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Gotham was as cruel and unforgiving as Penelope Parker’s home universe.
She took and took and kept taking until there was nothing left to take from you and then find something else to take from you.
But as cruel as she was, Gotham had given Penny something she had lost: a family again.
As odd as it was to find herself falling through a multiversal tear due to Harry and Kingpin’s failed collider, it was nothing compared to the shock and realization that her father was alive.
Richard Parker, or rather Dick Grayson as he was known here, had a father, had brothers, had sisters, had a fiancée, but upon the bombshell that was Penelope May Parker being his daughter, he had only cradled her cheeks in his hands and promised to keep her safe.
As much as she hated not being out on the field, being her newfound family’s girl in the chair alongside Barbara (her mother!) was solace enough.
It allowed her time to rebuild her suit from scratch.
It allowed her time to learn about Gotham’s Rogues and just how dangerous they were.
It allowed her to learn about her new family and allowed her to be learned in return.
It allowed her time to be Penny Parker for the first time in a long time and not just Spider-Man.
“Why Spider-Man?” Bruce Wayne, her grandfather she supposed, had asked her.
“Because it was safer for everyone to think I was a boy.” Penny replied.
Gotham was dangerous.
Her spider sense was constantly going off which is why she was so caught off guard on the way to the library.
Gotham made it impossible to distinguish what was dangerous to her life and what was just a simple mugging; her anxiety being here was off the charts as were her senses.
Penny hadn’t known Harry had also fallen though the multiversal tear as well.
She had thought that the laughter was one of the Joker’s goons; they had been unusually active since she came to Gotham.
It hurt to see him again.
“Penelope Parker,” the burnt and scared Harry Osborn cackled atop his hoverboard. “You said Spider-Man wouldn’t come for you! You lied to me!”
It could have been the screaming or the shouting, but Tim opened the library doors to see what was wrong, to see if she was okay; she liked to think that they didn’t see the worry in her eyes for their safety but by the subtle shifts in his posture, Penny didn’t hide it well.
She had fought Norman Osborn as Goblin many times until his unfortunate death.
She had watched as Harry became more and more furious with Spider-Man. Erratic in his loathing that he believed if he and Kingpin could use Penny as a hostage, Spider-Man would come running to the rescue because he showed up for the photographer.
She felt her heart break upon realizing that her friend was no longer in his right mind.
And now he was the Green Goblin.
Penny didn’t know this version Green Goblin was capable of.
That made him dangerous; to Gotham, to her family in a different dimension, to their secrets.
Penny would protect her family from this threat; she owed them that.
“Harry? How are you here? What did you do to us?” Penny asked in horror.
Tim discreetly sent a text, presumably to alert Barbara and the rest of the Bats, while he himself tried to slowly walk up behind the new Goblin.
“What you made me do, Penny.” Harry’s voice had different timbres, as if two voices were trying to speak at the same time; it eerily reminded her of Venom and Eddie but this was nothing like the Symbiote and freelance journalist. “You said he wouldn’t come for you but he did! When we got sucked into the collider, he jumped after you! Spider-Man is here! You lied to me!”
Oh God oh God oh God oh God!
Shit!
Damn it all!
If Penny had known Harry was here, she would have never made the suit.
She would have never gone out and flown with the bats.
She would not have cursed them with the target that was Spider-Man.
“Harry, he doesn’t care about me. He just helps peop-” She tried to calm him down.
“STOP LYING TO ME!” Harry’s pupils shone with a sickly green hue. “Spider-Man killed my father! He killed Gwen!”
Penny was not proud to admit that she took a couple steps back but in her defense, she wasn’t wearing her kevlar or had her web-
FUCK!
She left her web shooters back at the cave; half put back together after being fried through the multiverse!
Penny didn’t dare take her eyes off Harry but she could sense the spike in Tim’s blood pressure and the hitch in his breath as he realized the same thing.
Tim stumbled but caught himself on the library steps.
Harry turned and saw him.
“You were my friend! I loved you! And you betrayed me!” Harry shouted; Penny knew Harry was jealous. She had seen it with other people. She had excused it as him not having a lot of close friends and wanting to keep the ones he had close; she was guilty of it too after everyone forgot about her. She had clung to being known again, to being remembered with an unhealthy dependency, but Spider-Man gave her a glimpse into what healthy male friendships should be like with Johnny and Miles, what Ned had once been to her.
