A/N: welcome back!

this chapter i promise is not nearly as depressing as the last two were and it's somewhat exciting, if you will. it's all mysteriously setting up the next arc of the story!!

enjoy!

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The way you used to be

before...everything."
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FIVE MONTHS LATER

Life had become a well-oiled machine for the Starks.

Every morning, Tony and Pepper went for a run outside. And every morning, Adelaide dressed Morgan. Then Pepper came back to relieve her of her duties so she could go workout in their gym.

Pepper did some company work from her office, Tony took Morgan outside for a walk, and Adelaide went to sit by the lake to read her book. She'd gotten knee-deep into crime and mystery novels. They had lunch together as a family. Sometimes, they would go into the city for business, but by dinner time, they would all be together again. After some light tv, they hit their respective beds and it was lights out for everyone until the next day.

Well, for almost everyone.

Adelaide quietly closed her bedroom window behind herself as she lowered her hoverboard into the grass. Making sure she hadn't woken anyone up, she looked around the woods and then leaned forward on her hoverboard to make it speed through the trees.

After the Blip, the city had been in chaos. She had been too lost to care, but even now, over a year later, chaos still lingered in the streets. Perps had gotten more confident and the police department had lost half of their force. Some of the perps were just people desperate for food or medicine, but most were treating the post-Blip New York like the purge and there weren't enough officers left to stop them.

After losing half their force, the department had promoted their students on the verge of joining and promoted the lower-levels up which got them the numbers, but not the level of experience the original force had. Lots of the newbies were in terrible shape and barely knew the law. With the perps now more confident than ever, the newbies were also more easily rattled.

Living in the city had become a nightmare.

The city needed their friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man. Of course, so did she, but she realized that she would have to be the one to step in for him. She never thought it through, she just...knew that this was exactly what Peter would have done if he were still here. There was no plan, she just did her best to help the people.

It started a few months ago when she had begun to miss her city. She joined Tony and Pepper on their business trips sometimes and she noticed how bad things had gotten there. That was when she decided to try and help. Maybe she couldn't solve the problem (it truly was like whack-a-mole) but she had been sitting around at home for too long now. Plus, this made her feel closer to Peter than anything else had in months.

She knew she couldn't hide this from Tony forever, but she figured she'd take what she could get.

"Alright, TADASHI, where's the fire?" she asked once the city came into view.

"A bank robbery on the corner of 172nd and 168th. There are five people held hostage, two males, three females. Three perpetrators, all male. Authorities have been called and are on their way."

"Men," she mumbled under her breath as she steered her hoverboard in the direction TADASHI had shown her on the map.

Thanks to her new suit upgrade a year ago, she finally had a mask that covered the top half of her face and showed an enhanced version of her surroundings. She could see the time, the weather, the battery, the number of suit features that were online. It even had motion sensors and thermal and night vision.

Adelaide turned on her enhanced vision that showed her the perps in red and the hostages in blue as she lowered her hoverboard in front of the bank. The hostages were all tied to individual chairs with rope, no doubt just sitting ducks until the robbers finished up their job and then shot each one of them in the head. There had been a robbery before this, a few days back and she had been too late to get there in time...She shook her head, forcing the images out of her mind.

"TADASHI?" she whispered.

"You have ten minutes before the authorities arrive," he said. She frowned as she pulled out one of her guns strapped to her leg.

"Ten minutes? But the nearest precinct is, like, a couple blocks down south," she muttered.

"No one seems to want to work the night shift anymore," he said. She flattened herself against the wall of the bank, tossing her hoverboard up in the air. When it came down, it was keychain-sized and she slid it into her pocket. She looked over her shoulder at the perps shouting in one of the hostage's faces.

"Yeah, well, somebody has to," she muttered, checking her magazine, "Alright, I'm going in. You got my back?"

"Always do," he said.

