The Unknown Variable

(6/24/13)This chapter has been Beta'd

I do not own anything that has been in films, I only own the creations of my own imagination, so go bother someone else.

I was back in my corner, my invisibility was up and Death was with me once again.

I had faded from view as soon as I was out of sight from the cameras; once I was invisible Death had reappeared at my side, his silver eyes widened with sorrow for me.

He stayed in silent company as I worked with the Palladium, molding them into small balls. I hadn't even gotten to tell Tony everything, and he already hated me.

Tony hadn't said a word to me since our talk, and since the concept of time had vanished long ago, I have no idea how long it's been. I can tell it's been a while since the Ten Rings have taken Tony eight more times and personally checked on us twice.

Yinsen and Tony are still hard at work. Tony must have figured out that Yinsen knew something concerning our relationship, for he has barely talked to him ether. Yinsen apologized quietly for pushing the matter the one time that I became visible, when Tony was too distracted to notice, or so I hoped.

I just brushed it off and said it would have happened eventually.

Death helped me feel better; being a silent companion I could count on, my only friend.

I barely slept or ate, not that I had before the incident, but I was sleeping and eating even less now. Death was worrying about me, I could tell that much. I didn't stop, I kept the video looping as often as I could, and I slowly figured out how to charge and control the small electricitic balls.

I couldn't really practice, but I hoped that if needed, I could cause come serious damage to the Ten Rings.

I placed the small twisted bits of Palladium in front of me; I had created seven balls, twisted and melted together by my sparks. Death had left recently, and I was inspecting my core.

Trying to repair my core was something I had been doing since my talk with Tony. But the damage from the water and the strain from my new abilities were taking its toll. The skin surrounding the core was raw, irritated, swollen, and a light grey color. Another reason I had not slept was that too much movement or pressure on my chest or back sent me gasping and twitching in pain.

I looked at the battered device in my hand, the glow was now only a faint white color, instead of the bright white-blue that it always had been. I knew it was dying, but I didn't have the equipment to repair my own Reactor, my core… it was different than my father's, and older.

I had a lot of secrets, but the one that I was the most reluctant to share with anyone was the small circular battery in my chest. In a lot of ways I wondered if Fate hated me. My life had always hung on the edge; I've had heart failure more times than I can count, and I shivered at the memories of being completely paralyzed.

I had always had a medical condition, but it wasn't till I was eleven that I finally got the courage to ask what it was. I knew it was something serious, but what I hadn't known was how perplexed I had the medical world.

Four years before

I never knew the world outside of the hospital floor that I resided in. I had never been outside, or on any of the other floors, and it was rare that I was even allowed to leave my room.

Ever since I could remember I had been a resident of Saint Louise Long-Term Care Ward, a small off-branch of Saint Louise Medical. There wasn't many people living here, most were elderly waiting for Hospice to collect them, and the few patients who did were ether not expected to make it a month, or ever awake.

I had lived here the longest, being admitted at the age of three after my second heart failure. Most of the nurses despised me, simply for living for so long. Ashley, my personal nurse who wasn't employed by the hospital but was under Mom's payroll, had been my best friend growing up, even if she was over thrice my age. Dr. Millod was the only residing doctor who was actually interested in me, and not my strange illness that no one has ever told me about.

Mom lived in an apartment across the street from the hospital, and visited every day. She had paid a lot for a permanent pass; she was allowed to come and go as she pleased, visiting hours be damned.

My room was small, although it was more colorful than the rest of the ward. Even though the walls and floor were white, I had green rugs and posters, pictures, and paintings covering my walls. The TV in the corner had been replaced with a computer, and a small book shelf and dresser sat under the window.

I was almost always trapped in this room, but not because I wasn't allowed to leave… I couldn't. Wires, exactly fifteen, kept me from leaving the room. They were attached under my skin to the top of my spine and heart, I wasn't sure what they did… but they kept me walking and talking, and more importantly, alive. That much I knew.

It was a Saturday, and Ashley had the day off so it was just me and Mom. We were playing a board game while waiting for lunch.

"Mom," I said moving a piece down the colorful tiles.

"Yes Penny?" Mom was the only one who called me Penny. Dr. Millod and Ashley called me Leia, or little princess. I swore that I would never let them watch Star Wars with me again after that.

"What's my problem?" I asked, and then winced at the way it sounded. I started wondering last year just what was wrong with me. I was very versed in Medical terms and illnesses, one of the perks that come with growing up in a hospital, I suppose.

"You don't have a problem sweetie." Mom replied softly.

"Mom I want to know! I'm eleven now! I'm a big girl! I want to know just why I'm here! I know that there's something wrong with me, something that has all of the Doctors bamboozled and frustrated. I want to know… please?" I said stubbornly, just because I was in Long Term didn't mean I was ignorant.

I watched as my mom sighed, "I knew that you would ask sooner or later; and realistically, I thought you would ask a lot sooner."

I waited patiently, my large eyes boring into my mother's. She had my full attention, and with the amount of thoughts that run through my mind at one time, that was saying something.

"When you were born you had a really weak heart." Mom started, but paused and corrected herself. "No, you had a strong heart… but for some reason it wouldn't… or couldn't… beat by itself. It was as if it was lacking the power it needed to work."

I was rapt with attention; I knew that I didn't have the most normal heart… but to hear it…

"By the time you were a day old you already had heart failure. They didn't think that you'd survive. But you held on, barely. You were balancing on the fine line, but you were alive.

"Over the years, your body showed that it lacked the energy to function. It was as if there was a short somewhere… your muscles were strong, but would randomly fail.

"When you had your second heart failure at the age of three, added to the fact you practically lived in the hospital already… you were moved here to the Long Term Care ward.

