The Unknown Variable

(Beta'd as of 9/2/13)

Hey people, yup, another chapter! Yay! I own nothing but my original ideas. If you cannot tell then go re-watch the Marvel and JK Rowling films that should clear that up.

Oh, this is his full name, I looked it up.

"ANTHONY EDWARD STARK!"

I jumped awake, hitting my head on the dashboard in the process. I groaned as the bright lights blinded me for a moment.

Tony jumped awake besides me, yelling "Yin…" before he realized that we were in the lab, not the cave; and Yinsen was dead.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I tried to recall how I fell asleep. The last I remember was helping Tony work on his Reactor after cleaning the scorch marks off of the floor. We couldn't do much about the ones on the ceiling.

Tony and I must have fallen asleep while working.

'Not surprising' I thought to myself.

I looked over to see Pepper standing there with her hands on her hips, and a furious expression on her face.

My eyebrows knitted in confusion, what was she so mad about?

Tony groaned besides me before shaking his head and saying, "Jarvis, morning protocol please."

"Of-course sir. It is seven oh two, clear blue skies are the forecast for the day. It is currently seventy-four degrees outside and the high for today is eighty-one. I have bypassed sixteen phone calls from the press, called security on twenty four trespassers and you have sixteen thousand unread emails in your inbox."

I whistled, Jarvis had been busy but when wasn't he? If it was seven, then we hadn't been asleep for very long, probably less than an hour.

'That's why I didn't have a nightmare… wasn't deep enough asleep to have one.' I reasoned.

"Please notify security that if one more person gets on my property I will not only sue the perpetrator but also the whole staff. Continue to ignore all phone calls from numbers not on list 4.0 and sort all emails, and those not of importance level 9 delete." Tony said as he got out of the car and moved the half built Arc to his desk.

"Right away sir." Jarvis replied.

"Tony!" Pepper yelled tired of being ignored.

"What?" he replied, not looking up at her as he continued to rearrange his desk.

"Do you care to explain what that was?" She asked her voice hard.

"What was what?" Tony asked as he threw a pile of papers into the trash.

"Arg! Tony what was that! You and Penny asleep, together?" Pepper asked.

That caused Tony to finally look at her, before glancing over at me, and back at his employee.

"That? That was nothing… we were working late and fell asleep." Tony shrugged.

"That was not nothing! Care to explain why she is only wearing your shirt!" Pepper said, her voice rising.

"I have underwear on too you know." I mentioned harshly, crossing my arms over my chest.

"That's not the point…" Pepper stated as Tony mouthed, 'not helping.'

"In case you forgot," I continued, "I don't have any clothes with me! Let alone pajamas!"

Pepper opened her mouth before shutting it again; obviously she had forgotten that little detail.

"And I would appreciate it if you would stop implying that Tony and I are doing something inappropriate. I thought we dealt with this months ago." I stated coldly.

"I am shocked that you think I would take advantage of a teenager." Tony said coldly. His eyes narrowed. "Is that all Ms. Potts?"

Pepper sighed and said, "That is all Mr. Stark," before walking back up the stairs.

There was an awkward silence until Tony said, "Well, now that that's out of the way."

"Happy will be coming at eight to take you to… where ever you live, to get your stuff. He will also take you to whatever errands you need to run. Then you'll come back here and unpack. Oh…" Tony went to continue but I interrupted him.

"What do you mean unpack?" I asked, my eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"Oh, you're moving in! Didn't I tell you?" Tony said, as he told Dummy to clean up the foam from last night.

"No…" I said, but before I could say another word Tony spoke.

"Look, you're my daughter, and while I know that we haven't talked about it, I don't think it would be smart to let the whole world know…"

"I agree," I interrupted.

"But I still want you to live with me. You can stay in a guest room and put your stuff in storage until we remake a room and everything. And before you say it, I don't care what Pepper thinks. This is my house, well… our house now." Tony said as he avoided Dummy with the mop.

I was touched, and a large smile appeared on my face as I sprinted across the room and threw my arms around Tony.

"Thanks," was all I said.

"No problem. Oh, one more thing." Tony said as he opened an envelope and pulled out a debit card.

"This is yours. It's all set up. I called it in while we were at the base. There's currently $500,000 on it right now, and it refills from my own bank account every month. Think of it as an allowance." Tony said, handing me the blue, plastic card.

"You didn't have to…" was all I could say.

"But I did, and you are keeping it." Tony said. "Now, go get dressed, Happy will be here soon. I'm going to finish my Arc, and sort through some stuff."

"Ok," I said, still in a daze, "Oh, does Pepper have to know?" I asked him.

Tony froze for a moment before replying. "Not if you don't want her to."

I nodded, "Not now… but maybe some time."

I scowled as I slammed the door shut on Tony's car, not caring about damaging the car. I was not happy.

After I had put the clothes back on from yesterday, and met Happy, I reluctantly gave him my old address.

He was appalled when he realized what part of the city I was staying in, and refused to take me until I told him I was going to be staying with Tony now.

