Title:Turned to Steel
Author:fadingtales
Fandom:Iron Man & Vampire Diaries
Ship:Caroline/Stefan as Tonya Stark/Virgil "Pepper" Potts
Rating:T
Summary:An Iron Man/Vampire Diaries Genderswap AU Fic featuring Caroline Fobres as Tonya Stark and Stefan Salvatore as Virgil "Pepper" Potts. Accompanied by Bonnie Bennett as Jamie "Rhodey" Rachel Rhodes, and Isobel Fleming as Obelia Stane.

A/N:Apologies for the long delay. HERE IS THE THIRD INSTALLMENT! I didn't realize people actually would want more of this because well… you've all seen the movie right? =P I do borrow some lines from the movie because they are just so well done, but I've added my own steroline spin on things. I hope you like it and yes there will be ONE more final chapter coming up. Please bare with me. I will try and finish it before the year's end I promise (and yes, I know it's only March.) Much love!

PART THREE – The Girl Without the Armor

After the Fireman's Ball fiasco Tonya goes missing for two days. When Pepper found her gone it felt like the day he was told Humvee had been ambushed all over again. All he had to go on is a simple voice message she left with J.A.R.V.I.S. telling him to not worry and that she'd be back on Tuesday.

She's clever and she's resourceful. She is also probably better equipped than he is, in all honesty, for disasters and apocalyptic emergencies, but that didn't stop him from worrying.

Monday night rolled around and he couldn't sleep a wink. He had spent the entire day fighting off reporters clamoring about Iron Woman. Somebody had taken note that Tonya's sudden absence coincided with Iron Woman's miraculous appearance at the ball. Along with the fact that Iron Woman did not emerge until after Tonya's homecoming and subsequent world peace declaration, the press attempted to put two and two together. They were eager to piece together a heroic story that could sell.

The evidence was sketchy at best, despite being right on the dot, but the media outlets had a field day with it nonetheless. Obelia seemed oddly unconcerned about Tonya's disappearance and merely told him to trust her. That goes without saying. Pepper didtrust Tonya. He trusted that she can get herself in a whole world of trouble.

He finds her in her workshop the next morning, going about things as usual. Save for the scratch and bruises that he had helped clean and bandage, and maybe a few new ones, she looked like the same old Tonya.

"Oh, you're here. I wasn't expecting you yet. Thought you'd have stuff to do at HQ."

"You were gone for two days."

She shrugged nonchalantly in respond. A smile that doesn't reach her eyes played on her lips. He noticed dark circles underneath her eyes. Looking more carefully, underneath the carefree façade, she looked battered, exhausted.

"I'm as right as rain," she sing-songed before turning her attention away from him and back on whatever the hell she's working on.

When she reached for the soldering torch his hand caught hers in midair.

"Will you talk to me? Please?"

She ignored how warm he felt, how delicate the sensation of his skin against hers, even in such a chaste gesture. It is with reluctance that she pulled her hand out of his grasp.

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Nothing to talk about," he repeated, his tone cold.

"Yep!" she chirped cheerily.

"What about those bullet holes?"

She flinched and looked up at him. From a casual observer, his face looked composed and calm, like still water without a single ripple, but with Tonya's expert eyes she could see that his eyes blazed with accusations.

"What bullet holes?" she lied blatantly.

And with that lie that mask of calm of his crumbled.

"Dammit, Tonya," he hissed under his breath. He paced the room, running his hand through his perfectly combed hair. She rather liked him with his hair mussed. She cocked her head to the side to study him better. Yes, she liked it. It made him look more boyish, youthful. Of course she didn't dare tell him that now when he was so upset with her.

Pepper caught her looking and scowled at her.

"I was careful," she said in a placating voice. "I've upgraded the suit-"

"Yeah, the suit is completely invincible," he drawled. "Is that why I intercepted Dummy earlier trying to dispose of bloody bullets and shrapnel?"

"I don't know what Dummy is up to. Maybe he's growing aggressive. Going all 'Skynet' on me." She used air quotes for emphasis. "You know, now that you mention it I had a suspicion that he has been up to no-"

"And your bloody t-shirt with all the holes in them that I found in the trash?"

She curses herself mentally. She should've just incinerated the evidence the moment she got back. But she was sloppy… and also suffering from a mild concussion and major sleep deprivation.

She hadn't been lying. The suit had been upgraded so that it would be better insulated against bullets. She just didn't upgrade it to withstand bazookas shot point blank. Worse yet, it was one of her own. She had thought the Mark I knock-off from the Fireman's Ball had been a fluke. But it has now become clear to her that somebody has been stealing her designs and using them for their own agenda.

