𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐃𝐨 𝐖𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐥𝐥?

“With her wits and strength, she battled against the night,
And brought hope to the innocent, with all of her might.”

Penny Parker’s head whipped between the manor and Tim Drake. The boy seemed to notice her shock, as he quirked an eyebrow in confusion.

”Are you okay?” He questioned as the limousine slowed to a halt.

”You live here?” Penny asked in a hushed tone, so as to not let Alfred overhear. Unsure why his friend was so shocked, he nodded his head in confirmation. “With my boss?”

”Penny, you know I love you,” Tim began.

Those words made the girl’s heart flutter, but she quickly pushed it to the side.

”But have you lived under a rock your entire life?” The Drake boy finished. At Penny’s confused expression, he continued. “What’s my name?”

”Timothy Jackson Drake?” Penny stated as though it were obvious.

”Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne.” Tim corrected. In an instant, Penny’s eyes widened in a comical manner. She stared at her companion in shock.

”The fuck?” She muttered, causing Alfred to look back at the two of them whilst he shut off the car.

”Language Miss. Parker.” He lightly reprimanded, causing said girl to blush.

”Sorry, Mr. Alfred.” She responded with her head hanging low. Tim chuckled at her reaction, gaining himself a glare from the butler in the front seat.

”Come on, Penny.” He said, opening his door and climbing out. Hesitantly, Penny followed. She was in complete and utter awe of the manner in front of her. She stared up at it as though it was Mount Olympus. Tim placed a hand down on her shoulder, breaking her out of her trance-like state.

”You think this is cool? Wait until you see inside.” He told her, gently taking her hand and guiding her inside. Before the front door could close Penny turned around to face the butler.

”Thank you, Mr. Alfred!” She called. Her final word was cut off by the wooden entrance shutting. When she turned around she paused. Tim was right. The inside of the manor is even more insane. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, looking as though it cost more than Penny herself. The carpet beneath her feet was a deep maroon and had the girl immediately taking off her shoes and picking them up. This had Tim confused.

"What was that for?" He questioned. Penny looked between him and her dirty shoes.

"I'm not about to track mud on this carpet, Drake." She said with a 'duh' expression. Tim fondly shook his head before leading his friend further into the mansion he lives him.

Penny gazed upon the portraits that were hung from the walls, watching as the Wayne family grew from one to five in each of the paintings. Those five then shrunk to four as the second eldest son disappeared from the piece. It did not take a genius to realize what happened to Jason Todd. Tim must have noticed her stare as he began to speak.

“Jason died last year.” He began, making Penny look over to him. He did not seem sad, per se, but his head did hang slightly low. “Around the same time Robin did.”

”I’m sorry.” Penny apologized. She was quickly waved off, though.

“It’s okay. I didn’t know him.” Tim informed her. Their conversation drew to a halt when a figure leapt from the banister above to the floor below. Penny jumped backwards in surprise, slightly higher than the average person would be capable of. Dick Grayson stood in front of them, hands on his hips, and a smile on his handsome face.

”You must be Penny!” He exclaimed, shoving his hand forward for the girl to shake. Feeling no spidey-sense alerting her of danger, the teenager took Dick’s hand.

”Penny, this is Dick Grayson.” Tim introduced the two.

”Nice to meet you.” Both said in unison, causing them to smile.

”Are you new to Gotham?”

”Yeah, just moved here a couple weeks back.”

”Well, Timmy here just can’t stop talking about you.” Dick stated, causing Tim to blush a deep red. Penny soon followed suit. The Drake boy grabbed his friend by the wrist and began to drag her away, muttering a few choice words to his older brother as he did so. The girl turned around to wave goodbye to Dick, but was surprised to find him gone. With a shrug, she shifted her attention back to Tom.

”Where are we going?” She questioned, making Tim glance over his shoulder at her.

”You like chemistry?” He asked, earning an eye roll from the girl.

”No. I hate it.” She sarcastically responded. Tim stifled a laugh and covered it up with an unamused frown which he flashed to Penny.

“After I moved in, Bruce decided to turn one of the extra rooms into a lab.” The boy explained as they turn a corner. At the end of the hallway is a closed door with a sign on the front. A skull and crossbones is etched on the paper in ink. Penny looked to Tim with a raised eyebrow.

”I made it a couple years ago.” Her friend admitted before opening the door. Penny’s jaw dropped as she entered. The laboratory that she was surrounded by was on par with Mr. Stark’s. The walls were covered in blueprints and papers. Tables were piled high in mechanical devices and tools. It was messy, sure, but the type of mess that was organized. There was even a section of the room dedicated solely to science. Penny must have died and gone to heaven.

”Pretty cool, right?” Tim questioned, seeing Penny’s amazed expression.

”This is amazing! I mean, I’ve seen nice labs before, but this is next level.” The girl ranted, spinning around to take everything in. Tim watched as she did so with a smile.

”Wanna make something?” He asked, earning an excited nod from Penny.

