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20. Back Down Again

When Penny came to, every part of her ached. She groaned, bringing a hand up to her head. Her bed felt strange and her blankets weren't as warm as usual. In fact, she was cold. It was strange...she hadn't been cold in a long time. Friday always kept her room warm, but she didn't quite remember going to bed. Was she sick? She hadn't been sick since Tony had brought her to the tower. "Friday?" she asked, shivering and huddling under the blankets. Blanket. "Where's Tony?" Silence. Her room was silent and she huddled even more, pushing her face into the pillow that didn't feel as comfortable as before. "Friday? Can you turn the temperature up?"

Nothing.

She cast her mind back as she tried to wake herself up. She had gone to school the day before, she remembered that. Had talked to Ned and taken notes in class. Had left school...had she done her homework? Was it time to get up? What day was it?

Groaning and rolling over, she reached out for her cellphone which she'd begun using to tell the time, and to text with Ned and even Tony sometimes, when her hand met nothing but air. She frowned, shifting on the bed and lazily feeling again, trying to find her nightstand. Instead, her hand found nothing but the wall.

Penny froze, then opened her eyes, heart in her throat.

No.

No, no, no. This wasn't real, she told herself, slamming her eyes shut once more as they filled with tears. This wasn't real because there was no way...no way she was back in that place. That place was gone and she was...she was seeing things. Because she was safe now. Tony had saved her and now he was like her father and Pepper was like her mother. The Avengers were something like friends. And...and she was safe. At home. In her room.

"Tony?" she asked in a whisper that shook, a tear escaping as she curled up under a too-familiar blanket. He was in the other room. He was right down the hall. And Friday would tell him that she needed him and he would come and tell her that it had just been a nightmare. That she was okay. That she was home and safe and that she never had to go back to that place. "Tony! Tony!" She threw the blanket off, screaming like she'd never screamed before as she looked wildly around the room that she knew...jumping up, she raced to the door, the door she knew, the door she'd seen so many times in life and in nightmares. Her fists came up to slam against it, the sides of her hands bashing against the metal so hard that it left dents but never broke through. "Tony! Tony! Tony! No!" she wailed, tears coming down her cheeks and dripping onto her shirt...her gray shirt. No...not a shirt. A jumpsuit. That's what it was called. And on her chest, the red number.

024.

"No!" she screamed again, feeling herself fall apart as she beat her fists over and over against the door, turning her hands so that her knuckles took the brunt on the impact and before long, her hands were bleeding, the skin of her knuckles busting open. But she didn't care. This couldn't be real. She couldn't be back here. This place had been destroyed and Tony had said that she never had to come back and Susie…

Susie. She faltered, resting her forehead against the cold door and trying to remember. She'd seen Susie. Why hadn't she told Tony? Why had she tried to follow Susie?

She took a step back, then another, backing up until her back hit the wall, then slowly slid down to the floor, breath coming in short, painful gasps. Pressing a hand to her chest, she took deep, gasping breaths, shaking her head and closing her eyes. She couldn't breathe...she couldn't breathe! It was just like her nightmares only it wasn't a nightmare because her hands were bloody and throbbing with pain and the tightness in her chest was real. This was real.

Taking a shuddering breath that proved nearly impossible, she began to hum the song that Tony had played on the piano that first night after her nightmare...the one he'd played for her so many times that she had it memorized. Humming the notes, she tried to put herself back in that room with Tony and the piano the first time she'd heard music. She remembered her head on his shoulder, and his hand in her hair. The way he played until she fell asleep. One shuddering breath turned into two until she could breathe again, but tears still streamed down her cheeks.

She wasn't at home. She was in this place again...but it was impossible! They'd said the school was gone.

How was she supposed to get home now?

The door to her room opened and she jerked her head up at the light, bloody hands balling into bloody fists.

"024. It's good to see you again," came the familiar voice...Osborn. Norman Osborn.

"That's not my name," she snarled, glaring and jumping to her feet. It wasn't okay for him to hurt her. It wasn't okay for anyone to hurt her! She wasn't going to let him hurt her again! "My name is Penny!"

