Meanwhile...

"Okay. That ought to do it." Jules hums, taking a step back.

She had been tasked by the Scientist to go through with the battle bus upgrade and she was finally finished with it. And it actually came out quite well. Speaking of the Scientist, at that moment he comes through the door behind her.

"Huh. Great job Jules. The upgrades look amazing."

"Thanks. Took a lot outta my day though and I'm kinda tired. Am I free to go back to my quarters?"

"Sure. I'll add the finishing touches. You go get some shut eye."

Jules thanks the Scientist with a smile and a wave and walks out of the engineering bay.

"Maybe I'll go visit the boys. Haven't seen them all day."

As she approaches Midas and Jones' sleeping quarters, Jules pauses at the door. It sounded like someone was... crying?

She raises an eyebrow and steps inside.

"Midas? Jonesy? What's going on? Are you guys...okay..."

The engineer finds Jones lying on his bed, crying into a pillow and Midas nowhere to be found. She sits down and taps his shoulder.

"Hey, Jones. What's the matter? Where's Midas?" She asks, bombarding the emotional man with lots of questions.

All she can make out through his sniffles is...

"It's my fault. It's all my fault."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Jones uncovers his face from the pillow and faces Jules. His eyes were red from all his crying.

"Jeez how long have you been crying for?"

"A good few hours. There's not exactly anyone here who can comfort me except you and M." He sighs, wiping his eyes despite more tears brimming in them.

Jules tilts her head with a shrug, not disagreeing with that point. She could hardly see any member of The Seven being someone with a shoulder you can cry on.

"Well what on earth has happened that's caused you to fall apart?" She asks.

Jones sniffles before taking a few breaths and regaining his composure.

"I sent Midas out on a mission to investigate some weird energy readings received near Loot Lake. We figured out that they belong to some kind of doomsday machine that I.O is building. The readings were similar to the ones on Midas' old device."

He pauses as his breathing hitches. Jules rubs his back gently.

"But then something must've come up because Midas said there was a problem. I tried asking what but he never responded. When I finally did get a reply... Slone answered instead, then hung up on me."

Jules' eyes widened.

"I think Midas was captured by I.O and it's all my fault!!" He yells, holding his head. "I let this happen!! All because I couldn't leave this place and help him!!"

He reaches for his blond hair and begins pulling it slightly.

"Maybe if I was there this wouldn't have happened!! I'm... I'm a terrible boyfriend. I-I-I-"

The engineer shushes him and brings him into a hug.

"That's enough Jones. Stop beating yourself up."

"B-But, if I was there... I could have protected him... He wouldn't have gotten captured."

Jules continues to rub Jones' back, doing everything she could to comfort him.

"Jonesy, there was no way you knew that was going to happen. You're not a terrible boyfriend. You're the best one Midas could ask for."

He looks up at Jules who wipes away his tears with her thumb.

"It's not your fault. We'll rescue him somehow." She reassures him. "We'll inform everyone in a meeting tomorrow, how does that sound?"

Jones nods, liking that plan. Jules smiles, causing him to quickly smile back with a chuckle.

"Thanks for comforting me Julie bean."

"You're welcome. I'll leave you to get some sleep, unless you want something to eat." She offers.

"You know what? I think I'll pass on something to eat. Not really feeling too hungry right now."

"Well, okay then. Sleep well."

With that, Jules gets up and exits Jones' room. The blond flops down on his bed and sighs sadly, wishing he had his golden boyfriend around to cuddle with.

--------

The next day...

As the sun rises over the Island once more Jones slowly begins to open his eyes. He simply gazes up at the ceiling, lost in his thoughts. Truthfully, he felt like just lying there doing nothing for the whole day. But Jones knew he couldn't. He had things to do and a meeting to go to.

"I suppose I better get up... Can't exactly lie here and wallow in self pity all day..."

As he gets up, Jones quickly notices that he fell asleep in his clothes from yesterday, and they were covered in creases.

"Ah dang it. Forgot to change."

Jones wanders off to the set of clothes draws and begins fishing through it. Aside from a couple of pairs of boxers he finds nothing but the orange prison jumpsuit he wore when held captive by I.O that Foundation just handed to him when they arrived at The Sanctuary, and a neatly folded pile of Midas' spare clothes.

He chuckles at the difference between Midas' neat and tidy folded clothes and his slightly more messily folded clothes.

Jones sighs before stripping off his clothes, tossing it into the nearby washing machine and heading into the shower.

----

After 10 minutes Jones emerges from the bathroom wrapped in a towel and grabs the prison outfit, a white vest and boxers. He puts everything on but doesn't pull the orange jumpsuit over his upper torso. Instead, he ties the sleeves around his waist.

"Not bad Jonesy, not bad at all." He says to himself.

His smile fades a little.

"I wonder what Midas would think..?"

He shakes his head, slapping himself across the cheek and folding his arms.

"No, c'mon Jonesy. You can feel sad all you want after the meeting."

Shaking off the sad thought, Jones heads out of his room and walks across the Sanctuary. He meets up with Astra along the way, skipping merrily and humming to herself. She notices the blond and smiles.

