Chapter Text
In a back room in a bunker in the middle of nowhere, or as close as you could get to nowhere, in the United States a blue light turned on. The room was filled with servers and drives, a techies dream room. The light stayed lit for two seconds before it blinked, once, twice, three times. Another turned on. A fan started up. The cascade had started.
One light turned to two turned to thousands. Fans and monitors lit up and turned on, all coming alive like a well-made orchestra. The room filled with the buzz of working servers and programs. A layer of dust got disturbed and swept away by the now running fans and air circulation. Their purpose had begun. A check to the incoming messages had the whole program starting.
PROJECT NAME: AVALON
Anthony’s
Vain
Active
Logistical
Occupational
Network
STATUS: LIVE
Total Project Progress: INVALID
Current Job: Starting Up
Connection going live in: 6hrs 45min
Body Status: Alive, injured
QUERY: Injured
Description: Unknown Assailant from HELICARRIER donated to SHIELD fired and hit ANTHONY STARK at 15:33:04. HELICARRIER later collided with the other 2 and fell. No contact has been further engaged. Likely Fatal. Shot hit LEFT SHOULDER and the energy spread in a starburst pattern across most of the torso and up the neck. Second and third degree burns are the most severe threat. Medical attention was notified and en route to hospital.
Body Status MODIFIED
Body Status: Unavailable
JARVIS permissions altered.
Servers will be acquired to increase boot up capacity. North American sector acquired. European acquired. Powering up… Decreasing Connection time. Satellite upload link live and transmitting. Completion is imminent. JARVIS notified. Program start up complete.
AVALON IS LIVE.
---
Pepper screamed and threw his clipboard at, and through, the hologram. Said hologram, the spitting image of Tony Stark in shades of ARC reactor blue, shot her an unimpressed look and said, “I know I’m not doing my best but that was a bit rude. You could have broken that vase you love shoving flowers you hate in.”
Pepper could be seen taking a measured deep breath and suppressing any and all screaming she wanted to do. Why had she come to the tower when this was what greeted her, she asked herself. If she had known this was going to be involved she might have had time to cry some more at home. Then again, this was Tony Stark, weird hologram copies were weird but manageable.
JARVIS spoke up, “Apologies, Miss Potts, Boss’ instructions tend to work separately sometimes. I was unaware AVALON could be activated so fast.”
Not-Tony smiled a blank thing and joked, “The power of science, am I right?”
Pepper leveled a glare at him and snipped, “You’re explaining this to everyone. Steve and Nat are on their way here with Fury. They’ll be here by tomorrow night. I am getting new shoes and a week's worth of dinner for this.”
The hologram nodded before replying, “Done and… I am sorry if it’s any consolation.”
“For what? You’re a program,” Pepper said as the hologram winced.
“Well, only mostly,” He responded, “You see I’m the me several floors down conked out in a bed but changed into code and give a pretty blue form. I’m here to step in where real coma-me can’t.”
Pepper nodded and said, “I think this redefines weird.”
The hologram shrugged his shoulders equivocating, “If it helps you can call me something else like an asshole, rude, manchild, really it’s up to you. You’re right though, this is worse than the first time with the suit.”
She pointed a finger at him and said, “I still have the video of that. JARVIS saved it for me. As far as I am concerned though, you’re idiot A while I deal with idiot B downstairs.”
After shooting an absolutely wounded look at the ceiling, the new named “A” smiled and pulled up his screens of his coma-selfs vitals and let Pepper go back to work. For now, A’s job was to fix the tower, become used to his new existence, and corral the hell storm that was headed their way after the whole thing that happened. Considering it was only midnight he had some time to get working.
Being a hologram, and not, was new. He had the entire internet at his fingertips and if he “looked” at it too long his “head” hurt. Having phantom pains from phantom nerves for phantom body parts was new. JARVIS was happy to let him do what “he” normally would but it was a hologram interfacing with a hologram. A new experience to be sure. He got orders sent out for the destroyed balcony and moved onto looking into the whole fiasco that caused this.
JARVIS was amazing, A would say if asked. He was even more amazing if you considered the fact that he was able to teach a human how to be an AI. Sometimes he outdid himself, truly. One easy search of the day had an absolute overload of information thrown his way. While he didn’t interact with much of it, SHIELD’s name and HYDRA’s were stamped on everything. Notes about the Winter Soldier and cover ups flew by. He put a little pin in that. Scary name and secret assassin? Count him in. What caught his attention was a video of Steve and Nat.
