When T'Challa first saw you, you were on the wrong side of the clearly drawn line, in a country foreign to him and with no reason to know so much as your name. You stood next to Captain America, while the King sided with Iron Man. He felt nothing towards you except maybe some restrained anger, but his true focus of rage was on Barnes alone. He was the one he believed to have murdered his father, and the blinders of revenge that covered his eyes didn't allow for him to see you in any other way but as a nuisance to him. The rest of you were merely getting in the way of the inevitable, and it fueled his resentment so that he could push back and erase the line between you; he would walk over your corpses if it would get him closer to his true target.

But then it came time for you to face each other in that very battle, and his intrigue with you began from the first strike. It was as if you refused to fight back, only dodging and blocking his attempts until he finally backed down and turned to a new target. It frustrated him to no end that he was giving you his energy and you refused him; you treated him as if he weren't a threat and it tore at his confidence in a way that no one had ever done before. It made him question his capabilities and his resolve; you confused him. As you disengaged and turned to run to guard your Captain, he thought that it would be the last he would see of you, but he was surprised once again when Steve came to Wakanda shortly thereafter with Bucky and had you in tow.

Steve knew that he couldn't stay there; it was too risky now that he was a fugitive, and this country wasn't his. He had quickly come to trust T'Challa, but he wanted some sense of control where he had none, so he asked you to stay behind with his recovered best friend. Your powers of elemental control and Zoolingualism made you feel as an outcast there, as was true anywhere because of it, so you chose to stay beyond the city and on your own; enhanced people weren't common there, other than the power that was given to the Black Panther. It wasn't until Bucky was released from cryo and brought out to the country to join you that you would see T'Challa again.

The King stopped by to visit a few times over the next several months, as did his sister Shuri, and with each interaction he grew fonder of you. The visits were at her insistence, and soon the visits weren't about Bucky's progress, but to spend time with you just as she had planned to happen. The connection you had was far too obvious, and he began to wonder if your hesitance to fight him during your initial meeting was beyond awareness for you both, and that the universe itself had plans for you. Sometimes T'Challa would venture further out into the countryside to find you, claiming that he told his guard to stay behind as to not make you feel pressured when he knew that you were more comfortable keeping to yourself; in reality, he just wanted time alone.

That all changed, however, when the world around him began to crumble, and he requested that you stay at his side openly and for the first time. The crown was being threatened by an outsider, and he had never felt more conflicted in what to do. In a very short time, he had grown close to you and as much as he needed to lean on you for support and counsel, he also wanted you nowhere near this fight.

Having you so close would backfire terribly, and would set into motion a battle that put T'Challa in more danger than he had ever faced before.

When the outsider, Erik Killmonger, saw the way that the King looked at you and how he held your hand so tightly that it blanched the skin of his fingers, he knew that you were the key to having it all for himself. When he set his sights on you, it sparked a fire within T'Challa like he had never felt. The death of his own father paled in comparison to the blinding, searing rage that he felt now with you under the attentions of his newest enemy, but yet he was ready to give it all up; the crown, the country, and every secret held, just to keep you from that man's sights. When Erik challenged him, he thought he was ready.

"Is this your king?"

The words echoed around you and bounced from the Cliffside, carrying your fear and the pain of T'Challa's family as he fought for both his throne and his life. Little did you know that with even the smallest glance towards you by Erik, it had become a fight for you as well. Having you standing by his family, watching him defend his honor, and hearing you calling his name helped to drive him forward; every strike, every taunt losing their power over him.

But this man was ruthless and without mercy, and it was all still too much; you stood by helpless as your new love was beaten into exhaustion and was tossed from the falls like a carcass waiting for animals to rip it to shreds. He was cast aside as if he were nothing, and your heart died that day along with him.

Even in her despair, crying for her lost son, the Queen Mother recognized the look in Killmonger's eyes when he turned towards you; she took a step forward and in front of you, with Shuri still tightly in her grasp. Though she hadn't known you in all of your time within the borders of her own country, she understood the love in T'Challa's expression and in his actions when he was near you, and she would give her own life to keep you from the reach of the man that took him from you both.

"Queen Mother, go," you urged. "Go with Nakia."

