Midas, Ares and Marigold soon find themselves in a empty barren room. It being an illusion conquered up by the Cube Queen is their only guess.

The Queen smirks at the humans below her, while Midas stands his ground and stares daggers back at her.

"So you escaped from my Cube haven and crawled back to this island hm, Oro?"

The mastermind takes a few steps towards her.

"Cube Queen, I'm not Oro. My name is Midas Rex, and I'm here to-"

Before he can finish a person comes flying in front of him, just as Astra gets up, and blocks his way. His eyes widen when he sees who it is.

"... Jules?"

"My my Oro. You've been causing quite the scene, haven't you?" The Queen chuckles, the possessed bodies of Jules and Astra copying her movements and words.

Midas tentatively reaches a hand out to feel Jules' face. It was cold and hard.

"W-What have you done to them?! They're-"

The Queen puts a finger to her smiling lips, as do Jules and Astra with the same expression, an echoing 'shhh' rebounding around the room.

"Why are you so worried Oro? They're not dead...yet." She hums, pulling out her staff and slamming the bottom on the floor. "Their life sources are in these jars. And no, these two aren't the only ones I have."

A podium rises from the floor revealing two large jars with glowing orbs of light floating in them, assumed to be the souls of Jules and Astra. And tied to the podium one other individual that was still living and breathing...for now.

"Dark Jonesy!"

He struggles to find a way to break free from his confines. Dark Jonesy looks over at Midas in despair.

The Cube Queen points her staff at the snapshot and fires a purple beam at him. His screams fill the room, sending a cold sweat down Midas' face.

The grey hue slowly crawls up Dark Jonesy's body, seemingly having a slow effect on him due to him already being somewhat corrupted by the Cubes. He turns to Midas as he feels control over his body slipping away.

And he falls limp, just as their confines break and the Cube Queen assumes control over their empty vessels. A floating orb of light, his soul, float into another jar that has just popped up.

"Let him go!!" Marigold yells, retrieving her golden daggers from her belt and rushing at the Cube Queen.

"No Marigold wait!!"

But it's too little too late as Dark Jonesy leaps forward and restrains her, letting the Cube Queen point her staff at her and do what she did to the others. Meanwhile Astra and Jules restrain Midas, separating him from Ares.

Her soul joins the others in a jar. Then, they surround the two men left. Dark Jonesy and Astra restraining Ares, while Marigold and Jules circle them, trapping them.

"This worthless island wasn't enough was it?" The Queen hums. "See how you surround yourself with lower life forms. You smothered yourself in them, and it feels good doesn't it Oro?"

Midas shivers a little, clenching his fists as the possessed bodies of his friends and family stare at him menacingly.

"Dulling your powers. Hiding your face. And trying to run from your mistakes."

Ares looks over at Midas not with his usual glare, but a confused look despite a little hatred in his eyes still.

"Ngh... M. What is she talking about?"

"I-I-I don't know."

"You truly thought hiding away on this island would free you, and you succeeded in deceiving what was left of your court. But now you've improved on that because now you're only deceiving yourself." The Queen sighs.

Midas stares up at the Queen.

"No! You're wrong! I'm not Oro!!"

"But don't you know things about him you couldn't possibly know?"

Midas' eyes widen in fear at this question, sweat sliding door his face. She was right. He DID know things about Oro that he shouldn't... unless he really IS him and he's remembering things from his past...

"I...I.. I'm not him... I'm just... feeling his emotions..?"

He didn't know what to do. He didn't know who he was. His life flashes before his eyes, seeing his hands rapidly switch between his and Oro's skeletal ones.

"Isn't it obvious?" The Queen goes on. "Even though you've embedded your powers in this human, your light can't help shining through and revealing you."

Midas holds his head and falls on his knees, tears forming in his eyes as the vessels lean closer with her echoing voice coming from all of them.

"You know you're in there. You've known it all along. Stop cowering inside that human. You can hide from yourself, but not from me Oro."

Ares strains to break free from his prison, but it's no use. Despite regretting it, he calls out to his son.

"Stop letting her get to you M!! She's messing with your head!! M!!! Can you hear me?!"

The Cube Queen picks Midas up via telekinesis and pulls him close to her. His heart pounds in his chest staring wide eyed at her, fear and dread coating his expression.

"Now Oro. This has gone on for long enough."

She places a hand over his chest.

"It's time I ended things with you and made you pay for killing my beloved."

At that moment Midas' struggled strains to escape turns into agonizing screams of pain as the Queen begins pulling away his life and his golden power. The mind controlled vessels watch on, emotionless, while Ares looks at his son wide eyed.

Midas' yells continue until he abruptly stops and falls limp as the Cube Queen yanks out a golden orb of light, drops his body, has her slaves release Ares and contain Midas' soul and power in a jar. The empty room then disappears, taking them back to Pleasant Park.

"Finally. Justice has been served."

And she, along with the vessels and souls of Midas and his friends, disappear. Ares groans, sitting up and rubbing his head.

"Jeez, that's one crazy lady."

He glances over at Midas, who wasn't moving in the slightest.

"M get up. This is not a time to be lying around on the floor."

He doesn't move or even acknowledge Ares, who is now slowly losing his patience.

"Did I stutter?! I said get...up..."

