. She rose and disentangled herself from her weeping daughters. She recomposed her face, allowing the dignity of her position to fall across her grief like a curtain announcing the end of a play. "We must tell the kingdom and invite the people to mourn with us. Our burden will be lighter with many to share it."

T'Challa clothed himself in his anger, allowing the burning rage to mask his grief and bury it deep within his chest. He could act. He could fix this if only he could spill the blood of the guilty. He put on his Panther Habit and set off running, his thoughts focused only forward, far away from the blood-stained images of his past.

---

T'Challa was not sad to leave Colonel Zemo in chains next to the writhing, cursing figure of Tony Stark. The one they called Iron Man, T'Challa noted, acted from impulse rather than clear thought, just as T'Challa was ashamed to see he also had done. But, T'Challa was confident that when the anger and thirst for revenge cleared, Iron Man would see that Zemo was properly punished for his crimes. So, T'Challa quietly left both wrestling with their inner demons on the frigid concrete floor of the Siberian Hydra facility and motioned for the remaining two battered compatriots to follow him.

Thus, T'Challa, Steve Rogers, and Bucky Barnes sat in the Wakandan aircraft as cloud and snow flurries wisped past the windows in time with the roaring motors of the engine. They stretched out sore, battered bodies and bandaged cuts, sores, and bruises.

"I wanted to apologize," T'Challa nearly whispered to Bucky, as he rummaged through storage drawers for bandages. "I nearly killed you in revenge for something you did not do."

"Well, Stark's kid just tried to kill me in revenge for something I did do. I deserve it," Bucky responded, eyes firmly fixed on the floor.

"No. Not from me. I wanted an outlet for my anger and grief, even if it meant I closed my eyes to justice and that is not the way a true king should rule. I brought shame to myself, my people, and the memory of my father."

"You were not so far off," Bucky responded, leaning against the cold metal wall of the jet as he tried to cover the loose wires and glaring absence of an arm with a blanket. "I mean, in a sense, it is my fault your father died. That nut case killed all those people in order to frame me and use me to make you all kill each other. That still means I'm the root of it.

"You asked me before at the airport why I ran. I ran because I am guilty, even if I didn't pull the trigger this time. It's been my hand on the trigger enough times to know that someone is always gonna come for me. Hell, I can't even hold a grudge against anyone who tries to take me out."

"You are a casualty of war just as much as any of those who have died," Steve interjected. "You didn't choose to become what you are. You couldn't choose your missions or refuse what they told you to do. You couldn't even recognize the people you were sent to kill."

"I can recognize them afterwards and they will haunt me for the rest of my life. Just because I didn't want to kill them doesn't make them any less dead," Bucky responded.

All three men descended into a rich, eloquent silence, each lost in his own intrusive thoughts and heavy griefs.

"Where will you go from here?" T'Challa asked.

"Technically, we are both criminals now," Steve said with a false cheerfulness. "I suppose we had better lay low for awhile."

"I thought I was safe in Romania," Bucky said. "It turns out I am safe nowhere as long as the Hydra programming remains in my head. Anytime, anywhere, someone can turn up with a series of words that turns me into a mindless tool. I don't know where to go."

"Ah. Now, here is where I can help and restore honor to my father's name," T'Challa said. "I would like to personally invite you to Wakanda. You may accept our amnesty and we can keep you safe for as long as you wish to remain. Sergeant Barnes, our medical staff and researchers can begin work on discovering if it is possible to cure you."

Bucky's green eyes left the floor and locked with T'Challa's black eyes. "You would welcome me into your home after everything you know about me?"

"I know that what you have done is not who you are. So, yes."

Bucky nodded, too overcome with sudden emotion to reply.

"Captain?"

"I will come along while Bucky gets settled, but I have some unfinished business to attend to after. But, I'll be most appreciative of your hospitality till then."

"You will be very welcome for as long as you wish to remain."

---

It was a long flight. They took turns sleeping, each exhausted from the emotional and physical drain. The quiet hum of the engines lulled and vibrated through the cockpit where Steve and Bucky both lay on cots, eyes fixed on the flashing lights above them.

"What happened?" Steve asked, interrupting the lull. "That last time I saw you, you tried to kill me and then saved my life."

"Yeah."

"How did you remember?" Steve asked.

"I went to the Smithsonian," Bucky said with a grin, leaning his head on his hands.

"I thought you were making that up as a cover story."

"No, really, I did. There was something deep inside that just said I knew you. I couldn't figure out how. After I pulled you from the river, I hid. I didn't want to go back to what I was. Hell, I never wanted to be what I was but I always had too tight a leash on to go free. This time, I saw my leash was cut, however temporarily, and I ran for it.

"Then, I saw some news report talking about Captain America and I asked a waitress and she said I could learn more from the exhibit at the museum. I went. Man, was that creepy! I walk in and see an entire wall with my picture on it! There's a name and a story and a birthdate and death date of a person that looked exactly like me. I just stood and stared for the longest time and the longer I stared, the more things started coming to me.

"I think I watched Peggy's interview twenty times as I tried to wrap my brain around it all. I started writing down memories in a notebook whenever they sprung up. It's taken time, and there are some memories I'd rather not keep, but I seem to be putting the pieces back together."

"I did that too," Steve said. "I mean the whole museum thing. It was creepy-finding myself in a museum, date of death and all."

"Right? It looks like they'd updated your date of death now, I mean, it's not there anymore. But, I think mine should stay. I really did die when I fell off that train. I never really was me again. I was a body, an empty shell, but not Bucky, you know? The Bucky I was wouldn't have done the things I did, or so I tell myself. But that Bucky died and was replaced with a monster. Anytime I started to show sparks of myself, my old self, they immediately had my memory wiped clean. If I got too unruly, they simply put me to sleep on ice for another decade or two until they woke me to destabilize some unfortunate country or another."

"Bucky, when you fell off that train and I couldn't hold onto you, couldn't save you…that was the worst moment of my entire life," Steve said, choking slightly on the words as he drew closer to where his friend sat. "I couldn't sleep for weeks. I still have nightmares of that moment, reliving it over and over and over again, wishing I could go back and change it. I've always wanted to say it so I'm glad I've got the chance now, I'm sorry I failed you. You rescued me so many times and when it was my turn, I failed."

"You did the best you can, I mean, you aren't perfect."

"I feel like I need to be."

"Nah. Maybe Captain America needs to be, but Steve Rogers…the Steve Rogers I know who couldn't make toast without burning it and kept leaving socks on the floor…sorry, man, no way to convince me that you've got it all together," Bucky said with a laugh. "I never blamed you. It was a moving train and gravity does what it does and with the war and all, it's a wonder I didn't turn up dead a dozen times before that. It's part of the game, you know? Don't blame yourself for what isn't your fault."

Steve clapped Bucky on his good shoulder and smiled.

"I'm just glad I get the chance to try again."

"What happened to you afterwards? I mean, after the whole getting lost in the Arctic thing," Bucky asked.

"Yeah. I spent a good 70 years or so asleep in the ice till some scientists found my plane and dug me up. I woke up in 2015 in New York. It was rather a rude awakening. I've been trying to catch up ever since."

"I guess we both spent a lotta years asleep."

"And cold," Steve replied.

"Yeah. And cold. And out of it. So, did you and Peggy ever…"

"We had a date scheduled for the week after I crashed."

"Your first real date and you stood her up?"

"I, uh, guess I never got better at knowing what to do with dames. I suppose the problem wasn't with my height after all," Steve said with a slight wink and sad smile. "I saw her, you know, before she died. She remembered me. She married, had kids, saved the world a few times."

"That sounds about right. Who was the broad you were getting fresh with under the bridge?"

Steve laughed and a rosy blushed creeped across his ears. "Peggy's grandniece."

"No kidding. That's, uh, kinda, uh…"

"I know," Steve said, dropping his eyes and twiddling with the wrapper of his granola bar.

"It looked like you knew what you were doing there…the 70 years on ice taught you a few tricks."

Steve only blushed deeper. Bucky recognized Steve's mood and dropped the subject. He'd always known when to pry and when to sit in quiet.

"Why'd you pretend not to know me, back when I found you in Romania?" Steve asked.

"Which part of me trying to kill you do you not remember?" Bucky responded with a chilly sarcasm. "Man, when I finally started getting my memories back, I was ashamed-of what I'd become, my past, of what I'd tried to do to you. I didn't want you to know me or see me like that. I don't deserve to be alive, let alone have you give up everything for me. I'm just not worth it."

"Yes you are."

Bucky shrugged and relapsed into silence. Steve and Bucky turned to the small windows and gasped out loud as the descending aircraft headed straight towards the dense forest. The trees suddenly vaporized and they found themselves looking down onto the glittering domes and towering skyscrapers of Birnin Zana.

"Now that's something you don't see every day," Bucky said.

"Welcome to Wakanda," T'Challa replied.

 

"Captain Steven Rogers, Sergeant James Barnes, allow me to present to you the Queen Mother," T'Challa said as a woman, elegantly dressed in an ivory colored gown and matching headdress, met them on the landing bay.

"Welcome to Wakanda," Ramonda said with a gracious bow. "I wish we met under better circumstances, but you are both very welcome." She took both of their hands in her own warm palms and met the clear blue and warm green of their eyes, searching them. Then she released and fiercely embraced her son, throwing both her arms around his neck and burying her head into his tall shoulder.

"And you, T'Challa, may soon be King but you are still my son. Wewe, nitakuchapa! Do you have any idea how worried I've been for you? You so recklessly expose yourself on a needless revenge mission and I do not hear from you in nearly five days! Five!" she nearly shouted as she shook his arms and allowed the tears to freely stream down her caramel cheeks.

"I am sorry, mother," T'Challa said, bowing his forehead to touch hers and taking her into his arms where she broke down into sobs. "Nimerudi nyumbani. I am home now."

"Baba…"

"I know," he said, allowing his tears to intermingle with hers. Others gathered around to offer their own grief as a small condolence for their collective loss. Wet, sniffly embraces from elders, family members, council members, and friends circled the Prince (and soon-to-be-King) and Queen Mother. A dozen Dora Milaje stood at attention with a dozen of the King's Guard, each in uniform with their weapons at attention, and each with wet trails silently drifting down their faces.

Steve and Bucky averted their eyes in an effort to give the family privacy in their grief. Instead they turned to gaze upon the twinkling lights of the massive metropolis surrounding them in the humid, damp night air. Steve's thoughts wandered towards the recent funeral for Peggy, the long ago funeral for Bucky, and the even more ancient funeral for his own beloved parents. Bucky's thoughts turned towards wondering how many funerals like this he was responsible for. They were pulled out of their silent musings by the approach of a thin, waif-like Wakandan girl in jeans, braided pig tails, and a Bob Marley T-shirt.

"I am Shuri, sister of T'Challa," she told them, holding out her fist to fist bump each. "You are most welcome here in Wakanda. I wish I could say my brother has told me all about you, but he hasn't, so you will have to fill me in."

"I am Captain Steve Rogers and this is Sergeant Barnes. We are very grateful for your hospitality, ma'am," he said.

"Ah! You are American!"

"Yes. We were both born and raised in Brooklyn."

"Is that a state?"

"No, ma'am, it is a part of New York City."

"I see. It is very good. My brother, he promised me I can travel with him on one of his missions so I can see some of the other great cities of the world. I would like to see this New York, and the Old York, too, if I can. I would like to see everything!" she said, flailing both hands to emphasize her point. "Now, my brother does not so often bring home visitors like you into the capital. Forgive me if I am being too direct, but I am too curious for my own good. How did you manage to convince T'Challa to let you into Wakanda?"

"Well," Steve started, shifting awkwardly on both feet and looking down to meet the face of the much shorter teenage girl in front of him, "it's a long story. Let's just say, we found we had common enemies and when we had nowhere else to go, Prince T'Challa invited us here."

"Hmmmm. You are right. It does sound like a long story and one I need to learn all the details to, but I will not make you tell me. At least for tonight, you are still guests and I'm supposed to be polite so I do not scare you away. Now, I have someone else I want you to meet," Shuri said, standing on her tiptoes and beckoning towards one of the figures surrounding the mourning family. "Bella, Bella, kuja hapa!"

A woman walked towards them clothed in the reds, blacks and golds they saw replicated on the armor of all of the female guards around them, but her pale face and long hair set her apart from the other guards.

"Captain Rogers, Sergeant Barnes, I wanted to introduce you to the only other American we have here in Wakanda. This is Bella Swan. Though, I suppose," Shuri said turning to address Bella, "you aren't really American anymore since you are technically dead there. Anyhow, it's been awhile since she's seen any of her kind," Shuri said with a wink, pushing forward the reluctant dark-haired woman. Bella gave Shuri a scathing look before turning to formally greet Steve and Bucky with a handshake and polite words of welcome. She descended back into silence much too quickly to satisfy Shuri.

"Eeeee. Bella, you are too quiet," Shuri said, clicking her tongue and taking Bella's hand to draw her closer. "As she should have told you herself, she came to us from Washington, the state not the city…Americans…can't you come up with more creative names? Anyhow, Bella came to us nine years ago and she has been my personal bodyguard for eight years now. Baba likes to say she is his favorite daughter since I'm the one who is always causing problems and she's the one who's always getting us out of it again…oh!"

Shuri stopped her monologue suddenly as her face crumpled from her cheery tirade into shattered grief. "I should say, Baba liked to say…he can't say it anymore…," she said as her eyes teared up and she threw herself into Bella's arms.

"Well, now you know Shuri and me," Bella said as she cradled the weeping teenager and attempted a tight smile towards the visitors. "You are very welcome here. I'm sorry you find us such a mess right now."

"Ma'am, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Steve said, nodding politely towards her. "And we understand our timing is not the best."

Bucky gave a half-hearted smile, but said nothing. He barely registered the conversation around him other than to laugh at the idea of the petite woman in front of him as a bodyguard.

Probably a pity position, he thought to himself. They found a fugitive who got in trouble back home and gave her some farce of a position to make her look and feel useful while she's really just a charity case. Like what will most likely happen to me until I cause chaos here too.

Bucky was pulled from his inward mulling by the approach of a short, stocky man in dark-rimmed glasses.

"Captain Rogers, Sergeant Barnes, it is a great honor," the man began with a solemn nod and he held out his hands to greet them. "I am Secretary Chuck Norris, Director of Technology and Innovation for the Kingdom of Wakanda. I will be responsible for arranging for your specialized treatments and care for the duration of your stay. For tonight, I will simply take you to your guest quarters and acquaint you with the necessary facilities to assure your needs are adequately met. Tomorrow afternoon, we can begin discussing your medical situation."

"We'd appreciate that," Steve answered. "We are both pretty tuckered out."

Secretary Norris nodded and took them through the elaborate passageways of the palace to their own adjoining guest suites. Steve and Bucky each locked their doors and slept till they could sleep no longer, finally at rest, no matter how short that rest would last.

---

Bucky was uneasy. He understood that all regular life in the small kingdom was on hold as they grieved for the dead king and prepared for the coronation of the new king. But he could not feel at peace as long as he stayed awake. Any noise, any stranger who approached him, he felt his skin crawl as he anticipated hearing those lethal words again.

Every night, he dreamed of blood and death. He dreamed of that moment in the Shield Headquarters where Colonel Helmut Zemo pulled out that book and began to recite the worst of all words. Those words that cast an unbreakable spell over his mind and will, enslaving him back to the world of blood and the death.

He woke up screaming again and again.

He had tried to escape his fate so many times before. Unfortunately, the combination of nearly constant supervision and his enhanced body made suicide impossible. He'd lost hope of regaining permanent control of his mind until T'Challa spoke of its possibility. Seeing the advanced technology and facilities hidden within the illusory forest of Wakanda, he knew if any place could heal him, it would be this one.

But he feared lest his new home would reject him in the same his old would. He feared how much his new home would pay for his redemption once he was discovered and recaptured. He feared he would unwillingly betray new friends in the same way he had betrayed his old.

He still feared to hope.

---

The small team of Wakandan doctors and experts worked tirelessly preparing for the first stage of Bucky's treatment. Shuri happily jumped in where she could, coming up with her own theories to test. She continued to spend most of her days in her lab, content to dream up new ways to change to the world, one gadget at a time.

"Brother, will I get to keep this one too?" Shuri asked with a grin as she projected a photograph of Bucky from his file.

"What do you mean?" asked T'Challa, responding with an indulgent smile.

"Well, the last mzungu you brought home, I got to keep. Do I get to keep this one as a pet as well?"

"Wewe, most children when they ask for a pet bring home a monkey or a cat or a tortoise."

"That's no fun. I prefer potentially lethal genetically modified humans," she said with a wink and a dimpled smile. She went back to swiping through holograph computer screens to read through the latest smattering of neurological scans. She paused again to glance at her brother.

"Now, tell me, brother, you brought Nakia home from Nigeria for your coronation. Is she going to stay? Has she agreed to marry you yet?"

"Eeeee! I do not have to answer any of these questions," he said shortly, attempting to turn away.

Shuri turned and pulled him towards her by his shirt buttons.

"Yes you do. Because I'm annoying…and persistent. Tell me!"

T'Challa sighed and rubbed his hands across his forehead. "I do not know. She still says she does not want to be queen. She loves her work too much and she does not want to be caged inside the politics and bureaucracy of the crown."

"So, she would marry you but not your job?"

"It is more complicated than that. We do not agree on so many things…"

"Including whether you should stay together or stay apart."

"That is one of many disagreements."

"So, what you are saying is that it will be my duty to the crown to make sure there is an heir. I am very willing. I appoint both of these wazungu soldiers has co-husbands and we can begin at once."

"That is not what I am saying…as your king or your brother," he said with a mock glare. "You are too young."

Shuri laughed. "You know that is what the elders and Mama talk of when they think I am not listening. Well, not all of it… I mean the part where they worry over who will produce an heir to carry on the names of our ancestors. They do not think I am so young, but they do think you are so old."

"I know."

"Do not be surprised if they start to put pressure on you to choose a wife soon."

"I do not need you to pressure me as well."

"Fine. I'll leave you alone…Nakia on the other hand..."

"Eeeee! Do not even think of discussing this with Nakia. If you do, I will hunt you down and cane you myself!"

"You will not! That is why I am so very spoiled," Shuri said with a smile that engulfed her entire face. T'Challa sighed.

---

"You're sure about this?" Steve said to Bucky as he sat on the exam table in the high tech lab, glowing orange with screens and buttons. A lab assistant moved busily between screens setting up the soon-to-be-occupied cryogenic stasis machine.

"My mind is not my own. Until it is, I am a danger to everyone," he replied, his voice tinged with sadness.

Steve nodded, attempting to keep the impassive expression of a soldier as he watched his oldest friend prepare to once again disappear from time and space.

"What will you do now?" Bucky asked Steve as a doctor worked on testing his vital signs.

"I've gotta go get our friends out of that Raft they've been imprisoned in," Steve said. "I can't leave them there like that after all they did to help us escape."

Bucky whistled. "Good luck, Steve. You're gonna need it."

"I'll be right here when you wake up, though. I told T'Challa that at the first sign of you being ready to come to, to give me a holler and I'd come in a jiffy."

Bucky gave a half-hearted smile. Life experiences had taught him how much could change within his time of ice and darkness. Steve gave him a final hug and held his hand. The doctor injected a sedative into his arm in preparation for the freezing to begin. As he lay on the long, cold table, the dark creeping in on his senses, he heard two voices whispering quietly behind his head.

"Isn't he the one T'Challa said killed…?"

"Yes."

"But why?"

"The King offered him asylum after he found out he had been framed and was innocent. They also said Nakia had a dream."

Bucky struggled against the weight of his eyes. He pried them open and turned his head towards the voices. Two women stood. He recognized them both, but had not interacted with them. He had not interacted with much of anyone the past fortnight since they arrived. Beyond conversations with Steve, T'Challa, and a small team of doctors, he had avoided social interactions except those forced upon him as social politeness.

One woman, a Wakandan, still wore the fresh appearance of youth in her slight figure and rounded cheeks. He recognized her as the young sister of the king who often joined the medical team in his exam sessions. She carefully looked at charts and data spewing from various machines as her fingers flew through the keys like hummingbird wings.

The other woman wore the garb of the Dora Milaje and carried a spear in her hand, but she was no child and no Wakandan. He recognized her as the random American, the so-called bodyguard of the princess, who went everywhere the princess went, usually as silent as a shadow. He had seen her during T'Chaka's funeral ceremonies, weeping as if her heart was broken and being buried with the old king. She stood beside the royal family during the coronation ceremonies for T'Challa, hand-in-hand with Shuri and the Queen, all three gazing upon their new King with a maternal and sisterly pride.

But Bucky had never stopped to actually notice her. In the dazed lethargy of his half-sleeping, half-waking state, his eyes fell on the woman. And to his surprise, there they stayed. Her face burned with a pale, unearthly beauty that drew him in like the pull of the moon on the ocean's tide. He stared, fixed, until she turned to face him and her eyes fell upon him, washing him with the warm sunlight of her gaze.

The sun set, darkness enveloped him, and he knew no more.

 

Steve watched as Bucky's consciousness seeped into the frozen lethargy of his cryogenic stasis. He stood a moment longer, said good-bye again, and left Bucky to sleep in his icy bed.

Why was it always ice? Steve thought to himself. He found T'Challa watching from a nearby window and paused to give his farewells.

"Thank you for doing this," he said.

"My father and your friend were both victims. Maybe we can help one of them find peace."

Steve nodded and left. It was time for him to return to help his new friends, even as his oldest lay hidden in sleep.

---

Bella stood silently by her charge as she flitted from console to console, adjusting settings, testing nozzles, and reading test results.

Still the soldier slept, as he had done for the last six months.

"I wonder if we reprogram his neurons here…" Shuri said to herself, used to speaking out loud since Bella was always there to hear her. She walked back to Bucky's unmoving form and stared.

"Bella, do you find him handsome?"

Bella's head shot up and she turned to face Shuri. "Where did that question even come from?"

"I was just thinking. Well, first I was thinking that he's over a hundred years old. Then I was thinking he looks pretty good for an mzee. Then I was thinking that it would have been a shame if he were dead already because then I would have missed sitting here and admiring his pretty face. Did you see his eyes when he was still awake? That color-I don't even know if I should call it blue or green? But, oh, my heart! I think I will have a dress made in just that color.

"Then I realized I was swooning over a man old enough to be my great great grandfather and that should be really weird except it's not because he is so well preserved, which is how you will be forever. Which made me wonder if you also find him handsome. It's a shame you can't have babies. What I would give to see a baby with eyes like that!"

Bella laughed. "Shuri, do you have a crush on your patient? That's kinda creepy-crushing on the man while he's asleep."

"Shush. You know you were doing the same."

"I most certainly was not."

"Wacha mwongo. Tell me the truth, you think he's mzuri sana."

Bella rolled her eyes, refusing to give in to Shuri's prodding.

"If he were awake, though, I think he would still be here staring at you, dumbstruck at the vision of loveliness before him."

"Shuri!"

"Didn't you see his face when he was going under? He looked like a man in a desert who finally found an oasis and in another moment he would be reaching out to drink."

"Hush! That mind of yours, Shuri, is just as capable of creating imaginary situations as new technology."

"Yeah, yeah. Speaking of which, did I show you my new design for T'Challa's Panther Habit? Come here!"

Shuri abandoned her neurological scans and ushered Bella into another lab where she held up the recently reprogrammed suit.

"Don't worry, I've hidden a transponder in this one as well. He will not even know it is there and I can hear everything going on with him."

"I don't think he will appreciate that much."

"Mama said I could. She is still pretty mad about the whole revenge mission and revealing the Black Panther for the whole world to see thing. She wants to make sure we can keep tabs on him in case he tries for a repeat performance."

"And do what? It's not like you can stop him."

"No, but you could," she said with a sly sideways glance.

"Nah uh. I am not taking T'Challa down. That is so against every rule there is. If you and the Queen Mother want to cane him, have at it, but keep me out of it," she said, blowing a loose strand of dark hair out of her eyes.

"Come on. You are no fun! I bet Chuck Norris a new computer that you would win."

"What will Bella win?" T'Challa's voice said from behind them. Shuri jumped and swung around before leaping into his arms in an embrace.

"Brother! You've come to play with me! Look, I have some new toys for you to try on!" she said as she showed him the adjustments on his Panther Habit. "I've included an oxygen converter here in case you are forced to go underwater. We don't want another occurrence like the Somali pirate incident."

T'Challa shuddered. "Eeeee! Don't remind me. This looks very good. Your work is amazing, as ever, sister. Now, I came to check on the progress of our visitor. What does the team working on him say of his prognosis?"

"We've had neurologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, shamans, priests, generals, and computer programmers all come through here these past few weeks looking at all possible angles for his reprogramming. Hydra did an excellent job and there is evidence of the damage he underwent every time they wiped his memory clean. It will take time to heal him. The team believes it is possible to heal him, but it is delicate work and may take anywhere from another six months to two years."

"Will he sleep the whole time?"

"Most of it. The initial stages can be performed during his stasis but once his treatment has progressed, we will need to wake him so his mental processes can adapt and grow."

"Very good."

"Tell me, brother, that is not why you came in here. Your face is troubled."

"Aye. Yes. Bella, the General may have need of you on her next mission. It seems we are having trouble in Uganda and South Sudan again."

"And you ask Bella instead of me?" Shuri said, pouting. "What if I cannot spare her? Or, even better, what if I would like to go along."

Both Bella and T'Challa rolled their eyes.

"I'll go find her immediately," Bella said.

"Thank you. And Shuri, Ayo is going to come and keep an eye on you."

"Fine. I'll be on my best behavior," Shuri said with an evil dimpled grin.

"That's what I am concerned about," T'Challa responded. "Play nice. Please remember that Ayo is not bulletproof, waterproof, and knife proof."

Shuri harrumphed and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Fine," she said. "But next mission, I want to come."

---

Helmut Zemo sat bound in his glass shell, feeling like a caged zoo animal on display for all who passed by. He felt pleased with all he had managed to accomplish, except his slowness to pull the trigger on himself. A suicide would have been a proper, glorious end to his well-laid plans. He would be at peace, reunited with his lost loved ones, and no longer forced to see their faces in his dreams each night.

Everett Ross brought him a cup of water, tripping slightly as he crossed the threshold, and spilling a quarter of the cup on the floor before holding it to his lips to drink. Everett Ross questioned the captive for another fruitless hour before turning to leave, shoulders tensed with frustration.

Zemo heard the door close and closed his own eyes in response, once again forced to contemplate his own misery. Suddenly, his eyes flew open when he heard a voice addressing him in his isolated cell.

He knew that voice. It was her.

His eyes darted around his cell, looking for the source of the voice, until finally slipping onto the puddle of water on the floor. The small splash of water had frozen into a shallow layer of ice. There, a translucent pearl face glowed against the gray metal floor. Eyes so light blue they were nearly white gleamed back at him, tendrils of platinum hair swirled like a swimmer in water around the disembodied face.

"Colonel Zemo," she began.

"My lady," he responded, unsure if he should be relieved or fearful by his new visitor.

"I have been following your progress with much interest. I will say, framing Sergeant Barnes in the bombing and simultaneously orchestrating the death of T'Chaka was a stroke of genius."

"Thank you, my lady."

"However, that is where your genius ended."

"Your highness?"

"If you found it within your power to remove T'Chaka, why did you not think to remove T'Challa as well and clear the path for our next developments? And then, while you managed to flush Sergeant Barnes out of hiding, you did not manage to keep him and instead sent him directly into the worst place he could possibly be. Our goal was to remove their protectors, not provide them with more.

"Finally, you were to discover the additional Winter Soldiers in order to hand them over for my personal use. Instead you kill them. You think you are so clever in inciting the Avengers to fight against themselves. To what end? A blown up airport, one broken spine, and a few bruises and fractured alliances? Not a single death. If you had followed your instructions, the Avengers would have been either obliterated or recruited onto our side. Colonel, you have wasted my time and resources abominably in order to fulfill your own personal vendetta. You will pay for your arrogance and double crossing."

"I have already received my payment in full," he said with a smirk. "There is nothing else left."

"Fool," she said. As she vanished, Zemo watched in horror as first his fingers, then his hands, then his arms turned a burning icy blue. He screamed until his body was engulfed in the spreading frosty contagion. Soon, the blue turned to a dull gray, leaving him entirely petrified in place. He found himself imprisoned within his own body. Still conscious and aware, but completely immobile, his screams no longer made a sound and he could not see the world around him. He had become a living statue.

 

 

Bucky began to dream. That was the first sign he was no longer frozen. He did not know how much time had passed or what all had been done while he was sleeping, but he did know he was no longer frozen.

He slept and slept and slept. He couldn't get enough. Despite the decades he'd spent sleeping on ice, he still felt he had a deficit. The reprogramming of his brain seemed to have flipped a switch inside him and he needed to recuperate more than just his mind.

Bucky woke a few times and each time found himself in a little grass-thatched hut next to a jade-colored lake. There were no machines, no tubes, no sign of medical equipment. He lay on a foam mattress covered by a blue and red plaid blanket. He found hot porridge, roasted meat, a banana, and a bottle of water by his bed whenever he woke, but no sign of where it came from.

It was a week before he ventured out of his hut.

He pulled the plaid blanket off his bed and tied it around his good shoulder. He could feel a finger's length covering of rough beard over his chin. He ran his fingers through over his head and noted the brown locks reached past his shoulders. He placed his bare feet onto the smooth, compact dirt floor and ducked through the short doorway to find the world outside.

Bucky found it still dark, the sky broken by a million fireflies of starlight overhead. He gave a soft whistle and stopped to stare at the glowing luminescence of the moon. He sank onto the damp, fragrant grass beneath him, laying his head on his arm, and drank in the night. He followed every line, crater, and shadow he could find on the three quarters full orb.

Because he could.

He couldn't remember the last time he watched the moon.

A pale figure emerged from the hut a few meters away from his with a soft swishing sound. She seemed to glow, the ethereal moonbeams reflected off of her loosely draped white dress, like a master's portrait of Venus rising from the sea. She walked silently towards him in bare feet, and he thought he was still asleep until she spoke.

"You are awake. How are you feeling?" she asked in a bell-like voice that made him wish it was a dream.

"Better," he said. "Where am I?"

"A small village about an hour's walk from the capital city. You refused to wake up in the lab. They kept trying and trying and each time you looked like you might come to, you seemed to decide against it. The doctors sent you here to see if you'd do any better. You woke up almost immediately so they left you here to continue to heal."

"How long have I been here?"

"You came about a month ago."

"Hmmmm," he responded. "Have you seen this moon?"

"Yes. It's nearly full. There was a meteor shower three nights ago," she said.

"I would have liked to have seen that," he said. "You're Bella, right?"

"Yes."

"You live there?" he said, throwing his hand carelessly towards the hut she had emerged from.

"Yes. There are a few other families half a kilometer away, but we are pretty isolated out here."

"What happened? You get kicked out of the city?" he asked.

"I lived in the city for nearly five years. I like it better here. You are free to go back anytime you want. Your medical team wasn't sure how you would react once you were fully awake so they wanted to make sure there was someone around to, how should I put this? Handle whatever mood you woke in," she said.

"You mean in case I woke up swinging punches?"

"Yeah."

"And they sent you to deal with me?"

"Yeah."

Bucky gave a derisive snort and looked over the petite woman beside him. She stood motionless, the moon reflecting off of curves and edges in a way that made him forget what he was looking to find.

"Do you need any food?" Bella asked him.

"Not right now, thanks. I'm kinda eating up this view," Bucky said. "You know, it's been decades since I was able to see the moon. Really see it."

Bella said nothing but sat down beside him on the damp grass.

When dawn broke, it found them unmoved, both still sitting in the same spots, silently watching the sky.

---

"So, Sergeant Barnes, how are you doing?" Shuri asked, joining him outside his hut.

"Bucky. Just Bucky."

"Ok. Bucky."

"I'm good. I'm feeling better than I have in a long time," he said.

"How do you like this spot here?" she asked, directing his attention towards the lake and the small huts. "We decided that the Americans can start their own ethnic enclave by the beach."

"It's fine. It's nice and quiet and I like that."

"Well, we can move you back into the city if you find you are too bored and lonely here or if you would prefer running water," she said.

"I'm grateful to you," he responded. "I think it will be awhile before I'll want a lot of company. I think this spot will be perfect for now."

"I have come with the doctors. Are you ready?"

Bucky sat on his bed, surrounded by three doctors with a full arsenal of medical equipment. They poked, prodded, tested, and asked him a barrage of questions till he felt ready to go back to sleep for another month.

"We think we have been able to cure you," the doctors said and his heart leapt within him. "We cannot know for sure unless it is tested, but we do not have the means to test you. We were able to reprogram your neural pathways and have high hopes that you are now cured."

He could feel the change. Already, his head and his heart felt lighter than they had in decades. But still, it was the "untested" part that left him still feeling nervous. He would have no means of knowing if he was still a walking bomb until he went off.

---

Bucky followed a red dirt road as it wove eastwards away from the small lake. His footsteps kicked up clouds of dust that swirled around his ankles and settled on his legs. Birds' songs echoed from the abundance of tree branches shading his journey from the early morning sunshine. He walked half the day, the muscles of his body and his mind longing for the exertion after his long sleep.

He found grass-thatched huts similar in shape and size to his on each side of the road. Unlike his, these homes overflowed with life. Chickens, goats, cows, and people poured from doorways and into the clearings surrounding the huts. The road, also, remained busy with bicycles, motorcycles, trucks, and some types of vehicles with technology he had never seen before.

He paused to climb a mango tree and gather a bundle of small, sweet, yellow mangoes. As he placed his bounty in his blanket, he heard footsteps behind him. He swung around, heart pounding, ready to face an enemy and instead met two small eyes hiding in the bushes. He nearly laughed in relief. He continued his walk, noticing he maintained his little follower a few paces behind him as he went.

The clumsy, childlike footsteps grew from one pair to two and continued to grow. Bucky turned to look over his shoulder again and saw five children trailing him now, whispering to each other. They dove headfirst into the bushes as soon as they saw him notice them.

"Watoto, habari zenu?" Bucky called out in greeting.

"Mzuri sana," five voices chimed in response, accompanied by shy giggles.

"Come here. Kujeni hapa," he said. "Wanataka maembe? Would you like a mango?"

They children held council together and slowly crept towards him, each taking a mango from his blanket and staring at him with wide eyes. One of the braver children reached out his hand and stroked Bucky's hair. The other children gasped until they saw Bucky's amusement.

"Wapi mkono wako?" the boy asked, pointing at his missing limb.

"Umepotea," Bucky responded. "Nilianguka. I lost it."

"Pole sana!" the boy responded. All five children beckoned Bucky to follow them to a nearby homestead where a woman stood waving towards them. The fragrance of nearly cooked stew floated on the warm breeze. He followed.

---

The day nearly finished before Bucky found his way back home. He retraced his steps and came upon the now familiar sight of the grass-fringed lake. He knelt at the edge and used the warm water to rinse off his newly accumulated layers of dust from his arms, face, and neck. He paused to look at his reflection and began to laugh.

"You are a sight," came a woman's voice from behind him. Bella stood behind him, one hand on her hip, comfortably clad in jeans and a green t-shirt. "I'm assuming you didn't do that to yourself."

"You would be right. I mean, I can do a lot with one arm, but braiding my hair is one thing I never learned how to do with two arms, let alone one."

Bella walked closer to him to investigate the tiny plaits and twists now covering his hair and she began to chuckle.

"Not only your hair but your beard!" she said. "You must have made some friends."

"A whole household. It took five sets of hands to make me look this handsome," he said with a wink. "And another few sets to feed me so much food I don't think I will need to eat again for at least a day. They also sent me home with extra samosas and a live chicken."

Bucky pointed to where a red and brown rooster pecked at the grass and gave them both a haughty stare.

"I had to carry the chicken the whole walk home. He's rather a fine-looking fellow, though, so I think I'll keep him around for awhile," Bucky said.

Bella covered her mouth as she laughed.

"My, you have had a full day!"

"Oh, I'm not even finished yet! I also got a new name!"

"Did you now?" Bella said.

"Yes. I was telling the children a bit about the snow in Siberia and they were very excited and named me 'White Wolf,'" he said. He made a mock growling sound and pawed at the air with his hand. "It has a nice ring to it, I think."

"Let me guess, you visited Mama Ntambi's family?"

"You would be correct."

"They discovered the movie Balto a few months ago and have been watching it on repeat nearly every day."

Bucky gave her a lost look.

"It's an American cartoon from the 90's about a dog who finds out he is half wolf…hence the 'White Wolf'. They've been asking me about wolves and dog sledding and the wilds of Alaska ever since."

"Well, that does make it sound a little less intimidating," he said with a grin. He spread his plaid blanket over the grass and motioned for her to join him. They both sat and watched the flamingos preen their feathers by the side of the lake.

"You've been gone a few days. Where did you disappear to?" Bucky asked.

"Hunting," she said.

"By yourself? Isn't that dangerous?"

"Not for me," she responded with a wry smile. "Maybe for the animals."

"What did you bring back?"

"I brought you some ostrich and impala," she said.

"Is that what I've been eating lately?"

"You had some antelope too," she said.

"Huh. This is definitely a better place to be exiled to than Siberia."

"Siberia?" she asked.

"Yeah. I was kept locked up in Siberia for quite a few decades. I suppose I slept through most of it. But, I gotta say, it's nice to see the sun and be warm and, well, eat something other than tinned soldier's rations. I did manage to live on my own for a bit in Romania, but Bucharest is a bit of a concrete jungle. And without legal papers, money, or a job, it's a hard to eat much other than bread and the occasional sausage."

"That sounds miserable."

"Which part? The sausage or the bread?" Bucky said and glanced at her to see if she'd laugh. She did and he responded with a self-satisfied smirk.

"All of it."

"On the positive note, I don't think I've ever stayed in a place as beautiful as that little hut over there. This place is so full of life. This is a full, living silence as opposed to the empty silence of the Siberian highlands. Everywhere I look, there's some plant or creature walking around. I feel like I could spend forever just basking in the sense that I'm not alone anymore and I am free to do as I please."

"I know a little of how that feels," Bella responded with a shrug. "When I woke up here, I realized I no longer needed to run for my life. I'd never be hungry or cold again and I didn't need to be afraid anymore. It was a beautiful feeling. This little hut has been a paradise for me. It's my own space and my own place and I can do as I please there."

"You don't mind all the dirt and bugs?"

Bella rolled her eyes. "What exactly are you insinuating?"

"Don't get prickly. I've just know my fair share of dames who took a dislike to crawling little creatures and getting their nails dirty."

"Seriously? Dames? What year were you born?"

"1917, ma'am," he said, giving her a lazy salute.

"Shuri said you were over a hundred years old, but I thought she was exaggerating. She says that her brother is an old man all the time and he's not even 30 so I just assumed….Wait, she also said you were a soldier who was captured during a war. I assumed that must have been the recent conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan…"

"Unfortunately, I think I either slept through or was brain washed of all major world events in the last few decades. I have no idea what conflicts have happened in recent years, though it's highly possible I caused a few of them. No, I was captured in 1944 while on a mission with Captain America."

"Holy crow! That's amazing!"

"I know. Brainwashing and ignorance of entire generations of world history are pretty amazing…or did you mean the fact that I served under the handsome, illustrious, and captivating Captain America?"

Bella laughed. "I meant the fact that you actually lived through World War II."

Bucky groaned. "Way to make me feel old, kid."

"Shuri calls you mzee behind your back."

Bucky placed a hand over his heart. "That wounds me deeply."

"You understand the word?"

"Hydra training. We all were forced to learn over 30 languages. While Kiswahili, Amharic, French, Portuguese, and Arabic are the only ones applicable to this side of the world, it's still helpful."

"So, you remember foreign languages but not historical events?"

"No, I remember what I was taught and they washed my memory of whatever they didn't want me to know."

"That's awful."

"So, what's your story, Bella?" Bucky asked her. "I mean, what's a 20ish year old American girl from Washington doing living in a mud hut on the bank of a small lake in Wakanda?"

"It's complicated," she said with a sigh.

"Ain't it always?" he responded, then waited in silence to encourage her to speak.

"They found me injured on their borders and took me in. I'd lost my whole family and past life to someone who wanted revenge. The Wakandans gave me a home when no one else wanted me and they gave me a family when I had none. Now this is home," she said and shrugged. She played with the edges of her long hair.

"That makes two of us," Bucky said, green eyes drifting off into the dimming twilight. "My entire world has disappeared over the decades. There are some memories I wish I could keep as lost. Once I stopped with the constant brainwashing thing, memories of what I'd done and experienced came back. Then there are things and people I find I miss which have been gone a long time."

"After my injuries, I woke with my memory permanently altered. I have only a few very blurry memories from my past life," Bella said softly. "I have glimpses here and there of events. Shuri thinks I maintained a fair amount of my subconscious memories because I seem to have maintained my socialization. The way I walk and react to stimuli shows I was originally raised American and that's my default programming, but I don't necessarily remember where I went to school, the books I read, or the people I knew. When I read books or watch movies I must have experienced before, I experience a light sense of deja-vu, but it's still basically new to me.

"The Wakandans have helped a lot. They researched my past in my hometown and came home with photographs of my family there, but it's almost like hearing about someone else's life. I do still seem to have some deeply imprinted memories within my subconscious that will bubble to the surface from time-to-time. Like when I saw a picture of my father for the first time, I broke down uncontrollably and couldn't be roused from my grief for two days. I didn't remember his full name, birthday, or favorite food, but I had a deep emotional connection to him that was triggered by seeing his photograph."

"So, you've basically had to start over here?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I gotta say you picked a pretty good spot to start over."

"I could say the same about you."

 

Bucky couldn't escape his curiosity. Bella, clad in black bodysuit, slipped out of her hut in the middle of the night and he determined to follow her. For someone leaving to go 'hunting' he hadn't seen any weapons or vehicles nearby and he didn't believe her story. The evening downpour left soft, squelchy mud in its wake and he began to follow her footprints as far as he could.

He ran at full speed, expecting to easily catch and bypass her, but was surprised when he did not. He could still see her footsteps, even as the forest turned to grasslands. Her footsteps, though nearly hidden in the tall grass, could still be seen with his enhanced senses.

He ran for hours, growing in befuddlement with each mile. Then, the light, feminine foot prints stopped, swallowed up in a series of animal tracks. Bucky's heart nearly stopped as he saw tracks of a large cat mixed in with those of a herd of elephants.

He ran after the elephant tracks now until he reached a small ledge. Below, in a clearing, the brilliant moonlight bathed the valley below in a cool glow. He looked down and saw the elephants splashing in a brown river, waist high in the river bed. They filled their trunks and sprayed their backs, the air, each other in their play.

There, on the bank of the river, he made out the tiny figure of a woman, nearly hidden in black. The figure faced off with a lean, lithe shape of a large cat, though he could not tell what kind. He nearly leapt from his hiding place to try to intervene. Before he could, however, the silhouette of the cat began to transform. It bundled inward and curled in on itself, before blooming upward in the shape of a man.

The man bowed his head in Bella's direction before shaking her hand. The two appeared deep in conversation, though the sound of the nearby waterfall drowned out all distinguishable syllables. The pair turned and exploded into a run. At the first step, the man's body curled back into its feline form and fell into a delicate graceful lope, faster than any wild thing Bucky had seen before. To his amazement, Bella kept up stride for stride.

He jumped from his hiding place and trailed the two, running as fast as his enhanced body could and still struggling to keep up with their pace. As they emerged from the protective shade of the tree tops into the exposed grasslands, the rays of the moon's light revealed the spotted tawny coat of a leopard covering the beast in front of him.

He tried to stay out of range of their senses, though he was not sure he could determine the range their supernatural senses could carry. He had no doubt now that both of the beings he followed were his kindred supernatural beings.

Far past the borders of Wakanda, there approached another gathering of what appeared to be human silhouettes. The leopard transformed into his man form. His head shown with light sand colored curls. His bare body glistened with sweat and an inhuman yellow undertone. Even in his human form, Bucky could see the outline of claws on his hands and powerful cat-like incisors pouring from his mouth.

Bucky found a large baobab tree to hide behind and he peaked around, straining his enhanced senses as far as he could to try to decipher their conversation as they spoke in rapid-fire Kiswahili.

"Here is my brother," the man-leopard said. "She appeared to him last night but one in the watering hole. The entire surface froze in ice and the face of a powerful sorceress appeared. She bid him to join her forces, promising him an important role in her new dominion if he promised his fealty. He refused and she spoke a word in an ancient language we do not believe is of earthly origin. Then, he stood as you see him now, entirely in stone."

The man-leopard pointed towards a standing figure of a man nearby, unmoving and glistening as if a statue.

"How do you know all this?" Bella asked.

"The spirit of the baobab tree told us," the man-leopard replied. "At dawn, we came upon my brother as you see him now and the dweller of the baobab met us. He told us to be very wary. The sorceress has been coercing many to join her side. Already, she has gained a powerful following from the ogres, the little people, the animal-people, the angry ghost spirits, and the spirits that dwell in the trees and waters. She even has loyal followers among the People of the Soil, the humans."

"She has gathered five of my kin who feared being imprisoned in stone," spoke another voice.

"All who have gathered here are the ones who refuse to join her side but also fear to remain as we are, exposed. We have survived for thousands of years through hiding but that is not enough to protect us anymore."

"Why do you come to me?" Bella asked.

"Ah! Malaika, we saw you when the Great Lion Spirit first brought you to the People of the Panther. The Great Lion himself, he brought you. We have watched you since then because you are his appointed guardian to our people, the creatures that walk in-between the world of flesh and spirit.

"We are asking for refuge and protection now. The People of the Panther fear us, but if you intercede on our behalf, they will provide us with refuge. The sorceress will not rest until she eats all peoples, flesh and spirit, and swallows the whole world in her hunger. The People of the Panther will not be exempt. We will fight with you, but first we must survive till the battle."

"I will do what I can," Bella responded. "Come. You must follow me to speak to the King."

As the gathering moved to depart, the man-leopard cried out, "My brother! He will be left alone to his fate!"

The other creatures surrounded the solid rock figurine. Bella walked towards it, put her arms around the tall figure, and lifted it above her head where she balanced it on her head with arms on each side.

"He will come with us," she said.

The human figures simultaneously burst into movement and animal shapes-leopards, eagles, snakes, crocodiles, lions, and impalas raced together towards the border of Wakanda.

Bucky ran after them, but could not keep up with their pace. He returned home to sit in his hut and wait, full of even more questions than he had before.

"People of the Panther, we implore you to grant us asylum in your borders," the man-leopard said to the crowded council chamber. The man-leopard, the only representative of the animal people allowed into the assembly, stood in a long, bark cloth robe which seemed to make his yellow-tinted skin glow under the lights of the council room. His black-rimmed yellow eyes met the stares of the elders without flinching. He addressed them in a formal, ancient form of Kiswahili, the firstborn tongue born of the marriage of the Arab, Bantu, Portuguese, and Indian languages that merged on the coast and followed human rivers inland.

"We knew your ancestors back when Bashenga first found the meteor that united Wakanda," he said with somber gravity. "And when the Chwezi first brought cattle and established the kingdoms of Bunyoro. We, the Watu wa Wanyama, People of the Animals, we have seen but we have not spoken into the affairs of men for ten generations of kings and chiefs. But now, our silence is uprooted by the evil that is gathering around your borders, like storm clouds over Nyanza.

"There is an evil coming that all of your mighty warriors, technology, and vibranium cannot stop. Can the weapons of earth stop the weapons of the heavens? Can the weapons of man stop the armies of the spirits?

"The mchawi, this sorceress, has been tapping at the walls of Wakanda since the early days of T'Chaka's rule, listening for your strengths and weaknesses. She has stalked you as patiently and as silently as a leopard on the hunt. She has been stirring the conflicts in your neighbors so she may cut you off from the peoples surrounding you. Now, you float as an island, unmoored to your allies and ripe for her to pounce upon you and tear out your throat. She will not rest until Wakanda is hers and she will launch her offensive on the rest of the world from here.

"We are here to fight on your behalf and because it is our only hope of survival. We cannot overcome on our own and neither can you."

The man-leopard paced noiselessly to the back of the large room and took his seat as the council hall erupted into arguments and discussions.

---

T'Challa sat in his father's favorite chair and closed his eyes. He saw himself as a young boy again, nuzzling into his father's chest, reading a picture book together. His father's wise, patient voice read the words out loud. He sometimes changed the events of their favorites, his eyes twinkling with amusement whenever his alterations caught T'Challa's notice.

T'Challa opened his eyes and the emptiness of the room oppressed him.

The heavy, carved door leading to the hallway creaked open, and a man's head peeked in.

"My King, the council is almost ready to reconvene," the Secretary of Domestic Affairs said and disappeared again.

T'Challa groaned internally and moved to stand on his sandaled feet when another light knock sounded.