"I cannot leave you behind," she whispered through drying tears. "He would want me to protect you."

"I'm an Avenger, your Highness, and I can protect myself. Please, go. Trust me as he did." When she still didn't respond, you turned to the only other person there that you hoped would have the understanding that you needed. "Shuri, you know I'm right."

"Mother, we must go," she nodded to you, pulling her along, "listen to (Y/N) and Nakia." When she finally relented and allowed them to lead her away, Shuri took a moment to turn back to you, her eyes filled with fear for what you were about to do, and the dread that this would be the last time she would see you. "(Y/N), don't stay here, please. Come with us."

"I can't. I have to stop him, and I can't do that by running away from the fight. Not anymore. I owe this to T'Challa, and I'm not going to stop until I've won. Now go, sister, please."

She reached out and gave you a hug that couldn't be held for more than a second, turning and running when you barely allowed for the contact. Deep down, she knew that you were right, and that with Okoye staying behind as well, there was a shred of hope yet that her country would survive this. You had asked the Queen Mother to trust you, but it was Shuri who gave hers without hesitation, because she alone had been witness to the relationship you had built with her brother over the past months. She knew as no one else did, that the revenge that was building in you could be silenced by only one terrible thing, and she couldn't bring herself to stay there to see what you were about to become.

Part 2

The battle for the throne was over, and Erik had gone through the transformation into the Black Panther with you hesitantly at his side to watch it happen. He believed that if you were there to witness his transformation that you would somehow see him as he saw himself; someone who had the strength to make the hard decisions to change the world, and in doing so he might win you and your affections. If he couldn't have that, he would be satisfied with your loyalty, if nothing else. Now that T'Challa was gone, he couldn't think of a single thing to stand in his way.

"Are you staying out of fear or by choice?" he asked you as you stood before him, the two of you alone in the throne room. You wouldn't give him the satisfaction of casting your gaze away, and he was almost proud of you for your resolve to hold such a strong connection.

"Are those my only two options?"

"You have another one?"

"I'm here out of loyalty. It's something that you think you're following with your cause, but it's just the opposite," you challenged. "You're not helping anyone with this war you're about to wage, N'Jadaka. You're only going to create a greater divide, where the answer is instead to find common ground and understanding. That's something that you've blocked yourself from realizing."

"I know loyalty," he snapped, standing up from the throne and crossing the gap that you had held between you. You took a precautionary step back, but he continued forward, grabbing your arms to hold you in place. "I know loyalty. All of my life has been for this day. I'm here to keep a promise that my father couldn't keep for me, and after how easily I tossed your boyfriend off that cliff, you should know better than to try to stop me."

"So, are you going to just throw everyone off the cliff until you're standing on the edge alone? That's not being a king."

Erik released you with a drop of your feet to the floor, your knees buckling slightly under the force before you caught yourself. Even that tiny sign of weakness would allow him to feel his power over you, and that wasn't your goal; truth be told, you weren't really sure of your goal just yet, but you did know that you had to stay as close to him as possible. If that meant challenging him just enough to respect you, and being kind enough to appeal to his trust, you could figure out the rest as you went along.

What you didn't know was that as alone as you felt in this particular mission, there were actions and plans already in motion; plans that would bring T'Challa back to you when you would need him the most. You were anything but alone.

~~~

"Mother, we must find (Y/N) and tell her that he lives," Shuri urged, whispering as T'Challa and M'Baku spoke in the next room. "(Y/N) stayed behind so that we could escape, and we owe this to her."

"Shuri, no, we should wait for your brother," Ramonda argued back just as softly, though before she could continue her point to be made, her newly recovered son returned to her side with a gentle hand on her arm.

"We cannot tell (Y/N) that I'm alive, not yet. I cannot risk her life by alerting her to mine. Whatever it is that she's doing, we must not interfere. At least not before we know her plans fully so that she isn't put into more danger than she has found already."

T'Challa silenced and allowed his mind to slow so that he could focus on the events of the last few days. They had all happened so quickly, and so violently, that he felt choked and unable to breathe. The first breath taken of his resurrection gave him no relief, and each one that followed felt measured and controlled as if they would keep the world around him controlled as well, but he was so utterly disappointed in his lack of ability. His gut was churning and the fear that he was feeling wasn't his own; it was for you, though he knew that you were a formidable opponent to anyone from his own personal experience. That fight in Germany, which now felt like it had been decades ago, didn't have the same risks as this. It didn't have the same risk of debilitating loss.

He didn't love you then, but T'Challa could no longer deny that he did now.

"If you're wondering what you're about to stumble into," M'Baku interrupted, "it would appear that your would-be-love is befriending your enemy. I've been told that she stands at his side. Are you so certain that her loyalties are as clear as you have been led to believe?"

"It is a ruse," T'Challa answered through clenched teeth, "I know her, and I know her heart. It could never choose to follow him. Even in my death, (Y/N) would never hurt me with that kind of betrayal, I am certain of it."

