Location: Drakensberg Rift Base – Early Morning
The scroll still weighed heavy in Hann's hand.
Six words.
Come home, my firstborn son.
The camp was in shambles from the attack. Azari's drones buzzed overhead, scanning for lingering hostiles. Naledi moved among the injured, wrapping gauze, distributing herbal salves. Aleksander stood at the gate, knuckles bruised, face grim.
None of them spoke to Hann. Not yet. They gave him space, perhaps sensing that what had just happened wasn't just an attack—it was a message. A test, delivered by Meilin, who didn't leave footprints and bled ink instead of blood.
Hann sat alone on the ridge above the rift, the scroll unrolled on his lap. The sigil burned faintly in the dim light, almost alive. The dragon's eye shimmered with gold.
His father wanted him to return.
But why now?
The last time Hann heard of Wenwu, he was fading into myth—an immortal warlord who vanished after the fall of Iron Man's era. Shang-Chi had taken up part of the mantle, Xialing the other. But this message… it wasn't for them.
It was for him.
Firstborn.
He closed his eyes and let the staff anchor him to the Earth. The rings hummed softly around his wrist. He opened his senses—felt the vibrations. Faint echoes stirred beneath the soil… something ancient waking.
The test wasn't just a trial.
It was a summons.
---
Location: Wakanda – Mount Bashenga
Queen Shuri sat cross-legged before a holographic console, her eyes scanning line after line of mathematical readings. The vibranium core near the base of Mount Bashenga had begun to pulse irregularly, mimicking the exact frequency Hann's rings emitted during his visit.
Okoye approached, her spear clacking gently against the polished floor.
"You still study the storm that walks in boy's form?"
"He's not a storm," Shuri murmured. "He's the spark before the storm."
She tapped a key, revealing the same future-map Hann had shown her days before. The black tear above the Earth was now bigger—pulsing. Even the simulations couldn't contain it anymore.
"There are truths we're not meant to carry alone," Shuri said.
"Then don't," Okoye replied. "Let the council—"
"No. Not yet."
She leaned forward, eyes hardening.
"Hann is connected to this. And so is his bloodline."
---
Location: Mongolian Wasteland – Ten Rings Citadel
Meilin knelt before the throne.
Wenwu's armor gleamed in the firelight—sleeker than in his past life, reforged from starmetal and obsidian vibranium. His hair was streaked with silver now. The Ten Rings hovered behind him like watchful eyes.
He studied the scroll in Meilin's hands. Hann's fingerprints marked the edge. His expression was unreadable.
"My firstborn awakens," he said.
"He has power. And loyalty—not to you, but to something older," Meilin said, voice low.
Wenwu's eyes flickered. "He bears the staff?"
Meilin nodded.
"And the girl?"
"Shuri knows."
He rose, the Ten Rings locking into position around his arms like orbiting wolves.
"Then the time is sooner than I feared. Tell the others: we must bring him in before Kang does."
---
Location: Drakensberg – That Night
The stars were hidden behind thick clouds. Hann stood at the edge of the cliff, staff in hand, watching the wind whip across the dark valley below. The scroll was tucked into his coat, close to his chest.
Azari approached quietly.
"You're leaving, aren't you?"
Hann nodded. "I need to see what my father wants. Before this escalates."
"Into what?"
"Into war."
Azari didn't flinch. "Then I'm coming with you."
"You don't have to—"
"You activated the Rift. You called lightning from bone and cracked sky with a whisper. You think I'm letting you go into a viper's den alone?"
A beat.
Naledi emerged from the other side of the camp, tossing a cloak over Hann's shoulder. "You'll need this in the north. It's soul-threaded. Cold won't bite."
Aleksander joined, wiping blood from a fresh gash. "We'll hold the base. But if you're not back in five days…"
"I will be," Hann promised.
The team stood together for a long moment, nothing spoken, everything understood.
Then Hann turned—and vanished into the storm.
---
Location: Siberian Edge – Two Days Later
The wind screamed across the icy plain. Snow battered Hann's cloak. His staff doubled as a walking stick now, the rings quiet but alert. Azari trudged beside him, visor flicking through thermal scans.
"I count four signatures up ahead," she said. "Not Ten Rings. Not Wakandan."
They moved slowly, cresting a hill—only to find a black helicopter partially buried in ice.
UN markings.
Inside, four soldiers were frozen in place, eyes wide, mouths open in silent screams.
Hann stepped closer. His staff pulsed once. The air shifted. Time felt off.
"Something bent this space," he said. "Like rewinding a tape halfway."
Azari checked her HUD. "The frost isn't natural. Some of it's… growing inward, not outward."
They turned as a whisper cut through the wind.
A voice. Feminine. Ancient.
"You're early…"
The snow parted.
From the white came a figure draped in robes of gold and red—barefoot despite the cold. A bald woman, eyes ageless, presence immense.
The Ancient One.
Hann stepped forward slowly.
"I know who you are," he said. "You're supposed to be gone."
"In many futures," she replied. "But some futures were not meant to go quietly."
She gestured. A portal opened, showing the Rift Map projection.
"This tear you see forming… it is not only Kang. It is the result of forgotten bloodlines colliding, of power taken and power inherited. You are both."
"I didn't ask for any of this."
"No one does."
She studied him closely. "But you have something even Kang fears."
"What?"
"Instinct," she said. "And a mind that awakens faster than time can shape."
Azari moved to Hann's side. "Why are you really here?"
The Ancient One's eyes flickered with soft warning.
"Because if Hann does not gather the ones who walk between blood and shadow, between spirit and science… the next invasion will not come from the stars."
"It will come from within."
---
To Be Continued in Chapter 11