Disclaimer: Don't own and never will.

AN: This is a sequel to XV-Dragon's fic The End of Ms Marvel, in which Ms Marvel (the Kamala Khan version) is stripped of her powers. Also, I'm a little out of touch with the comics, so don't expect much accuracy about events there.

AN2: For my FFN readers, unfortunately XV-Dragon has stopped publishing on the site in favour of AO3. The story that this is related to is only there. Interestingly enough, his WITCH fics on FFN aren't on his AO3 page. Doesn't stop me cross posting on both platforms though;D

The days passed in a blur.

To an external observer, Kamala Khan was perfectly fine. She went to school, spent time with her friends, did her homework and chores, maintained her grades and even kept up with her hobbies.

Well, that last part wasn't entirely true.

It is with great regret that we have to announce that Awesomemarvel is stepping down as a moderator on-

Kamala stopped reading the post as tears welled up in her eyes. She knew that she had to do what she had to do. Staying as a moderator on a website about superheroes was just too painful after losing her powers. Especially as the disappearance of her superhero alter ego was a hot topic.

She wiped a hand across her eyes. It was hard enough to hide crying herself to sleep every night. She didn't need to be crying over this as well.

It wasn't like it was being forcefully taken from her. Not like her powers.

Not like...then..

She scrolled down through the forum. There were plenty of well wishes and gestures of support from the community. It was oddly comforting, even if they didn't know the real reasons behind her stepping down. (And she doubted that they would really believe her if she told them. Who would?)

Then she stumbled upon a new conversation about her alter ego.

She winced and her skin began to crawl. A feeling of bile rose in her throat and she had to suppress a shiver.

For a few minutes, she stared at the screen. It wasn't their fault of course. They didn't know anything about that day. How could they? She hadn't told anyone about that day or what happened in that warehouse.

She quickly closed the tab.

She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She knew that her disappearance would spark all kinds of speculation. She knew that she would inevitably see people talking about it. But seeing it brought up like thatâstill troubled her.

Oh who was she kidding? It was an overreaction. She had only had her powers for a small part of her life. Just a couple of years really.

The bad guys hadn't hurt her exactly either. There were all kinds of things that they could have done to her. But all they had done was strip her of her powers. She could have been beaten up or sexually assaulted or even killed. Instead they had simply stripped her of her powers and left her there.

(Powers that she admittedly loved and had no chance of recovering, but stillâ)

And yet, she still cried herself to sleep over her loss. She still felt the gnawing absence from where they had been. She even had to remind herself that she didn't have them anymore. And all because she had been stupid enough to accept a gift from a stranger and she didn't ask questions.

She looked at the screen, at the story staring out at her. It was an old fanfiction of hers, written when she was fourteen. A story where she was Iron Woman, wearing a suit of high tech armour. It was cringy, but it was a good reminder of her childhood fantasies. And she didn't honestly have the heart to delete it.

Now it was a reminder of a more innocent time in her life.

She closed down the computer. Dwelling on the past wasn't helpful. All it did was make her miserable. All she could do now was to move on with her life and forget about the time she was extraordinary. She was just Kamala Khan now. A normal girl with a normal life. Nothing exceptional about her.

It still sucked.

"Kamala, can you come to the kitchen please?"

Kamala looked up sharply to see her mother looking at her with a serious expression on her face.

A lump formed in her throat. Had something gone wrong? (Well more wrong than the warehouse incident that they didn't know about) Did she do something wrong at home or school? She was sure she hadn't missed anything, butâ

Wordlessly she followed her mother into the kitchen and sat down. Her father was already there with a grave look on his face. Her mother turned to face her.

"Beta, what's wrong?" she asked, taking Kamala by surprise.

"Iâ"

"We can see the pain in your eyes beta," her father said, placing his hand gently on hers. "There's a sadness there. Like you have lost someone dear to you."

"You stopped going out as Ms Marvel," her mother added with a slight frown. "You love heroes and you loved being one of them."