”More than anything.” She stated. The two rushed over to the desk, Tim grabbing a blank blueprint along the way. The teenagers began to fire ideas back and forth between one another until they decided on a miniature robot. Penny, always having been good the prep work for an invention, began to jot down the measurements and calculations. Meanwhile, Tim gathered up any supplies that they may need. In that moment, Penny forgot about any and all suspicions she had of Tim. He was just her friend. He was not working with the dreaded Red Hood that attacked her. He was Tim. Her Tim.

The two began to work, starting with the most difficult part: the coding. It was a demanding task that required the full attention of both Penny and Tim.

”We need a name.” The girl suddenly stated, interrupting the silence that had enveloped them.

”What for?” Tim asked, looking up from his computer. Penny gaped at the question, throwing her pencil toward his head. The boy immediately dodged it, sticking out his tongue towards his companion.

”The robot deserves a name.” Penny informed him as though it were obvious.

“Fred?” Tim suggested. If Penny had another pencil she would throw that at him as well.

”We’re not naming our creation ‘Fred’!” She exclaimed. Tim shrugged his shoulders before speaking.

”Well, then I’m out of ideas.”

”What about R2-D2?” Penny proposed, expecting the boy to laugh. Instead, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

”Why that?”

”R2-D2? From Star Wars?”

All Penny received from Tim was a blank stare. It then occurred to her the idea that George Lucas did not create the original trilogy in this world. Maybe the director didn’t even exist at all.

”Sorry. It’s a New York thing.” The mutant nervously chuckled. Tim slowly nodded his head before looking back down at the coding before him. Before they continued, however, he said:

”R2-D2’s a cool name.”

▀▄▀▄ ••••••••• ▄▀▄▀

How the two teenage geniuses went from creating a thousand dollar robot to making chocolate-chip-cookies is a mystery. Penny sat atop the counter, munching on the raw dough with a content smile. Tim leaned against the wall beside her, watching the oven intently. Two dozen cookies were baking, the chocolate that broke the surface bubbling at the heat.

”Where’d you learn to make cookies?” The Drake boy questioned, looking over to Penny.

”My Aunt May.” She responded with a distant expression on her face. She hesitated before continuing. “After my parents died, I couldn’t sleep for weeks. She would stay up with me every night and teach me to bake. She wasn’t the best at cooking, but she was amazing at baking.”

”What happened to her?” Tim gently asked, not wanting to upset the girl.

”There was a meta attack in New York. My aunt was one of the civilian casualties.” Penny explained, licking the spatula clean of any dough. Wishing to shift the conversation to a lighter tone, she asked: “Where’d you learn to bake? I’d expect you to be just as bad at that as you are at coding.”

Tim grabbed a handful of flour off of the counter and threw it at the girl’s face. It was a harmless action on Tim’s part, but for Penny it was much more than that.

It was not flour that surrounded her, but dust from the debris of the fallen warehouse. She was not in the kitchen of Wayne Manor anymore but under thousands of pounds of cement. Her school uniform was replaced with her original Spider-Man suit. She could practically feel blood pouring from her wounds. All she could hear was the cackling of Adrian Toomes as he left her to rot.

Penny clawed at her throat, trying to get oxygen to her lungs, but to no avail. She could feel a pair of hands lower her to the ground, but even the human contact was not enough to level her. Her hunched over frame began to shake. Goosebumps ran up her arms and her hairs stood on end.

Tim watched as his friend struggled to breathe, unsure of what to do.

”Dad!” He desperately cried, his voice echoing throughout the mansion. He took Penny’s hands in his own, intertwining his fingers with hers. Two pairs of footsteps hurriedly entered the kitchen, freezing at the sight before them. The fire alarm was blaring as smoke rose from the oven.

Dick rushed over to stop the fire. He grabbed an oven mitt before removing the pan of burnt cookie and dumping them in the sink. He then proceeded to wave the mitt around the alarm in an attempt to make it silence.

Bruce Wayne on the other hand knelt down at Penny and Tim’s side.

”What do I do?” Tim frantically asked, tears welling in his eyes as he watched his friend gasp for breath.

”Penny, can you hear me?” Bruce asked, but the girl continued to stare forward as though she were somewhere else. The man gently took one of her hands from Tim’s and placed it on his son’s chest, right over his heart.

“What are you doing?” Tim asked, but was immediately shushed.

Penny, still amidst a flashback, suddenly felt a strange sensation on the palm of her left hand. It was a distant thumping that repeated every second. She can’t remember that happening when she was trapped underneath the warehouse. Only a few seconds later a faintly familiar voice flood her eardrums.

”Penny, listen to me. Whatever you are seeing, it’s not real.”

Her vision of the debris and blood began to wash away. It was replaced with the worried face of her friend.

”Tim?” She murmured, making said boy’s eyes light up.

”Yeah, it’s me Penny.” He confirmed. Penny looked to his chest to see her hand pressed above his heart. That answered one question. All that was left to answer was the ownership of the other voice. She looked to her left to see Bruce Wayne knelt beside her. It was then that she remembered exactly where she was.

“Am I fired?”