She could already see the thoughts forming in his head, the scenarios that Harry must be coming up with as he sees an objectively nice looking young man attempting to rescue a girl in distress; a young man with the same frame as a spider.
“Harry, no. It’s not what you think.” Penny tried to take back Harry’s focus but it was too late; his eyes were now green slits, the two voices now became one.
Goblin had taken over.
“Is this him!?!” Green Goblin snarled.
Tim, to his credit, did not flee as the Green Goblin swooped.
“You destroyed my happiness, my life! Now,” Green Goblin maneuvered the board so he was now flying towards Penny. “Itsy Bitsy, I’m going to ruin yours!”
Oh shit!
Penny heard Tim’s cries fade as Harry flew her away.
Bruce’s blood ran cold when Barbara made the call.
The confession from the Joker’s goons in the police station only confirmed his fears; Joker was assisting someone, hiding their tracks with his bombs and his robberies so this new rogue, this goblin could work in the shadows and “squish a spider.”
“And the Joker?” Commissioner Gordon asked.
“Nightwing, Batgirl, and Red Hood are escorting him to Arkham.” Batman replied.
“Good.” Jim sighed and rubbed his eyes. “I haven’t met your new addition, but if the Joker has teamed up with someone, it’s someone very dangerous.”
Before he could reply, Oracle got on his comms.
“B, Goblin took Penny! Joker and his goons were a distraction. He’s taking her to Wayne Tower.” Barbara’s voice as Oracle was cold and calculating; Bruce could feel the steel in her, the anger.
“Hmn.”
“Spoiler and Signal en route. RR and Robin are closest. Will alert Nightwing and the others.
“Batman?” Jim looked at him.
“Green Goblin. Wayne Tower.” Batman was already out the door and sped off into the night by the time the lights and sirens were sounded.
It was like the Goblin was toying with them as he wove around skyscrapers and swerved just sharp enough to elicit a scream from Penny.
The amplified receivers Red Robin had placed around the city provided Oracle the audio for her surveillance for cases but in this it allowed the Bats to hear every scream, every plea, every “Harry! Stop this!” from Penny.
“Harry stop this right now!” Penny shrieked when he made another circle around the top of the tower; too high for the Bats and the Birds to grapple to her. “This isn’t you Harry.”
“Harry is dead!” Goblin snarled at her.
“Don’t provoke him.” Nightwing pleaded under his breath.
“Goblin! If you want a fight then let her go and come fight me!” Red Hood shouted. “Fight us and let her go.”
Batman knew what Green Goblin was going to do before he even let Penny go.
He had leaped off the roof with his arms outstretched.
For a couple heartbeats, time slowed down; Penny seemed like she was floating instead of falling, she seemed so far away and Bruce had a flicker of doubt that he would catch his granddaughter.
But he had caught her.
Her arms wrapped around him tight which allowed him to use a free hand to fire the grappling hook. They fell in an arc and broke some windows but they could be replaced, Penny couldn't.
She was too precious to the Bats.
He tried to shield her as they fell, trying to land first since she wasn’t in a suit and more vulnerable to pain.
“Are you okay?” Batman asked, his cape having wrapped around her, protecting her from the glass.
Penny shook her head, eyes wide with fright, but then her head turned sharply to the broken window.
Batman saw a pumpkin bomb land next to them.
He didn’t think twice as he rolled them over, shielding his granddaughter with his body as it exploded.
Bruce Wayne’s office was destroyed.
Glass shattered.
Walls torn down.
And Penny, sweet, kind, intelligent Penny, was flung from his grasp as the shock wave pulled them apart.
He watched in horror as he saw Penny’s foot disappear out the other side of his office.
He heard her shriek.
Batman’s ears rang as he pushed himself forward.
He saw Red Hood two floors below, laying on a ledge, hand grasping Penny; he was the only thing between her and a multistory drop.
Comms were open, as they always were when dealing with a Rogue.
“I got you. Gonna pull you up.” Red Hood said in a calm voice as he pulled Penny to the ledge and helped her up.
Harry, the green, goblin like rogue from Penny’s world, dove and tried to swipe at Red Hood and Penny but Red Robin, Spoiler, and Batgirl were able to divert his attention to them; allowing Nightwing and Robin to take Penny away from the fight.
Red Hood shot at Harry, covering their escape.
Batman did not hesitate as he leaped down; he had landed on Harry’s back and knocked him off his rhythm.
Punches in the face did not deter Harry; they only enraged him.
Harry slammed Batman into the side of Wayne Tower, forcing him to let go of the rogue.
