The Arcane, The Divine, and the Utterly Screwed Up

The Rhodey Files, part 3 - The thing about technology is that the more complicated it is, the easier it is to turn it against its user. Unless that user knows it down to its last bit. The implications of that can be difficult to grasp, and even more difficult to deal with.

Rhodey was a team player, always had been. So he was never quite comfortable with what Iron Man was, how he went about things, what he represented.

The moment he saw Tony risk his life to make sure that jet pilot's chute opened, he knew that he might not get it but he had to give it a chance.

It wasn't easy, but Rhodey slowly got accustomed to Tony's brand new personal code.

But he still didn't truly understand it.

After the Mandarin, there were some things Rhodey wanted to know but didn't know exactly how to ask, after the Lockdown incident, Rhodey decided that, one way or another, he needed to have a talk with Jarvis.

"So, Jarvis, the suits, you can actually fly them," he started.

"When necessary," Jarvis answered.

"So there's obviously not some kind of... physical requirement to have Tony in the suits or control equipment when they're flying. So what is this coded only to him bullshit about?"

"We thought you might find it disconcerting to be inside one of the suits while I was controlling it, without proper warning," the AI answered. "Especially after the incident at the Expo."

"Wait, so you're saying you would have been the one in control, even with a manual operator in the suit?" Rhodey said, eyes wide. "Tony trusts you to do that?"

"Tony built me," Jarvis said simply. "He wrote every word of my code. He can trust me absolutely."

"But you're..." Rhodey trailed off. "I watched you fly the armors when we went up against the Extremis subjects. Reactions, decision making, it was more advanced than anything I've ever seen out of an AI. You're not just a program, Jarvis. You're a person. Aren't you? You're more than what Tony wrote you to be."

"Tony wrote me to be a person," the AI answered, and it was simple, with a tone straightforward and yet imbued with soft awe, and Rhodey was clearly asea in a world he didn't understand.

But what it came down to was obvious.

"You're a person Tony trusts more than he trusts me," Rhodey concluded with a self-mocking chuckle. "Must be flubbing the best friend thing pretty badly, then."

Jarvis paused for a long moment, such a human affectation, something he obviously hadn't picked up from Tony. "While that may be true from some perspectives," the AI said at last, "I would submit, rather, that it is his own technology that he does not trust. I know it with a depth second only to his, and I watch over it when he cannot, to ensure that it is not turned against us. Not even he is capable of the vigilance necessary to do it himself."

Rhodey nodded somewhat reluctantly. "And you 'watch over' the War Machine armor the same way?"

"I track its activity," Jarvis answered. "But since the first software rebuild by Hammertech, I have no backdoor into its systems. If I had, it would never have been turned."

"It can't be locked down, the way Tony's new suit can be? And you two didn't change that when you wiped the system after AIM played with it?"

"The War Machine armor retains the same basic kinetic control system that it had when it was first encoded to you," Jarvis answered. "We felt consistency would work in your favor."

Rhodey nodded again as his suspicions about that first fight in the suit were confirmed. "So basically I'm driving stick," he concluded, "and no child locks, while he's got all the bells and whistles, including emergency copilot. So tell me why you couldn't fly the thing back, or at least get it open, after the threat had been dealt with."

"The lockdown protocol is only enacted if my connection with the suit software has been compromised," Jarvis answered, "and the only way to reverse it is a complete wipe and reinstall of the entire system. It is not done lightly, and it is necessarily difficult to reverse without complex equipment and protocols brought to bear."

"I'm getting the sense that this is still part of the suit," Rhodey said. "You wanna explain to me why it has to be that way? 'Cause I gotta tell you, I don't like it."

"I resent its necessity, but I agree with it," the AI said.

"He almost died," Rhodey said vehemently. "And you're still letting him put this kill switch in the suit?"

"I have no choice," Jarvis answered. "The alternative is unthinkable."

"Really? 'Cause I've been there. Looking through the crosshairs at Tony. Yeah, it sucks, but it's better than being dead."

