Title: 10880 Malibu Point (1843 words) by ren
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Iron Man 3 - Fandom, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, SPOILERS! Don't read if you haven't watched it. Not that big a spoiler since we all saw the trailer, but still... you were warned. ¬¬
Characters: Tony Stark, Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Dummy (Iron Man movies), You (Iron Man movies), Butterfingers (Iron Man Movies)
Additional Tags: all the feels, Angst, Tragedy, Tony's Bots - Freeform

Can also be read on AO3 and LJ. Links to both accounts on my profile.

Thoughts
|Bots Talking to Each Other|

Few things went through Tony's mind as the missile hit. The immediate thing was Pepper. He could see her, could see that this would hurt her. He didn't think, just reacted and called the suit to closed up around her, trusting Jarvis to do as he instructed and not really thinking about what was going to happen to him. He should be lucky he didn't crack his skull open as he hit the wall, nor break his neck. Once Pepper's safety was guaranteed, his house being attacked finally sinked in and one thought stood out.

"Anthony Edward Stark… you idiot."

Because 10880 Malibu Point wasn't just an address. Pepper and he weren't the only beings living there. Jarvis lived there. God, You, Butterfingers, Dummy… they were all downstairs. They were all dying.

Jarvis would survive. Tony had made sure that the A.I (secretly not really an A.) could upload himself into any of his suits in case Tony needed backup. Jarvis would walk away from this.

But the others…

As the chopper hit and the floor opened, Tony fell into his workshop. For a few moments he looked around, looking, searching for his babies. The sight that greeted him tore at his heart.

One of his bots stood in the middle of the chaos. It was clearly Dummy, and he was desperately trying to get one of his brothers (he couldn't tell who it was with all the debris) to stand up. Half his body was smashed, his head the only part visible and small pincers weakly opening and closing up at Dummy. Tony could't help but watch. One of his babies was hurt and in pain. They were both probably scared. He tried to looking around for his third bot but couldn't see him.

Two more missiles hit. His suits burned and exploded. It hurt, a bit, to watch it. But even though they were his creations they weren'talive. Jarvis was safe in this suit, in the Mark 42. Dummy and the others weren't. And Tony couldn't reach them… couldn't save them.

The floor gave way. One of the beauties of this place was the fact that it had been built over a cliff, this part of the house hanging from it. Now... now Tony hated it, because as the ground gave out the workshop sank. Cars, equipment and prototypes fell into the ocean.

You, Butterfingers, Dummy. They all fell. As far as Tony knew, they were dead.

He'd never thought… he'd never considered they would be in danger. If he had, maybe he'd have made them upload themselves into a server if there was ever any danger of their destruction.

Jarvis and the others had always been there for him. Sure, there was Pepper, and there was James, and there was Happy. Now he even had his 'Superhero Friends' as Happy had said to him.

But his bots… Dummy had been the first one. Built when he was seventeen, his companions, his first friend. He'd watched Dummy grow, evolve and adapt to his surroundings and the new bots around him. Get used to Jarvis... Who wasn't responding.

He couldn't... he couldn't let them just die!

"Jarvis! Dummy!"

"Sir!" Came Jarvis voice, panicked and even scared. That helped Tony keep focused. Because a scared Jarvis was just wrong, and it pissed Tony off. A scared Jarvis shouldn't be possible. Someone had made Jarvis scared. It was mainly Tony's fault, for taunting a terrorist, but said terrorist was going to pay for what he'd done.

First Happy, almost hurting Pepper. His bots. Jarvis.

"We're getting out of this Jarvis. We're getting out and finding You, and Butterfingers and Dummy and we're going home."

"Sir." Came the British voice again, tone soft but in a world of pain. "I can't feel them sir. I can't feel them in the network."

The network. Of course. Jarvis and the bots were linked together. Part of a virtual hive but each independent. It was how the A.I got them in line, kept an eye on their software incase of viruses or any damage that was done. He kept them all interconnected and even let Tony know at times what they were saying to each other. And to him.

Jarvis had still been connected to them, and Tony would bet he had held on to their consciousness till the end, never leaving them alone. With an even heavier heart, Tony realized… Jarvis had felt them die.

0000

Everything had been going well. The network was buzzing with activity. You was having the fun of his life filming everything with the camera Tony had given him. Zooming in and out like it was the best thing in the world. Butterfingers was trying to cheer up Dummy, who was still on timeout and had been sent back to his corner. Jarvis thought the hat had been a bit too much but they all knew Tony didn't mean it. He'd just really wanted to use the hat on someone.

It wasn't until Tony and he started doing the analysis of the crime scene that things started to go wrong. Learning that Happy was in a coma had shocked Jarvis. He'd known Happy forever, and the bodyguard was one of the few who knew about his and the bots' sentience. Tony didn't have to tell him to know that they would also be looking at the culprit on their end.

