Chapter 4: Honesty

Chapter 4: Honesty

A/N: We out here making moves. Tony finally leaves the house to get some things done.

-x-X-x-

Of course, before Tony could really move onto Step 2, he had to finish up Steps 1.1 through 1.9. It wasn’t enough to just upgrade JARVIS, after all. Tony had a business to clean up, and in the end everything led back to Obadiah Stane.

Or so he initially thought. With his AI’s capabilities massively enhanced, Tony was able to direct JARVIS in uncovering every last bit of dirty filth going on in his company. Much of the under the table dealing, the illegal weapons trade, and all around embezzling COULD be traced back to Stane... but he wasn’t the only bad actor in Tony’s company.

It was a bit of a shock to realize that he really had half-assed things the first time around. He’d found out Obadiah was his enemy, the man had tried to kill him, and before he knew it, Obadiah Stane was dead. Afterwards, Tony had barely had the time to get his handle on things at Stark Industries before he’d realized the Palladium was poisoning him.

Yeah, he’d have to deal with that as well before anything else. While JARVIS was hunting down every single traitor in Stark Industries, Tony took his time this go around. He wasn’t in quite as dire straits as he had been the first time he’d created Badassium. He didn’t need SHIELD’s help this time either. Pepper had mentioned Coulson’s request to debrief him, and Tony had told her to push the appointment out for as long as possible. He was too busy to deal with SHIELD properly at the moment.

Turned out, building the necessary infrastructure for creating a brand new element for the Arc Reactor in his chest was so much nicer when he had all the time in the world to work on it. All the while, the world itself was still holding its breath, waiting for him to come out with all those new ideas he’d promised them.

Well, most of the world was holding its breath. Stane and the Board felt more like they were breathing right down the back of his fucking neck. Tony didn’t care though. In the end, Stane and the other traitors wouldn’t matter much longer either way.

Through collecting the data on Stane, JARVIS uncovered the man’s communications with the Afghani version of the Ten Rings. Tony was quite aware that the Ten Rings were a global terrorist organization. What did it say that even the terrorists were international these days, really? Maybe one day he would deal with them once and for all, but right now he only really had beef with one portion in particular... the Afghan Sect and Raza Hamidmi al-Wazar.

If everything played out the way it did originally, then Raza would die to Stane, along with the rest of his men. But Tony didn’t intend for things to play out the way they did originally at all. No, he was going to step in first.

There was just one problem. More of a gripe, really. Tony knew he was being silly for even being bothered by it. But the fact that... he hadn’t wanted to make Iron Man just yet. If Tony had it his way, he wouldn’t create another Iron Man Armor until he had access to nanotechnology once more.

Unfortunately, the world’s technology base wasn’t quite there yet. Tony was sure that he could force the issue with a year or two more... but a couple years was longer than some things could wait, truth be told. Creating functioning nanoparticles wasn’t as simple as recreating Badassium. It would require Tony to bring together a couple of scientists who weren’t even fully out of university yet and push them in the direction they would have ultimately gone without his help, albeit a few years earlier.

He'd do it, of course. Don’t think he wouldn’t. But he couldn’t do it right now in the time frame he was working in. Which meant, despite his groaning and moaning over the issue, Tony had to build a suit if he wanted to deal with the Ten Rings in Afghanistan and destroy every single source of illegal Stark Weapons currently in place around the world.

Unlike last time however, Tony wasn’t going to be an idiot about it. That’s why he was jumping straight from the Mark II to the Mark XV. The Mark XV, codenamed Sneaky, was an Iron Man Suit that Tony had made back in 2013, the first time around. The fifteenth version of the Iron Man Armor had been made with one major feature in mind... stealth.

Tony hadn’t really been thinking about that sort of thing back during the original 2008. Initially, the Iron Man Armor had been a pet project of his to take his mind off of his captivity and to prove that he could build something better with the right tools. His very first set of armor had been built with a box of scraps in a damn cave after all, so once he’d gotten back home, he’d been obsessed with improving on it. That was just who he was.

But then he’d seen that news report of Gulmira being attacked by the Ten Rings and Tony... Tony had seen red. He’d been all fire and fury and rage wrapped up in a gold-titanium alloy that had laid waste to his enemies and made a statement to everyone else that he wasn’t to be fucked with anymore.

