25. N.J.A.R.V.I.S.

O

O

"What are you guys doing?" Tony entered the living room to find the Avengers collapsed in a fit of giggles.

"We are playing a game in which you must choose someone to wed, take between your bedding, or send on to Valhalla," replied Thor, as he wiped tears of mirth from his eyes.

"Yes," said Bruce, smirking in the corner. "Clint wants to marry you."

"Oh, sorry, no can do, Bird Man," replied Tony. "You and I could never be together. I'd be the mature one in our relationship and that's just..." He shuddered. "Nope, can't do it. You'll have to find someone else."

"That's fine," replied Clint with mock snootiness. "I'd rather marry Iron Man anyway."

"Sorry," said Iron Man. "I'm afraid that my heart, such that it is, belongs to Mr. Stark."

Tony beamed, sitting up straighter with pride. He patted the palm of his hand against his heart giving JARVIS in the Iron Man suit a secretive grin that said: "You too, buddy."

"Oooh," said Romanoff mockingly. "Turned down by both of them. Someone's losing his game."

O

"Tony," said Bruce quietly, as they were leaving the hallway to head towards their own spaces. "Could I talk to you and JARVIS?"

"Sure," said Tony. "Your place or mine?"

"Yours would probably be best."

He walked along side Tony in silence until they rode the elevator up to Tony's penthouse suite. They settled in the living room.

Bruce took a deep breath.

"Just how human is JARVIS?" He asked carefully. He wasn't trying to offend anyone or stick his nose where it didn't belong but his scientific curiosity was overwhelming the other considerations.

"What do you mean?" countered Tony warily. His posture straightened and the muscles along his shoulders tensed.

Bruce considered his words carefully. There had been no indication that the AI was following their conversation but it felt like JARVIS's silence was an added weight to Tony's caution.

"We all know JARVIS isn't an ordinary artificial intelligence. But the exchange between the two of you earlier," Bruce shook his head, "Computers can't profess their love for you, Tony, not and mean it."

Instead of laughing and brushing the whole exchange off as a joke, as Bruce half expected; all of the color drained out of Tony's face.

"You know." His voice came out in a hoarse whisper.

"That JARVIS is sometimes Iron Man?" Bruce nodded, trying to be nonchalant, trying to keep the conversation at a happy calm. He felt a pang of guilt, as he watched Tony's expression. He hadn't wanted to upset anyone, but it seemed he was stirring up more than he expected with this conversation. "I've suspected, but couldn't really believe it until earlier."

"And when JARVIS isn't Iron Man?"

Bruce gave Tony a smile that he hoped was reassuring.

"I have my suspicions," he said, glancing towards the glow visible underneath Tony's thin t-shirt, "but we don't need to talk about Iron Man. He'll reveal his identity when he's ready."

Tony stared at him like Bruce was speaking in tongues.

"Um, okay," said Tony, visibly pulling himself together. "We can drop this, but I just, could you tell me what gave it away?"

Bruce thought carefully.

"I think you can blame the big guy for this one," he said.

While it was true that Bruce couldn't communicate with his other half that did not mean that he had no feedback from the other being. Most of the time Bruce had this awareness that the other guy was observing and the occasional hints to his emotions. His normal response to new people, or really people in general, was wariness—wariness and anger, always, always anger. With Tony it was different; he felt wariness/curiosity that over their brief time on the helicarrier turned into wariness/approval. After the battle, all of the Avengers produced feelings of caution/approval/mine? except for Iron Man who brought a very emphatic approval/MINE. But Bruce began to notice that sometimes the other's feelings towards Iron Man reverted back to wariness or caution/approval/mine? while his feelings towards Tony who hadn't taken part in the battle were suddenly and permanently emphatic approval/MINE.

So Bruce began to watch Tony and Iron Man and especially Iron Man when Tony was not present. At first he simply figured that Tony had a team of people fighting as Iron Man. Then he noticed that sometimes Tony could be callous towards damage to the Iron Man suit which didn't make sense because he'd never seen the man do anything but bend over backwards making sure his people were well taken care of. It wasn't a hard leap from there to wondering if Tony was Iron Man, sometimes anyway.

