Ch35. Tony's First Artifacts
When he heard Natasha's question, instead of telling her, Tony decided to show her. He put his hand into his pocket and took out a rock, causing Natasha to frown in confusion at him.
Tony gestured her to be patient and put the rock on the ground before taking a step back.
A moment later, the rock levitated to the level of Tony's chest and Natasha's eyes widened as a faint outline of a figure started slowly appearing.
It was as if a ghost was suddenly becoming corporeal in front of her eyes and Natasha couldn't decide if she should be horrified at the possibilities of what exactly Tony was doing, because it very well could have been necromancy from what she was seeing, or amazed that he even managed to do... whatever this was supposed to be.
When the figure became fully visible but still translucent, just like one would imagine a ghost to be, it stopped in that state and Tony stepped forward, putting his arm over the figure's shoulder as if it was his long-time best buddy or something.
It also proved that the figure, despite being translucent, could still be touched, and therefore interact with the material world.
Natasha really wondered if it could phase through the walls but she was aware her mindset was slowly becoming corrupted by Tony's special kind of madness and quickly shook her head. That was not the point!
She was about to open her mouth to demand some answers when Tony smugly grinned, "Red, re-meet JARVIS!"
Tony clearly expected cheer, applause, or praise for his genius but Natasha just stared in silent shock at the JARVIS turned ghost for a moment before she put her head in her hands.
"You gotta be kidding me." She muttered, feeling her head starting to throb from over-exposure to insanity. "This is so not happening and I will happily wake up in the morning." She said as if trying to convince herself.
"Miss Romanoff, I assure you, this is very much real." JARVIS said and Natasha's lips twitched when she realized the voice was no longer coming from whenever Tony hid the loudspeakers but from the actual ghost-like apparition in front of her.
"It- It's really JARVIS?" Natasha turned towards Tony, completely stupefied. So much so the documents in her hands actually fell down onto the ground. She could care less about some legal papers. Tony turned an A.I. into a ghost!
Natasha suddenly froze, 'Wait... he- he is still functioning like normal A.I.' And the implications hit her like a truck. What exactly did this development mean and what exactly did Tony do. How would this... change affect JARVIS? Will he gain a fully corporeal body with the computing ability of an A.I.?
Then she realized what led to this Tony's little reveal. Her question about how he intended to control the army of droids and Natasha staggered backward. She could take a lot but this... 'God, Tony is making Ultron's wet dream, isn't he?' She needed a bit of time to regain her wits, a few bottles of whiskey, and a very, very detailed explanation. Yes, that sounded like a great plan.
Looking at Tony with a forced smile that came off more like a grimace, Natasha almost pleadingly spoke, "Tony, what the heck did you do now? Please tell me you are not doing what I think you are doing."
"Eh?" Tony exclaimed at her reaction and even JARVIS looked a bit confused.
"Don't 'Eh?' me! Do you realize how this looks like?" Natasha cried out in slowly receding distress. Seeing Tony's reaction calmed her down somewhat because he clearly had no idea how this whole thing seemed like to her. She took a deep breath and continued in a calmer but no less pleading tone, "Are you trying to replicate the Ultron or something? I can't understand your ideas and plans with a single glance! Please, explain it to me like I am five or I will come to my own conclusions!"
Tony's face lit up with a sudden revelation, causing him to facepalm and groan. It instantly became clear to him why Natasha overreacted so much.
"I am at my current limit, Sir." JARVIS suddenly spoke, getting Natasha and Tony's attention as his humanoid figure flickered before completely dispersing, leaving only the rock that started falling towards the ground before Tony caught it.
Natasha didn't verbally react to that but she felt even more confused than before. Instead, she gave Tony a very hard questioning look that demanded an explanation.
She did trust Tony to not do something world-threatening on purpose but he was now playing with magic and only Tony really understood what went on in Tony's head. Not even The Ancient One had much of an idea about what or how he was doing his things and Natasha knew the 'Magical Grandma', as Tony liked to call her, was quite peeved because of that.
Not that Tao would ever reveal it to Tony. That would mean months of teasing and a lifetime of witty remarks at her expense.
Tony exasperatedly huffed when he saw Natasha's look, "Don't look at me that way, Red. It is not what you assume. I am not trying to recreate the original Ultron. I just transformed JARVIS and FRIDAY into my first artifacts!"
Natasha's mind became blank when she heard that. Her previous fear abruptly vanished, changing into incredulity and she suddenly felt out of her depth.
She was a spy. A killer. She could kill a man in countless ways and that was without an actual weapon but she knew nothing about Artifacts.
'This is Ultron all over again.' Natasha realized.
Here was the exact same situation. She had no knowledge in this field and Tony, the resident expert, was telling her to trust him.
The problem was, he already made Ultron once, and while she had to admit it wasn't really his fault since expecting Tony to understand how the Mind Stone would affect A.I. while not even knowing the Scepter actually contained the Mind Stone was simply ridiculous.
Anyone would do the same mistake in Tony's shoes.
But it was ever so easy to substitute the Mind Stone with the Mystic Arts and Ultron with JARVIS in this situation. Tony was again playing with something he did not fully understand and while Natasha would love nothing more than to trust him, she needed more than just his goofy smile.
Taking another deep breath, Natasha looked at Tony with a serious expression, "Tony, I know you love JARVIS as if he was your son and FRIDAY your daughter but... all I want is to know what safeguards you implemented to prevent them from going all Ultron on us. I don't need to know the exact know-how mumbo-jumbo. Just... give me something. Please."
Her voice cracked at the end as her emotions warred within her. Part of her wanted nothing but to put her full trust in Tony but another part, the scared and illogical part that felt utterly frightened from having to face something like Ultron again, whispered to her that this was too much.
Realizing her feelings, Tony nodded and patted the chair where she previously sat, causing Natasha to just wordlessly obey and walk towards it before sitting there while her eyes were focused on Tony.
Tony reached forward, taking Natasha's hand into his, and started, "Artifacts are sentient. All of them. It is what makes them different from other magical trinkets and how they can 'choose' their own users." He spoke slowly in a somber tone, maintaining eye contact with Natasha to make sure she fully understood his explanation. "Most of them also serve their chosen user until his death. It depends on the process of their making. Not important now."
Tony stopped Natasha's unsaid retort by putting the pointing finger of his free hand on her opening lips, showing her that he was not yet done.
"I have created both JARVIS and FRIDAY. They might be an A.I. but they are so advanced they have their own form of sentience. I simply saw the comparison between my A.I.s and the red cloak of the fortune-teller that foresaw the necessity of my death in the past and I started to wonder. So, I tried to put together a small ritual that would change JARVIS and FRIDAY into real Artifacts with the ability to develop and maybe even evolve. I fully expected it to fail but... apparently not." Tony chuckled, "This also bound them as my creations to my magical signature."
Of course, it was much more complicated than that but Tony was aware Natasha would not understand even a singular sentence if he started speaking magical science.
"That means, like other Artifacts, JARVIS and FRIDAY will be loyal to me until my death upon which they will choose their own wielders. Some Artifacts can rebel but those are usually made with dark spells and sacrificial magic. You know, the really nasty stuff. So, Nat, trust me, alright?" Tony put his free hand on her cheek and gently caressed it with his thumb.
And now that he put it this way, Natasha really couldn't find it in herself to protest. She knew she would berate herself for it later but... what else could she do? She just meekly nodded, deciding to put her trust in him.
Damn confusing emotions...