Okay, so this is it. This story is finally finished! I have had such a wonderful time writing it and I hope you enjoy the final chapter! 3 3 3

26. The Final Outcome

Penny put her fists up, leaning back on her heels, then forward to her toes, and grinned at her friend who did the same. There was no one else in the training room, no people in white coats and no soldiers with guns. Just her and Susie, the two of them facing one another in the boxing ring at 2 in the morning. They wore matching tank tops and shorts, courtesy of Natasha who, after learning that they had trained together their whole lives, had bought them matching workout gear as a present.

Susie slipped one foot backwards, shifting her weight to her fight leg, a sure sign that she was ready to attack, her eyes darting down to Penny's feet, looking for clues. Penny did her best to remember her lessons with Captain America and kept her feet still, doing everything she could not to give away her plan of attack. She wasn't sure when Steve would join them...or if he would. The Avengers had been busy over the last four months, and Christmas had come and gone, complete with presents, which had been...a surprise.

Tony had explained the concept to her. He'd explained that it was a religious holiday, but lots of people who weren't religious still celebrated it by buying each other presents. Pepper had even taken her shopping, Happy trailing behind them as their security detail, to buy Ned and Susie and the Avengers and Tony presents. And then she'd gone shopping with Ned, Happy once more trailing behind them, as he was apparently her new bodyguard, and bought presents for Susie and Pepper.

And on Christmas morning, she'd woken early, slipping into the living room and gasping when she'd seen it...when she'd seen the tree and the lights and the pile of colorful boxes and bags on the ground under the tree. They hadn't told her about that part...and when she'd gone to bed that evening, the living room had been normal. No giant trees covered in lights or colorful boxes like the ones she'd hidden under her bed, or the one she'd given to Ned the last time she'd seen him. Ned had given her a tiny plant that now sat on her little balcony.

It hadn't been long before a hand had landed on her shoulder. "What do you think?" Tony had asked, giving her the same smile that he'd given her so often...a smile that showed her how glad he was that she was okay. That she was there, home safe with her new family. And she'd smiled back.

"It's amazing. I mean...I know you said something about a tree and presents but...this…" She'd never seen anything like it, of course, but still. The two of them had moved over to the sofa, his arm around her shoulders, as she'd just stared at the light. And it hadn't been long before Pepper had woken up, joining them on the sofa on Penny's other side.

Rhodey and Susie had arrived first from his apartment a few floors down, the two of them carrying gifts in their arms. Susie had looked better, and she and Penny had held each other for a long time before turning to stare at the tree and the lights and the presents while the adults had gone off to make breakfast.

Susie had taken a long time to adjust, and even now, with the two of them in the boxing ring, ready to spar, she knew that it was all so strange to her. That the world that Penny was slowly starting to accept was real and wasn't going to be yanked away from her once more was still an unbelievable place to Susie. A world where she went to school (with Penny and Ned, sharing most of Penny's classes) and then went home at the end of the day to her new father.

Well...at the moment, technically Rhodey was her guardian. Her foster father. All of the other kids had either been reunited with their relatives or entrusted to families that had been thoroughly vetted by the Avengers, and Penny hadn't even gotten to see most of them, other than the boy she had fought with so many times. Him she'd managed to see, sneaking down on her own to the medbay and finding his room and telling him that she was sorry. That she hadn't wanted to hurt him. He'd dismissed her apology easily, but had seemed wary of her still.

Susie took a step forward and Penny reacted, ducking the kick and slipping in to throw a punch at her friend's side. Not hard...not a blow meant to hurt her. Just throw her off balance. It was an unspoken rule between them that they would never hurt each other again. So when Susie stumbled, Penny went to knock her leg out from under her, but her friend recovered too quickly, catching her in the side with a fist and knocking Penny sideways.

Her friend had taken to Rhodey from the start, the man who had saved her from the water and who had sat with her in the medbay for days while she'd recovered. And, she'd confided in Penny one day when they were alone in the medbay, Rhodey had held her while she'd cried. While she'd let all of the terrible things spill out of her, about the White Room and the doctors and the drug that had made her hurt her friend and...and all of it. And Rhodey had just held her and he'd promised her that she wasn't a bad person, that none of it had been her fault.

