BIOGRAPHY - page 11
T'Challa lived, but only barely after Ross desperately performed first aid to fix his mistake. 
Killmonger was prepared to complete the tribal challenge and finish off his opponent. In order to save the king's life Agent Ross, as acting regent, yielded on T'Challa's behalf. Ross didn't realize this effectively surrendered the role of tribal chieftain to Killmonger, making him official ruler of the Panther Tribe and revoking T'Challa's status as Black Panther. In the days that followed, Brother Voodoo worked with Moon Knight to retrieve the Panther's soul from straddling the realm of the living and the dead. Moon Knight's patron, the Egyptian God of the Moon Khonshu, shared a connection with T'Challa's patron Panther God, originally the Egyptian goddess called Bast. They contended with the Fear-Lord Nightmare's attempt at claiming the eternal dreaming souls at the Panther God Pavilion, but restored T'Challa to wakefulness. He remained king of Wakanda, but was no longer chieftain of the Panther Tribe. [Black Panther (3rd series) #21-22]
Brother Voodoo had lost control of the spirit walk because he was attacked by a woman calling herself Malice, the name of Erik Killmonger's old enforcer. Struggling with his loss to Killmonger, T'Challa retreated into the techno-jungle of Wakanda with Taku, ignoring calls from Ross, the Avengers and other parties. He was drawn into a farce by Achebe, who resurfaced to try and eliminate Killmonger, since he wanted T'Challa on the throne when he struck at Wakanda again. Achebe hired Deadpool to steal Killmonger's pet leopard Preyy, luring Killmonger and the Avengers into the techno-jungle where Deadpool was set up to kill Killmonger and T'Challa would be drawn out of his malaise. Little came of the situation, however, besides the mild annoyance of T'Challa and the death of Preyy at Achebe's hands. For Everett K. Ross, however, he learned from the Avengers that his American citizenship had been revoked while he was in Wakanda, under suspicion of treason. The office of the President had changed hands since Ross started operating as T'Challa's regent, and the new administration only saw him as acting on behalf of a foreign power. [Black Panther (3rd series) #23, Deadpool (2nd series) #44]
Several additional complications demanded T'Challa's attention. Malice was revealed to be Nakia, who had been tortured by Achebe and genetically-enhanced by Killmonger since her flight from the palace. In her obsession, she now sought to torment T'Challa's loved ones until he was forced to love her. T'Challa dismissed this as little more than a child's tantrum, and locked Malice in the maze-like techno-jungle for automated security to deal with. Ross, Monica Lynne and Nikki Adams 
were pressed with the need to return to their lives in America by the king's leave, particularly with Ross' treason hearing upcoming. Queen Divine Justice was starting to ask questions about WHY she was a Wakandan expatriate in the first place. And the White Wolf, released from detention, had even less respect for Killmonger as tribal chieftain than he had for T'Challa, and sought to provoke the man into rash action.
Hunter taunted Killmonger that he wasn't REALLY tribal chieftain until he completed the rite of ascension, as T'Challa once did. T'Challa saw what Hunter was doing, and chose to waive the rite. Killmonger's pride insisted however and, after defeating the warriors of Wakanda in the challenge by combat, he imbibed on the heart-shaped herb. However, because he was not the chosen of Bast, not even Killmonger's genetically-enhanced strength saved him from the generally poisonous effects of the herb. He would have died if not for T'Challa insisting the royal doctors keep him alive on life support, an embarrassment to T'Challa's honor for he now regained the title of tribal chieftain and Black Panther, but only by default. While all this was happening, 
Malice escaped from the techno-jungle and tried to kill Monica Lynne in the halls of the palace. Nikki was trying to talk to Ross about her past relationship with the king, but Ross sent her out into the hallway to check on the commotion in order to avoid the conversation. Nikki walked into the line of fire and, with that, the woman T'Challa dismissed only as an unruly child killed one of his oldest friends. [Black Panther (3rd series) #24]
