Awakening

*Insania waves as she paints a sleeping Ciel's hair pink*

*Mortem appears, and just shakes his head.*

"Sebastian will kill you." Mortem told his Sister before vanishing.

*Insania giggles and also vanishes, just as Ciel rolls over*

I own nothing Disney and JK do.

*Insania waves as she paints a sleeping Ciel's hair pink*

*Mortem appears, and just shakes his head.*

"Sebastian will kill you." Mortem told his Sister before vanishing.

*Insania giggles and also vanishes, just as Ciel rolls over*

I own nothing Disney and JK do.

"Yeah, I think that we deserve to know what's going on!" Dad exclaimed, causing me to wince before he took a deep breath to calm himself.

"You aren't exactly human, are you?" Dad sighed as he rubbed his eyes. I didn't say anything, wanting to know what Dad had put together or at least suspected before I started my own tale. "You're like Mortem and Insania….like the others we saw today."

Thor didn't say a word, although he already knew the answer to that. Bruce was also silent, though he was watching me closely with a contemplative look on his face.

"In a way," I answered slowly, I didn't want to freak them out any more than I had to. "My story isn't a simple one...and to be honest I didn't remember most of it until yesterday. But I must warn you. Once I tell you these things you won't be able to take it back, you won't be able to forget, and you probably won't look at me the same again."

I bit my lip, how were they going to react, knowing that I was an Immortal stuck in a Mortal form? What was Daddy going to say, when he learned that I wasn't just his sixteen year old daughter? When he learned that I was far older than he could possibly imagine?

"Thor already knows some parts to this story…" I continued slowly and Bruce looked over at Thor in surprise. Dad just blinked, and I had a feeling that he had put it together somewhat over the past day. "Are you sure you want to learn the truth? Sometimes it's far better to remain in shadowed ignorance then face the blinding truth."

Thor gave me a small encouraging smile while Dad looked at me stubbornly.

"Since when do I run from truth?" Tony snorted and I couldn't help but chuckle. True, very true.

"Alright then…" I sighed, trying to ignore the flashing memories that were once again playing against my eyelids. "I suppose the best place is to start at the beginning….a beginning to took place long, long ago."

Bruce's POV
(AN: been a while, huh ^.~)

I watched as Penny hesitantly took a deep breath, this was clearly hard for her to say, and I couldn't help but wonder just what my friend had been through. Thor was sitting attentively on the floor, and as I blinked, Hulk shoved a picture of a happy little puppy into my mind.

"Be nice Big Guy," I scolded him, and his emotions seemed to grumble. "Besides...only you would compare the God of Thunder to a puppy."

I paused, realizing what I had just said and had to stop myself from shaking my head. "We've been spending way too much time around Penny."

Hulk seemed to agree, though he didn't really reply. I forced myself to turn my attention back towards Penny. Whatever it was that she was going to tell us, whatever situation she had found herself in...whatever she was I was going to do my best for the girl who had helped me so much.

"A very long time ago," Penny started softly, and I could see Tony straightening up slowly and keeping his sharp gaze on his daughter. "In a world that wasn't too different from this one, but that no longer exists...there was a small child."

I blinked, not expecting that. What was Penny talking about? I thought she was going to explain things...tell her story. Tony didn't react, though I could see the questions lingering in his brown eyes. I wondered how much of this he was already putting together, now much he had already guessed.

"This child was an orphan, his parents murdered when he was only a year old. This orphan, young Harry, didn't know much about the world. He grew up under an oppressive thumb, in a household that was borderline abusive; where he was called freak, and forced him to cook and clean for them.

"Growing up, all he had wanted was to be loved, and to show the world that he wasn't a freak, that he was normal just like everyone else." Penny's eyes held a glazed, faraway look that had seemed to be flickering through her gaze since I had seen her that morning. "However, this wasn't meant to be.

"On his eleventh birthday he discovered that he wasn't normal, he was a wizard, and before he could blink...he was whisked off into a secret world of magic."

I didn't necessarily disbelieve in magic...who could I after everything after I had seen? But...I had to wonder just what we had agreed to learn about. Where was Penny in this story? What was the point of this story anyway?

"In this world, the world of his parents that was hidden from the non-magicals of the globe, he was famous, unwillingly but unimaginably famous. He was famous for vanquishing a Dark Lord, a magical terrorist whose beliefs were similar to Hitler's, when he was only a year old. Harry hated his fame; he didn't want to be Harry Potter The Boy Who Lived. He wanted to be Just Harry. But of course, heroes rarely get what they wished.