As he approaches Midas his eyes widen:

His golden hands were gone and were pitch black instead with cracked outlines and he wasn't breathing, his eyes snapped shut. Ares rolls him on to his back and puts an ear near his chest.

No heartbeat could be heard.

"Did she... take his powers away?"

He continues to stare.

"If so...why isn't he breathing? Surely he can live without that stupid curse of his...

...... right?"

Ares continues to stare down at an unresponsive Midas before reluctantly picking up his unconscious son and bringing him inside.

He puts Midas on the couch and wraps a thin blanket over him before retiring for the night and, being a jerk, taking his son's bed and falling asleep.

-----

A few hours later...

It had been a while since the Cube Queen attacked and Midas had fallen unconscious, into a coma...or maybe even worse.

Ares was fast asleep.

That is until...he couldn't...

Something or someone was lurking within his mind.

And whatever or whoever it was, it had plans of bringing all the sins he's committed back into his mind.

Making him pay for everything he's done, and force him to help the kid he's despised for so long...

It was time Ares had a night terror of his own...

---

Ares groans, tossing and turning in bed with a shiver. His breathing begins to speed up before he shoots up from bed with a gasp.

"What..?"

He takes in his surroundings and realizes he's in an empty black void and not in bed.

"What is this place? Why am I here?"

Standing up he begins to walk around, his footsteps echoing in the barren empty area. Eventually he notices someone in the distance with their face covered by their hands. They wore a yellow shirt, long blue skirt and a pink cardigan and had light brown hair.

Ares recognizes them instantly. It was his ex, Agatha.

"Darling? Is that you?"

She sobs into her hands, her cries echoing through the void and becoming slightly distorted as Ares gets closer. He reaches out a hand to touch her, only for her to uncover her face with a fearful scream.

"NO! STAY AWAY FROM ME!!"

Ares flinches as Agatha steps away from him. He gasps when he sees her face. A gunshot had gone through her head, blood staining her face and pouring out her eyes.

"WHY WOULD I WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH A MANIPULATIVE MONSTER LIKE YOU?"

Ares turns around and makes a run for it, breathing harshly as more screaming rings in his ears and Agatha's decaying body follows him in a zombie like manner. He bumps into someone else in the panic, who also let's out a scream of fear.

"..J-Jules?"

"WHY ARE YOU SO CRUEL TO US 'FATHER'?!"

Jules' face and body was covered in bruises and bleeding scars, plus her eyes being empty and souless with blackened tears streaming down her face.

"Jules I-I-"

"WHAT GIVES YOU SO MUCH SATISFACTION OUT OF SEEING US SUFFER?!"

Ares turns back around to find Agatha behind him.

"WHAT MADE YOU FEEL COMPELLED TO HURT US?! TORTURE US?!"

Holding his head, Ares yells in fear and frustration and begins running away from the corrupted girls. His energy to run away begins to slow down to walk before collapsing on to his knees while the screams of the girls die down a little but not completely.

Breathing heavily, Ares coughs as he sits up, only to be greeted by the one individual he's tortured the most.

Midas.

Ares glances up at him. He was drained of colour, his hands a pitch black with no golden touch in sight. His eyes missing, scar bleeding out and black tears staining his face.

He looked dejected and sad... and angry all at the same time.

"Are you happy now Ares?"

"Wha..."

"My hands aren't 'stained in shame' anymore. I'm that perfect normal child you always wanted."

Midas pulls his father closer with his hands, staring into his soul...if he even had one anymore.

"You finally got what you wanted. And it only cost me my whole life force. Not that it matters to you."

Ares, surprisingly, keeps his mouth shut as flashes of scenarios of the many times he abused Midas as a child fill the room, flickering faster and faster.

"Are you proud of yourself for the shit you put me through?! You took EVERYTHING from me! My dreams, my trust in others, my childhood!! You scarred me for life mentally, emotionally and physically."

He along with the girls surround Ares as another figure towers over them. His eyes widen when he recognises who they are.

Oro's crumbling body glaring down at him in rage.

"YOU'RE NOT WORTHY OF REDEMPTION. YOU DON'T BELONG IN THIS WORLD. YOU BELONG IN THE PIT OF HELL WHERE YOU CAME FROM."

Unable to take the torture any longer Ares covers his face and shivers on the floor. He was overwhelmed with emotions.

"YOU SHOULD'VE HAVE LISTENED TO ME THAT DAY ARES. MAYBE THEN YOU COULD'VE UNDERSTOOD AND MIDAS WOULDN'T HAVE TURNED OUT THE WAY HE DID. TRAUMATIZED AND DROWNING IN SELF-HATRED."

Ares is not usually one to cry, but this nightmare he was being put through was too much.

"This must be how Midas felt all those years ago..."

The screams slowly die down before disappearing completely, leaving Ares in total silence. He finds himself on a platform above a pool of boiling lava.

All alone...

Until he hears another voice...

"Yes, it is. And it's about time you made up for the shit you put him through..."

Ares looks up and sees a skeleton similar to Oro hovering before him. Except they had flowing golden hair and long robes, and weren't happy in the slightest with him...

"Who are you?"

"I am Orelia. Oro's queen and wife. And I have a deal for you..."

-------