The Unknown Variable

Leave me be, pretty pretty please, for I don't own anything. If you want to sue someone… FIND SOMEONE ELSE!

"I just don't get it!" Tony exclaimed as we watched the starry sky. Tony was still in the suit, but he was too tired to take it off; and I just didn't care.

"Dad…look I can't explain everything to you right now, alright? Let's just say that I've been given a little pain free pass for my last 24 hours." I stated once again, we had been talking about this for a while now( after we had an hour talk about me getting drunk), and I really couldn't explain the whole 'I've been dating Death behind your back' thing right now. There were a few things I wanted to take care of before I died…while I had the chance.

"But…" Tony started again but I cut him off with a pleading look.

"Please?"

Tony sighed but nodded, "I want you home by dark though, alright?"

I nodded with a small smile. "I will be dad, I won't be long. I promise; and besides, I'll have the com. on me if you need me."

Dad smiled lightly at me, though his eyes were filled with pain. "Just be careful Pen, and call me if you need me."

"I will, I love you dad." I said as I stood up. I had thankfully changed out of the dress and heals and was now wearing blue jeans, a green top, and my boots.

I really, really liked my boots.

"I love you to Pen." Tony replied, giving me a hug.

Giving him one last small smile I Flashed away, I had some good byes to say.

I decided to go to Bruce first, since I hadn't seen him in a while. It had been like months since I saw the man.

It wasn't that hard to find him, I had long got used to just Flashing straight to him, but I wasn't used to falling flat on my back when I landed.

"Ow," I muttered to myself as I stood up. I knew I was somewhere in South America, but what country I had no idea.

I looked around, Bruce was always close by when I appeared, for I Flahs right to him, but this time I didn't see him.

"Bruce!?" I called out as I started walking through the lighting trees, we were obviously in a different time zone for the sun was starting to come up.

I glanced around and froze when I heard something snap behind me. I spun around only to come face to face with Hulk.

"Hey big guy!?" I stated with a small smile, he looked at me curiously, and I froze, didn't he remember me?

"Remember me? We'd play games all the time." I stated, and got ready to charge up an energy ball…thankfully I was also wearing my cuffs.

Hulk's head tilted to the side as he studied me. His face was scrunched up in confusion until his eyes widened and he said, "Fire girl!"

"Yup, that's me." I said, relaxing.

"Fire girl not look good." Hulk said, and it was only then that I realized I had forgotten the Holo-ball ring.

"Shit." I muttered under my breath. "Yeah, I'm sick." I told the big guy.

"Hulk help?" He asked gazing down at me in concern.

"No," I stated shaking my head, "There's nothing you can do."

"Bruce help! Bruce helps puny sick humans." Hulk stated, and before I could protest, Hulk shrunk down back into Bruce.

"Huh?" Bruce stated, confused looking around. Thankfully, he was still standing unlike the first time we had met.

"Penny?" He asked when he saw me, and I winced as his eyes widened in horror.

"What on earth is wrong with you!? You look awful!" Bruce claimed as he walked over, holding his shredded pants up.

"Yeah, I know." I stated with a sigh, why did I have to forget that stupid ring? He placed the back of his hand on my forehead frowning.

"I've never seen anything like this before." Bruce stated in confusion, before added, "Is this why I haven't seen you in months?"

"Part of it." I said, as Bruce started to lead me through the trees, back to where ever he was staying now. "Another part was that my powers have been messed up recently."

"Then why are you here now? Not that I'm not grateful to see you, but shouldn't you be in bed resting? You look horrible." Bruce said.

He led me into a small shack that looked quite abandoned, the wood was moldy and starting to rot, but I shook my head. Now wasn't the time.

I sighed and sat down on the grass Bruce had been using as a carpet. This wasn't going to be a simple conversation…why was I doing this again?

"I came here for two reasons Bruce, sadly this isn't a social call." I stated, and Bruce looked at me in worry. We had become friends over the past few months, and both he and Hulk were very protective of me.

"I came here to tell you the truth Bruce," I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and sighed, "I also came to say good bye."

I opened my eyes to see Bruce staring at me in horror and realization. His face was pale and had a slightly green ting to it.

"I'm dying Bruce; I probably won't live to see tomorrow morning."

