March of the Iron Maiden

[madimpossibledreamer]

And this is why I didn't want to post this on Easter.  Easter should have happy, light, and fun.  None of which this is.  Well, maybe fun, figuring out how Tony was going to deal with the situation because she's awesome, and conversation between her and Yinsen, but.  Still.  And I didn't want to cheapen it.
~Dreamer~

Main Points:
Iron Man Genderbend (Iron Maiden)
Summary: The Ten Rings want something from Tony she isn't willing to give.  She calls their bluff.
Word Count: 434
Rating: Gen
Warning: Technically, nothing actually happens in this fic.  That being said, it's a female Tony in a cave full of terrorists with questionable morals.  (Partly, it's an answer to surfing through Ao3 and finding that most of the versions of female Tony have gone through sexual assault.  This Iron Maiden isn't going to just smile and go along with it and engineers her way out of the situation like she does everything else, so nothing actually happens; however I was slightly uncomfortable writing this so it might be problematic for others. 
Tl;dr: read at your own discretion.)

 

           She was expecting this.  In fact, the only surprise is that it hadn’t happened earlier.  Still, it’s obvious how this will go, but she’s not sure the thugs have the brain cells to realize things like logical progression.
           Without hesitation, she tugs the Arc Reactor from her chest.  One yank and there’s nothing between the shrapnel and her heart.  “Allow me to work, or there is no Jericho.”
           Her voice is soft.  Any louder and her fear will be obvious, which she can’t afford.  Fear is a weakness, and she’s not weak.  She’s the Merchant of Death.  Any hesitation on her part and they’ll think she lacks the will.  But she can do soft and threatening, which is what she does.
           Instantly there’s concerned barking over the radio and Yinsen’s yelling back and the man is backing away, anticipation turned to icy fear.
           She smiles.  Not a nice smile.  She’s used to power plays.  She’s dealt with cutthroat people.  True, it’s a different sort of violence in this desert, but she’s ten steps ahead no matter where she goes, the loca gringa.  They’d thrown her off guard what with the whole ‘kidnap’ situation, but she just needed to find her feet.
           Yinsen throws a blanket over her shoulders, surprise and admiration in his eyes.  “After seeing you in Switzerland, I thought you did not value your dignity.”
           Tony bares her teeth at the camera and flips it off almost casually in a display of frustrated savagery.  “I value my pride.  I refuse to be another statistic in the papers.”
           “You would rather be in the headlines,” the man responds, and gets another vicious smile in return.
           This is the point that Tony, if she was at home, would head to one of the gyms and go through a martial arts workout before dragging off the instructor to a private room.  Suddenly, the lines of the world are different, though.  She doesn’t want to just sleep with Yinsen.  She respects him too much for that.  She’s pretty sure that thought’s never crossed her mind before.
           And there’s Pepper.  She thinks about him a lot, these days.
           “Well, when you get out of here, you can make those headlines.”  Yinsen shrugs as he goes to help her with the arm of her creation.  “I underestimated you.  I think many people have.  But you are truly the iron fist in the velvet glove, aren’t you?”
           “Using that many English phrases won’t help you seem more fluent.  We’ve been over this,” Tony responds rudely, but Yinsen doesn’t take offense and they settle down to another evening’s hard work.