"Hodi," came his mother's voice.

"Enter, Mama," he said.

His mother pushed open the great door and entered, her face heavy with questions but her arms outstretched to take him into an embrace. She fixed his short shirt collar and looked deeply into his eyes.

"My son, you are here?" she asked.

"Yes," he said.

"You haven't come in here since Baba…."

"I know," he said, sitting back into the carved ebony, ivory, and leather chair. He placed his head into his hands and closed his eyes again, soaking in the feel of the leather, the scent of his mother's perfume and hair oil, and the sounds of a gecko chirping from the ceiling. These grounded him into the familiar present, things he understood.

His mother sat on a stool besides him in silence.

"Baba would have known what to do," he said, eyes still closed.

"With a gathering of Watu wa Wanyama, People of the Animals, seeking refuge in our borders? With mchawi, a sorceress, powerful enough to turn the living into stone? With an enemy we cannot predict or understand? No, my son, Baba would not have known what to do."

Ramonda cupped her hands on T'Challa's rough, bearded chin and forced him to face her. He opened his eyes to listen to the comforting sound of her voice.

"Baba used to tell stories of when he first became king…aye, things were not easy for him either. The entire continent was like gunpowder near an open flame-ready to explode in its desire for independence. Baba received pressure from all sides-the European governments and the indigenous powers. Each said he must support their cause or be considered an enemy.

"Unajua, it did not get easier for him. The colonists never left, only their color changed. Those in power and those oppressed by that power continued to struggle and each side pressured Wakanda to support their cause. Rivers of blood deeper than the Nile have been shed and for what?

"Wimbo huja ngomani, mwana wangu. The song goes with the drum. Baba had his own fields to plow and you have yours. You are the King chosen to bear this crown and this is your season to plant and harvest," Ramonda told her son.

"Aye, my son, too many griefs to make your heart heavy. If Nakia had agreed to stay, she would have helped you plow your field," she said, taking him into her arms again. "But you are strong. And your family, your people, we are here to lend you strength where you feel lacking."

T'Challa listened intently and straightened his tall shoulders, attempting to project the strength he did not feel.

"I must return," he told his mother and walked with her through the familiar, echoing halls of the palace into the council chamber.

They entered and found the elders and officials reconvened in their chairs, waiting his entry. T'Challa nodded for them to proceed.

"We have heard the request of the animal-people," Zuri said, waving his hand towards where the man-leopard sat quarantined by empty chairs. "We have taken time to carefully consider the matter. Please speak your words now."

"If we are indeed facing an impending battle, the more allies the better," elder of the River Tribe said. "These People of the Animals are powerful and we could benefit from an alliance."

"What proof do we have that they are our allies? They could just as easily be planted by our enemies to bring us harm," responded the elder of the Border Tribe.

"But it could also bring harm on us to refuse them!" spoke the Mining Tribe. "If we send them away, they could be forced to seek refuge with our enemies and also be turned against us. I would rather fight alongside a lion than against him."

"We are vulnerable," said the elder of the Merchant Tribe. "Already, we have given asylum to two dangerous supernatural creatures, only one of which would be nearly more than our Black Panther could manage and we now have two. How many more do we need before they are powerful enough to crown themselves as our conquerors?"

The General tsked and clicked her tongue. "Bella Swan is loyal to us. She has already saved the lives of our general, our king, our prince, and our princess during her years here. She has been a faithful servant to our kingdom."

"Yes, but this other, this Winter Soldier, what of him? We have hard evidence that he has been used to assassinate, disintegrate, and destroy with absolute efficiency. Look how Hydra succeeded in their plots to frame and murder Patrice Lumumba, ushering in their own bloody tyrant Mobutu in his stead? Or the assassinations of the Rwandan and Burundian presidents which set the entire Great Lakes into chaos for the next decade?

"And now you want this Hydra agent within our borders? He could dismantle our entire council before we even wake for chai. My King, you are placing us all at risk.

"I must speak truth, now we are asked to bring an even greater number of potentially dangerous creatures of the spirit world? How do we know this sorceress has not planned for them to infiltrate our borders and do her work for her?" said the elder of the Merchant Tribe.

"What would you have me do?" T'Challa interjected, his voice calm as a brewing thunderstorm. "I personally invited Sergeant Barnes to Wakanda. I will be held responsible for any misdeeds that fall on us from that decision. Is he a risk? Yes. But even our Black Panther is a risk if he chooses to use his power for evil instead of good."

"My King, allow me to speak plainly," the Merchant Tribe elder continued. "You ask us to hold you responsible for the potential actions of this Winter Soldier and yet those consequences would not be borne by you alone. You are basing your decisions on the mystical dreams of a prophet instead of on common sense and the council of your elders. And where is your prophet now? Gone far away from where the fruit of her council will be reaped."

Three different council members hissed in response.

"That is unnecessary, mzee," spoke the Queen Mother, giving the turbaned man the haughty stare of a disgruntled mother hen protecting her chick. "We are not gathered to debate Nakia's dreams nor the decisions of the past. Stop serving yesterday's porridge."

"Someone must speak truth, even if the truth slices like a newly sharpened panga," he responded. "If our Black Panther cannot even protect one King, how can he hope to protect the entire nation?"

Now the entire council jumped to their feet shouting and hissing their disapproval. T'Challa stared at the elder, lips pursed and hands wringing on his lap.

"Mzee, you have gone too far," Zuri spoke in anger, pounding his fist against a table.

"I have something to say," Okoye interjected, banging her spear on the ground so its metallic ring regathered the warring side conversations to face her.

"Speak, General," Zuri responded.

"A black mamba can be more deadly than a lion. For ten years, this American petroleum company has stationed itself on our Ugandan border and claimed to be drilling for oil. We have conducted scans of a ten mile radius of where they are stationed and there is no oil. "

"What are you saying, General?" Zuri said.

"I am saying that this company, they call themselves Ketterly International, they are not there for petroleum. Our sources have observed an unnecessary amount of long distance surveillance equipment hidden within their drilling instruments. They have kept a close eye on all surrounding countries…All countries," the General said, with a meaningful stare. "In addition, I have received reports that representatives from both the Merchant Tribe and the Mining Tribe have held conversations with the company. Tell me, council, if we should not be concerned about these developments?"

The room erupted anew into accusations, defenses, shouts, and whispers.

"It is enough," T'Challa said, the very quiet of his words louder than any shouting of his council members. "I have listened to your council and will speak my decision. The People of the Animals have shown us a great honor in requesting assistance from Wakanda. If we refuse their pleas for help out of fear, where will we turn when we are in need of refuge? If we make this decision out of fear, we have already lost our honor.

"They have come to us as allies and asking for the aid of the People of the Panther. We will give it. They can stay in the Impenetrable Forest. If we are worried of their proximity to our people, we will track their movements, the same as we continue to do with our other refugees; however, they are welcome within our borders and under our protection as long as they live peaceably with our people."

At this, the man-leopard rose and bowed, leaving T'Challa to wade through the aftermath of his pronouncement with his council members.

---

"I've never seen anything like it," Shuri said. She projected a series of images on screens and began to point at reds and oranges and greens and blues.

"This is a scan we conducted on the statue of the man-leopard. To compare, this is a scan of a regular rock-here is granite, marble, quartz, and obsidian. They rocks are the same in every scan. Yet, our subject, here, his scans are not the same. We ran a series of tests, and you can see, here the scans change."

"What are you saying?" T'Challa asked.

"I'm saying, the subject responds to stimuli internally. He is, at least in a limited degree, conscious. In other words, the subject has been imprisoned within his own body. His own cells have been taken over and changed into a foreign matter that I cannot fully explain but he is still in there somehow."

"So, unlike Nyelu's work, the soul remains."

"Yes."

"Do you think it is possible to restore him?"

"I do not know," Shuri said. "I do not think our technology will be the answer."

 

Bucky watched the birds in the trees in the cool morning air. He'd already slashed the weeds and grasses around his compound, reveling in the feel of the dirt on his hands and the smell of the freshly upturned earth. His muddy panga sat by his feet as he drank a steaming cup of chai.

Bella and her strange following of creatures had disappeared with the dawn two days previous and he hadn't seen her since. Clearing the ever-growing plants sapped some of his overflowing internal energy. He could pretend he wasn't as horribly curious as he was as long as he kept himself busy.

His neighbor remained an enigma. He never saw her sleep, but he initially assumed it was because she slept when he did. He never saw her eat, but she brought him food when he was recovering, so he assumed she had eaten some as well. But now all he really knew was that he didn't know much.

After witnessing Bella's statue-carrying stunt, Bucky had to admit that her position as the princess' bodyguard had to be based on something other than pity or patronizing.

"Are you planning to bask all day in the mud like a hippo?" Bella's voice said from behind him. He turned around and saw her approaching in her Dora Milaje uniform, spear in hand. He swiftly lifted his arm and threw his machete directly at her head with a speed that would have decapitated a normal human. She caught it without blinking and clicked her tongue.

"Do you normally greet people by throwing pangas at their heads?" she asked, gripping the worn handle of the sharp blade in her free hand.

Bucky looked at her for a moment before grinning. "Well, at first I was going to say 'no' and that I just wanted to see what you'd do, but then I realized that probably isn't an accurate statement coming from a former assassin."

"I'd throw it back at you, but, I mean, seeing as I am stronger, faster, and have two arms, it hardly seems fair, mzee."

"Oh, you're asking for it now, doll face," he said, jumping up from the ground and charging into her at full speed. He expected her to crash to the ground. Instead, he found himself bouncing off her solid form and face planting into a mud puddle. He tried again. He lunged to grab her around the legs to topple her but she blurred away, too fast for him to catch, faster than he had ever see a living creature move.

He pounced again and again. Yet each time Bella escaped with ease and stood as nonchalant as a crocodile in the sun. Finally, Bucky flopped back on the ground laughing, covered head-to-toe in red mud, with a trickle of blood coming from his fat lip.

"Are you bored or something?" Bella asked, glaring at him with a hand on one hip. "Or is this just an extra warm welcome today?"

"Nah, I just want to know what exactly you are," he said.

"I figured as much," she responded, deflating slightly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, after you stalked me and not so covertly spied on me for an entire night, I figured you would start asking questions."

"You knew I was there?" Bucky asked, not masking the slight edge of disappointment in his voice.

"Of course. You are about as quiet as a thunderstorm," Bella said. "Even if your unique heart beat didn't give you away, your scent would. I can pick up your scent from a mile away."

"Huh. You're breakin' my heart. Here I thought I was all sly and stealthy," Bucky said. "So, how come you didn't call me out then?"

"I was busy," she said, rolling her eyes. "Besides, why spoil your fun? You must have been pretty bored to spend all night following me around."

"Oh, bored am I?" Bucky said with an evil grin. He grabbed a handful of mud as thick as chapati dough and threw it squarely on her red and gold-clad chest.

"Wewe! Tabia mbaya! Nitakupiga sasa!" she shouted furiously. She attacked and drenched him in her own handfuls of wet earth. When Bucky tried to crawl away, she grabbed his legs and flipped him face first into the mud. She held his arm and legs imprisoned in her grip. He writhed as fiercely as he could but couldn't slip himself out.

"I give up! I give up!" he finally said, laughing. She released and he stood. "I offer my heartfelt apologies for any offense I have given. You are queen of the lake, my lady," he said with a mock bow, the mud dripping off his body in specks and clumps.

"I'm not sure I should forgive you for that," she said, glaring.

"You will because I'm charming," he said with an annoyingly smug expression on his face. "Now, I think I've earned an explanation. I've been going crazy for two full days wondering what exactly you are and now you get to tell me."

Bella quirked an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. "You got me muddy. I don't think I owe you anything."

He looked up at her with his brilliantly green eyes boring into hers, urging her to surrender. "Please?"

She hugged her knees with her arms and looked back at him, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Fine, but only because you are gonna find out eventually anyway."

"Well?"

"If you want to move to a different spot after you find out, I won't be offended. I know some people are a little freaked out by what I am. And, just so you know, I've never fed from a human, only animals and even if I did want to drink from a human, I wouldn't drink from you because you don't exactly smell human. You smell…weird…I mean, not like weird as in yucky, but weird as in inedible," she rambled, wrinkling her nose.

"Woah. Slow down there cowgirl…I was waiting to hear you were a Wakandan science experiment on gene modification or a Black Panther kitten or something. What's all this about eating me? And, by the way, I'm not sure whether I should be offended or complimented that you don't want to eat me. I'll have you know, dames usually find me delicious."

Bella rolled her eyes before continuing. "Yeah, I, uh, the Wakandans found me on their border when I was already changing. I'd been found already and bitten. We don't know how I got to their border…."

"How 'bout you start from the beginning of the story instead of the middle, sweetheart? You're losing me."

"That's what I'm afraid of," she mumbled under her breath, not intending him to hear, but he heard anyways.

"I, uh, basically, when I was in Washington, I fell in love with a vampire. He killed the mate of another vampire who wanted to eat me. My vampire lover ditched me soon after. He broke up with me and skipped town and then the vengeful mate came after me. She killed my dad and friends and tried to kill me, but some friends helped me to escape. They faked my death and I ran. I travelled the world trying to keep her from finding me but then the vampire found me anyways. I don't know how I escaped her but I woke up in a hut with T'Challa next to me and I've been here ever since."

Bucky sat mouth agape for a few moments. "I can honestly say that is not what I was expecting you to tell me. Your life is like a bad teenage-romance-turned-horror movie."

"Isn't it awful? I mean, I'm sure it all made a lot of sense to my 17 year old self…the whole falling in love with a creature of the night and all, but really?"

"So your memory issues…."

"Yeah, I can't remember much from before, only after. Most of what I told you I only know because Chuck Norris did a reconnaissance mission in my home town and dug up all the gory details of my former life.

"Since I'm kinda invincible and nearly immortal, and I have some kinda crazy supernatural shield that protects people from magic and mental attacks, the old King, God rest him, offered me the job of guarding Shuri and also guarding Wakanda. He gave me citizenship in the country and basically adopted me into his family. So, yeah, that's me."

Bucky stared at her for a long moment before grinning again, "So, what you are saying is that I just got my ass beat by a vampire?"

"I'll do it again if you make fun of me."

"Killer diller! I'll find ways to tease you every day if it means you'll take me down like that again. That was the most fun I've had in decades."

Bella laughed. "It would be my pleasure." She suddenly turned serious. "Aren't you freaked out?"

"Nah, doll, why would I be scared of you?"

"Ummm, you know, the whole blood-drinking monster that could kill you without blinking thing?"

Bucky remained unperturbed. He shrugged his good shoulder and dug his booted foot into the grass to knock off some dirt. "I don't fear death anymore. Death and I are old, old friends. When my end comes, I'll deserve it. And death by gorgeous vampire sounds heaps better than death by former enemy or vengeful soldier. If you want to take me out, have at it, but I won't fear you for it.

"Then there's the whole 'creature of myth and legend' thing, but honestly, how am I any different?

"And monster? Hardly. Considering I've killed hundreds of more people than you have…I think, of the two of us, I win the deadly monster card."

"You sound like you hate yourself."

"I hate what I've done, what I've been used to do, even if it wasn't me in charge of the doing. I'm not really sure how to not hate myself for that."

Bucky watched Bella pick a flower out of the grass and twirl it in her fingers. She seemed to struggle putting her next words together, like she needed a tugboat to pull them into being.

"It took me awhile to come to peace with what I've become. I mean, as I told you, at first I was relieved that I'd no longer have a revenge-thirsty vampire on my tail and I wouldn't be in danger for my life, but I also was no longer the me I'd been before. The old Bella died along with my family and I'd never be normal again. I'll always be slightly outside of humanity. At least here I don't have to always pretend to be something I'm not."

"You ever heard from your former heart throb?"

"No. He never came back or tried to contact me."

"What a fat-head."

"I remember being sad about it before…and angry…but I don't remember the details of what happened. That's been buried with the old me. That doesn't mean I want to go out looking for him though."

"Yeah, can't say that I blame you," Bucky said with a yawn. He flopped onto his back again and let his gaze drift upwards to the pale blue sky.

"Looky there," he said.

She turned to follow his pointed finger.

"What?"

"If you look up at that cloud there, you will see the distinct shape of a steam train."

Bella watched the fluffy white cloud gathering billows in the sky.

"You are wrong. That's definitely a wildebeest," she replied.

"My pride can only handle one beating a day and I've already reached my limit," he said, turning to look at her with one eye.

"I see. Your still feeling bruised from your earlier defeat. What a nice looking steam train."

"That's a good girl," he said with a hearty laugh.

 

Bucky sat on the side of the lake, throwing pebbles into the smooth surface, and counting the number of times each pebble skipped. This spot seemed even more like home now that he had spent so many months away.

"Welcome home!" Bella said when she saw him. She threw her arms around him and sat beside him on the bank.

"Awwww, doll, with a greeting like that you make it seem like you missed me!" he said.

"I did! It's been too quiet here. You've had your little herd of friends coming to ask about you nearly every Saturday. They accepted me as a consolation prize a few times, but I am not anywhere near as cool as 'White Wolf'. You also had a few visitors from Mama W'Kabi's village…and pretty much all of W'Kabi's village came by to see if you were home yet."

"A few came and found me in the city," Bucky said. "I was glad to have visitors, though I think my favorite visits were when you came and brought me jerky."

"And was that because I brought you jerky or because I came?"

"I wouldn't have written you letters every week asking you to bring me jerky if I didn't think you'd be the one to bring it," he said with a wink. "Are you from the palace?"

"Yes. I had a four day rotation guarding the royal family. I have two days off and then I'll go back again."

"See! Two days for us to plot and pillage and plunder! I've got a whole computer full of movies for us to watch and I even dug up a game of checkers. If you are feeling adventurous, I can challenge you to another rematch."

"Which you will lose…again."

He clicked his tongue. "Don't get cocky, now. Okoye has been giving me some new vampire-proof fighting skills that she assures me will be effective."

"She's never beat me either."

"Yet. She's never beat you yet. There's always a first time."

Bella gave him a doubtful glance and he shrugged.

"So, are you going to stay here or go back?" Bella asked, hesitation marring her voice.

"I'm going to stay here."

"You spent four months shadowing each of the tribes and still you are coming back here? You weren't inspired to stay in the city or join the military?"

"Nah. I have spent enough of my life in the military, thank you very much, and as beautiful as Birnin Zana is, I much prefer the village life. I suppose my old age is showing."

"Or it shows you have good taste."

"Well, I thought that was obvious," Bucky replied. "I gotta say, I've visited most of the major cities of the world and cities, they are all the same. Even the golden city of Birnin Zana-it's noise and dust and wheels and busy people doing busy things. I'm tired of all the rushing. Nothing sounds as good as sitting here on the side of this oversized puddle and watching the clouds go by."

"I think you made the right decision," Bella answered. She tucked her hair behind her ear and reached out for the large envelope sitting on the grass next to Bucky.

"What's this?"

"Something I wanted to show you," he said. She opened the envelope and pulled out a handful of faded photographs.

In the first, a much younger Bucky posed in a jaunty hat and military uniform. The next showed an even younger Bucky surrounded by his parents and three brothers. The final portrait revealed a scrawny, short Steve Rogers arm-in-arm with Bucky.

"Oh! You were so handsome!" Bella gushed.

"Was? I do not like your usage of the past tense."

"Where did these come from?"

"Chuck Norris was able to dig these up, along with a collection of letters my mother saved from my war years. He also found photos of the graves of each of my parents and all three of my brothers."

"Oh, Bucky. They are all gone?"

"Long gone. Our last born died peacefully in his sleep as an mzee in 2016. There's a flock of nieces, nephews, and their families still around somewhere."

"I'm sorry."

He shrugged and put the precious pictures back into the envelope.

"At least now I know. And I remember them."

"Captain Rogers was so tiny!" Bella said.

"That's how I knew him most of our lives," Bucky said.

"How did you meet him? Tell me about him and your family and everything!" she said.

"Everything? You planning to stay up all night?"

"If that's what it takes."

"Alright, doll, you win. So, Steve… I wasn't much taller than your waist when I met Steve. I found him getting beat up in a back alley and gave the bullies a proper beating from someone their own size. Steve told me I should have let him handle it and that he had it under control. Secretly, he appreciated, or so I tell myself. We were inseparable ever since.

"We both were poorer than church mice. Steve's folks, they were some of them new Irish, the ones fresh off the boat. Catholic, spoke Gaelic, and all. Steve's pa died not long after I met him and then his family got even poorer. His ma took odd jobs sewing or cleaning for some richer folks on the other side of the city, but it was never enough. It's good he never really had a growth spurt cause he almost never got new clothes. His ma just patched up his clothes with bits of thrown out rags she got from those fine houses she cleaned at.

"We weren't much better off. My pa died before our lastborn could walk, but he set my ma up pretty for at least a few years with some business investments of his. The crash of '29 took all that away and my ma had to find work. She got hired as a nanny for some family and then as a cook for another-that woman could cook, let me tell you. I think that's why I grew so well. Anyhow, she worked hard and long, but we got by and at least had enough to eat and new clothes on Christmas. Our flat had access to a toilet down the hall and heating to keep us warm in the coldest days of winter, so we were better off than a lot of folks.

"Those days, they said one in three New Yorkers was out of work. Men and women lined up for half a day to get a loaf of bread. We knew kids growing up in shacks made out of old boards, cast off wood, and curtains right in the middle of Central Park. It was bad.

"Anyhow, when Steve's ma died of tuberculosis, we were old enough to take care of ourselves at least, and Steve came to live with us. Ma always had a soft spot for him, seeing as he was so polite and helpful and worked hard not to be a bother to her. We put some cushions on the floor each night so he had a spot to catch some shut eye-we only had one room ourselves for ma, by three brothers, and I. We all shared.

"During the day, we studied hard and after school, we found any work we could. We both delivered papers, shined shoes, and swept shops-anything we could find to buy some bread, chewing gum, bathtub gin, and comic books.

"The war helped. The navy yard and shipping yards were hoppin' and factories pumped out uniforms to send to Europe. We found work easier but then Ma got sick and, well, we were back to two making rent instead of three. My two oldest brothers had to find work so we could make ends meet. Ma was never quite the same after that.

"Not long after, my name came up in the draft and I found myself going to war. The pay was good, better than any I'd ever had, and it was regular. I was nearly 25 by then and moved quickly up the ranks. That also meant I ended up overseas faster.

"That was hard on Steve. We'd been inseparable for most of our lives and all the sudden I was gone and doing what he wanted to do but couldn't.

"I thought I was hallucinating, when Steve came and rescued us from Hydra that first time. The scientists there had been using me as human lab rat for so long, I was convinced I'd gone off my rocker. I mean, the last time I'd seen the guy he was about your size, asthmatic, and couldn't lift a sack of flour off the floor, let alone another person. All the sudden, he shows up, over a foot taller, muscled like a fighting bull, and leading a charge through an enemy territory. I thought for sure it was the end of me.

"But that was when the real fun began. Steve and I, we fought side-by-side, I suppose like we'd always done, but against enemy troops instead of neighborhood bullies. Until that blasted train accident, those were some of the best times of my life. We were fighting together to make the world a better place, free of evil men like the one I became."

"Did you ever have a girlfriend?" Bella asked.

Bucky laughed. "Girls found me before I found them. I started getting Valentines before I even had my voice change. I liked it. When I got older and had a few dimes leftover, I'd take dames out.

"I had one suit I always used-my date suit-and I'd find the prettiest dames around and take them out for a good time. We'd go dancing, walk in the park, or share and ice cream sundae at the soda fountain. If I charmed them right, I'd get a good night kiss at the end.

"I'd never ask them for a second date, no matter how much I liked them. I was afraid of them seeing me for what I really was. Most of the time I didn't have the dime to buy them a hamburger, let alone think about an engagement ring. If I couldn't provide for myself, Steve, and my brothers, how would I manage a family of my own? If I never got a second date, they'd never know and I could pretend I was charming, handsome, and worthwhile forever.

"The army made it worse…or better, depending on how you look at it. When I'd get leave, I'd have two girls on each arm fighting for me and I'd disappear the next day and never see them again.

"Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like? Would I have found some pretty little bombshell to keep house for me, kiss me when I came home, and raise my children? It's a pretty picture, till I remember the dirty, tear-stained faces of the kids on our block-crying cause they won't have dinner again that night or their ma's sick or their pa's drunk and I have to say I'm glad I don't have to see my children like that. I fear that-failing them and being that man who keeps ten children and a sickly wife in a shack, cold and starving.

"Steve could have done it though. I know him. He'd never fail. Those dames, they'd fall over themselves for me and not even give Steve a second glance, not knowing he was the real catch-even before. He'd have cut off his right arm to take care of his own. His wife, his children, they would have been lucky and even if they struggled, they'd have been alright cause they had Steve.

"I wish he could have had all that, you know. I've been such a mess I can't really stop to wonder what things woulda been for me, but I wish Steve could have made it through. Since that day I found him in the alley, he's always been the better man."

"We are the same, you know, you and me," Bella said, her gold eyes meeting his turquoise depths like the sun setting into the ocean.

"How so?" Bucky asked.

"We were both injected with something that made us inhumanly strong and fast and durable. We both cheated death and will live longer than everyone around us that we love and so death will cheat us. We both have to live with the horrible consequences of being pawns in other people's wars. And now we both have the chance to use what we've become, our second chance, for good."

"I suppose that true. I envy you though. You lost most of your memories from before and you don't have to sleep," Bucky said.

"I wish I could remember more about the people I loved. You still have those good memories with the bad ones. I do still remember the nightmares. One of my happiest realizations when I woke into this life was that I would no longer be plagued with my nightmares."

"But then you miss dreaming good dreams," he said. "About those things you wish could be but never can."

"I stopped dreaming good dreams long before I stopped sleeping," she answered with a sigh, unconsciously wrapping her arms around her middle. "Tell me about your good dreams. I already know what the bad are like."

"Maybe I should just show you," he said and kissed her.

Bucky lay face down on the ground, carefully analyzing the delicate leaves of a plant just beginning to sprout out of the ground. Bucky's hair now flowed down his shoulders and his skin showed the tan of long hours working the earth with his spade in the equatorial sun.

"What are you doing?" Bella asked.

"Here, here, look at this," he said enthusiastically and pointed out the little plant. She knelt on the warm, red soil, soaking her khaki pants red.

"It's a plant?" she said, failing to see his excitement.

"It's a plant! My first maize sprout," he said, turning his face, half streaked in dirt, to face her, joy exuding like a kid on Christmas. "Isn't it the most beautiful little sprout you've ever seen? Look at these leaves, the way they reach out to the sun. I could barely see it yesterday and today, here it is. It's a small miracle!"

"Ummm, Bucky, we are surrounded by plants," Bella said, waving her hand at the dense foliage fighting to overgrow their compound on all edges around them.

"True, but I didn't plant those ones. I planted this one," he said, fondly caressing the tiny leaf as if it were his firstborn son. "I could never grow corn in Brooklyn. We didn't have space for a garden. In Siberia, I could only kill or be frozen and even if I could have tried, nothing would grow in the tundra. Here, I'm making something come alive. Creating and protecting life instead of taking it. Earlier an ant and a beetle both walked by my plant. I think they liked it too." He grinned.

"You're right," Bella said. She put her arm around his dusty shoulder and kissed his cheek. "This is the most beautiful plant I have ever seen."

"I'm going to have a full field soon," he said, waving at the rows of earth, pregnant with little seeds that would burst into the sunshine at any moment. "W'Kabi said he will bring me a goat kid once it's weaned. I think I'm going to be a farmer when I grow up!"

"Farmer Barnes? Has a nice ring to it."

"Better than Sergeant."

"You're going to need some overalls and a straw hat," she said.

"Nah. Won't work with the whole one shoulder thing. Besides, I like the shuka. I think I look rugged and exotic. Though my mother would have beat me with her belt if she ever caught me with long hair and a beard like this. We can call it my teenage rebellion in my old age."

"Well, you may look rugged and exotic wearing your man-dress, but I'd rather not have you smelling rugged and exotic. You had better go bathe before Shuri and Chuck Norris get here. We've got movie night tonight at my place. I think it's Shuri's turn to pick-be prepared for classic Nollywood."

"Killer diller, toots. I don't care what country makes the movie or what language they are speaking, as long as I get hot, buttered popcorn and a pretty dame next to me," he said with a wink.

"In that order, right?"

"Of course. I know my priorities."

"Enda kuosha, bwana. Wewe ni mchafi sana."

"Naenda!"

---

T'Challa paced the rooftop gardens of the palace, now bathed in moonlight. His mother often scolded him and told him he would wear out a path on the roof with his night time walks, but he could not sleep. Again.

The lights of the city blinked and dazzled, hiding the canopy of stars. He could see the rivers of cars and trains and street lights weaving to and fro with their currents of night life. He could hear the distant base of a night club resonating intermixed with traffic sounds.

Still he walked.

He soon found he was not alone. Bucky emerged from a stairwell and also began to pace.

"You are unsettled, my friend," T'Challa said as he placed a hand on Bucky's shoulder to still his pacing.

"I'm fine," he responded with a shrug.

"Yes. I have seen that kind of fine before. I have worn that same expression whenever I am waiting for Nakia to return home."

"Not the same," Bucky said. "I mean, wait….what?"

T'Challa raised both eyebrows and responded with a knowing, "mmmmmm."

"Bucky, are you content to remain in Wakanda? Do you plan to leave?" T'Challa asked.

"As long as I am welcome to stay and I'm not causing any problems, I plan to stay," Bucky responded.

"Then what are you fearing? Your spirit is still unsettled within you and there is something that is keeping you from planting your heart here."

Bucky sighed. "I am afraid of going back to how I was. I'm afraid that something will happen and I'll hurt everyone and everything I care about and then I'll come back to my senses and it will be worse than it's ever been before."

"You do not believe you have been cured?"

"I am afraid to hope."

"I see."

"Long night?" Bucky asked, gesturing towards T'Challa's footpath through the flowering vines and potted trees.

"Yes."

"When did you hear from Nakia last?"

"A month ago she called from N'Djamena to say she was well and send her greetings. She has been away from Wakanda for nearly a year this time."

"This time?"

"She is our most passionate and diligent humanitarian worker. She has been going on missions as often as she can receive them, trying to do good and bring justice to those without."

They ambled together now, slowly by slowly.

"Bucky, you are in love with Bella," T'Challa said. "What is stopping you from pursuing her?"

Bucky sighed but did not answer.

"I will speak not as your king but as her brother. She loves you. I can see it but she will never speak it. She loves quietly but deeply. She will be loyal to her last breath to those she loves. You cannot half plant a seed and expect it to bear fruit. If you love the girl, marry her.

"If you do not love the girl enough or you wish a different path in life, you need to remove yourself and spare her more scars. You can farm closer to the river and give her peace. I would charge you as one who loves her and is charged to protect her, search your heart and determine your course and stay on it."

"I am not worthy of her."

"Nobody is. That is why she came as a gift."

"I am afraid. I have hurt everyone I have ever cared about."

"Did you know that Nakia dreamed of Bella's arrival in Wakanda before we found her?" T'Challa asked, jarring Bucky with his sudden change of subject.

"Yes. Shuri told me that is Bella secretly a giant lizard and I need to take off her clothes to see the real Bella."

"That sounds like something Shuri would say, but I don't think she was faithful in her retelling of the story," T'Challa said with a laugh.

"Don't worry, Mama W'Kabi told me the real story of the Kenge and Opondo's children over the last New Year's celebration."

"Ah! That is very good. Nakia's dream, it was why we spared her life when she arrived. We knew she would be a gift to our people, and a gift she has been.

"Soldier, she was not the only one prophesied about beforehand. Do you know our legend of the acacia tree?"

"No," Bucky said.

"Have you seen an acacia tree?"

"Often. They are the yellowish trees that grow thorns around them that the giraffes like?"

"Yes. Our legend says one day Rabbit decided he wanted to rest. He came upon Acacia and he asked Acacia for its shade. Acacia was happy to give Rabbit its shade. When Rabbit finished resting, he thanked Acacia and his thankfulness pleased Acacia even more.

"Acacia was so pleased that it invited the Rabbit to come inside its trunk.

"'Would you like to see my heart?' Acacia asked. Rabbit entered and found a beautiful garden full of treasures. Rabbit admired the garden of Acacia greatly and Acacia offered Rabbit a gift. Rabbit chose a beautiful necklace.

"On the journey home, Hyena came and found Rabbit.

"'Where did you find this necklace?' Hyena asked and stole it. Rabbit refused to answer until the Hyena tried to kill Rabbit. Rabbit relented and told his secret.

"Now the Acacia tree was surrounded by animals who pounded on its trunk and wanted to enter into its heart. These animals did not stop to admire Acacia's shade or Acacia's garden. Instead, they stole all the precious gifts from inside the garden as quickly as they could, leaving the garden bare and trampled.

"When the animals left, Acacia closed its trunk and all the jewels turned to dust in the hands of the hooligans who stole them. Ever since that time, Acacia has refused to show its heart to anyone."

"I get it, I get it," Bucky said, kicking the floor with his black boot toe.

"You do?" T'Challa asked, surprised.

"Yeah. Bella's been messed up in the past and she's hesitant to let anyone else into her heart. I know that. That's why I know I'm all wrong."

T'Challa stopped and looked at Bucky. "You think Bella is the Acacia?"

"Of course."

"Bucky, Nakia dreamed of an acacia tree frozen in ice. It only thawed when its roots were planted in by a lake in Wakanda."

 

Bucky slashed the vines around his land with so much force he knocked down a young tree with them. He did not care which vines he slashed. He needed to simply fight something. With his one arm, he swung his panga through the dense growth until he cleared an area twice the size of his hut.

Sweat rolled down his forehead and he thought again how much he preferred the heat to the cold.

He took his hoe and began to weed in between his rows of cassava, maize, beans, and millet. When he finished, he looked sadly at his work, wishing he could find some more weeds.

He left his tools behind and walked straight into the bush, wandering aimlessly down human and animal paths, and into the untrodden grasslands. He walked until he finally felt tired and then he plopped onto the ground in a pile of overcast man.

The sun traversed the shallow sky until it sank into the acacia trees. He heard footsteps and turned to see Bella walking towards him, pale violet dress clinging to her ankles, the slightest glimmer shining off one spot she didn't manage to lotion well enough. He covered his eyes with his arm.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked. She sat on the dry, dusty earth besides him.

"Watching the moon," he answered, refusing to uncover his face.

"Right. You've been watching the moon all day."

"Yep."

"You are moping. Why?"

"Am not."

"Are too," she said and stuck her tongue out at him. It would have been more effective if he was looking at her.

He gave a laugh that lacked heart. "Did you need me for something?"

"Nah. I just watched you take out a good chunk of forest a while ago and wanted to know what was troubling you. I mean, I'm all for having more land farmed on the homestead, but your project didn't seem to be fueled by agricultural aspiration."

He peeked at her from under his arm. "Well, you are wrong. I am always fueled by agricultural aspiration."

She sat next to him in silence before she finally took his hand off his forehead and placed it in her own in her lap, intertwining her fingers with his.

"What's wrong?"

"T'Challa asked me my intentions for you," Bucky finally said.

"I see. And that made you angry enough to chop down a tree with a machete?"

"Yes…no…I mean, I don't know. OK, I just don't know," he said, pulling his hand out of hers and facing the other direction.

"You're not exactly building my self-esteem here," she said. Bucky groused and grumbled before his words poured out like a broken dam.

"Bella, what can I give you? I am a hundred year old man with one arm working as a subsistence farmer in a mud hut. And you can't even eat the food I grow. I have nothing, am nothing, will be nothing. My hands are so soaked in blood, I can't even find my fingerprints. And you, you are…" he trailed off, motioning towards her with his hands. "Malaika wa vita…a warrior angel, a divine goddess…"

"Nah. I am just a girl who lives right beside you in the next hut," she said, nestling into his side and draping his arm around her shoulder. "And I am hoping you will still be next to me when I turn a hundred, using your one arm to keep me warm at night," she said.

Bucky leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes again.

"Bella, I could break again at any time and then you'd be even worse off than before…."

"It's a good thing I can take you down, then. You can't kill anyone if I'm holding you down."

"I'm sorry, doll. I'm making a mess of this. I need to get my mind sorted. It's all mixed up right now and that's lousy, but it's where I'm at. I just need to go," Bucky said. He stood and ran as fast as he could into the savanna.

---

Bucky woke in a tree. He hopped down and kept walking eastward. He walked till near sunset when he finally reached his destination. A dilapidated, abandoned homestead on the borderlands sat in silence, home now to lizards and rats instead of people.

Bucky entered the overgrown remains of a garden, slashing at branches until he found what he sought. He cut back the overgrown vines surrounding the engraved headstone for Isabella Marie Swan. Then he began to gather stones by the light of the moon. He carefully stacked piles of rocks into delicately balanced towers encircling the grave.

Three dawns later, the clearing for the homestead had tripled in size and now grew hundreds of jagged cairns. Bucky sat in the center, a spider in his web, and looked out on his handiwork. Then he buried his head in his hands and wept.

T'Challa found Bucky fast asleep on the freshly cleared grass of the homestead, panga near his disheveled head, and his face a riot of mud and tears. T'Challa rolled up the grey sleeves of his linen shirt and quietly gathered dry wood. A small fire soon crackled and sparked, heating chai and cassava. The smell of the smoke woke the sleeper.

"Habari ya asubuhi," T'Challa said, carrying Bucky a metal mug and banana leaf plate. Bucky nodded and took them, devouring both without taking a breath.

"Thank you," he said when finished. "Why are you here?"

"There are times when wounds heal better in the company of friends," T'Challa responded. He nodded towards the ocean of cairns. "You know each of their names?"

"The ones I'm directly responsible for? Mostly."

"Tell me," T'Challa said. Bucky nodded and rose, placing his hand on each tower as he spoke.

"This one is for Tasha Ivanovich from Moscow. This one is for Dale Heartland from Detroit. This is for Thulani Nzima of Capetown," he said, feigning stoicism and fighting the quiver in his voice.

"The spirits can hear you. Speak what is on your heart," T'Challa said.

Bucky's stoicism evaporated as he walked stone by stone. Some stones needed shouts, others whispers, some tears, and others utter silence.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to kill you. I'm sorry for your children, for your family. I'm sorry for everything," he said a hundred times over.

Hours and hours and hours later, Bucky collapsed onto the ground, a weight lifted from his heart even as his body sagged with the weariness.

"Last one," Bucky said. He pulled out a smooth granite slab into which he carved the words:

Winter Soldier

1944 to 2017

He buried the stone and collapsed into an exhausted sleep.

---

The brilliant whiteness of the snow nearly hurt his eyes. Snow covered hills fringed the horizon in the twilight air. Bucky groaned. He hated this dream but it found him. Again and again, he found himself here. He looked ahead until he found the rusty metal trunk full of his victims' photographs and the unstoppable flow of blood.

"I can't do it," he shouted, as the photographs melted in his hands. "I can't stop the blood. Please, make it stop!"

This time, his dream shifted course.

"Please make it stop!" reverberated and replayed in the cold air. Without a cavern or cliff nearby, he could not distinguish the source of the echo.

"I can't do it. Please, make it stop!" the voice repeated a second time.

The Bucky realized it wasn't his voice speaking.

He turned around and behind him, an inhuman creature loomed. A lion, a head taller than Bucky standing, sat licking his paw vigorously. The lion's golden mane shook as he twisted his neck to reach his paw. A large acacia thorn protruded from the injured paw and drew rich drops of blood. The lion growled in frustration and kept licking. The thorn stayed lodged in between the soft pads and the blood flowed. The great beast looked Bucky in the eye and spoke.

"Bucky, you must stop the blood."

"I tried. I can't."

"Remove my thorn."

Bucky hesitantly walked up to the creature. He struggled to lift the weight of the velvet paw, easily the size of his head. He wrapped his entire hand around the large thorn and pulled. He tried again with two hands and this time, the thorn slipped out. Bucky discarded it into the snow where it was soon covered in flowing drops of blood from the open wound.

Bucky removed his jacked and tore off the white t-shirt underneath. He ripped it into shreds to bandage the paw. The blood stopped.

The lion bounded up, knocking Bucky to the ground in his haste. He leapt towards the trunk and began to lap at the blood. He drank and he drank and he drank until Bucky thought for sure he would burst. The blood stopped.

When the lion flopped to the ground to wash himself, the entire snows cape was once again clean.

"Bucky, what remains in the trunk?" the lion asked.

Bucky looked inside.

"It is empty," he replied.

"Keep it so," the lion replied. The great beast rose and padded towards him, bending his massive head so his golden eyes bore into his own. "Give me your hands," the lion said.

Bucky held up his dirty, blood-stained hands. The lion's rough tongue licked each side, leaving them fresh and unmarred. Then the lion looked at him, lunged, and knocked him to the ground where he licked Bucky's face.

Bucky gasped and woke with a start.

---

"Thank you," Bucky said as T'Challa drove him home. The tears had been washed and left at the old homestead and now Bucky sat tall, dressed in a deep blue shuka and his brown hair pulled back behind his head. In his hands, he held a bouquet of bright yellow acacia flowers.

"Bucky, you will need to send me two cows and a goat. And be ready for us to come on Saturday. You will need to prepare a feast."

"For what?"

"To celebrate your marriage."

"My what?" Bucky stuttered.

"You do not carry those flowers to place in your own home. As she has no father or uncles or brothers to stand in for her, her adopted family will fill that role. It is our custom for the community to acknowledge when a new family is born. We will come to celebrate and accept the bride price. In that way, you will show your new in-laws that you are committed to our daughter. In your culture, you use rings. In our culture, we use livestock."

"Isn't it a little premature to be talking about all this?"

"What are you waiting for?"

"I don't know."

"You are thinking too hard, bwana. We will see you on Saturday."

T'Challa dropped him at the road leading to the homestead and Bucky walked over the hill to where the lake and the two homesteads emerged in his view. He found Bella washing clothes by the side of the lake. She threw her clothes back into the bucket and ran towards him, knocking him to the ground.

"You! You disappeared for a week! You didn't even say anything. I bear my heart to you and you turn and run."

"I'm sorry, doll. I needed some time to figure out what I want and I figured it out and I came back," he said and handed her the flowers.

"Just like that?"

"Well, I mean, there might have been a few trees knocked down, some holes dug, and some rocks thrown around, but yeah. I know what I want."

"And what is that?"

"I want to plant my heart here, with you, if you will have me," he said and kissed her hand.

 

The Greco-Roman pillars of the British museum nearly matched the drab, cold gray of the overcast sky. The museum loomed in the background, an ocean of tourists spotting the steps and stones leading inside. Bucky, Bella, and Shuri, dressed plainly in jeans and sweaters, walked circles around the grounds of the museum most of the morning looking for a woman in a red hat.

"Nakia didn't give us very much information. We don't even know if we have the right day," Shuri complained. "It could be a month from now."

"Then we come back every day for a month," Bucky said.

"How will we know it is the right one?" Shuri asked. "I've seen at least five different red hats walk past."

"Yes, but those were all men," Bucky replied, continuing to scan the grounds.

"That's not the point," Shuri said.

"Shuri, this is your first mission. Relax. Watch and learn and don't ask too many questions," Bucky said.

"It is your fault that I've had to wait so long for my first mission," Shuri said. "I would have been able to go on the mission to Nigeria three years ago if you both hadn't decided to marry and run off on a holiday at the beach for three months."

"A worthy delay, I think," Bucky said. "Now, focus."

The three continued to pace together until they were stopped by a voice behind them.

"Word alive! If it isn't Sergeant James Barnes. Well, I'll be!" came the quiet, British voice of a woman with white hair pulled into a neat bun. She sat on a small bench in the corner of the courtyard, a cane and a newspaper in hand. Yet, what drew their attention was the bright red hat crowning her snowy head, like a cardinal in a snowstorm.

"How do you know me?" Bucky asked, feeling uncomfortable being recognized. He had avoided international travel as much as he could for this reason alone.

"Hmmm. That is not something we should talk about here," she said, glancing around the busy courtyard. "I suppose you all should come home with me for tea and then we can make proper introductions."

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, glancing uneasily at Shuri and Bella.

The old woman slowly rose and took her cane.

"It's not far. Follow me," she said. She led them on a maze-like path through streets and shops and up stairs until she unlocked the door of a little flat overlooking the bustling street below.

"Make yourselves at home," she said. She removed her hat and ushered them towards faded floral couches. Antique furniture filled the sitting room and delicate blue and white floral wallpaper hung on the walls. She disappeared into another room and reappeared with a tea tray heavy with three cups of tea, sugar, and cream. Bucky jumped to his feet to relieve her of her burden and set it on the coffee table. She smiled in thanks.

"Here you are, dearies," she said as she handed out cups of English tea to Bucky, Shuri, and herself. She placed no cup in front of Bella.

"Now, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mrs. Susan Ellis," she said, blue eyes glittering as if she had just discovered the punchline to a joke or unearthed a great mystery.

"How do you know Bucky?" Shuri asked, unable to contain her curiosity any longer.

"I will tell you," Mrs. Ellis said, carefully measuring her words as if with a teaspoon. "But first, I would like to know why I have the pleasure of being called upon by a Wakandan princess, a dead soldier, and a vampire?"

All three visitors turned upon Mrs. Ellis with wide eyes. Shuri spluttered her tea onto her dress before trying to clean it up with her serviette.

"Ma'am, I would say you wouldn't believe us, but with an introduction like that, you just might," Bucky started. "We have been sent to find you by the King of Wakanda because a prophet had a dream that we needed to find you."

"I see."

"You do?" Bucky said.

Mrs. Ellis did not respond but thoughtfully stirred her tea.

"I've seen more than most, even most of my age," she said, her cornflower blue eyes sparkling with unshed tears that threatened to overflow on her ridged and furrowed cheeks. "In answer to your question, your highness, I spent many years working with a woman called Peggy Carter. She spoke often of your companion here. Sergeant Barnes, do you remember her?"

"Yes. Quite a dame, that one. Steve was sweet on her since the first time she punched out a fella with a loose tongue. Our paths crossed often during the war," he responded, thoughtfully.

"Yes, yes. Well, I spent a good many years of my life in America working with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, otherwise known as SHIELD. I began as a data entry clerk but over the years I was able to work in a variety of departments, but mainly because Peggy saw possibility in me as more than a secretary or clerk. She was a great woman. Sometimes, when I could find her good and drunk, she would tell stories of her exploits during the war along with Captain America and your Howling Commandos.

"Imagine my surprise a few years ago when I see not only the long lost Captain American has reappeared, but the formerly deceased Sergeant Barnes' face is glued across my TV screen in relation to the death of the Wakandan monarch! I figured there had to be a good story behind that.

"Anyhow, during my work with SHIELD, I became privy to information the regular citizen is usually in the dark about," she said, nodding her head in Bella's direction.

"I retired in the early 1980's and decided I'd had enough of America and came back home. I've been here ever since. But I still like to keep up on current affairs. Call it a hobby," she said with a wink. "Now tell me, what can I do for you? Seeing such an unlikely trio in one place obviously looking for someone, I'll call it a hunch, but I just assumed you were looking for me."

"You were correct," Bucky said. "I apologize if this gums it up even more, but we don't really know what we are looking for. We were simply told to find you and nothing else."

"I am honored to meet you all," she said and rose. "Please make yourself comfortable while I make some toast."

The three visitors looked around the flat, each thinking of what questions they should ask, when Shuri's eyes fell upon a small black and white photograph of four teenagers together. She picked it up and looked at it.

"Mrs. Ellis, are these your children?" she asked.

Mrs. Ellis laughed and then sobered quickly. "No, love, I never had any children. That is me. You see the oldest girl with the long, dark hair? That was me in my early twenties. The young man next to me was my oldest brother, Peter. The two next to him were my younger brother Edmund and our little sister, Lucy."

"I wish I could have had more brothers and sisters," Shuri said, with a sigh. "Having only one is quite boring. My brother is wonderful, but I think having a few more of him would have been even more wonderful."

"Yes. Family is a precious gift that few people really appreciate while they have and only know the value of when it is gone. You have my deepest condolences for the loss of your father, Princess. I know it was some time ago, but I imagine you still miss him."

Shuri fought back tears and nodded.

"Is any of your family still around?" Bucky asked.

Mrs. Ellis sighed. "No. My entire family-my parents, brothers, sisters, cousin, and even an adopted uncle, I lost them all in a railway accident when I was still a young woman. My husband, also, died not long after we were married. I suppose I would call them my inspiration for my work with SHIELD."

"That is so sad!" Shuri said, grabbing the old woman's hand in her own. "You are like us. We have all lost parts of our family is very sudden and sad ways."

"What do you mean they were your inspiration?" Bucky asked.