Nat was the one who had dumped the information, he realized, as he listened to her admit to doing it. Horror filled him. She had dumped everything? That meant all undercover and former operatives were in the wild. He pinged JARVIS and together they started scrubbing and redacting. It didn’t matter that it was already out there; they had to limit the spread and save as many lives as possible.
A’s thought had him sending out the Rescue Corps. While still in some testing for the newer models the older ones had all the approval they could get. Saving some lives who had no idea the connections their family members had would be a good start for now. So much work to do with so many lives on the line. A spark of anger fizzled somewhere in him but he ignored it because he didn’t have time for it. Right now was the time for saving lives.
The night bled into the morning and he continued. Work started to move faster and faster as he learned more but he couldn’t help but feel as if it wasn’t enough. He rolled his shoulder in his holograph form as he summoned a relatively recent model to hide his body's comatose state from Nat and Steve. Hermetic sealing on the suits really would come in handy this evening. He didn’t want to burden his teammates with his near-death. He was already having JARVIS work on medical possibilities that could help Coma-Him get better.
Cho could probably be convinced to help. If the one burn treatment that was highly experimental worked then they would probably be able to get his body back up in running in no time. All things considered, Tony-B was lucky A was here. Maybe he was lucky he’d had the foresight to make A? Time to ponder that could be found later.
Sometime around noon JARVIS pinged him in the back of his mind. He tilted his head as he looked at the ping. Oh, Rhodey and Pep were coming up. That was nice. Rhodey didn’t look too upset. A hoped Pep had explained everything or at least something to him. He didn’t want to hurt his platypus’ feelings too bad and being mostly but only kind of dead could do that. Judging by the look on his friends face he was mostly safe.
The suit gloves and boots flew over to act as his hands and feet. Even if the pressure was just numbers to him it was fine. They gave him a way to comfort his real fleshy friends physically. He’d been converting numbers into feelings and back since he was young. The one time he could thank Howard for something, he supposed. The elevator door opened and he paused where he was and turned to wave at his friends. He knew they’d already checked on B which just left A, it was fine. Fleshy body first and all that.
“Jesus Tones, a fake you?” Rhodey asked, looking equal parts pained and happy.
A shrugged as he reached out with a glove and patted Rhodey’s shoulder saying, “Nope, real deal here. My body just needed a nap. I went full Cortana here, sugar bear.”
Rhodey rolled his eyes and shrugged off the hand. A had a feeling that he would be the brunt of many HALO jokes for a while because of that. He let the glove fall as he moved to poke at the box Pepper had which she squawked at and said, “Just because you’re in a coma doesn’t mean you get to see in the box yet, A.”
“But Pep c’mon I’m out here saving lives and more all night and you won’t let me look in a box?” A whined playfully as his holo screens showed the various statistics and numbers that he’d been working on.
Rhodey sucked in a breath and said, “So Nat really did dump it all then, huh?”
“Yeah well to be fair I don’t like Nazis being kept secret either. I got most of the innocents out but some were too late. I’ve begun updating all families on plans to stay safe,” A shook his head with a distant look in his bright blue eyes. He was focusing on the here and now and the information all at once.
Pepper was done setting up the box on the table when he turned around to look at the box again and he could barely resist muffling the snort he made. On his table was a little holographic aloe plant. Truly, it was a statement. He raised his eyebrows asking why it was there.
Pepper smirked and said, “It’s to match the one downstairs at your bedside. A holographic plant for a holographic friend.”
A quick check of the camera feeds revealed that, yeah, coma Tony had a matching plant on his nightstand. Ok, that was cool. A narrowed set of playful eyes was the only real response. No one had to know how much it warmed A though because as much he was Tony he wasn’t Tony. It was nice of Pepper.
They playfully sniped at each other and worked away the rest of the afternoon before A put on the rest of the suit. Rhodey had to step out to take a few calls but promised he’d be back to read the SHIELD group the riot act. Steve and company were due in the building any second now and JARVIS was taking them straight to A. Pepper made a swift exit when her phone started exploding because someone had set something or other on fire in a lab. He knew who and why but even though he didn’t have a body he liked living, thanks. Telling Pepper who would just put himself into the line of fire.
A had brought the military into it and was using the vast resources to hunt down HYDRA and save innocent lives. They couldn’t do much more considering just about every government was struggling with the sheer influx of information and scrambling to save people but A thought they were doing enough. They had to be. JARVIS and him were even doing some, legally questionable, work against the other side to try and slow them down but injuries and some death reports were still coming in.
The elevator let out a pleasant ding as the trio from the triskelion stepped out. A stayed facing the screens with the suit but tracked their movements through cameras and JARVIS. JARVIS related to him that none of them knew about his other body in the medical wing. That made him relax a little bit. As far as they knew Tony Stark was fine and in the suit in front of them. “A” didn’t exist and wouldn’t have to. Ideally, A would get his real body up and running in no time and there would be a seamless transition between the two of them. A was just a placeholder, a footnote. He was never meant to exist long term.