~~~

It didn't take long for you to realize that Erik and T'Challa weren't so unalike after all, and that when they set their mind to a plan that they believed in, everything and everyone around them moved quickly to make it happen. The new king was about to unleash the technology and weaponry of Wakanda onto the world, and it wasn't exactly in the spirit of world peace.

"Come on, they're ready for us," he called out to you, sliding into his coat with one fluid motion, "you're gonna stand with me while I send those planes off to change the world. You're gonna stand by my side and see the start of a new era, and maybe you'll see that it's where you belong." When you didn't move right away, Erik paused and took a long breath, trying to maintain his patience when he started walking towards you. His voice dropped to an uncharacteristic softness that you had yet to hear from him, and he almost looked genuine as he watched for your compliance. "Listen, (Y/N), you're strong, I got it. You loved T'Challa and all that, and I'm sorry that this was the only way for me to get here."

"Right."

"No, I am," he insisted. "I'm not sorry that he's gone, don't twist it, but I'm sorry that it had to hurt you, okay? You're not from Wakanda, and you're not like the rest of them. I just need you to understand what I'm trying to do here, and I need you because you're one of the Avengers."

"Is that the only reason?" you scoffed. "My connections? You think that I can keep them off your back when they catch on to what you're doing?"

"I'd like to think that I can convince you to be here because you want to be. Maybe that's a little too ambitious."

"You took control of an entire nation in one day, and you're shipping weapons all over the world to start a revolt and you call getting my approval ambitious?"