"Awww, you know enough about SHIELD to ask that…" Mrs. Ellis replied. "Their deaths were proclaimed an unfortunate railway accident, but I never believed it was an accident. A few years before they died, Professor Kirke, our sort of uncle-not a real uncle, you understand, but like an uncle-he looked after us during the war in his great house in the countryside and we were close with him ever since. One day, he mysteriously lost all his assets. Not only the great house in the countryside but his childhood home in London and all his inherited funds. He was forced to move to a much smaller cottage while he pursued legal action to have his properties returned to him. During his investigations, he discovered that the same company acquired both properties. It was not long after that the railway incident occurred.

"It all seemed too coincidental to me. I couldn't let it rest…especially when I found that the Italian company that claimed ownership of the properties simply tore them down and dug up all the land as if they were performing an archaeological expedition. A few years later, they sold the properties to developers who build modern flats and a hotel on the land."

"You think they stole the properties to find something and then sold them when they found it?" Bucky asked.

"Yes."

"What do you think they were looking for?"

"Magic."

"Excuse me?" Bucky said.

Mrs. Ellis sighed. "There are parts of my life that I have never told to anyone. Not even my husband. There are parts of my life that I even tried to not remember myself," she said.

"Tell us," Bella said, leaning forward on her elbows in earnest.

"When we were staying with Professor Kirke during the war, my brothers and sister and I discovered some kind of portal between realms. We entered what we thought was a wardrobe and found ourselves in a completely different world. We spent what seemed like a half a lifetime there only to return and find ourselves returned to our previous time stream.

"That was not the only portal and it was not our only journey into this other realm. We were also not the only ones to have gone. Professor Kirke himself had traveled there as a child using magical rings that created a portal to not only this world but to many worlds.

"I know this all sounds rather fantastical, and that is why, for many years, I chose to pretend I had never experienced any of these things. For a young girl struggling to grow into a woman, a lifetime as a queen of another realm was too much of an obstacle to normalcy for me to cling to. I let go of the past in order to focus on my present.

"My family, however, they never did. Their hearts never left our other home and they longed to return. That's where they were all going to, you know, when the accident occurred. They wanted to gather what they called the "friends of Narnia," for you see, that is the name of this other realm or planet or world that we discovered, and on their way, they all died, all of them. All the people who had ever heard of or been to Narnia died that day except me.

"There was no way I could ever share about that part of my life with anyone. I would be looked upon as insane or delusional or fanciful. No, I kept that part of my life with my dear family and poured my life into my work. I wanted to discover the real cause of their deaths. I also wanted to make sure that other people wouldn't have to go through the pain of loss that I did for such unnecessary reasons. So, in my work with SHIELD, even if it was behind-the-scenes, I still felt like I was helping.

"I also felt a little more normal. Dealing with things like super soldiers and lifeforms from other worlds and galaxies and the like made my past not sound quite so outlandish."

"Wow! So, you actually traveled between worlds as a child? That is amazing!" Shuri said.

"You mentioned you were a queen. What did you mean by that?" Bucky asked.

"Well, when we first arrived in Narnia, we found the land was ruled by an evil witch who had been brought from another world by the magic rings I spoke of. As a child, Professor Kirke accidentally woke her and brought her to Narnia during the very beginning of their world. This witch eventually proclaimed herself the queen and held most of the population in subjugated through her magic and her cruelty. When the real king of the realm returned, he put an end to her and installed our family is rulers. We ruled for a few decades until we really were all grown adults. Then we came back home as children."

"What happened to the queen?" Bucky asked.

"Yes. Jadis, the White Witch, she was called. She really was horrid-all icy and cold and turning people to stone and all that and…"

"Wait, turning people to stone?"

"Yes. She would turn anyone who was against her to stone."

Bucky, Shuri, and Bella turned to stare at each other, mouths agape.

"What? Why are you all looking like codfish?"

"We have had multiple reports of people who have been turned to stone and we have been at a loss to know how," Bella said. "At least one source said a powerful sorceress was responsible."

"Well, I'll be," Mrs. Ellis said with a soft whistle.

"What happened to the witch?" Bucky asked.

"Anyhow, the King, Aslan, the Great Lion as they called him, he put her to death during our final battle and then he restored everyone who had been turned to stone. A few centuries later, during our next visit, an old hag wanted to resurrect her. She assured us that a witch is never really dead but can be brought back with the right kind of magic. Well, we had had quite enough of her and so didn't attempt it. Still, it spooked us to the core, thinking that one such as her could still be around and called back at any time."

"What were the portals that you know of that led between worlds?" Bucky asked.

"Well, let me see. The first was that old wardrobe. It never worked as a portal again, as far as I know. The second was a magic horn that called us from our world to Narnia, but we left that in Narnia. The third was a doorway in Narnia that Aslan built for people to return back into our world to an island where there's a cave with another portal on it. Then there was a picture at my aunt's house once that brought my brother and sister back. The last time I heard of, it was through a random gate in a school yard.

"Oh, and let me see, Professor Kirke used magic rings. Really, most times it was Aslan calling us into his world to help with some task or mission. The only time it was intentionally initiated from our side was through the magic rings. And seeing as that brought the blasted witch into Narnia in the first place, I'd say that didn't end well."

"Where did the rings end up?" Bucky asked.

"Ah me, lord if I know. Professor Kirke said he got rid of them so his uncle, the one who invented them, couldn't use them for any other nefarious purposes. But it's been so long now since I heard those stories. I don't know if he ever told us the nitty gritty details of what he did with them. I can't help but wonder, though, if anybody else knew about those rings and if they did, what lengths they would go to in order to obtain them," she said.

"Enough to steal property and remove witnesses," Bucky said.

"Yes."

"Did you ever discover who caused the railway accident," Bella asked.

"No. The company masterfully covered their tracks."

"I'm sorry."

---

They bid Mrs. Ellis farewell and thanked her for her time and hospitality. They promised to let her know if they discovered anything else.

Shuri skipped down the steps of the apartment building and circled around in the lightly falling rain.

"We've accomplished our mission! I want to dance in the streets and go to a pub and find a really old library and read a book that's older than my great grandfather," she said, skipping in circles around Bucky and Bella.

"After we make our report back to the General," Bucky said. "We are still on a mission here, miss excitement."

Before Bucky could contact the General, a loud bang exploded and smoke filled the air.

"What was that?" Shuri asked.

"I don't know, but I don't like it," Bella responded.

"I think I know, and that's why I don't like it," responded Bucky. "Let me go check it out. I'm the least flammable of the three of us."

He disappeared into the smoke. Another bang sounded followed the sound of Bucky shouting.

"Wait here," Bella said. "If anything happens, contact T'Challa and Okoye directly."

Bella ran into the smoke and found the remains of a small explosion. It seemed to have targeted a nearby dumpster. Bits of trash burned and flew down the road, but smoke continued to pour out of the dumpster.

"Bucky? Bucky? Are you OK?" Bella said, searching through the grey swirls until she came across Bucky's limp form near the dumpster.

"Oh, please, no." she cried and ran to him. She lay her head on his chest till she could pick out his steady breathing. His eyes remained fixed forward, staring at nothing.

"Talk to me, babe. Are you OK?" She said, patting his face with her hands. Her nonexistent heart jumped when she heard Shuri's scream.

 

The dark, underground catacomb stank of mold and wet, stagnant air. Metal keys clanked and a heavy door creaked open, sliding painfully across the uneven rock floor.

"You will stay here," a low, grating voice said.

The door shut with a bang, trapping them in the dark, cold, dank emptiness. Bucky could barely see anything other than dim, grey shapes. He rubbed his eyes and blinked. It did not improve his vision. He could feel Bella's smooth arm around him and he could hear Shuri's breathing nearby and that comforted him.

"The London Underground is darker than I remembered," he said with a yawn. He could hear Shuri beginning to stir and whimper.

"Eeeee! Wapi taa? Ni baridi sana!" Shuri said. She sat upright and huddled closer to Bucky's good arm. Bella removed as many of her layers as she could and wrapped them on her equatorial friend who had already begun to shiver.

"We aren't in London anymore," Bella said with a sigh. "We are in Volterra, Italy."

"Italy? How the…." Bucky began.

"What!?" Shuri shouted.

"We've been kidnapped. Some mazimwi set up the explosions as a distraction and then shot you both with sedatives. They used you both as leverage to get us into a van and then an airplane. You've been out for awhile."

Bucky jumped to his feet and began to pace. "Why?" he asked.

"The Volturi, the kings of the mazimwi, heard about my shield. I don't know how. They also knew I would be in London and set a trap for us. They want me to join their guard. If I agree, they let you live. If I don't, they kill you both."

"Not much of an invitation," Bucky said.

"Well, he…Aro that is, the creepy leader, he said it's an invitation that I'm free to accept or refuse. However, you both know too much and the consequence of that is death. He's willing to magnanimously overlook your infraction if I make the right decision. He offered me better accommodations as well, but I'd have to leave you both alone here."

"Ah, that's my girl! You'd rather be with me in prison than without me in a castle!" Bucky said and nudged her. He could faintly see her smile.

"I'm sorry to have brought this on us," she said. "I've never been as scared as when I saw you both unconscious, lying on the ground, surrounded by mazimwi. There were too many for me to take them all and I thought I'd lost you both."

"Don't worry, babe. We'll figure this one out," he said, pausing to pull his wife into his arms. "We are all safe for now." She nuzzled into his shoulder and he could feel her relax. Bucky was even more thankful now for T'Challa's wedding gift. The silvery vibranium arm reached out and brought Shuri nearer to both of them.

"Well, this is not what I mean when I said I wanted to see Italy," Shuri said. "I mean, I guess this is surely ancient and historical, but 'look at me, I've been arrested by bloodthirsty vampires' is hardly Facebook worthy. Now, a picture of me blowing a kiss at Michelangelo's sexy David, that's selfie worthy."

"Shuri, if we all get out of this in one piece, I will personally make sure that selfie happens," Bucky said. "Bella, have your superpower senses picked up on anything that the rest of us have missed?"

"Kidogo sana. They have left us to ourselves for the time being. This cell is huge. It is larger than the council room and we are entirely underground in some kind of catacomb. I have picked up old tracks of both mazimwi and humans. Also, I do not think we are entirely alone. I keep hearing what sounds like a low groan coming from somewhere."

"Ugh! This had better not be like that scene in Star Wars where the trash monster jumps up and tries to eat us," Shuri said.

"Shuri, everything in this place wants to eat you," Bucky said, with a grin.

"Bucky, not helping," Bella said, slapping him on the shoulder.

"You're right, my heart. We could try to break down the door and make a run for it."

"Unlikely. The door is designed to hold vampires. Besides, the noise would give us away. It'd hardly be a subtle escape and we need to aim for subtlety here."

Footsteps haunted the passage outside their cell over the next few hours. A gloved hand carelessly threw a basin of thin gruel and two cups of water through a slot in the wall for the humans. Bucky and Shuri took turns napping. But no voices or visitors disturbed the otherwise oppressive isolation.

"I'm gonna explore a bit more," Bella said and Bucky could hear her light footsteps echoing off what he could only assume were high, cavernous ceilings.

"I hear that sound again," she said as she rounded another corner. "I'm going to check it out."

"Do you want help?"

"Nah. Stick close to Shuri. If it's another zimwi, I want her behind you."

"You got it, babe."

Bucky wrapped Shuri in his metal arm and turned her towards to rock wall to shield her from view. Bella walked back across the cavern and vanished into the darkness.

"Excuse me," she said.

Bucky could not hear a response. He edged around the wall of the cell, keeping Shuri close until he could finally see Bella's form emerge. She stooped over what appeared to be a body huddled in a tight ball, arms curled around its knees.

"Can you hear me? Do you understand me?" she said again and this time she laid a hand on the shuddering figure's back. The shudders instantly stilled and the figure slowly uncurled, like a cat waking from a nap.

The figure stood and turned towards her. Ragged clothes hung off a male body in muddy tatters, pale skin peeking through worn edges. The odor emanating from his unwashed body hinted at an extended season of neglect. He stood nearly a foot taller than Bella, slowly turned towards her, and lifted his head. Wild hair sprang out of his head like dandelions in a field.

She stared, her eyes growing wide in an uneasy fear that Bucky rarely ever saw her wear. The figure still did not speak, nor was there a spark of any coherent understanding.

"Hello? My name is Bella. What is your name?" she asked, attempting to stretch out her hand to greet the figure.

The dark eyes flicked up to her face and traveled down her body, suddenly lit with interest. He threw himself at her feet and began to kiss her feet and caress her ankles.

"Excuse me?" she said, trying to extricate herself from his embrace but found him stuck as securely as an octopus. "Who are you and what are you doing?"

He didn't answer, instead he held her even tighter, as if his heart would break if she moved an inch away from him. Bella stood uncomfortably, the figure wrapped around her feet like a toddler wrapped around the legs of his mother. Dry, tear less wails rent from the unkempt, fetid frame.

"Bella, what's going on?" Bucky asked. "Did you make it cry?"

"Ummm, I'm not sure. He's, umm, kissing my feet and he won't let go."

"No!" Shuri said, trying to peek around Bucky's arm to see. She started to snicker. "I take it back. Maybe this is Facebook worthy."

"Yeah, this is awkward," Bucky said, tentatively releasing Shuri.

"Yah think?" Bella said, trying unsuccessfully to regain possession of her appendages.

As the wails turned into sad whimpers, the figure began to speak in a raspy, rusty voice.

"Bella, don't leave me. Don't leave me again."

 

Part 3: Luanda Magere

---

Chapter 24: Alive

---

Edward Cullen struggled to open his eyes. His head pounded as if being struck by a thousand hammers. He could feel liquid dribbling down his burning throat and someone holding up his head. He swallowed and buried his head in his hands again, dropping his eyelids closed as if compelled by magnets. A few hours later, more liquid came. And again and again it continued, though time long ago lost its meaning for him.

His consciousness ebbed slowly, growing in clarity as the sun circled the earth and shed light on his internal and external surroundings. A chorus of weaver birds chirruped outside and he opened his eyes. He felt as though he'd been asleep, though he knew that to be impossible. Still he could not state with certainty that he had been awake either.

Dawn poured through an open doorway; black silhouettes of flamingos, mountains, and tree branches were illuminated by golden, rose, and taupe streaks across the sky. His nostrils filled with fresh, warm, humid, sticky air, a welcome relief after the long, long years of stale underground mold. Questions niggled at his momentary rush of relief. Where was he? How had he escape Volterra? Why was he here?

These questions would have to remain for the moment as he found himself strangely isolated. Was it silent because he was alone or because he could not hear? His physical ears heard footsteps and someone humming a simple melody nearby, but he could not hear a single thought. He sat up and rubbed his cool forehead, wishing the action would clear the thickly threaded tension from his mind.

He noted now that he sat in a grass thatched hut on a simple foam mattress covered with a plaid blanket. He wore a clean, embroidered white shirt and black pants. He turned and found a cup full of blood sitting by his head, still warm. He quickly drank it, reveling in the feel of life flowing back into his tendons and sinews. It spoke to the desperation of his thirst that his body would accept this source of food. He still felt as parched and as dry as a desert floor, but his thoughts, at least, had returned to coherency, even if his thoughts remained the only ones he could hear.

A man entered through the open door, carrying another cup in his hand. His face showed the growth of a few days beard, brown hair hanging in loose tendrils around his face. He wore a plaid blanket similar to the one Edward sat upon. One arm gleamed silver in the dawning sun. The way he walked, the scars glistening on his tan skin, his wary eyes that spoke the words he kept his mouth from speaking, it all reminded Edward of his brother, Jasper. A soldier, he thought to himself. Or he was once a soldier.

"You are awake," the man said.

"Yes," Edward replied, wondering how long this man had tended to him. How did he know what to feed him?

"How are you feeling?"

"Much improved, I think," he replied. "Who are you and where am I?"

"My name is Bucky Barnes," the man replied. "And you are in the kingdom of Wakanda."

---

Bucky continued to bring Edward cups of blood for two more days until Edward assured him he was well enough to hunt for himself. Edward sat on his mattress, overlooking the lake, trying to gather his thoughts, but it felt like trying to gather ladybugs that escaped from a jar.

Three more dawns came and went; Bucky came and went with them. He remained mostly silent and wary. It was the silence that niggled on Edward. He could not hear the man's thoughts. And his smell. It wasn't quite right-like a human who had gone slightly stale or been over spiced. The man did not seem to fear him, simply maintained his distance.

The evening of the third day, Bucky returned. He came accompanied by a tall, African man dressed in an embroidered shirt, similar to the one Edward found on himself. They came and sat on the floor inside his hut.

He felt even more disconcerted as he realized he could not read this new mind either. His head no longer throbbed, but his gift had not returned. Had his time of deprivation somehow damaged him? He felt unsettled and even more vulnerable than when he woke to find himself being nursed back to health by a human.

"Edward, this is T'Challa, King of Wakanda," Bucky said in introduction. "We have some questions for you."

Edward nodded.

"Do you remember how you left Volterra?" Bucky asked.

"No," he said, his most recent memories seemed dark and befuddled, hidden in thirst and grief. "Why am I here?"

"You are here because the Volturi kidnapped the princess of Wakanda along with Bucky here and another of our citizens. When I approached the Volturi to negotiate their release, we included you in our terms," T'Challa said. His voice and mannerisms all bespoke of a man familiar with authority and unperturbed by power.

"I do not mean this to sound ungrateful, but why?" Edward asked.

"Judging from the state we found you in, it looked as though you had suffered Aro's hospitality long enough."

Edward appraised the human with a more critical eye and cursed himself even more for his current lack of hearing.

"You are human. How could you know of Aro and the Volturi and still come out alive?" he blurted out.

T'Challa smiled, his brilliantly white teeth gleaming against his dark beard.

"The Volturi are not the only kingdom with secrets. Let us summarize by saying that Wakanda has a long memory and our paths have crossed with what we call the mazimwi, or, as you would say, vampires, in the times of our fathers. Our guardians have both fought against and fought with your kind in our long history. Aro is no fool and he was not willing to lose the lives of so many of his subjects as would have happened if he refused to release my people."

"I didn't know it was possible…" Edward began and then fell back into silence, his mind swirling with the implications of his current situation.

"Tell me, zimwi, how much do you know of Wakanda?"

"Small nation-state in eastern-central Africa, primarily subsistence farmers with primary export as coffee. Reluctant to develop tourist industry or allow foreign investments. Most notable for peace-keeping efforts in the Congolese, Sudanese, Rwandan, Ugandan, and Kenyan conflicts," Edward said, reciting his perfect recall of what he'd heard on a BBC documentary some years back.

Bucky chuckled, earning a swift glare from Edward.

"You will have much to learn, zimwi," T'Challa said with a proud secrecy that irritated Edward further.

"My name is Edward," he retorted.

"So we have heard, but here you must earn your name. But it is not important now. Tell me, how did you manage to get imprisoned in Volterra in the first place?"

"It's a long story," Edward responded, pausing to sift through his emotions and the level of detail to dive into. "It was some years back…I don't know what year it is now or I would tell you exactly. The woman I loved died and I swore I would not live in a world without her. It is nearly impossible to for my kind to end our lives without assistance. I went to Volterra to end my miserable existence. It, uh, did not go according to plan."

"I take it Aro was not willing to end your life for you?" T'Challa said.

"No. Aro thought it was waste…I have a rather unique gift and he wanted me to join his guard. He has grown insatiable in his current quest of treasure collecting. He has been collecting gifted individuals around him for a very long time and he saw me as another prize. I refused to submit and he refused to release me. It was a stalemate, so I stayed in prison to encourage my quicker compliance."

"What gift?" T'Challa interrupted, sharing a wary glance with Bucky.

"I can read minds…or I could. I cannot at the moment, but I do not know why."

"Kazi hiyo imefanikiwa," Bucky whispered to T'Challa and T'Challa nodded, the two sharing yet another secret in a language Edward could not understand. Edward pulled at his hair in frustration.

"Who was the woman that you loved?" T'Challa asked, turning back to him.

Edward sighed and looked dismally at the floor.

"I met her in Washington back in 2006. Bella Swan was my life and the highlight of my existence," he answered, wistfully, his black and gold eyes gazing off into his memories. "She was human and it was not safe for her to be around my family and me. She almost died twice because of us and I knew I'd rather do anything than put her in danger, so I left so she could have the chance at a normal, happy, human life.

"Yet, after I left, she died in a car crash," he said, choking slightly on the words and covering his forehead with his hand. "My family read about it in the paper and my sister called to tell me. Bella survived so many other near-death experiences and it was a stupid, petty, preventable car crash that finally took her. If I had known how few, precious years remained, I never would have…what I mean is…ah, I cannot change the past. I had no reason to live once she was dead and I still don't. It would be to all of our benefit if you could simply find a way to end me and be done with it."

"Eeee! We did not bring you all the way here to kill you, bwana. Aro's justice is usually swift and permanent. There is a reason you are still alive and we intend to find it," T'Challa responded.

"Justice has not been kind to me," Edward said glumly. "However, I am grateful to be released from that blasted prison cell. Anywhere is better than being trapped in Volterra."

"Tell me, when we came across you in Volterra, you were nearly unresponsive. What happened to bring you to such a state?" T'Challa asked.

"Another stalemate. I refused human blood and they refused to feed me on animals. They said it was unnatural and I refused to be any more of a monster than I had to be. After I took off the limbs of the guards who tried to force feed me, they left me to starve. A few years in, I went mad with thirst. I have no memories from that time on."

"It doesn't make sense," T'Challa noted. "Why would Aro maintain your life as he did? What did he have to gain from a rebellious zimwi?"

Edward shrugged. "I am curious-you gave me blood from animals. How did you know what to feed me?"

"As I said, you are not our first zimwi and we have some knowledge on what your kind is capable of and needs to survive. We also knew about your unique family."

How? Edward thought to himself. How could they know all that? It was too much. He found his feelings of wariness multiplying exponentially.

"What are you?" he asked, nodding towards Bucky. "You do not smell like other humans."

"We currently have two other American refugees who have sought sanctuary in Wakanda. Sergeant Barnes is a genetically enhanced super soldier. The serum that has transformed his human body has also shifted his chemical makeup and gives him a slightly different scent to your senses."

Edward stared at Bucky again, nostrils flaring slightly as he smelled the air around him. Bucky watched him with that same guarded silence on his face. T'Challa spoke again.

"Zimwi, you are welcome to stay in our lands here as long as you refrain from feeding from humans and live peacefully with our citizens. Or you can also choose to leave at will and go where you please. We have the capacity to track down the location of your coven, if you so wish.

"However, as you make your decision, you need to know two things. First, Bella Swan is still alive. She arrived in Wakanda over a decade ago and has lived here ever since. And second, Bucky, here, is Bella's husband."

 

T'Challa watched the zimwi carefully to gauge his response. At first, his pale face, as white as an egret's feathers, froze without expression. T'Challa glanced towards Bucky and found he also kept his eyes on the zimwi, muscles tense with uncertain anxiety, glazed over with a façade of stillness. He curled the silver fingers of his metal arm and cleared his throat.

Three men waited and none knew for what they tarried.

Edward vanished out the door of the hut before either T'CHalla or Bucky had seen him rise. A resounding cracking of wood echoed through the compound followed by the rustle of leaves and protests of displaced birds.

"Please tell me that wasn't my mango tree," Bucky said, his voice heavy with resignation because he already knew the answer.

"Pole sana, bwana," T'Challa said. "It is better he takes out his heartache on your mango tree than your face."

Bucky sighed and ran his fingers through his unkempt brown hair. "I suppose that's true. I'm glad that's done."

"No. That was the beginning, not the end," T'Challa responded. "Keep close to Bella. I do not trust his mind or his control and I do not want to find out which of you would be the first to receive his anger."

"Do you think he will attack?"

"I cannot tell. We have installed the tracker in his earlobe, as we did with Bella, so we can maintain his exact location at all times. As you experienced in Volterra, knowing the location of our mazimwi has many benefits. In this one's case, it is as much for his safety as ours to know where he is. I would not be surprised if Aro tries to force his prisoner's return to Volterra when our eyes are busy elsewhere."

T'Challa and Bucky stood and ducked their heads to avoid hitting the doorway for the hut as they exited into the warm, fragrant night air. It hummed with life-full of the chorus of frogs. The zimwi had disappeared, leaving the heavy-laden tree uprooted like a weed in the shamba.

"You didn't tell him," Bucky said. "About Bella."

"I didn't tell him what?"

"She is a zimwi."

"He will know."

"You didn't want to give him a warning?"

"Why? His cup is already full today."

Bucky shook his head and kicked at a clump of grass.

"Ask Bella to continue shielding him. I do not want him to discover our secrets through digging through people's minds. It seems to be working for now. When he returns, which he will, she will need to be prepared to speak with him," T'Challa said.

T'Challa could not anticipate the outcome of such a meeting, nor did he mind so long as Bella and Bucky walked through unharmed. His mind felt pressed by more significant worries than the patching up of old wounds. His own heartaches seemed too fresh.

T'Challa paused to pick up one of the fallen, yellow mangoes and he took a bite. The sweet juice dribbled down his beard. He tossed another to Bucky who also ate.

"I must return. I need to rest before I face the council and inform them we have another zimwi. They will not be pleased. They have not forgiven me for the Watu wa Wayama."

"He's under her jurisdiction, ndiyo?" Bucky said.

"Aya. He is another child of the spirits. He falls under Bella's leadership along with the Watu Wa Wanyama. She is free to handle him as she sees necessary. However, until they have spoken and resolved their differences, you will continue as his guardian. Make sure he knows the rules of hunting and has a supply of Shuri's mafuta ya zimwi. Sawa?"

Bucky raised both eyebrows and said, "Mmmmmm," in agreement. He gathered another handful of the fallen mangoes to send home with T'Challa and sat on the fallen tree.

T'Challa left the deep darkness of the lakeside and chased the lights of Birnin Zana and the solace of his bedroom. He sought to slip in through the shadows before any of his guards or servants could notice him, but he was not fast enough. He inwardly groaned as he saw a King's Guard approach him.

"Bwana wangu, umerudi nyumbani."

"Ndiyo, Matoyo. Sasa?"

"Kuja hapa sasa, bwana." The guard motioned for T'Challa to follow him and brought him to his office. He pointed his chin towards the desk. A large, wooden crate wrapped in rough rope took over half of its glassy face.

"Nini?" T'Challa asked.

"The border tribe found it at dusk," he replied. "It is addressed to you but lacks the name of the sender. We performed scans on the contents and they came back negative for traces of physical or chemical warfare. We did not want to open it without your permission."

T'Challa nodded and pulled a long knife out of his belt. He cut through the rope and pried open the rough wooden planks of the crate. He circumspectly removed the lid. He came closer and peered inside and his eyes grew as large as a chameleon's.

"Mfalme wangu?" Matoyo asked, worry marring his tone.

"Send for the General at once," T'Challa managed to force out of his breathless chest.

Matoyo saluted and disappeared. T'Challa took advantage of his momentary solitude to slump into his chair, his head heavy in his hands. He pulled out the small envelope taped to the inner lid of the box and unfolded a silvery, elegant piece of stationary paper, engraved with a watermark of Volterra. A curved, flawless script spelled out the following words.

"As you requested, in exchange for our prisoner. Deliver him to the border."

Okoye burst through the door, spear in hand, and greeted the king with a solemn nod. Her bleary eyes gave evidence to the late night hour.

"General," he said and nodded towards both the note and the box. Okoye read the note first and then looked into the box. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

"It is a head!" she exclaimed.

"It is the head of Aro of Volterra."

"But, why?"

T'Challa remained silent and ran his hands through his thick, curled beard, deep in thought.

"General, prepare yourself. We will need to ask our new zimwi some more questions."

---

Edward ran. He ran as far as he could get in half a night and then he ran some more. He needed to think, he needed to kill something, he needed to uproot something and his limbs paced with restless, disconcerted energy.

He took down three impala and uprooted a flame tree and he still felt unsettled. He climbed to the highest point of a thick, stocky baobab tree and descended into the turbulent chaos of his thoughts.

Alive. His Bella, his reason for existence was alive. How? It wasn't possible. The wolves, the papers, her own mother-they all agreed upon her death. Yet, she remained alive, hidden away from him for so many years in this foreign land. While he sat bound and descending into insanity to Volterra, she lived on without him, so far from him, separated from him.

Alive, but not his. Alive, but without him, still far from him, and still separated from him.

He always hoped she would find happiness, marry, and enjoy a normal life, but he never stopped to think about how difficult it would be to experience firsthand the reality of that path.

He needed to see her. He found himself bubbling with questions, like a volcano on the point of eruption.

He leapt from the top of his tree and ran as fast as he could back the way he had come.

---

Edward watched as the soldier opened a gate and ushered a dozen long-horned cattle through with a stick. He clicked and whistled until the last hoof passed him with a low snort. The metal gate closed with a clang and he fixed the clasp tight.

The dawning sun nearly broke through the tree line as Edward ran towards him.

"Bucky, where is she?" he asked, his eyes begging and pleading. Bucky met him with a cool, silent appraisal before nodding his head slightly to the left. Edward ran again, searching for the longed for, familiar burn in his throat, the exquisite agony that signaled the presence of his singer. But it never came.

He continued running around the shores of the lake, upsetting rushes, cranes, and a small crocodile with his movements. He could trace the now familiar scent of the soldier. He could sense a few dozen other distinct human scents and an innumerable variety of animals, but not the one he sought.

Then it hit him. It was Bella's scent, but not Bella's scent. It was like her, but also like him. He stopped in his tracks, nostrils flaring as the implications of this washed over him like an ice bath.

He followed the trail and called out to her.

"Bella? Bella? I need to speak with you, please."

After a moment, he heard light footsteps and a figure garbed in a deep mahogany African dress walked towards him and he nearly sank to his knees.

His Bella-the one who haunted his every waking moment and irrevocably burned his memories with her apparition-his Bella had been beautiful. But this was not her.

The woman he saw met him with eyes that shone with the heat of the sun instead of the warmth of the earth. Her flawless ivory skin now bleached her of the rosy blush that had been his doorway into her emotions. Her delicate, temporal, mortal body now wore the impervious, impenetrable frozen figure that curved and straightened with more sensuality than any statue of Venus he had ever seen.

He felt overcome with nausea, realizing that despite all his efforts, he had become like him.

This Bella, this new Bella, was overwhelmingly beautiful. She had metamorphosed into a glorious reincarnation of the woman he once loved.

But his heart burst and broke within him as he grieved again for the death of his Bella. She had lost that precious, human part of her forever. Her soul was now gone and it was his fault. He didn't know how, but he knew he must be at the root of it. And he hated himself again for the fault of his existence.

Bella stood in silence, waiting for him to speak as he gawked stupidly, transfixed in one place.

"You look better," she said, motioning towards him.

"Umm, yeah, I, uh, don't know what I looked like before, but I definitely feel better," he said, forcing himself back into the present, swallowing his full heart back into his chest instead of spilling it at her feet like the idiot he was.

"You wanted to talk?" she said.

"Yes," he said, his sense of awkwardness burning like bare feet on hot sand.

"Come on," she said. Her shoeless feet danced along a dirt path back in the direction he had come. There, not far from where he first woke, another mud hut sat overlooking the lake. He wondered how he hadn't noticed her scent when before now. She opened a wooden door and beckoned him inside.

She beckoned towards the wood and foam couch and he sat in the cool shade of the hut, a silence so thick and heavy it tasted like wet concrete on his tongue.

This hut was full of things of life-a trunk of clothes, a box of books, some stools, a rack of kitchen utensils, and a flowered curtain which hid the bed from the view of visitors. Photographs lined one wall showing their favorite moments of life.

It smelled of earth and grass and charcoal, of tea and soap and cooking oil; but most of all, it smelled of the soldier and his wife, of both of them living their lives comingled within that small world of their own.

Edward swallowed deeply and stopped breathing.

"What did you want to talk about?" Bella finally asked.

Edward rubbed the back of his neck and stuttered, attempting to even remember what he wanted to ask her. There was simultaneously too many words and not enough.

"Bella, you're alive! Well…sort of alive," he said, grimacing as he said the last part. "I…uh…I thought you were dead."

"I almost was. I had a vampire tracking me for quite a while."

Edward ground his teeth together. "Who was it?"

"I don't have many memories from my human life," Bella said. "She had red hair but that is all I remember."

"Victoria!" Edward shouted, jumping to his feet and bumping his head against the grass roof. "How did she get past me? Bella, I tracked her. For months and months I tried to find her, to keep you safe, but she must have some kind of gift. She slipped past me again and again.

"I'm so sorry, Bella. I hold myself responsible. Charlie, Jacob, Billy, and you…I should have never left you alone the way I did. I know there is nothing I can say to remedy all the ways I have failed you, but you have to understand, first it was James and then Jasper, and I didn't want to be the one to ruin your life. I thought I was helping you by leaving."

He sank back onto the brightly colored foam cushions of the couch and wilted. He hung his head in his hands, fearing to meet her silent, golden eyes.

"Edward…I'm sorry, do you go by Edward or Ed or Eddy?" she finally said.

He sat straight up and faced her, unsure if she spoke in jest. "It's Edward…"

"Edward, you need to understand, when I said I don't have many memories of my human life, I was not exaggerating. I woke up to this life with almost no memories of my past life except for little hazy glimpses. When we found you in Volterra, I didn't know who you were until Aro told us your name."

His heart sank. "What do you remember about me?" he asked.

"I remember a rainy pine forest, your eyes, and the feeling of loss. That's all."

"You only remember the day I left," he said, more to himself than to her. He watched her composed silence and wished either she were less composed or he were more so. "Bella, I lied to you. When I left and I told you that I didn't love you anymore, it was a miserable, horrible lie. I wouldn't have left if I didn't love you so much. But you believed it so easily. How could you believe so little of me after all we'd been through together? After so many times I told you I'd love you for the rest of my existence?"

"Hold on, here," Bella said, her curious gaze replaced with smoldering anger. "Let me get this straight…you lied to me…and then got upset with me for believing your lie?"

"Yes…" he began, but cut himself off when she burst into laughter. "What is so humorous?"

Her musical laughter continued to bounce off the rough walls, surrounding him. He would have found it beautiful, if it wasn't directed at him. She stopped and seemed to make an internal decision. She leaned towards him, her elbows holding up her face.

"I think we are going to need to start over. Really, I don't remember any of this and so I can't speak for what has been or what once was…Let's just say, I won't hold your past against you if you won't hold my past against me. Deal?"

"But, Bella, I…I failed you in so many ways. I can't begin to apologize enough for…" he began. She interrupted him again with a wave of her hand.

"Whatever happened in the past, it is in the past. The fruit of it has led me to where I am now and so I wouldn't change it. Yes, I would rather Charlie and the Blacks were not unfortunate victims caught in the crossfire, however, I can't change that. I've made my peace. You need to make yours."

Edward ran his fingers through his unruly copper hair, tugging at the edges as if that would pull the thoughts more easily to the forefront of his scattered mind.

"I just wanted you to be safe and happy and live a normal, human life," he said.

"Edward, I am safe and happy and living a wonderful life."

"But you have lost your humanity and your soul, despite everything I did to protect you. It was all a waste. I should have never left you," Edward said, leaning closer towards her and trying to infuse his gaze with as much intensity as he could muster. He did not think his pleas would succeed but he felt compelled to try. He took her hand in his and held on as if she alone could keep him from tumbling down the cold cliff of reality hanging beneath his feet.

"Bella, I've loved you with every ounce of my being since the day I met you. We belong together, we always have. I know I told you to pretend as if I never existed and move on with your life, but that was when I thought you could still live a human life. You are like me now. As unfortunate as that is, the benefit is that we can be together now."

He flashed a crooked smile towards her. Bella's eyes flashed from golden warmth to fiery heat as she turned to face Edward.

"If you think that I am the Bella Swan you knew, I'm not. That version of me died a decade ago, first in the forest, then in a car crash, and finally at the fangs of a thirsty vampire. I am no longer that woman. I am Bella Barnes, personal bodyguard of the princess of Wakanda, a member of the Dora Milaje, zimwi leader of the Watu Wa Wanyama, and I live here with my husband. I have a good life, a loving family, and I spend my life protecting those I love from harm. I don't regret becoming what I am and I wouldn't change it."

"But you…." He stuttered, at a loss for words. "You don't understand," he began, "You don't have to settle with a human. I'm here now and…"

Edward's statement ended as an angry palm slapped him across his cheek.

"Wacha! Funga mdomo yako! You will address my husband with honor or I will defend his honor myself," she said, anger overflowing into her words. "If you so speak of him again, I will personally tear you limb from limb."

Edward sat stunned, holding his hand in the place where her fingers and slapped him. His golden eyes met hers, his full of surprise and hers full of fury.

"I'm sorry," he said. "For so many things."

Edward hung his head low as he kicked stones along the shoreline. Jealousy burned like a hearth fire in his breast as he watched the human soldier walk silently and confidently across the dirt path to the hut he had vacated. Edward glared at him, spitting daggers at him in his thoughts, before he turned and ran as far and as fast as his legs would carry him back into the savannah.

 

Edward turned to stare out the window of the Land Cruiser, but the landscape outside did not garner much interest. Mile after mile of empty grasslands, dotted with the occasional hut and boys herding flocks of goats. The landscape morphed as they bumped along, turning from grassy plains into lush forest, from golden yellow to deep emerald, and from dry heat to oppressively humid.

"Tumefika," said the woman in the red and gold uniform driving the car. She pulled up in front of a series of huts and opened her car door. She stopped to stare at the brilliant purple flowers of the jacaranda tree in full bloom, raining purple flowers on the tan paint of the car. Her mouth seemed caught between a smile and a grimace.

It was only the second time he had heard her speak. Their entire three hour car ride he remained bathed in a mental and physical silence. None of his unwilling companions so much as whispered under their breath.

He found the car of warrior women waiting for him on the border of Wakanda, just as dawn broke over the horizon. He could not tell which disturbed him more-their knowledge of his exact location, their ordered command to come with them, or his lack of insight into where or why he was to follow.

Three other woman in red and silver uniforms exited from the back doors of the car. They opened the trunk and unloaded a series of bags and suitcases. They stacked these inside the nearest hut.

A crackling, smoking fire lay in the center of the compound of huts. A pot smelling of ginger and cloves boiled over it, balanced on three stones around the fire. Near the fire, stirring the pot, crouched the soldier, wearing a grey t-shirt and ripped khaki cargo pants.

"Karibuni, Dora Milaje," the soldier said. "Chakula iko tayari."

He stood and shook hands with each woman. Then he came to each with a basin of warm water and soap to wash their hands in preparation for their breakfast.

"Asante, bwana," one woman responded. She dished out mugs of steaming broth and banana leaf wrapped bundles of a steaming root-like vegetable to each of the others. Edward sat on a tree stump in silence and watched as they picked at the food with their fingers. His patience felt like a frayed rope on the point of snapping and he barely quenched his urge to jump up and pace. When he could bear the suspense no longer, he turned himself to address the soldier, the one he felt most likely to answer his questions.

"Why am I here?" Edward said, with more accusation than curiosity in his voice.

"We need to ask you some questions and this is a safe, protected space to do it in," the soldier said with an expressionless face.

"It's hardly necessary to force me into such an isolated location. I can assure you I am well in control of myself and am not a danger to any of your countrymen," Edward retorted, feeling defensive. "Even when starving and insane, I resisted human blood and maintained control. This hardly seems necessary."

"The Dora Milaje are not here to restrain you. They are here to protect you," Bucky said, solemnly, wringing his hands over his forehead.

Edward gave him an incredulous look. "Protect me? From what?"

"The Volturi want you back," Bucky said, his statement crashing into Edward like the lid of a piano in a silent room. "They sent the King a message requesting an exchange and that we bring you to the borderlands to fetch you."

"So I am here to be handed back over to them?"

"No! No! You are here so you can give us information so we can plan how to protect ourselves when we refuse to hand you over to them."

Edward sank onto the ground. The tall, stately woman in a red and gold uniform came and sat beside them on a three-legged stool, golden spear in her hand as if an extension of her limb.

"Edward, I assume you've met General Okoye?" Bucky said, nodding his head in the woman's direction.

"We have spent a long car ride together, though I cannot exactly say we have been introduced."

Okoye rolled her eyes and disregarded any pretense of politeness.

"Zimwi, the King is at this moment arguing with the council over his decision to grant you asylum," Okoye said, leaning forward, her dark eyes flashing with passionate energy. "The council was not happy when King T'Chaka, our former King, chose to grant Lieutenant Barnes not only her life, but sanctuary in Wakanda. They grew even more uneasy when King T'Challa gave the same gifts to Sergeant Barnes. The arrival of the Watu Wa Wanyama made them angry. Your presence amongst us made them livid.

"The King will not speak of Volterra's threats until he must because that may be enough to tip the scale against the King and I fear how the council will respond. People who act out of fear are blind to the damage their actions may cause."

"Who are the Watu…the Watuwi…that word you said?" Edward asked.

"The People of the Animals…some would call them shapeshifters who can change from animal to human form. They are immortal and are children of the marriage between the spirits and the earth, as you are," the General said. "A few years ago, our shared enemy, this mchawi, or sorceress, began her attacks of both of our kinds of peoples. The Watu Wa Wanyama knew of Bella's origins and came to her seeking her protection. Lieutenant Barnes has served as their commander ever since, as she is yours for the duration of your stay in Wakanda."

Edward nodded.

"Where is Bella now?" he asked.

"Lieutenant Barnes needed to hunt and to fulfill her duties to the Watu Wa Wanyama in the Impenetrable Forest. She is preparing for her departure," Okoye said.

"Who is this enemy?" Edward asked.

"This mchawi, we suspect she has been formulating plans to infiltrate Wakanda for some few decades and we have been growing suspicious of her desires to conquer our nation. It is only recently that we have begun to suspect she has ties with the Volturi."

"You mean you think she is a vampire?" Edward asked, puzzled.

"No. She is not. Thus far, she only appears as spirit of the water. She has yet to manifest herself in a physical body. In other worlds, she has appeared in what seems to be a physical human form, but embodied in a form that is both physically and spiritually more powerful than a mortal."

"Other worlds?"

"Yes. She does not find her origins on Earth. She has conquered at least two other worlds that we know of. Those worlds have ceased to exist and we suspect she desires a new throne."

"Planets? Worlds? This sounds crazy!" Edward exclaimed. "You expect me to believe all this?"

"Zimwi, I do not care if you believe it or not. I am telling you the facts and I expect you to listen and then answer my questions," Okoye said with a grim, piercing stare at Edward.

"What are your questions?" he responded quietly.

"First, why does the Volturi want you back?"

"Easy. Aro has always wanted to add me to his guard because of my gift."

"Hapana, Zimwi. Aro is dead," Okoye said. She pushed a single button on what appeared to be a beaded bracelet and a translucent image projected into the air between them.

Edward's mouth fell agape in shock, even more so as he took in the image on display-Aro's decapitated head. Okoye pushed her beads again. The image vanished.

"His head was sent in exchange for your return. Now, tell us, why are you more valuable to the Volturi than Aro?"

"I…uh…I do not know," Edward stuttered. He began to feel as if he woke to discover the ocean in the sky and the sky beneath his feet.

"Hmph. Do you wish to return to Volterra and use your gift for their purposes?"

"No! I'd rather you kill me here and now than return to that pit of hell! " Edward said, jumping to his feet as he shouted his answer.

Okoye motioned for him to return to his seat on the tree stump. He obeyed.

"It is as I thought. The reason they want you back is not to utilize your gift. What good is an unwilling slave? Unless they can force you to do their bidding, which has not worked in the past, than they do not want you for your gift. Think, Zimwi, why would they want you besides reading minds? What can you give them that they wish for?"

Edward sighed. "It's possible…I didn't know until last night…They may want me back so they can use me as leverage to force my sister to work for them."

"Speak, Zimwi."

"She…uh...my sister, Alice, she came to see me last night…and told me that the reason Aro kept me alive was because she agreed to work for them from time-to-time," Edward said, uncharacteristically tripping over his words. "She, uh, she is able to see the future…or parts of it. But it is possible that they want me back so they can force her to continue working for them."

The General pursed her lips and her bare forehead wrinkled deep thought. "It is possible…but no, I am not convinced. It may have been a convenient ploy in the past, and one which brought Aro nothing but benefit, but I see no benefit to the mchawi. If she truly desired to utilize your soothsayer, she would not have found Aro so dispensable…Possibly with you and your sister working in tandem you could be useful to her, but I still feel in my heart that is not the real motivation."

"You think the second option is more likely?" Bucky said.

"Yes. It strategically more sound with more long-range implications for Wakanda."

"What do you mean?" Edward asked.

"I mean that the mchawi does not care about you or your gift at all. She simply desires to remove possible threats and you will provide a convenient excuse to attack us. Someone wishes to conquer Wakanda. We believe it is this mchawi. But she lacks the means to defeat us in direct warfare and she will need to employ indirect tactics to gain entry. When we refuse to turn you over to the Volturi, she will use that as a façade to provide legitimacy to her attempts at conquest, in whatever form she dispenses them."

"I don't understand. If she controls the Volturi, that should be enough for a frontal attack," Edward said.

"No, not a legitimate one," Okoye said. "She is playing a game…one she has been planning for decades. She is not in a hurry. If the Volturi guard came and attacked us directly, she would give away the secrets of both of our armies on the world stage, which neither of us wishes for. We both gain and maintain power through secrecy. So, she will find a way to attack and conquer from the shadows, using human armies as puppets, in a proxy war controlled by her immortal legions."

"So, what do you need from me?" Edward asked.

"I need you to tell me everything you can about the Volturi…and I mean everything. Every guard, every gift, every quirk, every side entrance, and every crack in their castle that you can think of. In exchange, we will keep you safe here on this homestead until we decide what our next step will be."

Edward nodded. "I will do everything I can to help."

"Good," Okoye said. She pushed another button on her beads and nodded towards him. "Speak."

---

Okoye sat on a tree branch, running her spear back and forth along its bark, listen to the screeching sound of the metal against the wood. She let her foot hang loose off the branch and watched out over the waving branches of the jacaranda and banana trees.

She could see Bucky climbing a papaya tree nearby. He swung his panga to cut off ripe fruits for Ayo to catch in her lesso below him. Ayo laughed as she nearly missed one, catching the green and yellow fruit on her foot.

The zimwi emerged from one of the huts in a brand new light blue polo shirt and khaki pants. He still wore thunder clouds behind his brows and carried within him a jerrican of grief so full it caused his strong shoulders to slouch inwards. He wandered aimlessly across the compound, then froze in midstep and placed his hands over his ears. His eyes flickered around the occupants of the compound and he brought his hands back to his side. He did not resume his movements.

"Ona," Okoye whispered to Bucky, nodding her head towards the pale man. "Bella ameenda saa hii. Zimwi anawezi kusikia tena."

Bucky followed her hand and watched as the zimwi stood motionless, cocking his head as if listening. He inhaled and exhaled deeply before he met their eyes with his own.

"What do you mean I'm out of range of Bella's shield?" the zimwi said to Bucky, narrowing his eyes. Bucky turned to Okoye and nodded. "You are right."

"Of course I am right," she said. "Now what?"

"Now, we learn to be careful what we think until Bella comes back in range."

Edward turned his fierce golden eyes on Bucky again and Bucky shrugged. "Bella has been shielding you since you arrived. I'm guessing when you are out of range of her shield, you can hear again."

"Her shield?"

"Yeah. She's got some crazy skills. She can shield supernatural and mental attacks with it over a few hundred people across a range of about two miles" Bucky said. "None of the mazimwi in Volterra could breach it."

The relief poured off of Edward like waves of water. "I thought something was wrong with me….that my time in Volterra caused it."

"Nah, that's just Bella's job-to protect us all," Bucky said. The General waited for him to elaborate. He didn't. In typical Bucky fashion, he used his words sparingly.

"We are shielding our secrets from your mind for your own sake as much as for ours. In case the Volturi do manage to recapture you, it will be of benefit to both parties if you know as little of our secrets as possible. You cannot be forced to share what you do not know. We would prefer to keep it that way," Okoye said.

The zimwi kept quiet again and Okoye's discomfort grew as the reality of her permeable brain grew in her consciousness.

Bucky pulled a hand into his pocket and pulled out a small vial of oil. He threw it towards the zimwi who caught it easily and lifted an eyebrow in question.

"Rub that on your exposed skin," Bucky replied. "You are starting to, you know…" and he wiggled the fingers of both arms in the air.

"He is trying to tell you that your skin is beginning to sparkle again and you need to reapply," Okoye said.

Bucky gave her a sideways glance and threw up his hands. "You can't tell a man he sparkles."

"I didn't. I told a zimwi."

Bucky's sigh gave the silent apology that Okoye would never make.

The zimwi cautiously sniffed the vial before he acquiesced. Then he sat staring at the vial as if it, too, were capable of communicating to him.

"The Princess designed it so Bella would be free to travel during the daylight hours without drawing attention," Okoye said, answering his unasked question.

