Μψ Ƥεσρlε ∏εεd Με

"The Avengers did not send me to the RAFT, Your Majesty," he responded simply. "Your guards did. They did not send me somewhere sunless, where isolation was their primary means of incarceration. They did not send me to the depths of the ocean. The Avengers made their mistakes, but the RAFT is one they've already suffered and would not make the mistake of leaving anyone else there knowingly."

He turned away from the monument entirely, watching T'Challa intently. "Explain this freedom." He glanced around briefly. T'Challa was more than capable of dealing with him himself, of course, but the absence of the Dora Milaje was notable. "This is quite a liberty you've already provided allowing me to be here, but we both know that I am not 'free'."

"...." T'Challa took a few moments to listen to him some more, and his gaze shifted away a little from the man. "I was told by my closest advisors that it was the Avengers who put you there. There seems to be much I will need to re-evaluate." He gestured around, and looked at the other again, once his mind was clear enough to focus.

"As for this, may I ask you what would you consider being 'free' is? You could have ran, hidden from us. Removed that tracker, and gone away. Now, please correct me if I am wrong to assume this, but do you have a desire for that freedom? Most would have been trying to fight for their lives by now... Aggression in the face of going back to that confinement." Even now, he knew that this conversation wouldn't be happening, if the other had reacted like such.

His fingers lifted to the necklace at his throat, gently touching the pendant as he searched for any sign that names had been taken into account. He found none. Nothing to mark the graves that had been destroyed in the fall, his family crypt lost so that he couldn't pay his respects to anyone else he'd lost either. It was all an empty, hollow gesture that came too late. No one had cared until he'd made them.

And the final insult? The memorial was no longer Sokovian soil. It had been before his imprisonment, but now? Now it belonged to Serbia, it seemed.

Despite the insult of it all, his right hand lifted to lay flat on the stone monument that sat there depicting a happy family. Not a family that resembled his own, but that would never have mattered to them.

"... This was not made with the input of the Sokovian people," he stated quietly. "If it had been, this would have been the Sokovian Eagle, with the names of the lost engraved on each feather to carry them onward." His hand curled into a fist and he took a couple of steps back from the monument. No, it existed as a hollow gesture to assuage the guilt of those who stood by and did nothing while his people suffered.

And still no one stepped in to stop Latveria from taking the land he'd spent a lifetime fighting a war to protect. And still no one stepped in to keep Sokovia in one piece, a sovereign entity. He glanced over his shoulder at T'Challa. "You say the living are not done with me, but you would leave me at the bottom of the ocean to endure these continued insults. For what purpose?"

"The living had arranged for your fate to be in those depths... Yet, so clearly does fate wish it not to be. For you are standing here, away from those shackles. Only one of a clever mind, and a will to fight would have escaped that place." Even though he had lost so much on that day, as did many others, this want was still pressuring him to prove to the man not all was lost in the fire and rubble. T'Challa knew he would not disobey the whims of fate, and their ever-ending cycle of unknowns. Bast herself would show him, and maybe this was a test.

"Perhaps it was a mistake in sending you there. I left it to them... the Avengers... thinking I could trust their judgement." A fact that he sometimes wonders if his choices in that were right. Could they honestly be trusted? After all, there were many issues that did come from their formation. Zemo here being a heavy reminder of that. "The question now becomes what will you do with your freedom?"

He was no danger to T'Challa. In a direct fight, he was no real danger to any of these men. At his absolute worst he was able to tear them apart. At his best...? Well, who would know? Those who knew what he was capable of were mostly gone and buried in a mass grave. Those who hung around his neck knew as little as possible.

And those still left alive who knew would never speak a word of what he was capable of; they were those whose loyalty he'd earned through his actions on behalf of their country.

Turning to face T'Challa directly, with no particular scruples about the next words out of his mouth, he spoke: "I want to see the memorial."

Slowly, he opened his eyes again and gave him such a serious look, and a short nod was seen. "Then let us go to it..." They were not too far from that location, T'Challa having found the other with the tracker the government embedded in all their prisoners on the Raft. He knew custody should've been given to his people to take this one into their territory, for escape would've never happened under his people's watch.

He gestured for the other to be ahead of him, and he'd trail behind, watching his every move and also the steps he was taking. Caution was ever at the forefront of his mind, and he wondered about so many present issues. First, being that Baron Helmut Zemo here was a threat to all kind, and he'd need to take action eventually. The second would be to have wariness on all paths. He was just a man, but one to never underestimate.