It's with great alarm that she must now accept the fact that there is a mole within company. The Mark I is only the tip of the iceberg. If, god forbid, the wrong people got their hands on the more sophisticated designs there would be hell to pay. She was slowly uncovering a deep conspiracy that went beyond mere terrorist attacks and she had the dark suspicion that the entity behind it all is the same person who had orchestrated her capture. Unfortunately, at this point all she had was mad theories, speculation and circumstantial evidence without a real leg to stand on.

"There are still some kinks to work out," she said in a bubbly voice, flashing Pepper a big smile. "But I've just figured out this cool new way to-"

She stopped mid-sentence, Pepper had his face buried in his hands. When he lifted them from his face, Tonya flinched. She's never seen Pepper look as tired and dejected as he did at this moment.

"This is all just a joke to you isn't it? This... playing at this superhero business. Running around and trying to get yourself killed in the name of some deranged idea of justice. You don't even understand how this affects everyone around you. How it affects the company and the people who depend on you and… and I can't do this."

Pepper shook his head, lowering his gaze so that he wasn't looking her in the eye anymore.

"I... I just can't."

"You can't do what?"

Tonya's voice came out sharper than she intended, but at this moment she felt defensive. More than defensive, she felt hurt that Pepper, who understood her like no one else did, would want to abandon ship now when she needed him the most.

"I'm not playing a game here, Pepper! Do you get it? I'm… I'm trying to do the right thing."

Pepper opened his mouth to retort, but she beat him to the punch.

"You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. Now that I'm trying to protect the people I've put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?"

"You're going to kill yourself, Tonya. I'm not going to be a part of it."

"I shouldn't even be alive... unless it was for a reason."

Images of Yinsen, of the children and the people living in ravaged villages, of the dead piled high to the sky, and the weapons, herweapons, the cause of it. All the destruction she had been a part of, whether she did it knowingly or not, it tore at her insides.

She clenched her fist, nails marking crescent moons into her palms, and stared back up to Pepper resolutely.

"I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it's right."

Pepper looked at her for a long moment, as if suddenly seeing her in a new light. He opened his mouth several times as if to say something, but no words came out. Finally he said, "You really are serious about all this aren't you?"

"As serious as-"

"A heart attack," Pepper finished for her.

"Right," she said smiling.

The smile doesn't last long before the weight of everything burdens itself on her shoulders once more. Her brows furrows and she takes a step closer to where Pepper stood, her hands outreached, but not quite touching his.

"There's something wrong here, Pepper. And don't tell me you don't feel it too. You're too smart to have not noticed. Stark Industries inventory is being compromised. Our securityis compromised and innocent people are getting hurt. I can't have that. I've spent too long living in apathy, doing nothing. So if it means that I might have to put myself in the front lines to right the wrongs I've contributed to, then so be it. I get it if you don't feel the same, but after all this time together…I... I'd like to know that you have my back."

Silence fell between them and in the spaces between their muted breaths Tonya braced herself for his possible rejection. He didn't bare any responsibility to this, after all. So what if she needed him? He didn't owe her or anybody anything. In fact he should walk away. Walk far, far away from this madness and not look back. But god, she didn't think she could do any of this one her own if he did.

Before the dark thoughts could fully consume her, Pepper spoke.

"Okay."

Tonya blinked at him.

"Okay?" she asked skeptically.

"Okay, I have your back," he clarified with a heavy sigh.

He'd be lying if he said he hadn't noticed the discrepancies he's found in the company's files. That he, too, has had a nagging suspicion that something rather nefarious was underhand. He had pushed it away, chalked it up as stress born paranoia, and rationalized it as a few misplaced files, a few blips in the system, but he realizes that he can't ignore it anymore. It would be irresponsible to do so just because he didn't like the implications that somebody close to them might be betraying their secrets. To deny what was glaringly obvious would to be an accomplice and to be putting Tonya in danger and he refuses to be a part of anything that would cause Tonya harm.

"I'm going back to headquarters to look into some stuff," Pepper announced. "I'll be back to check up on you later today to prep you for tomorrow. We'll talk more then."

Tonya nodded and smiled.

"Okay."

He has one foot on the bottom stair when he stopped and turned to look at her a final time.

"Hey, Tonya?

She looked up at him curiously, looking very much like a young girl and not a billionaire genius superhero. It made him smile. Yes, he thinks, I'm doing the right thing. He might not have superpowers or high-tech gadgets, but god dammit he was going to protect this girl.

"You're all I have, too."

She stared at him, her mouth opening and closing without a sound. All of her witty retorts have dried up upon her tongue. She felt lightheaded, dazed, and a little dizzy.

You're all I have, too. Something about having her words thrown back at her felt significantly like a confession. Her heart pounded. If only he meant them a fragment of how much she had meant them.

Pepper threw her one last brief smile, amplifying her rapid pulse, before he continued mounting the stairs. The bleep of the electronic sliding door signified his exit.