He turned towards her, his scowl momentarily replaced with a look almost approaching awe, as a convicted criminal looks upon a judge who has granted him full pardon. He held it up into the sunlight, gazing into the white, translucent oil and he whispered one word to himself.

"Freedom."

---

T'Challa walked the halls of the palace with his head held low. He could still hear the shouts of the elders in the council chamber ringing in his tired ears. The only solace he could find at the moment would be with his sister. Her laughter and enthusiasm never failed to lift his spirits. She had the innate ability to remind him there was always a way to make something work, whether a gadget, computer program, crazy dream, or a relationship. She never lost her belief in a solution being possible, even if not currently discovered.

He found Shuri in her own little kingdom-her lab where she ruled as both empress and subject. He saw her cornrows first, covered in headphones. He walked to her lab table and placed his hands on both her shoulders. He laughed as he felt her jump in surprise. His laughter quickly disintegrated as he saw the tears cascading down her brown cheeks and splashing onto her lab coat.

She pulled the headphones off her ears and sank into his chest.

"Brother," she said, nuzzling deeper.

"Shuri, why are you crying? What is troubling you?" he said, his heart sinking within him.

She threw her face into his shirt and sobbed, soaking his shirt through. He ran his fingers over the fine braids in her brown and gold hair. She choked and inhaled, struggling to right herself. She used the back of her lab coat to wipe away her tears, leaving wet trails along the edge.

"It's Mrs. Ellis," she said.

"The mzee you met in London? What has happened?"

"She's….she's dead," Shuri said.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"She sent me a message," she responded and unplugged her headphones. "I found an email this morning that contained a voice message. Listen."

She pushed a button and T'Challa could hear heavy breathing and a few bumps before the hazy voice of an old woman came on.

"Princess Shuri, it was a pleasure to make your acquaintance and that of your companions. I wish we were able to meet again someday, but I do not think we will be meeting on this side of heaven. I have reason to believe my time on this earth will be shortened and so I wanted to take this opportunity to make sure I contacted you with my recent discovery.

"After our conversation, I opened up my old case files on Professor Kirke's financial affairs and the railway accident. The company that acquired Professor Kirke's properties has undergone quite a number of name changes, however their most current reincarnation is a joint American-Italian company that goes by the name of Ketterly, Inc. I do not believe it is a coincidence that Professor Kirke's uncle, you remember, dearie? The one I told you invented the magic rings? That is the one and he went by the name of Andrew Ketterly.

"I do believe my nosiness has gained me a bit of unwanted attention, but I am an old woman now and I have lived my life so I do not mourn it being shortened. I only hope and pray this information can help save lives other than mine.

"Sending you all my love and best wishes. Mrs. Ellis."

Shuri turned to T'Challa, tears spurting once again. "The recording came in yesterday but one. The London papers this morning said Susan Pevensie Ellis died in an explosion from a gas leak in her flat. The entire place burned with her in it." Shuri said.

T'Challa took her in her arms and let her cry, inwardly churning with fear and confusion.

"….she….she looked lovely in her red hat and she was much too lovely to go in that way."

"No, sister. You are right. She was once a queen and should have been buried in honor."

Shuri sniffed and rubbed at her eyes again.

"Can we bury her here next to Bella? We can hold a proper royal funeral for her spirit, even if her body is already gone."

"Of course," T'Challa said. He held his small sister in his arms and silently pushed a button to fetch the General to him as quickly as possible.

 

Edward drifted around the forest surrounding the small lake. He spent long hours on top of a tree watching life pass on below him. He had to admit to himself it was a relief to return to the side of the lake and be spared the constant supervision of the Dora Milaje. The warriors who guarded him set him ill at ease. Their flawless control over their waking thoughts carried over into medicinally induced dreamless sleep. Their perfectly rehearsed mental trails allowed no margin for slips as they focused intently on guarding him.

The absurdity. That he would be reduced to being watched by human guards. As if they could protect him from the most elite fighting force of his kind. As if they could even protect themselves from him.

Yet still they stood, spears in hand, minds focused on their task, determined to complete their mission. All the gifts of the Volturi did not equate into corresponding harvests of mental discipline or loyalty in their guard. Maybe the Volturi relied too much on their obvious strengths and not enough on the internal powers that this handful of Dora Milaje warriors excelled in.

The soldier's mind proved less impenetrable. Attempts at medicinally altering his sleeping patterns failed to submerge his dreams completely and it was in the dark hours of the night that Edward saw the soldier's unguarded thoughts.

James Buchanan Barnes exemplified exactly the kind of man Edward would have hunted and killed during his rebel days. He could still see the red haze of Bucky's past in flashbacks and dreams that haunted the man, his single-minded intent to kill and destroy with a perfect, emotionless efficiency.

Edward hated him. He loathed each smile, each meal, each night's sleep. The man had everything Edward coveted and then some and he didn't deserve any of it.

Yet, Bucky's waking mind filled with as drastically different a man as ice differs from flame. In his body, he bore two men. The former was not of his own creation-his own inner demon, but that of a man possessed by the vile blood-thirst of others outside of himself.

And Edward hated him even more for that because it made Edward's own tarnished conscience seem even blacker. Edward could not blame his body count on the influence of others or even on his own vampiric nature. The darkness came from within him and so he loathed himself even more than he loathed the one armed thief of Bella's heart.

T'Challa's summons cut their "delightful" sojourn at the borderlands short. The Dora Milaje returned the two men to their lakeside "home" and disappeared. Bella arrived before them, her silencing shield engulfing Edward's mind before they even reached the lake.

Days passed. Bella scarcely spoke with him. He heard her come and go, her quiet voice and footsteps haunted his consciousness, but never invaded his space. Yet she must have maintained a constant awareness of his presence in order to keep his gift trapped beneath her curtain.

From his perch in the high branches of a tree, he could observe the outside world march on around him. He watched as women hoed their fields, men herded cattle, and children played in the forest and fetched firewood. He watched as the soldier worked his fields, prepared food for himself, and talked with his wife. He felt their laughter and it made him feel more acutely his own isolation.

He had much too much empty time in which to think and rethink and overthink his existence. He hadn't realized how much he depended on the thoughts of others to spare him the inconvenience of hearing his own. Now he found himself trapped with his own worst enemy without reprieve or distraction.

"You gonna make a nest up there," the soldier asked him one day. "You've been up there nearly four days."

Edward rolled his eyes and leapt from the tallest branch in one single, graceful movement.

"It has a nice view," he said, his words laced with sarcasm.

Bucky stared at him, as if he were the mind reader instead of Edward, and shook his head. His plaid blanket covered the empty shoulder where his metal arm usually shone and he carried a muddy shovel in his good arm.

"You, uh, have something on your mind?" the soldier finally asked.

"I read other people's thoughts. I always have something on my mind whether I want it there or not," he responded icily.

"Must be a little quieter in there now."

Edward snorted and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Alright. You just seemed like you could use someone to talk to," Bucky said, his overtures at kindness irritating Edward further.

"And you thought you were the best person for the job?"

"Nah, probably not. But I'm here," Bucky said with a shrug.

"Fine. You want to know what's bothering me? It's you."

"Go on," Bucky said with a mild patience.

"You don't deserve her. Your dreams, your thoughts, when we were at the border, I could see what your past life was like. You don't deserve to live, let alone with that woman," Edward spat, kicking the dirt with his boot in anger.

"You're right. I don't," Bucky replied with another shrug and fell silent again.

"That's it? That's all you can say?"

"What do you want me to say? I should be dead, but I'm not. I shouldn't have the life I've got, but I have it. What would you have me do? Refuse all the gifts I've been given simply cause I haven't earned them? Nah, knowing it's all a gift makes me all the more grateful for it cause it's precious and I'm gonna remember that with each undeserved breath I take."

Bucky leaned up against a tree and looked through the green tinted forest light at his companion. Edward continued to glare at him, arms crossed over his chest and his long, elegant legs leaned against another tree.

"And what can you give her?" Edward said. "She deserves the best of everything-the best cars and houses and clothes and opportunities-and all she gets is you and life in a mud hut in the middle of nowhere Africa!"

Bucky laughed and the sound caused Edward to swing his head around in surprise, watching the soldier's bearded face seep with his sudden merriment.

"What if she thinks this is the best of everything?" Bucky said, gesturing his hand in the direction of their home. "Maybe she was different back, you know, before…but the dame I know would kick my ass if I tried to shower her with trinkets or move her back to the high life in the capital. She could have had all that but she chose to be here."

"But I could have given her the world," Edward said. He exhaled an unnecessary breath and slumped back, staring at his shoes.

"Then why didn't you?" Bucky asked, his tone more compassionate than accusing. Edward didn't meet his gaze.

"She was my world, my everything. It was the only way I could see to keep her safe. Her life was constantly in danger from being exposed to my world. I wanted her to live. It was the hardest thing I ever did-leaving her."

Bucky whistled softly under his breath. "And she was better off with you gone?" he asked.

"I thought she would be!" Edward said, his voice increasing in decibels. "Or I never could have gone. When I heard that she was dead…I knew it was all a waste. I destroyed everything with my own two hands, all by myself."

Edward stared at the offending appendages and curled them into fists. Then he continued to kick at the ground in his frustration, his small hole growing increasingly larger.

"I didn't believe she could love me as much as I loved her. How could she, a frail human, possibly understand that kind of love? It would break her," Edward said, his tone muted by his regret.

"I think it did," Bucky responded. "Break her, I mean."

Edward buried his face in his hands, once again listing within himself all the ways he wished he could change the past. Bucky seemed to ponder his words carefully for a few moments then he responded with a voice as calm and as quiet as the smooth lake surface glistening through the trees.

"You thought it was more important to protect her body than her heart."

"What do you mean?" Edward asked.

"You knew your world was dangerous to begin with. But she still chose to be with you. That counts for something. The woman I know doesn't give her heart halfway, even if it costs her an arm or a leg or her life. It makes her an incredible bodyguard-she loves with all her heart and follows through with her actions.

"All she's ever wanted is to be loved. She needs to know she's a gift and not a burden, that the people who love her won't leave her high and dry. I don't know what her family life was like or the people she used to call friends, but I do know she has this deep fear of abandonment that she's never really shaken. But I've got the sense she's had a lot of experiences with feeling like she needs to earn love, that if she's not useful, she'll be thrown away.

"She's gotten better, over the years. Knowing that the family here loves her, that I'm not going anywhere, that even if she wasn't some super-fast powerhouse, we'd still love her for being Bella, ya know? We gotta look past the packaging and love the heart within because that's still fragile, no matter how strong she is on the outside. And the body can't survive long without the heart. A broken heart will kill someone faster than a lot of cancers of the body can."

Edward listened intently, his anger towards the soldier now fizzled into empty air, like a fire when doused with water.

"I'm an idiot," he said, more to himself than to Bucky. "I've made a mess of everything and I don't know how to fix it."

"There's some things you just can't fix. I'd know that better than anyone. You can choose to wallow in the mud or get up and do something else," Bucky said. "You're still alive. Do you realize what a miracle that is? How many times do you need your life handed back to you on a silver platter before you're gonna realize it's a gift? Yeah, life may not be what you woulda hoped, but you still have it.

"None of us here have the lives we thought we'd have. Bella didn't choose to get vamped up and end up in Wakanda, but she's embraced her new life because it's the one she has. I sure as hell didn't choose to be what I am, but here I am. If I sit and mope about it, it still ain't gonna change. So, I might as well make the best of it cause it's all I got and there's gotta be a reason for it. I shouldn't be alive. I shouldn't get so many second chances. But I have them."

Edward nodded. "I just don't know what I want anymore," he said. "I feel like I've already done it all, what else is there to try?"

"You ever lived in a mud hut in the middle of nowhere Africa?" Bucky said with a grin.

"I suppose I can't say that I have."

"See, you haven't really tried everything. Now, you done moping here cause I could use a hand with fixing a roof."

"But I don't know anything about…"

Bucky interrupted him before he could finish. "As I said, you've got more to learn. Come on."

Edward nodded and followed the soldier's orders.

---

That afternoon, the soldier taught him how to thatch a hut, harvest cassava, and tell which jackfruits were ripe. The soldier corralled him with the same unconquerable patience he used to herd his cattle and plant his maize. Edward grew weary of the soldier's kindness and retreated to the cool shade of his hut. He had barely settled when he heard the sound of a car approaching.

Voices spoke in the local language from across the compound then footsteps neared his door.

"Bella, you are sure he is not going to eat me?" a woman's voice said with a thick Wakandan accent.

"Like that would stop you from your research," Bella responded with a laugh.

"Ni kweli…Hodi," a she called and she knocked.

"Come in," he said, resigning himself to whatever fate befell him.

A tiny Wakandan woman entered and a dimpled smile greeted him. She wore her hair in rows of braids and a dress of a green, orange, and blue in a complicated pattern of swirls and shapes. She held out a hand in greeting and he took a surprised step back.

"Eeeee! Zimwi, I will not bite," she said and shook his hand. She did not flinch away from his cold skin, nor did she seem surprised by it. "I am Shuri, sister of T'Challa. I assume you do not remember me?"

Edward looked her over again and shook his head.

"Ah! We spent some intimate time in a Volterra prison cell together," she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "I would be disappointed in your lapse of memory if I were not so jealous of it. If I had a choice, I would not remember it either."

His eyes were drawn back to her again but this time he was struck by how much she reminded him of Alice. Her petite figure, self-assured manner, and the mischievous glint in her eyes all gave an eerily similar impression of his sister. His attention snapped back to her face when he realized he was not the only one scrutinizing the other.

"Bella failed to tell me you cleaned up so nicely…even if you insist on dressing like a mzungu. Now, I am here because I am requesting your assistance with a research project."

"What kind of research project?" he asked, skeptically.

"I would like to scan your mind when Bella is shielding you and when she is not and compare the data so I can understand more how your gift works."

"No," he responded succinctly. "I am not a lab rat or a science experiment."

"Of course you are!" she replied, much too cheerily. "Everyone is a science experiment to me. It's how I show my love. Sasa tuanze, panya."

He stared at the little woman and she grinned her brilliant white smile. She pulled out some equipment from a black back and connected some wires. Her brown eyes met his again and she sighed.

"It's also so I can test Bella's shield capabilities further. I want to see if there are ways to extend her range and strengthen her gift, but I need data to do that and to get data, I need lab rats."

He understood her grin now. She already knew she would win. He sighed and nodded his head.

She gave a high pitch squeak. Bella entered in her red and silver uniform, spear in hand, with an emotionless expression on her face. Shuri fiddled with what appeared to be a small computer of some kind, but one unlike any Edward had ever seen. She poked buttons and used it to scan his body while maintaining a distance from him. She made little noises and grunts as she read the data, all of which flashed across a screen in a language he could not read.

"Ok, Bella, you can drop your shield now."

She nodded.

And the cacophony of mental noises that pummeled him knocked him to the floor with his hands cradling his head. He cursed and felt himself shielded again, the silence nearly as unsettling as the noise.

"Are you ok?" Bella asked.

"I am fine. I was simply surprised by the volume of noise. Is there a city nearby?" Edward asked.

"Yes. We are an hour's walk from the capital," Shuri said. "There are also multiple small villages nearby here."

Edward sighed. "I'll be fine. Give me a couple minutes to adjust. It's been awhile since I used my gift around a large population."

Bella nodded and he felt her shield release him again. This time, he sat motionless and allowed his head to stretch and unravel the multiplicity of voices. Shuri drew his mental ears towards her mind as she returned to him with her device in hand. He forgot about all the other minds as he listened.

He thought he had seen it all in his hundred years of existence, but he had never seen anything like that mind. It twisted and spun in a brightly colored, complicated, layered tapestry of thoughts. Strings and threads of knowledge wriggled and wrapped around projects, hypotheses, theories, ideas, all pulled taught with passionate intensity. She simultaneously thought about five different subjects at the same time in their entirety with a litheness that nearly baffled his own expanded mental capabilities. He sat in awe, realizing that he had spent his time listening to the thoughts of acoustic guitars but here he heard a symphony.

"Sawa, Bella. Nimeisha."

The curtain crashed in upon him with such a weighted silence that he couldn't tell whether he should stand and applaud or ask for an encore.

He continued to stare but the tapestry was hidden once again, already moved on to another dozen sources of inspiration, busily reading data from the computer while working faster in its own computations. She felt his eyes and paused to look at him, one eyebrow raised.

"You have a very interesting mind," he said, feigning nonchalance.

She grinned. "I have heard that before."

She pushed a few more buttons and her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. She muttered incomprehensibly to herself and tapped her computer against her brown arm.

"Sawa. I need to go to my lab and process this data before we can conduct the distance experiments. Asante, Panya," she said.

"Panya?" he asked.

"Yes. You said you were a rat."

"I'm not sure if that is an improvement over zimwi."

"Mmmmmm. You are right. I have another new name for you. Luanda Magere."

"What does it mean?" Edward asked.

"It is Luo and it can mean different things," Shuri said. "It can mean 'the rock that builds' or 'the rock on which I shall build,' or 'the fierce rock.' The Luo have a story about Luanda Magere. They said he was made of stone and so no human weapon could defeat him during battle. Not even their spears could penetrate his hard flesh. He could defeat an entire army by himself with his supernatural powers.

"But he had two weaknesses: his beloved and his shadow. He married a daughter of his enemies and she discovered that, while his body was invincible, his shadow was not. She betrayed her husband to her kinsmen and Luanda Magere died when his shadow was pierced with a spear."

"I think I might prefer panya," he said.

She laughed. "Time will tell. If you continue to cooperate with my research, I might keep panya. If you decide to be hard-headed, I will maintain Luanda Magere. Asante sana, bwana. Ninaenda," she said, shaking his hand again and dancing out the door and back into the glowing afternoon sun. Bella gave him a quiet nod and also left.

He could still hear their voices in the compound.

"Sister?" T'Challa said.

"Eeee, brother, you have brought home a very pretty zimwi ….but this one is far too grumpy. I do not want to keep this one as a pet," Shuri said.

Edward heard laughter and some tongue clicks.

Then they were gone.

---

Deep in the vibrant, full night of the half moon, a light knock sounded on Edward's door.

"Edward, come please," Bella's voice whispered through the rough, wooden door. He ducked his head to avoid hitting it on the door frame and walked into the moonlight.

"Bella? Is everything alright?" he said.

"Everything is fine. I need to hunt, but I need you to come so I can keep shielding you. Sorry, it's orders," she said, shrugging.

"It's fine. I could hunt again."

They set out at a full sprint, their only sounds the swishing of the grass and branches retreating from their rapid footfalls.

They neared a river where Edward could sense dozens of heartbeats pulsing along with the crickets' songs and the rushing water. Bella hid in the tall grasses, silently stalking the herds. He targeted some impala and began his approach, but he stopped to watch as Bella lunged upon a water buffalo. She drank for a few moments…and stopped. The buffalo grunted and stumbled up from the ground and disappeared in the night.

He forgot his prey and watched. She continued her strange ritual-capturing an animal, taking a few shallow draughts, and releasing the animal still alive.

"What are you doing?" he asked as she released a gazelle.

"Hunting," she said.

"It's still alive."

"Yeah," she said.

"I don't understand."

"Why kill it when I don't have to? The animals here have enough struggles without a thirsty vampire taking out a few hundred a year. I try to stick to the ones that aren't endangered and I try not to kill them when I can."

"Have you always been able to stop? I thought it was nearly impossible to have that kind of control."

"It's hard, but yeah. I couldn't do it at first. Actually, I didn't really think about it. Then, I went on a mission with the General one time onto the border of Kenya and Tanzania. We spent a week in meetings with a group of Maasai there. They value their cattle and so they try not to kill them. So, they drink their blood, which then keeps both the cattle and their people alive.

"It was comforting…being with humans who shared a similar diet with myself. I felt almost normal there. I'd always assumed that I'd need to kill animals to drink from them, but when I saw them, I realized my assumption was wrong. I'd need to be more careful and I'd need to find more animals than before, but then the animals and I would both be alive at the end of the day."

Edward stared at her. She looked away and tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear.

"Let's finish up," she said. "I need to return by dawn."

He listened and followed her.

---

T'Challa and Okoye paced the marble floors of the conference room. T'Challa's arms crossed behind his back and his footsteps made quiet tapping sounds that echoed off the cream-colored walls of the small room. Their door remained firmly locked.

"We've lost five members of the border tribe already," Okoye said grimly. "The Dora Milaje have lost two. Every time we cross the border, she finds someone and turns them to stone. There are never witnesses, no messages, they are simply frozen."

"She is holding us prisoners within our borders. She does not seem capable of penetrating our defenses or attacking us within our country."

"How long do you think that will hold?"

"I know how long I wish for it to hold."

T'Challa continued pacing even as the General paused to stare out a small window onto the cityscape below.

"My King…let us put together what we already know. This mchawi, by magic, came from her own dying world into a young world and from there into our own. She has Volterra but now she seeks Wakanda. Why?"

"She knows we are strong and if she conquers us first it will ease her conquest of other nations."

"I do not accept that explanation. What does she have to gain?" the General said.

"Is it our technology that she is hungry for or something else?" T'Challa wondered. "She has access to her own magic and her army of mazimwi are a formidable force."

The General's eyes grew wide and she clanked her spear against the floor.

"That is the answer," she said.

"What is the answer?" T'Challa asked, still confused.

"My King, where did our store of vibranium come from?"

"A meteor…but….oh…do you think….are you suggesting?"

"I am saying, we may want to consider it. Do we know where the meteor carrying the vibranium came from?"

"No one could tell. Even our scientists of today cannot tell its origin."

"We can agree that our vibranium came to us from somewhere else?"

He nodded.

"And even with our thousands of years of experimenting, we still are barely scratching the surface of what it is capable of," the General said.

T'Challa stopped pacing and sat in a nearby chair, his head heavy in his hands. He looked across the room at Okoye whose eyes glittered fiercely as her thoughts poured from her mouth like water from a spigot.

"She has inside information that is hidden from most of the world…if so, why attack Wakanda first instead of Ethiopia? Why go after the vibranium instead of the Ark of the Covenant?"

"Maybe she doesn't know?" T'Challa chimed in.

"Or she doesn't need raw spiritual power…but needs the physical power…."

"Vibranium is capable of enhancing magical properties, as our priests and shaman have long known."

"It is possible, but still, that would require advanced information of its properties."

"Tell me your thoughts, General."

"I would like to hypothesize that perhaps this sorceress is familiar with our mineral. It is possible she has accessed vibranium in her old world…or worlds. It is even possible that our vibranium originated from her world. Whatever the case, it is clear that she wants Wakanda."

T'Challa gave a small whistle. "Your idea has merit, General, though I wish it did not. What do we do?"

"We prepare for war, my King."

 

Their grey robes matched the hue of the stormy skies above them as they hid in the shadows of the forests, as silent as the spirits of the dead.

T'Challa, Okoye, W'Kabi, Bella, and Bucky stood behind the Wakandan shield and beneath Bella's shield, well protected by both borders and their armor.

A tiny figure broke from the grey robes and walked towards them, golden hair and red eyes glowing from her pale face. She walked in the confidence only bestowed upon those with the blood of many beneath their feet, sure of her own victory.

"King T'Challa, I have come for our exchange," she said with a small smile and a respectful bow. "I assume you received our note and our tribute."

"We have received your gruesome gift and we must decline your offer," T'Challa said firmly, his head held as high and proud as an Axumite obelisk. "I have no desire to dismantle the Volturi and my quarrel is not with Aro. Edward Cullen has been granted asylum in our borders in repayment of a life debt. He saved the life of Lieutenant Barnes at least three times in her human life and Wakanda has reaped the benefit of his actions. As Volterra did not see fit to provide Edward Cullen his sought for death, Wakanda has volunteered to give him his unsought for life. He neither chooses to return to you nor do we relinquish him."

"We are prepared for such an answer," the small zimwi said in return. "If this is your position, I will warn you that as long as you keep him, we will be exchanging the lives of your other companions in his stead until you return him. Our queen has given you a generous opportunity to surrender Edward Cullen and if you refuse her, you will not find her so generous in future."

"Your queen? Who is this queen?" T'Challa said. "I have no memory of treaties forged with a queen."

"Her Imperial Highness, Jadis, Queen of Volterra, Commander of the Undead Legions. In retribution for his foolishness, the queen has punished Aro and taken leadership of the Volturi upon herself."

"I see," T'Challa said. "Wakanda has no quarrel with the Volturi or the members of Volterra who are still loyal to our old alliances. We continue to uphold our side of our previous treaties, as were forged by my ancestors in times long past. As such, I wish to leave you with a parting token."

He held out an ornately carved wooden box and allowed it through the shield to where the zimwi stood. She crooked one eyebrow, a dubious expression on her face.

"What is this?"

"The head of Aro, former ruler of the Volturi. While I may not agree with all his methods or principles, he led the Volturi admirably and maintained order among the mazwimi. If his body is beyond resuscitation, I would still return his head to you that you may give him the honor that is due him as your former leader. Your kind has long memories. Bury him or cremate him as you will, but grant his spirit the peace of a royal ending that is due him for the services he has contributed to the health and longevity of your kin."

The zimwi's red eyes grew as wide as the full moon above them. She knelt and picked up the glossy, lacquered box and proudly spun around to face the waiting guard. She turned and faced the King and his entourage one more time.

"This does not change the message our queen has sent you."

"I did not expect it to," T'Challa replied. "But that does not change my answer."

She nodded and the grey cloaks vanished into the shadows.

---

Edward sat with four of the Dora Milaje around a fire outside the homestead on the borderlands, waiting for the return of the King. He felt like a coward, sitting and hiding, instead of facing his former captors. But orders were orders, though he found himself chafing against the strict discipline required of soldiers.

He sat and watched the flames flicker up in orange and yellow tongues against the black night air. The air still felt heavy with the recent storm.

He could hear the thoughts of his "guards," though their minds continued their uncanny self-control and provided little fodder of interest, save for a recitation of a recipe for mandazi, a Luganda song, and a multiplication table repeated in four different languages. He sighed and poked the fire with a stick, wishing he were close enough to the meeting location to hear what transpired first hand.

He plotted what he would do if the Volturi forced him to return.

Edward Cullen, a mental voice whispered in his mind. He sat upright and glared. He recognized the tone and he shuddered. The sadistic little Jane, Aro's favored pet, and a voice he despised above nearly all others, continued to call out to him.

I wish to speak with you in secret. I have information I think will benefit you.

Edward scoffed internally and debated.

If you are listening, whistle a tune so I know. Please.

Jane never pleaded. He knew this. What would cause her to speak to him with so much contrition? Was it a trap?

He looked through her mind and saw her sitting with a small contingent of guards a few kilometers away across the border. Felix spoke into a mobile phone to Volterra and they plotted their next steps. Jane appeared to sit in silence, her eyes transfixed on a polished wooden box at her feet. Yet, all her mental energy she fixed on Edward, willing him to listen to her silent communication.

He whistled "Yankee Doodle" to himself, pacing back and forth across the compound, hoping his guards would not get suspicious.

Good. I do not know how long before we will depart.

We are all in trouble, Edward. The Volturi, you, your family, this country, everyone. If we do not do something soon, I fear it will be too late.

Aro was a fool. He dabbled with powers he did not understand and set events in motion far beyond his control.

It was the War that did it. Aro never doubted the unchallenged dominance of our kind until the War. As he watched Europe tear itself apart and then proceed to tear the rest of the world apart, he felt his first twinges of fear. The humans developing weapons capable of destroying our entire city, with us in it. Aro's growing fear nearly paralyzed him and he became insatiable in his quest for discovering means of protecting the power and well-being of our kind.

He knew that physical weapons often destroy more than they protect and so he chose to pursue mystical, esoteric sources of power to protect his order from the technological progress of humanity. He regularly mined the minds of humans he suspected would have access to kinds of knowledge he sought and then dispatched small contingents of guards to follow up on any leads.

He first heard of what he later called "the Lady" from an old woman. It was not long after the War and Demetri was passing through London on a mission from Aro when he came across her. The woman had been hired to sort through the personal artifacts of a dead man in order to prepare a home for repairs. During her work, she came across an old journal, all hand written and full of notes, musings, experiences, and diagrams of a man who fancied himself a magician.

She found his work so humorous that she read it in its entirety and relayed her findings to her friend. She spoke of magic rings and fountains of youth and great ladies and talking lions. Demetri overheard and immediately approached the woman and offered her a tempting enough compensation to ensure her immediate compliance. He brought his prize home, much to the delight of Aro.

Intrigued, Aro determined to discover more. First, he found the journal's author, Ketterly by name, had a living relative in a fine country estate in England. Aro immediately pulled strings to obtain the property that belonged to Ketterly during his manhood. He dispensed his lawyers to concoct some scheme which removed all properties belonging to this Digory Kirke, nephew to Ketterly, and brought them under his ownership. It took a few years to sufficiently siphon away Kirke's resources through untraceable "failures, mishaps, and bad luck," but Aro ultimately claimed them as his own.

Contingents of guards dismantled those houses from top to bottom, inside and out, to look for anything resembling magic rings. They combed every corner of each house that could possibly be a hiding place. Then they began to search the gardens. The country escape proved fruitless, but in the garden of the London estate, he struck gold. The guards dug up a wooden box filled with green and yellow rings.

Aro then systematically tested the rings and found they were, indeed, powerful. With one touch, a tiny ring transported the wearer to other worlds far across the universe. Thus, the exploration of these other worlds began.

Some parties of guards never returned. They simply vanished. Others came with stories of cold, dead worlds, or worlds full of giants and monstrous beings. Others came with stories of golden cities and mighty kingdoms and beautiful, powerful creatures.

Aro found world after world after world at his fingertips-the wealth of the universe was his and it went to his head in exponential ways. After a few dozen searches, one mission finally discovered the world described in the Ketterly journal. They discovered "the Great Lady" he had spoken of ruled the land a thousand years before. She reigned with great power and fierceness until being displaced by some humans from our world who invaded, killed her, and set themselves up as rulers in her stead.

The world our guard found was far removed from that era. We came during a time of great unrest. The peoples from the south, the Telmarines, ruled and the native inhabitants of the land were unruly and restless. They yearned to stage a revolution and bring a new power to the throne but due to their limited numbers and even more limited weapons technology, they did not see a viable option.

Our guard came across a coven of our cousin vampires-similar to our kind, but with slightly different adaptations. This coven lived in a delicate alliance with some werewolves, ghouls, some black dwarves, an ogre and a coven of witches. This little band of rebels thought we would aid them in their exploits and so took us into their confidence entirely. They unanimously agreed that all their hopes must rest upon a plot to magically resurrect their ancient queen in order to save them from their enemies.

They were learned in deep magic. They taught us how to prepare the sacred blue fire, the circle, and the incantations in order call the spirit of the witch into the flames. We listened carefully and then returned to our master to share our learnings with him.

It worked. We stole their queen away from them and left them to suffer in their oppression. Aro faithfully obeyed their instructions and summoned the spirit of the witch to himself in Volterra. She appeared in the flames in all her beauty and power and fierceness.

"My magic will not work in your world if I am bound by your flesh and laws. I must stay a spirit," she told him. Water is liminal; it can morph and change, and water is boundless, anywhere. She chose to inhabit the water and so she became similarly boundless. She could traverse the width and breadth of the world and transport herself to anywhere in the world where there was water and her magic would maintain its potency.

Aro's goal was to empower himself, his guard, and ensure his rule could be sustained. He felt she owed her allegiance to him because he discovered her and contrived the means to bring her to this world from the land of the dead. Aro both feared and worshiped his Lady.

And Aro was a fool.

Soon, the witch began to give orders of her own.

Revenge was her first order of business. I do not understand how it was possible, but the humans responsible for her previous dethronement were still alive. She ordered their deaths. Conveniently, all were heading on a holiday together and staging a train accident did not prove a difficulty. All died, save one, but the witch determined survival to be her punishment.

Then, the witch began to override and overstep Aro, not content to simply serve as the guardian of the Volturi, her ambitions grew. Her first foray on Earth with her magician taught her she could not force her conquest with shows of obvious brute strength but she would need to move slowly and methodically, building her army, and strategically taking down targets from the shadows.

She started slowly and quietly, without Aro's knowledge.

First, she gained powerful allies in what remained of Hydra-becoming a kind of mystical consultant and visiting goddess when it was convenient. She encouraged particular actions and motivations. She pulled on puppet strings to sow chaos and destabilize power structures around the world.

Then she tried a more brash action in the disaster of the N.I.C.E. over in Belbury. However, Merlin's interference in her plots revealed to her what her next steps would need to be.

She decided that, while Hydra provided her with a wealth of human, political, and technological power and resources, she would need to increase her supernatural allies. The witch pursued gifted vampires. She sent Aro to scout as many as he could, convincing him it was for his own protection. Then, without Aro's knowledge, she began to identify the others-the werewolves, the leprechauns, the dryads and nyads, the undead, and the monsters of legend-any she could find and convince to join her in her quest for world domination.

It would only be a matter of time before all would be made open and she could rule through her legions, untouchable by death, age, time, and space. She would be empress forever and once she conquered the earth, the magic rings would give her the power to conquer the next world and the next until they all belonged to her. They would be hers-their lives and deaths, their pasts and their futures-the universe was hers for the taking and she was positively glorious in her lust for power.

One day, she came across a Wakandan artifact in the vaults of Volterra and it changed her entire strategy. Since that day, she has focused all her efforts into the conquest of Wakanda.

She had been working for half a century to conquer Wakanda. All she had to do was snap her fingers and the U.S., the European Union, China, and Russia would immediately obey her. Her operatives were so well concealed throughout the governments of those countries that she already counted them as hers. She could easily take out the rest.

Except Wakanda. The one country she must have before she can hope to rule all the others and they remain untouchable.

She needs the vibranium. She needs it for her armies, her magic. The only way she can hope to take a physical form that can harness her mystical powers on Earth is through weaving a vibranium body. The elements of Earth are still too foreign to her to employ her power, but her native vibranium will not only enable her power but will increase it exponentially. She is bound to the water until then and she cannot leave Earth.

But Wakanda is too strong and too well protected. So, she sought to reach them through their neighbors. She stirred up the hornets nets around them until they were surrounded by war on all sides and still they did not fall or drown in the blood of their surrounding nations. She planted seeds of distrust and discontent within officials she could influence and sought to prevent alliances possibly beneficial to the protection of Wakanda. All seemed to be working in her favor.

Until that day. That horrible day when her operative in South Africa failed her assignment and a vampire with the capacity to shield the entire city from supernatural attack was born and mysteriously delivered directly to the border. This vampire was permitted to not only live but to thrive within the normally xenophobic and conservative population of Wakanda.

Her agents continued to fail her. Nearly a dozen Volturi guards were torn apart when you were taken from us. Now, instead of being guarded by one super human who could have been easily dealt with, especially during the more malleable time of grief, Wakanda is now protected by two super humans and two gifted vampires. She is furious and will do whatever it takes to remove all of the protectors from Wakanda so she can unleash her full powers against the country.

You need to know who you are dealing with. She will not hesitate to kill all of Wakanda to reach their store of vibranium and then she will not stop until she rules this world and all the worlds. She would not hesitate to destroy the entire world simply to come out as the victor.

She is not like Aro. Aro may have been ambitious, but he knew where his strength came from and he could not rule without the guard. He also saw the value of protecting and preserving humanity in order to sustain our way of life. This new one is not like him. She rules for her own pride and thirst for power. She will use us and then dispose of all of us, according to her whims, without any remorse.

The only way for any of us to survive is to send her back to where she came from. Unfortunately, she may need to succeed in creating her new physical form for it to work, but there is a way. I know where the magic rings are kept in the vaults. We can remove her from Earth. It is too risky for my companions and me. She can easily kill us. But you have a shield that even her power cannot penetrate. If you and Bella choose to try, I swear to you, I will help in whatever way I can.

Oh, we are leaving. If you have heard what I have said, whistle again.

Edward complied and he heard their mental voices dissipating into the distance.

Then he paced the length and breadth of the compound, more anxious for the return of the king than he had ever been before.

 

T'Challa paced the length of his office, his soft sandals making light tapping sounds against the polished marble floor. He ran his hand through his beard as he lost himself in his thoughts.

"It is too convenient a ploy," Okoye said, interrupting his thoughts. He turned towards the General to where she stood as straight as a palace pillar and gazed through his thoughts instead of at him. "The zimwi states that their queen desires to remove our protectors and then the zimwi suggests a plot that would do just that."

"Ni kweli, but that very slip of hers only makes me think she may be genuine. Our zimwi said he could not taste a lie in her thoughts."

Okoye clicked her tongue. "When did we decide to trust the mind reader? He could also gain from removing Bella from Wakanda."

T'Challa chuckled darkly. "You are wise to trust none, General. Your respect is a hard-won prize."

"My King, my heart lacks peace. I beg you not to send Lieutenant Barnes to Volterra. The strength of reasons to keep her close outweigh the reasons to send her to Volterra."

T'Challa nodded in assent.

"My King, why did you return the head of the Volturi ruler? Shouldn't our goal be to destroy the mazimwi?"

"Destroy them? All of them? Why?"

"They kill people."

"So do lions, but I do not seek to destroy all of them. They are as beautiful as they are dangerous. No, if I find a lion in my boma stalking my cattle, then I am within my right to end his life. If a lion seeks to harm my child or my brother, his life is forfeit. But if he has harmed neither me nor what is mine-I will leave him be. Should I kill him simply because he exists and has the capacity to kill? No.

"If Aro or his coven touch a hair on the head of any of my citizens in the future, I will not hesitate to attack, but as long as they keep their peace and leave us be, I will not bring harm on the shepherds of the mazimwi."

Okoye's dark eyes silently watched her tired king. His shoulders carried the weight of too many struggles and his eyes glazed with long, sleepless nights. She sighed.

"Enda kulala, mfalme wangu," Okoye said. "You need to rest."

T'Challa ceased his pacing and gave a short nod. The General gave him a salute and returned to her home to chase her own dreams.

T'Challa's dreams proved hard to find. His mind swirled with the influx of new information, as unsettled as mud when a well is being cleaned. He could not seem to let it all settle and so the water of his thoughts could not clear.

His mind walked halfway between the land of dreams and the land of waking when he startled awake to the vibration of his kimoyo beads on his wrist. He rubbed his eyes and sighed.

A touch of a button transmitted a projection of the person he most desired and most feared to speak with.

---

Nakia sat in the quiet of her rented room. For two weeks, she found herself waking in screams and tears. It was the same dream. Always the same dream.

Fire and ice. Water and stone. They engulfed Wakanda tighter and tighter in an unbroken circle around the center of the land she loved. They swallowed up trees and villages, animals and people and crept ever closer to the heart of their Kingdom.

Her dreams told her not to return. It was not time, but how she longed to!

Her excuses for not returning had already worn as thin as the denim on the knees of her trousers. She knew T'Challa knew it was not her passion for her work that kept her away. Her heart grew heavy with her grief as she split in half between places and caused pain to the one she loved.

But it was not time. It was too important for her to remain hidden.

She would have to do it again-reach out to her tired King and watch as his eyes glistened in hope and then faded again in disappointment poorly masked with impassivity. Yet he remained her King as well as her beloved and it was the King she now must serve.

"Nakia, habari yako?" he said, his voice gruff and unrested. His face looked even more drawn than she saw him last.

"Mzuri sana, bwana. Unalala?"

"Siwezi kulala. It has been long since I was able to sleep in peace."

"Pole."

"Uko wapi? Where are you?"

"Safe and well," she said, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. She would not need to say it. He understood what she did not say.

I am not coming home yet. We cannot be reunited yet. I will not tell you where I am.

She watched his grief spark momentarily across his face until he forced it clear. He could not see her hands as they wrung more tightly in her lap. She fought just as hard to maintain her mask. She hoped hers proved more believable than his.

"My King, I had a dream."

"Sema."

"You must find the rings."

"In Volterra?"

"Yes. Send our mazimwi. It can be done."

"Will Wakanda be safe in their absence?"

"No. Wakanda is in danger whether they go or stay. But without the rings, there will be no Wakanda."

"Aya. Asante sana."

"And T'Challa, usiwe wasi wasi. It will be ok…not for a time, but in the end, it will be ok. There are forces for good that are working that are far stronger than those for evil."

"What will you do?" he asked, his heart again in his eyes.

"I will pray, each day and night, until all is well again. When the ice has thawed and the trees have been firmly planted, I will come home."

He wanted to hope, but he was too tired to. She could see it in the slump of his shoulders, the dull flash of his eyes, the tightening of his mouth.

She would hope enough for both of them.

---

What is this noise?" Okoye asked, gripping her spear and ducking her head into the hut. Her proud shoulders stood to their full height again and she turned the full force of her death stare onto Edward. He couldn't help but shudder. He couldn't help but wonder how powerful the General would become if she were to become a vampire. He was convinced her stare alone could take out an army.

"You mean my music?" Edward responded.

"Si muziki. Ni sauti….this isn't music, this is noise," she said.

"This is Linkin Park, one of the greatest rock bands of all time," he responded.

"Your taste is music is worse than that one," she said, nodding her head in the direction of Bucky, who had followed Okoye and Shuri into his hut. "He sits around listening to classical music all day."

"Glen Miller and the Andrews Sisters are hardly classical music," Bucky interjected, laughing. "I'll have you know they were the bee's knees in my day…and scandalous enough to make my nanna flush."

"How old are you?" Edward said.

"I was born in 1917," he said.

"That is why he is too too stubborn," Shuri interjected, sticking out her tongue at him. "And is too rigid in his taste in music."

"I was born in 1901," Edward said quietly.

"So you remember the days when music was actually good," Bucky said with a grin. "And don't get me started on the movies…it took me a week to convince Shuri that there was an era when wazungu could dance."

"I'm still not convinced," Shuri chimed in. "The wazungu today have lost the art. I've watched enough MTV to know. Those old, dead movie stars you showed me could dance. Now, Bucky, you are further proof. I've seen you dance and if you were not already taken, I'd marry you simply for your graceful feet. I am not so convinced that you shared your skills with my future husband. How did you miss taking him dancing with you?"

"You can take a horse to water, but you can't make him drink," Bucky said. "He's too shy for that. Getting Steve into a dance hall could not make him brave enough to ask a dame to dance."

"Future husband?" Edward asked.

"Shuri's had a crush on my childhood best friend since the day she met him. She's trying to convince him to marry her and it hasn't worked yet," Bucky said.

"But you should see him blush when I try! He turns as red as a tomato and that alone is enough to steal my heart. Someday, maybe I will succeed in getting more than two words out of him," Shuri said. "Until then, I will content myself in sending him love notes and watching him feel embarrassed."

Edward pictured an old man with white hair and he gawked slightly. Shuri caught his look and laughed.

"Captain Steven Rogers is like Bucky. They were both genetic experiments during the war years and they are both, what word can I use? Well-preserved for wazee. I hear that we gain wisdom with age…which is why I have my heart set on an older man, but I would rather have the best of all worlds. So I will choose a man who is old at heart but not in body," she said with a wink.

Okoye rolled her eyes and mumbled something under her breath.

"What was that?" Bucky smirked. "I can't quite hear you, General."

"It sounded like she said some do not gain wisdom with age," Shuri said with a laugh. "I believe she is directing that at me. However, I will argue I have gained wisdom with my age. You see, I have not argued about what is 'real music' and what is not. I know when I should wage war, General, and I am wise enough to know a battle I will not win in the present company."

The General rolled her eyes. "If it has no rhythm, no soul, then it is not music. This-what is this?" she said, motioning to the music playing. "They are whining and yelling and for what? 'Oh poor me and my First World problems?' Ugh!"

"Speaking of First World problems," Shuri said. "I believe we are here to discuss our problems with the First World and an actual looming battle instead of our definitions of music."

"Indeed. Turn off that noise and let us proceed," the General said. "The King has requested we bring our minds together and consider different avenues of invading Volterra and the probability of success of each. Let us begin."

---

It wasn't until the afternoon that the sun finally chased away the grey rain clouds and broke the sky into a white and gold and blue mosaic. The humidity weighed almost oppressively on puddled lands and deep mud, drinking the moisture back into the sky and ensuring the return of another fierce storm that night. The perfume of wet earth and freshly showered trees clung to the small compound by the sparkling green lake.

Edward sat in the sun, reveling in the warmth and his newfound freedom to bask as a creature of the daylight. Earth still clung to his fingers, leftover from his morning chores with the soldier.

He stretched his long legs out from where he sat on the three legged stool and lazily drew patterns with a stick in the dirt by his toes.

The soldier sat in front of a fire where his hands sliced vegetables at a quicker than human speed. The silver saucepan of crackling oil soon sizzled with browning onions, garlic, and ginger.

By the side of the lake, Bella bent over a basin of soapy water and clothes. Her hands brushed back and forth at a human speed. She hummed contentedly to herself. Already, two lines of clothes swung in the golden light, anxiously soaking up the precious waning rays of the sun.

As she bent, her white tank top pulled down and exposed the beginnings of a striped scar on her shoulder. It stretched from her left shoulder blade and her tank top hid its ending from sight.

"Bella, what happened to your back?" Edward asked, walking closer to where she washed.

She stood and let the foam drip from her hands. She wiped her hands on the colorful cloth wrapped around her waist and blew a strand of brown hair off her forehead.

"I dunno. When I woke up from the change, it was there," she said. Edward stared intently at her and came closer to examine the scar.

"The scars from your human life should all have healed," he said.

"They didn't," she said and showed him the crescent on her wrist. He growled.

"Cursed James….no, the only scars I have ever seen on a vampire are those inflicted by another vampire. This," he said and pointed at her wrist, "is of vampire origin and so it follows that it would be carried over into your next life. But this," he said and pointed to her shoulder, "doesn't make any sense. If it is from your human life, then it should have healed. But this doesn't look like it came from a vampire…it looks almost animal, but I have never seen an animal capable of piercing our skin. And I've seen a lot try."

She shrugged. "It was there when I woke up. The Watu Wa Wanyama said it's the 'mark of the Lion'."

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"Ummm, how do I explain it? Ok, you know how in the military, there are different divisions and different levels of leadership and they have different symbols to show rank on their uniforms?"

"Yes."

"Well, it's the same in the spirit world. There are spirits in charge of particular territories and spirits in charge of different nations. There's a hierarchy, see? Like Wakanda-they are the people of the Panther spirit but the Alur are the people of the Buffalo. The Kingdom of Buganda has an entire pantheon of gods and goddesses who rule over the different spirits. Then, there's the spirits that inhabit certain trees or lakes or rivers or regions.

"Overall these, there is the great Creator God who made all the others and holds them all in place. The Watu Wa Wanyama-or what you would call shapeshifters, consider themselves his children because they are not bound to geography or particular people groups or even to one manifestation of creation. They are people who walk the borderlands between the world of the flesh and the world of the soul, between the world of animals and the world of people.

"To them, this highest of all beings, or whom they call the Ancient One or the Ancestor….to them, he is symbolized by the Lion, who is king of the animals. In the same way, this deity is the king of the spirits. Yet, they say, he is like them because he is not bound to the animal world or the human, to the spirit world or the world of flesh and blood. He can cross back and forth between the worlds, sometimes appearing in the flesh of an animal or a man and other times in the body of a spirit being. He comes to dwell with people when he chooses and returns to the high heavens when he chooses. He is the one who all the others must bow to-even the goddess Bask of the kingdom of Wakanda or the Balubaale of the kingdom of Buganda.

"The Watu Wa Wanyama said that I have been marked by their most sacred deity and so I am their chosen leader. It is why they sought me when they feared being turned to stone."

"That all sounds ridiculous," Edward said with a frustrated huff.

"Which part?"

"All of it. I grew up in a time that believed in science and the power of man and didn't buy into all this what we would have called 'superstition' and 'primitive beliefs' in spirits and powers. But then I woke up as a vampire. Carlisle's era prepared him more for his new life than mine did. Learning my perceived view of the world was all a fabrication kinda left my worldview spinning."

"I can see why," Bella said. "You have to understand that the worldview you grew up with is really an entirely different world than the one you are in now. The spirit world is as much a fact of daily life here as gravity and Newton's laws of physics are facts of daily life in your world. It's a living, breathing part of the fabric of reality and part of what causes and influences the human world here, for good and bad."

"So where does our kind fit?"

"We are categorized as liminal beings along with the Watu Wa Wanyama. We are all seen as belonging to both the human world, since we were once human, and the spirit world, since our souls have essentially transcended our human bodies and been replaced with a supernatural body."

"But our kind don't have souls," Edward said.

"What makes you say that?" she asked.

"We lost our souls when we became this," he said, waving his hand over his granite body. "We lost our opportunity for an afterlife and any idea of divine favor."

Bella laughed. "You wouldn't be here if you didn't have a soul," she said. "You'd be an empty shell. Yeah, your body is different than it was before, but the essence of you, that part of you that was already eternal, is still in there. Its house has just been renovated."

