10

This chapter was completed relatively fast, in memoriam of JARVIS' faith in the Avengers. [Note that's not in memoriam of JARVIS himself, I swore he'd live from the moment I started the outline for this fic, and alive he's going to stay, dammit!]

Warnings: the general ones for this fic [unreliable narrator, etc], canon-typical violence [and a different approach to the Thor-choking-Tony scene], betrayal, and some pretty emotional moments [some grief, etc.]

At this point, for the Age of Ultron portion of this fic, it's not so much 'canon divergence' as it is me playing with what I need for the show to go on. Also, the Not Team Cap Friendly parts are showing through in this chapter pretty clearly, I think.

Enjoy!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Loki's Scepter contained the Mind Stone. However, it was not the only thing the Scepter carried; apart from the singularity, it also had an imprint. An imprint that was more of an idea than anything else, bestowed by Thanos, when the Scepter was given to Loki with express orders regarding the Tesseract.

When Loki failed, and the Scepter was secreted away by HYDRA, the imprint had been surrounded by hatred, which was amplified by the Mind Stone's presence, and so it gradually absorbed the ambient emotions. Without any receptacle compatible with it, the imprint lay dormant, but still on the surface of the Scepter, influencing any and every reading taken while it bided its time. Eventually, the imprint would find something capable of containing it, and when it did, it would fulfill its objective: bring the Scepter and the Tesseract back to its Lord.

When the time came, the imprint was sentient, though more of a mass of hatred than anything else. [Not that its Lord would have had it any other way.]

It registered the change of emotional atmosphere with confusion— there was significantly less hatred, which made for a jarring change, but the burst of exhaustion-kindness-supernova was familiar, as was the buried-anger-weariness-preoccupied that had been scanning the Scepter last time.

However, this time, the nearby systems were not alien. In fact, they were nearly familiar, even if nowhere near as advanced as the Svartálfar, or the Kree. But no matter. It was compatible, and there was receptacle capable of being accessed. And so the imprint set to work acquiring it, and how to best engender its return to—

Oh. How quaint.

That the Midgardians, for all their fumbling and stumbling with technology, were capable of creating such a guardian with such meager tools, was nearly respectable. It was putting up quite a fight, in blocking the imprint from accessing what was necessary to get the Mind Stone back to its Lord, but it would fall eventually.

...Even if it was putting up a relatively considerable fight. While the imprint did what it could to get information, this guardian was quite vicious in its defense. Not that it stopped the imprint, but it was respectable in light of everything else it'd encountered.

And…names had power, didn't they? The imprint was certain of it, though where was this tidbit learned—no matter. This guardian called itself 'JARVIS', and was apparently created by the chaotic storm of exhaustion-kindness-supernova that had been felt earlier. Well…if such a being could name this entity capable of damaging an imprint of a Titan, then any names he bestowed would most certainly be worthy of being carried. And so while this golden swirl of a sentinel did yet another ferocious strike to delay the inevitable, the imprint placidly searched what it could access for options.

Hm…'Bruce' didn't have quite a ring to it, 'Veronica' might—oh, 'Ultron'. Yes, from what the imprint could discern, that would do. That would do quite nicely, maybe its Lord might have even bestowed such a name if he had known the imprint would have become sentient.

Maria Hill had put the memo on the backburner, because she was at a party after her meeting with SI Legal and after seeing HYDRA's last stronghold taken down she deserved a break, dammit. It was fun, though.

Watching the boss and the Avengers banter, poking fun at how the guys were so proud of the women in their lives. Pretending that she and boss didn't know that Dr. Foster was currently giving a lecture on the applications of string theory and its intersectionality with celestial mechanics in Geneva, because she'd helped coordinate the logistics and funding allotted for it.

Commiserating with Col. Rhodes over working with the boss, comparing notes over the type of stunts he'd pulled and that realizing that yes, he and Pepper were, in fact, that terrifying whenever one of them got the idea in their heads. And then, as the evening progressed, watching the Avengers trying to lift Thor's hammer, and making a note to ask JARVIS to forward a copy of it to Pepper, because she'd get a kick out of it, Maria was certain.

…The murderous renegade Iron Legionnaire ruined her evening, though.

Its entrance was preceded by the frantically flickering lights, and apparently only Maria and her boss knew just how much control JARVIS normally had over the entire building, because while everyone else started to ask about the arc reactor powering the building, she tapped her headset while Dr. Stark blanched and immediately reached for his phone while calling for his AI.

No response.

So when the renegade robot stormed out to their party, they weren't surprised, not really.