She smiled as she walked through the front doors of the bank, invisible and shot a bullet up in the air. Everyone in the lobby froze. She counted just the one perp out here in the front. She suspected the other two were back in the vaults with one of hostages that had security clearance.

The hostages and perps were frantically looking around to find the source of the shot. She waved her fingers and an illusion of her appeared to her right. It was immediately shot at. Repeatedly. She shook her head with a sigh before holding up her invisible gun and shooting his leg. He crumbled to the floor, shouting curses in what she concurred was Italian. She walked over, taking his gun from him and pocketing it before making herself visible.

The hostages all breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the Blue Phantom. She quickly undid their ropes with her knife.

"Is there one more of you? In the back?" she asked quietly. They nodded. It must be one of the women. Once they were all free of the rope, she nodded towards the door. "Be quick. I'll get the other one."

They didn't have to be told twice. They hurried out the doors and she turned to the man she'd shot earlier, holding his leg and groaning in pain on the carpeted floor.

"Puoi camminare? Ho bisogno di te come esca," she said (Can you walk? I need you as bait.). He scowled at her and spat more colorful words out in Italian. She sighed, getting up. "Fine. I'll just drag you."

He shouted in complaint, but she didn't stop dragging him over the carpeted floor (silently hoping he'd get a carpet burn on the way) until they reached the vault that was slightly propped open. She glanced down at the man whose shirt collar she was pulling on.

"Look helpless," she whispered to him, "They better want you or else..."

"Or else what?" he spat. She leaned down to make sure he could hear.

"I'll put more bullets in you before you can say sorry," she threatened before straightening up.

She kicked open the vault door with her foot, and marched in there with the gun pressed to the temple of the man she was dragging beside her. This wasn't her first rodeo. Clearly, it wasn't theirs either. The other two perps stood up straight when they saw her coming in with their friend. She was right. There was one hostage there, standing off to the side with her wrists tied together. Strangely enough, they weren't emptying out the bank. In fact, most of the vaults were still closed. They were...looking for something.

Adelaide's glowing eyes gauged the perps. Tall, muscular, and...maybe Italian?

"Miss him?" she asked, nodding towards their friend on the ground, "You wouldn't mind if I blow his brains out, would you?" She read their face as they both shared a look. She raised an eyebrow. "Oh? So you would mind? Well, I think we can meet in the middle. You leave the bank and the woman alone and I'll send him right back to you."

"It's okay," the man on the ground said, "For Maranzano."

The two men nodded at him. "For Maranzano," they both agreed.

Adelaide cocked her head in confusion but before she could take any action, the man pulled out a tiny vial of something and drank it. She stepped back in surprise, watching as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he crumpled to the floor. She frowned. All for a bank job?

She heard a click and looked up to find one of the two Italians, holding a gun to her head.

"Qualche parola finale, bella?" he asked with an arrogant smile (Any last words, beautiful?).

"Sì, bello. Hai bisogno di qualcuno che ti mostri qui intorno?" she smirked (Yeah, handsome. Do you need someone to show you around here?).

"Maybe some other time, sweetheart," he grinned before pulling the trigger.

His face fell when the bullet when through her head and she didn't flinch. She was still there, smiling deviously at him and there was no bullet wound in her body.

"Over here, pal," she said from across the room.

He immediately turned toward her voice and shot another bullet. She was still invisible so he missed, obviously. She enabled the electric nano-cuffs from her suit and shot them at him to tie his wrists together. Before his friend could try to shoot her, she did the same to his wrists too.

Now this was a fair fight.

She jumped towards the one closest to her and landed her fist on his jaw as hard as she could. She heard a satisfying crack. He kicked her feet out from underneath her and she landed flat on her back with a groan. Her eyes widened when she saw him coming at her with a knife and she immediately rolled over. Not fast enough, it seemed. Something stung on her arm but there was no time to stop and put a bandaid on it now.

She jumped up to her feet again, this time, elbowing his back as hard as she could so he folded over in pain.