And that's when Penny had realized that Rhodey was to Susie what Tony was to her. Her father. Someone that would take care of her. The exact thing that Susie needed. That all of them needed.

The first time Penny had taken Susie down to the boxing ring in the training room, Susie had reacted just like Penny had. Breathing hard and taking a step back, hands balled into fists, Susie had shaken her head before Penny had put a hand on her arm just like Tony had her. "It's just for training. Nothing happens if you lose."

Susie had looked over at her, lower lip trembling before she'd bitten down on it. "Nothing happens?"

"I promise. I spar with Captain America. He never hurts me. Nothing happens when I lose."

Still, it had taken weeks before Susie had come to her room in the night, knuckles tapping against her bedroom door until Penny had climbed out of bed and opened it. "I want to go downstairs," Susie had told her in a choked whisper. Penny hadn't been surprised. She'd remembered the compulsion. The way the boxing ring had seemed to call to her until finally, she'd given in.

"Let me get dressed," she'd told her, inviting her in while Penny had thrown on a pair of shorts and a tank top. And then they'd gone to the elevator, walking together in silence until Penny had reached down, grasping her hand and leading her toward the boxing ring, and Susie had followed, climbing in after her. Then Penny had put her fists up, taking the stance she always had. And Susie had followed suit.

For a moment, they'd stood together in silence, the two of them facing off. And then Susie had charged. Movements almost frenzied and uncoordinated, Penny had had no problem taking her down, and in the silence that followed, the only sound had been their heavy breathing. Penny had reached a hand down, tugging Penny to her feet and smiling.

"See. Nothing happens."

Then the two of them had gone back to it, Susie growing more and more focused as the time had passed, until they'd been panting with exhaustion and smiling as they'd gotten their energy out. Rhodey and Tony had come down to watch them a couple of hours later, neither Penny nor Susie noticing them in the doorway as they'd sparred over and over, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, and nothing ever happened to the loser. It hadn't been until Susie had managed to slip a leg under Penny and knock her off her feet, the two of them exhausted and covered and sweat and laughing that Penny had caught sight of them, both looking torn between amazement and concern. That had only made Susie laugh harder, and she'd dropped down to the mat cross-legged until her laughter had turned to tears, and Penny had shifted to hold her until they'd been joined by their fathers.

Now as they cleaned up, taking quick showers and then dressing in normal clothes, Susie turned to Penny, speaking in that soft, almost whisper that she'd used for as long as Penny had known her, her lips quirked in a little smile. "I saw what you were doing in Chemistry on Friday."

Penny lifted an eyebrow even though she knew exactly what her friend was talking about. Susie's table was behind Penny and Ned's, but she thought she'd been discreet. "I was taking notes."

"Were not. You were working on a formula."

"I was doodling. It didn't mean anything."

Susie shrugged, letting it go, and the two girls climbed into the elevator, Susie getting off a few floors before Penny who met Pepper in their kitchen. Her mom smiled at her, gesturing for her to join her as she stood at the stove, making eggs for breakfast. "How was sparring?" Her mom asked, and Penny nodded.

"Not bad. She won more times than me." It was said with a shrug, since neither of them were so desperate to win anymore. So what did it really matter if Susie won, or if she won? Really, it was just fun to spar with someone as strong as she was...other than Steve. Susie wasn't quite ready to spar with Steve though.

"Good. I think it's helping her...helping the both of you." She ran a hand over Penny's hair, then rested a hand on her shoulder. "How are you feeling?" she asked, leaning her head in close.

"I'm okay."

"Did you sleep last night?"

Penny lied with a nod. She'd had the nightmare again that night, jerking awake after images of that room...the White Room. And fighting. And the water. Without Beijing asked, Friday had started playing soft music through the speaker by her bed, the piano music she loved, and that had helped her relax, but she hadn't slept. And judging by the look on Pepper's face and the fingertip she placed on Penny's cheek to tilt her face, her mother knew it. Still, her mother didn't call her out. She just asked her to set the table and started spooning eggs into a large serving bowl.