He shook his head. "We lost them in the transformation as the price of immortality."

"You are hardly immortal," she said. "Your life may be longer and harder to taken than it would have been before, but you will die someday."

He shook his head and Bella shrugged. Edward's next thoughts were interrupted by a transmission. Bella projected an image from the beads around her wrist.

"Lieutenant Barnes," the General said. "Your presence is requested immediately. I am afraid our situation has grown immensely more complicated. There has been an attack on the borderlands."

 

Edward paced a worn trail into the dirt between the dilapidated huts of the abandoned homestead. His leather boots quietly layered footprints into the drying mud. His senses filled with the little sounds of natural life inhabiting a space free from human disturbance. Yet the space still felt haunted with memory and layers of meaning he couldn't quite translate. He wondered where the original inhabitants disappeared to, leaving the space free for problematic vampire occupation-the convenient dumping ground for an unemployed mind reader.

They left no soldiers to guard him and this, more than any of the General's transmissions during their journey here, made him feel uneasy. As the changing of the guard of the celestial bodies in the sky melted through his consciousness, his idleness warred with his worries and prevented his discovery of any profitable activities.

He decided to use the time to hunt. Once he decided on a purpose, he broke out at a sprint away from the isolated homestead. The feeling of the wind sweeping past him as he ran combined with the primal dominance of instinct over thought carried him farther than he originally meant to wander. As he knelt by a lake to cleanse himself of the remnants of his meal, the beauty of the diamond stars reflected in the water captured his attention. He lay on his back in the tall grasses, his arm pillowing his head, and he stared at the pinpricks of light as they crawled across the indigo sky above him. He listened to the wind sift through the long grasses like fragrant, earthy waves in the expansive savanna.

"It's about time. You are very difficult to get ahold of," a voice said behind him. He leapt to his feet and found his sister sitting on a rock. The immaculate white dress she wore gave her an ethereal glow in the night light. She quirked her head to the side and gave him an impassive stare. "You don't check your email. You don't have a phone. You live in a country that Jasper can't figure out how to hack. And you can't seem to hear my thoughts most of the time. I've been trying to get ahold of you for weeks." Her expression morphed into a scowl.

"Hi Alice," he said.

Her heels didn't make a sound as she leapt from her perch. She threw her arms around his neck and lay her head on his silent chest.

"So, have you been camping out in the wilderness waiting for me?" he asked with a smirk.

She grinned and punched his shoulder lightly.

"Ugh! I tried but that didn't get me anywhere so I convinced Jasper we needed to spend some time away. We left the family somewhere in Lithuania and spent the last month exploring the wonders of East Africa…otherwise known as fruitlessly chasing whatever visions of you popped up. We followed a couple of false leads before you finally turned up two nights ago and so I've been waiting here since."

Visions filed her mind of him sitting in this exact location, staring at the stars….and she quickly turned her thoughts to the periodic table of the elements in Hebrew.

"What are you hiding?" he asked.

She struggled to mask images that flickered across her mind. She bit her lip and wrestled internally with what to share.

"Tell me," he said. She met his eyes with an intense, earnest gaze that spoke simultaneously of hope and fear.

"I saw you in Volterra," she finally choked out in a whisper. "You and Bella. It was the same one I had before, well, you know."

Her mind filled with her old, displaced vision. In it, two gray-cloaked lovers huddled together by a fountain in the old fortress, passionately staring into each other's eyes.

"I don't understand….how?"

Alice shrugged, masking her thoughts again.

"You should come with me," she said. "Jasper would really love to see you. I've brought him as far as Masaka. Come back with me tonight and you can return to Wakanda tomorrow or the day after."

Edward considered her proposal and finally nodded. "I need to return tomorrow," he said.

"Whatever you say," she said with a victorious grin. He grimaced as her mind filled with plots on what she needed to say to get him to stay two days instead of one.

"Stop it, Alice. It won't work."

"Oh, it will. I just need to keep trying!" she said with a grin. She pulled him up from the ground and danced around him.

"Catch me!" she said and broke into a sprint, her laughter filling the quiet night.

He easily caught her, as she knew he would.

---

Alice won. She always did. The two nights shared with his brother and sister proved a much needed change of scenery and he walked back towards Wakanda feeling refreshed. Alice's contagious joy and Jasper's soft, frank empathy wore through the tension he carried like a stack of bricks on his head.

He was ready to hear news from the others now. He could engage in the current affairs and micro-dramas of the small Cullen world and garner some interest in their well-being. He found himself still feeling like a chasm separated his current life from his past. He did not want to dwell on which side of his life would prove temporary and which would prove permanent. It was not time to return home, but he still basked in the easy comfort of silent communication only really shared with Jasper and Alice.

Alice kissed his cheek as she bid him farewell. She stood on her tiptoes as her lips brushed his cheek.

Edward, it was the only way. Remember that. Her mind mentally whispered to his.

He did not like the sound of that and, though he pressed, he could not drag any further elaborations from her. She simply sent him on his way.

He found no signs of disturbance or communication at his previous outpost and so he decided to go "home". He spent the remainder of the journey internally wondering when the simple lakeside settlement he haunted the most became his sense of home…and debating if it truly deserved the title. Maybe he would be better off leaving and returning to a more solitary, nomadic existence. Even as the thought crossed his mind, he knew he couldn't manage it. He would stay in Wakanda until Bella sent him away and even then he would only go as far as Uganda or Tanzania.

He drew near the forest fringing the lake and his pace slowed. He could still hear. He noticed strains of thoughts from the surrounding villages. It was unlike Bella to leave his gift unshielded. This meant she either had yet to return home or something was wrong. Either option worried him.

He picked up his pace again. He could hear the soldier's thoughts within. The soldier's thoughts were a bit muddled, but he was clearly worrying over his wife and this caused Edward's concern to grow even more.

His eyes swept the cleared land surrounding the huts for any signs of life. In the moonlight, he found Bella sitting alone and motionless besides the lake.

"Are you ok?" he asked as he ran towards her. She jumped and turned towards him, her eyes wide. She did not respond. She pulled her legs closer into her body as if she were a turtle withdrawing into the safety of her shell. Her eyes carried fresh grief like a new wound.

"Bella, what is it? You are upset."

"Of course."

"Why?"

"Don't you know?"

"No. What should I know?" he asked, attempting to speak gently but wincing as his words stumbled on his worry and came out sounding like petulance.

"Where have you been?" she asked. He could not tell if it were a question or an accusation.

"I went hunting and Alice found me and took me to see Jasper. What did I miss?"

Bella pointed towards her hut. He followed her gaze.

"What?" he asked, confused at what he should be noticing. Nothing appeared out-of-place.

"Bucky," she whispered, her face disintegrating into a look of such heartbreak that his thoughts momentarily fled from coherency.

He blinked and glanced towards the hut again. He could still hear the soldier within and so he remained befuddled.

"He's worrying about you," he said, cocking his head towards the mental sounds only he could hear. "Should he be worried about you? What happened to you?"

"What! You can hear him?" she nearly shouted.

"Yes," he said, his answer more a question than a statement. His words kindled a flame in her eyes and she grabbed both his hands in hers.

"You can hear him! You can hear him! Oh, Edward!" she said, jumping up and pulling Edward towards her hut. She pushed back the door with a shuttering bang and forced him inside.

Clear rays of light from the moon struggled to force shadows into the dark room. Edward's eyes flicked over the usual couch and stools. A large, dark object nearly blocked out the entirety of the curtain separating the sitting area from the bed.

Bella walked towards it and gently brushed her hands across it. Her dark eyes met his, speaking a question that she kept unvoiced.

"What is this?" Edward asked. The tall, uniformly grey form stood nearly as tall as Edward. The soft light reflected off of shining metal that flashed across the front of the motionless figure. He walked towards it and his mouth fell open as he recognized the frozen metal arm held aloft as if protecting the bearer from an enemy attack.

"There was an explosion near the border," Bella said. "We went to investigate…there was fire and people were hurt. He thought he saw something and wandered off and we didn't know until later…he didn't come back…W'Kabi found him…," Bella said, sinking to the ground and leaning her head against what he could now see were the legs of what appeared to be a statue made of stone, save for the metal arm.

Edward gave a soft whistle under his breath. He put his hands onto the statue's shoulders and winced as he felt cool, lifeless stone beneath his touch.

"I'm so sorry, Bella. Is there anything that can be done?"

"We don't know. Shuri has been running tests on the statue of the man-leopard for years now and we still haven't found a way to undo what has been done to him. She can tell he has some form of consciousness still in there, but she can't figure out how to bring life back into the physical form. I can't…I don't know what to do….I could have saved him if I had been there…if we hadn't been separated…and now…"

She covered her face with her arms and melted into the ground as tearless sobs wracked her body.

"I can hear him," Edward said as he closed his eyes. "His thoughts are a bit murky-almost like trying to see an object in the bottom of a pond that is full of mud and algae. I can still sense them, but they are not as clear as they would be normally."

"Please! What is he thinking?" she said, pulling on the cuff of his sleeve.

"He's, uh, trying to figure out what happened to him and where he is. He feels like he is in a dark room that he cannot escape from. He has memories of a frozen lake and nothing after that."

"Can he hear me when I speak?" she asked.

"Ummm, it doesn't sound like it. He, uh, he feels stuck and cut off from his senses and he doesn't know what's going on. He's worried about T'Challa, Wakanda, and you."

"Oh, Bucky!" Bella said. She threw herself around the statue and trailed kisses down his metal arm. "Baby, come back to me. Please come back!"

Edward shifted awkwardly on his feet and looked away, his heart in his throat. Bella composed herself again and turned to face him again.

"Thank you. Thank you!" she said and kissed his cheek.

Edward nodded and looked at the ground again. "Of course."

---

The General arrived at the homestead at dawn. Without a word, she exchanged her spear for a hoe and she walked into Bucky's garden. The sweat trickled down her dark brow as she tended the cassava and tomatoes. She would be sure to send her lastborn nephew to come tend the cattle later in the day.

The zimwi sat against his hut and watched her from a distance. She frowned at him.

"You chose a convenient time to disappear," she said, ignoring his slight greeting.

"I didn't know," he said.

"Mmmmm," she said. "Somehow I doubt that."

He scowled.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"He will be heartbroken when he wakes if he finds his garden is dead," she said, cocking her head in the direction of Bucky's home. She threw even more force into the hard ground, reveling in the feel of her strength against its impervious shell. If she could only dig more, slash more, do more, maybe she could fix this, fix something.

She sighed and exchanged the hoe for her spear again. She wiped her forehead off with the back of her hand and searched the compound again, as if maybe she could find something she'd missed the last fifty times she searched.

Bella remained unmoved. Since they carried Bucky home from the border, Okoye had not seen her change positions. She lay on a banana fiber mat, stretched out across the feet of the statue. Her eyes stared at the wall across from her and she neither spoke nor moved. To an outsider, it looked as if two statues inhabited the small space instead of one.

"Zimwi, has she spoken?" Okoye asked, though she did not bother to hide her dislike of speaking with the creature.

"A bit. When I returned, she told me what happened but she's stayed quiet since then."

"Hmmph," Okoye said. She returned to the dark, cool shade of the hut. She knelt on the floor beside Bella, placed her spear onto the floor, and joined her in her silence. Anger, grief, and fear trickled down her face in tears she did not bother to hide for the moment. She closed her eyes and stroked Bella's hair.

At dusk, Okoye heard footsteps approach. Mama W'Kabi's voice asked "hodi?" before she removed her shoes and entered.

"You are still here?" Mama W'Kabi asked.

"Yes."

"I have brought food," she said and pulled a thermos and container from a basket. She placed them at the floor besides Okoye.

"Asante, mama," she said with a forced smile. Mama W'Kabi didn't bother to feign one in return. She knelt onto the floor and arranged her long skirt around her wrinkled ankles. She clasped her hands in her lap and joined in their silence.

"You should go," Mama W'Kabi said when the last light disappeared. She lit a small lamp and blew out the match. The flickers of light fell onto the walls and motionless figures. "I .will stay tonight. Ayo will come at dawn and Shuri will come at midday. W'Kabi will need his wife and T'Challa will need his General."

Okoye nodded and rose. Outside, the air felt thick with the promise of a thunder storm. In the far distance, she could see the purple rumblings of a storm.

"Zimwi," she said in a barely audible voice. "Come."

She heard a slight rustling and saw a body leap gracefully out of a tree. He walked towards her with his hands in his pocket, his collared shirt meticulously clean, and his eyes dour and his lips pursed. He nodded his head towards her to indicate his attention belonged to her.

"Did you know this would happen?"

His eyes grew momentarily wide, his impassivity exchanged for surprise.

"Of course not! If I had known, I would have done everything in my power to prevent it."

"Mmmmmm," she replied, raising both eyebrows. "It is too convenient. You just so happen to disappear when we are attacked."

"I didn't…I had no idea," he said. "I don't even know what happened except that it led to that." He motioned towards Bucky's home again. "How did this all come about?"

She stared at him again, as if she could will a confession from him purely through the force of her eyes. She saw him shuffle in discomfort, drop his eyes to the ground, and rub the back of his neck with his right hand.

She placed both hands on her spear and exhaled.

"There was an explosion on our northeast border with the DRC, some ways outside of Bunia. While not within Wakanda, it was too close to our borders to be an accident. One of our shields caught fire along with a guard tower. However, when our forces crossed the border to investigate the attack, it proved to be a ruse to entice us outside of the safety of our shields and leaving us vulnerable for the real attack. We lost three Dora Milaje to plain clothed armed men. We lost four border guards in an additional explosion. Sergeant Barnes is the only victim of the mchawi's black magic. We suspect she intentionally sought him out in retribution for our refusal to concede to her demands."

"It's my fault. I should have gone with the Volturi when they came for me."

"Maybe you should go to them now," the General said, raising one eyebrow pointedly. She felt slightly mollified from the look of abject guilt and misery that fell across his face.

"What can be done?" Edward said.

"The King is calling a council together tomorrow and midday. He has requested your presence. If you will agree, I will send a Dora Milaje to collect you in the morning."

Edward nodded. "What can be done for Bella?" he asked.

Okoye stared at him again, trying to decipher his motivations. "If you wish to help, you will attend the meeting tomorrow. Until then, see if she will eat."

"I'll try."

"Good. That is all that can be done. We will continue to stay with her. It is not good to grieve alone."

The zimwi watched her in silence as she turned to leave. She made a note to contact Secretary Norris and gather records from the zimwi's tracking device. While he may feign innocence, she still wished to see proof.

---

Edward watched the General's proud, determined figure as she walked up the hill towards the road, spear in hand. He could hear her thoughts, her doubts, her strategies, her insinuations. He couldn't help but realize how much he preferred ignorance of her dislike of him.

He climbed back into his favorite tree and leaned against the trunk, one leg dangling off the highest branch that would bear his weight. He closed his eyes and listened. He could see Bella laying on the floor through the eyes of the old woman sitting beside her. The woman cared deeply for her and she busied herself in cleaning Bella's home as Bella sat motionless on the floor.

The soldier's worry had grown to near panic as his imprisonment lingered. Edward tried to tune out his muffled screams but the raw fear exuding proved hard to ignore entirely. Edward felt raw and uncertain the best course to take.

He thought back to his visit with his sister…and nearly fell off his branch as he sat upright in a flash of momentary clarity.

Edward, it was the only way. Remember that.

Alice's parting message to him.

It couldn't be…he didn't want to think it…but he couldn't help it.

Alice knew.

 

 

Edward stormed across the borders of Wakanda in search of his sister. She would see him coming. Whether she would choose to meet him was another matter. A torrential downpour drenched him from head-to-toe as he ran. Bursts of lightning lit his way and thunder shook the ground around him.

When he reached the last place he had seen Alice, he paused and called out to her.

"Alice, are you here?"

He only heard the pit-pat-pit-pat of the thick raindrops sinking into the grass and bouncing off the nearby boulders. He flung himself onto the nearest rock, slippery from the rain, and crossed his arms across his legs to wait. She would come.

The rain tired and slowed to a mist a few hours past midnight. Edward heard footsteps approach from the distance, but he didn't bother to turn towards the sound. He could already hear Alice's thoughts as she came into range.

"Alice," he said, his voice deceptively calm.

Edward…I know you can't understand now, but…

He cut her off by jumping to his feet and glaring at her.

"You're right. I can't understand. You knew something was going to happen and you hid it from me. Why?"

"To be fair, I can't actually see that man of Bella's so I only found out what happened when I saw I would be meeting you here and you told me everything," Alice responded, out loud this time. She crossed her arms across her chest in defiance and prepared to meet him head on in battle, whether verbal or physical.

"What did you see?" he asked, his anger deflating and dropping his head in his hands.

"I saw that if I didn't meet you when I did, nothing changed. When I made the decision to meet you here, I could suddenly see you and Bella so much clearer and the vision of Volterra returned. I didn't know what would happen in the interim, but I figured it would be worth it in the end," she said with a poor attempt at an impish smile. "Isn't this what you wanted?"

"No, Alice. Not like this. Not him."

"Why not?"

"He's a good man, Alice. And she loves him. And this country needs both of them here."

"Pfftttt. Countries come and go. How many countries didn't even exist when you were born? Don't worry about it. My concern is you. You need your mate. You deserve your happiness. We need you at home," Alice said, tossing one hand carelessly through the air.

Edward's face went still in a barely suppressed rage. Alice feigned nonchalance while still taking a careful step backwards. Her mind filled with multiple ways she would need to move out of his way in case he decided to act on his impulse to charge her.

"You…."

"Edward, calm down. I'm helping you here," she said, meeting his gaze.

"You…You need me at home? Why? So we can repeat high school again and again? Or so we can sit around and play video games all day? So we can go shopping and buy cars we don't need? Tell me, Alice, what is it precisely that I am needed for at home?"

She sniffed and stared at her hands. "Edward, we miss you. You are part of our family and we love you. Nothing has been the same since you have been gone. We all need you to come home."

"You know I love you all and I do value our family greatly… but this isn't right. Bella is devastated. I just can't sacrifice the lives of a whole country for the happiness of our family. They don't deserve this. They put their lives on the line to rescue me, I can't repay them like this."

"I'm sure they will be fine," Alice said, attempting to show him visions in her head. They were, however, more like half-fleeting fragments as opposed to full visions. She was stretching and they both knew it. She couldn't actually see what would happen to all parties involved.

"You don't know that. You can't see what will happen," Edward said.

"I can see your future, and that's enough," Alice said with a shrug.

"I know you mean well, but your end results are not always what you intend and you don't always have the big picture in mind. Do me a favor and stop meddling. Go home and look after the family," Edward replied.

Alice could already see Edward's decision to return, no matter what she said from here. She pretended she didn't mind, but he could see she also was upset. She continued to plot and as visions of Volterra passed through her mind, he grew concerned again.

"I mean it, Alice."

She gave him a small smile and disappeared into the darkness.

---

Edward Cullen stayed on his rock till the first strips of dawn peeked across the horizon. He would return to plan and strategize with the General today. He would do whatever it took to make this right, even if it meant he must voluntarily return to Volterra, a fate he had hoped he could avoid for the entirety of his existence. In no realm of thought did he imagine the end result would be positive for him. But if it would help Bella, it would be worth it.

He leapt down from his tree and began to walk back towards the border, his heart heavy with what he would face when he reached his destination. He felt no obligation to rush. As he came to a small pond, he decided to wash the lingering mud off his hands and shoes before continuing to wander. He could still see the dawning sun reflecting off the dark surface of the pond in the warm morning light. He splashed the cool water onto his face and neck, wiping off all evidence of his night spent in the elements.

He turned his back to the pond and the golden rays of sun and wiped the remaining trickles of water from his face with his shirt. He paused when he heard the sound of water rippling. He turned and narrowed his eyes. A dark shape moved in the grey surface of the water. It looked to be too large for a fish or a bird but not large enough for a crocodile or hippopotamus. A head rose from the water. It appeared to be the head of a man but as dark as the night sky and with eyes that glowed as bright as the moon with an unnatural yellow light.

Edward's curiosity warred with a sudden sense of fear. Before he could react, however, he gave a shout of pain as he felt as if he had been pierced through from the inside out with an invisible spear through his heart.

The dripping man rose from the water towards him, revealing his lower limbs to be those of a serpent or a fish and not those of a man. Streams of liquid trailed off his scales and steam rose from his body into the cool morning air. His two muscular, shining arms clawed into the ground at Edward's feet as he hissed and pulled, impervious to Edward's attempts to extricate himself from his grip.

"Zimwi…." The creature gargled and his mouth opened in a deadly grin lined with row upon row of sharply pointed teeth. He gave a final pull and Edward's body fell as limp as a stone in the soft mud of the pond's bank. With another soft splash and flurry of bubbles, Nyelu disappeared into the depths with his prize.

---

T'Challa paced the length of his office with his General in a tense discussion in the aftermath of the recent attacks.

"I told him to be ready and when the Dora Milaje arrived, he was not there," his General said with marked irritation in her voice. "Bella has not seen him since last night. He has simply vanished….again. He is dangerous, my King. I do not think we can trust him to work in our favor if we send him on a mission to Volterra. How do we know we will not simply imprison Bella upon arrival and then all our plans are lost."

"But Nakia said…"

"No. Do not tell me Nakia said…," Okoye shouted, banging her hands against a desk. "If Nakia were here and placing her life in danger alongside us, then perhaps I could trust her words."

T'Challa stopped to stare at his General. She dropped her eyes and inhaled deeply, struggling to regather her impassioned words with as much success as herding furious ants back into an anthill.

"I apologize for my outburst."

"You are free to speak your mind, General, and I am free not to like what you say."

She nodded and opened her mouth to speak again when a knock at the door interrupted her.

"Karibu," T'Challa said to the person knocking. The door of T'Challa's office flung open and a King's Guard entered, his heavy breathing giving evidence to the speed with which he came.

"Yes, what is the matter?"

"My King, come at once."

"What is the matter?"

"If you come to the courtyard, you will see."

T'Challa and the General rose and followed the guard through the palace, down the stone steps, and into the garden courtyard of the palace. There a gathering of people surrounded a body covered by a plaid blanket. All feet took a few steps back and allowed the King and the General entry into the center of the circle.

"What is this?" he asked, nodding towards W'Kabi who stood next to the blanketed figure. W'Kabi dismissed the gathering of onlookers, directing them to provide the King with privacy for their discussion.

"A border guard found him across the border during his patrol," W'Kabi said in a grim voice. "He was only a few meters from the entry into Wakanda, but far enough outside the border to be unprotected."

W'Kabi knelt down and folded the blanket down to reveal a pale, white face and black eyes staring lifelessly into nowhere.

"It is the zimwi you brought back from Italy, yes?" he asked, turning to meet his King's gaze.

"It is. But I don't understand…"

"He was found on the bank of a pond, unresponsive as you see him now. The mud on the bank shows claw marks and evidence of a struggle."

The King's eyes snapped up from the corpse-like figure to meet the stoic expression of W'Kabi. "You believe it was Nyelu?"

"Yes, my King. It is the only thing which makes sense."

T'Challa clicked his tongue and folded his hands behind his back as he paced.

"We brought Lieutenant Barnes across the border with us when we fetched his body. She attempted to resuscitate him through the use of her shield but she was unsuccessful. She searched the entirety of the pond and could find no trace of the paths Nyelu travelled to reach the pond or to capture his prey. She did manage to prevent any harm from coming to any of the border guards accompanying us," W'Kabi continued.

"I am glad of it," Okoye said as she met her husband's eyes with an expression that conveyed more than her pursed lips and pointed eyebrows could. He gave a nod in her direction.

"What can be done?" T'Challa said, knowing full-well what their answers would be.

"I do not know," W'Kabi responded.

"There may be hope for him still," Okoye said. "His body will not decay without his soul, unlike Nyelu's human victims. If we can release his soul from Nyelu's calabashes, perhaps he can still live."

"Is it possible?"

"We do not know. Nobody has ever tried."

Ooooooooo

After dismissing his council, the King ushered the General, W'Kabi, Shuri, and Lieutenant Barnes into a small office. The Princess sat on a chair by a desk and the others sat in a circle surrounding the elaborately carved chair of their monarch. Shuri pressed a button to project an international news report into the space between them.

"Here it is," she said. "I have removed all breakable objects from the nearby vicinity. It was a necessary precaution."

"That bad?" Bella asked.

"Yes."

The BBC flashed onto the screen where a man of British-Indian descent in a grey suit read thenlatest news report.

"Now, in world news tonight, an explosion four days ago on the border between the East African nations of Wakanda and Uganda left twenty dead and over fifty injured. Tonight, sources report that the explosion has been attributed to a Wakandan rebel group seeking to destabilize a lucrative oil drilling venture taking place a few kilometres outside the border of Wakanda.

"Expatriate workers from Ketterly, Inc., the international petroleum company targeted, have cited that four of their workers were injured and claimed the attack occurred by Wakandan guerilla soldiers. They have discovered an additional undetonated bomb near their outpost. They have requested military aid be sent into the region as soon as possible.

"The Wakandan government has refused to corroborate their story. The U.N.'s independent human rights expert on Wakanda has cited that increasing political instability has increased in recent years due to the government's continued refusal to allow humanitarian aid and international investment into the primarily agrarian and underdeveloped nation. In addition, there have been reports of an increase in the suppression of human rights under the current government."

"How dare they!" Okoye shouted, throwing her spear through the transmission screen and pinning it into the wall behind. "Asking for military aid, indeed! They bomb us and then have the audacity to claim we attacked them! Wakandan rebels? And they wonder why we do not want to open our country to international business! Hmph!"

"I should have taken all weapons along with all the pottery," Shuri said as she shrugged towards the spear in the wall. Okoye turned to glare at the princess.

"Shhhh, General," T'Challa said. "They want to incite us to action and provide a cover of legitimacy for a future attack. We must decipher why and not simply react out of anger."

"There is more," Shuri whispered and started a second news clip, this time from an American woman in a white suit on CNN.

"This just in...American citizen Edward Cullen has been cited as missing in the aftermath of the Wakandan bombing which has injured at least four others. American tourist Edward Cullen has disappeared without a trace after the bombing which has been claimed by a Wakandan rebel group. His family are saying they fear for the worst and will take whatever measures are necessary to ensure he is discovered."

This time a small knife flew through the transmission and lodged itself next to the spear. Shuri clicked her tongue at Okoye.

"It is a threat," W'Kabi said, his face absent any of the boiling anger written so plainly on the face of his wife.

"Yes," T'Challa said solemnly. "They wish to force our hand by engaging the international world in our affairs. This complicates matters."

"At least they could have used an accurate map-they could not even label Wakanda correctly on a world map for international television!" Okoye said and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Aya. I will allow you to complain about that….American media knowledge of geography is almost as appalling as their knowledge of world history," Shuri said. "Mama W'Kabi will be very happy to know their village has an international airport next to their goat herds and cassava gardens."

"It is an improvement. At least we are no longer in the deserts of Turkana," W'Kabi replied with a half smile. "In a few years, we may even gain the Uganda railway and the source of the Nile."

Okoye grumbled to herself.

"They are playing us," T'Challa said, bringing them back to the matter at hand. "If we do not cooperate with search teams, they will accuse us of ill-intentions and provide justification to forcefully enter. Our cooperation leaves us vulnerable to questions that cannot be answered in the public sphere without jeopardizing our secrets."

"But they are lying!" Okoye growled.

"Yes. Since when is truth the measure of what should and should not be published? No. What matters is power and greed and not reality. Of course, we cannot explain what we know of the disappearance of Edward Cullen. We are at an impasse. We cannot allow their search party to seek him within our borders, we cannot give them his soulless body, and we cannot provide proof of his well-being," T'Challa said.

"Do you think the Volturi are aware of Nyelu's actions?" W'Kabi asked.

"I do not know," T'Challa responded. "They may know that Edward is currently trapped or they may not. It does not change our situation."

"Can we simply hand over his body, then?" W'Kabi said. "We can send his body to Volterra and they will leave us alone."

"But remember, it is highly unlikely they care about Edward Cullen. They are simply using him. They are placing us in a position where they can justify a military intrusion into Wakanda. We cannot protect ourselves to the utmost of our ability before an international audience. If we send his body to Volterra, they can simply claim that our supposed rebels have 'killed' him and then send in 'investigators' to demand justice."

"Unless…." Shuri started.

"Speak sister. I see your brain is beginning to race like a cheetah. Tell us what you are thinking." T'Challa said.

Shuri furrowed her eyebrows and bit her lower lip. "Unless we return him alive. What if we can revive him and send him back to them? We planned to send him to Volterra already," Shuri said.

"The flaw in your logic is that we have a lifeless body and no Edward," Okoye said grimly.

"So, put life back into his body," Shuri said with a slight shrug.

"And how would you presume to do that, Princess? We have sought Nyelu at every water body surrounding our borders and have not succeeded in catching him. We even sent some of the Watu Wa Wanyama with to go search and still, nothing. We do not know how to find Nyelu or his store of calabashes. How do we release Edward?" Okoye asked.

"I didn't say we release Edward. I said we put life back into his body. I didn't specify which soul to put in."

All eyes in the room grew wide and stared at Shuri's nonchalant face.

"Sister, what are you hinting at?" T'Challa asked, warily.

Shuri leaned her elbows on her knees, her eager energy directed towards the center of the circle, her eyes bright as her brain swirled with possibilities and impossibilities.

"We have Bucky's statue-which we know still has his life force, his soul, still inside. We know his consciousness and thought-processes remained from what the zimwi could read from him. And we have the body of a zimwi without a soul. This body will not decay or deteriorate. It simply is missing its inhabitant. Can we, you know, shueee-shuee and put the one inside the other?" Shuri said, waving her hands from one side to the other to illustrate.

"Is that even possible?" W'Kabi said, his mouth gaping slightly.

"Why not? If spirits of the land and spirits of animals can possess people's bodies, why not the spirit of a person possess a zimwi?"

"How?" Okoye asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Aye, this would take someone who is used to managing spirits and deep sorcery," T'Challa said. "I am not sure that is a good idea."

"Mama would know," W'Kabi said, forehead wrinkled in thought. "If anyone in Wakanda knows of such deep magic, Mama would know who to ask."

"Call her," Shuri said. "Bring her here. We can at least investigate the option. It might not work. It might be a terrible idea, but while we pursue other options, let's at least have this as a backup plan."

"But is it safe? Would we be able to, as Shuri put it, 'shuee-shuee' them back again?" Bella asked, speaking for the first time since the gathering commenced.

"We can ask," Shuri said. She placed her hand on Bella's and gazed at her sympathetically. "You know we all care about Bucky. I don't want to do anything that would cause him further harm, but we could definitely use him back here with us, in whatever way we can get him."

Bella gave a reluctant nod.

"While W'Kabi calls Mama W'Kabi, we will speak of other ideas. Does anyone have additional ideas that we can present to the council?" T'Challa asked.

"I think it would be prudent to plan on Lieutenant Barnes preparing to leave for Volterra as soon as possible. We should continue her mission, even if she must continue with only the assistance of the Watu Wa Wanyama," Okoye said, nodding her head in Bella's direction. "This mchawi will continue to attack us until we find the means to protect ourselves from her. If she does not succeed this time using these ploys, she will develop another and another."

"I will form a committee to discuss how to handle the possibilities of a military convoy or search-and-rescue mission being sent to Wakanda," T'Challa said. "We would need to set up our public capital city in Mbarara with the necessary government figureheads to direct their searches in the appropriate directions."

Okoye grumbled under her breath over the trouble such scenarios provided.

As they continued to formulate plans, W'Kabi returned.

"Mama wangu amesema anajua mtu."

 

Deep in the rugged mountain slopes of Mount Bashenga, the tallest of the Mountains of the Moon, the group of travelers came upon the small homestead of the mganga they were sent to find. Zuri stopped the muddy Land Cruiser in front of a battered wooden fence and called out from his window.

"Mzee, habari yako?" Zuri asked, greeting the wizened old woman hunched over her cane. She stood near the gate and carried a calabash of herbs. Chickens pecked around her feet and a white cat rubbed itself against her ankles.

The woman peered at them through glassy, white eyes, thick with cataracts. She gave them a nearly toothless grin and opened the gate for them.

"Mzuri sana. Habari zenu?"

"Mzuri."

"Karibuni," she said. W'Kabi, Okoye, Mama W'Kabi, Shuri, and Bella emerged from the car and gathered around the woman to shake her hands and introduce themselves. She took them across the compound to the central hut, square instead of round in this region, with a roof of cascading layers of grass fringe.

"Opio, tuna wageni," she announced and ushered them through the doorway. The sudden darkness covered their eyes and they were momentarily blinded until their eyes adjusted.

In the center of the hut sat an old man in a long, white Arab robe. His white beard was stained red with henna and his gnarled fingers were stained green with the reeds he carefully worked between his fingers where he sat.

"Mnataka nini? What do you want?" he asked sharply.

"Tunataka utusaidie. Baba Opio, we need your help," Mama W'Kabi replied.

"Ahhh! Mama, nimefurahi kukuona. It has been long!" the old man said and rose to warmly shake her hands. They inquired after each other's families and other shared friends before Mama W'Kabi introduced the rest of the company.

"I know why Mama W'Kabi would pay me a visit, though she has been lost for too long. The rest of you, why have you come? I am a small man. Why do I host the high priest and the princess in my humble home?"

Mama W'Kabi let out a booming laugh and slapped her hand on her knee. "Aye, bwana, stop cheating us. You know why we have come. You are the eldest of the waganga, the most powerful of all in Wakanda. You pretend to be a small man, but you choose to stay small because you do not like politics or being told what to do."

Opio's wrinkled cheeks broke into a grin and his eyes sparkled his assent.

"We would be very grateful for your knowledge and skill," Zuri said, bowing his head in a show of respect.

"Aya. Mama, kuleta chakula. Sit down and tell me," he said. Opio's wife brought out some banana fiber mats and laid them in the shade of a yellow wood tree. She bade them all to sit and then vanished behind the homestead where her cooking fire burned under a sufiria. She gave a harsh call and two teenaged girls materialized from the garden and began to help her prepare food.

"The news from the borders and from Birnin Zana has not been good," Opio said.

"You have heard?" Zuri asked.

"Ndiyo," he replied. "Why do you come to me? I do not have the means to defeat huyu mchawi any more than you do, bwana."

"We have heard of ways we may be able to defeat her, but we need more help. Unfortunately, the mchawi attacked and has stolen away some of the warriors we need."

"Go on," Opio said.

"We need the spirit of a man placed into the body of a zimwi. Nyelu has stolen the soul of a zimwi and the mchawi has frozen the body of a man in stone. We need at least one of them free for our coming mission."

Opio clicked his tongue. "Eeeee! This is a very difficult task you bring me," he said as he chewed on a stalk of grass between his browned teeth.

"In all of Wakanda, you have the deepest knowledge of removing spirits," Mama W'Kabi said. "Tafadhali."

Opio sighed. "I will try. I will need to gather supplies. You sit. Relax. Mama will bring you food." He rose and disappeared into the forest behind his home.

---

"Tuko tayari," Opio said. He had covered his white kanzu with a plaid red shuka, but his reddened hair remained covered by a white hat kofia. He threw some herbs onto the bonfire and a plume of fragrant smoke swirled into the air. He inhaled deeply and began to chant in a language no one present recognized.

A teenage boy, also clothed in a shuka, took up a djembe behind them and pounded out a fast drum beat. Opio swayed from side-to-side in time with the beat and continued to chant.

The shakers tied to Opio's ankles and wrists shook and rattled, pulling back the curtain between the world of flesh and the world of spirit, and creating a gateway in-between.

As the beat increased in speed and volume, his movements also grew faster. Then he bolted upright and looked at them through bloodshot eyes and began to grind herbs together in a mortar and pestle.

Under the balsam tree, the mganga sliced Edward's flesh on his calf with a vibranium knife and placed a deep red compound of herbs and berries, some red earth, and pieces of Bucky's hair into the slash. He placed Bucky in the path of Edward's shadow and tied a bundle of herbs around Edward's neck. Opio drenched a heated oil over the statue and continued to chant. He danced around the bodies late into the night, attempting to draw out Bucky's spirit.

The mganga worked till dawn. As the sun dawned the world into a hazy grey and the bonfire simmered into glowing embers, the mganga stopped. His hazy, weathered eyes stared deep into Bucky's lifeless, motionless face. Then he pulled the shuka off himself and collapsed onto a stool. He took off his kofia and revealed a shiny, bald spot surrounded by white and red down.

"Poleni sana," he said, his voice rough from the long night's exertion. "Siwezi."

---

The company gathered around the newly fed fire, steaming cups of chai in hand, and stared into the flames with disheartened spirits.

"We can find another way," Shuri said. "Maybe another mganga?"

Mama W'Kabi shook her head. "Bwana Opio is the father of the waganga in Wakanda. Ikiwa hawezi, basi hakuna mtu anayeweza."

Bella sank onto her knees on the mat and stared listlessly straight ahead. "There must be another way," she said. "What if…could we bring the statue to a water body near the borderlands? If we bait Nyelu there, we could see if Nyelu could pull out Bucky."

The mganga looked at her, shock and horror dawning on his face. "But then Nyelu would bury your husband in his calabashes and he would be lost forever."

"No….no…I mean, we let Nyelu disconnect his shadow and then I use my shield to prevent him from keeping it. Maybe if I shielded Bucky's body, I could channel him into Edward's body," she said, leaping up, her eyes glistening in excitement at the idea.

"Dada, how are we to find Nyelu and force him to do our bidding?" W'Kabi said, sadly. "We spent three days searching and never found a trace of him. It is too dangerous outside of Wakanda, even for you, to spend more time than is necessary."

"I don't know," she said, burying her eyes in her arms. "I have to do something, though."

The mganga stared at her again, as if trying to read her thoughts through her skin. "This is not the only zimwi," he said in a tone which was a statement and not a question.

"No," Bella whispered, failing to meet his gaze.

"What do you mean by your shield?"

"Nyelu cannot harm her or any around her she chooses to shield," Okoye said. "He tried and failed. She has the ability to protect herself and those around her from supernatural and mental attacks."

The mganga's mouth dropped open. "Wewe, why did you fail to mention this earlier? You have the solution to your problem already, and yet you fail to see it and you rob an old man from his sleep."

"What do you mean?" Bella asked, biting on her lower lip and meeting his gaze again.

"Is a shield used for defense or offense?" he said, rhetorically. "It all depends on how the bearer uses it. It can protect the warrior from blows or it can inflict blows on attackers. If your shield can keep a soul within a body then it can be used to remove a soul from a body. Use your shield to push the man out of himself."

"Is that possible?" asked Zuri.

"I've never tried to do anything like that. I've never used it as a weapon or through a person," Bella replied.

"Try, but you must be careful," the mganga said. "A spirit does not like to be without a home and will quickly hide in the first empty home it can find, like a hermit crab. We do not want his spirit to become lodged within a tree or rock or move to join the Living Dead. Do you think you can create a channel between the two bodies so the spirit only has one open door in front of it?"

"I can try," Bella said. She turned to face the two bodies. Edward's lay strewn on the grassy clearing next to Bucky's solid feet. Both stared lifelessly into the air, not minding the condensing dew nor the wet grass.

Bella focused on both. She visualized the thick, pliable band that surrounded her and began to use her mental fingers to push it outward. She pushed and pushed until she felt it covering the firm granite of the statue. She enveloped the statue and moved on to envelope Edward as well. Now that she felt both of their masses within, she began to push her shield away from herself and towards Bucky.

It snapped back and she groaned. She tried again. And again. For three hours, she pushed with all her mental energy, silently pushing, her eyebrows furrowed and her jaw clenched.

"It's not working," she said, blowing her hair out of her face in exasperation.

"You must enter inside and not focus on the outer frame," Opio said. "Remember, you are not protecting his home, you are breaking down the door."

She nodded. She closed her eyes and used her shield to feel through the edges of the statue, tapping away, looking for ways to open and enter in, like gentle fingers feeling for a crack in a porcelain cup.

"I do not know how to get in."

"A river can soak into even the mightiest rock. Keep trying," Opio said.

She changed the vision in her mind from that of a band of elastic that enveloped to that of a river that engulfed, following the currents of her mind. She envisioned soaking into Bucky's body, filling the invisible pores and crevices, fluidly entering his physical form with her relentless power.

Like a pool of water soaking into sand, suddenly she found herself within a cavern of sorts-a dark, thick, dense mass. Within, she felt a glowing, pulsating life force.

"I'm in!" she said, eyebrows pursed in concentration, teeth grinding together.

"Good! Get him out!"

She gently pushed onto the vivid life force. It pushed back, like a tree in the wind returning to its former position. She leaned in again, with her own hurricane force wind, and enveloped that force. She leaned and blew with all her mental might, inching it nearer and nearer to where she could feel the edge.

She nearly fell forward as she felt both her shield and the life force break through the statue and out into the open air.

Quickly she sealed their exit and corralled the spirit, shrinking her shield around and around till the only avenues available were Edward's body. The spirit hovered. She could not see it with her eyes, but she could still feel it pulsing and vibrating within her shield. She gently pushed on it again and it sank, entering into the empty vessel laying on the earth.

She left her shield covering Edward's body and they all waited, unsure what would follow.

Till Edward opened his eyes.

 

Part 4: Baobab

---

Chapter 35: The New Man

---

Bella froze and stared at the black eyes as they fluttered open. He did not move for another few minutes as he seemed to take in his surroundings and took in a gasping breath.

"I would suggest we give them some space," Okoye whispered to the others. "We do not know what kind of mood our new zimwi will be in."

The others nodded and slipped away, returning to the mganga's hut and leaving Bella alone by the fire.

Bella stared at the man as he seemed to analyze each speck of dust that spiraled through the air. She felt like her heart had leapt into her throat and she failed in her attempt to swallow it back down. She hardly dared to hope that this had worked…and she still felt frozen with fear over what this would mean for the future if it had.

The copper-haired Edward-shaped man tentatively sat up and then stood on his feet. She did not even know how to address him. Should she call him Edward or Bucky? She shuddered. This was a terrible idea. She should never have let Shuri convince her that this was a good idea. Then she remembered her long nights spent motionless at the feet of Bucky's statue and she knew. She was so desperate to have him back in whatever form she could have him that she hadn't stopped to think through all the implications of their decision.

"Where am I?" came the velvety voice. It was Edward's voice.

"You are in the Kingdom of Wakanda," she replied.

"Yeah, doll, I kinda got that. What I mean is whose house am I at? This doesn't look like our house or even our neighborhood. And why the hell does my voice sound like this?" he said.

"We are on Mount Bashenga. We came here to find some help with, well, your situation," Bella said, drawing closer to him. She stared in a morbid fascination as she watched Edward's features morph into facial expressions so uniquely Bucky and listened to Edward's voice marred by Bucky's peculiar cadences.

He drew towards her and moved to embrace her when he stopped and stared at his hands in confusion. His eyes met her again, the deep black colored with a hint of fear.

"Ummm, what is going on? I have two arms and I am…not normal. I'm so thirsty. My throat is on fire! Did I come down with something? What is this?" he said, his voice rising in decibels as his confusion grew.

"So…do you remember being turned to stone?" Bella said, attempting to project calm and knowing she failed. She came up to him and took one of his hard, cool arms in her own and stared back at him.

He paused to search his memories, seeming momentarily lost. "Stone? I was turned to stone? That would explain why I feel so off-kilter."

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"Umm, I went to investigate an explosion and then I was by the lake across the border, you know the one? Yeah, and all the sudden it was turned to ice and a woman's face appeared. The next thing I knew, everything went black. Stone, huh?" he said and looked at his two hands again and then let his gaze fall upon his strangely long and thin legs.

"Well, we, uh, couldn't figure out how to, whatcha-call-it? Unstone you, so we had to improvise," Bella said with a cringe.

"What do you mean?"

She held up the silvery metal lid to one of the cooking pans and he shouted curses in response to the face that met him in the dim reflection.

"What did you do!" he said. Staring back at him were the black eyes, wild copper hair, and pale skin of Edward Cullen. Yet the figure moved in obedience to his will.

"It's a long story… Basically, Edward got taken by Nyelu and you were turned to stone. As I said, we improvised."

"Like hell you did! Get me outta here!" he said, pulling on his arms as if he could remove himself from the strange body he occupied.

"We are working on that part. But it's gonna be a little difficult since your body is over there," Bella said, pointing behind her to the massive stone and metal statue looming near the bonfire.

Bucky walked over to it…to him…and ran "his" arms up and down the cold granite surface. Another string of curses fell from his lips as he stared at his own lifeless face.

"I guess Shuri hasn't figure out how to fix this yet?" he asked.

"No. And we had to do something. There's been a bit of an international incident, conveniently organized as soon as Edward disappeared, to force us to hand him over to the Volturi or risk invasion. Now, instead of proving a convenient ploy for their invasion, you get to help us storm Volterra, and figure out how to stop all this chaos."

He turned to stare at her again.

"If you are trying to make a joke, it's not funny."

"I wish I was," she said with a half-hearted smile.

He sighed and stared at his face in the saucepan lid again and met her gaze, once again unsettling her with how "Bucky-like" his expression was.

"Let me make sure I'm getting this right. You needed Edward but he was out-of-service and so you stuck me in Edward's body as a consolation prize and to somehow fix everything?"

"Kinda…yes…no…maybe," Bella said, pursing her lips and illustrating her points with her small hands. "I don't know, ok. You were gone, you've been gone and it's been awful and everything's been kinda going crazy and we couldn't come up with a better plan."

"How long have I been out of it?"

"Eight days," she said, her face crumbling with the grief she'd carried for so long. "I thought I'd lost you. It's been awful."

He swore again and pulled Bella into an embrace. He kissed the top of her head. "I'm sorry, doll."

She looked up at him and pulled away with a grimace.

"Sorry, babe. It's just…" she started and waved her hand at his body. "Wow, this is awkward."

He broke into laughter. "Ya think? Whose brilliant idea was this, anyway? Wait, don't tell me. I already know. She's gonna think this is hilarious. I'm gonna kill her when I catch her."

Bella laughed now too. "You'll have no problems catching her now…or me, for that matter. You're probably even faster than me."

"No kidding. So, is that why my senses are in sensory overload and my throat is on fire? Wait, wait…I think I'm a little slow on the uptake today. Are you telling me I am now a vampire?"

"Umm, yeah?" Bella said, getting nervous again.

"Holy hell, Bella."

"Yeah, so, I think we better take you hunting to make sure you don't, you know, eat anyone and so we can work on helping you get used to this whole thing," she said.

They both turned to walk away from the homestead and into the deep forests lining the roots of the mountain range. Bella kicked her feet on stones as they walked and stared fixedly at the ground, unsure of what to say and even more unsure of if they had managed to improve their situation. Bella broke the silence with a sidelong glance and a dark laugh.

"I'd think this was a really bad dream but I don't think I'd even dream up something this wonky," he said.

"Unfortunately, you are stuck in this dream for awhile," she said. "Come on. Let's find some duiker or something here."

---

They ran through the grasslands back in the direction of their home after their hunt. Bella considered it successful, or, successful enough, she amended, as she looked at the mess made of the shirt Bucky wore. As they ran, Bella decided it was time. She stared at him and silently dropped her shield.

Bucky collapsed on the ground.

"Argh!" He cried, cradling his head in his hands.

"What's the matter?" she said in mock innocence.

"The noise! The voices! They are everywhere!" he said. He began rolling on the ground. "It's too much! Make it stop!"

She covered him with her shield and he immediately recovered. He stood and stared at her with wide eyes.

"I'm all balled up…were you shielding me and then unshielded to see what I'd do?"

"Maybe."

"How does he live with that?"

"We are gonna need you to learn to manage it. We kinda need that gift right now. You ready to try again?"

"No."

"Come on, focus, babe," Bella said and she dropped her shield again.

Curses flowed freely again and he covered his head with his hands.

---

They sat in the cool shade and comfortable familiarity of their home by the lake. Bucky gazed out onto the sparkling green of the ripples made by the flamingos as they bathed themselves on the banks. His golden eyes stared but Bella wasn't sure where his mind currently rested.

"This isn't right," he said to her. "I've taken over his body and I'm using it as a tool for my own purposes. How is that any different from what Hydra did to me? I don't care if it's for good purposes instead of bad. The point is I'm doing exactly the same thing. There's no way of looking at this in a way that's ok."

She didn't respond but took is hand in hers and rubbed her thumb over his. He sighed.

"I can see his memories," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"It's foggy and vague and they feel so very foreign-as if I'm watching an old movie or something. It's very disconnected from me, but I can see his memories. I can see glimpses of people he's known, bits of conversations he's been a part of, places he's been. I can even taste a bit of the emotions attached to the memories. If I concentrate, they seem to come out clearer and firmer, otherwise it's like they are dormant inside my mind."