His steps only paused once they reached the specific location, and he took in the space that was had for this incredible memorial. Adorned with flowers and planted trees, it was a large area for either empty of full graves of too many lives lost. T'Challa stood close to the other, but far enough to give him ample room, and he observed with a keen eye.

Friend and I always want more angsty/dark starter memes so we decided to make our own! May add more later.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost?" 

"Heh, what’s the matter…scared?" 

"What this? You’re shaking? How pathetic." 

"You’re practically squirming. Do I frighten you that much?" 

"I thought you said you weren’t scared?" 

"Did you really think that you could just forget about it, like nothing ever happened?" 

"You know that this is all your fault." 

"No one can save you now. You’re mine." 

"You will do what I say, or else…" 

"You’re weak. You always were." 

"Aw, you poor thing…" 

"Heh, are you…crying?" 

"Look at how pathetic you’ve become…" 

"Don’t let anyone see you cry. Heh… Wouldn’t want that embarrassment, would we?" 

"I wonder how many people know that dirty little secret of yours." 

"Don’t worry, this won’t hurt…much." 

"How high is your tolerance for pain? Well, I suppose I’ll know when you start screaming." 

"That pained expression on your face is so delicious." 

(  sentence  starters  of  various  quotes  that  can  be  said  from  the  villain.  looking  for  the  hero  version?  click  here.  )

❛ i’m the villain of your dreams! ❜

❛ what are you going to do when someone you save kills someone else in the future? ❜

❛ violence only breeds more violence. ❜

❛ you were right. i never did become a hero. ❜

❛ it takes a monster to destroy a monster. ❜

❛ i wonder which will get you killed faster: your loyalty or your stubbornness? ❜

❛ they fear me because i fear nothing. ❜

❛ rome wasn’t built in a day, but it burned in one. ❜

❛ i’ll be the actress starring in your bad dreams. ❜

❛ better a monster than an arrogant god. ❜

❛ i am a monument to all your sins. ❜

❛ ugh, spare me the heroic monologue. let’s just fight. ❜

❛ if the world chooses to become my enemy, i will fight like i always have. ❜

❛ i’m standing in the ashes of who i used to be. ❜

❛ how many people have to die because you can’t break your code? ❜

❛ power belongs to those who take it. ❜

❛ i do very bad things, and i do them very well. ❜

❛ i wasn’t given a choice. ❜

❛ i am my own demon. ❜

❛ you don’t know what i’m capable of. what i’ve done. ❜

❛ underestimate me. that’ll be fun. ❜

❛ the question isn’t who is going to let me, it’s who is going to stop me. ❜

❛ if i cannot bend heaven, then i will raise hell. ❜

❛ but what if i choose the darkness instead? ❜

❛ i have no desire to clear my name in your book of fiction. ❜

❛ you shouldn’t have buried me. i’m not dead. ❜

❛ i am going to be the deadliest piece on the board. ❜

❛ tell the wolves, i’m home. ❜

❛ they’re dangerous? well unfortunately, so am i. ❜

❛ i could set this world on fire and call it rain. ❜

❛ no one notices your tears, or your pain. but they notice your mistakes. ❜

❛ don’t trust my smile. ❜

❛ i am the tall dark stranger those warnings prepared you for. ❜

❛ i may be heartless, but you’re naive. ❜

❛ nothing is stronger than a person with a broken heart and a smiling face. ❜

❛ i win because i don’t know how to lose. ❜

❛ say goodbye to the old me. ❜

❛ i’m only just getting started! ❜

❛ i’ll survive. somehow i always do. ❜

❛ tell lies about me. i’ll tell the truth about you. ❜

❛ i’m not a god. not yet. ❜

❛ i’ll wear your hate like war paint. ❜

❛ don’t bark if you can’t bite. ❜

❛ the deeper you dig, the darker it gets. ❜

❛ i’m everything you can’t control. ❜

❛ i hope you regret giving up on me. ❜

❛ you are losing my interest, and that’s very dangerous. ❜

❛ you call yourself a hero? ❜

❛ maybe i’ve always been more comfortable in chaos. ❜

❛ you already know how this will end. ❜

"In my culture, death is not the end. it's more of a stepping off point. You reach out with both hands and Bast and Sekhmet, they lead you into a green veld where you can run forever."