Tony joined them for breakfast a few minutes later, and it was like any other day. Any other morning with the family she now had, only it was better now because her friend was a part of it too, only a few floors down with her own family. It was perfect...more than the dreams that Penny had had back in the school, images of a figure she couldn't even begin to imagine but had hoped for so, so desperately. Now she had the real thing.

But so many of the kids she's grown up with hadn't gotten that future. What had happened to them? The ones that had turned eighteen or even the ones that had disappeared before that? It was a question that Susie had asked more than once since coming to live at the tower, and Penny knew that she wanted to help the Avengers track them down, despite the fact that the two of them had been told outright that they couldn't help. That they needed to live their own lives and leave crime fighting to the Avengers. Those had been Rhodey's actual words. And Tony had seconded them.

But what about the other kids? What kind of life were they living now?

The thought was stuck in her mind all morning, as she helped Tony with the dishes and as she made her bed. As she carried her backpack down to the lab and as she got distracted helping Tony with a project he'd been working on instead of actually getting started on her homework.

Working in the lab with Tony was her favorite thing, right up there with sparring with Susie and listening to Tony play the piano and making breakfast with Pepper. On days when school had seemed to drag on for too long and she just hadn't been able to understand why other people behaved the way they did and she couldn't seem to connect with any of her peers, spending time in the lab with her father made it all go away. All of the fear and pain and uncertainty. The memories of the school that was really a prison and of Osborn and the fighting. All of it.

It was a Saturday, so she was able to spend almost two hours forgetting about her homework. Finally, though, Tony looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "Didn't you come down here to do homework?"

"Yeah...but this is more fun."

He chucked, ruffling her hair, and she let him, smiling back. It still seemed unreal sometimes, this life she was allowed to lead. "If you hurry and finish your homework, we'll go get lunch. Your pick. Then we can come back down here and get some more work done."

"Okay," she said with an overly exaggerated sigh, making him laugh again as she jumped off her stool and ambled over to her little desk where her backpack waited. Beside it now was a second desk, one with a notebook and colored pencils belonging to Susie, along with various other supplies, from bright pink post it notes to highlighters. They often did their homework together at their desks but her friend was going to her therapy session with Rhodey in the city today, so she was once more on her own.

Dropping into the chair at her desk, Penny pulled out her chemistry notebook first, figuring she'd get that out of the way, and then she'd only have to read a chapter in her history book. And then lunch. Glancing up to make sure Tony was still on the other side of the room and not paying attention to her, Penny opened her notebook to the page she'd been doodling on the day before.

Susie had been right, of course. Her friend knew her better than anyone, and she had known what Penny had been doing. In fact, it had been partially Susie's idea.

"You were bitten by a spider, right? So what if you could make webs?"

It had been a part of a soft conversation whispered under Penny's comforter, the two of them huddled together in the bed as they'd wondered where the children they'd grow up with were now…what had happened to them. And if there was anything they could do to help them.

They were strong too. They had powers. So why couldn't they fight the bad guys that had taken their friends?

Penny hadn't been able to get the idea out of her head, and so the quest to create web fluid had begun, complete with tons of research on spiders both in books and on the computer at school. And she felt like she was almost there...she just needed to test it. That was the plan for Monday. She'd just put the beaker in her drawer and...well...pray it didn't blow up.

As she opened her notebook to double check the formula, though, a folded piece of paper nearly fell out. Frowning and checking on Tony once more, she unfolded it, blinking at the drawing and the bright pink post-it note. On the paper was a drawing...a suit covered in black spider webs with black eyes on the mask, colored in with red. Tiny notes were written in the margins, filling the entire paper. Some detailed possible materials and others gave ideas on how to get the lenses of the eyes to move and contract. Penny had to squint to see them all, eyes darting around the page trying to take it in.

And on the post-it stuck to the corner, were three words written in bold, black ink.

"I dare you."

The End

Thank you all so much for reading!