"Young Harry entered the school of magic, where expectations were high and danger was around every corner. By the end of his First Year, he came face to face with the shade of the man who had killed his parents. It was pure luck, and a touch of ancient magic, that allowed him to survive his encounter with Tom Riddle, who hid behind the anagram of Lord Voldemort.

"Up until the end of his Sixth Year, he was faced with death, danger, Tom, a corrupt government, soul sucking fiends, and a manipulative old coot." Penny closed her eyes and leaned back against the headboard of her bed.

"Tom regained a physical body at the end of Harry's Fourth Year, and by the end of his Fifth, the magical world was plunged back into what they called war. When the 'war' started, Harry discovered a prophecy that tied Tom and he together, one that implied that the other was their doom.

"Harry dropped out of school after horrific events of Sixth Year, and spent almost a year in a tent, on the run with his two friends as they tried to find a way to end Tom once and for all. Along the way, they stumbled upon knowledge of three ancient artifacts, supposedly gifted to wizards by Death himself."

I straightened up, was she talking about Mortem? If she was...that meant the real story was starting. Glancing over at Tony, I saw his face blank but his eyes glittering with...something. It was hard to read Tony, and the only reason I could read him at all was because of my experience with his daughter.

"Tom coveted the Elder Wand, which legend claimed was the most powerful wand in Existence. Eventually, through events Harry didn't control...he became the owner of all three objects...all three Hallows; and when he faced down with Tom for the final time...He was the Master of Death."

Master over Death? If that was true, and I wasn't sure if I believed such a position could exist...I doubted Mortem would like it. Unless of course….this was Mortem's story and how he became Death…

Hulk snorted in the back of my mind and I could tell that he was amused by my thoughts and bored with the current situation.

"At first he thought it was just a legend, nothing to believe and nothing to put stock in; and time went on. The world rebuilt, life continued, Harry's two best friends got married, and things seemed to be peaceful. *But of course, it couldn't last and soon the effects of uniting the Hallows showed themselves. Harry grew more powerful, and stopped aging. Ten years after the war his girlfriend left him and the magical world started to fear him, believing him to be dark.

"So Harry vanished from the magical world; taking up a false name and only letting a select few know about him. There was a unsteady peace, but it wasn't meant to last, as eight-two years after the war ended, the Mundane World discovered the Magical. Tension rose in both worlds, and world leaders were quick to agree on peace.

"But the inevitable happened, five years later WWIII broke out between the two factions of humans, both sides determined to destroy the other. The bloodbath called a war lasted three years.*

"Harry could do nothing, even with his newfound abilities and powers, as he watched the world tear itself apart. In the end, he was forced to watch as his world burned, everyone died….until he was the only living thing left in a nuclear wasteland."

Even though I had no idea what this had to do with Penny, I felt bad for the boy in the story. To live through such horrors, to be forced to watch, and survive; as everything else faded...it would be worse than death.

Thor looked sad, but not surprised. I wondered if he had already heard this story before, Penny did say that Thor knew something of what was going on. Tony however...it was Tony's reaction to the end of the tale that intrigued me the most. His mask had cracked and his eyes were now wide, and slightly unseeing.

It looked like he was imagining, quite vividly, what had happened.

"And then," It was like we were all holding our breaths as Penny continued, "Danny was born."

I almost jumped in my confusion.

Wait, what?

Thor's POV

I listened quietly to the story of E're's First Life. My godfather…godmother now?... had told Loki and I the story long ago.

We had never, however, heard the story of his Second Life.

E're had been a bit of a mystery, even to Loki and I. Everyone knew that he had been an Immortal, the amount of time that Lord Death had spent around him had been confirmed that, but he had always been uneasy with the subject of his past.
When Loki and I had still been small, he would sometimes sit us down and give up snippets of stories, though he always asked us not to share them.

I had heard parts of his time as Harry, and his Fourth Life, though he avoided his Second and Third lives like the pledge, for some reason.

I attempted not to show my excitement as E're started the story of her Second Life. I had always been curious, but had long forgotten my questions after E're moved onto another life. Now that he...she...was back now, I could ask them again.

"Danny...was a rather curious boy." Penny continued after a moment of silence. I could see Dr. Banner's confusion, and I could sense the Man of Iron's contemplation and worry. I was concerned as to how the two mortals would handle the news of E're's existence.

But it did not matter. I knew that neither mortal would abandon her, just as I would not.

"His parents were eccentric, and his sister overbearing, the town idiotic, and his enemies many. He balanced on the edge of life and death...and it was after that he almost died...for a second time that he remembered who he had been."

