- Chapter 70 -

When he walked through the front door Tony could feel the difference. There was something waiting in the house. Something that wasn't there when he left. Instantly he used his seidr to gently and swiftly move the stroller with his daughters in it down to the walkway from the porch. He turned to Edward and said, "Take your brothers and sisters and go wait by the guardian in the courtyard."

.-.-.-.

A guardian in the courtyard? What other defenses does the house have? Director Fury put it in his notes. He hadn't known that Stark had defenses around his mansion, although he wasn't terribly surprised. He was very interested in exactly what defenses there were. Stark was an extremely talented weapons designer, but they hadn't seen any large-scale procurements of the kinds of rare metals that Stark liked to use.

.-.-.-.

"Yes, Daddy," Edward said. He turned the stroller with his dozing sisters in it and led his brothers away from the house. A wide smile touched his lips as he led his siblings to wait by the guardian. They all followed behind him. His brother had been patient enough. Their time was just beginning.

"Loki?" Tony called. He flared out his seidr but couldn't feel her near. He could only feel that she was in the house.

"Come to the medical lab," a voice said through the PA system that was normally reserved for Jarvis' use. It was a voice that was both unfamiliar but familiar at the same time. Tony was unsettled by it. "Jarvis?" he called. Jarvis didn't answer him. Alarm flooded through him. There were very few people who could break his new computer security measures. They were based on Skrull technology. If Jarvis had been hacked into then that was very, very bad. Tony was suddenly very nervous about Jarvis being damaged or destroyed. He couldn't live without his AI companion.

"Don't worry. We're waiting for you in the medical lab," the voice spoke again.

We? Medical lab?! "Loki! Jarvis!" he yelled. Tony took off running. His heart was pounding as he sprinted to the stairs at the front of the hallway back to the bedrooms. He took them two at a time. The medical lab was the last door in the grey concrete hallway those stone stairs led to. All of his muscles tensed as adrenaline flooded his limbs. A fierce burning flooded his chest and shoulders. The door only took a few seconds to slid open, but it seemed like an eternity. It was the only door that wasn't made of reinforced glass, so he didn't know what he was going to find on the other side of it. He came into the lab prepared for a fight. Tony wasn't prepared for a barefoot teenager standing calmly next to the rose tank.

The young man didn't look at him, only continued to look through the window. "Don't worry, she's fine. She's been in the tank for about an hour. I set it to 10% output for an extended period and administered the nimp myself."

Administered the nimp? That statement alone was enough to greatly worry Tony. The kid clearly knew what the nimp was and how to use it. Do you know who's in there? How did you get in here? I need to see Loki. The burning in his chest and shoulders tightened painfully. The teen's voice was oddly familiar to him, as were his clothes. "Who are you? What do you want with us?" Tony asked. His gaze was stuck on that tank. He couldn't trust that Loki or Jarvis was alright. He needed to see for himself. The control panel would let him check on both. Rushing the tank seemed like a bad idea. He couldn't tell if this kid overpowered Loki or not, but his proximity to the tank was unnerving. No one but him, Rhodey and Frey were allowed near the tank. Edward would come to visit his mother when she was resting there, but Tony couldn't stop the boy.

"Hello father. I'm happy to meet you," Jay turned to face his father. His smile was broad as he looked at his father with his own eyes. Meeting his father in person was worth the panicked disorientation of waking in an organic body. This was worth it all.

The tension drained out of Tony to be replaced by shock. He knew that face. He'd known it his whole life. It was one that he looked at it every day in the mirror. He saw the difference, could never have missed it. The teen's eyes looked almost exactly like Loki's eyes. They were vivid green but had surprising flecks of silver in them. They reminded him of Edward's eyes the more he looked at them. Edward had Loki's eyes as well. "How? Who are you?" he had to force the words out of his mouth. Tony had always wondered if some woman would ever show up with a child that he never knew about. He was careful, but he wasn't celibate before he met Loki. This kid wasn't what he was expecting.

Though Jay looked back to his mother, she was still sleeping. He wished she were awake to explain. He put a hand on the tank. "Mother gave me life. I was Jarvis, but I am no longer. I'm more now than Jarvis could ever be. My name is Jay." He smiled as he reached out to comfort his father.

"I'm still fully operational, sir," Jarvis' voice came quietly from the speakers.

It was sudden and startled Tony. He took a step towards the tank. When Jay moved away from the tank Tony rushed to it. He jerked the lid open, sending it into stand-by mode. Loki looked just like she always did in the tank, peaceful. She was sleeping, an IV was in the crook of each elbow and a nasal cannula was under her nose. The inside of the tank didn't appear to have been tampered with. Tony's seidr flickered out of his core and forged into a minor Healing Spell to cover Loki. He checked twice and was surprised to find that she was only sleeping. There were clear signs of heavy seidr use, but the nimp and sleep were clearing those away. He breathed a sigh of relief. The lid closed back down so that Loki could rest. A quick check of the control panel showed him that his AI companion was responding normally. Both of these things brought intense relief to him.

Turning, Tony walked over to Jay. There was a strange power emanating from the young man. He couldn't quite put his finger on where he'd felt it before. There was something not quite right. "How?" he asked again.

The teen called Loki 'mother', and him 'father'. Tony didn't see how that was possible since he clearly remembered each of Loki's pregnancies. He remembered the birth of each of his children. Tony always made sure that he was there when his children were born. A not so secret and very jealous part of him wanted to be the first person to hold them after they were born. He only ever grudgingly allowed the Heal Mistress to hold the baby long enough to make certain there were no problems. Once the health of the baby was verified then Tony stepped over and took his baby out of her hands. Waiting for that verification and not just snatching his baby away was always hard. Even an ever-present guilt over not letting Loki hold them first failed to stop him from holding each baby for a moment before handing them to Loki. Tony took a hard look at the boy.

Using the seidr lingering in his blood to illuminate his eyes let Jay prove to his father who and what he was. A brilliant white-blue light illuminated Jay's eyes for a moment before it flared to a luminescent golden hue then it faded away. He smiled and said, "I'm your son. Yours, and mother's, but more than that. Mother said it needed to be kept safe for all time, so she made me in both your images."

As he recognized the thrum of that seidr Tony gasped. He knew it well. She finally found a way to destroy the scepter! He put a tentative hand on the side of Jay's face. A body for Jarvis had always been on the list of things to accomplish. It was the technology that was never up to Tony's standards. Jarvis would only get the best because he was absolutely the best. The power flowing from Jay was definitely tied to the gem, but the body it was running through was all too familiar. It all felt as familiar as any of his other children. Jay was familiar. "My son," Tony murmured as he put a hand on the young man's shoulder. He smiled broadly and pulled him into an embrace.

"She always gets me the best gifts," Tony said happily.

.-.-.-.

So much for studying it, Director Fury thought. He cringed to think that they had two Infinity Gems in their hands and lost each one. It was hard to remind himself that they were a power that humans didn't need. Too dangerous. The Director always reminded himself of that. They're just too dangerous. Looking at the power they held, it was hard not to think of everything they could accomplish with them. At least Loki seems to not want it used, and the boy agreed to not use it. Loki probably had a better idea than he did about how powerful the gems were. He still would've liked some more time to have them studied. He knew that at that point there was no getting either one back. It's still probably for the best that they're out of human hands. But is the boy human? Does it make a difference?