"That's really weird."

"I know. I feel like an intruder. I wonder if the memories I make while in his body will also be, you know, stuck in here and he can read them later when he comes back."

"If he comes back."

"He'd better…I'd better not be stuck like this forever."

"I fully and one hundred percent agree with that sentiment."

"It's not just in his mind that I feel I'm an intruder. In his body, too. It's like I'm fighting with him over the right way to walk and how to speak and how to make hand motions. It's like this body is programmed in a certain way and I'm going against the grain to do what feels natural to me."

"It looks pretty weird too," Bella said.

"You can tell?"

"Yeah. Some of your expressions and phrases are so you but in this body."

"I've got to admit, the running is keen….the senses too. The throat burning and desire to rip out people's throats-not so keen. And the mind reading-not keen at all. Not in the slightest," he said with a shudder. "I might like it if I could read your mind but there's only so much I want to know about the people around me…and, hell I don't think I'll be able to look Okoye or W'Kabi in the face for at least a month."

Bella laughed as he shuddered.

"Then there's Shuri…."

"What about Shuri?"

"That dame's crazy enough without me seeing what actually goes on in her mind. She already doesn't filter her words enough and her mind, yeah, there's no filter there at all."

"What happened?"

"Ugh, all during the planning meeting, she kept debating if we marry people's souls or their bodies and if you are technically cheating on me with me."

"Ummmm, wow."

"Yeah. I think she did that on purpose, just to make me uncomfortable. It worked."

"Did she come up with her ethical conclusion?"

"No. Underlying her whole debate, I'm pretty sure she invented a flying car and a new kind of solar paneling that will work in low-sun regions, oh, and she decided to ask for a baby cheetah for New Year."

"You know, I am not even going to scold you for telling me her thoughts cause I'm pretty sure she'd tell me all that out loud. You've gotten a lot better at controlling it, though. I didn't see you even wince. I'm glad you were practicing."

"Yeah. I can say I have a whole new appreciation for that shield of yours," he said and kissed her temple. "You really do provide solace in all the chaos."

She smiled. "I wonder," she began.

"What?"

"Well, after Mount Bashenga and all Bwana Opio told me about my shield, I've been practicing using it in new ways…I mean, besides the whole using it as a weapon and pushing people's souls out of their bodies…"

"Which is impressive, by the way."

"Yeah, well, I just wonder if I unshield myself if you'll be able to read my mind."

"You think you can do that?"

"I think so. I kinda did when I was, well, pushing you out of your body. Here, let me try."

Bella closed her eyes and began to push at her shield again, pouring it into the space besides her, flowing away from her, and leaving her feeling strangely vulnerable. She looked at Bucky again.

Can you hear me? She asked internally.

"Yes!" he shouted, grabbing her hand. "I can hear you! I can see what you are showing me! That is amazing!"

She smiled. "I guess there are some benefits to that gift then."

"Wow, yeah, I can appreciate that part. Keep going. I want to hear everything!" he said, laying back on the couch and closing his eyes so he could concentrate his mind on hers. They were interrupted by a voice at their door. The tall, slightly yellowish figure of the man-leopard entered and bowed to both in greeting.

"Malaika, Bwana, it is time. We depart for Volterra by nightfall."

 

The Wakandan airplane flew through the dark night with the stars above providing more light than the dark expanse of the uninhabited Sahara below. Bella adjusted their course again and set the plane's autopilot on to take them the rest of the way to Italy. Bucky returned to his seat beside her after checking on their small army of a dozen shape-shifters who sat quietly in their human forms in the back of the plane.

"How are they holding up?" Bella asked.

"They are ok. The Eagles swear they could have flown there much more comfortably themselves. The Impalas are complaining that the ceiling is not high enough to accommodate their horns. The Lions and Leopard are happy enough for now, but they also finished off the last of my antelope jerky."

"What about the Mambas and the Crocodiles?"

"I gave them each a heated blanket and now they are asleep. Mouse swears she will never leave the ground again and that it's completely unnatural for one such as herself to have her feet off the ground. She may have lost her lunch once or twice during takeoff."

"Thanks for looking after them, babe. I'm glad you are here," she said, taking his hand in hers. He gave her hand a squeeze in response.

"I forgot to tell you," Bucky said, glancing at her with golden eyes, "with how messy the last few days have been I didn't remember till earlier. Before the mchawi turned me to stone, she said the words-you know, the words?"

"She knew them?"

"Every single Russian word."

"But it didn't work?" Bella asked.

Bucky's face broke into a grin that seemed to glow from his bones through his skin. "It didn't work."

"I'm glad," Bella responded. And she was-though more because she knew he needed to be convinced of his cure more than because she thought he had been a possible danger to them.

"I'm ok now," he said. "Even if, well, you know," he said and waved at his foreign body. "At least I know I won't return to what I was before. The Winter Soldier truly is gone."

"Well, let's figure out how to get rid of this White Witch. Then we can get the fully cured Bucky Barnes returned to the flesh."

"You got it, doll."

Another hour later found the large jet quietly descending onto a deserted green hillside in the Tuscan countryside. They cloaked the plane so it could not be seen against the ancient church and surrounding fields in which they landed. The Eagles exited the jet. Their dark chocolate skin, golden eyes, and tall Mohawk hair morphed into the bodies of brown and tan speckled eagles. They flapped their powerful wings and took to the air with a majestic grace.

They returned in an hour's time and alighted onto the grass besides the rest of the company. They lifted their crowns of feathers as they tilted their heads side-to-side.

"They said they could see very little happening in Volterra," Bucky said, reading their thoughts for the others to hear. "The city around the fortress is full of the usual happenings of human life, but within the fortress itself, they could not see much. The courtyards all seemed deserted and even from the windows, they could not see any signs of life. They suggest we send in Mouse."

The tiny, caramel-colored Mouse, already in her animal form, squeaked and ran towards the eagles. She curled herself into a little ball and the largest Eagle gently took hold of her in his claws. Mouse closed her eyes as the Eagles' wings pounded against the grass to carry them back to the air.

"Mouse is already feeling sick to her stomach," Bucky said as they watched the Eagles from the window. "She has decided to retire from military service after all this is done."

The Eagles alone returned after another hour.

"They left Mouse there to keep searching the fortress," Bucky said. "During the time she looked around, Mouse reported only a single occupant of the castle-a human woman."

"What!" Bella asked, surprised. Her surprise was mirrored in the expressions of the Watu wa Wanyama around her.

"The Eagles are saying it's time for us to move in. We will find cloaks hidden outside the city gates. You all should remain in your human forms and pretend to be Volturi," Bucky said.

"Twende," Leopard said. He moved towards the door of the jet and opened it for all the others.

The company made their way towards the city. As covertly as they could, they walked through the rolling hills and fields towards the city. They found the Eagles waiting for them outside the city wall where they perched on a tree. Below the tree lay a large pile of grey cloaks. Each of the company paused to shroud themselves in the garb of the Volturi guard before they proceeded further into the city.

The hoods of the cloaks shaded the slightly golden faces of the great cats, though their long incisors could not be fully hidden. The Impalas' horns had to be pushed through the cloak, making them appear as if they wore horned helmets.

"Here goes," Bella said, cloaking herself. She couldn't help her shudder as she saw Bucky, in Edward's body, covered in the grey cloak of the Volturi. He looked as they looked-as they would wish him to remain. He looked like one of them. She thought, not for the first time, how much she longed for the brilliant soul of her husband to be encased in the green eyes and warm flesh of his slightly scarred self. Bucky gave her a decidedly un-Edward-like wink and smirk and she felt herself relax.

"Let's go storm the castle," Bucky said.

The Eagles remained in the air and flew on ahead. The company walked in through the stone arched gates and their grey robes dragged along the cobbled streets. The Volturi's stone fortress loomed ahead of them and yet Bella could not see a guard upon any of the rooftops.

"I hear a lot of people thinking about laundry and cooking dinner," Bucky whispered. "Lots of very human-sounding minds. I can't hear any thoughts that sound like those of a zimwi."

They cautiously entered the fortress thought the echo of their footsteps proved to be the only sound they could hear in the stone passageways.

"In the throne room," Bucky said. "I hear someone there."

Mouse met them at the door to the Volturi central chamber. She quirked her little head to one said, scratched herself with a pink foot, and swept towards the door. She gave them another look with her dark eyes and ran through the small opening between the massive doors.

Bucky and Leopard creaked opened the doors the rest of the way. As they did, the entire company looked in upon the enormous marble room. In the center of the white pillars stood three figures. Two stood unmoving in their chairs. Their uniformly grey bodies sat as statues staring unseeing upon the rest of the room.

At their feet, sitting on the marbles stairs, sat a third figure. This one moved and breathed and smelled of blood and life. A dark woman with a shorn head garbed in a deep blue and purple kitenge rose as they entered. She flashed them a brilliant grin.

"Nakia!" Bella shouted and ran towards her, hands outstretched. Nakia embraced her then turned and greeted the rest of the company in Kiswahili. She then pulled out a wooden box from a satchel she carried around her shoulder.

"Shika," she said and gave the box to Bella.

"What is this?" Bella asked.

"The magic rings," she said, her dark eyes somber and lacking any signs of mirth.

"How did you…why are you….Nakia, what is going on?" Bella asked, confusion evident on her face as she took the box.

"Come," Nakia said, gesturing for them all to follow her. "There is much to tell you. First, you should eat and drink. We are safe here tonight and the battle will not find us here."

---

T'Challa could not take his morning meal. The nearly sleepless night left him feeling slightly woozy. He lay his head on the back of the large chair in his father's study where the early watches of the morning found him retreat. He closed his eyes for a moment and felt himself slip into a hazy sleep. His rest ended with a loud knock on the door and the entrance of his General.

"Habari ya asubuhi, mfalme wangu," she said with a salute.

"Mzuri sana," he replied. He yawned and rubbed his eyes with his hands. "It is early, General. Why have you come?"

"Our Volterra mission has successfully landed. They will communicate again once the Eagles have scouted out the fortress in Volterra."

"Asante," T'Challa responded. "You are ready to depart?"

"You know I would much rather stay and fight, my King," Okoye responded with a frown.

"Of course. That is the very reason I have chosen you for this mission. You must protect the heart of Wakanda. If Shuri is not kept safe, there will be no heir and Wakanda will fall into chaos during wartime. If you do not protect carry some of our store of the heart-shaped herb, there will be no protectors for Wakanda. I will be at peace knowing my sister and mother are under your protection and in case I join my ancestors, there will be another Black Panther to take my place."

"Yes, my King. May the spirit of the Black Panther be with you as you defend our people and our homeland," she said with another salute. She turned quickly and left the room to hide the tears that moistened her eyes.

T'Challa readied himself with his Panther Habit and joined his troops at the borderlands to wait. Today was a day he would have preferred to wait long. Unfortunately, he did not have long to wait. Already, the silent footsteps of grey-cloaked figures marched in formation between the trees and came forward to meet them at the border.

 

Okoye wrapped her woolen blanket even more tightly around her shoulders and shivered. The snow crunched beneath her boots as she walked the icy pathway through the Jabari territory of the Rwenzori Mountains.

"We are growing close," she said to the two women who followed her. The queen mother made an attempt at a smile, but the princess only nodded. She neither spoke nor smiled.

It is bad, then. Okoye thought to herself. She couldn't remember the last time Shuri failed to smile.

They reached the narrow path that would lead them through the rocky caverns to the heart of the Jabari homeland.

"Ngoja kidogo," she whispered and her companions heeded her. She listened.

"What is it?" Ramonda asked. She rubbed her hands together in front of her and blew a cloud of warm breath onto her gloved fingers.

"Footsteps," Okoye answered, raising her spear in a defensive posture.

The sound grew until they could clearly hear the footsteps belonged to more than a single set of feet. Soon, a party of five men clothed in furs and leather appeared. They carried heavy ebony rungus in their hands. Their thick beards were dotted with specks of ice frozen from the condensation of their breath.

They halted in front of the three women, pounded their right fists against their chests, and chanted a chorus of barking grunts in greeting. The women nodded their heads in response.

"Tell me," one man said, looking keenly at them. "Why do we have the queen mother, princess, and great general of Wakanda arriving unannounced and by foot into the ancestral land of the Jabari?"

"We seek an audience with Bwana M'Baku," Ramonda replied. "Our business is with him."

The spokesman nodded and beckoned for them to follow. They entered through the hidden mountain passageway that opened into the fourth largest city in Wakanda. Carved out of the ridges and crests of the mountain face itself, the chief's home overlooked the steep metropolis below glittering in the dark night.

The five guards ushered the women into the great hall where the M'Baku sat on a throne-like chair, surrounded by decorative wooden spears. His presence filled the dais. His fur-clad armor and muscular frame made him appear every ounce the warrior that he was renowned to be.

"M'Baku," Ramonda began, but was interrupted as the men began their chorus of chants again in greeting.

"You have come," M'Baku stated once their chorus faded.

"Yes," she said.

"You pride yourselves on your mighty city and your great technology and yet you are here now, crawling on your bellies like wounded dogs, asking the great carpenters of Wakanda for assistance. I see no enemies attacking the Jabari homeland to steal our saws and chisels."

"You have been kept safe because Wakandan weapons and illusions have protected you from outsiders. Do you think your saws and chisels would have prevented all of Europe from fighting over your mountains?" Okoye replied in annoyance.

M'Baku clicked his tongue in reciprocal annoyance and then broke into a grin. "Okoye, it has been long. Have you come to embarrass me in front of the men of my village again?"

She let out a huff and glared at him.

"You lost your chance, Okoye. You should have married me when you had the chance. You could have been my first wife and the most honored woman of Jabari. With a real man at your side to protect you, you could finally lay down your spear in peace."

"Tosha, bwana, we have travelled far and we are tired," Ramonda chided, interrupting M'Baku before he could continue to anger Okoye. "We have not come for your taunts. We seek refuge until our troubles in Wakanda subside."

"I received a coded message from T'Challa this morning. My wives have seen to your hospitality already. They are preparing an evening meal as we speak," he said, breaking into a grin.

Okoye rolled her eyes. "Msbumbufu," she said under her breath.

"Except for that one," M'Baku continued, directing his rungu in her direction. "That one may not stay unless she learns to mind her tongue and show proper respect."

"My tongue cannot help if it speaks truth," she replied.

"Eeee! Your husband should teach you how to speak to a man, Okoye. If that is how you address the master of your home, it is little wonder you must carry a spear with you at all times."

Shuri and Ramonda both sighed. "I told T'Challa he should send us with Ayo instead. They'll be like this the entire time," Shuri whispered.

"Hush, daughter. He wanted to make sure we were protected by the very best in Wakanda…even if it means we may die of irritation along the way."

Shuri let out a giggle and that made Okoye smile as well. She did not relish spending an indefinite amount of time in the land of the Jabari but she would be comforted knowing she could keep Ramonda and Shuri safe.

The three women were taken to a large room in the brick home of M'Baku. True to his word, his wives had prepared three mattresses on the floor, a small fire in a fire pit to bring it to a cheery warmth, and warm water already prepared for their baths. Once clean and refreshed, the wives brought in bowls of lentils, cassava kalo, and steamed green vegetables for their guests to eat. Okoye, Ramonda, and Shuri knelt on a mat on the floor and dipped the kalo into the flavorful, steaming sauce that warmed them from the inside out, despite the icy white blanket surrounding the world outside their curtained windows.

They finished their meal and placed the utensils outside their door in the hallway for their hosts. Then they lay on their mattress and buried themselves in furs and woolen blankets as they sought rest. Despite their weary muscles, none believed they would find rest this night.

Okoye felt a vibration around her wrist and she displayed the transmission from her kimoyo beads. She felt a flash of surprise in the black rimmed glasses and neat collared shirt that met her eyes.

"Secretary Norris," she said. "You have news?"

"General, your majesties, I have news."

"Tell us," she said as Ramonda and Shuri moved in closer to listen.

"I am afraid it is not good news. It was barely past dawn when the Volturi attacked our borders. We experienced a yet-to-be explained dismantling of our shields which allowed their entire army entry across our border."

Three gasps sounded from the women as they listened.

"By 9am, our entire army was immobilized, Birnin Zana was overtaken, and the palace inhabited by our enemies. The good news is that we do not think a single life has been lost. The bad news is, our entire army has been turned to stone, as well as a high proportion of the palace staff and guards. Our people have remained safe in the fortress beneath the city and they remain there still."

"Did our weapons fail to penetrate the mazimwi?" Okoye asked, still stunned. "They are specially designed for this-how could this happens?"

"The weapons were never used. One of their guard robbed the entire army of their capacity to function before they could utilize our weapons and that was the end of the battle. From what I can see of the video monitoring system I was watching, the mchawi has taken a physical form and raided both our weapons and our stores of vibranium. They left at nightfall."

"Where did they go?" Okoye asked.

"We do not know. We could no longer monitor them."

"What do you mean? Secretary Norris, we have monitoring systems throughout our entire country-how could you not know?"

"General, I just said they raided our stores of vibranium…I am not exaggerating. The mchawi removed all of it. Every single last store of it. All of our power systems, transportation systems, shields, and weapons are no longer functioning. Our solar-powered backups provide just enough energy to maintain systems in the underground fortress but no more than that. Wakanda is completely powerless."

"And T'Challa…," Shuri began, hesitation in her voice.

"As I said, our entire army has been turned to stone," he said. "I am sorry, princess but until further notice, you are now queen of Wakanda."

---

The entire room fell silent from their strategy planning as Nakia's kimoyo beads received a transmission.

"T'Challa?" Nakia said as she noted the origin of the communication. Her eyes grew wide as red eyes and a pale face met her instead. She momentarily froze with fear.

"Get ready. We are coming for the rings," the zimwi whispered before he cut off the transmission.

It was the brother of Jane. What did this mean? They were coming to them? Plans were changing and she did not know why. She attempted to return his transmission but found the kimoyo beads said they were no longer receiving transmissions.

"I thought you said they weren't coming back?" Bella asked.

"They weren't supposed to. Jadis planned to stay in Birnin Zana and stage her conquests from there. Otherwise they would never have left Volterra so undefended. She wanted to abandon this place completely since Wakanda is better fortified, equipped, and less likely to draw attention."

"But she wants the rings," Bucky chimed in.

"Yes," Nakia said.

"We are going to need to come up with a new plan, then," Bucky said. "And, uh, pretty fast. What do you think-6 hours, tops?"

"Yes," Nakia said.

"I don't mean to make things worse, but I think I'm going to," Bucky said after a pause. "We have company. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it's two mazimwi."

"Volturi?"

"No…ummm…I think they know me…well, not me me, but Edward me."

"Can you tell who it is?" Bella asked.

"Hold on. They aren't thinking about their identities at the moment but I seem to remember them." He paused and closed his eyes as he sought to search through Edward's memories till he found corresponding memories. "Alice…and Jasper."

"Who is that?" Nakia asked.

"Edward's brother and sister."

"I see. Are they hungry and are they trustworthy?" Nakia asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"I'm not sure. Bella, Leopard, Lions, stay close to Nakia," Bucky said as the door to the courtyard flung open and two figures emerged, both glittering in the sunlight. A tall, blonde male walked next to a tiny, dark-haired woman wearing a bright red dress, red lipstick, and sunglasses.

"Edward!" she shouted and flung her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. Bucky went rigid and stared, completely unsure of what to do.

"Oh, stop," she said, batting his shoulder. "You hold a grudge worse than Rosalie on a bad day. I told you it would all work out!" She broke into a brilliant grin and waved her hand around the courtyard.

"You see! Just as I saw! Though, you have been very hard to see lately. You disappeared completely for almost a week and I got so nervous I almost came for you. But then you appeared again. Then I saw you and Bella together again and we just had to come."

Jasper stood awkwardly in the shadows, keen eyes taking in the gathering before him as he let his mate bubble over in her typical enthusiasm.

"Bella! I've missed you so much!" Alice said, turning to throw her arms around the startled, wide-eyed woman. "Everyone is here. I've brought them as far as Tuscany. They are soooo looking forward to seeing you both again. I know, I know, Edward's not quite ready to rejoin us yet permanently, but you can at least come and say hi."

"Alice, you are scaring them," Jasper said in a low voice.

"We don't have time for this," Nakia said, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms across her chest. "I'm sorry to be very impolite. We would be much more hospitable at another time, but now is not the best time for a family reunion. If you can wait till tomorrow or the day after, I'm sure Bella and Edward would love to see you all again."

Bucky's face maintained a façade of calm and he gave a polite, forced smile.

Jasper's eyes fell upon the myriad of animals surrounding them. "Strange company you keep. I've never met animals who exude such vivid, human-like emotions. Tell me, can they think and speak?" he said.

"Yes," Bella said cautiously.

Alice's eyes grew wide and she threw up her arms in exasperation. "Ugh! It's them! They are keeping me from my visions! I can't see them at all and I can only see you both when you are not with them."

"She can see the future," Bucky whispered in awe to Nakia and Bella. "Little pieces and visions. It's rather amazing."

Bella nodded.

"I think Edward mentioned something about that a few weeks ago," she said.

Alice and Jasper turned to them with looks of confusion on their faces.

Nakia groaned and knocked Bucky's shoulder. "You are not staying in character," she hissed.

"Pole sana. Nimesahau," he replied. "I never was a very good actor."

"You are a terrible actor," Nakia responded. "You are making a mess of this and we do not have time to clean it up. The Volturi will return within the next six hours and we need to come up with a plan."

Alice and Jasper exchanged worried glances and looked around the fortress again.

"You know, I'm usually pretty good at planning," Alice said with a grin. "But first, I'd like to know what exactly you have done to my brother."

 

The Watu Wa Wanyama circled around the four mazimwi and lone human in the stone courtyard of Volterra. Hours of deliberation and strategizing brought their enemies nearer and their shadows further away.

"It's really interesting," Bucky whispered to Bella from a corner where they sat. He cocked his head in the direction of Alice and Nakia. "Listening to them, I mean. Their gifts work in completely different ways. Alice's power comes from seeing futures that could be, that might be, if certain decisions are made. Nakia's power comes from seeing futures that will be, regardless of what decisions are made. Alice's power depends on people making decisions. Nakia's power depends on something else entirely…something external to her and to all of us. It's a power that I don't fully understand. She cannot wield or control it, she is simply the medium, the channel for communication with something outside of herself."

"What are their gifts telling us?"

"It's hard to really interpret it. There's so much symbolism attached to each of their sights. Alice's visions are really muddied right now by the Watu Wa Wanyama and there's a lot of decisions that are in the process of being made."

A mighty bird landed and shifted into his human form in the center of the courtyard.

"They have landed," Eagle said. "I have seen their plane at the airport. They will arrive within a half hour."

The company nodded and broke into tense chattering.

"Tuko tayari," Leopard said with a careful nod. Each of the shape-shifters transformed into their animal forms and each member of the company took a cloth-wrapped ring from Nakia. These they carefully hid in hands or pockets or mouths or feet. The courtyard grew eerily silent as its former occupants disappeared into their positions around the fortress.

"I hear them," Bucky said. "The mchawi is in the rear, surrounded by guards. The guards can already smell that there are intruders. They are debating whether to tell her or not. Bella, shield the guards around her so Chelsea can't bind them to the Queen."

Bella nodded and projected her shield to encompass the rest of the mazimwi. She could not help the spike of nervous tension she felt as she stretched her shield over such a large space and included so many points of life beneath it.

"I won't be able to fight," Bella whispered. "I can't keep my shield spread so far and fight at the same time."

Bucky nodded. "Leopard, Lion-can you guard Bella?" he said to the two majestic cats who paced around the Volturi's throne room where they waited. Silently, they nodded their heads and moved to sit motionless in front of Bella.

"Alice and Jasper, you are up," Bucky whispered. "They are nearing the gateway into the fortress."

They nodded and disappeared.

"Are you sure you trust her?" Bella asked. "She has worked with the Volturi in the past. How do we know she won't turn on us now?"

"I have no doubt she'd exchange all of Wakanda in a minute if it would help her. However, our goals align for the moment."

"What do you mean?"

"Her brother. She would cut off all her limbs herself if it would protect her brother. She adores him and all she wants is to bring him home. As long as our goals involve the restoration of her brother, she will be loyal. She really does care about you, as well, though her memories of you are of a very different woman than the one I know. I didn't know you were so clumsy," he said with a quiet laugh.

"Was I?"

"Hopelessly," he said. "I would have liked to have seen that...Ok, Alice is moving into position."

---

The grey-cloaked Volturi marched closer and closer, their dark robes camouflaging them against the stone halls. Alice smoothed out her bright red dress, reapplied her lipstick, and did a little twirl. In the dark, ancient stone hallway, her appearance shouted her presence to the oncoming guard. She feigned nonchalance and walked towards the guard, hand-in-hand with Jasper.

"It's about time you showed up," she said. "I've been waiting for days."

"Alice," Demetri said in a growl. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come for my brother," she said with a shrug. "I saw a vision that I'd find him here and so I've come to fetch him."

"If you knew what's good for you, you'd disappear now while you still can," he whispered.

"Prophet," the voice of the Queen boomed from the back of the company. "You have come."

The Volturi guards parted to create a pathway between them straight to their towering Queen. Alice pranced through the path till she stood before the Queen. She craned her neck to look into the queen's face.

"Hmmm. You look, umm, less watery these days, I see. I like it. A bit tall though. You'll have an awful time finding clothes in your size. I know a few places I can recommend, but really, I think you'll need to have to hire a tailor."

"Is there a purpose to your words, prophet, or are you here to irritate me with your words?" Jadis said.

"I have come for the payment you promised me," she said. "Now, where is my brother?"

"Waiting for you in the fortress, as promised," the Queen said. "You have fulfilled your pledge and I have fulfilled mine."

Alice placed one black gloved hand on her hip and gave a false laugh.

"His body is waiting for me in this fortress. Unfortunately Edward isn't in it. I'd prefer my brother in one piece, thank you," she said.

"You did not specify in our arrangement. You asked for Edward, Edward is here. Now, enough stalling. I have more important matters to concern me. I have no further need for you until I call for you again," Jadis said with a tone that allowed no disagreement. "Guards-you will find the prizes I seek in the throne room. I desire them both to be alive."

---

"Bella, they are coming," Bucky said.

"What can you read from her?" Bella asked.

"She wants you as much as she wants the rings. She is going to offer you an exchange: all the armies of Wakanda in exchange for your loyal services in expanding her rule to other worlds. She will restore me and T'Challa and Edward and all the others if you accept…ah…and she is intentionally telling you that through me. She knows I am here listening," Bucky said, pausing to stare at Bella. "Her spies in Volterra have been watching us ever since we arrived and telling her all our plans. She says we will not succeed."

"Bucky-who? What spies?"

"The spirits of the water and the trees-she has spies everywhere here."

"You can't hear them?"

"Apparently my mind reading doesn't work on spirits," he said. "Or else she's bluffing."

Footsteps resounded through the stone passageways of the fortress, edging nearer and nearer.

"What can you tell of the mindset of the Volturi?"

"They are terrified. She killed two of them without a second thought in Birnin Zana. They don't like her but most of them are too cowardly to do anything against her."

The massive doors flew open with a bang and the guard entered the room in formation, circling in a perfect ring around the four figures in the center of the room. Jadis swept into the room after them, her icy crown glistening, her loose robes so white they seemed to cast an ethereal glow on the room. She held her scepter out towards them with a frown on her face.

"You!" she said, directing her scepter at Bella. "I should end you now, you miserable parasite. What is your decision?"

"No," Bella said. "I won't."

"I see. You would willingly doom the lives of all the people you claim to love simply for your own pride and vanity, then?"

Bella did not answer but stared at the Queen's penetrating, expressionless face.

"Bring her," the Queen commanded. Demetri and Chelsea entered, a purple-clad woman between them. They threw Nakia on the floor of the council chamber.

"I do not need to use magic to kill your traitorous friends. Your shield cannot protect them from the effects of a spear," she said. She pointed the sharpened tip of her scepter at Nakia's neck until blood dribbled from where it met skin.

The Lion and the Impala rushed from the hallway into the room to Nakia's side, horns and teeth knocking the scepter away from Nakia as they growled and snorted at the Queen. Jadis gave a loose movement of her hand and two Volturi guards charged. Lion and Impala stood their ground and charged at the guards. The Crocodiles swept in front of Nakia to protect her from the fight. The Impala's sharp horns pierced the abdomen of one guard while the Lion's teeth removed an arm from the second.

As they were about to charge again, Jadis gave a hearty laugh. In two strides, she crossed the room, lifted the Lion and Impala in each hand, and easily flung them in a heap across the room. She grabbed Nakia behind the neck and dangled her from her hands as limp as a rag doll.

"Your turn will be next," she said to the Crocodiles. The Eagles swept down from the rafter, attempting to gorge out her eyes with their powerful claws. The beating of their wings caused the Queen to look above her. She released Nakia, and reached out bat away the Eagles.

As her attention was turned upon the birds of prey, Mouse crawled out of Nakia's satchel, which still hung around Nakia's shoulder. Mouse kept the ring securely in her tiny mouth, still wrapped in a cloth. She slipped under the skirt of the Queen, unnoticed, and jumped to and fro to dodge the Queen's feet. She watched carefully for a safe moment to jump and capture the Queen's flesh around her bare ankle.

The Volturi rushed forward, unsure whether to assist the attackers or defend the Queen. Bucky and Demetri began to circle around each other, waiting for the first move of the other to begin their own attack. The Lion and the Impala charged the incoming guards, horns and claws ready to pierce granite flesh. In the chaos, the remaining Watu Wa Wanyama filed into the throne room, drawing the attention of the queen and the Volturi into every direction except towards that of the tiny rodent.

Bella's shield held steady as the other Lion and the Leopard paced around her to ward off possible attackers. She could feel Chelsea's attempts to bind the loyalties of the Volturi to the Queen, but Chelsea's gift could not bear fruit under her shield. She also prevented Renata from using her physical shield to ward off attackers coming towards the Queen's person. Her gaze fell upon Alec. He stood in a corner, not fighting and not making any attempts to use his gift to immobilize the room. He simply watched from the corner, a smirk on his lips.

Mouse, after another narrow escape away from a heavy foot, lunged and clung onto Jadis' ankle with her tiny claws. She wriggled her mouth to remove the ring from its cloth wrapping. Jadis flinched and attempted to squish the intruder with her foot, however it was too late. Mouse's mouth placed the ring onto bare flesh and the Queen disappeared from the throne room.

All eyes turned to the center of the room where the statuesque Queen no longer fought. All that remained in her place was the little Mouse, ring still partially covered in her mouth. Bella gave a sigh of relief.

"Where did she go?" whispered guards to each other. They stared at each other uneasily, unsure whether they should continue fighting or cease their efforts.

"She's gone," Bella said. "What do we do now?"

"I don't know," Bucky said. The motions of both he and Demetri held an uneasy and possibly temporary truce. He stood upright from his fighting stance and looked around the throne room. "Bella…."

"What?" she said.

"She's gone but Caius and Marcus are still stone."

Their eyes met, both full of questions and the same fear.

---

Nakia stood and smoothed out her ruffled skirts. Then she placed a cloth against her bleeding neck to stop the wound. Lion stood next to her, licking his paw and warily watching any of the Volturi guard who stared with too much interest at Nakia. She patted the Lion's head and smiled at him in thanks. Nakia threw her shoulders back and stood tall, meeting all the red eyes of the Volturi guard around her.

"We are not your foes," she said firmly. "Lower your weapons and let us discuss this as rational creatures who have defeated a common enemy."

The guard gave uncertain glances at each other and released their offensive stances.

"What is going on?" Demetri asked. His step towards Nakia was answered by a growl from Lion.

"The mchawi…this sorceress…she has been sent to another world where she cannot reach our world again," Nakia said.

"The rings?" Alec asked.

"Yes."

"You are sure she cannot return?"

"She does not have the means to return," Nakia said.

"Is Mouse ok?" Bella asked.

The sand-colored rodent flitted across the polished marble floor, curled inward and transformed into her four foot tall human form, her dark eyes brightly shining, and her large white teeth smiling. She sniffed the room with her nose before she addressed it.

"I touched her ankle with a yellow ring. She has no access to a green ring. I would recommend we send a representative to check on her wherever the ring has sent her and to possibly retrieve her scepter."

"But that's a risk. What if she followed you back, in the same manner that she first entered this world," Alec said.

"It is. But we do not have the means of releasing our kin from their stone prisons. I believe her scepter might give us that capacity," she said in her shrill voice.

"I'll go," Bella said. "She can't touch me."

"I'll go with you," Bucky said. "You need a bodyguard, just in case."

Their companions nodded.

"Before we go, are we all in agreement that we aren't going to attack each other?" Bella asked, directing her question more to the Volturi than to the Watu Wa Wanyama.

A series of careful nods and noises of assent followed.

Bella and Bucky, armed with a spear and a panga, took the yellow rings out of their cloth-wrapped packages, slipped them onto their fingers, and vanished.

 

Bella felt as if she were rushing upwards through a current of water with the light of the sun above her. She emerged and found herself standing in a quiet pool. Despite the pool around her, her clothes proved dry. She stepped out onto the green, grassy bank of the pool where she saw she was surrounded by a forest. This forest was unlike any she had ever seen before. It was even greener than the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. It felt denser and more alive than the rich primeval forests of the Impenetrable Forest. The very air seemed to be humming with life and growth as she inhaled it. It was almost as if she were wrapped in a blanket of pure living stillness. She felt that if she were still human, she would be tempted to take a nap here on this soft, sunny bank and bask in it for the remainder of her days in perfect contentment.

She closed her eyes and reopened them. Then noticed she was not alone. A man sat beside her. His copper-colored hair shone in the rays of sunlight and his skin cast little rainbows of light from his arms. He opened his golden eyes and looked at her.

"Hey you," he said with a smile.

"Hey!" she whispered, echoing his smile.

"I'm glad you are here," he said.

"Me too."

They gazed at each other, lost in the other's eyes for what seemed like half an eternity before their attention was called away to the sound of a gasping, wheezing breath. There lay a woman on the grass near another pool. Her face appeared a ghastly pale green in the forest sunlight. She continued to struggle for breath, her eyes wide in terror, as if she were a fish out of water. She clawed at the soft ground with her hands and did not turn towards them as they walked to her.

At first, they did not remember why they knew the woman, though they felt like they knew her. They also felt like they should be doing something, but they could not quite think of what. They gave a shared gasp when their eyes fell upon the scepter laying at her side, abandoned in her fight for breath.

"That's it!" Bucky said.

"There it is!" Bella said at the same time.

They stared at each other and then at the scepter again, each struggling to grasp onto their sudden flash of coherence mired in the peaceful lethargy of this strange forest.

The mchawi appeared too weak to sit upright, but Bella did not trust her to be as she appeared. She dropped her shield so Bucky could hear her thoughts.

I'll stay here in front of her and keep you shielded. You sneak around and grab the scepter. Once you get it, let's make a run for it.

He nodded.

Bella stayed directly in front of Jadis, her eyes glued on the once powerful figure that now had wilted like a cut flower out of water. Bucky quietly slipped around her to the other side and pulled the scepter away. The mchawi never so much as glanced his way. Bucky returned to Bella and gave her a nod. He took her hand and they turned to leave.

"Please," a rasping voice said. The mchawi turned to face them for the first time. "Do not leave me in this terrible place. You still need me."

Bella and Bucky looked at each other, grabbed their green rings, and jumped in to the pond without a splash or drop of water.

---

Bella, Bucky, and the Watu Wa Wanyama boarded their jet with their hearts heavy. The useless scepter sat in a box in the storage of the jet. Two figures in the hall of Volterra remained as stone statues.

"Thank you for helping," Bella told Alice as she escorted them to their jet. Alice shrugged.

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more. I need to tell our family that I was wrong-as loathe as I am to ever admit that my visions can sometimes fail. They really would love to see you though. Are you sure you can't come and say hi?"

"Not now, Alice. Maybe some other time," Bella said. "I'll make sure I send Edward for a visit if we can figure out a way to bring him back."

"I'll hold you to that," Alice said. "Tell him I'll kidnap him again if he doesn't. You go and figure out how to fix these statues. As much as I don't like the Volturi, they are rather useful in some ways and these guards are absolutely lost without Aro and Caius telling them what to do. Carlisle said he'll come and help so Jasper and I will stick around for a few days to give them some direction. I'd much rather keep it short."

"We'll do our best," Bella said. "I'd rather we figure things out quickly too."

Nakia came forward to embrace each of the departing company.

"You're not coming?" Bella asked.

"Nakuja. I will follow soon," Nakia said. "Alec has given me access to the Ketterly Journals. I will complete my research and follow as soon as I can. I hope I can find out more that will help us know what we can do to restore the armies of Wakanda."

"Come home soon," Bella said. Nakia smiled.

"I will."

Alice blew the rest of the company a red lipsticked kiss, took Jasper's hand, and waved good-bye. Jasper gave a quiet nod of his head, and the trio disappeared back into Volterra.

---

Their jet brought them closer and closer to Birnin Zana.

"What are we going to do?" Bella asked Bucky quietly from the cockpit of the jet. "What if we can't fix this?"

She didn't have to specify. Bucky understood of what she spoke.

"We'll do what we can, doll. We are together, even if in a weird way," he said with a wink. "We'll make the best of it till we can figure it out."

"I'm so glad you were here," she said.

"Me too," he replied.

"Okoye brought Ramonda and Shuri back from the Jabari. Shuri should already be installed on the throne. Still, with our entire army out of commission, our power source dismantled, and our weapons raided, we are really vulnerable right now."

"Well, at least we can resupply the weapons. I got all the weapons and the loose vibranium the mchawi took. As long as they can hold off any additional attacks until we return, we should be able to defend ourselves a little better once we return."

"How do we get the rest of the vibranium back?" Bella asked, knowing she wouldn't like the answer.

Bucky looked at her and groaned.

---

Shuri walked through the solemn streets of Birnin Zana. The elders of each tribe walked in front of her. As if in a funeral procession, their somber faces, mournful songs, and chalk-painted bodies all attested to their shared grief. In front of the elders and Shuri, the solid stone figure of T'Challa, proudly entombed in his Panther Habit, led the procession on a cart pulled by four strong men in formal attire. The citizens of the capital poured out to the streets to see the commotion. They joined, showering flowers and tears on the procession, and adding their footsteps behind their temporary Queen.

They placed T'Challa in the courtyard of the palace after their hours in procession through the city. The council could barely convene as Ramonda's shrieks overpowered all other conversations.

"My son! My son! First my husband, and now my son! Ancestors? What have I done to grieve you so? Why are you so unkind to me?" she said, tearing her shawl and crumpling onto the stone ground in her grief. Shuri threw herself on her mother and held her as she wept.

For once, Shuri sat in silence.

"We must decide what to do before the kingdom falls into chaos. He is not officially dead," Zuri said. "It is possible he may be reanimated."

"How do we bring him back?" Ramonda asked as she struggled to regain composure.

"I do not know. Until we can find a way, I suggest we follow our emergency protocols. This will appoint Shuri to remain as Queen and guardian until T'Challa awakens without requiring a formal coronation. We will remain in a state of emergency and thus you can take upon yourself the role of monarch and Black Panther without a formal challenge being required. This will buy us time."

"I'm not ready…I'm not T'Challa," Shuri said.

"No, but you are next in line for the throne and you must," Zuri said. "Wakanda needs you."

---

Zuri and his assistants carefully shoveled warm sand over Shuri's painted body. Candles, incense, and smoldering herbs filled the underground cavern, the sacred birthplace of every Black Panther in the history of Wakanda. Her small frame would emerge as strong and as fast as the great cat she emulated and her small shoulders would bear the burden of the protection of her people.

Within Shuri's mind, her world descended into swirls of black and violet as she closed her eyes. Where the heart-shaped herb at first flooded her body with tingling pinpricks of pain, now she floated as if disconnected from her body entirely. She opened her eyes and found herself standing what could have been twilight or dawn. The dark sky showed both the hints of the sun and the marks of the night. She looked up and saw the branches of a towering acacia tree. Black panthers, darker than the night sky, sat upon each of its yellow, horizontal branches and peered down upon her with glowing feline eyes.

One panther leapt down from the tree and came to her, brushing its soft fur against her legs and letting out a resounding purr. She looked upon it curiously but felt no fear. The cat looked into her eyes and as it met her eyes, the cat's face morphed into that of a man. Yellow eyes became deep brown and black face turned a warm chocolate.

While younger, browner, and less-wrinkled, she would recognize that face anywhere. She threw her arms around the man, her heart overflowing with a joy so strong she thought she might explode or burst into flames.

"Baba! Baba! It's you! Oh, we have missed you! I never told you enough how I love you!" she said, tears and words both streaming from her face. She inhaled the rich scent only ever found upon her father and felt those long-lost but so familiar hands clasp hers.

"Binti," he said. He didn't need to say any more. He stared into her eyes with an equal measure of joy, adoration, and pride.

He took her hand and pulled her to walk through the strange twilight of this savannah between worlds, the land where her ancestors dwelt with the spirits, the space filled with the not-quite living, but not quite dead. He took her to a towering eucalyptus tree, branches and leaves reaching higher than her eyes could see. She looked down to her feet and noticed she could see the roots through the translucent earth below. The ancient, gnarled roots of the massive tree seemed as fathomless and endless as the branches above her.

Vultures sat upon its branches, peering down onto the land below. All around her feet, she saw the bleached skeletons of animals and humans. Nothing grew around this tree and even the air around its branches seemed somehow absent of life, as if the leaves itself drew the oxygen out of the air instead of producing it.

"Look upon this tree," he said. "It is an ancient tree, older than our people or any of the peoples on earth. Every few generations, the tree grows a new branch. Its roots creep into the soil of a people and suck out their life and strength. You can defeat a branch in one era, but the tree remains, ready to grow again. You cut off one limb, another takes its place. Sometimes it attacks in plain sight-like a lion lunging upon a zebra. Sometimes it is silent and attacks like a black mamba striking a hare in the shadows. Its name and its branches change. The aim is always the same: to steal, to kill, to destroy. It hates all that is good.

"Each people must fight to determine if they will feed the ancient tree and let it swallow all life in its thirst: human, animal, earth, and spirit. Or if they will cut it back, slash, and pull until it withers and dies in one place and goes to seek to draw life from elsewhere.

"What we are fighting now is another branch of this same tree. The tree longs to drink blood with its powerful roots and spread its branches farther into days not yet born. Your job, in your shamba and during the days of your toil, is to prune, cut back, and uproot this tree with all of your strength."

"Yes, Baba," Shuri said.

T'Chaka turned and led her through the unending twilight to where another tree stood. This time, a bulky baobab, heavy laden with fruit towered over the grasses around her. Where the first tree seemed to drink in the life around it, this one seemed to exude it. The air almost felt intoxicated with life. Its branches were full of birds and creatures chattering and singing as they feasted on the tree's bounty. She could still see endless roots in the translucent earth beneath her feet and she could not see where the branches above her ended in the sky.

"There is another tree-even stronger, even more ancient. It is rooted in the strongest of all magic. Where this tree is allowed to grow, a people will thrive. You must nourish and cherish this tree. Allow it to grow and bloom and strengthen within your borders. See it grows ever stronger and deeper and it in turn will nourish you, your family, and your people. If you do this, then your children, your children's children, and your children's children will reap the fruit."

Shuri nodded.

"Come, it is time to return," T'Chaka said. He took her hand and they walked back towards the acacia tree where the panthers lay, their eyes fixed upon Shuri. She blinked and found the panthers had all vanished and she was alone, still in the violet haze of this twilight between worlds. She blinked again and this time found herself facing the dim candlelit cavern and the familiar face of Zuri.

"My Queen," Zuri said and stretched out his hand to help her up.

 

The council meeting sat in the dining hall instead of the throne room- at Shuri's request.

"I'm a temporary queen. We should have a temporary space to meet in," she said with a forced cheerfulness and they obeyed her wishes. The long, cushioned wood benches were pulled into a circle facing a tall set of windows overlooking Birnin Zana. Shuri sat on a carved ebony chair on a seat made of a leopard skin. She wore a golden dress embroidered with scarlet patterns of gazelle along the hem and square neckline. Golden hoops dangled from her ears and wrists and she wore a tall, scarlet hat upon her head. She tried to stop fidgeting with her bracelets but she couldn't help it. She thought of the confidence and authority T'Challa so effortlessly exuded and she stretched her head a little taller.

"Good elders," she said, rising and formally addressing the gathering of tribal elders and advisers around her. A few positions remained empty (since their usual inhabitants were currently encased in stone). "You are welcome to share your counsel at the first official meeting of Shuri, Queen of Wakanda."

She tried to hide how her hands trembled by burying them in the folds of her dress. She cleared her throat and continued. "We are here to discuss the current state of Wakanda. General Okoye-your report, please?"

She motioned to the bench where the General sat. Okoye momentarily dropped her stoic expression to grant Shuri an encouraging smile. Then Okoye rose and resumed her previous expression.

"The armies of Wakanda have greatly diminished after the attack of the mchawi. The twenty five Dora Milaje sent to protect our citizens in the underground fortress remain. Forty Border Guards stationed on our southern border are still standing along with thirty six King's Guards who were protecting areas of the city that remained untouched. However, these hundred soldiers are hardly enough to protect the royal family, the palace, the city, and our borders."

"Lieutenant Barnes?" Shuri said, motioning towards her.

"Our mission to Volterra succeeded in discovering the magic rings and sending the mchawi away from earth to a place where her power is diminished. We captured her scepter which we hope will help us restore our armies who have been turned to stone."

"She still lives?" asked the elder for the River Tribe.

"Yes," Bella responded. "We did not know how to safely destroy her. Her body is formed of solid vibranium and her past self proved to be deadly even in spirit form. She is, for the moment, not a threat and we can continue to plan what to do with her."

Murmers and grumbles of disapproval filled the room. Shuri called them back to order with a motion of her hand.

"Secretary Norris?" Shuri asked.

Chuck Norris stood, notebook in hand. He pushed his square glasses farther up his nose and shifted on his feet.

"The mission to Volterra restored enough vibranium to provide power to our shields and defenses. We are rationing solar power for the returning residents of the city. We cannot restore public transportation or full power with our limited supply.

"It grieves me to confess such a weakness before this illustrious council, but my duty compels me. Wakanda's complete defense system remained without power for 24 hours. None of our emergency systems were designed for the possibility of such an instantaneous and absolute removal of all vibranium. We had no alternative power sources with enough strength to maintain our shields."

Okoye glared at Secretary Norris and he gave a visible swallow and pulled at his collar.

"Since we were able to restore our shields, my department has been freed up to investigate the ramifications of such an information breach. Thus far, we have identified three different satellites which may have noticed the breach and began collecting data on the Wakanda revealed below our shield. My team will be working around the clock to erase all information leaks. I must admit, there is one other breach which will require a physical team and not the efforts of the technology and innovation department."

"Which do you speak?" Okoye asked.

"Two drones covertly crossed the border once our shields were down. They were perfectly timed to survey Birnin Zana during the battle. They have yet to post any of their photographs on the World Wide Web or any government database that we have identified, however it is possible they have extensive recordings of our capital."

"I will organize a small team to take care of this," Okoye said grimly. "Where did they come from?"

"The petroleum company at the border-Ketterly," he said.

"Of course," Okoye said impassively.

"Thank you, Secretary Norris, General," Shuri said. "Your efforts are much appreciated."

"My Queen, in light of our current circumstances, I suggest we bolster our defenses as we wait for the return of our army," Okoye said.

"What do you have in mind, General?"

"First, I suggest we ask for any able-bodied Wakandans who are willing to assist in security to be armed and set on rotations to patrol. In addition, I suggest we request M'Baku sends some of his warriors to our aid."

Shuri gave Okoye a surprised look. Okoye pretended not to notice.

"Do you think the Jabari will answer?"

"And miss the opportunity to display their prowess and power? Absolutely not-though I fear the cost to our pride," Okoye said.

"We cannot afford to be proud at the moment, General. Do as you have suggested."

Okoye saluted.

---

At nightfall, five figures emerged from a vehicle and slipped silently through the forests of the borderlands towards Uganda. Their black uniforms and masks shadowed them against the dark night as they walked.

Bella and Bucky sprinted in first, running at full speed. As they approached the tents and trailers of a human encampment, they climbed into the branches of the overhanging trees above and watched.

Shuri, Okoye, and Mamba crept to a few meters away where they crouched below a bush and peered at the silent camp. A few lights illuminated the tables and chairs strewn haphazardly around the camp. The remains of a fire still smoldered in the center. Three satellite dishes and solar paneling sat on the roofs of the trailers. The trucks and surveying equipment were hidden from sight by the dense forest. A single line of clothes hung between two trees.

