Hey! I know I should be updating one of my other stories that actually need to be updated and not writing a new story, but I can't help myself :) I've had this chapter done for such a long time and had wanted to publish it after An Uncertain Future was finished. However, since it's taking so long for me to actually write and finish that one, I decided to post this now! Maybe then I'll be more motivated to get it done. Anyway, this is kind of the second story in the Revival Universe. Since this is an Iron Man fanfiction, it doesn't necessarily have any sort of connection to my Captain America one, at least not yet. So they could technically be written at the same time and whatnot. So I thought why not start publishing this one as well! I hope that ya'll like it!

THE CALM, DRY DESERT OF THE KURAN Province in Afghanistan seemed to be completely undisturbed. No animals roamed the vast plains or hiked to the top of the mountains. Though the peace of the empty plain was broken by a cloud of dust flying on the dirt road. Half a dozen U.S. military vehicles drove down the road. The distinct sound of 'Back in Black' blasted through a stereo in one of the vehicles.

In this specific car, the famous, recognizable Stark brothers were sat next to each other in the backseat. While the eldest brother, Tony Stark, held a glass of liquor in his hand and bobbed his head to the recognizable music of AC/DC, the younger Stark, Bill Stark, sat in between his brother and a soldier stiffly. The younger looked somewhat similar to his older brother. However, while Tony had facial hair, Bill's face was cleanly shaven. If anything, Bill was nothing but a babyface. Even though the man was thirty-six years old, he looked more like a twenty-six-year-old. God, the number of times that Tony has made fun of his brother for that was impossible to keep track of. Though that's beside the point. His eyes were a lighter brown and his skin was slightly paler than Tony's which is likely due to Bill's decision to stay indoors as much as he can. Despite the differences in appearance between the brothers, everyone knew that the two were brothers. Who doesn't know?

However, even though they were brothers, they happened to be quite the opposite of each other. That was evident from even the fundamental fact that Bill was currently content with the idea of sitting in the jeep without talking and just listening to the music while Tony was dying in the quietness. The constant glances from two of the soldiers also weren't helping to ease him.

"I feel like you're driving me to a court-martial," Tony commented towards the three soldiers in the car with them. "This is crazy. What did I do? I feel like you're going to pull over and snuff me. What, you're not allowed to talk?" The soldiers still sat tall and seemingly unmoving, so Tony leaned forward to look at the soldier seated on his brother's other side. "Hey, Forrest!"

The soldier, a young man spoke up, "we can talk, sir."

"Oh, I see." Tony shrugged and leaned in towards Bill to stage whisper, "So it's personal?" Bill rolled his eyes at his older brother's remark in exasperation. He was far too familiar with Tony's (annoying) antics.

"No, you intimidate them," the soldier who was driving, a woman, called.

Tony looked up in mock shock, "good God, you're a woman," This earned Tony a jab in the ribs from his brother. He ignored Bill and continued on, "I honestly... I couldn't have called that. I mean, I'd apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first."

"I'm an airman."

Tony stared at her shamelessly, "you have, actually, excellent bone structure, there. I'm kind of having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird?" That earned him some chuckles and laughs from the others in the car, sans Bill who only leaned back in his seat with crossed arms. "Come on, it's okay, laugh," Tony encouraged while nudging his killjoy (Tony's words) of a younger brother. All he was trying to do was get rid of the tension in the car.

Bill just sighed, "you are so annoying."

"Sir," the soldier in the front passenger seat spoke up, "I have a question to ask."

Tony hummed, "yes, please."

"Is it true you went 12 for 12 with last year's Maxim cover models?"

"That is an excellent question," Tony started while taking off his sunglasses dramatically. "Yes and no. March and I had a scheduling conflict, but fortunately, the Christmas cover was twins." The soldiers in the car all smiled in amusement, "anything else?" The Soldier next to Bill, Jimmy, raised his hand. Tony sighed loudly, "you're kidding me with the hand up, right?"

The young man asked nervously, "is it cool if I take a picture with both of you?"

"Yes." Tony shared a glace with Bill, "It's very cool."

Bill nodded his head with a genuine smile, "sure." He was used to people usually only wanting pictures with Tony as he is the more… Fun and extravagant brother. Bill was more private and reserved when it came to his life, unlike Tony. Bill was more behind the scenes, specifically behind the scenes when it came to the medical side of the company. He may be famous, but not as many people wanted to take a picture with him as they did with Tony. Besides, Bill sometimes can be dreadfully shy, especially around large crowds.

Jimmy excitedly pulled his camera out and handed it to the soldier in the front seat. The three in the back seat all posed for the picture together as the other man tried to figure out the camera.

"I don't want to see this on your MySpace page," Tony jested. Jimmy puts up a peace sign for the photo as the Stark brothers smile at the camera. "Please, no gang signs." Tony commented which Jimmy obeyed instantly, "No, throw it up. I'm kidding. Yeah, peace. I love peace. 'd be out of a job with peace."

