Summary: What happens when you combine a faulty time machine, a desperate genius and one chance to change history? 24 hours of insanity. SEQUEL TO 30 DAYS.

Warning: What you are about to read is INSANE…bordering on MADNESS…

Madness? MADNESS! Madness? MADNESS!

We don't need to be in Sparta.

Insanity: The product of Miss Starfire being high on coffee and cookies.

If you haven't read 30 Days, please go and read that first :)

A/N: Usual disclaimers apply regarding the lack of ownership of any of these characters or any invention of Disney/Marvel. As some of you have learned, standard warnings apply to all my stories: foul language, gory scenes, drama, angst and cliffies. My stories are better appreciated in half-screen mode of FF.

PLEASE NOTE RATING IS M! You have been WARNED!

Oh, by the way, I threw myself into a hole and started another story with this one. It's for Iron Man Armored Adventures, and it's called Broken.

CRAP! I swapped the stories, but they are now fixed! Thanks ggan21!

24 HOURS

Prologue

Five days after running off from the cemetery following a moment of realization, Tony Stark found himself locked up in his basement home; greasy, dirty, unshaven, surviving on liquor as his sole means of sustenance, with only ten hours of sleep in his body and not a drop of clean water or soap having touched his skin since the burial of Pepper Potts.

His eyes were wide with bewilderment, and he was only missing the hooded, hunchback assistant to complete the ensemble of a mad scientist. The lab was in complete disarray, and even his artificial intelligence companions were worried about him. Every now and then he would mumble a few words about the space-time continuum and its properties, Pepper's name, or a colorful string of derogatory words that would make his dead mother want to come back to life if only to shove a bar of soap down his throat.

"Sir, Colonel Rhodes is on line 1. Should I patch him through?"

"No." The genius answered almost mechanically as he soldered the new miniaturized-miniaturized arc reactor into place.

"But, sir –"

"Jarvis, shut it."

Tony rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms. His sight had been deteriorating exponentially in the past few hours, and while he had reminded himself to blink more often, the technique was starting to lose its effectiveness; what his eyes truly needed was a long-night sleep.

Just a little bit more.

"Tony! TONY!" Rhodey's screams from behind the locked glass door were ignored by the former playboy, and instantly became muffled under the sound of Black Sabbath playing loudly on the speakers. Colonel Rhodes scoffed, throwing his left hand in the air when he heard the pounding sound of music resounding on the glass. He pulled his phone from his ear and noticed the call had been left unanswered so he flipped closed the device and thrust it inside his pants pocket.

"I swear, this man has a death wish," Rhodey mumbled as he typed in his 4-digit passcode to enter the lab, but the double beep that followed the pressing of the number sign button informed the military man his PIN was declined.

"What the hell, Jarvis? Why is my code not working?"

"Mr. Stark has removed permissions to all access codes other than his."

"What? Why?"

"He does not wish to be disturbed."

Rhodey groaned. "When was the last time he acted like a normal human being?"

The AI hesitated. "Uhm, Mr. Stark is not…"

"When was the last time he ate normal food?" Rhodey offered immediately after realizing there was no way in hell Jarvis could ever answer his previous question with an appropriate response.

"Records show there has been no standard intake of calories since the day he and Miss Potts left for their trip to Oakland."

"WHAT? That was over a week ago! Jarvis, open this door!"

"I am afraid I am not allowed to do so, Colonel Rhodes."

"Fuck."

"However," Jarvis continued. "I am at liberty to inform you that the last time these glass walls were replaced, bullet-proofed materials were not used."

James was taken aback. "What does THAT have to do with…oh!"

Rhodey took out his handgun from his back and shot the glass doors twice. As soon as the shards stopped falling to the floor, Rhodey ran inside the basement. The sound of the gunshots startled Tony, forcing him out of his concentration, and he stared over his shoulder.

"What the fuck are you doing?" The genius spat as he began running away from his incoming friend. "Are you crazy?"

"Tony, stop moving! I'm gonna get your ass dragged out of here! Ugh!" Rhodey avoided the flying chair Tony had just thrown his way in an effort to stop the colonel from reaching him, earning Tony nothing more than just a couple more seconds of advantage over the trained man.

"No! No! I'm not done! I'm gonna bring Pepper back! I'm going to bring her back!"

"Bring her…what? Tony, she's gone!"

"No! She's not! I can bring her back! I can!" Tony tripped over a monkey wrench on the floor, but he got back up again. He could feel Rhodey on his heels, threatening to stop the work Tony strongly believed would help him recover the friend and love he had lost. Tony reached the corner of the basement and turned around only to see Rhodey standing a few feet away from him, obvious disappointment on his face.

"Tony, I'm gonna shoot you if you don't calm the fuck down. Look at you! When was the last time you used a toothbrush?"

Tony shook his head and stared down at his new watch, his hands shaking with anticipation. "I can't Rhodey. I can't stop. I'm so close…Pepper…she's…"

"Tony, breathe. Are you even listening to yourself?"

Tony's eyes filled with tears of desperation. He did not want to waste time, the opportunity to finish his project, but Rhodey was not going to back down and he knew it. The genius gave his friend one last glance before his shivering hands strapped the watch onto his left wrist. The calibration was yet to be completed, and he had not even had a chance to run a successful test. Heck! The arc reactor that powered the time machine bracelet was not working properly yet! For all he knew, he was about to send himself to meet the Wizard of Oz to join the army of flying monkeys, with no way to return home.

It's better than being without her, Tony thought, realizing his time was up. It was now or never; and never was not an option for him.

"Goodbye, Rhodey."

"Tony, what…"

A press of a button and a flash later, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes was left standing alone and confused inside the basement of Stark Mansion, wondering what he was doing there in the first place.

A/N: Did I mention madness? Yeah…let me go get more coffee…FYI: This fic will defy all known laws of science for the sake of convenience. If this bothers you, please don't read :)