Fighting for Nothing

When Mary woke up from a sleep she thought would never call, she wasn't in a content little ball, but tumbling out of the make-shift bed and onto the stone floor. To her own surprise, against all the words of movies and books, it didn't take her more than half of a second to remember where she was, and how she got there. She stood up as fast as she had fallen, brushing herself off and looking around for what she had missed in her "nap".

"Good morning," Yinsen offered, with a slight nod, and her bright eyes caught the dark ones of Tony Stark.

"Good morning to you, Mr. Stark," Mary said slowly. Her eyes travelled to his bare chest, where the electromagnet Yinsen had promised was embedded into his skin, with a wire following down to a plain car battery that looked like it came straight out of an SUV.

"Who . . ." Tony started, but was interrupted by shouts in the foreign language Mary had heard when she was brought here.

"Quick. Do as I do, and nothing else! Do you understand?" Yinsen said quickly in a hushed voice. When a group of about ten Afghan men stepped into the room, bearing several guns with the title "Stark Industries" on the sides in white print. Mary looked back at Tony quickly, incredulously, and back to her captors.

"Where did they get my guns?" Tony whispered, and Yinsen looked as if he could have slapped the man.

"Did you hear me? Do as I do!" Mary took the advice Yinsen originally gave to Tony, and brought her hands into the air slowly, nervously.

When Tony was addressed in whatever foreign language the men were speaking (Mary knew full well where they were, but when it came to languages, she hadn't the foggiest). As soon as the foreign man's sentence was finished, she heard Yinsen translating his words to English to Stark, and each word seemed natural to Yinsen - but increased Mary's confusion.

"They want you to build your newest weapon, the Jericho. The one you did the weapons presentation on."

There was a long moments pause, where Tony stared from Yinsen and the kidnappers.

Two simple words left his lips, and all hell broke loose. "I refuse."

The men stepped forward in a rage, shaving Mary and Yinsen away from Tony and grabbing his arms and neck roughly, dragging him out of the room.

"What are they doing?" Mary whispered as quietly as possible, and Yinsen looked almost panicked.

"Torture," he answered simply, and her green eyes followed the men out the door. "Quick, follow them," he insisted, and she felt rough hands rap around her own neck and arms, pushing her forward forcefully. Her legs stumbled, trying to catch up to speed with her captor, and she swallowed past his grasp.

"He's demanding you don't struggle - do it," Yinsen said over his shoulder. He didn't have to say it twice - or even once, for that matter. Mary hadn't intended on fighting against the will of armed men.

They were brought into a large room, where Tony Stark was already having his face shoved in a barrel of water for a long while. His head was lifted out for a split seconds breath, and immediately shoved back into the icy liquid. Mary's eyes widened in surprise; she hadn't seen anything like this done in her life, or even thought if it.

"Okay!" Tony gasped. "I'll do it!" One of the men looked towards Yinsen, and he nodded assuringly. The man gave a smug smirk and a nod. Stark was taken away from the bucket of ice water, and they were, once again, lead out of the room. 'This is nonsense!' she thought in shock. This just seemed all to ridiculous - too out of this world in Mary's own mind.

"What are they saying?" She asked Yinsen curiously, but was pulled away from the two of them. She gasped in surprise, and looked after Yinsen and Tony, being led in the opposite direction. 'Where are they going? I need Yinsen - I don't know what they're saying!' she thought nervously.

Mary swallowed, and felt slight pressure from the man's arm around her neck. 'I guess you'll just have to go with it,' she thought, walking on the ground on her tip toes - the men were taller than her, and lifted her mostly off the ground. When they opened yet another door after a seemingly endless, maze-like passage, the pushed her forward into a room. She nearly fell face-down, being on her toes, and quickly threw her hands out to balance herself.

"Watch it!"

The first shocked thought that came to Mary was, 'English?', and quickly turned to the question of who it was that was talking. She looked up at the man who spoke to her, and saw a face she didn't expect.

Sure, she had seen Obadiah Stane on the news and in newspapers and magazines, but here seemed like it would have been the least likely place for him to show up. Certainly he hadn't been "kidnapped" as well - that much was obvious. He was in nice clothes, and his moves weren't being watched by the Afghanistan men.

The man took a quick, vigorous step forward, and took rough hold of her upper arm. Her eyes widened, and instinctively leaned backwards away from him. 'What have I done to get into this?'