"Come on. Hurry up." Jimmy urged the other soldier with the camera. "Just click it. Don't change any settings."

While the soldiers bickered about the camera and they all waited for the picture to be taken, the car shook as an explosion roared in front of them. They all cringed at the noise as gunshots soon were heard surrounding them. The Starks were starting to panic at all of the commotions, "what's going on?" Tony shouted. He looked at each of the others in the car with wild eyes. Bill had started to shake in fright at the noise and gunfire. He truly did not like guns or weapons…

"Contact left!"

"What have we got?" Tony tried to get another answer but the soldiers just ignored him and started jump into action. The woman jumps out of the driver's seat to try and combat whoever was firing at them but was shot down quite quickly.

The soldier in the passenger seat grabbed his own gun and looked back at the trio in the back seat. "Jimmy, stay with the Starks!" He hopped out of the car and positioned himself on the hood of the car to get a better shot at those attacking them.

"Stay down!" Jimmy urged the brothers and pushed Bill down to try and get better cover as Tony did the same.

"Yeah," Tony said as Bill nodded his head

They watched as the soldier took a few shots out in the dust, but they couldn't see if he had hit his mark. However, his marksmanship was no match for his opponents who shot him dead in an instant.

"Son of a bitch!" Jimmy got out of the car like his other two fellow soldiers.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" Tony shouted over the deafening sounds of warfare. He leaned over his brother, who was still cowering in his seat. "Give me a gun!"

Jimmy turned to them and looked at them through the dusty window to yell, "stay here!" Once he turned back around he was gunned down as the bullets shot at him pierced the car.

Now seeing that they had no one to protect either of them, the Stark brothers knew that they had to look out for each other. Tony grabbed his younger brother by the arm and started to pull him out of the car through his door. Bill allowed himself to be dragged and hastily did his best to keep himself from falling flat on his face when Tony pulled him out of the car. The hot, desert sun beat down on the brothers as they stumbled around while looking for some kind of cover. Their scenes were dulled and their eyesight fogged up by dirt and dust. Finally, Bill dove behind a rock for cover from the rain of bullets and motioned Tony to the relatively safe area as well.

Tony and Bill sat next to each other with their heads ducked and backs pressed up against the hard rock. Tony pulled out his phone and slid it open to call for some sort of help. Just as he opened up his phone, a thud shook him to his core. Both of the men looked over to their left and were horrified to find that a missile had landed right next to them. They tried to scurry away from the logo of 'Stark Industries' that glared back at them, however, neither of them was able to get out of the way.

"Whoa!"

The missile exploded and caused both of them to fly off to opposite sides. With dulled senses and pain in his chest, Tony looked around his surroundings when he noticed he couldn't see Bill. He looked over to the side to see his little brother further away from him. Blood painted Bill's left side completely and colored his clothes in the dreaded hue. The man was motionless with eyes closed and Tony was unable to tell if he was breathing or not. The sharp pain in his chest intensified and bothered him to no end. He looked down at his shirt and tore it open to see that his own chest was starting to bleed profusely. He obviously had been injured much like his brother. There was really no telling what had happened to either of them.

Just as Tony's vision grew blurry and dark, a few figures emerged from the dust cloud and headed in his direction. Weak, disoriented, and unable to do anything to stop them as he grew unconscious, Tony could only watch as the figures decked out in thick layers grabbed him. He was hauled up and started to be carried from the spot he once laid. He couldn't do anything as his limp body was taken away and left his younger brother on the sand, covered in his own blood. Finally, his eyes slid shut and Tony fell unconscious.

James Rhodes scoured the sand dunes that were laid out before him with squinted and alert eyes. The rolling hills of hot sand stretched for miles and miles everywhere he looked. There seemed to be nothing touched and no grain moved. His stomach churned.

He and the other soldiers riding with him in identical jeeps to those that had left only a short time before them had gotten a message saying that there was an attack. The jeeps that had been attacked had been carrying two of his closest friends, Tony and Bill Stark.

They had no idea who gave the message as she didn't want to give her name, but that didn't really matter. They would wonder about who the caller was once they arrived at the scene. All they knew was that many of their men had been killed by, most likely, a terrorist organization. There wasn't too much information that they were able to obtain which meant that they didn't know who orchestrated the attack. The U.S. military had far too many enemies in the middle east to allow them to make any sort of assumptions.

He and a group of soldiers had taken their jeeps and sped through the sandy landscape to the coordinates of the call as fast as they could. James really didn't want to think about what may have happened to the Stark brothers. Who knows who attacked the group of military jeeps and why. All James really cared about at that moment was making sure that the billionaire brothers were safe. However, as a soldier shouted out that he had spotted the vehicles out in the distance, James' hopes were slowly dwindling.