Red Robin took his place; slamming him with his bo staff, Red Robin knocked Harry off his hover board.
Batgirl grabbed the rogue, wrapping her arms around his neck with Spoiler and Red Robin as backup to take him down.
Horror took over Batman as the hoverboard spiraled without a rider and crashed underneath where Nightwing, Robin, and Penny were.
Batman watched as the three fell.
Batman shot his grapple and swung in a clean arch, catching his Robin; trusting Nightwing to catch his own little bird.
Nightwing grunted as he fired off his own grappling hook into the building and landed on the roof of the twentieth floor before retracting the cord and firing the hook towards Penny who had caught it; dangling a good twenty feet below Nightwing.
Nightwing retracted the cable, pulling Penny up towards him when Harry, who had broken free of Batgirl, Spoiler, and Red Robin, jumped him.
Red Hood shot at the rogue, doing his best to help Nightwing but Harry had pulled a wicked looking knife and was attempting to either stab Nightwing or cut the cable; whichever he could accomplish first.
Batman grappled over but Red Hood had gotten there first and had Harry in a choke hold.
Nightwing was struggling to hold the grappling gun and hold off Harry.
“It’s like he’s on Venom.” Red Hood grunted.
Batman joined in, grunting as he strained against the rogue’s opposing strength.
He would not let a rogue harm his family.
He would not let this rogue harm his family.
Goblin did not seem to be struggling as Red Hood choked him.
Batman was struggling to hold back one of his arms.
It took Spoiler, Batgirl, and both Robins to attempt the other.
Nightwing was still pinned underneath the rogue.
“Nightwing?!” Penny called up.
She sounded like a terrified little girl asking for her father to make everything okay.
Batman will not fail her; he failed Dick more times than he could count, he failed Jason, Tim, Stephanie, oh God, has he failed Stephanie, Damian, Cass, Duke, Barbara…
Batman would not let Penelope Parker’s name be added to the list.
He would not let anyone break her.
Harry laughed maniacally.
Then everything exploded.
Harry had blown himself up to take them down.
It backfired for him just as it had backfired for the Bats.
Shouts and screams happened but Batman’s ears were ringing again.
Everyone was accounted for except Nightwing.
The rogue was now unconscious; Red Hood and Red Robin both taking point to zip tie his hands and feet.
He saw Spoiler shaking.
He saw Robin collapse to his knees on the roof.
Batman had a horrible thought creeping into his mind.
Dick Grayson was his son because John and Mary Grayson had fallen to their deaths; fate wouldn’t be so cruel as to give Dick a daughter and make him watch her die the same way, would it?
Hesitantly, he made his way to the edge of the roof.
He was terrified to look.
He didn’t know what he would find.
He looked down anyway.
Dick Grayson saw his parents’ deaths in his dreams.
He saw it every time he closed his eyes until he got so used to it, the pain numbed and Dick was finally able to take flight as Robin.
He felt the grappling hook slip from his hands.
He heard the ringing in his ears.
He heard his mother’s scream in the way he heard Penny gasp as she started to fall.
Dick didn’t trust anyone but himself to jump after her.
Dick didn’t trust anyone but himself to catch her.
Dick didn’t want anyone but himself to blame if he failed.
Dick might have screamed as he launched himself over the side of the building; he didn’t hear anything over the ringing.
Lub-dub; one heart beat.
Penny’s hair had come out of her braid, making his daughter look like an angel as she fell; her eyes, a precious mix between his and Babs’, seemed resigned.
Why wasn’t she-
Dick’s eyes widened at the realization.
Penny wasn’t going to attempt to save herself if it meant exposing the Bats’ identities; she was willing to die to keep them safe.
Even if it meant Dick would lose her.
No.
Lub-dub; second heart beat.
Dick had snatched the falling grappling hook with one hand and used falling debris to push him closer to Penny’s falling form.
He had just gotten to meet his daughter.
He was not going to lose her.
He reached out to Penny, grabbing her hand and pulling her close. He felt her arms squeeze him tight as Dick maneuvered them so he was the one falling first.
He fired the grappling hook.
Lub-dub; third heart beat.
Penny’s face was buried in his shoulder as they fell.
Dick held her tight.
The hook was secured.
Lub-dub; fourth heart beat.
Dick held Penny close to his chest as they propelled towards the pavement below.
Dick Grayson saw his parents’ deaths in his dreams.
At least tonight, he would not have to be haunted by Penny’s.