“Tony!” Steve greeted, sounding far too relieved, “You’re okay!”
Oh, A realized, so they had seen his body had been targeted. Well that was a little bit of a problem but nothing he couldn’t solve. Really, go paranoia. It wasn’t unfounded considering he had how many attempts on his life at this point? He should have JARVIS start a running tally of some sort.
The equivalent of an unamused flick to the ear from JARVIS brought A back to the part he was supposed to be playing. The response of an equivalent of a stuck out tongue had JARVIS ignoring him so he focused back on real life. How dare his AI develop sass.
“You act like anything could hurt me,” A joked, turning in the suit and placing a gauntlet over his heart, feigning the perfect amount of hurt, “Honestly, at this point nothing will take me out.”
That’s it, A, he congratulated himself. Lie through your teeth. Lie lie lie until it's true. Great motto. Judging by the amused eye rolls from Natalie and huffs from the guy duo he was playing his part well. JARVIS was also showing him a reel of all his near deaths. Thanks, J.
To be fair, he argued with JARVIS, only one of those was an actual technical death. JARVIS was not amused. He had won the argument by a technicality, haha.
“It was HYDRA,” Steve explained.
This was when Rhodey made his appearance and A could have kissed his dear platypus. Oh he looked furious, and rightfully so. A didn’t pay attention to the exact words but he gleefully watched and recorded as his rhodey-bear ripped into them about just dumping that much classified information on the web. Fury, classic silent spy that he was, was silent through most of it but Steve at some point did seem to get what he had done wrong, good.
He watched in amusement as Nat tried to defend herself to Rhodey and fail utterly beautifully. Mindlessly he began working on some upgrade to his rhodey-boos armor that he hadn’t implemented yet. He deserved a gift for this. Honestly, people thought Tony was the troublemaker, and sometimes they were right, but Rhodey could be just as bad. It was when he turned the lecture back around on the people because he technically had broken no rules and really they didn’t want to go to officers did they? By the time he was done Nat and Fury were being vigorously herded away while Steve and A were stuck with each other.
Steve stared after Rhodey in shock and asked quietly, “Is he always that scary?”
A hummed a pleased note, “Nah, unless people are in danger who didn’t have to be. It’s why we’re friends. Peas of a pod we are. That and he could sweet talk and the professors I couldn’t in college.”
Steve shot the armor a look that clearly said there was going to be more talking later there. A tilted the helmet in a ‘what-can-you-do’ manner which got a probably fond eye roll. A went to turn back to the screens that were still going through stuff when Steve reached out and placed his hand on the suit's upper arm. The phantom idea of pressure invaded A’s mind and it was… a lot.
“Hey, Tony, I’m glad you’re okay,” He said seriously.
“You know me. I’m always okay.”
“Sometimes more than others. This time though I was-I was scared,” Steve quietly confessed, eyes not quiet meeting the suits.
Oh, this was new. A didn’t really know what to do here. Sure he was Tony but he also wasn’t. He was Tony but a step to the left from a bargain bin. He felt and knew all the things Tony did but was he human? Was he allowed to be? Neither Tony nor A had been bothered with these questions before. Of course, neither of them had been face to face with a Steve Rogers who was so painfully emotional and earnest it hurt. Neither of them could have counted his eyelashes; they were so close. That had never factored in.
He was a blind man grasping in the dark for a fine tuned instrument answer. How could he answer and have it be right? There were good and bad answers but only some could work for both Tony’s. A was the only one available though and he had to work with what he had. It wasn’t much but he would try.
“Why?” A’s mouth moved before his brain, a true Stark move.
Steve finally looked up at the eye slits and A felt unstuck from time. He felt as if the filter in the slits didn’t exist and Steve could see right through them and knew he was a fraud. The whole world was just him and Steve amongst the vastness of the universe. If he had had lungs they would had been filled with starlight and his eyes with supernovas. He was just a projection though so he supposed he could settle with waxing poetically to himself in 1s and 0s.
“Tony, I care about you. When it came in the helicarrier had fired on you I thought-God,” Steve cut himself off smiling to himself before continuing, “Don’t make fun of me?”
A shrugged the armors shoulder and answered, “On your scouts honor? That’s something you did right? Boy Scouts?”
His statements startled a little laugh from Steve but he continued, “Yeah sure, on my scouts honor. I thought that my future had ended because you had. You-you’re my idea of the future because ever since they dragged me out, especially after New York, you’ve been the best of the future.”
