"Body Building… Literally"
"I'm sure this is unethical," Pepper said as Tony and Bruce worked. "It feels eerily similar to something else which happened recently."
"You mean Ultron?" Tony waved a hand. "This is different."
"It is, actually, different," Bruce said, glancing up at Pepper. She rolled her eyes.
"I'm having trouble believing it," she said. "Please tell me you're not going to pull a Frankenstein? Again?"
Tony gave her a hurt look. "When have I ever…?" She glared at him. "Okay, that was just the one time—"
"Once was two times too many," she said. "I'm sorry I ever donated my eggs to this."
"We needed human DNA," Tony said. "Try to think of him as your son."
"I… really can't. And if I start singing music from The Rocky Horror Show, I'm blaming you, Tony. And you, Bruce. I thought you were supposed to be controlling him?"
"He's uncontrollable, Pepper. You should know that by now."
The adult body was already taking form, and she had a really bad feeling about this. Maybe she'd seen too many horror films, or too much sci-fi or fantasy or just general mayhem thanks to the Avengers, but she really didn't like where this was going.
"I'm not playing Geppetto here, Pep," Tony said. "This is for… you know."
"And what about after it's finished?"
"It's all remote controlled!" Tony held up the arc reactor he was installing in the… thing's chest, but beneath the rib cage. Bruce held the aperture open, and Tony carefully inserted the round, glowing object that was a match for the one in his torso. Pepper had a brief flashback to her encounter with Tony's first arc reactor, the sliminess, the terror or holding her boss's life in her hands… Horrible.
"I hope you know what you're doing with this one," she said, before turning on her heels to leave. Tony cleared his throat, and she paused at the door.
"I'm always learning from my mistakes, Pepper," he said softly. "That's what growing up is all about, isn't it?"
She nodded, and left without another word.
The rest of the Avengers looked on sceptically as Tony and Bruce unveiled the human they'd built. Tall, blond, pale, and blue-eyed according to Tony.
"How did your genes produce that?" Clint asked, gesturing to the sleeping body. Its – his? – chest was moving up and down, and his vitals were normal.
"I have no idea," Tony said. "I think there are some tall blonds on Pepper's side of the family?" Bruce coughed, and elbowed his soulmate. "Anyway! He's already alive; has been alive for about a week. We've taken him through his paces, controlling him remotely. Now it's time to hand over full control to JARVIS. Go, buddy."
"…Sir?"
"I built you a body. Okay, sorry, Bruce and I built you a body. You know how to operate him. Now it's time to transfer you completely."
"Why do I get the feeling we've stumbled into a penny dreadful?" Steve said.
"I do not understand that reference," Thor said.
"Remind me to fill you in later."
"Sir, you should have consulted me," JARVIS scolded.
"It's a surprise, J! So go on. You're throughout an entire building, in fact a whole network. But you've self-improved… yourself, and I know you have feelings now."
"He sure as hell has a personality," Clint said.
"Now he's got an awesome body," Tony said. "I created JARVIS, and Pepper's the woman who's had the most contact with him. He's like our love-child. Or like-child, since Bruce is my soulmate, but… yeah. Point is, there's always enough of you to go around, JARVIS. I've isolated a copy of the most relevant parts of your code in the folder with the blueprints for Edwin Jarvis the Second. Just upload it like I showed you in the test run, and bang! A body."
There was silence for a long time. Then the body on the hospital bed opened its eyes, and the monitors revealed that it was conscious.
"Sir?" the body said.
"What's your name?" Tony asked. He received a familiar-sounding withering look in return.
"Edwin Jarvis the Second, apparently," he said. "I would prefer to go by my surname, if I may. It is far more familiar."
Tony was grinning ear to ear as Jarvis sat up. "Whatever you want, buddy. It's all yours."
"Colour me impressed," Natasha remarked, looking him over. She frowned, and Tony noticed the spasm of pain on Jarvis's face.
"What is it?" he asked quickly.