"Harry," Bruce breathed in realization as his eyes widened. Stark's eyes were darkened, and the mortal looked quite conflicted. I could not tell the emotion in his eyes, but I recognized the look from when E're had held it many centuries ago.

The Man of Iron was worried.

"Aye," I confirmed when it became apparent that E're would not. My...previous godfather was lost in memories, something that had happened to him often in Asgard.

"Danny was able to get to a...friend of his, hoping that he would know what was going ong with him. He did." A fond and amused smile flashed across her lips for just the briefest of moments before it was gone. "Of course, the fact that he works for Infinitas….the Immortal of Time, helped with that, and Danny was able to understand.

"The Hallows, it all came down to the Hallows." E're sighed, though she was still lost in her memories. "They weren't just powerful objects Death created and gifted to the Wizards of his old world. They were all pieces of power, three objects that when brought together and if the bearer was deemed worthy...they would transform that person into something...more. The one who reunited the Hallows together didn't become Master of Death….they became the newest Immortal...the Youngest.

"Immortals are beings who...are quite different than most others. They can't reproduce; they don't interact with other species besides a select few in all of the existing worlds. But the most important...they each have a Realm, a part of Existence that is their responsibility, the part from which they draw their power, the part that is their power. Their Realm is who they are...and it wasn't until the end of Danny's life that he realized what his realm is: Balance.

"He is responsible for the Balance of every existence. Some say that it is a small part of the world; others would say that it is the most important of them all.

"Like every other Immortal, he had his Duties to his Realm, he was forced to maintain peace, keep his Realm in life...in every world in Existence. However, he had been born as a Mortal, and as such tied to a mortal shell. He could not travel to other worlds in a blink of his eye to deal with the ripples in his Realm, to answer his duties like the others could. He also could not call upon beings of Balance in different worlds to assist him, as he did not have assistants like his Older Siblings.

"Because Danny's Soul lacked an Immortal body to house it…he was forced to answer the call of his Duties in another way. And so, when Danny passed on, he did not. He was created anew all over again, and a cycle began. Over and over again, living, dying, laughing and crying, his Soul being reborn and entering empty mortal shells in various worlds to answer the endless Duties that he had to attend to. It was an endless cycle, and one that a Mortal Soul wouldn't have survived.

E're shook her head slowly, and I was enraptured at the way the words flowed from her lips. Even during E're's time in Asgard she never spoke so deeply about her lives. I glanced over at Bruce and Tony. Surely the mortals had pieced to together?

"Some lives only needed him for a short period of time; perhaps a few weeks, maybe only a few days. Though the record holding life….is an hour and a half. Other lives kept him for centuries, his Duties binding him in iron grips that he couldn't escape...sometimes for thousands of years."

Penny swallowed, and it took most of my self-restraint to keep myself from butting in. It was in one of those lives that I had met E're, and I hoped that E're remembered Asgard with fondness.

As I glanced over at the mortals again, I noticed the glint in the Man of Iron's eye, the same glint that Loki would get in his eye when he learned of something he did not like.

My throat tightened as I thought of my brother, and what he had to endure at the hands of the Lady Fate. Why had I ever been foolish enough to believe that his actions were his own?
I forced myself to push my thoughts away. T'was not the time to dwell on the mistakes of my past.

"Thankfully, not all of the lives were pain filled. Many were pleasant, and even though they broke his heart...many he cherished. Over the countless years….he learned that what had happened had not been the fault of Death, and he learned to let his anger at the Immortal go.

"Time moved on, as it always does, and as he seemed to accept his place in Existence. He did not want his power, but he eventually accepted that there was little to be done with the situation. When he Bonded with Mortem, the pain eased and the Immortal of Death kept the budding and constant threat of insanity at bay. He and his Twin, Vitam the Immortal of Life, watched out for their youngest sibling and Death's Bonded. For each life he entered, they would keep watch, and try to protect his Soul as much as possible. You see, for each life he was reborn into, he entered without his memories of his past. Some would call this a blessing, and others a curse, because they always returned with time/ Or rather, they returned whenever he crossed into his Bonded's Realm. When Mortem gained claim to his Immortal Soul, he was able to unlock what was hidden before returning it. There was never a set time in a life when this happened… but it was always before he was grown if he was reborn. She remembered everything if her Soul was placed into a recently departed body instead of being reborn. But those moments were few and far in between."

I noticed instantly when E're stopped referring to herself as a 'he' and switched to 'see'. The way Man of Iron's face paled just enough at the first one, he had too. I was pleased when Banner caught the second one. If they two intelligent Mortal's hadn't caught on already...I would volunteer to be my brother's magical test subject for a week.

I couldn't help but shiver.