(it was mean to cut it off there, but don't worry, we'll come back to Bruce and Penny soon.)
Tony's POV

I scowled as I took a bite of yet another doughnut. I was in a horrible mood and I knew it. My daughter would be dead in less than twenty-four hours, and I would be following her very quickly.

I hadn't bothered to take my suit off; Jarvis could monitor my vital signs from within and keep me posted. It was also the best way for me to contact or help Penny if she needed it.

I still couldn't believe it had come to this; things had been going so great. I was Iron Man, I had a daughter, I was working on Pepper, we were happy, and we thought we were healthy.

There were some things that still didn't add up, like how Penny had all of the sudden decided to get drunk, or how she had gotten that nice mahogany violin, where she had learned to play, and how she had managed to get the 24 hour pass…I was slightly resentful that I didn't get one. But if either of us deserved one, it was Penny.

I was slightly content with just eating my box of doughnuts, sitting in a giant doughnut, but of-course, someone had to bother me.

That someone was Fury to be specific. I saw him coming, but I really didn't care. I wasn't in the mood to deal with SHIELD right now. It wasn't like they had ever really done anything for me in the first place.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to exit the doughnut." I took off my sun glasses, light really bugged my eyes now, and gazed down at the black clad man. Did he really just say that?

"I told you," I sighed rubbing my temple, "I have better things to do then join your super-secret boy band."

And I did…if I wasn't dying that is.

"No, no, see I remember you do everything yourself, except the occasional help from the Electra girl." Fury said mocking. "I don't suppose you know…"

I sighed and sat up straighter, "I told you before, I have no clue who she is."

"So, how's the loner gig working out for you?" Fury asked me with a smirk, taking a drink of his coffee.

I wasn't a loner, I had Penny…or at least I had her for the time being.

"Its…its…yeah…" I muttered sniffing the coffee before putting it back down. I didn't care if SHIELD claimed to be the good guys. I didn't trust them.

"I'm sorry," I apologized; deciding that I didn't like the serious look that Fury gave me when I couldn't answer. "I don't want to get off on the wrong foot. Do I look at the patch or the eye?"

When Fury did nothing but looked amused, I continued, "I'm actually a bit hung over from last night, are you real or not?"

Now that got a reaction out of the director; he leaned forward and said, "I am very real. I'm the realest person you're ever going to meet."

Okay, I got that message. No games, but it was fun messing with him.

"Just my luck, life just can't cut me a break." I glanced around at the dinner and said, "Where's the staff for this place anyway?"

"That's not looking too good." Fury stated, gazing at my exposed neck. The lines had almost reached my chin and ears, and I estimated that within a few hours I would look like Penny.

Poor Penny…it breaks my heart that there's nothing I could do for her.

"It's getting worse." I muttered darkly as I heard someone approach. I had a guess who it was, and I only took me a moment, and the thought of Penny's face to decide what to do.

I took a sip of the coffee, once Jarvis' scans told me it was clean. I was actually surprised that Fury hadn't noticed the small com. in my ear. But hey, that was fine with me.

"We've secured the perimeter." Romanoff stated as she appeared, decked out in her SHIELD uniform. "But I don't think we should hold it for too much longer."

I put down my coffee and gazed at her for a moment, Fury and his agent were waiting for my reaction.

So, with a smirk I leaned back slightly and said, "Huh, was wondering when you were going to show up. Be glad I'm not going to fire you."

I had to admit, Romanoff was good as she just raised her eyebrow in surprise. Fury however, was funny. Even though he was trying to hide it, he seemed shocked that I wasn't surprised.

"You know what?" I continued, taking another sip of the latte, it was actually good. "You should be glad that I even hired you. I bet Mr. Eyepatch over there would've been mad if his little spy didn't get hired."

I smirked at their now open God smacked looked. This was worth it.

"You knew?!" Romanoff stated, before sitting down next to her boss.

"Course I knew, I knew from the moment I searched your picture. You seriously expected me to just go with the information I got off the internet? No thank you. Besides, someone from 'law' modeling in Tokyo? That was a bit unrealistic, and obvious." I stated simply, I was going to have to show Penny the recording of this. Too bad they didn't know about the suit's recording system…too bad for them anyway.