Even in his absence, it took Tonya a full ten minutes to recover. And another five minutes for her to notice the neatly wrapped package set besides her computer.

Her birthday. A small smile lit her face. Despite all the apprehension surrounding her big Two-Oh, in the past few days she had nearly forgotten about it. The party and official press conference won't take place until tomorrow, but tonight at exactly 11:52 pm she will be the new sole proprietor of Stark Industries.

She walked over to the desk and snatched up the box. She admired the tasteful wrapping for a moment, turning it about in her hands. Then like a child on Christmas Eve, she shook it, trying to guess from the rattling sounds inside as to what it could be.

A simple card was attached to the box's side and she opened it to read: Happy Birthday. From Pepper.

She untied the ribbon and took the lid off the box. Nestled inside, cushioned by colorful tissue paper, was her old arc reactor, the one she had told Pepper to throw away, encased in glass. The words "PROOF THAT TONYA STARK HAS A HEART" was engraved along the edge.

She had said she was not nostalgic, but somehow seeing the old reactor again brought stinging tears to her eyes. Once again, thoughts of Yinsen and the faces of the soldiers in that ill-fated Humvee floated to the surface of her mind. She wiped away the tears with the back of her hand and set the gift down, picking up her wrench and torch in its stead. Snapping on her soldering mask, she got back to work. For too long ghosts have been haunting her ever since she came home and it's about time she avenged them.

xxx

Pepper wove expertly through Stark HQ, making his way up to the executive levels. He flashed a smile to Dan the Security Guy before swiping his ID through and stepping forward to the eye scanner. Once the scan was completed he placed his thumb on the pad below where a small needle pricked him and confirmed his blood sample. Once the blood was verified, an automated female voice asked him for his name.

"Virgil Potts," he enunciated carefully.

After a couple of seconds the light at the door knob blinked and the female voice welcomed him in.

Pepper turned the knob and walked through, letting the heavy door close and lock behind him, sealing out any outside noise.

With security like this Pepper shuddered to think of who would be capable of breaching it in order to steal confidential Stark tech. Or perhaps the person already had access to begin with,his dark thoughts told him.

As much as Pepper wanted to shake that thought away, he knew he couldn't. It's the reason why he was at the executive suites to begin with. There were only a small handful of higher ups that were allowed access up here. All of which have been longtime associates and friends of Tonya's mother and father. They were the men and women who looked over the company, looked over Tonya, for over the past decade since the late Mr. and Mrs. Stark passed away. Obelia, herself, was amongst one of them. But Pepper wasn't naive. Regimes were changing and when it does, people will show their true colors. Nonetheless, he felt the criminal for suspecting Obelia and the others for treachery.

With determination Pepper marched towards the center office and sat down at the desk, Obelia's desk, and switched on the computer. He had borrowed Tonya's hacker device, one of the toys she created back in college to hack into the school database and steal cute boys' numbers and emails, and with trembling fingers activated it.

"Please don't find anything," he whispered to himself, his heart hammering in his chest.

The screen lit up.

Dozens of hidden files appeared, like seashells being uncovered by the tide. Schematics, data, and design blueprints of the arc reactor, ones Pepper recognized from Tonya's workshop. Ones Tonya had given to Pepper to deliver, but he hadn't had the chance to yet.

His stomach dropped. His worst suspicions were coming true.

"What have you done, Obelia?"

And as if in answer to his desperate question, a video popped up on the screen. It was a recording of an old video chat. Pepper recognized the man on the screen to be the leader of the Five Rings, the gang that caused all that destruction at the Fireman's Ball. The blurry figure in the video confirmed his involvement in Tonya's kidnapping amongst other heinous activities. The video would be more than enough for a conviction in any court.

As the conversation played itself out before him, Pepper felt his blood run cold. And then it went colder. Obelia's voice filled the speakers. It was her awfully familiar voice that laid out the groundwork for Tonya's assassination.

"Oh my god..." Pepper breathed.

A beep of the door at the opposite end of the room made him jump. He quickly recovered and pressed Ctrl C to copy all files onto the USB drive he had brought with him. The progress bar showed 10%. Then 15%. 25%. 30%.

"Come on, come on," he urged.

The door was opening now and he could recognize the telltale clicks of Obelia's heels.

With a smooth fluid motion, he switched the screen's display to a screensaver and subtly moved a newspaper on top of the USB stick, obscuring it from view just as Obelia walked into sight.

"Pepper!" Obelia exclaimed.

He put on his most confident, genuine grin.

"I'm surprised you're here. I heard that Tonya was back and I had imagined she would have you all day."

Obelia's familiar, pleasant tone made him sick to his stomach.

"She kicked me out," Pepper replied smoothly. "So I thought I'd come into the office to finish up some work. Sorry about borrowing your computer. Mine was acting up and IT was working on it, buy I wanted to read some reports before Tonya's big press conference."