He didn't start thinking about JARVIS, however, until Tony's friend Rhodes came to visit. They might have spent most of their time hiding away together in one of Tony's many private spaces, but it had been surprising to Bruce how obvious it had been that another person had joined their menagerie. There were extra dishes in the sink, and the unused chair pushed crookedly against the table, and half-caught glimpses of the Colonel moving about the place – a thousand different little signs that Rhodes was there. But of his teammate, the man or woman who inhabited the Iron Man suit, Bruce never saw a single sign and Bruce began to wonder if maybe that was because there wasn't a hidden teammate. Maybe it wasn't a person in the suit.

Bruce blinked, shaking his head lightly as he roused himself from his thoughts. He hadn't meant to get lost mid-conversation. Tony hadn't seemed to notice, being distracted himself by his tablet. Tony was frowning as his fingers tapped across the screen in a rapid blur. Tony stopped typing and looked up just as the door opened and Iron Man walked into the room.

"So, the big guy…" repeated Tony. "Care to elaborate?"

Bruce shrugged, feeling suddenly intimidated by the looming form of Iron Man. Stop that, Bruce told himself irritably, they're all my friends.

"I think he could sense the differences. I don't quite know how it works, but the impressions I got from him were enough to start me wondering."

Tony nodded, still looking concerned.

"I think I'm the only one who ever noticed anything concrete," added Bruce belatedly, as it occurred to him that Tony must be worrying about other people figuring out his secrets.

Tony and Iron Man exchanged a silent look.

"You wanted to know about me," said Iron Man, taking a seat beside Tony on the sofa.

Bruce shook his head. "I wanted to know about JARVIS," he said, stressing the name.

Tony and Iron Man both cocked their head at identical angles. Tony watched Bruce with a slightly puzzled expression. Neither spoke.

"I know a bit about assumed identities," said Bruce, slowly. "They're always a tad more real than you intend them to be when you create them. I know that Iron Man isn't real, that he's some sort of an amalgamation of the two of you and who knows what else, but Iron Man is my friend and I don't want to lose that. I don't want the two of you to lose the freedom of being Iron Man. I don't want you to have to change before you're ready just because I found out something too soon."

It was the least Bruce could do, after opening Pandora's Box, because it was obvious that neither of them were ready, not even close.

"You're a strange man, Bruce Banner," said Tony with a fond smile.

"This conversation is about me," said Iron Man, "and I would prefer to be present." He glanced at Tony and Tony nodded, typing something on his phone.

They were communicating, Bruce realized, with a start. Well, that gave new meaning to Tony's inability to stay focused during briefings.

"Perhaps this would work as a compromise," continued Iron Man and the facemask of the suit opened to reveal the vacant interior of the helmet.

The effect was slightly disconcerting, making Bruce shudder slightly.

"I'm not sure I understand," he said.

Tony and Iron-no, JARVIS exchanged another glance, and wasn't that an odd sight when one of them was nearly headless.

"One of the things that JARVIS has learned from the experience of being Iron Man is that people take your opinions more seriously when you have a body than when you're a disembodied voice over the intercom," explained Tony on JARVIS's behalf.

Bruce felt like his head was going to explode because on the one hand that explanation made sense in an awful, guilt-triggering way, but on the other hand, holy shit JARVIS was way beyond Bruce's wildest expectations. This was levels and levels of personhood above artificial intelligence experiencing emotion.

Bruce stared at Tony.

"Do you have any idea what you've done? I mean, of course, you do, but do you really? I mean, he's just…he's just…" Bruce waved his hands excitedly in JARVIS's direction. "Tony!"

Tony let out a brief burst of laughter and then he smiled fondly at the suit of armor beside him.

"Yeah," he said softly, "My JARVIS is pretty amazing." Then Tony straightened and gave Bruce a sarcastic grin. "I take full credit, of course."

"Of course, you do, sir," said JARVIS. His voice issued simultaneously through the suit and the room at large, an effect that Bruce wasn't sure had been intentional, given the almost embarrassed tone to JARVIS's words.

"I'm sorry if you ever felt that I was dismissive of you in the past," Bruce said to JARVIS.

"You have always been quite polite to me, Doctor Banner," replied JARVIS, waving off any apology, though Bruce noted that it wasn't a denial. He made a note to do better in the future.

