The Starks

Part 71

SHURI

I sit beside my brother. My father and mother sit at the head of the table. Nakia and Okoye stand to one side, beside Vision and Wanda.
Tony sits at the other side of the table. He's just finished recounting his story for the hundredth time. He looks exhausted. But he doesn't look worried. It's like he knows we'll trust him.
'The information you withhold...' my father says, looking at Tony intently, 'you could prevent things, no?'
'I could. I have the opportunity to change a lot of things. And however desperately I wish to change them, I cannot. The smallest thing could change things irreparably. This is my second chance. We don't get a third.' He says.
'This stays amongst us.' He says, looking to his wife who nods in support, 'no one else knows. We don't talk about it outside of this room - outside of here, we continue as if our lives have not changed.'
'Shuri, how long do you think you'll need?' My father asks. He knows I am the only one who can do this. The pressure mounds up but I do my best in bad situations.
'A week. If I'm excused from all else. Tony, you said I - I mean the other me - told you how to do this? I explained the science to you?' I ask, hopeful.
'I didn't understand it. But I remember what you said, word for word.' He says.
'And you're certain that once I extract the stone, Wanda will be able to destroy it?' I ask.
'She's done it before. If Carol succeeds in destroying the time stone, then its done. But this is all we can do.' He says.
'Right.' I say, overwhelmed by how much of the future rests in my hands. I find myself staring at Tony. Aside from the fact that I survived, Tony has not said which of my other family members survived. I wonder if that was intentional. 'Tony, would you come with me? There's no point wasting any more time.'
'My pleasure.' He says, but his voice sounds wistful. He hasn't explained it fully, but in my understanding, once the stone is successfully destroyed, and his future is impossible, he will disappear. He won't have existed - at least not the him he knows. While there are two timelines now, once the stone is destroyed there'll only be one. And it won't be his.