Obelia smiled at him and shook her head. "She's lucky to have you, you know. You're always looking out for her."

"As are you," Pepper said. He struggled to not let bitterness leak into his tone.

Obelia's smile widened. "Yes. As do I."

Pepper fought against the storm inside his stomach and smiled back.

"Well, now that you're here, I'll get out of your hair." He slipped his hand underneath the newspaper and retrieved the USB drive. With a sleight of hand he learned from amateur magic tricks in college, he slipped it into his sleeve and stood up from his seat. "I'm sure there's a computer elsewhere I could be using."

"Yes, I do have some important things to catch up on myself."

He smoothly slipped out from behind Obelia's desk and tucked his hands in his pocket, heading towards the door.

His hand was on the door knob when Obelia called out to him.

"Oh, and Pepper?"

He struggled not to flinch when turned to look back at Obelia over his shoulder.

"Let's meet later on today to go over that conference, alright?"

"Of course," Pepper replied affably.

And then he was out.

Mere minutes after the door locked shut behind Pepper, Obelia woke her computer up to find the screen flashing "100% Download Completed" up at her.

xxx

Tonya was taking a break from her workshop when her phone vibrated and Justin Timberlake's SexyBackcame on. She smiled, recognizing it as the new ringtone she had set up for Pepper. Tearing herself away from the bowl of Corn Pops cereal that was serving as her dinner, she sauntered over to where her phone laid on the coffee table and picked it up.

"Hey, I-"

Instead of Pepper's voice on the line, a high pitched frequency hummed into her ear. She found her tongue had turned into lead and a second later found that her entirebody was frozen. Panic is about to set in when a soft shushing sound mingled with the electronic humming that was paralyzing her entire body.

"There, there. Steady now, breathe."

Obelia was carefully taking her phone out of her hand and pushing her back into the cushions of the couch where she sat.

The earplugs in the older woman's ears don't escape Tonya's notice as she stared wide eyed at her long time mentor and guardian.

"You remember this don't you?" Obelia held up the small black device in her hand.

The question had been rhetorical. Tonya would recognize her own handiwork anywhere.

Obelia grinned at her, the expression lacking any sort of warmth. "Such potential this project had. Alas, some people thought it would be too dangerous to have a device that could cause full body paralysis. What if it got into the wrong hands, they said. Ah… well…"

Obelia set the device down and sat herself across from Tonya. Tonya tried to open her mouth, but only gasping sounds came out.

"No, no. Don't try and talk. It won't do you any good," Obelia tsked. She crossed her legs and sighed before turning her attentions back to Tonya once more. "It could've been so much simpler you know? Tomorrow evening after your big birthday bash you were supposed to have a little car accident. It would've been tragic, but understandable. Party girl, Tonya Stark, had just too much to drink and the roads up Malibu cliffs can be oh so treacherous. We would all mourn the great visionary you could have been, but given your track record no one would have suspected a thing. The whole post traumatic stress thing could've been a factor as well. People would have speculated that you couldn't handle the weight of the entire Stark Empire on your shoulders. And let's face it... they would probably be right."

Obelia leaned in then, her face mere centimeters away from Tonya's.

"Do you even realize the agony of having your life's work handed over to some snot-nosed brat?" Obelia snarled into her ear. "It was bad enough that your mother was always the one to get the credit, the one whose name got plastered in the papers and on the company building. She was indeed a visionary, but if it wasn't for me your mother would have still been tinkering in that basement lab at MIT. I made the company what it is and I'm not going to let your little girl scout morals destroy everything I've worked so hard to build."

As the venom of Obelia's words sunk in, everything began to click together in Tonya's head. Obelia's last minute schedule conflict that put Tonya in that fateful Humvee, the pressure to hand over the data for arc reactor, and most importantly the insistence that Obelia play liaison with the shareholders rather than let Tonya speak to them herself, keeping her isolated from all the important figures in the company. As all of Obelia's treachery came to light, the most horrible thought occurred to her. Was Pepper in on it?

As if reading his mind, Obelia said, "It's a pity you brought Pepper into this. I was hoping to spare him. His talents had always been wasted on you." Obelia straightened up, brushing her hands down the length of her dress to smooth out the creases. "It will be difficult to find his replacement."

Tonya's eyes widened like teacup saucers, the words having the effect of acid on her skin. No, no, no! Not Pepper. Tonya tries her best to get up, to move, to thrash about and knock down the woman that she had always known to be a second mother figure. Alas, at this point even her body has betrayed her.

"This really wasn't the way I wanted thing to go… you know I've always said the devil is in the details," Obelia sighed. "But the show must go on."

Standing up, she gave Tonya one last smile.

"Good-bye, Tonya."

And as Obelia walked away, Tonya could feel her life draining out.