A/N DON'T SHOOT! DON'T SHOOT! DON'T SHOOT! WHATEVER YOU DO DON'T SHOOT! I'm so sorry. I cried when I wrote it if that's any consolation. Here is the epilogue. Don't be angry with me. The sequel will be called The Silence of a Scream. I'll have the first chapter up in a week. I want to think my amazing support group of family and friends that believed I could make it through this story without pulling all my hair out from the root. And I want to think all of my amazing readers out there too. Thank you all so much. Anyway, here it is. The epilogue of The Strongest of the Weak. R&R!

Disclaimer: I don't own Ultimate Spider Man. Only the character Katherine.

EPILOGUE:

One Week Later

Danny walked slowly from the church. He was dressed in a nice black suite. After everything had ended, the rest of the team returned to Queens. The days that followed were some of the most painful the boys had ever experienced. They had to deal with paper work and explaining what happened.

Today was the memorial for Ava. She was dead.

The bodies of the three were never recovered. No one knew where they went after the fall. By now, they were at the bottom of the New York Harbor, never to be seen again.

Danny left without his friends. As soon as the service ended, he left. He could not face people trying to be kind and happy. All he wanted was to be left alone.

Ava, the love of his life, was dead.

His friends did their best to be supportive. Danny did not care. They were not the ones taking a plane to Puerto Rico tonight. They were not the ones who were going to hand Ava's sister a folded up American Flag and the White Tiger mask in the morning. They did not have to face her crying family. It was Danny who was doing this.

He walked through the busy city. He saw the people, but did not comprehend them. He knew they were there, but did not care. He did not hear the sounds of car horns and talking. He was deaf to the world.

There were no reports about White Tiger on the news yet. No one knows. All people think they know is that Ava Ayala was visiting her family in Puerto Rico over the weekend and was in a fatal car crash. They also believe her body was kept in the country for her family to bury.

Danny did not know where he was going nor did he care. He wanted to be far away from himself and the pain he was feeling.

When the story about White Tiger came out in about a week they would tell the truth about what happened to the hero. The world would know she died protecting the world. No one would ever suspect the two were connected.

Before he knew it, Danny was in the elevator at his office building. He walked slowly to his office. He ignored all the employees trying to ask him questions. He walked into his office and locked the door behind him.

Danny sat down at the desk. He was numb. He could not believe she was gone. He played back the memories in his head. Nothing made sense to him. The only thing he knew for sure?

Ava Ayala was dead.

Danny dropped his head into his hand and cried. He had not shed a tear since that night. All he did was cry. Soon, he fell asleep at his desk.

There was a tapping at the window.

This is what woke Danny from his peaceful sleep. He turned around and knew instantly he was dreaming.

He got up, opened the door to his balcony, and walked out into the cool evening breeze.

"You're not real, are you," he asked in a flat tone.

"Of course I'm real," the figure answered.

"That's not possible, you died. I watched you die a week ago. This is just my mind trying to help me cope," he said back.

"Danny. Danny, look at me."

The boy obeyed and looked into the figure's eyes.

"I am real." It touched his hand. "I am alive. I lived. Just because this is in your head doesn't mean it isn't real."

Danny stood straight up and looked at the figure.

She leaned in and pressed her lips to his. "I am real," she whispered. "All you have to do is find me."

She slowly started to fade into black.

Danny woke with a start. He had fresh tears running down his face.

She was alive. He felt a connection in that dream. That was not a natural thing. That was magic at work.

Danny would find her if it was the last thing he accomplished in his life.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

Danny knows now that Gandhi was wrong. A strong person can forgive and forget. A weak person can do neither. Danny could forgive the damage that has been done by Katherine, but he would never forget what happened.

It is for this reason Daniel Rand is the strongest of the weak.

The teenage boy stood and changed into his Iron Fist costume. With practiced fingers, he tied on his yellow mask. He leaned down over his desk and wrote something down on a sheet of paper.

He did this because he was not telling anyone he was leaving. He was going to do this alone. Some journeys must be faced this way. If they want to know where he is this will be enough for the team to get the message.

Because, on that sheet of paper was a single name.

"Ava."