"Call me Bruce," he said. "After all, I'm friends with Iron Man and I'd like to try to be friends with you as well."

"I think I'd like that, Bruce." JARVIS said his given name with hesitancy, like he was testing how well he liked it. "I've never had a friend as me before," he continued.

"Hey!" protested Tony, immediately. "What am I? Chopped liver?"

"I find friendship too shallow a concept to express my relationship to you, sir. I have been researching alternative terminology but nothing seems to suffice."

Tony's face softened and Bruce was struck with the feeling that he was witnessing a very private exchange. He tried not to read too much into it but felt honored anyway. As the two bantered quietly back and forth, Bruce began to get a better picture of the dynamics between them than the sarcastic but subservient role JARVIS normally portrayed. He just couldn't understand how this was possible. JARVIS was a computer program.

"We're boring you," stated Tony, noticing that Bruce's attention had wandered.

"Not at all," said Bruce, truthfully, shaking his head. "More like blowing my mind. How are you possible?" he said to JARVIS.

"I am as Sir created me," said JARVIS simply.

"And I am brilliant," said Tony. "That was the subtext of that statement, in case you didn't catch it."

"Thanks, Tony," replied Bruce dryly.

"Just being helpful." Tony grinned. "Seriously though, JARVIS is one of a kind," he paused and tilted his head to the side before continuing, "except, you know, not because there are several of him."

"What?" Bruce leaned forward, sure he must have misunderstood.

"Well, JARVIS is just software, and memory, and hardware." Tony frowned and turned to the Iron Man suit. "And awesomeness," he added in a conciliatory tone. "Lots and lots of awesomeness."

If JARVIS could roll his non-existent eyes, Bruce was pretty sure he would be rolling them now.

"Can we go back to there being more than one JARVIS?" interrupted Bruce.

"JARVIS is his own operating software," explained Tony. "I can install him over and over again and they're all JARVIS."

"For example, Doctor Banner," began JARVIS.

"I thought you were calling me Bruce," he muttered absently as he tried to wrap his head around the concept of infinite JARVIS.

"For example, Bruce, I run this building and from here I can connect to other systems. So I can speak here," he said, using the speaker system within the room. "Or I can speak here," he said, switching back to the suit's speakers. "But I can also disconnect from the suit and allow the suit to take over."

"JARVIS runs all of my suits," said Tony.

"Greetings, Bruce," said the suit. "I am also JARVIS."

"You called me Bruce," he said, trying to figure out just what that meant.

"You did insist upon it," reminded JARVIS, the first one, the one who ran the tower.

"We are all JARVIS," continued the other. "I am always myself."

"We're just not always the same," finished JARVIS, through the Iron Man suit, giving a shrug. Bruce was pretty sure it was the real JARVIS speaking again but he didn't really know what the difference was, if there was a difference. His head hurt.

"Tony?" he said, plaintively, looking to his friend for an explanation, hopefully one that wouldn't make his head explode.

"Okay, it's like this…" Tony actually clapped his hands and wiggled his fingers in the air, as he sat forward eagerly to explain to Bruce. It was kind of cute to watch him get so excited but Bruce supposed that Tony didn't get many opportunities to explain JARVIS to people.

"I have JARVIS in my house in Malibu. He's always been there; I built the house around him, so JARVIS. But he's not exactly portable so now I'm living here I need JARVIS. It's remarkably difficult to live your life without him; it'd be like living without Pepper—I don't know how you people do it. Now I could make me a new AI but what if I didn't like them? What if they had a French accent? What if they couldn't brew coffee?" Tony shuddered and waved his hand. "No, I need JARVIS."

Bruce nodded, hoping that Tony would eventually arrive at a point.

"Now you can't just program a computer and have someone like JARVIS. I mean, you can, because I did, but it's not like he was this perfect when he came out of the box. JARVIS is a learning program and he grows all of the time. So they synchronize and share databases."

"If you were to fly to California right now," said JARVIS. "I would greet you as Doctor Banner when you entered the Malibu residence, because I will not share this conversation and your preference for being called Bruce with myself for another two hours and seventeen minutes."