"Though I was unsure exactly why." I stated leaning on my elbow and gazing at the two of them.

"I'm a SHIELD shadow, once we knew you were ill I was tasked to you by Director Fury." She stated, so she basically, SHIELD was babysitting my last days.

"Took you long enough." I stated with a smirk.

"You have tough fire walls." Romanoff stated, and from Fury's face, she wasn't supposed to say that.

"Well thank you, though I am curious how you found out." I stated, taking another sip of the coffee.

"We got in." She stated and my eyebrow raised in concern.

How much had they seen, since obviously they didn't know about Penny or we would be having a different conversation.

"But only for a moment. You have impressive defenses Mr. Stark." She continued and I smirked.

"Well, it is my playing field Miss Romanoff." I smirked happily. It was fun playing with SHIELD.

"You've been very busy," Fury interrupted, trying to save SHIELD some face. "You made your girl your CEO, your giving away all of your stuff, you let your friend fly off with one of your suits. Now if I didn't know better…"

"Who said I let him have it?" I asked.

"Well, according to the security protocols you testified with in court, there are programs and security measures that stop any unauthorized usage." Romanoff stated and I rolled my eyes and took off my glasses. Okay, so I had to up the game a bit.

I wondered if they even knew I was playing, they certainly didn't know my cards.

"You actually discovered something, good for you." I mocked as I leaned back. I sighed at their looks and said, "What do you want with me?"

"What do we want with you? No, it's what you want from me." Fury stated as Romanoff stood up and left. I rubbed my forehead as Fury continued to rant. Couldn't he tell I felt like shit?

"You've become a problem, a problem I now have to take care of. Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe." Fury yelled, I rubbed my eyes and slid the glasses back on. My chest was burning, my head pounding, and I didn't want to deal with him right now.

"Trust me," I stated "I don't want to be."

I would never be able to survive…if I were to survive…with SHIELD breathing down my neck 24/7.

"I have bigger problems then you in the southwest region to deal with right now!?" Fury ranted, man what did I do to piss him off so much? "Hit him."

Fury ordered, and I felt Romanoff inject something into my neck. "What the hell?!" I exclaimed, it burned through my veins, leaving a cooling sensation behind.

I raised my eyebrows as the burning in my chest dulled and my headache vanished.

"What was that?" I asked, I knew it had helped the poison…though I doubt it was a cure.

"We just did something for you, Stark. That's Lithium Dioxide, it'll take the edge off. So you can get back to work." Fury stated.

I seriously doubted that that was what it was, but I wasn't going to fight with him. If it helped, even a bit, then I needed some for Penny.

"Give me a couple boxes of that and I'll be fine." I stated with a grim look. I might be, but Penny wouldn't.

"It's not a cure." Romanoff stated.

"Obviously," I drawled, "I'd just like to have some of that stuff on hand."

"This doesn't look like it's going to be an easy fix." Fury said, eyeing my neck again…what was with it? It wasn't like the lines disappeared…right?

"I know that." I snapped, "Trust me; I'm good with this stuff. I've tried everything looking for a suitable replacement for the Palladium core. Every element, every combination of elements, I have tried everything! Every possible option."

I stated coldly, if I had a cure, we wouldn't be having this conversation and Penny would be alright…she wouldn't be on her last leg.

"Well, I'm here to tell you that you haven't tried them all." Fury stated with superiority.

Oh, what now?

Yup, we're heading through it. I felt bad for Penny, so a nice little gift was in order.

Too bad it won't be a quiet 24 hours. *evil grin*

Okay, because people are still asking me how this is related to HP, I am taking my time to explain it to you. This is part one, this whole big thing is just part one. we won't get to part two until Pen Awakens into Aequivalere again and remembers the past. Until we reach that part, HP will not be mentioned very much. there are still factors of HP in play.

If you can't remember, go reread the first chapter. A major factor will actually be coming into play in a few chapters time, and things shall be relieved I know that this doesn't have much HP in it YET but trust me, we will get there. think of this whole thing like a giant prequel ..an intro to the real story that is just beginning.

Hopefully that will get some of you off my back. Oh, and if you still can't remember that I've incorporated HP into this a bit...go back and read the description for Pen's choker and some of those dreams.

Vote on my pole it is on my profile.
thanks to everyone.
Cp