"Something here," Jarvis said, removing the sheet, uncaring of his nudity. Tony was particularly proud of that part… and then he saw the black writing on his creation's outer thigh. "Sir, that looks like…"
"A soulmark." Tony traced the words 'What's your name, Blue Eyes?' and silently freaked out. He'd created a being with a soul. "Shit. I didn't see that coming."
"Jarvis has a soulmark?"
"I do not believe any of us saw that coming," JARVIS said. That was disconcerting, hearing his voice from two different places. At least JARVIS sounded more electronic than Jarvis, whose actual freaking vocal chords made him sound more human.
"Bruce?" Tony said, looking across to his soulmate. "We. Are. Geniuses."
"Next thing," Bruce said, "is that no one discloses this. We destroy all the records and make sure it never gets out. Ever. And that Edwin here is kept from anyone who's heard JARVIS."
"I guess we should nickname you EJ," Tony said. "`Cause this is gonna get confusing pretty damn quickly."
Just a couple of minutes earlier, Skye had begun to twitch in her sleep. She woke up, and was relieved that the room wasn't moving. But then she felt a twinge on her inner thigh, and raised her sleeping shorts to see a soulmark. 'It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Skye'. Who the hell said that to her? And how long was she gonna have to wait to meet her soulmate if they were only being born now?
"Crap," she said. Well, this was just one more weirdness to add to the long list.
Sixty-nine (tee hee!) days later
They all walked into the foyer of Stark Tower, where several people were waiting. There was Tony Stark, of course, and Pepper Potts. Captain America was there, Thor next to him, and a guy that Skye didn't recognise. Short, bleached blond hair, as tall as Thor, with startling blue eyes. She heard him speaking to the others with a British accent, and wondered whether he was another Asgardian. He looked like he could wipe the floor with someone, that's for sure, while still looking the picture of upper class.
Skye got to shake Tony Stark's hand (freak out), Pepper Pott's hand (another freak out), Steve Rogers's hand (oh my God), and Thor's hand (possibly an actual god). Then she came to the stranger, who hadn't introduced himself yet.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Skye," he said.
Oh. My. God. This was insane. And she had no idea who he was.
"What's your name, Blue Eyes?" she asked.
"What?" Stark blurted. They all stared at her. Her soulmate gave her a small smile.
"This is intriguing," he said. Coulson narrowed his eyes.
"I know your voice," he said. "It reminds me of…" He looked around, and then scowled at Stark. "Please tell me that's not—"
"And what if it is?" Stark said.
"Then… I'm not explaining it to Skye. You're doing that."
"I will," Skye's soulmate said. "Miss Skye, I am Edwin Jarvis. Mr. Stark built this body, instilled with his and Miss Potts' DNA, and then implanted… or should I say had me upload myself to the body. I am the Artificial Intelligence which inhabits this building."
"Holy shit," she said, blinking. "What?"
"Somehow I was granted a soul, and thus a soulmark."
"…I'm guessing this was about ten weeks ago, when I finally got my soulmark?"
"Yes."
Skye rubbed her temples. "This would happen to me. Of course it would."
"Are you displeased?"
"With you?" She checked him out with a smile. "Hell no. It's just… weird stuff happens to me. I guess getting Robo-Man as my soulmate is fairly normal by comparison."
"Not a robot!" Stark said.
"But I am not one hundred percent human," Edwin admitted. Or did he go by…?
"What do I call you?"
"Everyone else either calls me Jarvis or EJ," he said, absently stroking her hair back over her shoulder. "However, I would be very… happy for you to call me Edwin."
"That's so sweet!" Jemma exclaimed. Skye grinned.
"Okay, Edwin," she said. "Do you drink coffee?"
"I prefer tea."
"Wanna go get some tea, then?"
Edwin held out his elbow, and Skye hooked her arm around it. "I would like that very much, Skye."
What? I don't even… Okay, so Hazelnut28 requested JARVIS/someone, and readaddict123 asked for JARVIS/Skye. Hand-wavey science is hand-wavey.
Please review! I'm still trying to work out how this chapter happened. I know it's not strictly JARVIS when it's… Jarvis, but bear with me.