"I knew we'd have some work to do...but I have to admit, it's worse than I expected. Stark really did a number on you."

She lunged, ready to fight...ready to take him down, but the gun he pulled and pointed at her made her stop in her tracks. She wasn't bullet proof. Glaring but freezing in place, Penny watched him.

"Now, 024, there's no need for that," he soothed, giving her a patronizing smile that made her bristle. "This is your home. Surely you remember the rules."

Of course she remembered the rules. Of course she knew every single one as if she'd never left. And that's what scared her the most...what if she'd never left? But she had! She'd gone with Tony and she'd lived in the tower and she'd explored the Compound and...and...and she'd gone to school! She'd met Ned and MJ and Tony had adopted her and...and it had all been real. She'd left this place once. And she would leave it again.

When she only stared at him, Norman lowered the gun, that patronizing smile still there. "Well, now that we've got that settled, I'm afraid there were a few changes in your absence. We had to move to a new facility, and we are no longer able to employ teachers. Also, we've been forced to amend the time table a bit. It seems you were able to survive the virus...both you and subject 019 have proven to be most resilient. Further testing will be done, of course."

"Where do you send us? After we turn eighteen?" she demanded. He closed his mouth and tilted his head with a little smirk. "I know our parents don't come for us...you killed my parents!"

"Well, I didn't personally kill them…" he trailed off, waving a hand. "Like I said, you won't have to wait until you turn eighteen to find out. I'm thinking a few weeks should do the trick."

"Find out what! Where do you send us? Why have us train and go to classes just to kill us!"

"Well, every citizen needs a basic education," he told her with a shrug. "No matter where you end up, we assure that a quality education has been given to all subjects. Critical thinking skills, etc. Of course, it doesn't really matter most of the time, but we couldn't exactly train you 24/7, and keeping children locked in cells for half the day is bad for morale. Thus, school. Books. Free time." He shrugged "I'm not a monster, 024. The experiments are a necessary evil to prepare you...and to weed out the weak, of course. We have to know how your bodies work after we introduce the various serums. We've never been able to perfectly recreate the Super Soldier Serum that was given to Steve Rogers, but with every trial we're getting closer. Yours...well, we went a little off book with the spider, but…" he shrugged. "It all worked out."

"You're trying to make super soldiers?" she asked, shaking her head. "Why?"

"We are making super soldiers, 024. Maybe not ones as good as Captain America and the Winter Soldier, but we're getting closer every year, hell, every day. Pretty soon, we'll crack it. In the mean time, we have children like you who will grow up to be very valuable."

"Valuable," she repeated, voice flat, wheels in her brain spinning. "To whom?"

"Look at you. Stark sure did help you work on those communication skills. Maybe we should start encouraging bonds between the subjects. Having a confidant, or several confidants, might bring something new out in our subjects." He thought for a moment, seeming to speak to himself. "Of course, we always had to make sure that no one got too close. We couldn't have any sexual activity between subjects...and we didn't want to risk them banding together. It would be a shame to have to eliminate an entire class because of a rebellion." Norman shook his head and gave her another one of those smiles that set her teeth on edge, his voice cold. "Anyway, the organizations that can make use of our subjects have the technology to make all of it irrelevant if they choose."

"All of it? All of what?"

"Confidants. Education. That scientific mind of yours. I know that Cho was sneaking you papers. I'll admit, I was impressed. Some organizations prefer an educated subject. Some don't. It all depends on what they choose to do with them."

"You sell us," she whispered, throat suddenly dry.

"To the highest bidder," he told her agreeably. "A subject like you, with the abilities you have...I doubt a foreign government would be able to outbid Hydra quite honestly. Not for someone with your potential. A veritable 'spider-girl.' Can you imagine? The wall climbing, the strength...you could do great things for them."

Hydra. She'd never heard the name...did they have anything to do with the Avengers? Penny didn't ask. Norman was stepping away from her door, obviously done with their conversation.