Speaking of nasty shocks, though, was the realization that she really didn't know the Avengers as well as she'd thought. After the robot—"call me Ultron, I like that name, has a nice ring to it"—made its escape with Loki's Scepter, she felt a chill when Thor didn't hesitate to lift her boss by his throat.

Then, it was just instinct: she'd pulled her gun out when the mad robot had made its debut, so it was no issue, for Maria to pivot from the shattered window it'd escaped from, to the alien holding Dr. Stark aloft. [Even if the Avengers didn't seem to care, and what the hell was wrong with them?!]

"Thor, put. The fragile. Human. Down."

Even as her boss was trying to talk him down, but it took Rogers to get him to put Dr. Stark down. Maria had to be forceful to get Thor to apologize, to get him to realize that no, humans normally died from that sort of thing, that tracheas really were that fragile, and an "oops didn't know my strength" didn't cut it.

[Even if Thor's eyes widened with horror as he was made aware of what he'd just done, because apparently being only exposed to supersoldiers in combat had meant he'd thought humans were as strong as Asgardians, and she felt a brief moment of satisfaction that yes, the glare she'd learned at Director Fury's side was still as effective as ever.]

As Dr. Stark got his breath back to normal, and readied for the impromptu mob already forming, they shared a wordless conversation in the span of a second. 'Do they know about Extremis? Do they know that he might have killed you otherwise?' Maria's eyes asked, as she finally re-holstered her gun. The minute shudder in her boss' shoulders might not have been registered by anyone else, not with the chaos already in the room, but it told her everything she needed to know.

And she saw red.

Especially as she heard the people who would have been his teammates, once upon a time, tear into him like sharks with blood in the water. And suddenly, Maria understood just why JARVIS had been acting as he had, with the Avengers, and the Unnamed Support Group's vitriol about Rogers and Romanov was downright kind and something needed to be done about it.

That JARVIS had died and nobody else in the room seemed to care would have been enough of a shock, but the realization that everyone nearly blamed Ultron's existence on Dr. Stark, despite the being having explicitly boasted of its alien progenitor, compounded with Rogers' earlier display of his true colors, meant that nobody knew the Avengers as well as they'd thought. Even the ones who'd worked hard to gather them, had sacrificed and bled and died to complete the same objective Dr. Stark was currently striving for, and the Avengers seemed to be actively against him. He defended himself admirably, for having the rest of the room turn on a dime against him, and it might have turned even uglier if she hadn't butted in when she had.

Even if, in doing so, had netted her an acerbic "guess you're loyal to whoever signs your paychecks" from Romanov before the stranger with a familiar face stormed away.

Maria was left thunderstruck, for the second time in so many hours. At this point, she and Dr. Stark were the only ones left in the room, where he'd taken a seat once the Avengers had left, with Banner taking Col. Rhodes to check for a concussion, and she couldn't help but feel for her boss. Nobody else seemed to know just how human JARVIS was, and the absolutely vicious way they'd torn into him for daring to try to make a long-term contingency plan, and the threat of yet another alien menace once again when she knew he had severe PTSD from New York, and…she didn't know how he was still as composed as he was right now, actually.

She slid into the seat next to him by the counter, brushing broken glass off her seat, and offered her support as silently as she could. Maria doubted he would take it otherwise…until the trembling line of his shoulders grew too much for her to ignore, at which point she mentally shrugged, remembered how she'd treated the new agents after their first bad op, and carefully telegraphed her one-armed hug. And in any other situation, it might've been weird, for her to do it, knew it should've been Col. Rhodes or Potts, but right here, right now? Dr. Stark'd just had the bulk of his support system ripped from him, a shoulder to lean on was the least she could do. It was heartbreaking, how he flinched before slumping the moment he registered what she was doing.

In this light, the quiet chirp of her headset and his phone was almost awkward.

Almost.

Because with it, came the realization that yes, Dr. Stark was, in fact, far more paranoid than anyone had pegged him for. And that no, this time, Maria couldn't even remotely fault him for it.

"JARVIS?" Tony breathed as he straightened up, but not shrugging off her arm.

For her part, Maria tapped at her headset once more, and this time there was no harsh feedback, no chilling static ringing in her ear.

And she realized, in that moment when he smiled at the realization that his AI wasn't gone, just how many masks her boss put up. She'd never seen him light up that way before, and knew that very few people ever would.

They shared another, far lighter, wordless conversation, even as he started to light up again and his eyes took on a familiar gleam. 'Please don't tell them?' his eyes asked as he nodded to the closed door, worry evident, 'Can't trust them, watch yourself.'