"In your case, perhaps. Mr. Stark has convinced me that this is not the case for him. And, while I do what I can to preserve his life, stopping such incursions takes priority. He will not be made to watch his technology kill his friends. If I let that happen, I do not believe Sir could live with himself. It would kill him, more surely and much less cleanly than a blade. You have proven more resilient, and this is why Sir trusts you with the armor."

"He thinks I can take it," Rhodey mused. "And that he can't."

"Just so," Jarvis answered. "And I believe it as well. Once Mr. Stark has willingly assumed responsibility for something, he does not take it lightly."

"He's not weak," Rhodey argued. "He's survived a lot. He's probably tough as I am."

"I believe our understanding of what constitutes 'strength' is irreconcilably different," the AI replied.

Rhodey really didn't know how to respond to that. "Yeah, maybe," he said. "Listen, I'm not done with this. We're gonna revisit this subject later, okay? But I really am here to see Tony."

"As you wish," Jarvis replied. "He is in his workshop."

So Rhodey went.

Tony didn't register his presence right away, but when he did, he grinned at his friend. "Hey, Champ Bear. Just the guy I was looking for. You gotta help me figure out what the right play is here."

There was no way Rhodey was admitting to knowing that reference, even if it was a very clever way to refer to the Iron Patriot repaint. "What's the problem, Tony?" he asked, turning his attention to the displays, which seemed to be showing a 3D view of the Helicarrier.

"So you know how I got the extra up-close-and-personal tour of the insides of these turbines," Tony said, gesturing at the engines. "Well, I really don't wanna have to do that again. So I was brainstorming for ideas to make them better. And I've got a doozy right here."

"Of course you do," Rhodey said, rolling his eyes. "So what's the problem?" he repeated.

"It's large-scale repulsor tech," said Tony, eyes narrowing in thought as he looked at the model. "Not sure I wanna give that one away."

"It's not really a weapon, though, is it?" Rhodey asked. "And you've been pretty generous about the large-scale arc reactors, which you really didn't have to be. I can understand how you'd be... pretty attached to that one."

"Yeah, and repulsor tech is already out there as part of the Jericho line," and Tony winced at the association, "but this application is huge, and I had to get past some major obstacles to even scale it up enough to provide lift for some of the bigger ships in the armada. No one's gonna be able to reproduce this anytime soon, not without the blueprints."

"Well, we trust SHIELD, right?" Rhodey said. "Fighting the good fight right beside us. And they could really use this. Not only is it more durable than their current turbine system, but it's a lot more efficient. Refueling that thing's gotta be a beast."

"No question about that," Tony said, a bright, excited expression flitting across his face. "This is at the top of their Christmas list. Now I've just gotta decide if they've been good girls and boys."

"You don't trust SHIELD."

Tony gave a little ambiguous wiggle of his hand. "They're not terrible, for a faceless government organization that makes WMDs, messes with things they don't understand and occasionally attempts to nuke Manhattan. Seven out of ten stars on all the trustworthy-government-bodies ratings sites. Better than the NSA. But there's something bugging me. Holes in the story. Things that aren't in their files, and should be. Think someone's covering their tracks."

"But nothing concrete?" Rhodey said. "I mean, yeah, you've definitely got reason to be paranoid there. But the agents I've met, I think they're on the level, just trying to save the world, same as us. And I think if you can do something to make them safer, without compromising your new principles? Then yeah, you should."

Tony examined him, testing the conviction behind his answer. Then the engineer nodded. "Done deal. Plans for kickass new helicarrier engines wrapped up and sent. Hope they get a kick out of that."

Rhodey appreciated that he was still the person who Tony came to with this stuff, even with all their disagreements over the concept of cooperation.

Things were pretty quiet for a while after that, for a superhero headquarters in Manhattan, at least.