Then Maya Hansen came. Jarvis scanned her and found her identification in his archives. He was suspicious of her presence, but since Tony had actually remembered her name without Jarvis secretly telling him the A.I supposed there was no immediate danger and let Tony out of the suit when Pepper threw her bags down and came to meet them.

He escaped from the impending fight, keeping and eye on Tony and watching over the bots. Butterfingers and Dummy were now fighting over the hat, each pulling at it and managing to tear it apart little by little. You standing at a safe distance was happily filming them. Amused, Jarvis touched their consciousness with fondness, reminding them to behave and play nice.

The first missile caught him by surprise. Jarvis was wired into the whole house and for a moment he blacked out and panicked as parts of the house blew up, taking the sensors and systems offline. It felt like having his limbs chopped off.

Mechanic cries brought him back, and Jarvis divided himself into calming down the bots and uploading himself fully into the suit to help Tony. Without hesitation, he followed the man's orders and quickly wrapped himself around Pepper.

He was worried about Tony, but he was in truth, more worried about the bots.

His brothers.

They were terrified.

You had dropped the camera and made a beeline for his brothers.

He never made it.

Jarvis screamed into the network alongside Dummy and Butterfingers as part of the ceiling fell on the smallest bot and he fell silent.

|You! You! Answer!|

He received none. The pain was unbearable. Jarvis had never felt this much pain. Not when he was hacked, not when he received a virus, and certainly not when his protocols had been overwritten.

Dummy and Butterfingers had stuck together, frozen on the spot. The network had bonded them together until they were one but separate. You had been torn out of them mercilessly, leaving them raw with pain and fear and an unbearable void where You had been. Jarvis was desperately looking for a way out, somewhere he could tell Dummy and Butterfingers to go to where they would be safe.

Upstairs Tony had regained control of the suit once Pepper was safe, but unfortunately the Mark 42 was still not battle ready and Jarvis had to worry about him as well.

As another missile hit, he didn't see the boulder fall until the network shot up with pain and screams again.

|Butterfingers!|

The bot was crushed under a part of the house. Dummy was crying. The network was flowing with his cries. The only time Jarvis had heard him cry before was when Tony went missing and didn't come back.

|Dummy. Dummy listen to me!| Jarvis yelled into the network. |It's going to be alright.| He tried to calm his, technically, big brother but the bot was too frightened to hear him.

Then Tony fell through the ceiling and caught sight of Dummy and Butterfingers. Jarvis could tell by the look on his face that Tony wanted to go to them, wanted to save them. The pain was too much. Dummy's cries and Butterfingers agonizing clicks were simply too. Much.

The two last missiles were all it took for their worlds to stop.

The house went down, the water swallowed them up, and the network fell into silence with a terrible scream.

|Dummy? Butterfingers!? Answer me!| Jarvis screamed desperately. He froze for a moment, floating in an endless black void. A void full of death.

Alone.

0000

"Jarvis! Dummy!"

Tony's voice brought him out of the blackness. Tony. He had to save Tony. He wouldn't lose anyone else.

"Sir!" He yelled back, panicked and scared. They had to get out of here. The house was falling quickly toward them.

"We're getting out of this Jarvis. We're getting out and finding You, and Butterfingers and Dummy and we're going home." Tony's voice came, breathless but with determination and a cold edge to his voice.

"Sir." He spoke softly, the grief becoming unbearable, even more so by Tony's words. It was just too late. "I can't feel them sir. I can't feel them in the network." He said, the confession only making it that much realer.

It hurt so much.

He heard Tony gasp at his words, and before they knew it, the house was on them. The suit did a marvelous job in keeping them in one piece. But Tony was still trapped. And the water was rising inside the suit. The man tried to crawl his way out of the debris, but it wouldn't budge.

Jarvis thought about his options, quickly coming to a decision. "Sir, take a deep breath." He said. Allowing the HUD to show his intentions. Tony did as instructed and Jarvis released the gauntlet.

Being part of the suit, Jarvis had complete control over it if he ever needed to use it. The Mark 42 was his body in a sense. As the gauntlet, a part of Jarvis, flew off into the water, he reached back, taking hold of Tony's hand and pulling hard until the engineer was out of the debris, quickly reassembling on his hand to keep the water out.

Tony was starting to lose consciousness, so Jarvis activated the thrusters and took them out of the water at full speed. His only thought as Tony finally passed out due to emotional and physical exhaustion was to take them away. Far away. Pepper was safe. Now he needed to save Tony, and he needed to leave this place.

Leave the site where his brothers had died.