Erik smirked and his eyes sparkled with amusement; he chewed on his bottom lip as he regarded you and considered what you were saying. Yeah, he wanted you on his side for the Avengers, he wasn't denying that at all. But beyond that, he wanted your approval because you were the only thing that he agreed with T'Challa on. "Like I said, you're strong. Even with the power of the Black Panther in my blood, I know not to get in your way."

~~~

T'Challa could see you, and his heart almost couldn't take it; you were standing to Erik's left, with Okoye to his right. The world around him was so utterly wrong, and he couldn't wait another second to make it right.

"N'Jadaka! I never yielded!" he yelled out across the field. "And as you can see, I am not dead!"

The sight of T'Challa alive took your breath away and nearly buckled your stance, and it didn't escape Erik's notice. He reached down to take your hand and to keep you at his side, but you slapped it away and turned to face him, ready to engage. The warriors and tribes that stood behind him began to shift, and allegiances were broken; when Okoye broke her commitment to Erik and he became the enemy in her sights, the rebellion had begun. It just wasn't the one that he had planned on starting.

"Fine, I'll just have to kill you, too," he snarled at you, taking one single step towards you when Okoye called out your name, throwing a spear with incredible precision right into your open hand. "Do you even know how to work one of those?"

"I'm a fast learner," you answered, running around him to join the Dora Milaje, "and I have an army."

"We have this," Okoye whispered, "go to the King and assist him on the field. I know of your power, so use it."

T'Challa looked to be struggling on his own, even with the new suit and kinetic strength he used to toss his assailants aside. They outnumbered him greatly, and to see him hold his own even that much was impressive. Keeping the spear as a little insurance to keep people at a distance, you jumped down into the active battle and found a point of higher ground so that you could see the terrain you were about to shift. You didn't want to hurt anyone; they were still Wakandans, but they were confused and misled. They were still people of the country that took you in when they had no reason to, and with that focus in mind, you began to act.

Large boulders and patches of the ground shifted under your command, pushing the army back and away from T'Challa in every direction. You were allowing him the chance to move forward and towards Erik so that he could put a stop to this, but your efforts were just barely enough. You considered using fire or winds to push back, but you couldn't risk anything getting out of your control.

Control was something that you would need in abundance when you saw W'Kabi climb up onto one of the mounds of earth you had created; a strange silence fell over the group, until the ground beneath you began to vibrate and jolt and T'Challa's scream for him to stop was left unheard.

"W'Kabi, don't!" you joined in, pleading for him to stop the rhinos from their charge, but he ignored you just as he had done to his friend. There was a look of determination and maybe a hint of betrayal in his expression when he followed your voice and found you in the distance, and you knew that he was under the wrong influence; he looked as if he wouldn't be swayed from this path, even for his best friend. You closed your eyes and centered your mind, pulling in every ounce of energy that you could muster for what you had to do. Anyone could take you down in the moment, with your senses too busy to give the fight attention. You had to trust that someone would protect you when you couldn't do it for yourself.

"Stop," you whispered, directed at the charging beasts that shook the ground beneath your feet. "Please stop."

The animals slowed and shook their heads, trying to clear out your influence but to no avail; you were too strong for them and they relented, dropping forward onto their bent legs in submissiveness to your power. The fighting around them paused to witness it, standing silent and confused in pure awe. But the largest of them was still pushing through and towards you as W'Kabe commanded him to, but on this day luck was on your side and he was considerably slower than he could have been. Luck may have been on Okoye's side as well, stepping in front of you to take the rhino on herself, only to stand firm and smile gently when it halted in a skid, recognizing her and giving her a playful lick on the cheek in greeting.

"Wow," you panted, trying to catch your breath, "now who's using their powers?"

All you would get from her was a nod in agreement and towards where T'Challa had engaged Erik; she had personal words to be spoken here, with W'Kabi staring at her in disbelief and maybe just a little bit or rightfully earned fear.

Cursing the genes that bestowed your powers on you, you pushed your legs to run as fast as they could to get you up to Shuri, who was staring down into the center of the mountain as T'Challa fought for his life, his country, and for you. Even when you dropped to your knees at her side, her focus didn't fail for a second and she barely acknowledged you there.

"Shuri, what can we do?"

"He must do this alone," she whispered, "the challenge is being fought once again."

~~~

"Yield," T'Challa grunted out, "don't make me kill you."

"I'd rather die than give up to you," Erik hissed back. T'Challa had his arm tightly around his neck, and it was hard to get the smallest breath in now, but his convictions forced the words out.

The two men were vastly different, both in how they ruled and in their beliefs, but having had spent time with each of them there were similarities that you had seen as well. If they could just stop trying to kill each other for a minute, you wondered if maybe they would see them too. "Erik!" you yelled to him, trying to get them to pause. The sound of his name echoing in your voice stung T'Challa's heart and he released his adversary just enough for him to survive to hear what you had to say.

"Listen to her," he urged, turning Erik's body so that he could face you. "I know that you respect her and her strength, so listen to the gift of her words when she has no reason to give them."

"She's already said it all. It's just the same words I've already heard."

"Then perhaps they're the right ones to believe."

Begrudgingly, Erik looked up at you and thought about his options; he was ready to die, he meant that fully. But from the first day in Wakanda and the first time he saw you, he believed that there was a reason he felt like he had to know who you were, beyond the conquest of taking something so important from the man who was now holding him to the ground. You had tried this with him before, getting him to think about any other option, and to think about being a part of his people, but he didn't listen.

T'Challa was right, you didn't owe him anything, and you had no reason to care about him at all. That made it all that much more confusing when you did care, and he began to wonder if it would be worth living just to figure out why.

Erik's grip on T'Challa's arm released, and he exhaled heavily in his defeat; maybe the two of them would end up right here again anyway, and maybe his destiny ultimately was to die for his cause. Or else, maybe you were right and there could be another way for them to both get what they wanted and they just couldn't see it yet. No matter what the outcome would be and without you having to utter another word, he decided in that moment that placing his trust in you would be the first step, even if it led to his last.

"Alright...I yield."