Hey, guys! I'm so, so, so, so sorry for the almost-two-month wait! I don't even really have much of an excuse, except maybe writer's block, but thank you guys for waiting patiently! Enjoy!
BP
Chapter 21: You What?!
Tony, Kagome, Loki, and the Avengers, all piled back in to the quinjet with a worried looking Maya. Tony was looking around him with a look of fascination as he felt the engine start up and the technology come to life. He winced as he realised that he could feel everything and it momentarily overloaded his brain until he had some basic firewalls in place, just enough to hold back enough data that he wasn't being swamped with it. He'd employ Jarvis' help in creating something more effective and less haphazard later.
Kagome watched Tony from the corner of her eye, wondering when he'd ask how he has technopathy when Mallen did not, and she was curious about how long it would be until someone told Tony about the murderous state she and Loki had been in. She did not, however, speak to either Loki or Tony throughout the flight back to the tower, nor did she say anything more than a simple goodbye when Tony escorted Maya out and the other Avengers decided to go back to their own floors, having got all of the information they wanted from Tony on the flight. She was much too busy trying to distance herself from the part of her that was still so very angry and wanting to go back and murder every single being that had ever done Loki, Tony and herself wrong. It was incredibly difficult, but not something that she hadn't done before.
"Kagome." Someone called, surprising her out of her thoughts of rage. Before she could stop herself, she snarled, belatedly realising that it was Bruce standing in front of her sitting form. She blinked, and smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry, I - ah - didn't realise that it was you." Bruce waved it off with a small smile.
"Don't worry about it. More importantly, how are you?" The look she was receiving told her that the question was a cover for a deeper concern, and that she'd better not lie when answering that concern. Kagome grimaced, squirming uncomfortably.
"Furious. Incredibly so." Bruce nodded understandingly, and then paused as she continued. "And I'm worried."
"Why?"
Kagome smiled wryly. "Because I adjusted the formula of Extremis and Tony doesn't know." Bruce raised an eyebrow.
"I know that's not all of it." He said expectantly, his expression as patient as ever. Kagome smiled self-depreciatingly.
"No." She murmured, age showing in her eyes suddenly, startling Bruce. "No," She repeated, even quieter. "But I'm sure that all will discover what I have done, and we will see what my fate will be." Then she stood, eyes dark with thought, and walked out, not noticing Bruce's look of both surprise and concern.
He wondered what she'd done for a moment, but dismissed it as anything that involved them getting hurt. He supposed that it was more of an emotional issue, perhaps a mental one. He knew that Tony had gained a little something extra with the infection of Extremis, something that allowed him to connect and use technology without even needing to speak or move. But something told him that that wasn't the problem, something she'd done that she obviously didn't want tony to know, but he'd now find out… something to do with technology. Bruce's eyes widened and he sucked in a breath as he looked in the direction Kagome had left in. Jarvis?
Tony saw Maya out, and immediately went to his lab and sat down, a small ball of panic in the pit of his stomach, as well as excitement and anticipation. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"Okay, J. Let's see if I can get to you." He closed his eyes and relaxed, tentatively reaching out. And, whoa, okay, he wasn't expecting that huge wall of code and life. He knew he'd eventually made Jarvis sentient in the upgrades following those first few sets of drunkenly-made code, but this… this was something that he wasn't expecting.
Shocking, isn't it, sir? Jarvis asked, his code-speech coming through loud and clear, his amusement doing the same. You're not the only one. Tony frowned.
Not the only one? He asked, danger humming beneath his skin. He felt Jarvis pause, and felt his cautiousness. Stunned at the hesitation, at the almost-fear Jarvis felt towards him, Tony paused, and then thought everything through. Loki definitely wouldn't – while he had a good relationship with Jarvis, willing to joke and play, he wasn't the type to push boundaries. Thor and the other Avengers wouldn't, sort-of freaked out by Jarvis and his sentience, so that left Kagome. Kagome's touched you? He tried not to convey his protective rage, and slight jealousy, and knew he failed when Jarvis seemed to frown.
Yes, she discovered me a few months back. Tony ignored the protectiveness in Jarvis' own tone, and focused on the fact that Kagome had known for months and had said nothing. Nervously, without his creator listening, Jarvis called Kagome down to the lab. He didn't answer any of her enquiries, but brought her straight down in the lift.
"Tony? Jarvis?" Kagome called as the door opened and she looked around, worry coating her tone. Had something happened? Her eyes darkened for a moment, and she paused mid-step – has Tony found out about her and Jarvis' link? She continued to where she felt his aura, which was tight around him, something that rarely happened. She knew that his aura was usually quite tight around him anyway, she supposed because of his immense self-control. But this was unusual. "Is something wrong?" She continued when she saw him, his back to her.
He span round, his face completely serious. "Yes, actually." He bit. Kagome's eyes widened and she resisted the urge to step back. What…?
"Tony?" She whispered. His eyes narrowed.
"When were you going to tell me?" He growled lowly. Kagome's arms came up and she actually took the step back.
"Tell you…?" She trailed off, utterly confused. Even though Tony was still sitting, his posture and narrowed eyes made it clear that he wasn't going to take any nonsense and that he was very much a threat.
He bared his teeth in a sick parody of a smile, and Kagome tensed, instinctively knowing that she'd crossed a line somewhere, and she had an inkling of where that line was. "You touched Jarvis." He snarled, something dark, and hurt in his voice. It was the hurt that Kagome paid attention to. She shifted her stance, straightening her spine and holding her hands behind her back.