Each jeep was unmoving and appeared abandoned. Sand was picked up by the wind and pelted against the cars that were covered in holes that no doubt came from gunshots. There were obvious signs of explosions evident from the few cars that were charred black from fire. The wind had killed the spread of fire which was a good thing. Less fire meant that there was less of a possibility of any evidence to who had done this being burned away. They needed to find out who thought it was a good idea to attack the U.S. military and fast.

The soldiers all jumped out of their rides and marched hastily toward the fiery ruins. Fallen soldiers were laid out all over the area. Their weapons at their side as bullet hole decorated their bodies. It didn't seem like they were a match for their opponents. They were completely caught off guard it seemed by the ambush and were unable to stop the assailants from killing them.

Each soldier ran over to investigate the scene and look for any survivors of the attack. Though from the carnage that they were all able to see didn't give anyone much hope that anyone lived through this savage attack. They trudged through the sand and debris to find that no one had survived. Each and every soldier who had been inside of the cars had been killed. It placed a terrible feeling in all of their stomachs and a bad taste in their mouths.

James just about broke down at the fact that they couldn't find either of the Stark brothers. They were his best friends! Now, all of a sudden they were missing after a terrorist attack out in the middle of the desert. He leaned against one of the trucks in mental exhaustion and defeat. God knows where the Stark brothers had been taken and if they were even alive.

Just as James' thoughts about his friends' whereabouts turned grim, a shout pulled everyone's attention to a collection of rocks a few meters away from the deserted cars.

"Medic!"

Everyone jumped into action and raced towards the soldier's cry. The medics grabbed their gear and readied themselves to help an injured person. James ran over as quickly as he could through the sand. His hopes were slowly growing more and more as he neared the area of rocks to see who was found.

He was greeted with the sight of a man who appeared to be quite young laid on his side in the sand. Even though his suit was caked in blood and sand, James was easily able to identify the man as Bill. James jumped to the younger man's side as the medical personnel started to pull out their supplies.

Bill's perfectly shaven face was smeared with his own blood and painted an ashy black from soot and no doubt an explosion. James wasn't completely sure if Bill was even totally alive. However, he was able to see the shallow movement of his friend's chest. The younger man was alive but barely. He didn't know what had happened to the younger Stark brother, however, he could sigh in relief for the time being that it wasn't something that killed him like the soldiers with them.

Yet there was still the absence of the eldest Stark brother. The cocky man was nowhere in sight at all!

"Bill?" James asked the man to see if he could get some sort of response. "Bill? Can you hear me? William?"

As the medics worked on making sure that Bill's side was properly taken care of, said man groaned out quietly in pain. His whole body burned and ached in a way that he had never experienced. The sensation emanated mostly from his side and crippled his body to the point that he couldn't move. He found himself comparing the pain to the one time he had broken his arm after being forced to play baseball. However, it was far, far worse.

His eyesight was blurry and dotted with black spots dancing all over the place. People surrounded him and moved around him quickly. They were doctors, he thought, obviously they were there to help him with the pain. He was able to focus on one of the faces that were right next to his and choked on his dry throat as he tried to speak. "Rh-Rhod-odey?"

James sighed in relief as Bill was able to recognize him. That was a good sign. "You're gonna be alright, Bill." He watched as the doctors and medics looked over his wounds and dressed what they could before they transported him somewhere safer.

"T-Ton-ny?" The injured man spat out painfully through his scratchy esophagus. "W-where is-s T-T-" his throat started to clog up before the medics tried to calm him down as the young man started to panic. No one could answer that question because no one knew where his brother was.

Elsewhere, somewhere in a cave in the desert, a disoriented Tony Stark sat on a chair with a burlap sack over his head. After gaining consciousness, he listened to the fuzzy words being spoken by the people who surrounded him. He couldn't understand a word as it was spoken in a language he did not know.

His eyes were then assaulted with a blinding light as the sack over his head was roughly pulled off. Helena blinked his eyes to try and adjust them to his surroundings and found himself staring down the lens of a video camera.

A group of terrorists surrounded him threateningly as the speaker spoke to a camera. It was obviously some sort of ransom video. As the reordering continued on, Tony was finally able to understand what sort of situation he was now in. He was kidnapped by a terrorist group after they attacked the military. Oh, God. Where was Bill? What did they do to his little brother?! Tony didn't see his brother anywhere. Then again, Tony was having a hard time seeing anything within five feet in front of him.

Bill could be there… but he may not. He racked his brain to remember the last thing he saw of Bill. The chilling image of his baby brother laid on the ground with blood painting his side that dripped down to stain the sand around him shook Tony. His brother could be dead for all he knew.

For the time being, Tony stayed quiet as the man spoke and stared into the camera threateningly while speaking in a language he didn't know. As soon as he could, he would find out where he was, what they wanted from him, and where his brother was.

Ok, not gonna lie, I realized that when I started creating these Marvel OCs, I wrote them to be siblings of existing characters. Yeah, I should probably change that a little bit. But I just love Delphia and Bill, so I'm not gonna change them! Let me know what you guys thought of this chapter! Until the next one, my friends!