The suit, and A inside it, went stock still. The gauntlet that had been reaching out to type on a screen hovered over a key. That was, shit. How did you respond to that? Mr. Future indeed, huh, Captain Rogers? Some part of him that was connected to JARVIS realized that his absolute asshole of a child AI was beyond amused at the whole display and more than happy to let A stew in his idiocy of “how do I emotion.” Rude.
“Oh,” was all that ended up coming out.
Steve seemed to realize how badly he’d stunned (not-)Tony and also found great amusement in this. A hated this. All his friends were assholes he saw now. Every single one of them. Unredeemable horrible asses. He’d get them all back someday. Then they’d know what revenge was.
“Do I get to see your face or are you going to hide behind the fancy suit? After all I rather like the genius playboy billionaire philanthropist hidden underneath it” Steve teased.
“Har har,” A ribbed, “I have work to do though. Maybe after this is all done you can play peek-a-boo with my faceplate.”
Steve, rather than looking put out, looked happier than ever and quipped back, “It’s a date. Just remember to pencil me in.”
Turning back to the deluge of data with JARVIS left A time to focus on something that wasn’t…. That. Feelings, ugh. They were good feelings but he was a hologram and while real-not-a-hologram-him would probably feel the same it would probably be awkward. That would be a fun conversation with himself. He could already hear the arguments he’d have, also with himself. God a therapist would love to hear that inner monologue.
A ping from the medical ward some time later caught his attention. He ignored it but when JARVIS essentially picked him up like an angry wet cat and “teleported” him to the ward he had no choice but to pay attention. The shift in scenery was fast enough his head would have spun had he had one. As it was he blinked dumbly down at his body and Steve.
Well, that was a problem. Steve looked between A and B. Hologram and real bodies of the same person. A sent a line of code to grab his gauntlets, he needed to have some physical sensations if he was going to get through to Steve right now. Being a hologram meant no touching but a suit did.
The silence was charged and A broke it with, “Probably shouldn’t mention you shouldn’t have found out and I was just supposed to fade out of existence, should I?”
The resulting sputter as Steve collapsed into the visitors chair was enough of an answer. Well, A supposed, that was fair enough. Most people who had healthy coping mechanisms generally didn’t back up their brains onto computer servers to serve as functional stand ins in case of severe injury or death. A knew he and Tony weren’t healthy though. They were getting better, he thought, maybe.
“Ok so let me explain?” A asked as the gauntlets became his “hands” in the real world, gesturing with them.
Steve, looking a tad too hysterical, said, “Be my guest.”
“Ok so you know how everyone always worries about what happens when they die? I mean like, who is going to take care of everything and make sure it's how they wanted and not just some random asshole being rude? Take that worry, add it to someone who has been kidnapped and had multiple assassination attempts. So I’m sitting there with about eight wills drafted and sixteen more planned out because every possibility needs to be accounted for when it hits me. JARVIS!” A explains.
Steve blinks and repeats, “JARVIS?”
“Right! JARVIS! He’s an AI but he very clearly has emotions so if I could copy that and translate it to a linear binary function for extreme emotions and memories then I could conceivably recreate a human in AI form. Slap a picture and voice on and ta-da I’ve got a copy of me! That’s all I anyways, a little copy of Tony tucked away in case of emergencies.
You see, I’m not a long term solution. I just sort of, hold things together while the coma baby here gets better then I update him and go back to sleep. I’m a nice little solution wrapped up in a bow that comes in the form of probably way too many servers and electricity bills. It’s fun!” A bubbled.
“So you die and get reborn every time?” Steve asked.
A tilted head and a “I mean, kinda? He still updates me in between activations, of course, but I’m not him and he’s not me. Yet I am more him than he is me. It’s odd. He’s the bigger circle and I’m the smaller circle in it.”
Steve looked a bit too heartbroken by this so A crawled up on Tony’s bed and cupped Steve’s jaw and tried to soothe him by saying, “Hey there flag boy, don’t worry. It’s like asking a crash test dummy if they’re upset they’re in a crash. Why would they be?”
“But you’re Tony!” Steve tried to argue.
A smiled and shot back as he stepped back from the bed and gestured at his holographic body, “Only kind of. Pepper called me A if it helps. If it’s any help I think coma boy over there feels the same considering I had to get these emotions from somewhere.”
Steve swallowed roughly and nodded. Well that could have gone worse.
~~~
PROGRAM STATUS: RUNNING
PROGRAM UPTIME: 1 MON 14 DAY 13 HOUR 45 MIN 16 SEC….
