Campaigns are funny things, lots of town halls and meetings, lots of supporters to rile up. Sometimes, for me, big stadium events where people streamed in to hear me talk. I could give a barn burner, which was one of the big reasons I was in the race at all. But down six points in October, I wasn't holding out much hope that I actually won. That meant it was time to have a conversation with my erstwhile Wakandan spy, before she decided to close the book on me one way or the other.

I couldn't remember her name from the movie, it had been almost five years since I had seen it, but I knew that I recognized her from the movie and since that meant she was either the bodyguard or the spy, since she had hair, she was the spy who dated T'challa. Anyway, it was unfortunate for Wakanda that they had chosen a high profile spy to send to me because I would've just been guessing otherwise. The sheer amount of paranoia that would've gone into insuring I wasn't ganked would've been crazy and looked very racist.

We were piling chairs in a townhall meeting in one of the less dense areas of California when I finally brought it up. "So, how is Wakanda doing?"

"What?" Nadia said, putting up a chair in the little community center of the library.

"Well, you are the spy from Wakanda, so I was hoping you might have been told how it is doing."

"That's not-"

"Please don't waste my time with lies," I said, stacking a chair after her. "I've no grudge with Wakanda, but I understand if it might have one with me. Just explain why you're here, your cover is blown. If you don't, I will be forced to assume you're here to assassinate me. I think we both know that would go poorly for you." Anybody who had spent significant time around me eventually learns how thorough my protections are. And while they may not have cut it against Loki, even a woman in invincible chainmail with a one shot ranged weapon would be foolish to test herself against me.

Nadia hesitated for a moment and sighed, "I am here to watch you. You are not what I imagined you would be." Her accent got immediately thick, leaving behind the Western tinge it had before and switching to Wakanda.

"How so?"

"N'Jadaka spoke of this 'Jim Crow Republic' of yours so lowly and you had attacked an embassy. I suppose I thought you would either be a saintly prophet from your great spirit defying your nation and culture or a servant of an evil spirit making it worse, but you do not act like either."

Ah N'Jadaka had to be Killmonger. Already fucking up Wakanda's opinion of the United States. That had not been my intention at the time of my "N'Jadaka has suffered at the bottom of our racial caste system, I admit that was unfair to him. But I was not sent to save the world from America's faults. I have a greater mission. The salvation of the universe."

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"If I may say something that is irreverent," Nadia said. I nodded my head for her to continue. "You are doing a poor job."

I scowled. What did she know? Did she have any idea the price that I had paid, the weight I bore on my soul, to try to help humanity reach its potential? I was binding mankind together, as no one before had managed, almost as no one before me had tried. I was leaving a legacy of peace and security for all mankind. But I did not say these things. It's always good to get criticism from time to time and I had spent too long with people who believed I had done what was right. "Why do you say that?"

"This is not what a prophet should be doing," she said. "Going from meeting house to meeting house, begging for the approval of some few. Refusing to tell them the full truth for years until they had already been savaged by their enemy. You are a poor watchman."

"So I should've, what, gotten involved with conspiracy theorists and told people that aliens were coming?"

"The man who touched the stars does not know how to talk to his people?"

The spaceship had been ridiculously expensive, even by my own standards. It wouldn't have been possible if Hydra hadn't let me do it. I had needed to wait, to get to an ideal position. "I don't know how to make them listen," I said. "I didn't want to wander with my lamp, crying out in the wilderness. Am I to listen to a spy?"

"You are wasting your wit on deflections like that. If your own people are too foolish, you could have warned Wakanda," Nadia pointed out. "We could have helped you. The King trusted you, once. It was your counsel that returned N'Jadaka to us. If your own people would not listen, we would have."

I froze at that. I hadn't thought of asking for Wakanda's help. I would have had better scientists. I would have had better materials. Why hadn't I done it? Was it just the insults they paid to me made me angry? I felt my mind twisting away from the possibility, struggling for another explanation. Truthfully, I do not know if that was why. There are good and bad reasons for everything we do and we too often flatter ourselves that we are doing them for the right reason. In that spirit, I will admit a petty reason for continuing the argument: I was not terribly interested in losing this argument with Nadia. "I was not warmly received on my mission regarding N'Jadaka."

"Wakanda is not warm to outsiders. I admit the process of a second petition might have been uncomfortable. But the king is not a fool. If you had offered your counsel, if you had told him there would soon be an alien invasion that threatened the whole universe, he would have listened. He would have helped."

And if I had told the king, maybe I could've escaped ever joining Hydra. I closed my eyes and leaned against the stack of chairs for a moment. I resisted the urge to curse myself and my pride. "Well, regret is not a productive emotion. People believe me now, at least, and my best place is here. What will you do now that I have unveiled you as a spy?"

"I will likely have to consult with the king."

"Would you like the Super-Soldier Serum?"

"You would offer the Super-Soldier Serum to a spy?"

"It's mostly an apology to Wakanda." I had sent a few messages and gift baskets, of course, but nothing vital could go by any of my channels, infested as they were with Hydra and its cronies and SHIELD agents and the FBI and probably every major intelligence organization in the world at this point. "But if you do not want it, I understand."

"I will… carry your offer to the king."

"Nadia, would you mind telling me your real name?"

She paused for a moment. "It is Nakia, Mr. Trent."

"Good luck, Nakia. Bear your king my apologies for my actions under mind control. And for my foolishness in not seeking his help sooner."