Ross was beside himself with grief and guilt over Nikki's death. Black Panther and Queen Divine Justice were forced to try and stop him from bringing Nikki back using the Resurrection Altar. The Altar proved to be a portal to another star system and, when Nikki was temporarily reanimated by the spirit of an alien being, T'Challa and Ross found themselves marooned on a distant planet. Ross unloaded his emotional baggage on T'Challa, complaining about the mess his life had become since accepting a four day liaison assignment at OCP assisting the king of Wakanda. Ross ranted about how he'd lost his job, his citizenship and the woman he loved, been literally sent to Hell, his life was constantly being threatened and he even struck the king when T'Challa called him "Friend Ross" as he always did, demanding to know when he and T'Challa ever actually became friends during all this? T'Challa response was simple: "The airport." When Ross 
first met T'Challa and his entourage from Wakanda, the king could smell Nikki's scent on Ross and he knew that she would only have loved the noblest of souls. The anger rushed out of Ross, and the two men made amends before returning to Earth to bury Nicole Adams properly. These were things that truly mattered. Fixing the Wakandan economy by switching the monetary standard to the U.S. dollar and reversing his nationalizing of the foreign assets to restore the global economy? An afterthought. [Black Panther (3rd series) #25]
When the Galactic Council temporarily turned Earth into a dumping ground for alien criminals, Wakanda had been host to some of them near the Resurrection Altar. T'Challa and Storm of the X-Men were assisting forces in recovering the aliens for planetary deportation when one alien was revealed to be a native Deviant living in seclusion in the nation. Priestlord Ghaur of Deviant 
Lemuria presented himself to Black Panther, demanding the return of the Deviant woman and her daughter, a child born on Wakandan soil with distinctly human features. Ghaur intended to sacrifice the child at Purity Time as was the Deviants' way, and so T'Challa refused to return them to the Deviants. This brought Wakanda and Lemuria to the brink of war.
Storm had been invited to Wakanda by T'Challa's aides, who believed the presence of an old friend might ease the stress that had led to the king's more erratic behavior in recent days. The arrival of another of T'Challa's "old lovers" rankled Monica Lynne, who was still stuck in Wakanda after months of being a hockey puck in the schemes of T'Challa's enemies. In one exchange, she called out T'Challa for ending their engagement, she presumed because he thought she might be threatened or harmed by being close to him. Monica pointed out this was STILL happening to her anyway, regardless of whether they were together or not. Ororo was also concerned about 
T'Challa, for she saw a lot of Magneto in him, another man who took up the burdens of his people and felt he could never show weakness or uncertainty in the face of adversity. In a tender moment before she departed, T'Challa opened up to Ororo, whispering that he didn't always know what he was doing, and was afraid he was not making the right choices. More than anything, it was this exchange, this vulnerability, which broke the heart of the eavesdropping Monica Lynne.
The political turmoil with Lemuria had the potential to escalate into World War III. A half-dozen N'Yami-class battle cruisers took up positions outside Lemuria as a show of force. The U.S.S. Roussos was dispatched to the Mediterranean to be within ballistic striking distance of Wakanda, while other ships were similarly located in the Pacific Ocean near Lemuria. The sunken City of the Toads that made up Deviant Lemuria was dangerously close to the water-breathing city of Atlantean Lemuria. Prince Namor felt compelled to prevent an attack on the Deviants from 
threatening Namor's people. Atlantis and Latveria had a non-aggression pact which threatened to bring Doctor Doom into the fray on the side of Lemuria against Wakanda, and Magneto (ruler of Genosha) was also weighing in on his options.
The global landscape grew even more treacherous thanks to the White Wolf. Hunter also saw T'Challa's recent struggling and sought to provoke the king into behaving stronger and with more authority. To that end, he took advantage of Vibraxas returning to Wakanda and used the young man's powers to resurrect Klaw, whose sonic form had dispersed near the Great Vibranium Mound fighting Captain America months earlier. Hunter sought to assist Klaw in trying to destroy T'Challa, believing the king would be shaken from his malaise by the act of defeating Klaw. And so, as the Black Panther arrived in New York to speak before the United Nations Security Council, the White Wolf and Klaw positioned themselves in Libya. From there, Klaw made a sonic assault on the U.S. aircraft carrier which, thanks to some bogus satellite records, made it appear as if Wakanda sunk the Roussos.