"I really must say… in a way I'm forever grateful to your grandfather," I knew instantly she was talking about my father's father. Mom was an orphan, she never knew her family. "I would never have been able to afford your medical care without him."

'Most likely one of the only good things he ever did.' I thought to myself.

"When you were five, and your paralysis set it… we met Dr. Millod. He was the one who came up with the theory, the theory that keeps you alive."

My breath caught in my throat, finally… if I knew what was wrong… maybe I could do something to fix it. I knew I was smart, everyone always told me so; I just hoped I was smart enough to help myself.

"We were never able to prove this, but you still living shows something… he theorized that your body couldn't generate the same amount of electricity that normal humans could. Naturally, we are walking batteries; that is what the connections between nerves and our brains are, it is how our brain controls our body, with electric pulses. Well, for whatever reason, you can't create that electricity needed for your brain to do that.

"Dr. Millod wanted to test out his theory and see if his plan would work. You were asleep, and we hooked you up to the wires at the base of your spine, and heart. They weren't the same ones as you have now… they were removable… and we sent a constant, steady stream of electricity into you… I don't really know how to explain it… or why it worked.

"But you woke up, and you could move, and that look on your face was one that I'll never forget. Six months later you had surgery and the Wires were made more permanent.

"However another complication arose. The hospital's electric bill skyrocketed because you were constantly being fed their electricity. They almost denied letting you be…" Mom paused, looking for words.

"Plugged in?" I suggested; that was what I always called being constantly plugged into the wall… or a generator.

My mom grimaced but said, "That'll work I guess, well the hospital didn't want to have to pay for the bill, and we don't have insurance. They wanted to transfer you to another hospital, but I knew that I couldn't afford it.

"So once again, your grandfather's money saved the day," Mom laughed bitterly, neither of us liked Howard, and Mom always hated how much we relied on his money.

"I was able to buy a generator that emits the right amount of electricity, and the wires were transferred.

"One day," Mom continued, and I could tell that she was lost in memories. "You accidentally pulled out the wires,"

I remembered that day vaguely, the memory was blurry and the only thing I could remember clearly was the pure agony.

"I'm still not sure how that happened, but they disconnected violently, and immediately your body started reacting."

I had never asked about that day, one reason was because I was too terrified; another was because any time it had been mentioned Mom would tear up.

"You went into cardiac arrest within minutes, and you could barely move; although that didn't stop you from screaming bloody murder." Mom shivered, banishing the memories. "It was that day that we discovered that without the constant feed of electricity, you would die within three minutes."

Mom went silent, tears threatening to fall; I shoved my feelings about the matter to the back of my mind for the moment as I wrapped my pale arms around her.

"Don't worry Mom," I said softly into her hair, "I'm going to fix this, somehow."

I never truly had fixed anything. Sure with the help of Howard's blueprints and money I was able to make a modified version of the Arc Reactor to keep me alive, but Mom never lived to see it; and now my father hated me.

My eyes swam with tears, blurring my vision, causing me to pull a wire with the small tweezers that I had not meant to.

The tears fell from my eyes and I bit back a scream as the Arc fell dark. Death was instantly by my side, my vision spun and I could barely see. I slumped back against the wall as my fingers tried to reconnect the small wire, my fingers trembled and felt like led.

I dropped the wire twice before a cold hand grabbed my shaking one, and helped my fingers reconnect the wire.

I gasped for breath as the Arc flared back to life, and I could feel the electricity humming beneath my skin once again. I wasted no time plugging the three inch device back into the socket in my chest.

I leaned my head back against the wall and breathed deeply, waiting for the lingering pain to pass.

I was distantly aware of my invisibility failing, and my tablet folding back into itself. The battery had died, but as long as I was holding it, my electricity would power the tablet without my direction.

My core, my Reactor, was the reason for my gift. Without it, I couldn't summon the weakest spark. I had a theory, one that was unproven but I believed it was true. Because I was unable to generate any electricity, once it had been introduced in extremely large amounts by the Reactor, my body made up for not being able to create electricity, by being able to control and manipulate it. It was like a messed up Mutation… which it probably was.

I placed the special skin colored cover over the Reactor, hiding it from view and making it practically nonexistent. The cover looked and felt just like skin, and while it was thin, blocked out the light completely.

Unlike Tony's Reactor, because of its small size and location between my breasts, it didn't protrude from my body.

I slowly stood up, the thin white fabric of the tank top slipping off my shoulders. While Tony had been given about three full outfits, they had only given me one change of clothes, and that wasn't until my suit had become so destroyed that it didn't even resembled clothing. They had only given me a white tank top that was far too large and shorts that fell down every time I moved.

Even though the wire had been reconnected, the pain didn't fade and I could feel the flow of electricity fluctuating beneath my skin.

Until the fluctuations stopped, and stabilized, I wouldn't be able to use any of my abilities. The thought itself brought shivers down my spine.

Death put his arm around my shoulders, his eyes wide in concern. "I'll be alright." I whispered.

Death didn't seem reassured. His head shot towards to door, he could always sense when people were coming, glared for a moment, and cast me another worried look before vanishing.

I quickly slipped the balls of palladium into my pocket and hurried over to Tony as the doors' burst open. I couldn't help but shutter at the dense ball of dread that clutched my stomach.

OK, SOMEONE could HAVE TOLD ME MY PAGE BRAKES WERE NOT SHOWING UP! I NOW HAVE TO GO BACK THROUGH EVERY CHAPTER AND FIX IT! :( and I am not happy about it!... guess part of it is my fault for thinking that just because it showed up in Docx didn't mean it showed up in Story... still annoying though! and i liked my little ^*^ page breaks...

Well, that's not a secret any more… I wonder if any of you saw that coming… I know it's not that original but the reason for it SO is.

I'll update soon, you all are so AWESOME! Thanks Expecto Prongs

Cp