"Oh hey Jonesy! I don't think I saw you all day yesterday. You feeling ok?"

"Haha, not exactly. I'll explain when we get to the meeting."

With that the two of them hurry along inside and join the others including The Foundation, Scientist and Jules. He and Astra sit between Jules.

"Took you long enough Jones." Foundation sighs. "Anyway, to start this off, I've received word from Imagined that Condo Canyon has been freed from I.O. She and Origin will be back shortly to tell us where their forces will be headed next."

"Heh, sweet! That leaves us with just Rocky Reels and Tilted Towers left!" Jules smiles.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we automatically win once those two places are freed. We picked up odd readings coming from Loot Lake." The Scientist says. "We put Jones in charge of finding out what it is."

All heads turn to the blond.

"That's right. I sent Midas out so we could investigate at a better distance. Turns out I.O has a doomsday device in the making. We're not sure when it'll be activated. All I know is it's bad news for the whole island if it's anything like what Midas built back in the day..."

Worried murmurs become audible for a while before the Foundation silences them.

"I see. Well done for figuring it out Jones." He thanks him. "Talking of Midas... where is he?"

Jones hugs his arms, biting his lip before answering.

"I was getting to that."

He looks around the room.

"Midas was ambushed by I.O guards and Slone's new cyborg henchman. They captured him and I've lost contact with him, meaning I don't know where he is."

The Foundation and Scientist seem surprised by this. Jules rubs Jones' back softly, comforting him.

"Right. I'll promptly send out some guards to scope out where he was last seen and-"

"No."

All heads turn to Jones once again.

"I'm the one who got Midas into this mess. I'm gonna be the one who sets out to save him."

The Foundation sighs.

"Jones I told you. You need to remain at the Sanctuary where you're safe. We'll never find Genō if you're captured or killed, and you promised me you'd get us to Genō-"

"But-"

"ENOUGH, Jones. That's final. This isn't up for debate."

Jones grits his teeth and clenches his fists.

"No! All this is my fault! If it wasn't for me being FORCED to stay here, I would've been there to help him!" He yells, slamming his hands on the table.

"Jones-"

"I'm his boyfriend. A good boyfriend wouldn't just put his lover in danger! I'm going to go rescue him, and you're NOT stopping me Foundie!!"

"Jones wait! Get back here!"

But Jones doesn't listen as he storms out of the room, slamming the door behind him. The Foundation groans in frustration and carries on the meeting without him.

---------

Jones hugs his arms as he walks around the Sanctuary, a scowl stuck on his face.

"They think I can't handle myself?" He mutters, kicking away a stone. "Argh! I'm tired of sitting around here and doing nothing!"

He paces along the grass, trying to figure out a plan to rescue Midas.

"Think Jonesy, think! How am I gonna figure out where he is?" He questions himself. "He was at Loot Lake, so they couldn't have taken him far."

After thinking long and hard about it, something suddenly clicks in his mind. Something he didn't think about before.

"Wait a sec. The...tracker I equipped him with.."

Jones quickly runs to the room he was in yesterday where he was on call with Midas and tracking his location. He switches on the computer he used and loads out the map of the island and tracker reader he put on the backpack he gave Midas.

"C'mon, c'mon..."

Eventually a red dot appears on the map. Jones presses a key and zooms in on it. The tracker was being received from Tilted Towers, on the blimp above the town. Jones' eyes light up.

"They must've not realized there was a tracker on his backpack until they were on the blimp. And some idiot guard didn't toss it off and place it elsewhere!" He laughs, tears welling up in his eyes.

He spins around in his chair gleefully, a big grin replacing the scowl on his face.

"Great! All I gotta do now is figure out a plan!"

Jones springs into action and runs back through the door he came through. However he accidentally bumps into someone. Unfortunately for him, it's The Origin.

"Hey. Watch where you're going." He grumbles at the blond.

"Sorry Origin. But I'm in a hurry."

"I can see that. Where are you going?"

"Well, Midas has been captured by I.O and I'm gonna go rescue him. Don't be like the Foundation and stop me!" Jones sighs.

The Origin looks at him, folding his arms.

"Midas got captured? Something must have REALLY put his guard down and left him open to be attacked if that happened."

He turns back to Jones.

"Perhaps I could assist you in his rescue. I could give I.O some unrequited payback I need to give them, and I'm certain you going alone would result in you getting captured too."

Jones smiles happily, glad that at least one person hasn't tried stopping him from going through with it. However, he shakes his head.

"I appreciate the offer. But no. This situation was caused by me. Now I'm the one who has to fix my mistake and rescue him."

The Origin, despite his face being covered by his visor, seems surprised by Jones' determination.

"You're quite a lively and dedicated person for someone who once worked for I.O." He says. "Are you sure going alone is the best idea?"

"Maybe not in your eyes, but if I can rescue Midas from an alien infested mothership all by myself, I can get him out of Slone's clutches unscathed."

The Origin sighs.

"Very well. I won't stop you. Just be careful."

He then walks away, leaving Jones alone.

"Okay. I think I may have a plan that might work. But first, I gotta head back to mine and Midas' house. Hopefully our stuff is untouched and I can find a couple of things."

------------