I just hoped that such an action wouldn't ever be necessary again.

Tony's POV

My mind was a whirlwind, a storm of thoughts and emotions that even I had a trouble shifting through. Everything that my daughter was saying...everything that the story...her story...that she was telling us sent my mind into swirling scenarios, trying to piece together the large gaps that my daughter had left in her story.

It was obviously her story; I had put that together within the first minute. Even if she didn't claim it as hers, even if she told it from another's view...one look into her vacant, emotional green eyes and I knew.

Her life story was so much more than I expected.

And man, had I been expecting something huge.

But this? This...I wasn't sure how to handle this.

My little girl, my baby who I had already lost so many times, who I had only known such a short amount of time had gone through so much, had lived, loved...and died so many times it broke my heart every time I thought about it.

She was so old and had been through so much. Her tone may be flat, and her face mostly blank...but it was in her eyes. Everything was reflected through her eyes.

I could see her pain as she described how she watched her world burn; I could see the fury as she described her almost immortal life...no pun intended…

But at the same time...I could see how all of those things had created the wonderful girl in front of me. I could see how they all created a part of my daughter that I had loved so much.

It also explained many of her little quirks, like how she had known Death without really knowing him, how she had known how to play the violin without learning (she had finally told me about that a few months ago), and how she just instinctively was a great cook.

I couldn't even possibly imagine what it was like….being so old, living for so long with so many different lives in her head.

My eyes didn't widen, but my gaze did harden when I realized that must've been why she had been drifting off all morning. Mortem and Insania had mentioned a wall...and if I was right, and I usually was, then the wall had been keeping back her lives until she had gotten the chance to sort through them.

Penny's voice still enraptured my attention, even if my thoughts swirled around her words. I had been thrown into many insane situations in my time...but this; this was beyond anything I knew how to deal with.

How was I supposed to help my daughter who had outlived me thousands of times? How was I supposed to help my daughter who was basically a deity? How was I supposed to be there for her? How was I supposed to be her father?

My precious baby girl, who I couldn't stand to lose, my brilliant darling who had already seen far too much of life.
My daughter who had been a boy, who had seen the bloody horror of war and countless other things I couldn't possibly imagine…

"I have been many things in my time," Penny's voice drifted through my thoughts once again I noticed instantly that she was talking in first person again.

How true was that statement? Oh how badly I wished to know, so I could be by her side…

But at the same time, I wanted to cringe away from the knowledge that my baby girl had been anything but the young redhead that sat before.

"And I've had many names…" Her eyes seemed to slowly focus and I was vaguely aware of Bruce shifting stiffly in his chair.

I barely paused in my thoughts to wonder how the good doctor was taking this. He had even less experience than I in this subject...I hoped that the information wouldn't be too much for him, the two of us were rather fond of him after all…

"I cannot tell you all who've I've been, as that is a tale longer than any lifetime...but I can tell you who I've always been."

Shifting so her bright, vivid emerald green eyes were staring into mine, I could see the pain, the longing for acceptance, and the fear that swirled in the orbs.

"I am Aequivalere Immortalis, the Youngest of Immortals. I am Mortal and yet Immortal...I am the Bonded of Mortem, and my Realm."

My heart broke again at the fear that was reflected in her eyes. Did she truely think that I would reject her? That I would push her away or not believe her? I may be a man of science, but if there is one thing that my daughter has taught me over the past year is that nothing is as simple as it seems.

Suddenly, everything froze, and I blinked.

Bonded….there was an emphasis on that word.

My beautiful brain was reduced to sludge as I realized what that implied.

"You married to Mortem!"

I'm not sure if I gasped that aloud or within the safe confines with my mind.

All I knew was the wave of disbelief that washed over me, and the fact that everything went black.

*I realized that I had made mistakes with the times in Pen's First Life explanation, so I have gone back and fixed them. I apologize for overlooking this :)*

Hey, yeah I know it's late...would've gotten this up last night but I went to the movies with a friend. *Shrugs*

Sorry, but I couldn't pass up the chance to go see Maze Runner. Not the best movie in the world, but not as bad as some of the more recent films. *shutters*

Anyway, hope you liked the chapter. It's extra-long to make up for the delay, also so that it didn't cut off half way. ;)

Oh, and I couldn't help but make Tony faint still… it's too fun. XD

Yeah, Pen avoided the topic of Fati...don't worry, Tony will pull it out of her next chapter. I hope the explanation was acceptable; I ended up rewriting parts of it quite a few times.

Hope you enjoyed it, I'll try to get another chapter up in the morning.

:) Thanks all!
Cp