Kamala bit back a grimace. She thought she had been doing a good job of hiding her feelings. Apparently she had not been as good as she thought.

"Beta I worry about you. What happened?" her father asked, a look of concern on his face.

Kamala said nothing as her mind raced in circles. Logically she knew she should tell them the truth. Everything. They already knew something was wrong. They knew about her secret identity (even though they weren't happy about it.) And it could potentially put them in danger. If someone leaked any of the many videos taken, they would be in the spotlight. Anyone who had ever had a grudge against Ms Marvel would know everything about her.

On the other side, what could her parents do? What could anyone do? Her superhero friends and allies were inevitably hobbled by the secrets the criminals held. And that was assuming that they could even find them. And her parentsâas annoying as they could be, she still didn't want to worry them.

She looked at her parents. They were already worried. They knew something was wrong. Better to tell them now, rather than leave them imagining the worst.

She came to a decision.

"Ami, dad...it started when I rescued a scientist and he gave me a new superhero suit." She stopped and swallowed hard as her vision began to swim. This was proving to be harder than she thought. Still, she had to push on. "I...thought that it was..."

"Come beta," her father said gently and she looked at him. She could see the worry in his face. The concern and love of a parent desperate to help their child.

Suddenly it all came tumbling out. The warehouse, the betrayal, the loss of her powers and secret identity, the threats, everything. It hurt and by the end, she was shaking and tears were beginning to fall.

A feeling of catharsis came over her. Like poison being drawn from a wound or purged from her body.

Suddenly Kamala was being hugged by her mother, held tightly in a comforting embrace.

"Oh beta, my little baby girl," she said and Kamala found herself hugging her back. "You don't need to have superpowers to be special. You're special the way that you are." She released Kamala and looked her daughter in the eye. "Beta, we are your parents. We love you."

"I wish you had told us," her father said reproachfully in a gentle voice. "We worry beta."

"I'm sorry," she sobbed. "It's just...I was a hero and now I'm just..."

Don't be silly beta!" Kamala's mother said sharply Kamala looked up to see her mother glaring at her and her hands on her hips. "Do you really think that you're only a hero if you have superpowers? Do you think that those heroes you admire so much are only heroes because of their power? Do you think Man-Spider is only a hero because of his powers? Or Captain Marvel?"

"But-"

"Don't be a fool beta! They are heroes because they are good and brave and they stand up. Do you think they stop being good and brave when they don't have power?"

"Well no-"

"Do you think that you stopped being brave and good when you lost your power?"

"I...no..." Kamala stopped and looked away. "I don't think I-"

"Don't be silly beta! They took away your power, not your personality," her mother practically shouted and Kamala winced. She had been allowing herself to wallow in self pity. But her mother was right. She didn't stop being Kamala when they took her powers and she didn't stop being Ms Marvel either.

"Thank you ami!" she exclaimed as she enthusiastically hugged her mother.

"The question now is, what do you want to do about it?" her father asked and she looked at him in surprise.

"You're not going to try to stop me?" she asked. "But I thought you hated me being a superhero?"

"I don't like you putting yourself in danger. You are my beloved daughter. But these men hurt you and put you in danger. I don't think you want to do nothing. Or can do nothing. Not with this over your head."

"I'm going to talk to the other Avengers. And maybe we can see if we can track them down"

"Just be careful beta," her father said with a grave look on his face. "We don't want to see you get hurt again."

"I'll be careful dad," she said. "Can I-"

"Yes you can leave," he said with a slight nod.

"And don't forget to finish your homework!" her mother added as Kamala left.

Kamala smiled to herself as she left. She might not have her superpowers anymore and she had school and everything else, she had a family that cared about her and nothing could change that!

AN: XV-Dragon did consider writing a sequel as far as I can tell, but he never took it beyond the planning stage. So I asked for permission to write the sequel and he said yes. I'm also considering writing a sequel to this at some point.