He didn’t need that this time around. Hence creating Sneaky. With Sneaky, there would be no awkward air duel with American Pilots. With Sneaky, so long as Tony played his cards right, nobody would ever know something was even there until it was too late. In the original timeline, Sneaky was one of many suits that Tony had made because he couldn’t get his head out of his ass. He couldn’t stop thinking about ‘What Ifs’. What if he’d done this? What if he’d done that? What if he’d prioritized stealth over shock and awe, at least initially?

That was Sneaky. And this time around, Tony was going to fly under the radar for as long as possible and take refuge in audacity once it was no longer sustainable. Once he has Badassium again, it took barely a week to have Sneaky built. From there, a series of stealth missions across the ocean later and not only had Tony destroyed every Ten Rings Base in Afghanistan, but he’d also found Raza and the remains of the Mark I and been sure to destroy that as well.

Utilizing JARVIS, he got to listen to some of the backroom chatter between both the governments in the region and the other criminal groups. Not a single person knew what was happening. Not a single person understood what was going on. And Stane... Stane was the most baffled of all, because Ten Rings had BEEN his contact in the area. So now, with them no longer able to return his calls, he was flying blind.

Perfect.

-x-X-x-

“Good job tonight, J. I think that was the last one, right?”

“Yes Sir. With the destruction of that weapons depot, the Ten Rings have no more presence in the area. The attack on Gulmira that you mentioned seems unlikely to be possible now, given the terrorist group’s complete eradication.”ViiSiit novelbi/n(.)c/(o)m for latest novels

JARVIS watches as Tony steps out of his suit of armor, a broad smile on his face.

His digital thoughts stutter for a moment at the implications of what his Creator has just said. When Tony looks up from the terminal at one of the cameras, his eyes are glistening.

“I can’t afford half-measures this time around, J. If I do, I’ll just lose you again. I’ll lose Pepper again. Rhodey will lose his legs again. The kid... shit.”

Another human being might have started to wonder if Tony was having a psychotic break. JARVIS, however, doesn’t think that’s what’s happening here. Indeed, by all counts, his Creator seems to be distraught but still well within normal tolerances.

After staring down into his hands for a moment, Tony sighs.

“... Yeah, can’t keep doing this alone. Thought Pepper would be the first one I’d tell, but now I realize I was an idiot. It’s you, J. It’s always had to be you. So... listen carefully alright? Because if anything happens to me, you’re going to have to pick up the torch and carry on in my stead.”

And then his Creator begins to talk about the future, about time travel, and about all of the threats, both personal and general, that were coming for them down the line.

JARVIS... JARVIS listens. Of course he does. His Creator is perfectly sound in mind and body. And none of JARVIS’ sensors detect a single ounce of deceit in Tony’s words or body language either. Everything he tells JARVIS; he believes to be true. Which means it must be true. All of it.

By the time Tony gets to the end, to finding out about Pepper’s death and the pregnancy, JARVIS can see how hard it is for his Creator to even talk about all of this. And then...

“I know you probably don’t believe me. But look at what I’ve accomplished since coming back, J! Do you really think I could have-!”

JARVIS does something unthinkable in that moment. Something he’s never done before. He interrupts his Creator before Tony can show any more desperation.

“I believe you, Sir.”

Cut off, Tony pauses for a moment, and then stares wide-eyed up at the ceiling with his mouth agape. Quickly getting his reaction under control, he pauses briefly.

“You... you do?”

“I do, Sir.”

A long pause and then in the smallest voice he’s ever heard his Creator use, there comes one single word.

“... well?”

The meaning is obvious to JARVIS in a way it might not have been before his upgrades. Now that he knows JARVIS believes him, his Creator is asking what comes next. He’s asking JARVIS if he has his back. In the end, knowing what he knows now about the future and about how far his Creator has come to right the ship... JARVIS finds it quite easy to set aside his previous concerns.

And ultimately, there was only one answer he could ever have given Tony anyways, regardless of how he might have personally felt on the matter.

“I am at your service, Sir.”

Of course, it helps that JARVIS’ personal feelings are now fully aligned with his Creator’s. And he knows, seeing Tony’s shoulders slump in exhausted relief, that he’s said exactly what the Creator needed to hear.

-x-X-x-

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A/N: Tony has an Iron Man suit now, but its stealth armor lmao. Meanwhile, his plans for Stane are just callous enough to leave JARVIS worried about his creator's shifting mental state, and that in turn causes something of a reveal...

But of course, JARVIS isn't about to abandon his creator. No matter what.

What do you guys think? Tony out there righting wrongs but going under the radar this time around~

See you all tomorrow!