"Well, anyway, I'm sure you have a lot to think about. Classes are no longer available, I'm afraid, as we seem to have lost most of our staff. But your day starts tomorrow at seven sharp, same as before. Training. Breakfast. More training. Unfortunately we're down to just a few subjects but we'll see about having more brought over. I'm sure the Avengers are going to be bothering us soon enough, so we might have to speed up the process."

"Is Susie here?" Penny demanded, brushing off thoughts of 'speeding up the process.' She wasn't sure she even wanted to know what that meant.

"019? Yes. I'm sure you'll see each other soon enough. We've been testing out some new procedures. I think you'll be impressed."

And then he was gone, leaving her alone in the tiny room. A cot with a thin gray blanket. No windows. No more outside. No more training with Steve or working in the lab with Tony...not here. Just a cot, a blanket, a toilet, and a door.

Penny sat down hard on her cot, dropping her face into her hands and trying to keep it together...tried to pull the pieces of her together into a whole, grasping at the frayed edges. Tony would come, she told herself. The Avengers would come again. She was going to get out. She'd see the outside again. She'd be free again. It was going to be okay.

Everything was going to be okay. It had to be. And hopefully, she'd never find out firsthand who Hydra was.

Norman hadn't been lying. After an evening spent pacing her room, climbing the walls and pressing her ear to the door, Penny was served a bowl of stew just like before. With the first bite she was crying again, tears of frustration and fury and fear...fear that this was it. That this was once more her life. Only now, she knew better. Now, she knew about mac and cheese and waffles with chocolate. She knew about pizza and fresh bread and Pepper's tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. Compared to all that, she thought that if she had to eat this every night for the next few years, she'd go insane...but she ate the bowl of soup anyway, taking deep breaths and reminding herself that Tony would come. Her father would come. The Avengers would come. In the meantime, she would breathe and she would stay alive.

When the light in her room came on, Penny knew that it was seven am. Not allowing herself to think about the mornings spent warm and comfortable in her bed at the tower, in her real home, followed by sparring sessions with Steve, long hot showers, and breakfast with Tony, she took the breakfast smoothie that a solider (no...Rhodey had said that these weren't soldiers...these were assholes) that an asshole handed her, swallowing it down and ignoring the taste. She'd never thought about how bad it was...had never known that breakfast could be eggs and sausage and toast, or pastries covered in icing and filled with jam, or the waffles that Tony had taught her to make.

She drank it anyway.

And then she followed the asshole down the corridor, eyes darting around, looking for windows. Doors that might lead to the outside. There weren't nearly as many guards as there had been before, and most of the doors they passed looked like the door to her room. Made of thick metal that would take her a bit of time to break through with a tiny window at the top. All probably locked.

Tony was coming. She was getting out. All she had to do was bide her time. But if she could escape first, that would be even better.

The training room looked the same as before, with a boxing ring just like the one she sparred with Steve in...that she'd spent most of her life sparring in. People in white coats stood around, watching as she was brought in, and she glared at them, something she'd never dared do before. They weren't scientists. They were monsters. What kind of people did this to kids?

It was wrong. Tony had told her and she believed him. It wasn't okay for people to hurt her. To keep her locked up in this place. Jerking her arm away from the guard who went to grab it, she glared at him too. "Asshole," she snarled, taking a tiny grain of pleasure in his eyes that widened in surprise. Whirling around and praying he didn't shoot her in the back, she approached the boxing ring, knowing she had no choice. Knowing that they would do awful things to her if she refused. So she would win. She wouldn't go back to the White Room. Not today.

She didn't recognize the boy that was led in by another guard, with his shock of blond hair and wide blue eyes, his face almost blank as he regarded her. What did he know about her? Had he heard that she'd gotten out? Where had he come from? How many children did they keep in this place...in these places? How many schools were there?

She slid one foot back, fists up, assuming the position she'd known for as long as she'd been alive. The boy did the same, and with a lump in her throat, Penny stepped forward, ready to hurt someone else to keep herself safe. She had no other choice...but she knew as soon as her fist made contact with his nose, that the nightmares were only going to get worse.

Thank you for reading.