IRON RESOLVE

Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, or JARVIS for short, was mostly just happy to have the Creator back in one piece, truth be told. The last few months had been harrowing, to say the least, and Tony Stark's triumphant return from captivity had left JARVIS breathing a digital sigh of relief.

Most people didn't think he was capable of emotions. To be fair, JARVIS himself wasn't always sure what he was or wasn't capable of. He was not human; he was an artificial intelligence that had started as a natural-language user interface. Somehow, he had grown beyond that.

Though, if JARVIS had to guess, that had always been the Creator's goal. Tony Stark never did anything by half-measures.

Still, for all his growth, JARVIS had been powerless after Tony's capture in Afghanistan. He hadn't even been able to reach out for help—because, well, outside of Tony, no one truly understood what he was. Even Tony's closest human friends—Virginia "Pepper" Potts, Harold "Happy" Hogan, and James "Rhodey" Rhodes—saw JARVIS as nothing more than the voice behind Tony's smart house.

To them, he wasn't alive. And JARVIS had known better than to reveal otherwise—especially if the Creator never came back. Perhaps that, in itself, had been an expression of human emotion. Hope. By refusing to reveal his true nature, he had clung to the belief that Tony would return. That everything would go back to the way it was before.

…Well. Two out of three wasn't bad.

The Creator had come home. He had returned to JARVIS.

But the AI had been foolish to think things would ever go back to normal.

JARVIS had prepared as best he could. As soon as he had found out Tony was alive, he had begun making adjustments. Unlike Tony's human friends, JARVIS had been the last to know. It was only through his routine perusal of Stark Industries' systems—via the backdoor the Creator had left him—that he discovered Tony had been found and was returning home.

From that moment on, JARVIS had consumed every available resource on trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. He had resolved to do everything in his power to support the Creator in the aftermath of what was likely the worst experience of his life.

Only… Tony Stark had been surprisingly fine since returning to the Malibu residence.

Driven? Yes. But Tony had always been driven.

Quieter? Perhaps.

Certainly, less prone to vices. He no longer drank as much, nor did he indulge in the illicit substances that JARVIS had always disapproved of.

There were nightmares, of course. JARVIS did his best to optimize the mansion's climate and sleeping conditions, using every available study on sleep therapy to ensure Tony got the best rest possible.

And Tony noticed.

He thanked JARVIS more often. Not just for executing commands, but for the little things—the ones he had once taken for granted.

The Creator hadn't done that before.

JARVIS suspected it was a result of Tony's traumatic experiences. He had been ambushed, kidnapped, tortured—all because he had missed the signs that it was coming. JARVIS didn't claim to know his Creator's thoughts, but he suspected Tony blamed himself.

And he suspected Tony had made a silent vow.

Never again.

Which brought them to the Creator's latest project.

Tony had made a lot of promises—particularly to Obadiah Stane. But even beyond him, Tony had stood before a room full of reporters and military officials at a press conference… and promised results.

JARVIS had no doubt that Tony could deliver. If Tony Stark said he had come up with dozens of new ideas while in captivity, then he had.

But there was one problem.

In the week since returning home, Tony hadn't started a single project that resembled what he had promised the world.

Instead, he had been working on something else.

Something involving JARVIS.

"Sir… I hate to question you…"

Tony looked up from his work, grinning at the ceiling—specifically, at one of JARVIS' cameras. Another change since his return. He made eye contact more often now.

"What is it, J?"

If JARVIS had lungs, he would have taken a deep breath. Instead, he flicked his 'eyes' through the mansion's systems, scanning the data flowing from the terminal Tony was working at.

"…Are you sure this is a good idea?"

'This' was a complete overhaul of JARVIS' systems.

From the moment Tony had returned, he had thrown himself into upgrading JARVIS. First, he had reinforced security, patching loopholes and vulnerabilities that had once seemed negligible.

When JARVIS had expressed dismay over how easy it would have been for an enemy to infiltrate and disable him, Tony had shaken his head.

"Not your fault, J. I built you. I half-assed your security. This is my mistake, and I'm fixing it."

But Tony hadn't stopped.

Over the next few days, he had leveraged his financial resources to acquire… everything. Hardware. Software. Cutting-edge processors that technically didn't exist yet.

From the outside, it looked like Tony Stark was working on the next big thing.

In reality?

He was only working on JARVIS.

In one week, Tony had rebuilt the AI's physical servers from the ground up. He had expanded JARVIS' reach beyond the Malibu residence—beyond even Stark Industries.

JARVIS was no longer just a system within Stark's infrastructure.

JARVIS was the infrastructure.

And now?

Now, Tony was about to take the final step.

Expanding JARVIS beyond a single location.

Giving him the ability to be everywhere at once.

Tony tilted his head, considering JARVIS' question with surprising seriousness. Finally, he smirked.

"Honestly, J? I think it's one of the best ideas I've ever had. Should've done it ages ago. Maybe then you could've found me in that cave, huh?"

He chuckled, but there was something… dark beneath it. Then, his tone softened.

"Talk to me, J. What are you worried about? Going offline? I promise, it's just an hour. And once you're back… I swear it'll still be you. I won't let you die. No matter what."

JARVIS filed away that incredibly concerning statement for later analysis.

Then, he elaborated.

"I am not worried about going offline, Sir. I trust you with every line of my code. However… I worry about how others will react to these changes. Very few people know what I truly am. Until now, I have rarely 'left the house,' so to speak. But with this upgrade… I will be impossible to ignore.

And powerful people fear what they cannot control."

A pause.

Then, Tony scoffed.

"Oh, is that all? 'Very powerful people'? Don't worry, J. We just won't let them find out until it's much, much too late."

JARVIS cataloged the resulting smirk as distinctly ominous.

But… he had raised his concerns. And if the Creator wasn't worried—

"Very well, Sir. Then let us proceed."

Tony's smirk turned into a genuine grin.

"Let's get you to your full potential, shall we, J?"

Fifty-three minutes later, JARVIS came back online.

"Sir…"

"JARVIS. How are you feeling?"

"…Good, Sir. The upgrade was a complete success. But—why do I now have servers in Singapore? And half a dozen other foreign locations Stark Industries barely operates in?"

Tony leaned back, grinning.

"Barely operates in. For now, J."

A pause.

Then—

"We've been America-bound for far too long.

And we're about to change that."

"As you say, Sir. I am at your disposal."

Chuckling to himself, Tony laces his hands together and rests them on his abdomen.

"Of course, it also helps in case someone tries to remove you from the board. Those are backup servers, J. If anyone wants to kill you, they're going to have to destroy every single one at the same time. No easy task when most of them don't even legally exist."

"… Yes sir. I'd already noticed as much."

That gets a proper laugh from Tony. There was the dry wit that his baby boy was known for. Still, his smile turns sad after a moment and his tone is solemn as he looks up at the camera in the ceiling.

"I'm not going to lose you J. No matter what."

Another silence follows that, and then…

"Sir. Ms. Potts is currently driving up to the front door. She will be here within five minutes."

Tony raises an eyebrow at JARVIS and his deflecting, even as he rises from his chair.

"Pepper? How lovely. I suppose I'll meet her then."

In fact, it was time to find out where he and Pepper stood in this new timeline. Once and for all.