Thor had gone back to space after the battle of Manhattan and hadn't been seen there since, Clint was on a long-term mission, and Steve and Natasha had been put on semipermanent assignment to D. C. for the moment, so Avengers Tower, despite its nifty new signage, wasn't much more of a home base for the team than it had been before. At least Bruce was still here; at least Rhodey and Pepper were around now and then when they weren't busy doing their demanding jobs.

Tony started talking about how maybe it was time to finally get that surgery over with, the one he'd told Pepper he was going to get after the Mandarin incident, once he was no longer so paralyzed about the thought of being unable to get into one of his suits and fight, and could actually think over the possibilities and mechanics with a clear head.

He worked with Bruce to come up with the materials they'd need to replace the missing cartilage and bone of his sternum and ribs, and to create the selective magnetic tools that would be needed to safely remove the remaining shrapnel. He talked with the surgeons at length and managed not to hyperventilate about how vulnerable he was going to be.

It went off pretty much without a hitch, Bruce and Jarvis staying close by and keeping their sharp, expert, watchful eyes on the doctors, Rhodey and Pepper just waiting, side by side, for news. And now Tony was home at the tower, recovering, complaining about not being allowed to work, and bothering the heck out of Pepper and Rhodey whenever they were visiting. He treated Bruce to the same litany of complaints and restless muttering, but Bruce didn't seem to mind. He'd sigh, and he'd slump, but he'd stay and respond and keep Tony distracted for hours on end, chatting while he read journal articles or did Sudoku on his phone.

Rhodey was there listening to the two of them argue about the feasibility of some kind of Tesseract-based teleportation device when Jarvis broke in: "Sirs, you may want to draw your attention to the television."

There was something going on in D. C.; apparently SHIELD was running a manhunt for Steve Rogers, which made no sense, and fighting had broken out at many of SHIELD's facilities (Jarvis was compiling information from his own sources and providing a more accurate and detailed scroll of updates across the bottom of the screen) including the Capital, where three brand-new repulsor-lifted helicarriers were surrounded by combat aircrafts and agents with guns.

Tony really wasn't supposed to get out of bed yet, and it was killing him to watch the chaos and not do something to help, but Bruce was having it even worse; watching good people kill each other was threatening to turn him green, and that would do no good, not here, not now, when there was no way to tell the good guys from the bad guys from the civilians. Bruce excused himself with a half-strangled phrase, and left the room, seeking calm and distraction.

Rhodey had to stay, now, because if he left, Tony almost certainly would, too.

"Are those my repulsor engines? Those are my repulsor engines. And now Cap is going up against those carriers with next to no backup. This is exactly why I don't do stuff like that anymore."

Tony got increasingly restless as they watched, and the fighting wasn't settling down; whatever was happening, there was going to be a long damn list of casualties at the end of it.

After one of Steve's more reckless moves, Tony went to sit up. Rhodey put a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Let me up," he commanded Rhodey. "I can't just sit here and watch this happen. They can't use my stuff for this. I have to go get it back."

"The world's gonna get through this, all right, Tony? And I know you. You're a hero. You're gonna help. Give what you can to help people rebuild. But for right now? You need to heal."

Rhodey watched with concern as all those signs of panic took over Tony's features, the ones Rhodes had thought he'd got a handle on after the Mandarin incident.

"Rhodey, I can't, I can't give anything away any more, okay? Not after this. I cant be responsible for any more of this... shit. Shit. No, okay, I'm done, but it keeps happening, and now I'm thinking, what if I'd never come back? From Afghanistan, from the portal, from the lockdown. At least this wouldn't keep happening. No more of this, Rhodey. I can't take any more. People keep trying to tell me about responsibility, you keep trying to tell me about responsibility, it's heavy. Please. I just want to put it down."

Rhodey sat there miserably and wished Bruce had been able to stay. Because Rhodey was not equipped to deal with this side of Tony. Didn't understand why he was breaking. Rhodey thought Jarvis had probably been right about strength.

"This is not on you," Rhodey told him as firmly as he could. "None of this is your responsibility, okay? I talked you into sharing the large-scale repulsor tech. This isn't something anyone could have predicted."