At Shuri's signal, Mamba shifted into her snake form and entered the camp. She entered each of the tents, silently telling Bucky what her strong senses could identify in each. As he listened, Bucky made hand motions towards the three women who watched and waited.

Forty people. A few tons of explosives. An arsenal of firearms.

A half hour later, Mamba wove through the undergrowth and returned to the bush hiding the General and the Queen. Mamba shook her dark scaly head and her tongue quickly darted from her mouth.

Shuri nodded. She rose from her hiding place and followed the snake. Bella dropped noiselessly from her branch and trailed behind both. Mamba took them towards the largest trailer and nodded her head.

Shuri extended the clawed hand of her Panther Habit and felt the door. It was, as she expected, locked. She shot out the claw of her pointer finger even further and the claw morphed into the shape of the lock. She turned her finger and it clicked open.

Inside the dark room, they could see papers, cans, bottles, and boots cluttering every counter top and table surface inside the small living space. It reeked of mold and old fruit. They could hear loud snores coming from the room on their left. They followed. A red light began to flash on a wall. Shuri's masked head looked up towards it. She pulled a small device out of her pocket and attached it to the wall beneath the light and it ceased flashing.

They found a disorganized bed covered by a mosquito net with a large figure sleeping within. In a flash, Shuri grabbed the man and covered his mouth with her hand to keep him from making noise. The man struggled and kicked against her in vain. Bella, also masked in black from head to toe, spoke.

"We need to ask you some questions," she said. "I suggest you keep quiet and do not call for assistance. Our friend here, at your feet, does not like noise and she would not take kindly to it."

She motioned with her hand to where the light from the window proved just enough to reveal the dark curve of Mamba's back as she curled around the feet of the man and darted her tongue against his ankles.

The man's attempt at a scream was stopped by Shuri's strong hand across his mouth.

"Shhhh!" Shuri whispered.

"Where are the photographs your drones took of Wakanda," Bella whispered.

The man shook his head. Shuri cautiously removed her hand. He failed to speak, but Bella heard a gentle tap of a twig against the roof. She knew he'd unintentionally answered.

"Where have you downloaded the data?" she asked.

He shook his head again.

"Why are you here spying on us?" she asked. "Who pays for your information? Who sent you here?"

Mamba continued to twist around the man's ankle and released a soft hiss. Sweat trickled down the man's forehead and he ceased all movement.

"We will not tolerate any further attacks on our people or our country or our privacy," Shuri whispered harshly. "We will be watching. If you so much as look at Wakanda again, you will…not be able to look again…."

Bella struggled to hide her laugh. For Shuri's second mission ever-and her first as Black Panther-she was doing admirably, however she did not have the natural tendency to intimidate or threaten. Bella could tell she was ill at ease with her current role.

"Do not move or make a sound until Mamba has released you," Bella said. "She will obey my commands…and she's bullet-proof," Bella added as she noted the firearm on the man's nightstand.

Shuri and Bella left the trailer and moved far enough away from camp where their sound would be hidden. Okoye moved to guard the door in their absence, her keen eyes sweeping the camp continually. Bucky emerged from the tree above the trailer and followed them.

"Come on," he said. "He showed me everything."

He led them to a metal out-building in another clearing. Inside, he picked up a computer hard drive, a USB stick, and two drones and gave them to Shuri. He nodded towards a file cabinet. "There's the rest of their data."

Bella picked up the entire file cabinet and ran it out of camp and back to their vehicle. Shuri followed with her armful of electronics. When they returned, they found Bucky rummaging through a storage shed. He had lined up a series of boxes besides it.

"Here's the long-distance surveillance equipment," he said. "And that should do it for now, unless we want to confiscate their explosives. There's no guarantee they won't simply replace it all."

"Okoye has hidden transmitters under each of the trailers and Mamba will keep an eye on things," Shuri said. "We can send her brother to help once additional guards arrive from Jabari."

Bella gave a low whistle and a few minutes later, they heard the soft rustle of footsteps through grass. Okoye walked beside the human form of Mamba, who stood nearly the same height as the General, her slanted eyes and dark face hidden in the shadows.

"Well?" Okoye asked.

"We got it," Bucky said.

"What did you find out?" Okoye asked.

"It's partially funded by an Italian company based out of Volterra who sometimes corresponds with them via conference calls. A South African weapons dealer named Ulysses Klaue has also invested heavily in it. The company is currently based out of San Francisco under the leadership of someone named Killmonger. He knew very little about the leader."

"We may have more trouble in future," Okoye said. "Especially if they've gotten their eyes on what they think they have."

"Undoubtedly. However, if we remove their evidence, it will be harder to convince others of their story. They'll sound like they are making up another hunt for Prester John," Shuri said.

They turned to walk away and Shuri noted the self-satisfied smirk on Okoye's face.

"Nini?" Shuri asked. "Out with it, General."

"I couldn't help but overhear the way our target shook as the mighty Black Panther instilled fear with her threats," Okoye said, breaking into laughter.

"Wacho mdomo," Shuri said, also laughing. "I had something really intimidating to say and I forgot it after I'd already started speaking."

"Of course, my Queen," she said.

"Tosha. Let's go home," Shuri said.

---

A week later, Bella and Shuri sat in Shuri's lab where Shuri paced around the statue of the Man-Leopard.

"You know, he's been here so long he has become a permanent decoration in my lab. He listens so patiently to so many of my tirades, we should be the best of friends by the time we wake him up," Shuri said.

Bella smiled. "Any luck?" she asked.

Shuri shook her head. "I've tried everything I can think of and nothing works. I've run test after test with the scepter and nothing. It's just an empty tube of vibranium. Nothing is special about it. I'm guessing she used it to channel her own internal magic. The object itself does not seem to possess any magic in it."

Shuri took up the object in question and tapped it against her table.

"Ugh, it would be so much easier if I did not have to pretend to be a Queen and could simply focus on what I am actually good at. T'Challa is the politician. I cannot abide it. I want to be down here-creating, fixing, making things better-not up there in the council chamber arguing with people and discussing problems and having to work with others. I am afraid I do not play well with others and my years in the lab have not helped me with that."

Shuri turned to stare at her hands, a single tear running down her cheek.

"It doesn't help that you are running on solar power and your brother is trapped in a rock," Bella said, pulling Shuri into her arms.

Shuri's answer was half sob, half laugh. "A queen shouldn't cry and should be able to handle everything, but Bella, I am not queen material."

"Then let's work even harder to get T'Challa back," Bella said.

"Ndiyo….Bella, have you thought about Bucky?" Shuri said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, at any time we may stumble across a way to fix this and what if Bucky's not in his body?"

"You think we should put him back while we look for a cure?"

"I do. I don't want to risk the alternative," Shuri said. "I know, I know, you lovebirds don't want to be separated again, but do you really want him stuck as Edward for the rest of time?"

"No," Bella said. "You're right. I need to stop procrastinating and do it. I'll talk to Bucky and, as soon as he agrees, we'll put him back into his rock."

"Perfect! Then we can put T'Challa into Edward instead and then I don't have to pretend to be a queen. Everybody will be happy!" Shuri said, clapping her hands.

"Hapana! Shuri, you aren't serious?"

Shuri laughed and shook her head. "I'm not serious. T'Challa would wake and kill me for that. I would almost consider it a worthwhile price to pay-until I remember that then he'd be able to read my mind!"

"Come on, you know you'd enjoy tormenting him," Bella said. "Just like you did to Bucky."

Shuri gave a mischievous dimpled grin and nodded.

"You know, speaking of Edward, while I try to unstone people here, you could go out and see if you can find Edward and restore him. We didn't have time earlier in all the chaos, but we seem to have plenty of time now."

"You think I should seek out Nyelu?"

"Yes," Shuri said.

"That's a great idea. I'll start searching puddles immediately," Bella said sarcastically.

Shuri embraced Bella tightly and brushed her tears off her cheeks.

"Good! Let's be optimistic!"

 

Bella left Birnin Zana at dawn to search for Nyelu in company with the Eagles and the Crocodiles. The Eagles flew high over the lands below, their keen eyes looking for the black, slippery creature that could so easily hide in the murky depths of the many waters threading through the rich earth. The Crocodiles slipped in and out of the ponds, lakes, and rivers, seeking out Nyelu in the regions only they could search.

After a week of constant searching, they still found no trace of him.

"He's been in the area," Crocodile said, "I can find his claw marks and sense his presence, but he hides when he sees us approaching."

"I hate this," Bella said. "Bucky is locked back in a rock and I'm nowhere near fixing this than I was before."

"We have already tried the Father of the Rivers," Eagle said. "Let us go further abroad out of the borders of Wakanda. Let us try the Mother of the Gods for traces of Nyelu."

"You wish us to leave the Nile to go to Nyanza?" Crocodile said.

"Ndiyo," Eagle said. "To the birthplace of the Nile."

"Twende."

They crossed the borders of Wakanda and ran east until they reached the glittering, ocean-like expanse of the mighty Nyanza. It reached out in front of them as far as their eyes could see. Gentle waves lapped at its bank. Far across the distant waters, a silent thunderstorm poured water on another piece of land.

They waited till the fishermen pulled their boats and nets back onto land and the many lakeside villagers returned home to their beds before Bella and the Crocodiles slipped into the lake waters. They Eagles flew overhead and the entire party made their way towards Jinja.

They never made it to the headwaters of the mighty river. As they neared the lush outcroppings of Ssese Islands, their attempts to bypass the islands were halted by the presence of an old man sitting on the banks of Bubembe Island. The man's brown chest was bare except for the bark cloth robe he wore draped across it. The skin of a leopard hung around one shoulder. His short, gray hair only covered three sides of his head, leaving a gleaming patch in the center. His dark eyes flashed as he looked at them. He held a large paddle in his hand and he waved it in their direction.

The Eagles and the Crocodiles recognized him directly and they turned towards the island. They turned to their human forms and knelt at his feet. He tapped his paddle on each of their heads and his face broke into a huge grin.

Bella joined them, her bare feet sinking into the soft sands and silt of the island's shore. She cautiously walked towards the man.

"Malaika, you have come," he said. The man approached her and he laid his large paddle at her feet.

"Who are you?" she said.

"I am the River. I am the Lake. I am the Water," he said. "Some have called me Mukasa. I am one of the Balubaale-as you have now become. We are the guardians, the spirits that guard this land. We were once humans, but now we walk the borders between this world and the next and we are here to protect what is under our care. You were chosen to protect the People of the Panther and the People of the Animals. I was chosen to protect the spirits and creatures of the waters, though I am not able to protect them as well as in days long since set.

"I have been sent to find you," he said. "Last night, the First Ancestor, the Great Lion, he woke me from my long slumber and told me you would come and I was to assist you in your task."

"We would really appreciate your help," she said. "What should we do?"

"Let us go and find what you seek," he responded. He picked up his paddle from the ground and walked inland into the lush forest of the island. They all followed. The Crocodiles and Eagles remained in their human forms and silently walked behind. Mukasa brought them to a waterfall pouring over an outcropping of rocks. The waters tumbled into a deep pool and then retreated through the dense forest and towards the lake.

Mukasa knelt beside the pool and ran his canoe paddle through the shallows. He opened his mouth and made a shrill ululation across the waters. The smooth surface of the pool began to bubble and ripple and part ways towards them. After a few minutes, a dark figure emerged, pointed teeth glistening, and yellow eyes gleaming.

"Nyelu," Mukasa said and pointed his paddle towards him.

Nyelu covered his face with his hands, as if he feared Mukasa's paddle, and made a grimace. His translucent gills waved back and forth from the side of his head and his tail clapped against the water's surface.

"Aye, Nyelu-what dealings do you have with a spirit of snow and ice? What do you have to gain by freezing your home, bwana?"

Nyelu's grimace only deepened. He pointed one clawed finger in Bella's direction and hissed.

"Zimwi," he said.

"Nyelu, you will follow this Zimwi and obey her orders," Mukasa said. Nyelu gave a louder hiss and slapped his tail even harder against the water.

"We, wacha. Malaika, show him your mark," he said.

Bella stood in confusion for a moment before she realized what he meant. She turned her back towards Nyelu and pulled down the upper layer of her shirt. This exposed the long clawed scar stretching across her shoulder to her lower back.

"If you will not heed me, you will heed the Lion, the Origin of Souls," Mukasa said.

Nyelu hissed again but this time he nodded, frown still firmly in place. He pulled his head half way under water and bubbles came from his nose-less nostrils and his lipless mouth.

"Now, take us to see your calabashes," Mukasa said. "We need to retrieve one."

Nyelu sank under the surface of the pool and Mukasa directed for Bella and her companions to take hold of his paddle. They did so and immediately they found themselves standing in a waterlogged cavern, small waves lapping against their knees. A dim, watery light came from above them, though they could not see its source. Along the jagged walls, roughly hewn shelves lined each surface and on each shelf stood gourds of various sizes. Some were small and brown, some were large and tan, others were black and knobby. They filled every crevice, every dry space on the floor and even toppled down into piles in the shallow waters. The entire cavern felt heavy with the damp, musty, wet air.

"Where are we?" Bella asked.

"Nyelu's home below the waters," Mukasa responded.

"Are we below Nyanza?"

"Of course," Mukasa said. "You are below all the lakes and the rivers and the springs. From here, he can reach all of them."

"But they can't possibly all be connected…" Bella began and then stopped. "I suppose I shouldn't be trying to make sense of this."

"It makes sense depending on which rules you use to understand it," Mukasa replied. "Now, Malaika, can you find the life you seek?"

"Me?" she asked, confusion evident on her face.

"Yes. You don't expect that dim-witted creature with as much intelligence as a tilapia to remember whose soul he put in which calabash?" Mukasa said and pointed towards Nyelu. Nyelu gurgled in response and slapped his tail against the surface of the water. "I certainly won't know who your friend is. You must find him yourself."

Bella walked toward a brown calabash and picked it up. She looked inside and saw nothing but an empty gourd.

"It's empty," she said. Then she picked up another. "This one is as well."

Mukasa clicked his tongue. "Eee eee eee, if I wanted you to use your eyes to look inside them, I'd tell your companions to help you. How do you find a soul with your eyes? Aye…is your mind as simple as Nyelu?"

Bella inhaled slowly and let it out, attempting to reign in her irritation. She closed her eyes and reached out with her shield instead. She felt it creep over the first pile of calabashes and her eyes flew open as she felt the unmistakable feeling of life forces inside the calabashes she had previously thought empty. She could feel their shapes and vibrancy, their pulsating sparks within.

"What does he do with all these?" she asked.

"He eats them, of course."

"Of course," she said, rolling her eyes. She had never tried to recognize someone purely by their life force. She supposed there was always a first time. She did not feel any particular kinship with the calabashes in the first corner of the cave so she began to sweep over another and another. She projected her shield through calabashes high above her and down below in the stagnant waters of the cavern. It was not until she came to one ledge about six feet away from her that she stopped. This calabash, a simple tan one with a crooked neck, felt like someone she had once known. Instead of the feel of a stranger, she felt the spark of meeting the eyes of an old friend, or seeing an acquaintance in a room of crowded strangers.

She continued her sweep of the cavern, just to make sure. With no other calabash did she feel so familiar. She pulled it from the shelf and brought it to Mukasa.

"Awww, that is the one, is it? Fine, fine. Let us be off," he said.

He extended his paddle again. The five companions grabbed hold of it and they found themselves once again standing on the shores of Nyanza. Mukasa stood beside them and Nyelu's head peeked above the waters of the lake a few meters away.

"What do we do now?" Bella asked.

"You send your companions to smash this calabash next to its owner's body while you take Nyelu to his appointed task."

"He has a task?"

"Yes. Nyelu may not be bright, but he can be useful. Now that some have found the way to the Wood Between the Worlds, others will try to follow. He will now guard the sacred pools of the spirit wood to prevent trespassers from trying to make their way between worlds. Take your rings and lead him to where he can do some good instead of stirring up mischief."

Bella and her companions nodded. Eagle turned into his animal form and took the calabash in his claws. He took to the air with his fellow Eagle and with a loud cry, they flew westward towards Wakanda.

Bella reached her hand to her pocket to put on her yellow ring when she stopped.

"Can you release the people who have been turned to stone?" she asked.

Mukasa let out a booming laugh. "I am the guardian of the waters not the guardian of the rocks. What can I do for them?"

Then he vanished.

Nyelu stayed motionless in the shallows of Nyanza and watched Bella. Bella waded through the warm water towards him, placed her hand on his slick, smooth shoulder, and placed a bright yellow ring on her finger.

---

The golden light of the wood proved unchanged from the last time her head emerged from the wetless waters. As Bella's senses reoriented to the flashes of forest and pool and grass, she wondered if this wood ever saw night or if it was an eternal day-changeless and yet ever-changing as the trees continued to reach towards the fathomless sky.

She stepped onto the bank and turned to see her strange companion sitting motionless in the pool. His yellow eyes narrowed as he tentatively tasted the water with his grey tongue. He let out a hiss and then dove beneath the water. When he emerged again, his sharp, pointed teeth were exposed in an expression that could just as easily have been a grimace as a smile and his gills flapped back and forth from his neck.

He was about to dive into the water again when he looked on the bank and saw the prone figure of a woman, unmoved from where Bella had last seen her. She looked even sicklier than the last time Bella had seen her, but her gasping breaths signified that life still clung to her weak frame. Her pale hands were stained green and brown with the clumps of grass she kept grasping in her desperation to breath.

Nyelu's lipless mouth exposed even more teeth as he silently swam towards her. Just inches from her face, he let a long, clawed hand reach for the small shadow cast by her body. He began to pull.

The mchawi gave a cry of pain, flopped uselessly to one side, and never stirred again. In what seemed like only a moment, both Jadis' shadow and Nyelu had vanished into the depths of the pool. Bella found herself alone with the now soulless vibranium body of the former queen. Without the mchawi's magic, its colors and features disintegrated and it faded away to leave only silvery metal shaped into the figure of a woman.

Bella hefted the heavy body into her arms, found her green ring, and jumped back into the pool she had first come from.

---

Nakia sat on an ancient and very uncomfortable wooden chair in the great library of Volterra. Her gloved fingers paged through the yellowed paper and curved script of the old journal in front of her. She'd read through this journal five times already, along with the pile of even more ancient texts that sat on the desk in front of her. The Volturi's collection of manuscripts-some even older than the Volturi themselves, was unparalleled in any library in the world but also completely closed off to the outside world.

Nakia had buried herself in these books for the last two weeks. Under the patronage of Alice, Jasper, and Alec, none of the other guards dared disturb her. They simply gave her a wide distance in the halls when they passed and a curious eye.

She ran her finger once again over his description of the rings. Made of what Ketterly called the "dust of Atlantis," he said and described how he'd created a sacred fire, melted the dust while chanting a powerful spell, and filled the ring molds with the molten liquid. While the box itself was formed in the mysterious city of Atlantis, the Volturi's own tests proved the dust to have originated not in the fabled city of Atlantis, but in the Wood between the Worlds. The dust, pregnant with magic, worked as a magnet to either draw bearers towards the Wood or repel them away from it. The Volturi's archives showed that the rings were not the only way into the sacred Wood, but all the other routes were well-guarded and required powerful technology or magic to travel on.

She was more interested in how to destroy them. Ketterly, even when so charged by the Fae, failed to and instead studied and used his inherited box of dust. The young recipient of the rings, Digory Kirke, attempted to bury them, but this also failed to disempower them and instead led to his untimely death.

She closed the journal carefully but still managed to dislodge a swirl of dust that made her sneeze.

"Bless you!" came a woman's voice from nearby a shelf of books. Nakia swung around in surprise and smiled as Alice came to join her. Alice gracefully sat herself in the twin chair to her own.

"How goes the studies?" she asked.

"Fascinating," Nakia said. "Andrew Ketterly, self-made magician, filled the pages and columns of his journal with magical formulae, inscriptions in multiple languages, and quick sketches of fantastical creatures known more to mythology than the science of his day. He was an arrogant, pompous man who meddled with powers he did not understand or fear enough, but he was brilliant. I've been able to read all the Volturi records of interactions with ancient Wakanda as well. It's been truly fascinating."

"You'll have more to study," Alice said with a warm smile.

"Ni kweli!" Nakia said. "Though I think I would prefer to continue from home. This place smells of old spirits and dark magic and forgotten ghosts."

"I think that would be wise," Alice said, her eyes distant.

"You've seen something?"

"Yes," Alice said, refocusing her golden eyes on Nakia. "You know how I haven't been able to see anything for a while now? Well, a few minutes ago that all changed. I don't know what caused the change. It was something still hidden from my sight. All I know is that the effect of it will wake up the statues."

"All of them?"

"Yes," Alice said. "While I can't see enough to tell when they will wake, I can see enough to know it will not go well with you…or me…if we are here when Caius wakes. He will wake in a particularly foul mood and will act first and ask questions later."

Nakia nodded. "What of Aro?"

"Jane hid his body in the catacombs without telling anyone. Chelsea stumbled upon it yesterday and Alec is already in the process of putting him back together. He will not be very cognizant for a few days once they succeed…another reason for us to disappear quickly-especially you."

"Asante," Nakia said. She took Alice's hand with her own gloved one. "I appreciate your assistance and your protection. I have all I came for here. I will leave immediately."

"I've enjoyed our visits," Alice said. "I hope to see you again."

"Na mimi pia," Nakia said.

"I can see it's better if I keep my distance for awhile, but if you get the chance, can you tell Bella and Edward that I'm sorry. Really. I thought I was helping, but I really wasn't. I really hope they can forgive me, but I understand if they aren't ready to quite yet…," Alice trailed off, sadness marring her pixie-like face.

Nakia simply nodded. She didn't think Alice would be forgiven quickly, but she didn't doubt it would happen with time. However, it was not her place to give assurances that were not hers to give so she remained silent. Nakia carefully stacked the journal on top of the pile of ancient texts and returned to her apartment in the city. She threw all her belongings into her suitcase, hailed a taxi, and made her way to the airport without looking back towards the city once.

 

Shuri ran down the last hallway and flight of stairs and threw open the doors to her favorite place in the world. On a table lay the lifeless body of the zimwi. She stared at his sightless eyes for a moment before she withdrew the calabash given to her by the Eagle. She placed the gourd next to the body and waited for around ten minutes.

Nothing happened.

She peered inside the soft head of the gourd. She pulled out a flashlight and shone it into the neck, but still saw nothing other than the soft edges of the hollow gourd. She pulled out a computerized scanning device and ran tests over the contents. No readings came back other than it was a very old calabash.

She shrugged and slammed the gourd against the body of the zimwi. It cracked open on his pale chest. She looked inside the calabash again but it seemed as empty as it had before. She waited.

Nothing happened.

She sighed and wondered if she had missed a step. Suddenly, a hand jumped up and caught hers so firmly she thought it would have broken her wrist if she did not have the current superhuman strength of the Black Panther coursing through her body. She disengaged her hand and looked down into the blinking black eyes of the zimwi who stared back at her in complete confusion.

"Good morning, Panya," she said with a grin. "You finally decided to wake up."

"Where am I?" his velvet voice answered.

"Welcome to Birnin Zana, the Golden City and the capital of Wakanda," Shuri said.

He blinked and placed his hands against his head.

"It's so noisy," he said.

"It is a big city," she said. "How are you feeling, Panya?"

"I've been better. I thought I got a new name," he said, a grimace still on his mouth as he sat up and tried to clear his foggy mind.

"Aya. Ni kweli, but you are the first zimwi I've ever tried to resurrect so right now you are my Panya. You are right, though. Luanda Magere is a much better name for you since your shadow quite literally has been your downfall."

Edward stared at her, confusion in his eyes. She met his gaze with her own and then broke into another laugh.

"Sasa, I will be happy to tell you stories of what has happened but I think you will need to hunt first so you are not so grumpy when you hear it," she said. "Kuja." She beckoned for him to follow her. He did so and he found himself walking, mouth agape, through the most technologically advanced city he had ever seen in his life.

"This is what you've been hiding this whole time?"

"Yes," Shuri said. "It is our great secret and one which we have zealously guarded from the outside world for our own protection. You will need to swear an oath of secrecy before you leave Wakanda or else I will need to kill you."

Edward whistled and disregarded her threat-maybe because he was distracted by the city or because she made the threat with as much animosity as a kitten playing with a feather.

"This is hardly what I was expecting," he said. "This is incredible."

"It will be more incredible when we fix everything. The mchawi has disorganized us and taken all our power sources. It will take time to restore our city to its usual level of magnificence. When we restore the transportation systems, then you will be truly impressed."

Her mind flooded with mental pictures of the complicated grid of moving parts and systems she designed. She did not seem to intentionally share it. The layers of her mind simply continued to swirl with the various projects she had previously built and the ones she hoped to develop in future.

"What happened?" Edward asked, hoping to pull her mind back to the present. "The last I remember, I was supposed to meet the General to plan how to get into Volterrra…at least, I think that's what I remember…," he said, growing discomfited by his disorientation. He distinctly remembered being told to attend a planning meeting, but not the planning meeting itself. He also could remember storming Volterra-but those memories were strange, almost foreign and forced upon him by something outside of himself. He knew he didn't sleep or go unconscious unless something drastic had happened, but his head seemed muddled and he had no memories of walking through this city to end up in Shuri's lab.

"Did I have my head removed in Volterra?" he asked. It seemed the only logical explanation.

"No. Your soul was stolen by Nyelu," Shuri said, as if that statement alone could clear up everything.

"Can you please repeat that?" he asked.

"Nyelu, the Soul Eater, he came for you when you were returning from the borderlands and you never made it to the planning meeting. I do not think Okoye will ever forgive you for that, by the way."

"It's not possible. I don't have a soul," Edward said.

"Well, the evidence shows otherwise," Shuri said, rolling her eyes in dismissal. "Nyelu stole it and your body was no longer attached to your soul. Your soul was buried under the many waters in one of his calabashes. We had to get the help of the Guardian of the Waters to get your calabash back."

"I don't understand….how long has it been?"

"Mmmmmm, almost a month. It's been a busy month, too. Let's see-what have you missed? During the time you have been unconscious, we were attacked by the Volturi, the mchawi stole all our vibranium and took a physical form and then turned our entire army to stone. Bella and Bucky stormed Volterra and got the magic rings and sent the mchawi to another world…or I suppose a world between worlds is more accurate. Then Bella met a water spirit who sent Nyelu to steal the soul of the mchawi and rescue you. Oh, and I was made queen and got turned into the Black Panther and got to go on my second mission ever. It's been quite productive, I think."

Edward stared at her, dumfounded again. He ran through all she had said in his mind and then again as the memories and other thoughts of the last few weeks flitted through Shuri's mind. The vivid pictures she shared with him illustrated her story but there were so many layers to each that he could not tell which thread to begin to pull on to unravel it all.

"Why do you remember me being a part of all that?" he asked as he saw a memory of himself exiting a jet with a scepter in his hand…and another of him storming a circle of tents and trailers.

She quickly attempted to mask her thoughts but only succeeded in spouting out more confusing pictures.

"What happened," he ground out, beginning to feel even more uncomfortable at her efforts to mask her thoughts.

"As I said, a lot!"

"How did you manage to get Bucky out of that piece of rock?" he asked.

"Siwezi. We, uh, haven't…," Shuri began. She stopped, but it was too late. Pictures of Edward waking next to Bucky's stone body flooded her mind.

"Shuri….," Edward began.

"Technically, it's 'Queen Shuri' or 'your majesty' or some illustrious and ridiculous title like that now," Shuri said, attempting to distract him (but knowing it wouldn't work because he could read from her thoughts that she was attempting to distract him).

"Sawa, sawa," she finally said. "Bucky had been turned to stone and your soul was stolen so we might have placed Bucky's soul in your body for a few weeks. And then after Bucky's soul possessed your body, you stormed Volterra," she said and quickly jumped back to hide as Edward swung to face her in a movement too fast for her to see even with her enhanced eyes.

"You what?!" he shouted.

"Oh, look! The borders of the city. Go and hunt and come back to my lab when you are done and less likely to growl at me," Shuri said. She turned and ran back into the city and left Edward alone at the edge of the forest, mind reeling.

---

Everything was dark and silent. Time itself had evaporated into an unending darkness so thick it seemed to steal his very breath from his body. The darkness drank his screams before he could utter a sound. It invaded his thoughts until all he could think and feel was soaked in the lack of light. Would it end? Did it ever really begin or had it always been like this?

For what felt like an eternity, his mind replayed memories like an old movie reel. From his earliest moments of cognizance in his childhood to every song he could think of to the color of every rock in his rock collection, his mind grasped to these images as if they were an anchor.

In the void around him, a pinprick of light pierced the darkness. His attention fixated on it and watched in desperate awe as it grew and grew until it enveloped all around him in its fierce, warm golden glow. He could feel he was no longer alone. Another presence, another life, was somehow with him, though he could not see it.

Like the rush of water cascading from a broken dam, he felt a flood of sensation pour into his toes and fill up to his knees and overflow into his torso and finally to his head. He blinked and opened his eyes, or thought he opened his eyes, but the view around him seemed strange. He could not tell if it was dawn or twilight. He stood below a towering acacia tree with pinpricks of stars punctuating the deeper layers of the violet sky above him.

"T'Challa," called a deep voice that seemed to resonate into the very depths of his bones like an old wound. Fear melted through T'Challa's entire body. He turned around and flung himself onto the dust of the ground below him and covered his face with his hands. A lion, larger than any he had ever seen, walked towards him wrapped in an aura of strength and majesty not all the kings of the earth combined could hope wear.

"Does a king cower like a field mouse? Brace yourself like the man and king you are and stand upon your feet," the Lion said.

T'Challa struggled to his feet and fought against his own eyes to force them to meet those of the Lion. The golden eyes of the mighty beast bore into his own and he, more than once, felt compelled to drop them from the ferocity and power of that gaze but he held steady.

The Lion lifted one of his velvety paws and placed it on T'Challa's head. T'Challa nearly fell backwards under the weight of it and he felt his entire body tremble.

"Well done, Son of Adam," the Lion said and a gentle warmth flooded T'Challa's body from the paw to his toes. The Lion removed his paw, turned, and bounded into the tall grass below the acacia tree. He vanished into the waves created by the breeze through its grasses.

T'Challa found himself alone beneath the tree. He turned around and this time saw four pale figures standing in the grasses twenty feet away from him. He knew they had not been there before but here they were.

Two men stood and gazed at him. Their faces shown with the look of kings and they nodded their heads in his direction before they drew their swords and held them aloft. The smaller of the two women was dressed as a queen of myth and legend. She simply smiled at him. The third woman walked towards him. She was dressed not in clothes that seemed to belong to royalty of a previous millennia but in a dress that seemed to have belonged to the times of his father. Her long brown hair fell down her back in curls and her bright red lips turned into a smile. A bright red hat sat on her head. She walked towards T'Challa, stuck out her hand for a handshake, and smiled.

"Tell Shuri 'thanks' for me," she said and her cornflower blue eyes shown with joy. "Tell her I'm where I need to be now."

T'Challa nodded and the four vanished. He looked up at the stars and noticed they were constellations he had never seen before. He was wondering how long he would be here when he felt as if he had been dropped into a bucket of ice water and he opened his eyes.

He found himself standing on a raised platform in the council hall of the palace, still wearing his Panther Habit. Flowers surrounded the floor around him. He stretched his aching, stiff muscles, yawned, and pulled off his mask. He felt disoriented and confused and really, really hungry. He decided his first objective would be to find some food, followed by finding out exactly what was going on. He opened one of the large doors into the hallway and nearly ran into Okoye. She gave an uncharacteristic scream and pointed her spear at him.

"General, be at peace," he said, holding both of his hands up in surrender.

She gave him a wary look and slowly lowered her spear. "T'Challa? It is not possible….you are…you were…," she said and her spear clattered onto the polished marble floor. She reached her hands to his face and felt the warmth of his cheeks before she realized what she was doing and dropped her hands in embarrassment. "My King, forgive me. You were gone and we didn't know what we would do and you are here and, by the claws of Bast, are all the armies restored?" she asked, tears streaming down her cheeks unheeded.

"I do not know, General. I simply found myself here and felt hungry. I know even less than you, it seems," he said with a smile, rather entertained by Okoye's momentary lapse into emotional display.

Okoye pressed her kimoyo beads and spoke rapidly into them. "Queen Mother, my Queen, come into the council hall at once. The King is awake! T'Challa is awake!"

Before she could even finish her transmission, footsteps pounded through the halls and the doors opened with such a fervor that the door knob left a dent in the wall behind. Shuri flew to her brother and flung both of her arms around him with such a crushing embrace that he found himself gasping for air.

"Sister, gentle…you have grown stronger than last I remember," he said with a smile. She responded by sobbing into his chest and, while she held on less tightly, she refused to let go. When Ramonda finally entered the room, still in her night clothes, she had to enfold both of her children at once to be able to get her arms around her son.

"What happened? How did you get unstoned?" Shuri asked when she could finally stop crying.

"Unstoned? Shuri, that is not a word," T'Challa responded in a chiding tone.

"When thousands of Wakandans are turned into rocks and I spend day and night for weeks trying to figure out a way to fix it, it becomes a perfectly good word," she retorted.

"Ah, I see I have missed a few things," T'Challa responded. "In answer to your question, I do not know. I simply awoke."

"My King, my Queen, with your permission, I wish to check on the status of our armies at the border," Okoye interjected.

T'Challa looked at Shuri. "Queen?"

"Former Queen now. I don't want your job ever again. Take it back!"

T'Challa laughed. "Yes, General. Check on our armies and report back their status while I go to the kitchens and hope Wakanda still has food that has not been turned to stone."

"Yes, my King," she said and walked briskly from the room until she was out of sight and then she ran instead.

---

Okoye could not goad the rhinoceros to go fast enough to reach the field where the battle had taken place. The grey beast snorted and galloped, his heavy body creating deep footprints into the freshly rain-watered red earth beneath his feet. They crested a hill where she could finally get a glance of the army below and she pulled the rhinoceros to a halt and clambered down from the saddle. Her eyes strained against the darkness, but below her in the moonlight, she saw the glint of metal as it moved in lines across the field. A clamor of voices rose to reach her ears and she nearly shouted with joy as she ran down the grassy knoll into the midst of the living, breathing army made of flesh and blood instead of stone.

She found herself in a contingent of King's Guards and they cheered when they saw her approach.

"You are alive!" she said. "You are all alive!"

"Yes, General," they responded, circling around her. "What has happened?"

"You were turned to stone," she said. "All will be explained to you in time. First, where is W'Kabi?"

A murmur rippled through the ranks of soldiers before one pointed with his shield. "The Border Guards were stationed on the other side of that clump of trees."

Okoye didn't stop to thank him but ran in the direction he pointed. There, she found what she sought kneeling in the dirt and readjusting his sandal. She didn't give him a chance to stand but covered him with her arms and knocked him onto the ground. He fell laughing.

"My wife, you are happy to see me. What have I done right?" he said, pulling her into his arms.

"You are alive," she said. "You are breathing. That is enough."

"Ah! So easy to please today?"

Okoye didn't answer but simply held onto him as if she were afraid he would disappear again. As she clung to him, her eyes noticed the wet dirt they sat on. All around W'Kabi, she could see large tracks as if a great cat had walked around him after the evening rain. The paw marks, larger than any she had ever seen, marred the field of battle for as far as her eyes could see.

---

Bella walked slowly towards her home by the lake. After the week away, she simultaneously longed for the familiarity of her home and dreaded the isolation as she sat through the long night next to the statue of her husband. She drug her spear through the soft mud of the bank and listened to the frogs as they sang their "goodnight" song.

As she drew nearer to her home, she noticed a light glowing from the window and the smoke of a fire billowing from nearby. She stared and inhaled deeply until she could catch the scent she most longed for. She sprinted full speed back home and found Bucky stirring a saucepan of uji over the fire. He heard her approach and stood, his green eyes covering her like a blanket. Bella threw herself into Bucky's warm, living chest and trailed kisses from his head to his fingers. She nestled into his chest and inhaled deeply, soaking in the scent of earth and sweat and that rich scent that was so uniquely Bucky.

"You're back!" she said. "How is it possible?"

"I dunno. I just woke up," he said.

"I've missed you," she said.

"You know, I always suspected you only love me for my body. Now it's confirmed," he said, flexing his pectoral muscles beneath her cheek.

"Shut up and kiss me, you idiot," Bella said, breaking into laughter.

"At your service, my lady," he said, and did as he was commanded.

---

Edward felt as if his sense of reality had been placed in a blender and someone pushed the "puree" button. All this talk of souls and spirits left his worldview spinning, even more so now that he could page through memories imprinted on his mind without his consciousness.

Shuri had finally explained it all to him. It had taken half the day to answer all his questions and show him from her memories all that had happened. On the one hand, he was relieved beyond expression that the mission to Volterra had been successful and that Bella was no longer in danger. He also felt slightly mollified to know he had been somehow helpful in achieving their victory. On the other hand, he could hardly claim the victory was his own. He had proved to be a tool, like a tank driven into battle at the behest of a soldier. He could see the thoughts, emotions, and experiences that another man created while inhabiting his body. It unsettled him to his core.

Edward sat on the top of a jacaranda tree and watched as the stars twinkled their way across the sky. In the distance, he saw a shimmer of movement in the tall, dry grasses.

Well, might as well hunt again, he thought to himself and noiselessly leapt from the tree and stalked towards the movement. He could just make out the wind rippling through a mane.

Lion. I've always wanted to hunt an African lion, he thought. He carefully moved upwind before leaping into a full sprint towards the lion's back. Too late, he realized that the lion was farther away than he anticipated and so his perspective had been skewed. This was no regular lion. A body the size of a large pickup truck suddenly swung towards him and Edward found himself the object of hunt instead of the hunter.

They both lunged simultaneously. The lion leapt onto two feet and clawed at him, grabbing him and throwing him into the air like a rag doll. He fell with an unceremonious "flump" onto the grass before he leapt up and tried again. He bared his teeth and growled, smiling as the lion did the same thing. They chased each other in circles, wearing a clearing into the tall grass. Yet, no matter how stealthy his thrusts, Edward never seemed to hit the lion. The lion, on the other hand, raised one paw and brought it down with a powerful slash from Edward's cheek to his chest. With shock and horror, Edward realized the lion's claws easily sliced through his granite flesh, leaving trails of venom leaking where his claws had torn tracks.

The lion roared with a fury that shook the ground beneath him and Edward fell to his knees, head bowed.

This is it. I'm going to die. He thought as the lion's paws flew through the air again. This time, however, they did not slice his flesh. Instead the lion softly pawed him to the ground and leapt on him, licking his face with his rough tongue, before throwing him into the air and catching him with his paws again and again.

When the lion seemed to tire of his game, he set Edward on the ground, dragging him back to the same spot whenever Edward tried to crawl away. Then the lion began to dig. His claws ripped through the hard earth as if it were pudding. The lion took Edward and placed him upside down in the hole, reburying him in the earth up to his ankles, leaving his feet waving in the air like small branches.

It took till dawn to unbury himself. He wiggled and struggled and inch by inch managed to loosen the dirt around his body until he emerged. He pulled himself onto the grass and lay covered in dust and mud. He inhaled deeply and reveled in the feel of fresh air in his useless lungs again.

"Habari yako," a female voice said besides him. He did not answer. The sound of a heartbeat and footsteps told him she did not mind. She looked to be in her early to late twenties and was wearing an olive green dress. She sat silently on a large rock, mulling over what to say in her head.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"My name is Nakia," she said. He does not remember me, she thought to herself. A memory of a planning meeting in Volterra followed by a brief but terrifying battle flashed through her mind. He could see a parallel memory in his own mind

"What do you want?" he asked, irritated to be meeting someone who had met him under such circumstances.

"I had a dream and when I woke I knew I needed to find you."

He snorted and rolled to face her, clouds of red dust falling from his shoulders from the movement.

"And what exactly did you need to find me for?"

"Because you met the Lion."

He stared at her, unsure what to make of the little woman who so unflappably stared back into his glaring eyes.

"Have you seen a baobab tree before?" she asked.

"Yeah. I've seen those fat little funny trees," he said. "Why?"

"Wakandans usually consider them sacred. Do you know any of the legends of the baobab?"

"No."

"We have a story about the first baobab tree that ever grew. I will share it. One day Baobab looked at all the other trees around it and began to compare. Jackfruit has such large green fruits, it thought to itself sadly. Flame Tree has such beautiful red flowers. Acacia is so loved by the pretty little weaver birds. Avocado has such strong, firm leaves.

"When Baobab looked at its own reflection in the smooth waters of a lake, it was angry and ashamed. Baobab was so wrinkled and fat and ugly. Baobab wept very bitterly and complained to the Creator day and night.

"'Why did you make me so ugly? Why didn't you give me beautiful purple flowers like Jacaranda or bundles of delicious fruit like Banana? Or long, full leaves like Palm? But me, I am so short and thick and my branches are so small and clumsy! You didn't make me right!' Baobab said.

"The Creator grew very tired of listening to Baobab complain. Day and night, the tree whined. So the Creator came and pulled the great tree out of the earth and planted it again, but this time it was planted upside down.

"Now, upside down, Baobab can no longer see what it looks like or compare itself with the other trees. The tree has stopped its whining and has become one of the most helpful trees around. It silently gives and gives and gives to everyone around it and makes up for its past. The people, the animals, and the spirits all love Baobab because it is so helpful."

"What does this have to do with your dream?" he asked.

"I dreamed that a lion planted a baobab tree upside down next to this rock. So, when I woke, I came to this rock. Here you are, covered in dirt and fresh claw marks down your face. I have spoken. I will leave you now," she said. She rose and walked away towards a car he had never heard arrive. She got into it and drove away.

 

Nakia left the sullen zimwi under the acacia tree. He was not her original goal. She continued on till she crossed the boundary line into the city. She had always known she would return here, but she had not anticipated how long it would take her or how her heart would beat out of her chest over the last few kilometres. She walked slowly through the streets. She wanted to soak in the familiar sights and sounds of home.

She waved at the King's Guardsmen who stood watch at the palace wall. They cast curious glances towards her, whispered amongst themselves, and waved in return. She knew it would not be long now. She ran her hand across her braided hair and attempted to straighten the bodice of her olive green dress. She paused to inhale the scent so unique to Birnin Zana-that pungent mixture of cardamom, cloves, cement, and wet earth. She was finally home.

Then she made her way to their spot-their favorite café-and she smiled. She turned off her path to walk up the stairs. She ordered a pot of chai, a bag of popcorn, and a fresh potato samosa. The shop owner nearly smothered her in embraces and words of greeting before she allowed Nakia to make her order. Nakia sat in their usual spot and watched the city below.

No traces of the conflict marred the streets of Birnin Zana. Vendors continued to peddle their wares, the fragrant smells of roasting meat floated on the air, and the sounds of voices punctuated the breeze around her. Life returned. Life continued. Her heart rejoiced. She had known how close they had come to forever losing this precious expression of life, this rhythm of being so unique to Birnin Zana.

East or West, home is best, Nakia thought to herself, remembering the proverb her mother told her as a small girl.

It only took a half hour before she heard the footsteps she knew would follow. T'Challa's dark head, the hair longer than last she saw, ducked through the doorway and his shadow fell across the brown tiles of the floor.

She turned and flashed him a brilliant smile.

"Chai?" she said and held him up a cup.

He sat down without a word, took the cup in his hands, and held it there, his eyes never once straying from her face. She slowly sipped her chai, closed her eyes, and basked in the warm rays of sun that enfolded her shoulders and face. Bright yellow tunguja flowers grew up the wall behind them, their fragrance perfuming the air and mixing with the strong ginger fragrance of the chai.

T'Challa put down the cup without once taking a sip. The porcelain clanked on the glass table and a few drops of chai spilled over the edges.

"You are here?" he said, finally speaking.

"Yes."

"Umepotea."

"Ndio. Nimepotea. Sasa, nimerudi nyumbani."

T'Challa stood and turned his back towards her, placing both hands on the balcony fence and staring out into the city streets below. He swallowed deeply and cleared his throat. She rose and came to stand beside him, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"I will not leave again unless you are with me," she whispered. "I am home now, where I need to be."

He faced her, eyes full of questions and wonder and brimming with emotion.

"You will stay?" he asked.

"With you? Yes. My work now is here, at your side."

Tears streamed freely down T'Challa's coffee-colored cheeks and he pulled Nakia to his chest in an embrace so fierce not even a panther could break it.

---

All wore white festival dress and crowns of flowers to celebrate the marriage of their King. Every street was filled to the brim with music, dancing, and citizens from all over the country.

A procession of gifts a half mile long led the way to Nakia's home, followed by T'Challa, his uncles, male cousins, and closest friends carrying her on a litter through the streets to the palace behind a dozen musicians. Her father and brothers and cousins accepted the gifts and formally agreed their daughter now belonged to the family of T'Challa.

Nakia sat on the litter garbed in brilliant gold and burgundy, henna flowers covering her hands and feet, long black braids reaching to her waist, and her ears, nose, arms, and ankles covered in gold jewelry. T'Challa walked directly in front of her-his own embroidered white robe shown in the sun and only made dim by the light of his smile.

As soon as they arrived at the palace, T'Challa lifted her from the litter and carried her to the balcony overlooking the city. Tens of thousands of Wakandans stared back at them in an ocean of dark faces, white clothes, and colorful blooms. T'Challa took Nakia's hand in hers.

"Wakanda, msalimia Nakia, wife of T'Challa, Queen of Wakanda," he said and the entire crowd erupted into joyous shouts and cheers. "Sasa, let us celebrate together."

Drums exploded into songs and did not cease their rhythms for the next three days as all of Wakanda celebrated together.

---

Inside the banquet hall of the palace, the tribal elders, dignitaries, family members, and close friends of the royal family feasted together late into the night. On a dais in the front of the massive hall hung with paintings sat T'Challa and Nakia. Long tables reached to the end of the hall, each seat filled with well-wishers sharing in their celebration.

Shuri and Ramonda sat with the tribal elders at a special table in the center of the room, just below the bride and groom.

Bella and Bucky sat next to W'Kabi, Okoye, Mama W'Kabi, Mama W'Kabi's other children, and Okoye's extended family. Laughter and stories flowed freely. Next to Bucky sat Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson, specially invited and freshly arrived to join in the celebration.

The Watu Wa Wanyama filled an entire table beside them-all in their human forms and dressed in Wakandan finery. No longer in need of refuge, they had asked to leave to return to their semi-nomadic existence. T'Challa did not hesitate to thank them and agree. They were welcomed to return to visit, but they were not subjects of Wakanda and were not obligated to remain. They agreed to stay for the celebrations but they did not wish to linger after.

Edward arrived after the feast had completed. He quietly slipped into the hall and watched from the shadows. Or, rather, he tried to watch from the shadows. Shuri saw him and her face lit up and she cornered him immediately.

"Why are you skulking here in the corner?" she asked.

"I'm not skulking," he said.

"Yes, you are. You missed the feast! It was tamu sana!" she said, brightly and flashed pictures of the meal and tastes of it through her thoughts.

"Shuri, you know I don't eat your kind of food," he replied. "I didn't really want to sit here and pretend."

"Stop. You've been missing all the fun," she said. "Come, I want you to meet some people."

She pulled him towards two men in the corner of the room.

Meet my future husband, Shuri thought and directed him to the tall blonde man. Edward's mouth fell open as he recognized the one she referred to. Out loud, she addressed the two men clothed in suits and ties.

"Steve, I have another American for you to meet."

"But that's…it can't be…you're Captain America?" Edward said.

Steve nodded his head to affirm it.

"No way. You were all over all the war reels in the 40's. All my sisters and my mother thought you were the most handsome man they had ever seen-how is this possible?"

Steve blushed and struggled to come up with a response. In his head he was torn between embarrassment and curiosity as to how this teenager could have memories from the 1940's. Before he could answer, Shuri cut him off.

"Panya, you remember-I told you he's well-preserved," Shuri said.

"Yeah, yeah. You told me about your preference for older men…you failed to mention that your future husband was Captain America."

Edward laughed at the even deeper crimson that now painted Steve's cheeks. In Shuri's mind, she kept a careful tally of the number of times she made him blush this evening. At the same time, Steve mentally counted of the number of times he tried to escape Shuri's attention and failed. It was truly a game of "cat and mouse", most appropriately, with Shuri as the cat.

"It's an honor to meet you, Captain," Edward said, shaking Steve's hand and attempting to relieve him of some of his embarrassment.

"And you are?"

"Edward Cullen…an old friend of Bella's," he said, hoping Shuri wouldn't feel compelled to elaborate further. She considered it and then changed her mind.

"Let me introduce you to my friend, Sam Wilson…sometimes known as 'The Falcon,'" Steve said and directed them to the muscular, brown man of average height. Shuri gave him a critical glance over before shaking his hand.

"It's nice to meet you," Sam said cheerfully.

"You don't look like a falcon," she said. "I'd expect you to have a more prominent nose and claws on your hands."