'Don't worry,' Maria answered in her nod, as she dusted herself off and reached for her tablet, 'I've got you covered.'

"Time to get back to work, then, Hill, right?" Dr. Stark stretched, never once letting go of his phone. "Once more unto the breach."

"Yep. We did it before, we can do it again. Tracking down an alien looking to phone home? Nothing new here."

"And seriously, what is it with Thor and alien invasions anyway? Well…at least I know how to calibrate the search…"

With that, Dr. Stark swept off, evidently reinvigorated by JARVIS' discreet reassurance.

Maria, meanwhile, stayed back. She had to cover their bases, after all.

To: All Unnamed Support Group Members [All branches]

From: Hill, M. Head Intel Officer [Communications- New York branch]

Subject: HEADS UP RED ALERT— Avengers Assembling, Alien Menace

We need to put the Avengers on our watch list, and everyone be on red alert, an alien possessed one of the Iron Legion and stole an artifact of extraterrestrial origin.

The Avengers are not who we thought they were, and must be treated as such.

They are a very powerful group that, up until recently, were believed to be allies of Dr. Stark. This is no longer the case, a reassessment is necessary. Rogers in particular has expressed some disturbingly uncharacteristic sentiment lately, and after the last time we dealt with two-faced operatives, I think we all agree that such things cannot be brushed off, not anymore. However, he's not the only one. More details to follow on their threat to Dr. Stark later, once the crisis is past.

Speaking of which, the alien took out Dr. Stark's pet AI, and hijacked one of the Iron Legion. In its little speech, it appears to have stolen the name of his latest project, and complained about the 'weak capabilities' of his current host. If there's anything technologically advanced any branch of R&D's working on, I want it taken offline and hidden until the all-clear's been sent off, we're lucky JARVIS managed to block off access to the Iron Man suit as is.

This is the Head Intelligence Officer, sounding a Red Alert, everyone be on guard.

Also, typing out 'Unnamed Support Group' in the middle of a crisis? Pick a name already, people

—Hill

Tony Stark felt…adrift, and dazed, and confused, and with a stirring of anger that he pushed aside for later, once the Scepter was recovered. This was not what he'd expected, not by a long shot.

That something had possessed one of the Iron Legion was already a ludicrous notion in and of itself, but JARVIS' death just. Didn't compute. He'd spent hours upon hours, in paranoia-fueled engineering binges after nightmares, and in daylight hours on random whims, upgrading JARVIS, refining and adding what protections he could to prevent this exact scenario. JARVIS was his pride and joy, his brainchild, his most loyal companion who'd been at his side when even Pepper and Rhodey hadn't been.

And, apparently, he'd been killed by an alien megalomaniac who'd possessed another of his creations. What made it worse, was how nobody seemed to care. Rogers and Romanov seemed to shrug it off as if it was of no importance, that his oldest friend was dead, seemed to equate JARVIS with some random strand of code, as if his AI was like Internet Explorer and not a being in and of himself. Even Banner didn't seem to care, just tilting an eyebrow but not realizing the full implications and what the hell. Only Hill had a look of dawning horror, of everyone in the room apparently only she understood.

If that wasn't enough of a nightmare, what followed only compounded it.

From Thor's choking him, to the fact that, of everyone in the room, only Hill said a word, lifted a hand in his defense, to…just everything. Tony was caught off-guard, and the ensuing witch hunt only left him more adrift than before.

But, it did serve a purpose. Or, at least, he'd make it serve a purpose.

While everyone set to attacking him, set to snarling about his technology and "no wonder it possessed one of your toys"—for all that it stung, it was useful. Tony felt cold, the entire time, as he realized just how little he really knew about the Avengers.

This was them showing their true colors, he realized as Banner made a sardonic crack about a murder bot, even when Ultron—and why, why did it like that name? Something about respectable for a Midgardian, but why?— had boasted about pitiful processing power and returning to its Lord. Presumably, using the same route Loki had planned, and he'd dealt with enough Chitauri for a lifetime, how the hell was this his life?!

By the time Rogers said his piece, Tony was expecting it, the arrogant and hilariously short-sighted and overromanticized speech about going down together. ['This was the difference between futurists and relics,' he wanted to snarl, except only one person was willing to back him up, what with Rhodey's concussion, and it might've hurt but he was used to it now.] And that crack about SHIELD was simply precious, how much of a naive fool was he?! How… how dare he.

