"Life is too short to worry about anything. You had better enjoy it because the next day promises nothing."

Eric Davis

The night before they were going to give Ophelia something to access her own mind, Shuri laid awake in her bedroom. Fidgeting, she couldn't find a comfortable position. She couldn't close her eyes and not see every horrible outcome. She didn't want to go through with this, but she also knew that there was no other option. If Ophelia wanted something of a normal life, she had to be separated from the hold the stone had on her.

But Shuri had a feeling that it wasn't going to give her up. That stone gave her back just so it could watch her fall apart. Ignoring it did not sit right with the princess of Wakanda, nor did this way of dealing with it. However, their options were slim. Having Wanda there was their best chance; if the two of them could not protect Ophelia from what was in her own head, no one could.

She had to believe that Ophelia was strong enough to suffer through it.

Although they had discussed waiting until after Ophelia and Bucky were married, Ophelia couldn't wait. She didn't want to play happy throughout something that important to Bucky; having the threat of the stone hanging over her during something like that, Ophelia refused. So Shuri had to speed up the process of altering the Dream Pill so that it would work for Ophelia's mind.

Knowing why Ophelia was doing it, Shuri accepted it a lot easier. For the past few months, Bucky struggled to accept that Ophelia was alive. If she crumbled and fell apart, if her mind failed her and she had to leave him a second time, it would be too much for him. Shuri had helped Bucky through some hard times when he woke up from his cryogenic chamber, so she knew his fallbacks, his fears.

Having slept maybe two hours over the course of the full night, Shuri was feeling groggy and out of sorts that morning. In her lab before the crack of dawn trying to triple check everything to ensure it would go smoothly, Shuri was too distracted to hear her brother approach.

"You're up to something," T'Challa said, announcing his presence and giving Shuri a jolt.

She jumped at his words, relaxing when she realized it was just her brother. "I am always up to something, brother."

"You're not going to tell me what it is, are you?" He laced his fingers together in front of his hips. Sometimes, he truly suited the role of King, and sometimes, Shuri appreciated that he was still always just T'Challa.

"No, because you will tell White Wolf."

"Ah, it has something to do with her, then. As I suspected." T'Challa began to walk around the lab at a slow pace. "You do not appear pleased... So, it is not about the wedding, no..."

"T'Challa, please, I am busy." Shuri attempted to shoo him away.

"There is something wrong, isn't there?" T'Challa stopped pacing and faced his little sister, empathizing with her. Shuri was always forced to make the hard decisions; when Ophelia arrived to Wakanda eight years ago, Shuri wasn't prepared to save her. When Vision came to her to have the stone removed from his body, she failed.

Shuri was terrified of failing again.

"Ophelia is dying."

"Oh Bast," he replied quietly, unlacing his fingers and raising a hand to comfort Shuri. His hand rested against her shoulder. "How?"

"The damn Soul Stone is making her suffer every day. She's still as dead as she was when she arrived in Wakanda, suffering the same trauma. Only the stone is letting her function. I don't know how to save her, we're desperate."

T'Challa tapped his chin with his finger. "What if we applied our Kimoyo Beads to her brain as we did to Ross's spine when he was shot?"

"I've thought about it. It could act as a protective barrier, constantly repairing the damage that the stone is causing. Wanda has applied her own powers to do this, but she cannot maintain it forever. I think it would just be delaying the inevitable."

"Death." The word came out of T'Challa's mouth with so much understanding, that it made it all the more real.

Shuri accepted that it his realization was accurate, and there was no sense in lying. She was still young, but she understood death. Her father had died violently, but she had felt somewhat disconnected to his death - not that she had not been sad, but because she was not connected to it. With Ophelia, she was directly connected to her chances. "Yes."

"So, what is your plan?"

"I suppose we could replace Wanda's barrier with a bead," Shuri decided on the spot. "Then with me monitoring her, and Wanda at the ready, Ophelia goes in."

"Goes in where?"

"She's going to access the part of her mind where the Soul Stone resides, she wants to bargain with it."

T'Challa spread his hands over the desk, sighing and shaking his head. Shuri could tell that he did not think the plan would work, neither did Shuri. These stones were so far above them, beyond their capacity of knowledge at this point. The stone gave Ophelia back just to let her suffer, what could she possibly do to compel it to change its mind?

"There is no changing her mind on this," Shuri added, just to let T'Challa know she had tried. "Either we help her, and maybe she succeeds, or we don't, and she dies."

"We have to tell Barnes," T'Challa looked up as he spoke. It was something in the look of his eyes that said this was final.

But Shuri was stubborn, and as much as she believed Bucky should know, she promised Ophelia. "No, brother, not yet."

"If she dies on this table and Barnes knew nothing about it, what do you think he will do?" T'Challa stood up straight now, facing his sister with a stern demeanour. A kingly demeanour. "You remember how much he suffered."

"I won't break my promises."

"You don't have to, I will inform him."

Shuri wanted to argue, for Ophelia's sake.

But she didn't, for Bucky's sake.