So I decided to jump on the Erik lives train. All aboard!

General notes: I'm writing Erik as portrayed in the movie since I've never read a single Black Panther comic. Also for the record I'm neither white nor black and live in a country where racisim is present but doesn't really affect day to day life of the majority of people unless it's an election year. So basically if I get something wrong, please point it out, especially as I'm writing from Erik's point of view.

Disclaimer: I do not own Black Panther.

When he awakes it's not to cold darkness or fiery agony, the only two options he had thought he'd had for the afterlife. Instead its cool, clinical sterility, slashed by wild, vibrant colors. Wakanda. He's known no other place like this.

"What the hell?" He croaks. "What the freaking hell?"

"Yes. You're alive." The voice doesn't sound particularly pleased.

He turns his head. "Princess."

"Erik." There's no fury in Shuri's eyes just a coolness he'd never thought possible of the Wakandan princess.

"Why the hell am I alive?"

"That's a question you should ask my brother," she says. "I don't have an answer for you."

"Where the hell is he then?"

"On his way," said Shuri. She taps something on her screens and then after a moment a door whooshes open. His cousin walks in and at the sight of him Erik wants to spit at his feet.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he snarls at him. He tries to get up but he's held by restraints of the vibranium variety.

"Leave us," T'Challa says to Shuri. She watches T'Challa worriedly but moves out the room.

"I said let me die!" Erik shouts at him. There's something wild and clawing at his chest now. Some frantic beast fighting its way to escape. He doesn't want to be caged. He cannot stand to be caged. He'll die a free man, not a slave not a prisoner. Damn it, his blood was supposed to be watering the sea now.

He lunges for T'Challa again but is pulled up short.

"You did die," T'Challa tells him.

Erik blinks. "What?"

"Your heart stopped. You weren't breathing. You were dead for three minutes. We brought you back."

"For your justice?" Erik spits. "I'm one of you enough now that you can play judge jury and executioner for me?!"

"For my selfishness," T'Challa replies and its not the answer Erik expects. "I am not a good a man as I hoped I was." It sounds like a confession. "I didn't want you to die."

"Newsflash cuz," Erik says. "Everyone dies."

"Not by my hand then," T'Challa says.

"So you confine me to something worse than death?" Erik laughs bitterly. He jerks again then, straining at his restraints. "Screw that! I'd rather have died at your hand cuz, than live in your cage!"

"Erik,"

"No," says Erik. "Get the hell out of here. The next time I get free I will kill you. I will raze everything of yours to the ground."

T'Challa is silent for a moment and then he says softly. "Recover."

Hes gone, ghosting from the room before Erik can summon words to his mouth.

They send him unconscious when they transfer him to his cell. He's in the infirmary one moment and then the next he's waking up in a room he's never seen before. It's not large though it is a little roomier than most prison cells he's seen before. But's its cleverly built. Everything is made up of smooth vibranium, even the floor. There are no ridges anywhere, the edges of his cot are rounded. Even the damn toilet is made of vibranium. The rarest metal in the world and he's shitting in it.

He doesn't have a mattress, there's no place to hide anything. There are cameras that cover every angle. He has the option to darken the glass wall of his cell to use the bathroom but if the glass doesn't turn translucent 15 seconds after the toilet does its automatic flush, guards appear. Erik tests their response times studiously in the first week of his jail time. The same thing happens when he turns of the shower. The water also disappears down a series of holes too small to do anything with.

T'Challa visits him on the third day after he's moved to his cell.

"What's my sentence cuz?" he asks lazily.

"Life," said T'Challa. "You took too many lives cousin, planned to take more. You were going to kill Shuri."

"I'm surprised she healed me up,"

"Believe me," said T'Challa, "she did not want to."

Erik snorts. Seems like the princess really is the smartest one here.

"So now that I'm all comfy in here and you've gotten some time to prepare whatever speech you wanted, why don't you tell me why I'm really here cuz?"

T'Challa's face is implacable and for a moment he is a monarch that makes Erik feel small, no matter that he has crumbled countries. Then T'Challa's shoulders droop and he said:

"You were right. The time has come for Wakanda to step out of the shadows, to lend aid to our brothers and sisters. But I will not do it the way you have done. I intend to do this as peacefully as I can. I cannot risk my brothers and sisters in a war. I will not bring war when I do not have to."

"What are are you going to do then?" Erik's scorn is palpable.

"Outreach programs. Sharing of technology and information. Changing perceptions. Making people want to change perceptions."

"Half measures!" Erik snarls. "You think that'll work? Then you're as dumb as you look. They'll just drain you dry and throw you away! They don't care a damn about us!"

"I refuse to believe everyone out there is evil," T'Challa says sharply. Then his voice softens. "You think I don't know that they will try to take advantage of us? You think I don't know they will feel threatened by us? You think I don't know I will be opening Wakanda to attack?"

Erik opens his mouth but T'Challa beats him to the punch.

"If you truly cared about our people you would not want to risk them in a war that doesn't have to be."

"If I cared?!" Erik snarls. "You…!" his voice stutters in sheer rage, in sheer incredulity that T'Challa can even dare to claim to know Erik's feelings about this. "You have no idea!" He's up now, face separated from T'Challa's by the glass, eyes locked into his, glaring. "No freaking idea...!"

"I know you don't send people you love into war unless it is absolutely necessary!" T'Challa barks at him and he's the monarch of the country that should have been Erik's home, again. He softens again in the next moment. "I know you care. I know you do. So help prove me right. Help me not go to war. Help me save, not just this generation but the generation after us. You've seen what war does to countries, to families, to children. Help me prevent that. Please cousin, help prove my way right."

Erik's silent and he's vibrating with tension. This is...this is a stop gap, a weakness bared to light. T'Challa's plan will never work. But maybe Erik can do something with that.

"What is it exactly that you want me to do cuz?" he said and T'Challa relaxes as if Erik has conceded defeat. Erik thinks someone should tell him not to relax until your opponent is dead in the ground.

"I was told it is hard for a good man to be king. Help me see the traps, the plots, the plans that our enemies might lay for us. Help me find a way to make this work no matter how much people try to stop us. Help me see what I can't."

"Do I get out this cell?" Erik asks and T'Challa shakes his head.

"But I thought it might make your confinement more bearable"

Erik laughs at that. "Stick me in a cell and then try to make it pretty. Ain't that just like you cuz?"

T'Challa opens his mouth but Erik beats him this time. "Alright," he says. "I'll do it. But under one condition."

T'Challa stiffens. "What?"

"You make plans for if this plan of yours fail." T'Challa's eyes widen and Erik ploughs ruthlessly on. "And I want to see them. I don't need details I just need to know they're there. That's my condition cuz. Take it or leave it."

T'Challa thinks about it, eyes going distant and then he nods. "I accept."

"Well look at that," says Erik. "We agree on something."

To his surprise T'Challa's mouth twitches into a smile. "I'll be seeing you then cousin." He turns to leave and pauses. "And Erik, if you ever try to harm my family, I will tear you apart."

Then he's gone.

"See ya later cuz," Erik tells the empty air. He settles back on his cot. Sooner or later T'Challa's plan will fail and Erik's will be in motion once more.

Tell me what you think please!