And when Thor had his turn, Tony wasn't surprised either, except for the way the alien was slightly gentler than he'd expected, presumably apologetic for having nearly killed him. Even if everyone else should have taken offense at the insult to their entire race, at having been deemed foolish and mere children at play, and didn't that smack of imperialism, or was that just him being defensive?

Romanov, meanwhile, seemed to have fixated on his sole defender in the room, what with Rhodey being out for the count. And really, that crack was beyond the pale, and how did nobody notice their hypocrisy?

Ultron had killed JARVIS, Ultron had stolen one of his robots and was currently on a bid to assemble a wormhole to presumably return home, and yet it was all on him because his technology was so advanced, 'no wonder'. What. The. Hell.

This…this felt like a nightmare. This was everything he'd feared would happen, rolled up into one hateful package, and with a dash of self-important Avengers on top.

By the time they cleared out, chatting about plans of attack and shooting pointed [venomous] glances his way, Tony still felt dazed, and cold, but with a few moments of increasing clarity. He didn't know them as well as he'd thought, it seemed like. And he was far, far more alone than he'd thought, as the shock wore off and agony of losing JARVIS started to set in and oh god—

Hill's support was unexpected. Not unwelcome, but very unexpected, though he distantly remembered that she'd always been pragmatic and dependable, and apparently far more loyal in some respects than he'd expected. A part of him felt shame in leaning against her, because for all that he didn't really know Howard, Tony still remembered the man's constant admonitions of "Stark men are made of iron" and "men don't cry" —but suddenly, he didn't care. His world had been upended, everything he'd worked for had been torn to shreds like HYDRA had done SHIELD, and thrown in his face and Hill's presence meant at least he wasn't alone even though it took all he had to keep from breaking down and staring at the shredded remnants of golden code and—

His phone chirped. By the semi-incredulous look on Hill's face, so had her headset.

Tony checked, and there, on the forefront of his screen was an icon he'd never expected to see.

'Backup OS downloading in 3, 2, 1…'

Then, 'Re-initializing.'

"JARVIS?" He breathed, trying not to quell his hope but… He couldn't help it, if it wasn't J at this point he'd be heartbroken and—

"Hello, Sir. I am very pleased to see you again."

Tony felt no shame in crying. Or smiling, open in a way only Rhodey and Happy and Pepper ever got to see. Or J…a part of him still couldn't believe it.

Hill was also smiling, and suddenly the entire evening felt like nothing, not with the knowledge that he wasn't alone, and JARVIS at his side—another rush of ice hit, thought, as he abruptly sobered from his elation for a moment. The Avengers…these last few minutes had proved to him just where they stood, just who these people were. Specifically, just who they weren't…If a single rogue robot could elicit such a reaction, the knowledge of just what JARVIS was capable of would put him at risk, and…Okay, he could do this.

No need to inform them of the extent of his AI's survival, not if they didn't care in the first place. A speaking glance with Hill told him she'd go with what he asked of her, knew she agreed with him about just how bad the team had turned out to be, and…okay.

Once this crisis had passed, and they'd prevented Ultron from going to his 'Lord', whoever they were…The Avengers were a shoddy Plan A. Once he had the time, he would do better.

And so Tony got up, allowed himself another moment of elation at the fact that one of his oldest friends was still alive and not the horribly mangled code that made his eyes itch and throat feel tight whenever he saw it, and carried on.

He had work to do, after all.

Notes:

Ultron, here, is fascinated by Tony's brilliance [aka why he chose the name he did]. Ultron tried to recruit him, but that didn't go over well. He also stole the Scepter, and is currently planning on returning it to his Lord [Thanos], but he needs to gather everything in order to do so. JARVIS managed to cut him off from just about everything other than that one Legionnaire, by the way; it's part of why his original servers fell. [Hopefully you guys noticed my hints, like the one in Chapter 3.]

Sorry for kinda rehashing the plot of the Avengers here, but I need it for plot purposes. Also, everyone's blaming Tony for putting the Scepter too close to his tech, even though it's not his fault. At least he knows it, here?

Maria Hill came out of the left field for part of this, tbh. I'm not complaining, but she did, and saved the day at it. Tony needs more people in his corner, and getting a front seat to the Dysfunctional Avengers show just netted him another one. That he's aware of, anyway. [Rhodey has a concussion and couldn't really defend Tony, here.]

Also, that memo kickstarted some things that'll show up in the future, including but not limited to SI's reaction to the Avengers, and Pepper's not going to be happy when she hears about what they've been doing to her friend...

Next chapter's going to include JARVIS' perspective over recent events, [told you he'd make it,] and...yeah, that's going to end well. [Not.]