Edward smirked when he saw Shuri's mental picture of the Eagles in their human form and Sam's mental picture of him in his mechanical wings.

"Not that kind of falcon, Shuri," Edward whispered so low only she could hear. "He has a machine that he uses to help him fly and shoot things."

She laughed and addressed Sam again. "Awww! So, you can't actually turn into a bird?"

Sam gave her a confused look. "No…cause that's not really a thing…right?"

Shuri's face took on a mischievous expression. "During the reception, you should find the man and the woman with hair like a fluffy ax head and ask them to fly for you….wait, better yet, find me and I'll take you to them so I can watch your face as you ask them."

Sam gave the Captain a sideways glance, inwardly wondering if Shuri was missing a few screws or if this place was even stranger than he had originally thought.

"Sam, I told you to leave all your preconceptions at the door, right?" Steve said.

"Yeah, well, that was before you told me your best friend married a vampire and T'Challa spent time as a statue, so I figured you were pulling my leg," Sam said.

Shuri and Edward met each other's eyes and broke into joint laughter together.

"Welcome to Wakanda, Mr. Wilson," Shuri said. "I can tell we will be good friends."

Go on, freak him out with your little mind-reading tricks. Shuri whispered mentally to Edward. I want to see his face when you do it.

Edward shook his head.

Fine. Now, tell me, honestly…what are my chances that the Captain here can be convinced to marry me? One in a hundred or one in a thousand or am I more along the lines of one in a million?

At this he broke into a grin. "Somewhere between a thousand and a million," he said.

"So there's still a chance!" she said, jumping onto her toes and clapping her hands. She pulled Steve's arm into her own. "Tell me, Captain Rogers, where have you been? You have been lost! You never answered any of my letters."

"Yes, ma'am. I have been busy with a lot of things the past few years, but you are right. I should have made the time to visit here more."

"I'm sorry we didn't get to meet up with you in London like we were supposed to. I would have much preferred that over being kidnapped," Shuri said. "Though I suppose Edward here is rather glad we missed our visit."

"Bucky mentioned something about an unplanned trip to Italy but he didn't have time to go into detail on it. Really-you were kidnapped?"

Edward groaned. Shuri would delight in embarrassing him. Already, her memories of his state when they first found him were the most humiliating thing he'd ever witnessed (second only to the realization that Bucky had been inhabiting his body for a period of time without his knowledge).

"Yes! I managed to survive a few days in a dungeon full of vampires! We liked it so much we brought Edward here home as a souvenir. He wasn't much to look at at first, but I think he has improved with time. I like the new scar-it's a good look for you," she said, pointing at his face where he could feel the sticky, barely healed stripes from the Lion's claws. "You look less like 'preppy private school boy' and more like 'bad-ass wolverine'."

"That looks fresh. What happened?" Steve asked.

"I learned that it's a bad idea to hunt lions with my bare hands," he said with a grin.

Sam's eyes grew wide.

"See, Mr. Wilson. You should spend some time here in Wakanda. It's good for everybody. You're rather handsome, Mr. Wilson. Tell me, are you genetically modified?" Shuri said.

"Umm, no, ma'am," he said.

"Hmmm…and we've already sorted that you can't shape-shift into any kind of animal…and you don't look like a vampire…I know-do you have your own soul in your body or somebody else's?"

Sam's eyes grew even wider. "No, ma'am. As far as I know, I'm still me."

"Pity. I'm afraid I can't keep you as a pet then," Shuri said with a shrug.

"A…excuse me?"

Shuri only grinned. "By the way, technically you should all still be addressing me as 'my Queen' or 'your Majesty.' I know T'Challa has finally been 'unstoned' but I haven't officially been 'unqueened' yet. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find my mother."

She danced away from the procession, a small bounce in her steps. She turned around to glance at them again only when she had reached the other side of the room.

Sam still stood, mouth slightly agape.

"Please tell me she was kidding," Sam said.

"About which part?" Edward asked.

"All of it," he responded.

Edward fell into a full laugh. "Actually, I'm pretty sure everything she said was the God-honest truth. And I would know. I can read her mind."

Now both men's heads swung in his direction, chaos erupting in their minds around his revelation. Edward quickly made his exit and followed after Shuri. He knew she'd be upset to have missed it, but he figured he would make it up to her by telling her of the aftermath.

"Did he just…," he could hear Sam whispering to Steve.

"I'm pretty sure he did," Steve replied.

"Cap, what the heck have you gotten me into here?"

"I wish I could tell you I knew."

---

Two days later, Edward packed up what few belongings he had into a small suitcase. He stopped near the lake to look at his face. Four long claw marks, now healed into raised, shiny stripes, would forever mark his right cheek and his chest. He felt the scars with his hand. He would never forget how he received them.

His family would not understand, but it was time he went out on his own for a while and this time bring life instead of death. He knew now. There was a world outside of the one he'd lived in and he wanted to truly live now.

"Thank you," he said as he embraced Bella, Bucky, T'Challa, Nakia, and Shuri. "Thank you for getting me out of Volterra and giving me a home and helping me get my head on straight. I am deeply grateful for everything."

"Where will you go first?" T'Challa asked.

"Captain Rogers said he's putting together a team. There may be some trouble on the horizon. He offered me the chance to use my gifts to do some good and I took him up on the offer," Edward said, even more convinced it was the right decision as he put it into words.

"You will always have a home here," Bucky said. "Come back anytime you need a change of scenery and feel like doing some more farming."

"Or if you feel like starting a new career in my lab as a full-time Panya," Shuri said with a wink.

"I'll do that," Edward responded. He picked up his suitcase and walked away from the homestead on the lake. He turned to wave one more time before he disappeared into the forest.

"Well, there he goes," Bucky said. "I hope things go well for him."

"Me too," Bella said.

They gave T'Challa, Nakia, and Shuri "a push" to the road and turned back to their home.

"Well, doll, what say we take a bit of a breather and play another game of checkers?" Bucky said, putting his arm around his wife and kissing her cheek. "And maybe we'll stay up late tonight and watch the moon."

"That sounds rather perfect," Bella replied.

"Maybe we should finally go on that vacation," Bucky said.

"I think it is more than time for that," Bella said and nestled deeper into his warm, living chest.

---

T'Challa and Nakia stood on the balcony of their palace bedroom. The sparkling lights of Birnin Zana lay out before them. With the vibranium returned, power to the city had also been resurrected and life continued on as it had before. They watched as the rivers of lights signifying the busy night life of the city washed through the darkness, broken by the black silhouettes of the forested mountains surrounding them.

"It was a good wedding," T'Challa said, wrapping his arms around his wife and kissing her cheek.

"You are wrong, bwana. It was the best wedding," she said with a smile and placed her hennaed hands upon his.

"Unajua-we will still have a lot of work to do," T'Challa said. "We will need to make sure all the work the mchawi did is undone and there are still many villages around the borders that have suffered from her attacks. We will need some compassionate, intelligent workers to rebuild and bring justice."

"T'Challa, wacha. I am home. You do not need to try to bribe me to stay. I am here with you and we will rebuild together."

He sighed. "You are right. I am still afraid that you will decide to run away again, but I suppose that is difficult now that you have been married."

"I told you that was for a season. That season is over and now a new one has begun."

"I am glad."

"Wewe," Nakia said, turning her dark eyes to meet his, "During my research in Volterra, I realized something."

"Tell me," he said.

"I think, it wasn't only Bucky that my vision was about. The vision of the Acacia Tree, I mean. It was also us-Wakanda. We are the Acacia, afraid of others seeing our heart and exploiting us in that same way. Our history, our collective experiences have taught us to fear. And maybe we are wise to. But every now and then, there comes Rabbit, who sits in our shade and delights in our gardens and treasures our gems."

"And we need to be willing to invite Rabbit in when he comes?" T'Challa said with a smile.

"Ndio. Be cautious, yes, but we also need to share our heart."

"It is a risk," T'Challa said.

"Yes. It is. But sometimes, it is worth it," she said with a smile.

 

Mukasa stood on the bank of Bubembe Island, paddle in hand, and his face scanned the grey and violet storm clouds quickly gathering over Lake Nyanza. His wife, Nalwanga, walked up to him in her painted barkcloth dress. She cradled two calabashes in her arms and her face shone as if she were deeply pleased with herself.

"Eh, what's this, my wife? You managed to clean them all out?" Mukasa asked.

"Aya. Nyelu has been storing these for generations. Some of these calabashes are older even than our fathers, but I managed to send them all to join their ancestors," she said, her sweet voice mingling with the quiet lapping of Nyanza's waves.

"These are the ones you wanted?" he asked, gesturing towards her calabash-filled arms.

"Yes," she said with a sly smile.

"I have summoned Crocodile. She will come," he said. "Is everything prepared?"

"Yes. I have made all the necessary adjustments," she said.

He nodded and they both turned to watch the storm roll past.

By sunset, the large, nobbled Crocodile lunged herself onto the soft banks of the island. She curled inward on herself and where the reptile had been, a stout woman stood instead. Her olive toned skin stretched tightly over her wide, freckled nose and sharp incisors peeked from her dark, full lips. Long dread locks woven with cowry shells and seeds hung down to her lower back over her bark cloth wrap. Her golden reptilian eyes focused on Mukasa as she knelt in the sand at his feet.

"Yes, Ssebo, you have called for me?" she asked.

"Weebale nnyo, Crocodile. Take these calabashes to the malaika wa vita that watches over the People of the Panther," he said with a grin.

Crocodile stood and took each of the calabashes in her clawed fingers. The black slits in her yellow eyes narrowed further as she stared at him more intently. "You wish her to have two calabashes?"

"Yes," he said and nodded towards Nalwanga beside him. "My wife has requested it."

Crocodile's face broke into a wide, sharp, toothy grin. "It would be my pleasure."

She knelt before both of the Balubaale again. Then she safely secured both of the calabashes within the waterproof pouch she kept hidden beneath her bark cloth wrap.

"Ssebo, does she know?" Crocodile asked as she prepared to leave.

"Neda, nyabo. She does not know," he said, mischief written on his face. Crocodile stifled a laugh beneath her hand, bowed again and changed back into her animal form. Her reptilian hands clawed through the soft sand as her scaled belly splashed into the warm waters of the lake. Her dark head could just barely be seen above the surface of the water, sometimes appearing more like a piece of driftwood than a creature as she began her journey.

---

"Babe-what's this?" Bucky asked as he ran his hand against two brown calabashes on their night stand.

"Oh, I found those on the doorway this morning," she answered with a shrug as she pulled a dress on over her head. "Crocodile found me and told me that Mukasa sent those for me. He said his wife had been cleaning out Nyelu's stockpile of calabashes and wanted him to send me these two."

"Why?"

"I have no idea. She didn't give me any other information or instructions. She simply said they were a gift for me. You know how people here can be about gifts-and Mukasa has been really helpful so I didn't want to offend him. I sent Crocodile with my thanks and brought the calabashes inside."

"Ok. Are they special calabashes? Are we supposed to, I dunno, put flowers in them or store milk in them or something?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said. "I figured I'd leave them here until we get back from our trip and I can ask Zuri more about it. We've still got too much to do today to get ready and I don't want to worry about it now."

"Alright, doll," he said and pulled her to him to place a kiss on her lips. His smile grew. "I'm hoping no kidnapping vampires interrupt this vacation. Considering all the impending doom and world-hopping and body swapping, I think we've earned some time away. I would like to take a break from the weird for awhile"

"A break from the weird?" Bella asked with a smile. "You're a hundred year old genetically enhanced human and you're married to a vampire and we live in a super secret city that no one else on earth is supposed to know about…what's normal about any of that?"

"Shhh, I'm a simple farmer and you are a Dora Milaje bodyguard and we are very normal. We are going on a very normal trip around the world and if you say anything else, you will jinx it. Come on, let's get ready. Our flight goes off too early in the morning for us to dilly dally all day."

Their myriad of chores busied them until late into the night. After suitcases were fully packed, directions on the garden and animals given to Okoye's lastborn nephew, and proper farewells made to their friends, Bella and Bucky finally found a moment to rest. They sat on the banks of the lake and watched as the moon reflected off the ripples of water, a chorus of frog songs filling the humid night air around them.

"Morning is gonna come earlier than I want it to," Bucky said with a slight frown and a yawn. He stretched his legs a little and rubbed at his eyes.

"I'll wake you at 3am," Bella said with a gentle shove on his shoulder. "Go get some sleep."

"Come with me," he said, grabbing her hand and staring intently into her eyes.

"You won't get as much sleep if I come," she responded.

"I don't need that much sleep," he said. "I'd rather stay awake with you for a little while longer."

She easily agreed and followed him into their home.

Neither Bella nor Bucky noticed the fresh cracks running down the side of each calabash when dawn broke over the lake the next morning.

---

Two weeks later

Bella and Bucky sat on a tall cliff overlooking the deep grey and turquoise of the Pacific Ocean below them. A chilly, light rain swirled through the air around them, intermixing with the salty ocean spray and thick pine scent of the forest behind them.

"I thought someone would have rebuilt it," she said quietly. "I mean, I thought the land was sold. But Charlie's house is still there. It looks like a ghost house."

"Yeah, I gotta admit-the charcoal remains of a house standing next to the isolated forest like that did look pretty creepy."

"I suppose I was hoping to see, you know, like a family living there and a garden of flowers in the front yard. I didn't want to see it still empty and burnt out and full of raccoon nests."

"I'm sorry, doll," he said, pulling her into his chest to wrap his good arm around her shoulder.

"I am glad we came, though," she said. "I'm glad I got to say good-bye and visit his grave. More memories are coming back as I walk around this town and see places I know were once important to me. I just wish I could remember more."

She fell into silence again as she listened to the powerful waves crash onto the rocks far below their perch.

"You sure you don't want to visit anyone? You had some friends who here who know you are alive."

"No," she said. "I don't. I don't think they really want to see me. I did what I needed to do and I'm ready to move on."

"You got it, doll," he said and kissed the top of her head.

---

Two weeks later.

"Steve was right," Bucky said. "It's barely recognizable to what it once was."

They sat on a bench near his childhood home in Brooklyn. He strained his eyes at the city-scape before him- as if by looking harder he could see the world that used to be buried underneath what his senses told him was now reality.

"That building over there was pretty new. My little brother's best friend lived there. I had an aunt who lived across the street and she kept a grocery store with my uncle. They'd give us expired produce when they couldn't sell it and sometimes hired us to sweep or shine shoes or stock shelves when they had extra cash lying around. Looks like a lot of this block is new…or newer."

"Your great-grandnephew had your eyes," she said softly, remembering the teenage boy they saw running from the address of his brother's relatives earlier in the day.

"Nah, those he got from my brother," he said. "But you're right. My second brother and I were the spitting image of my mama. No one who saw us together would doubt who we belonged to."

A tear snuck down his cheek without his permission and he quickly fought back the others waiting in line to follow. Bella squeezed his arm.

"I'm sorry you didn't get to say good-bye to them," she said.

"Yeah, me too."

She let him sit in silence and drink in the sights soaked in memories till the day waned.

"You ready to show me Coney Island?" she asked as he stood and grabbed her hand.

"You better believe it!" he said and pulled her to her feet. "I hope you are ready to truly experience fear."

---

One month later.

"This is the most beautiful city I've ever seen," Bella said with a happy sigh. They sat in a small sidewalk café overlooking where the ancient buttresses of Notre Dame sat beside the murky depths of the Seine.

"Told you that you'd like it," he said as he stared at his sticky fingers. He began to work on his third chocolate croissant. "And I told you I would eat well if we came. Not even constant brain-washing could make me forget how much I love these croissants."

"It actually smells kinda good," she said and bit her lip. "Can I try a bite?"

Bucky chuckled and handed her his plate.

"Don't throw it up on me this time," he said. She took a hesitant bite and instead of choking it out in revulsion, she easily swallowed and grinned.

"That is amazing! Let's get another one!" she said.

"Umm, ok. You, uh, sure you won't have to, you know, get it out later?"

"Maybe, but it's so good I don't care."

"Huh. Who woulda thought French food was so good even a vampire would eat it?" Bucky said with a shrug.

---

Four months later.

"I could stay on this beach forever," Bella cooed happily. She sat in the shade of a coconut palm, dug her toes into the white sand and looked out on the warm turquoise depths of the lazy ocean around her. A vervet monkey flittered up the trunk of the palm tree and chattered excitedly at them. Bucky, now a bright shade of red from the day he forgot to put on sunscreen, looked at her with a happy grin.

"Agreed," he said.

Behind them, their own hut on their island of Lamu felt like home already. Bucky grabbed another bite of coconut out of its husk and crunched on it. Bella stood and stretched. Her pale skin would never tan like his would. She did not bother to use her oil in this secluded beach. Her bare skin, covered only by a bathing suit, let out a million reflections of rainbows onto the sand. She caught Bucky staring at her and she smiled back.

"Let me have some of that coconut," she said, and took the half-eaten fruit from his hand. She began to dig into the hard flesh with her fingers and she moaned.

"This is amazing!"

Bucky watched her eat it and failed to hide the look of concern on his face.

"Babe, I know you keep telling me that everything is fine, but I gotta tell you. You are really freakin' me out," he said.

"What?" she asked, innocent expression on her face.

"You aren't acting normal. We've traveled through Europe and down through Egypt and Saudi Arabia and you've eaten as much, if not more, human food than me during this time."

"So? It's delicious! Who knew I just had to travel more to appreciate human food?"

"You know it's not just that. Ugh. I don't want this to come out the wrong way but I think it will no matter how I phrase it…have you, uh, noticed you have put on a little weight?"

She stared at him, wide-eyed. "What do you mean?"

"Bella, I saw you yesterday. You couldn't button your jeans and so you wore your sweatpants instead."

"It's the dryer," she responded with an authoritative air. "My clothes aren't used to being dried in machines anymore and they shrunk. Give them a few days and they'll stretch out again.

"Uh huh."

Bella looked at him and looked down upon her stomach which slightly protruded from her bikini with an uncharacteristic bulge. Then her face crumpled as if she were about to either cry or tear his head off (or both). He cringed before she even spoke as he anticipated her reaction.

"Are you saying I'm fat?"

"No! That's not what I'm trying to say at all," Bucky said, raising his hands in an expression of both surrender and frustration. He swept his fingers through his long hair and stared at her. "Bella, you and I both know that zimwi don't change. Your kind doesn't eat human food. Doll, you're basically made out stuff like rock. I know you are trying to ignore it and pretend that everything is fine, but I'm worried. It's not because I don't think you are gorgeous, because you are, or that I'd love you less if you did change. It's because I want to make sure you are ok."

"I'm fine. Please-don't worry about anything. I feel fine and I'm just enjoying myself. Focus on our trip," she said, chewing on her bottom lip out of her nervous habit. "I'll lay off the human food if that would make you feel better."

"That won't necessarily make me feel better," he replied with a resigned sigh.

"Please, Bucky, don't stress out. Let's see the world! Jakarta and Agra await," she said, her eyes glimmering with excitement as she sat on his lap and sweetly kissed him. Bucky drew her to himself and placed his hands on her hips and buried his head into her neck. He inhaled the sweet scent of her and tried to dispel his worry.

---

One month later.

"Shuri," Bucky said. The projection of Shuri flickered slightly before filling in all the way. She grinned and waved.

"I've missed you two like crazy! How's traveling the world?" she said. "Have you caught me a baby tiger?

"It's been awesome!" he responded. "We've loved it! Hey-I need your opinion on something and I need you to promise me you won't talk to Bella about it. She finally left to go hunting far enough away where she can't hear me talking to you."

"Bwana, what kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into?" Shuri said, tilting her head and giving him a curious stare.

Bucky exhaled deeply and struggled to put his thoughts together.

"Shuri, Bella's not ok but she won't admit it and I don't know what's wrong."

"What happened, bwana?" Shuri asked, growing serious to match Bucky's tone. Bucky ran his hands through his hair and exhaled again.

"First off, for the last few months, ever since we were in Paris, she's been eating human food."

"What?!"

"I know. At first, it was just a snack here or there. I thought it was just curiosity or her excitement to travel or something but then she kept it up and started eating full meals instead of just snacks."

"Did she, nini, you know, vomit them after?"

"No!"

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know! She said it tasted good and at first blamed it on the greatness of French cuisine but it continued through Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Lamu, and now into India. She's still hunting, but she has been equaling me in food intake. In Lamu, she could tell I was worried and said she was going to lay off the human food. When I'm awake, she pretends not to eat, but I see her at night. She sneaks out to go find human food when she thinks I'm sleeping."

"Interesting. Where does the food, you know, end up? Has she started using the toilet?"

"That's just it. No, she hasn't. And that's not all. She's gaining weight rapidly. She can't fit into any of the trousers she came with. She keeps blaming it on the dryers shrinking her clothes but it obviously isn't that. She's been in denial about it and has been hiding herself away from me. She says its cause I'm judging her and don't appreciate her and she gets all moody on me about it. But, honestly, Shuri, it's cause she's freakin' me out and her hiding away and refusing to admit it makes me even more worried."

"This is odd," Shuri said. "Where is she gaining weight?"

"Mainly her stomach. And a few days ago, I definitely felt something moving around in there. You know how her flesh is hard as tack, but I definitely felt vibrations coming from within that has never happened before. Then yesterday, I caught her eating rocks."

"Rocks?"

"Yes. Ok, so more like a hardened clay of some kind. She tried to hide that, too, and said she was just curious, but then I found her keeping some in her suitcase. I've been trying to convince her to come home early to have her looked at, but she keeps refusing. She goes on and on about not wanting to ruin our trip and how everything is fine and it's all in my head and so on. That's why I wanted to call you. Shuri-what should I do?"

"If she won't come to Wakanda, then Wakanda will come to her," Shuri responded confidently. "I'll meet you at your hotel tomorrow afternoon but one."

"Asante, dada," Bucky said, relief evident on his face.

---

A knock sounded and Bella opened the door of their hotel room. Shuri stood outside the door. Round sunglasses hid most of her eyes and gave her face an even more youthful appearance. Her hair was pulled into braided pigtails with hot pink woven with brown and gold. She leapt at Bella and threw her arms around her with a squeal of delight.

"Ummm, hi?" Bella said, looking doubtfully at the shorter woman.

"I couldn't take it anymore," she said. "I've missed you too much and I've come to surprise you."

"Hey, Shuri," Bucky said. He pulled her into a one-armed hug and gave her a meaningful look which he hoped would express his gratitude. Shuri nodded at him and winked. She pulled a rolling blue suitcase covered with little yellow pineapples and abandoned it in a corner. Two Dora Milaje soldiers accompanied her and silently stood guard against the walls of the room. Shuri plopped onto the large, white couch overlooking the view of New Delhi below.

"I like," she said and motioned towards the room. "India is beautiful! When do we see the Taj Mahal?"

"Ummm, we saw that last week," Bella said hesitantly.

"I know. Bucky sent me a picture of it…since you forgot to. I believe we need to have another discussion about the 'importance of sending Shuri photos' because you seem to be forgetting."

"Sorry. I hate taking pictures and always forget to," Bella said with a shrug. She smiled. "I saw a tiger last week. It was awesome!"

"Did you get me one?"

"Ummm, no."

"I'll keep an eye out for one myself. Now, tell me, what is this you are wearing?" Shuri said, and gestured at the sparkling blue and white sari gracefully draped over Bella.

"Isn't it beautiful! I can't get enough of them. I think I'll just wear these from now on."

"It is very pretty. Let me see this pattern," Shuri said, with a sly look at Bucky. Shuri pulled the dark blue wrap off her shoulder and feigned fascination with the material and the pattern. All the while, Shuri's keen eyes penetrated through the sheer fabric at the woman beneath. She then draped the fabric back over Bella's shoulder and stared at her carefully.

"Bella, either you've swallowed a jackfruit whole or you've found your blessing," Shuri said, one eyebrow raised and her hand on Bella's abdomen.

"You aren't actually here for a visit are you?" Bella said as she slowly backed away from Shuri. When she saw Shuri shake her head, she turned on Bucky. "You!" Bella said, pointing her finger against Bucky's chest. "You called her here, didn't you? Ugh! I'm fine. He's worrying over nothing."

"I will tell him he is worrying over nothing after you let me run some tests to confirm."

Bella gave out an exasperated huff and crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine."

Shuri made Bella lay on the couch and Shuri pulled an arsenal of equipment out of her pineapple suitcase. She ran a hand-held scanner over her body, poked and prodded, took swabs of her mouth, and began to sift through an avalanche of orange numbers on a screen.

"Keep this sensor on your stomach for a few more minutes. It will take a little while. You're body is much more difficult to read than most people's," Shuri said. "While this processes, how about you tell me anything and everything that has happened during your trip and before you left on your trip."

Bucky and Bella both nodded and began to tell her all about their many adventures, the places they had been the animals they had seen (and drank from), the food they had eaten, and the people they had spoken with. They stayed up late into the night sharing stories.

When she could keep her eyes open no longer, Shuri took over a spare bedroom of their hotel suite. She did not emerge until noon the next day. At midday, she joined Bucky and Bella on the white couch, stifling a giggle. She fiddled with her kimoyo beads for a moment before she could not hold it in anymore and she broke into a cheery peal of laughter.

"What is so funny?" Bucky asked.

"You two are," she said, wiping tears from her eyes. "I just spoke with Okoye's lastborn nephew. Tell me, Bella, before you left for your trip, did you receive anything unusual. Something, I don't know, shaped like a calabash?"

"Oh! Yeah! I did. Crocodile brought them right before we left. I almost forgot about that. Crocodile sent us two calabashes that she said Mukasa had sent to give to us. She didn't tell us much else except that Mukasa's wife liked them and wanted us to have them and that was it. I placed them on the night stand and meant to ask Zuri about them later but I forgot."

Shuri began to giggle again and she covered her hand with her mouth.

"What's so funny?" Bella asked.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to accept presents from strange men?" Shuri asked, breaking into rolling laughter and nearly falling off the couch.

"Shut up. What's so funny?" Bella asked.

"What do you know about Mukasa?"

"He's supposedly the guardian of the waters," Bella responded. "And he helped us with Nyelu and he carries around a paddle."

"Yeah, I think you needed to spend more time listening to Mama W'Kabi's stories than you did," Shuri said, holding her stomach as she laughed even harder. "It can't be possible, it really can't….but then again, nothing about you is ever really in line with what is possible."

"Spit it out, Shuri," Bucky said. "What's got you so riled up?"

Shuri held up a finger to pause him and began to flip through her computer screens. Then she signaled her kimoyo beads.

"T'Challa, Nakia, Okoye, Zuri, Mama-you are not going to want to miss this," she said, tears streaming down her face as she summoned each to join into their conversation digitally. Soon, five life-sized faces were projected in a circle around the room. None of Bella or Bucky's pleas or threats would get Shuri to open her mouth again for anything other than giggles and exhortations to learn patience as she summoned the others.

Five faces peered in at them, looking as if they expected news that another war to break out. Shuri failed to pull herself together and instead let more tears flow down her face in boisterous laughter.

"Sister, what is this about?" T'Challa said. "I am about to go into a council meeting. Is everything ok?"

"Oh yes. I bring news from India. But first, I have a question for Zuri. Zuri, what else is Mukasa known for besides protecting the waters."

"Ah! Many things," the priest said with a solemn nod of his hat-covered head. "Mukasa is one of the most benevolent of the Guardians. He delights in furthering life and helping crops, animals, and people to thrive. The people of old used to bring him gifts to ensure good harvests and prosperity each year."

"Yes, yes," Shuri said impatiently. "What else-why do people seek his wife out?"

"Ah, yes, Nalwanga. Many seek Nalwanga to intercede on their behalf because they know she can put in a good word with her husband on their behalf. Mukasa, when requested by his wife, also grants fertility to those who are childless and is especially known for blessing a barren wife with twins."

Shuri pushed another button a projected an image into the center of the room.

"Thank you, Zuri. I am happy to announce that Bucky and Bella, you will soon be the proud parents of twins," she said.

Bucky and Bella listened with mouths agape.

"It isn't possible," Zuri said, his mouth also falling open. He let his eyes fall upon Bella's shocked face and the scan Shuri displayed of two small babies. "How is it possible? We knew that the men among the mazimwi could father children with human women but we'd never heard of a zimwi female being able to."

"What!" shouted Bella in surprise, interrupting Zuri. "What are you talking about?"

"Indio. Luanda Majere fathered at least five children before his untimely death. They were fierce, strong warriors with unnaturally long lives who became well-renowned in our legends for their feats. It is said, some of them even joined the Balubaale and guard us even still. But no one has ever heard of a female zimwi…it shouldn't be possible….," Zuri said, trailing off in thought again.

"No, it shouldn't," Shuri said with a dimpled grin. "Biologically, according to all the tests we've run on you since you arrived in Wakanda, it makes absolutely no sense at all. But, there you are," she said, waving at the scan again. "Two healthy babies. It appears to be a boy and a girl and according to human gestation, you appear to be around fourteen weeks along, though I suppose it is possible that you will not follow a human gestation timeline. You said you received the calabashes when?"

"Ummm, about seven months ago," Bella said.

"So, it is possible that your gestation is twice as long as what would be required of a human," Shuri said.

"You received calabashes from Mukasa?" Zuri asked, surprise in his voice.

"Yes. He sent me two…he said his wife sent them."

Here Zuri began to laugh. "And you didn't know?"

"Know what?"

"What would be in them?"

"Of course not. I figured if they were souls like the ones in Nyelu's cavern, they'd sit in their gourds till we knew what to do with them. I didn't think they'd make me pregnant."

"It is a bit too late to start the discussion on birth control," Shuri said. "Instead, I would recommend you start discussing baby names."

Bella and Bucky, both still dumbfounded, looked at each other.

"I'm going to be a father!" Bucky said, grin spreading on his face. He placed his arms around his wife's stomach and felt the papaya-sized bulge there. "I don't believe it."

Now even the general couldn't fight back her smile. "Congratulations, Lieutenant. I suppose this means we will need to extend your time off for a little while longer."

---

Five Months Later.

"This is fascinating!" Shuri said as she analyzed the readings on her computer and performed another scan of Bella's abdomen. "You have felt how warm you have been getting?"

"Yeah. My stomach feels like its on fire and then all the sudden cools down again but it never really goes back to the temperature of the rest of my body. It's like I have a mini heater in my belly."

"Well, every time that happens, your womb is being grown larger," Shuri said. "You see this little boy here," Shuri continued and pointed out one of the scans on her screen. "He is growing it. He seems to have some kind of gift to shift molecules and transform elements. You know we were trying to figure out what happens with your food? Here he is. He can tell when you've eaten and he absorbs it through the layers. Here, you see they share a placenta? He then shares his meal with his sister. It takes a tremendous amount of energy and so that's why you've been so hungry.

"Here, look at this one," Shuri said. "He's using the materials that they don't need to digest to expand your womb. You know how the composition of your flesh is usually compared to that of rock? Some say females of your kind are incapable of change and that is why you cannot bear children. Well, rock that is melted is very pliable and malleable. This little one is heating and molding the very materials of your body and making more space for them to grow. This process also explains all the lines you have been developing across your abdomen."

"Shouldn't that much heat damage the babies?"

"No! That's what is amazing!" Shuri said. "The other one also seems to have a gift. Look at this reading here. There's some kind of barrier surrounding both of them. The energy readings show it originates from his sister. She creates some kind of protective covering over both of them that helps maintain a constant temperature, which is quite a bit higher than your normal body temperature."

"Wow!"

"There's more. The little boy is not only providing them both with food. He's providing them with oxygen and water. He draws some of the fluids from the blood you digest and he forms water. He also seems to be able to absorb oxygen from the air outside and share that with his sister as well. It's really as if they were designed especially to survive in you."

"That's amazing!" Bella said and fondly laid her hands on her protruding belly.

"It truly is."

"Oooh! I felt another little earthquake vibrating through me," she said.

"It is too bad we cannot feel their little limbs kicking. I remember when my aunty was pregnant and I could feel my cousin's little feet within. Her stomach looked as though a jellyfish was dancing a rumba. You, however, have nothing on your body that resembles jelly. Yet, you are still growing. According to their size, you are at about 25 weeks."

Here Bella's face twisted with a groan.

"Seriously, Shuri? I'm going to be pregnant for a year and a half? I'm already so top-heavy that I struggle to get off a chair once I'm in it."

Shuri laughed. "Yeah. And you are really growing. You look like you've swallowed a full jackfruit now. Another six months of this and you are going to look like a hippopotamus."

"Ugh, you aren't helping!" Bella said, laughing and placing her hands on her protruding belly. Let me see them again! I want to look at those precious little noses."

"Ok," Shuri said, grinning and projecting an image of a tiny thumb-sucking face into the space between them. After she had allowed Bella to ogle the image for a period of time she turned serious and took Bella's hand.

"As much as I want to keep you in my lab all day and night to run tests on you to document all this, I don't think we should let you go to full term. I think we should plan a C-section for a time slightly before their supposed due date," Shuri said. "I don't want to see what would happen if you try to do this naturally."

"That makes sense," Bella responded after consideration.

"Ok. You go home. Take it easy. I know you don't really tire and are nearly invincible, but no fighting bad guys or chasing lions for awhile, ok? I want my niece and nephew safe."

"You got it," Bella said as Shuri helped her from the table.

oooooooooooooo

Five months later.

Bella paused at the doorstep to their home to grab hold of the door frame to catch her balance. What Shuri called "the inability of her unchanging muscles to adapt to her changing shape and size," Bella called a capacity for clumsiness. Her speed and agility had diminished so much that for the last few months, she had been forced to relinquish hunting and satisfy herself on the blood of Bucky's cattle. Occasionally, W'Kabi brought one of his rhinos over for a visit to give her a more satisfying meal. She still cringed inwardly as W'Kabi and Bucky held the creature down for her as she drank since she could not do it herself. She had never felt so physically vulnerable since before she first awoke into her new life.

Bucky doted on her daily. He proudly brought her meal after meal of home-grown and home-cooked food to feed their growing children. He failed to stifle the satisfaction he gained from taking care of his family and her enjoyment of the fruit of his labors. He delighted in telling stories and singing songs to the growing beings within her, almost as much as she delighted in feeling the vibrations of their movements or the tell-tale warmth of her son helping them grow.

She was going to be a mother. She still could hardly believe it. The joy and fear and anticipation and overwhelming devotion she felt intermingled into an emotional tidal wave so strong she felt she could be drowned in the wake of it. She would never be the same again. This was a gift. Another twist and turn in her life that she had never anticipated or asked for but that she would never take for granted.

Still, she had to admit she would look forward to the day when she could see her toes again. Her nearly full term children caused her to slowly waddle as she walked with unsteady balance from the homestead towards the lake. Footsteps reached her ears and she saw the approaching figure of a short, muscular woman in a bark cloth dress. Her dread locks reached nearly to her waist. Dark slits in her golden eyes met Bella's own and the woman saluted to honor her.

"Crocodile, karibu," Bella said.

"Malaika, you are radiant," Crocodile said with a wide, toothy grin.

"Uh huh. You know you could have warned me," Bella said and raised one eyebrow.

"Perhaps," Crocodile said, grin unwavering. "But a gift is best when it is a surprise, yes?"

Bella gave a small smile and shook her head. "I'm sure you all thought you were hilarious."

Crocodile's grin grew even wider. "We will be telling our children's children about the expression on your face when you found out. Now, I come bearing another gift for you from Nalwanga. This one, however, is not a surprise."

"What is it?" Bella asked as she took the small vial that Crocodile handed her.

"Special oil. When your time comes, you are to rub this on your stomach to soften the skin. It will aid in both the birth and your healing after."

Crocodile lifted the light blue sari covering where Bella now extended farther than the largest of tortoise shells. She traced her claws across the myriad of dark lines marring her pale skin like stratum of rock within a cliff face.

"Will it take away all the lines?" Bella asked.

"Malaika, I would not take away scars of battle from a warrior anymore than I would remove the marks of childbearing from a mother. You have earned those stripes and they bring you great honor. Would you wish to hide the marks of your new status?" Crocodile said.

Bella considered carefully and ran one of her fingers along a line. Crocodile placed one clawed hand on top of Bella's and with her other she gently rubbed circles along the vibrating surface of her fully rounded abdomen. As she did so, she closed her eyes and spoke words of blessing over those within in a language only known to her ancestors. "These young ones are gifts not only to you but to all Wakanda. Treasure them. I will return after the birth to learn their names and see their spirits."

---

A Year and a Half Later.

Tony Stark removed the fire-scorched face plate of his Iron Man suit and placed it on the table in the debrief room of the Avengers Facility. His careful eyes searched the mostly empty room before he removed the rest of his suit. He waited as the rest of the team wandered into the room, all a little worse for wear. Wanda Maximoff collapsed into a chair, a long scratch marring her pale forehead. Natasha crossed her arms against her chest and leaned against the wall near the head of the table.

"I've got it," Tony said, breaking the tired silence weighing on the room. "Batman."

All eyes turned to him. Edward Cullen's golden eyes turned on him in irritation.

"No."

"Come on! It's perfect for you!"

"Absolutely not," Edward said.

"You have to have a public alias. Everybody else does. Come on, Dracula, it's perfect!"

Wanda and Natasha gave Stark a tired stare and rolled their eyes.

"You could even have a black cape that resembled wings. And think of it-your very own bat cave full of coffins or garlic or crosses or whatever," Stark said, gleeful grin marring his face.

"Stark, if you continue irritating me, I might choose to remove your limbs," Edward said with an evil glint in his otherwise expressionless face.

Tony ignored him. "Seriously, Eddie, you can't keep fighting in a polo shirt and khaki pants. You need something a bit more, how shall I put it? Cool…intimidating…less Calvin Klein underwear model and more, you know, Gotham City hero."

"No," Edward responded. "And if you call me Eddie again, I will punch a hole in your suit with my fist."

Tony groaned. "Not again! That took me two weeks to fix last time."

Edward smirked. He collapsed into one of the rolling chairs and scooted farther back from the table.

"For once in his life, I think Stark is right, but don't let it get to your head," Natasha said. "Edward, you do need a uniform."

"Absolutely not….," Edward began, but Natasha cut him off before he could continue protesting.

"Hear me out," she said. "Yeah, your skin is pretty much impenetrable to most human weapons but your clothes are not. Trust me when I say there are some benefits to having knife-proof clothes that extend beyond skin protection."

"I'll say," Bruce chimed in. "I wish I had some Hulk-proof clothes."

Natasha bit back a smile. "Sometimes a uniform is as much for the protection of one's dignity as it is for the physical protection. Also, you are not entirely impervious to harm. How does your skin handle flames?"

"I will concede to you your point," Edward said with a slight grimace as he pictured the day's efforts to rescue civilians from the explosion placed beneath the subway line. "I can see the benefits of a flame and blade resistant uniform."

"See-Batman begins!" Stark quipped.

Edward glared at him again. "No capes. I refuse."

Natasha shook her head in assent. "No capes. They are impractical for most of us unless you happen to be an Asgardian prince."

"Or admire the fashion sense of Asgardian princes," Stark chimed in.

Wanda groaned. "Leave Vision out of this."

Stark quirked his head to one side but before he could respond, Edward's phone chimed. He pulled it out and frowned.

"Everything ok?" Wanda asked.

"Yes. It's just my sister," Edward said.

"Oooooh! The smokin' hot one? I've seen some beautiful women in my life but, wow!" Stark began. He cut himself off as a pencil flew through the air, narrowly missed his ear, and implanted itself in the wall behind his head.

"So help me, Stark-if my brother could see the thoughts going through your mind he would not hesitate to eat you," Edward said as he pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "And no, not that one. Alice says that all hell will freeze over before she will let me wear an all-black uniform like the one Natasha is currently plotting in her head. She will be commissioning the design of my uniform before the day is over and it will 'not resemble a bat or be such a ghastly color for his skin'-her words, not mine."

Natasha shrugged. "Black is practical."

Edward's phone buzzed again. He read the text, frowned again, and put the phone away.

"Spill it," Natasha said.

"I'd rather not."

"Now you have to tell us! I think he's blushing on the inside, guys!" Stark said. Edward sighed and pulled on his phone again to read it.

"Alice says, 'black may be practical but if you choose black your new name given you by the press will be Black Widower, sidekick to Black Widow.'"

"It's the hair….," Wanda said, laughing and pointing at the currently similar shades of brownish red shared by both.

"Not if you add a cape!" Stark said.

"For the love of all that is holy, can someone please make him stop?" Edward responded.

"I'll call Pepper and have her put him on a time out," Natasha responded. "I don't know. Every superhero needs a sidekick. It's about time I had someone to feed to the bad guys first."

The door opened again before anyone could respond. Director Fury entered, followed by Steve Rogers.

"Good afternoon, team," Fury said as he took his seat at the table. "Good work today-and Cullen's right-no capes."

Edward stuck his tongue out at Stark who gave him an affronted gasp. Fury shuffled through a stack of papers in front of him as Steve sat down beside him and called the rest of join around the table.

"Before we debrief our mission today and plan for our assignments next week, I have one change of plans to announce: Captain Rogers and Edward Cullen have been requested for a special mission by the King of Wakanda. The rest of you will need to take care of the Hydra cells without them."

Edward's confusion matched that of the other faces in the room. After a few hours of debriefing, the tired Avengers were released to their rest and their own pursuits. Edward trailed after Steve Rogers. He attempted to pick out details on their mission from his thoughts, but Steve's mind only reviewed the list of tasks assigned to him by Fury during their meeting.

"Wakanda?" Edward finally asked. "Why are we going there?"

Steve's face broke into a wide grin. "We have a special assignment. Besides, I think you and Iron Man may need to chill in separate corners for a bit."

"I'd go to Antarctica if it meant I'd get a break from that man."

"That's what I thought. Well, it just so happens to be the first birthday of my niece and nephew. The royal family has a special welcoming ceremony planned for them. As the closest thing Bucky has to a brother, I am standing in the honored position of father's brother during the ceremony. T'Challa requested I bring you along because he wants your insights into their gifts and mental acuity. He also is curious about your knowledge of others like them."

Steve's face filled with an image of two sleeping newborn babies on a mattress with shocks of soft, brown hair on their heads. A memory of a second visit with slightly older children followed. Edward stared at Steve as if his face had turned into a blue pumpkin.

"I'm sorry, I'm confused."

"About what?" Steve said, his voice patient.

"All of it. First off, you are trying to tell me that Bucky has two children?"

"Yes. You didn't know?"

"No! I have given Bella the distance I thought she needed, though it sounds like I might have made a poor decision in that regard. That faithless imbecile! How could he?"

Steve grew confused before he shook his head and laughed. "No! You are misunderstanding me. Bella is their mother."

Edward's anger visibly diminished and he unclenched his jaw. "Ah. I see. You mean they have chosen to adopt two children."

Steve scratched the back of his neck and met Edward's gaze. "No. They aren't adopted. And unless you want a truly gruesome tale, I would recommend you don't ask too many questions about the birth. I would rather have not known some of those details myself."

"Wait-you don't mean…it's not possible….." Edward trailed off.

"By all I've been able to learn, it really shouldn't have been possible. Shuri can explain all she knows once we arrive."

Edward continued to stare, his mind caught in an internal hurricane of thoughts and emotions.

ooooooooooooooooooooo

One Week Later.

It took three hours. Shuri sat with Edward in her lab and with the patience of a sloth, she displayed scans, photographs, and data to Edward. Then she explained all she could about what she had discovered from her research. After this, Edward spent a long period of time spent staring at a wall in dumbfounded amazement before he could even begin to accept the story she gave him.

"Come on," Shuri said. "You can think about it more later. Right now, come and meet them. They are beautiful!"

Edward followed Shuri through a long, brightly lit corridor covered with paintings and symbols of former kings and queens. Ancient drums painted with elephants, crowns of brightly colored feathers and shells, long robes of animal skins, and life-sized ebony carvings of faces lined their steps on either side of the hall. A large set of heavy wooden doors inlaid with different colors of wood opened before them. They found themselves in an airy, sunlit balcony with a thick awning throwing shade over the marble floors beneath.

On plush couches covered with zebra-print fabric and blue pillows sat Bucky, Bella, Steve, and the Queen Mother. Four Dora Milaje surrounded the balcony, spears in hand, backs held straight and faces stoic. Ramonda stood to greet them. She shook his hands. Her lovely face glowed with the warmth of her sincere happiness. Bucky and Bella both stood to greet him as well.

"Karibuni," Bella said. "Come and meet the children!"

Steve Rogers sat on the couch with a baby on each knee. He bounced them up and down while they squealed with delight.

Two heads of curled, mahogany hair bounced along with his movement and two pairs of brilliantly green eyes stared back at him. Dimpled grins and little hands clapped as he made horse sounds and told them they were cowboys and cowgirls.

"Meet Steven Rogers Barnes," Bella said and pointed to the baby on Steve's right before gesturing to the one on his left. "And this little one is Charlotte Swan Barnes-though that's a bit of a mouthful so we call her Charlie for short."

"Your father would have been overjoyed," Edward said wistfully. "He would have been an amazing grandfather."

"I know," Bella said. She stared off into the expanse of Birnin Zana below them, momentarily lost in her fragmented memories.

"Come, come," Ramonda said. "You must be seated! You have been lost! We have not seen you since the wedding. I will send for a meal and you can tell us of all your adventures. Uncle Steve, do not keep both babies to yourself! Share!"

Steve grinned and handed off one of the babies to Shuri. She cuddled her and cooed at her before handing her to Edward.

"Here! Uncle Edward gets to hold Charlie."

Edward carried the baby as if he were equally afraid of dropping her and being attacked by her. Deep emerald eyes drilled into his own and a little hand reached out to feel his hair. Charlie giggled.

"They are beautiful," he said with a genuine grin. "I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks! They are our precious gifts," Bella responded softly.

Edward stared at both children for a few minutes and listened.

"Their minds are fascinating!" he said with genuine awe. "They are connected to each other. It's as if they can sense each other's thoughts and emotions from across the room. Yet they also each process information in completely different ways. I can't get a very clear picture because they are developmentally still very young, but they are undeniably gifted. Steven seems to have a grasp of the intrinsic energies that make up the molecules around him. it's almost as if he knows how to pull on threads to force matter into clay in his hands. Charlie also senses energy, but she senses the life forces around her. It may be similar to Bella's gift, but she seems to focus on the barriers between each life force and the physical spaces around them."

"You need to tell me all that again when I have something to record it with," Shuri said excitedly and clapped her hands. "Will you come to my lab later to help with some tests?"

"I'd be honored. Will I be the panya this time?"

"No, you will be promoted to guinea pig."

"Thanks. That's a step up."

Lunch came on a cart filled with fragrant dishes. After an hour or so of sharing stories, entertaining the babies, and eating their lunch, Bella rose from her seat.

"Enough!" Bella said. She pulled the babies away from the arms holding them and placed one on each of her hips (which were unmistakably wider than they had been the last time he'd seen her). "Charlie, Steven, It's time for your naps."

"We prepared the room," Ramonda said.

"Good! Thanks so much!" Bella said as she disappeared.

"Yeah, so the last time we were here, Steven threw a tantrum and set his blanket on fire. We had to make sure nothing flammable is within his reach this time," Bucky explained.

"Charlie made it worse. She used her shield to protect them both. She turned them both invisible and kept us from being able to see them or feel them. They were safe, but I'd rather not have a repeat of that incident," Shuri said.

"I can't believe they are a year old already! I know they look six months old, but even still they seem to growing too fast," Steve said.

"If you came to visit more often, it would not seem so fast," Shuri responded.

Steve didn't answer.

'Hey! I know what will make you stay longer this time," Bucky said. "I've succeeded."

"In what?" Steve asked.

"I've talked W'Kabi into giving you riding lessons on one of the war rhinos."

"That should be fun. It's good you're durable too," Shuri said with a laugh. "I wouldn't put it past W'Kabi to give you a grumpy one just to see it throw you off and try to skewer you."

"With that kind of bribe, I might just stay for the month," Steve said.

---

One Year Later.

Mukasa and Nalwanga peered through the window of the homestead by the lake. Within, they could see where Bella sat with a sleeping toddler in her lap. Bucky slept nearby, a second baby sleeping beside him on the mattress. Bella sang softly and ran her fingers through the long, brown hair and stared at the tiny hands as if they held all the secrets of the world. She gave a contented sigh and closed her eyes.

"Nyabo, you are satisfied?" Mukasa asked.

"Yes," Nalwanga said with a self-satisfied expression. "It is as I wished."

"Why did you choose these two?" Mukasa asked and directed his question towards the children.

"Because they will be needed. These children will not reach adulthood before they are called upon to protect Wakanda," Nalwanga said.

"It is good," Mukasa responded. The two figures vanished into the morning mist before anyone even noticed their presence. On the doorstep of the hut, they left two small calabash rattles, each engraved with the name of the child and an image of a paddle.

The End