The other man came at her and she made herself invisible before jumping onto his shoulders and choking him. He was gasping for air, clawing at his throat. His friend got up from the floor and she whipped out the knife from her boot and threw it straight at him. It landed squarely in the palm of his hand, holding him against the wall. He shouted in pain, blood dripping from his hand.

She was still sitting on the shoulders of the other man and he wasn't passing out fast enough. She brought her gloved fingers down into his neck at exactly the right places to make sure he passed out and didn't die. He was out in a second.

She jumped off of him just before his body hit the ground. Slowly, she walked over to the other man who was staring at his hand held to the wall by the knife.

"I'm gonna make this easier for the cops," she breathed, "Some of them are still new. But you knew that."

So she knocked him out with a fist to the face and pulled her knife back out of his hand. She shook it a couple times to get the blood off, but still made a mental note to clean it later as she pocketed it back into her boot. Nothing was worse on a knife than crusted blood. Maybe guts.

Finally, she turned to the terrified, old woman who had been standing there the whole time. Her frantic eyes looked all around the room at the three, grown men lying on the floor and the short girl who had just knocked them out like they were flies. Her eyes widened with fear as the girl approached her. Adelaide held her hands up.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, ma'am," she said, "I'm here to help, I promise."

The woman nodded unsurely.

"What's your name?" she asked slowly.

"Rosa Gonzales," she said.

"I just need to know something about these men. What were they here looking for?" she asked carefully. The woman shook her head.

"I-I don't know," she said in a shaky voice, "Th-They kept asking f-for documents."

"What documents?" Adelaide frowned.

"I-I really d-don't know. Th-They kept saying R-Randall Keys," she said.

"Randall Keys? The director of the NYPD?"

"I don't know, I just— I don't know!" she said, bursting into tears. Adelaide stepped back. She was clearly terrified after everything. She needed to rest, not be interrogated.

"Officials are here," TADASHI said. She frowned at the woman and then looked back over at the dead man lying on the ground by the door. He had drunken poison rather than admit to what they were doing here. Something wasn't right about this. Things just weren't adding up.

"Thank you, ma'am," she finally said quietly as she heard the authorities coming into the building, "I'm sorry for what happened, but you'll be safe now."

She turned herself invisible and walked out of the vault, past all the officers without a sound.

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After stopping a couple harmless crimes, she found herself sitting on top of the Empire State Building.

She came here a lot in the past six months. It was hard not to. It was the tallest building in the city skyline and every time she looked at it, all she could think about was him. She sighed, leaning back against the building, finding herself craving his touch again. Her fingers gripped the cold metal underneath her.

It was so peaceful up here. She could see everything at once and, yet, nothing at all. All her problems were literally farther away from here. But there was nowhere on this planet that she could go to to escape him. He was everywhere in her mind, in every blink and breath and beat of her heart. There wasn't a day that passed without him crossing her mind.

"Ada?"

"Hm?"

"I-I know you're still scared...about us. But I just want you to know that I'm not leaving. I know everything there is to know about you and it doesn't scare me. And whatever happens in the future will happen. We'll get through it together, I promise. You don't ever have to worry about me leaving," he said. She smiled softly into his shoulder.

"I know, Pete," she whispered, "I know."

Peter held her even closer and kissed the top of her head before looking back up at the view of the city as snow fell over it.

"I love you," he whispered, "So much."

She stared at the dark night sky. There were no stars in the thick of the concrete jungle. Still, she imagined that he was out there somewhere, watching her. Maybe he was together with Ben again. With May and both of his parents. Hell, everyone they had known had been blipped. He probably didn't even miss her up there. He had everyone there with him so why would he?

Lucky asshole.

"When I get up there, I'm kicking your ass for dying before me," she muttered to the sky. She stared up for a second as if waiting for a reply before sighing.

The night was over. It was time to go home.

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Adelaide didn't realize she had a wound on her arm until she put her weight on it while climbing in through her window.