"It's like in Star Wars, or at least I think it was Star Wars; it could have been those books that came afterwards. Artoo Deetoo only had the personality that he had because Skywalker refused to have his memory wiped after every flight the way he was supposed to."

"Really? I didn't know that," said Bruce.

"Yeah." Tony looked puzzled. "Actually, why do I know that?"

"You dated that model," reminded JARVIS. "The one who liked dressing up as a Stormtrooper."

"Oh, right." Tony leered at Bruce. "Fun times."

"So JARVIS is sentient because you don't delete his memory?"

"Sort of. It's more that we've noticed that the JARVIS that exist primarily in isolation without much contact with other JARVIS end up being much more computer-like."

"I really don't think that's a fair description, sir," objected JARVIS. "The me at Stark Industries simply falls back on his programming more."

"He's boring," protested Tony. "He barely knows how to take a joke. My phone has a better sense of humor."

"He deals with the board all day every day," said JARVIS flatly.

"Point," conceded Tony.

"Okay, wait, back up. The JARVIS at Stark Industries?"

"Stane banned my AIs from SI back in the eighties. In hindsight, I should have insisted, but well, live and learn. The first thing I did after he died was install JARVIS in all of our facilities. No one is going to hide secrets from me in my own company. Not again. But the board freaked out. Thought it was a security risk. So the JARVIS at Stark Industries are primarily internal access only. They very rarely synchronize their databases with the other JARVIS."

"Sometimes speaking with them is not like speaking with myself at all, but like conversing with a stranger," added JARVIS.

"That must be strange for you," said Bruce, though really all of it sounded strange to him.

"I've become accustomed to the experience. I have more difficulty categorizing my memories of events when I suddenly have multiple varying perspectives of the same event each with equal validity."

This Bruce couldn't understand. How could one person remember the same thing happening in different ways? How could anyone reconcile something like that without going mad?

But JARVIS wasn't a person. He was a machine, not a human being. Bruce wondered if maybe he'd been wrong, maybe he'd jumped the gun on this whole thing, because this was just too different. Could something who routinely rewrote its own memories really be sentient? JARVIS was programmed to respond like a human. Had Bruce just been fooled by his exceptional mimicry? Had Tony?

This was more than passing a Turing Test, not that JARVIS couldn't do that with ease. Hell, Barton had Steve convinced for almost a month that JARVIS was really a hidden person who ran all of Stark's computers and security systems from a windowless room in the Tower's basement. And JARVIS was Iron Man—he passed as human every time he operated the suit.

"Have I upset you?" asked JARVIS speaking through the ceiling. His voice sounded almost blank, and more mechanical that he'd sounded the entire conversation.

"Why would you ask that?"

"Your pulse rate and respirations have both increased, and you have ceased to make eye contact with my physical representative."

Tony was sitting quietly, letting their conversation continue without interruption, but there was a growing hardness to his expression as he watched Bruce that Bruce was not used to seeing pointed in his direction. He had, however, seen Tony direct it at others, on Bruce's behalf, when people had been making Bruce uncomfortable. Tony was feeling protective, of JARVIS.

He'd hurt JARVIS's feelings, Bruce realized, and didn't that answer his questions right there.

It didn't matter that JARVIS was inhuman. He did have feelings. There was no pretense, no scripted code, behind the simple, honest affection he'd seen displayed between Tony and JARVIS tonight. He'd been honored with witnessing their true friendship; he just needed to remember that.

"Sorry," Bruce said, honestly. He looked up and met—well, not his eyes because there was no face, but JARVIS's facial region. "It's just a bit much."

"I'm sorry," replied JARVIS, softly, still using the room's communication system.

"No," began Tony angrily.

Bruce held up one hand to interrupt him.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he said gently. "You can't help being different. There's nothing wrong with being different. For crying out loud, I'm a man who turns into a giant green monster that turned out not to be such a monster once he joined a team of equally odd people." Bruce shook his head. "No, the problem is me. I keep trying to fit you into my own little preconceived boxes."

"I'm not a color inside the lines kind of guy," said Tony. "Did you really expect my creation to be any different?"

"You're also rude and brash, but JARVIS is the picture of politeness," countered Bruce.