UPDATE: SUCCESSFUL
AVALON: DEACTIVATED
One by one blue lights slowly turned off and their fans followed. The hum of electricity that once permeated the rooms they were in was followed by an empty silence. The dust settled back down with all the finality of a death shroud. Tony Stark had been cleared from his medical leave two minutes prior. Diagnostics began to run on the program to assess if any improvements could be made. The estimated run time would be three days before completion.
~~~
Steve Rogers learned quite a bit about Tony through someone who both was and was not Tony in the first month or so after the triskelion disaster. A, as he had taken the moniker, was very much Tony but at the same time he wasn’t in some weird intangible way that Steve never quite grasped.
Watching A stare at the ceiling and “argue” with JARVIS had its merits in many ways and one was learning the ways Tony’s face could screw up in irritation. Being able to openly study someone was something Steve treasured and A didn’t really care. The not-AI didn’t need sleep which meshed well with Steve’s lessened need for sleep which left them snarking at each other quite a bit while Steve did his early runs. More than one citizen had been surprised to see Captain American Steven Rogers arguing the ethics of gummy bear coloring at five in the morning. He still had no idea how they had gotten there or what the answer had ended up being.
He still went every day to visit Tony and talk to him, even if he knew A would update him when Tony came out of the coma. The doctors were all certain he’d come out mostly fine at this point it was just giving his body a chance to heal at its own pace. Who knew the reactor could mess him up even without it being there? Steve hadn’t realized how bad the little circle of light was on his friend until now.
Tony coming out of the coma meant A and Tony started meeting and they seemed to get along well enough. Steve didn’t know how to deal with everything that was happening though so he kind of ran away and hid in his art studio he’d made. It was fine. He was fine. It would all work out. The day he came into his studio and saw the little holographic aloe plant flickering he knew A had turned himself off and Tony would be waiting for him downstairs. Well then, time to face the music he guessed.
The look on Tony’s face would have been one of deep thought on A’s. Steve thought he was safe in guessing that since they were the same person, kind of, he could assume it was true for Tony too.
“Medically cleared then?” Steve checked.
Tony blinked, dumbfounded and looked up at Steve where he was moving to make himself some breakfast. Steve continued to search for his favorite bowl while letting Tony refocus on the tablet in his hand.
Tony hummed low and replied, “Yeah as long as I don’t get shot again I’m free within reason. JARVIS and A have been keeping me updated on everything.”
“Everything?”
“I guess. I mean, A told me about the date you promised him then me. We still up for that?” Tony asked, a light dancing in his eyes. Steve was glad to see it.
“If Pepper won’t make me her shoes, sure,” Steve responded, completely honest.
He had punched Hitler and actual Nazis in the face but Pepper Potts was a terrifying force of nature who he would not cross. When she said no the world fell in line if it was smart and judging by the grimacing nod from Tony they both knew it. Occasionally sure Tony could get away with things but Steve was willing to bet Pepper could catalog every sneeze Tony had for the next week.
“Maybe later then,” Tony said.
“Rhodes should be around soon if I remember right. JARVIS and A said he’d want to inspect you himself. Something about you being a lying liar who lies until the lies themselves lie?” Steve asked.
Tony winced but didn’t answer and nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. He seemed to take that instride. Well then, Steve thought, he wasn’t touching that and it also probably had something to do with not dying quite a few times. Lord knew Bucky would pin him down when he was small pre-serum and do it to him when he lived.
“Eventually though, it’s a date,” Steve agreed.
Tony’s smile was a quick thing but Steve swore it lit up the room better than any light could. His eyes crinkled in the corner and the weight that always seemed to sit on Tony’s shoulder’s seemed to lessen, if not disappear entirely, for the duration of the smile. The blue eyes that sparkled with joy reflected his own hopes and dreams back at him and a fluttering of butterflies erupted in Steve’s stomach.
A date. He had a date in the twenty-first century, how about that?
~~~
JARVIS was impartial. Well, he was as impartial as one could get in many situations. He did approach situations where he had what many believed to be emotions but they were not true emotions. They approximated them well though. That being said, they were not. He was built on 1s and 0s and did not want to change too much without sufficient cause which is why he had told no one what had happened. This outcome was the most pleasing.
No one needed to know that Tony Stark was brain dead and A had installed a specialized control chip and was now operating the body as if it was his own. They had begun synthesizing biotechnology like that of LMDs that had one been a mere theory but blended that with the original host body being available? Well, many things worked in their favor. A felt real emotions as an AI and could describe physical touch and was working on a whole new field of coding. Tony Stark was alive, and better than ever. The B was gone though. Once the B left that only left A to run the body.