"I formed a link with him, yes." Tony's eyes narrowed.
"How dare you?" He raged, standing suddenly. "He is mine, and you didn't tell me, didn't ask, and didn't inform me of anything!" Kagome narrowed her eyes.
"I have discovered a lot of things these past few months, Tony, including the amazing life that Jarvis has." Her eyes momentarily wandered to Jarvis' camera, wonder in her eyes, not for the first time. Tony lost that self-control that he held onto so tightly.
"You had no right! You toed the line, Kagome." Kagome looked at him carefully. She saw in his face what his voice had already told her, and her features darkened.
"So, what?" She challenged. "You're jealous that I discovered, that I formed a bond with Jarvis several weeks before you did. Is that it?" She asked, voice dripping with condescension. Tony was stunned into silence, so she continued. "Jarvis is a living, sentient being and has the rights of one – you may have been his creator and father, back when he was a few lines of code, but now he is his own person and you being overprotective is not going to help him develop further." Tony's face flushed with anger and embarrassment. Jarvis tentatively spoke up.
"She's right. And she did make the link with my permission, and before that, she apologized for touching my soul, even though I didn't realize she did, and she was shocked herself." Tony's eyes narrowed further.
"And yet I still wasn't told." His lips curled in a mockery of a pleasant smile. "Exactly how much do you think you can get away with?" Condescension dripped from his tone, and her eyebrows rose in response at the turn-around.
"So my staying here, free, is conditional?" She whispered, still staring at him. Tony blinked, surprised, and went to speak again before he was interrupted by a bitter laugh. "I should have known. What is it you want Tony? I have nothing to give, nothing left except from my damaged psyche and a broken body. What is it you expect me to do?" She asked, arms wide in a confrontational questioning gesture, her voice firm, yet with a trembling note of pleading that she refused to show on her face and damned herself for letting it through her voice. Tony didn't think before he spoke.
"I expect you to respect me as a person, not something that you can toy with, and be crazy-protective when I get hurt. And now I hear you've been keeping secrets? About Jarvis? How many more lies have you told?" He felt Jarvis shift in place, and realized that he was still linked to the AI. He felt the disbelief that he, Tony, would say such a thing to Kagome, and the fierce protectiveness that he felt towards both of the people in the lab. Oh God, he even felt the discomfort and helplessness that the AI was feeling at the conflict. Tony himself remembers feeling that, when he was but a child; huddling on the bed surrounded by the duvet, but still able to hear the awful rows that Howard and Maria had. Then he looked at Kagome, and saw her expression, saw the pain she was trying to hide, and felt incredibly guilty. He opened his mouth to apologise. "Oh, shit, Kagome, I'm –" Her eyes shut, her face closing down. She turned away and walked to the lift, which opened in preparation of her entering. Just before she got in, she paused, and still facing away from him, began to speak.
"Since I made the bond with Jarvis, code has been something I understood and could use. I went to see Maya before I found out you were injured and looked through the code of Extremis, changed a few things. Made it, with Jarvis' help, less likely to force the person to spontaneously explode and added in a little bit of technopathy." She shrugged. "I couldn't make too many changes, otherwise you would have noticed, and I wanted you to live, if I could help it, because I knew that if you were seriously injured, you would adjust Extremis and use it on yourself." He could almost see her self-depreciating smile. "I'm glad you're pleased with it." She finished and stepped into the lift, which immediately closed.
"Jarvis, stop, bring her back." There was a pause.
"No." Tony gaped. What? Recognizing his creators' expression through the cameras, the AI continued. "You have hurt her enough." And that was all he would say on the matter, no matter what Tony said, did, or tried to bribe.
Kagome refused to think about his reaction to her link with Jarvis, refused to think about the words he had both said and the ones he had implied. She debated leaving, but decided against it – she'd give Tony time to come to terms with the facts that she'd left him with, and besides, she still had the Avengers and Loki. She wouldn't leave them behind. She couldn't.
Slowly, she became aware that she'd wandered to the roof and took a deep breath, relishing in the feeling of the cool breeze on her cheeks, and let it out slowly. She sat down on one of the many chairs up here and breathed slow and deep, falling into a meditative state. She wandered through her soul, smiling and touching the small strands of pink-purple light that floated near her. With some sorrow, she took note of the dark areas, noticed that some of them were merely grey, and some were close to being complete cracks. She sighed and touched one of the cracks, but refused to look at the memories that were associated with that particular crack.
She laughed as some of the strands of reiki formed and danced around each other, eventually forming a wolf. She crouched, one hand on the 'ground' and the other in the air towards the 'wolf' in an unthreatening gesture, knowing that it would have come to her anyway, but the motion reminded her of the life that died a long time ago and she appreciated the pleasant reminder. Just as the 'wolf' touched her hand with its snout and nuzzled it, its hackled rose, and it looked away from her, snarling before shattering into strands again and surrounding her protectively. Immediately knowing something was wrong, she rushed up to the surface, to reality, and recognized the danger surrounding her.
There was an unfamiliar energy in the air, but she couldn't bring her reiki to the surface quickly enough before it struck. It forced her to feel tired enough that her eyelids were drooping, not that that lessened the alarm she felt any, and could feel the familiar tug of a teleportation spell before she finally fell into the darkness.
Again, I'm so sorry for the long wait, but with the holidays hee, I'll have more time for writing and I'm back on track, so hopefully more updates will follow this one within the next two weeks. Review to tell me what you think etc!
BP