The bitter smile that got him wasn't really an improvement. "Okay, I know I'm not that great with the whole 'being accountable' thing, but even I know the 'my friend told me it was okay' excuse is not gonna fly here."

"Tony, you can't live your life like that," Rhodey said, shaking his head and pressing his hand over Tony's. "You just gotta do your best every moment and not worry about how things could go wrong, because they will go wrong. But you can't account for all of them and still function."

"That's the thing, though, that's what you never seem to get. I can. I've got probabilities run on every piece of tech, now, before I let it out of my hands. What's the worst that could happen And I always know. How bad it could go and how likely it is and what I'd have to do to get it back."

"That's... Tony. Sometimes you need to trust people. Some things, you can let go."

"That's not how it works. I don't let it out of my hands unless I know I can get it back. Not anymore."

"That's not always your job to do alone, Tony. We've all got to have a hand in saving the world, or it won't work. You're not infallible. You can't do this by yourself, and you don't have to. I thought we covered this."

"I am, though. I have to be. Don't you get that? These things I make, they're... I am a god. They're part of me and the more of it I give away the bigger I get, the more spread out I get. Because no one else knows this stuff, down to the last circuit, line of code, graphite lubricated microjoint. I'm the only one who can do what has to be done, and the more I give away, the more I've got to do."

"Tony..." Rhodey sighed, hand still over Tony's, but still now. "You're not a god."

"You ever wonder why Mr. Sufficiently Advanced and Company use hammers and swords, why the most advanced weapons we've seen from them clearly have minds of their own?"

"Thor?" Rhodey asked. "I'd kinda assumed there was a lot of tradition involved. He sticks with the weapon he's used to. I probably would too, after a thousand years or so. But he's not a god either. There's no such thing."

"Exactly! He knows that thing. He knows its capabilities down to the last iota of... whatever arcane science mojo it runs on, as much as he can. But it's too complex for him to know entirely, and if you've read the briefs on New Mexico, you know it's got something else controlling it, either some kind of AI or some puppetmaster shit with Daddy Dearest micromanaging his pet crown prince. Because somebody's got to know the tech, down to the last quirk, the last little possibly-exploitable loophole, someone's gotta be keeping track, because if you don't learn it first the enemy will, and when that happens?" Tony thrust his fingers at the screen, where they were showing footage of one of the 'carriers listing slowly, heavily, and cutting into the structure of the Triskelion. "That's when you've lost."

Rhodey shook his head again. "It wasn't your tech that did that, Tony. They could just have easily outfitted those things with the same turbines from the original."

"That isn't the point." Tony grimaced, making a noise of frustration through his teeth. "You know how many people have tried to reverse engineer the suits, the reactors, hell, some of the old tech from the missiles. It isn't about what I actually make, who I actually give it to. The problem is, once it's out there at all, once it goes past the point where I can control all the flow of information, it changes things. The problem is, I am a god." He spat out a sharp, horribly dark laugh. "Much as I hate the idea."

Rhodey let out a breath, exasperation and confusion and helplessness all warring for the forefront of his attention. "I don't know what to say to that, Tony. All I know is I get a job, I do it to the best of my ability. And it's not any one person's job to make sure the world runs smoothly. You're not all-powerful, and you can't take all this on yourself. You have to draw the line somewhere."

Tony breathed as well, huge and somewhat shaky, but no longer panicked and too fast. "Well, then, the problem is, I don't know how to be just a normal person. Where to draw the line."

Rhodey had to laugh, just a little. "Oh, you'll never be normal," he told his friend. "Not in a million years. But you don't have to be everything, either. Okay?"

"Still figuring that out," Tony said. "Kinda goes along with the part where my dad was an idiot. Learning's easy. Unlearning's a bitch."

"Yeah," Rhodey said. "Yeah, I can see that."

He still had a lot of unlearning to do when it came to Tony, what he was really like and why.