She bit a curse as she climbed the rest of the way into her room. Once she was inside, she peeled off her suit and pulled on one of Peter's old t-shirts and a pair of her shorts before silently sneaking into the bathroom across the hall. His clothes didn't smell like him anymore, obviously, but they still brought her comfort to wear.

At the Tower, she had a bathroom in her room. In the cabin, only the master and guest bedrooms had a bathroom inside, and the other two bedrooms used the bathroom across the hall. Which was fine for now because she was really the only one who used it, but if Morgan hogged it all when she was older, then Tony was gonna have build her a new one one in her room.

She turned on the light in the bathroom before rummaging through the medicine cabinet for the first aid. She grabbed the box, taking it with her to the sink before finally daring to roll up her sleeve and look at her cut in the mirror. She winced. It wasn't that bad. She'd definitely had worse before. She wouldn't need stitches, thank god. It was a little shy of big, just below her shoulder. Some ointment and a big bandaid and she'd be fine to go out again tomorrow night.

She was in the middle of cleaning it with water when there was a knock on the door. She glanced at the clock. It was past midnight. Slowly, she opened up the door.

Tony. With his bedhead and wrinkled pajamas and his famous, I knew you were sneaking out cause I'm smarter than you smile that she'd seen too many times. She sighed.

"How long have you known?" she mumbled, stepping back to let him into the bathroom.

"For someone who can turn invisible, you're not very good at sneaking out," he said. She rolled her eyes. "Where's the fire?"

She turned to show him the cut on her left arm. It didn't look half as bad now that she'd cleaned it up. But when you're looking through the lens of a father, it's all three times as bad. She tried to lighten the mood as he reached for the rubbing alcohol.

"You should see the other guys," she joked. He didn't crack a smile.

All Tony could think was this was the first time in a long time that he was helping her clean a wound that wasn't self-inflicted.

She winced when the alcohol touched the wound, but tried to keep her cool. She didn't want to admit how much it really hurt. She watched him as he steadily cleaned the cut. It was one of those moments that just felt like home. Any moment with Tony felt like home, really.

"What?" she said quietly when he reached for the bandaid without a word, "No lecture?"

"You're almost eighteen," he said, "You can make your own decisions." She watched him curiously. Maybe he knew why she snuck out every night. He surely had seen the articles. The articles that labeled her as the next best thing since Spider-Man. Maybe he knew she snuck out to feel closer to him, to keep his legacy alive.

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment. She knew her sneaking out made him worry. She didn't really like making him worry. This was just something she had to do. He of all people could understand that.

"There," he said, gently running his thumb over the bandaid and stepping back.

"Thanks," she said as he cleaned up everything. She frowned, reaching out to touch his arm to get his attention. "Tony."

There was this look on his face. She gingerly touched his cheek. His tired eyes fluttered closed.

"Dad," she said quietly. He sighed, finally looking at her. His eyes were glossy. "Talk to me."

"What's there to say?" he mumbled, "I...I watch you every day. You've been through so much." She watched as he took her hand from his face and turned it to show the inside of her arm and wrist. It was littered with scars. She swallowed. She tried not to look at them too much herself. They never brought any good memories. His fingers traced over some of them delicately as if they were still cut wide open. "I just want to see you happy again. The way you used to be before...everything. I-It kills me inside that I can't do anything. All this money and power, and I can't..."

"I'll be okay, Tony," she whispered.

"No. No," he said, shaking his head, "I know you, hon. I know you'll never move on from this. I know this is just going to gnaw at you for the rest of your life and I can't watch you spend your life like that. I-It's my fault, I should have—"

"Hey, it's not your fault," she said gently, taking his hand into hers, "Besides, I've got you. The retirement home offer is still up for grabs, right?" That made him smile a bit.

"Always," he said.

Ever since Morgan had been born, Tony had...slowed down. He made an effort to be present more. He'd grown softer and, for