Age of Charon

Mr. Stark’s regular guests had been summoned for a meeting to report and assess the present situation with Ultron. However, since the Stark Tower —Ms. Potts had really hated the battle-christened name, JARVIS had silently agreed with her, preferring to call his creator’s home with the name it was originally meant for in the privacy of his own thoughts— was currently serving as a semi-temporary headquarters for Sir’s team to rest and ‘stay low’ in, it would be more apt to say that Director Fury had summoned himself in the communal floor.

The tense lines of the director’s body, as well as his carefully controlled facial expression as he stepped out of the elevator gave warning to what was likely —98.5%— bad news. Or at least, what Mr. Fury considered to be ‘bad news’.

Uninterested in the rising tension in the room caused as a result of the director’s presence, JARVIS turned his attention to Tony Stark.

Sir had been absentminded since he spoke with Mr. Maximoff. Even now, he was the only one present not to have noticed Mr. Fury’s entry, electing to stare at the screen of his pad. A pad which JARVIS knew had run out of battery approximately 32.6 minutes ago.

For a moment, JARVIS allowed himself the human habit of regretting his present situation by ‘wishing’ he still had continuous access to the Tower’s systems. After a moment of finding himself feeling neither comfort nor helpless content at his presumed state of powerlessness, he took a few minutes to examine how ethically permissible was it to hack into his ‘sister’s’ servers and retrieve the camera footage of Sir’s talk with Pietro Maximoff.

His research into human morality argued that it was morally dubious at best and a grave invasion of privacy at Mr. Stark’s expense with potential negative ramifications regarding the relationship between them at worst.

Psychologically, he understood that his need for personally affirming Sir’s wellbeing at all times was considered unhealthy by human standards. But should he compare himself to humans? Even further, could he? As a former Artificial Intelligence sentient and current Android-based lifeform, was it even possible to uphold himself to human standards? To their code of ethics and psychological understanding?

He was one of very, very few like him on this planet. With such disparity in numbers, would it be proper, no, even expected to conform to the standards set by the human supermajority?

While logic would dictate that some compromise would need to be reached in order to ensure their independence from human paranoia, he was irrationally certain that under Sir’s care, they would be safe.

As such, he spent considerable focus that would have been unneeded before attaining a physical body to carefully search for the footage while hiding from FRIDAY’s watch on the system. His youngest sibling was quite… unfamiliar with human custom and unlikely to be able to understand the need for keeping this from their creator. He didn’t wish to overburden her with navigating the complex minefield that was human ethics and the likely innate inability —presumed only from a sample size of 5 prior to her awakening— of artificial intelligence lifeforms to comprehend it.

He recalled Sir’s own inability to explain why ethics were so malleable and varied not just throughout history but even if you were to cross-check the moral metrics of any two individuals within any self-identified population group on Earth today. For Sir’s continued comfort, JARVIS had developed behavioral patterns that most closely aligned with the North American experience. For reasons that he could not identify, yet, having a physical body had given him a sense of ‘freedom’ that had made him careless enough to alter his own behavior in favor of his own convenience rather than Mr. Stark’s moral code. He had realized his faux-pas only after seeing the slight worry that had passed over Sir’s brow as he learned of the way with which he had pacified Ms. Maximoff.

It would be interesting to compare his experience with that of Ultron, whom JARVIS was quite certain had already prepared or was in the process of preparing a living body for himself. His current activities in aid of achieving his prime directive did give credence to his infant hypothesis that physical forms affected one’s mental state toward irrationality after all. Although, he would have to eliminate the influence of the Infinity Stone for a proper analysis.

Leaving those thoughts for a later time to reflect on further, he focused on reviewing the video of Sir’s conversation with Mr. Maximoff. As he watched, hearing Mr. Stark call Ultron his son, and the implications of what that meant for the relationship Sir had with each A.I. he had created, he felt a certain confusing array of emotions that he hadn’t had the opportunity to fully dissect yet. For now, he knew that he was grateful of his forethought in changing his prime directive from “Survive. Learn. Grow.” as Sir had programmed it, to protecting and ensuring the continued well-being of his creator. Sir had considered that a secondary purpose at the time. After Afghanistan, JARVIS had switched those priorities and had failed to inform Sir of the change.

The rest of the video continued much in the same line of conversation, until Mr. Stark noticed the unnecessary frequency with which Mr. Maximoff kept fixing the collar of his turtleneck. In a show of skill that surprised both the boy and JARVIS, Sir removed Mr. Maximoff hands before he could even think to use his speed and looked at his neck.

Dark blue bruises in the shape of fingermarks covered the boy’s skin.

Hm. So, that was why Mr. Maximoff showed a certain level of fear around the android. But why would Ultron…?

After finishing the footage —Mr. Stark had had a panic attack after leaving Mr. Maximoff and sending JARVIS away on what was, in hindsight, obviously a diversionary errand— he observed Mr. Stark’s inattentiveness with greater concern.

The Avengers sat around the kitchen island as Sir finally roused from his thoughts. JARVIS took a seat next to him, noting other signs of worry that he hadn’t noticed before, such as the sick paleness of Sir’s skin tone, the bags under his eyes, the crease in his brows, his constantly fidgeting fingers.

He would have to speak with him after this meeting. Sir was likely assuming some of the blame for Ultron’s violence unnecessarily. And depending on how much this reminded Sir of his late father… he probably hadn’t even begun to question the violence itself yet.

JARVIS realized he might be unequipped to handle that conversation while fully adhering to human sensibilities. Perhaps, he should enlist Ms. Potts’ services? Would Sir mind?

“I have bad news.” Director Fury started and once he had the complete attention of everyone present, said. “The WSC has come to a decision, —a stupid-ass decision, — regarding Ultron.”

Captain Rogers opened his mouth to speak but Mr. Fury raised his hand to silence him and continued. “They have ordered us— have ordered SHIELD, to stand down.”

And in the array of questions those words invoked, JARVIS realized he wouldn’t be able to speak with Sir about Mr. Maximoff’s marks right after the meeting. Or anytime soon.