When I got my apartment I found that not only had the lock been changed, but someone else was living there now. When Happy and I (he refused to leave me alone) approached the manager, he told me that all of my stuff had been auctioned off two months ago to pay for numerous bills.

I was ready to fry him if Happy hadn't been there. Everything I had owned, everything my mother had owned, had been in that apartment.

After twenty minutes, and quite a few threats on Happy's part, he finally admitted that they couldn't sell everything; and brought out a box of my stuff.

Most of the items in the box were junk, but I was happy to find my mother's locket, that Tony had given her for her Sweet Sixteen, was still there. Along with my notebook (that was written in code) and my backup hard drive chip that contained many of my worms, viruses, and programs.

I managed a smile as Happy decked the manager in the face when he made a snide comment about my body. That was when I learned Tony told him to protect me, from everything. Not to mention I doubt Happy would let anything happen to me. It seemed that Tony wasn't hesitating in stepping into 'overprotective' mode.

After that, we drove to a high-end department store, and they didn't recognize me. (It's not like I was mentioned at all at the press conference.) Apparently everyone had ether forgotten about me or thought I had died in Afghanistan.

I bought lots of clothes, though Happy told me he thought I was going to buy more. I got everything from earrings to sneakers, from sweats to a nice dress. I didn't buy a whole lot of stuff, like a normal teenage daughter of a billionaire with their own debit card would. I just bought everything I needed to replace everything I had lost.

While I was in the dressing room trying things on, I called the bank (on my renewed smart phone) and the hospital I grew up in, and paid the remainder of both my mom's and my medical bills.

After shopping, I got a quick trim at a local barber shop; returning my hair to its former length. Then I called MIT, (only the administrator knew me, I did my online classes with another false name) and after paying them a few thousand dollars, I was re-enrolled into my online classes, on my way with my PHD's.

When I called the hospital, I found out that Dr. Millod had retired right after I went missing. Deciding to visit him, along with Ashley and her new born child, we drove home.

I stalked into the house with an irritated look on my face. While the outing hadn't been completely bad, I was still angry that everything was gone. A lot of my stuff had been my mother's, and the loss had hit me hard.

Happy was bringing my clothes in, so I stormed up the stairs and dumped the box of my stuff on my new bed.

Two random books, an old poster, a broken coat hanger, (I wondered why that wasn't in the trash) a ripped birthday card, a large river rock, my mom's locket, my notebook, the computer chip, and a single photo of Mom, Dr. Millod, Ashley, and I were everything that was in the box.

Gone were the photo album, the countless knickknacks that held memories, gone were all of my mom's paintings. The very thing she worked for.

I sighed again, and after taking the shopping bags from Happy, I jumped in the shower.

The hot water cascaded down my back, the water pressure much more powerful than the Base's. I was glad that Tony had added an extra casing around my Core so that it was water resistant. As I turned my face into the water, I gasped as I fell to the ground.

My lungs were on fire

My eyes squeezed shut, my head in my hands.

I couldn't breathe

I gasped for breath against the darkness closing in.

Water filled my lungs and shorted out my core

I clutched my chest as water fell down my face.

Air… I needed air…

My chest constricted and I couldn't breathe. Pure panic clawed at my stomach, and I tried to breathe.

I couldn't breathe…

My head hit the wall, and I grabbed onto the curtains….

Help…

A cold hand grabbed onto my arm and lifted me up. I vaguely realized the water stopping or getting wrapped in a towel.

My head was pulled onto something soft as I struggled to control my sobs.

After a moment my breathing calmed and my vision cleared. My thoughts slowly returned to me as I blinked away the tears.

'What was that?' I thought to myself, as the fear slowly faded.

I noticed that someone was stoking my hair and humming a tune in my ear. I thought at first that I was unconscious until I realized that my pillow was moving. Pulling my head back I looked up and my eyes met Death's.

My cheeks flushed as I realized that not only was Death holding me, but also I was wearing nothing but a towel; one that he had put on me.

His silver eyes looked at me in concern and I managed a small smile before I stood up and he vanished from the room.

"Oh thank God." I whispered to myself, glad that I hadn't had to ask him to leave.

I was getting dressed when a knock on the door drew my attention back to reality.

"Penny, you ok? Jarvis said there was some commotion." Tony's muffled voice filtered through the door.

"I…I'm ok. I'll be down in a second." I replied, trying to keep my voice steady.

I finished getting dressed and walked down to the lab, ignoring Pepper who was working in the living room.

"What happened?" Tony asked, once he saw me.

'My eyes are probably still red.' I realized.

"I would stay out of water for a while." I told my father, causing him to look at me in confusion.

"Did it disrupt your Arc?" Tony asked me, and I could see the gears turning in his head.

"No," I said before pausing a moment, "But flash-backs are bitches."

Well, here you are another lovely chapter. Someone pointed out that there isn't a lot of a mother's influence in Penny. Well I have reasoning for that and it might show up in a chapter. If it doesn't then I'll explain it sooner or later.

Hope you all enjoyed it. Thanks Expecto Prongs
Cp