"I do try," replied JARVIS, sounding more himself, and using the Iron Man suit again.

Both Bruce and Tony relaxed.

"So you have scheduled times to exchange memories between your houses," said Bruce, continuing the conversation to show that he was fine with it.

JARVIS nodded.

"How often do you synchronize between, you know?" Bruce waved his finger between the Iron Man suit and the air.

"Almost constantly, unless I leave the tower."

I, JARVIS or I, Iron Man? Bruce shook his head but let it drop. There were some things he just wasn't going to understand, unless he took up Cartesian philosophy or some related field. It was enough that Tony seemed to be able to follow along, and JARVIS obviously understood himself, himselves, whatever.

"I think I understand having separate JARVIS in your different homes, but why have a JARVIS in the Iron Man suit? Why not simply have the JARVIS here fly the suit?"

"There are two reasons: the first is simply that JARVIS acts as a co-pilot for the suit. Even when Iron Man is being remote accessed, the internal JARVIS is running the background systems."

Bruce nodded, because that made sense.

"The other reason is redundancy. Even with the Stark satellites and our cloud, there are still places where an external JARVIS would lose contact with Iron Man. Imagine being in the middle of battle in the Middle East and losing contact, having to try to manually run the suit. You'd be killed. Or…" Tony trailed off, becoming pale. He whispered, "What if JARVIS hadn't been there on the other side of the wormhole?"

His eyes were unfocused as he stared through Bruce, consumed by an image that only existed in his mind. Abruptly, he shook his head.

"Excuse me," he said, hoarsely.

Tony shifted himself from the couch into his chair, keeping his face averted from Bruce. He pushed himself from the room with rapid, jerky thrusts.

"Is he okay?" asked Bruce, softly.

"He just needs a moment," replied JARVIS.

"I didn't realize that the battle bothered him."

JARVIS remained silent.

"I'm sorry," said Bruce, glancing again at the door. "I know it's none of my business."

"Mr. Stark is a very private individual."

"Yeah, I know." Bruce smiled ruefully. "I'd figured that out."

Bruce shifted uncomfortably on the couch, wondering if he should just go back to him quarters.

"Hey, I'm back. Sorry about that. Nature called."

Tony returned with all smiles, but they were fake and brittle, not even on par with his usual masks.

"What did I miss?"

"Nothing, sir. I'm going to put Iron Man away for the night."

The Iron Man suit stood up from his seat. The face reformed into the closed mask. Iron Man paused to nod at each of them, and then strode out of the room.

"Night, Iron Man," called Bruce, feeling a bit silly because he knew it was just JARVIS and JARIVS was still here.

"So what do you want to do?" asked Tony.

"Actually, I think I'm just going to head back downstairs," said Bruce, starting to stand up.

"Party pooper," protested Tony. "You could at least stay to watch a movie."

It occurred to Bruce that perhaps Tony simply didn't want to be alone right now.

"Okay," Bruce acquiesced, settling back into his seat.

"Great!" Tony seemed to relax. "JARVIS, pick out a movie."

Tony's massive flat screen descended from the ceiling and a very familiar orchestral fanfare began to play.

"Very funny," said Tony. "We're not watching 2001."

"Please," said Bruce, laughing. "I don't think my head could take it after tonight."

"Very well," said JARVIS, sounding amused.

The movie switched to a blank screen then an animated movie began. Bruce tried to figure out what he was watching; Tony seemed very familiar with the movie, judging from his pleased expression.

"The Emperor's New Groove," he read off the screen. "Really, Tony?"

"Llamas, Bruce," replied Tony, with the utmost seriousness. "Llamas."

Bruce shook his head with amusement and settled back to watch the film.

O

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O

AN:

So, was it worth the wait?

The title stands for: Not just a rather very intelligent system. I don't know when this chapter takes place because it came out of the blue. I was in the middle of writing a different chapter and suddenly I was five hundred words into this thing. In the future, I might have to make minor edits to make it align with the timeline.

And in the efforts of giving credit where credit is due, I've noticed recently that a lot of the little quirks that I think of when I think about Tony Stark actually come from Sam Starbuck's hilarious RDJ Advices, which can be read on his tumblr under the name copperbadge.