Jones opens his eyes and finds him and Midas literally floating in the air, confusing him.

"Midas are you doing this?" He asks.

"No. My hands are locked up in this, and I can't access my powers like this." He says. "Besides, I don't have the ability to make things levitate in the air."

The blond looks around for the source, but then notices someone behind Gunnar. He'd recognise them anywhere.

It was The Origin!

His hands were stretched out, purple cubes and runes coming off them.

"Looks like we made it just in time." He says, surprising Gunnar.

The brute turns around, but is met with a face full of fire thrown at him. Astra was with Origin, orange flames in the palm of her hands. She smiles and giggles as Gunnar runs around, trying to get the fire off him.

"Haha! That's what you get for harming our friends!"

While Astra deals with Gunnar, Origin carefully brings Midas and Jones back up and places them on solid ground again.

"Are you two alright?" He asks.

"Yeah, thanks Origin." Jones smiles. "Rescuing Midas was the easy part but I didn't realize getting both of us out of here was gonna be difficult. I'm sorry I refused your help before."

"It's fine. We're here now. We'll fight our way out of here all together."

Midas clears his throat, nudging Jones with his elbow. He turns to face his boyfriend.

"Jones, would you mind please?" He asks, holding up his imprisoned hands.

"Oh, right!"

Jones fishes out the black key from his pocket and puts it into the keyhole. It twists with a click and Midas' shackles finally come loose, falling off his wrists and dropping to the floor.

"Ah, much better. I can feel my hands again, and I can finally do this." He says.

Midas then wraps his arms around Jones, hugging him tight. Jones smiles and does the same. Midas' grip around Jones tightens, having missed him dearly.

Having missed his soft touch.

Astra runs over to the boys, having distracted Gunnar enough.

"Okay boys, we gotta get moving." She says. "Who knows how many more guards they'll send to stop us."

"You're right. Let's go." Origin agrees.

The squad heads back through the door they came from only to find a few guards were still there and they quickly surrounded all four of them. Midas glares at the guards, opening his hand and letting small golden orbs circle around it.

He then tosses them in their direction, promptly exploding and sending them to the ground. Jones looks shocked, and looks at Midas in admiration.

"Woah! I didn't know you could do that!!"

"Pretty good isn't it?"

Midas then summons his staff and holds it in the air.

"Now, let's get out of-"

A katana cutting its way through Midas' stomach cuts his sentence short. He coughs up blood that leaks from his mouth and splutters over his prison suit. The staff disappears and he falls on Jones who quickly catches him.

"Midas!!"

Jones looks up to see Doctor Slone and Ares were behind Midas. She smiles cruelly at Jones while Ares just stares at the group, unfazed by the blood dripping off his blade.

"Do you really think I'll let you leave that easily Jones?"

The blond looks at her, anger boiling within. Astra glares at the doctor and forms a few big flames in her hands and throws them at her. Ares pulls out a small rectangular device and holds it out while pressing a button. A green energy shield appears and blocks the incoming fire.

Jones looks on as Astra continues to throw fireballs at the doctor and cyborg hoping to land a hit on them, but to no avail. He suddenly notices something by his foot. It was the rift butterfly Gunnar had crushed. Its wings were still moving ever so slightly.

"Lil buddy! You're okay!" He whispers to it as he scoops it into his hand and holds Midas over his shoulder. "Listen, I know it's a lot to ask, but can you use whatever's left of your power to get us outta here?"

It rings a little, understanding.

"Great! Just wait for me to say when." He smiles, letting it perch on his other shoulder.

Astra becomes frustrated and begins forming a gigantic fireball with both hands. Even her empty eye socket gains a glowing orange aura. The Origin can tell she's taking out all her pent up anger on Slone for revenge. I.O were the ones who killed her and her entire reality after all.

"This is what you get for DESTROYING MY HOME!!"

She throws it directly at them, plus a blinding blast of light comes from her socket as she screams. It causes everyone to shield their eyes and the power is too much for Ares' energy shield to handle and Astra lands a direct hit on them both.

When the smoke clears, the blimp can be seen going up in flames and an alarm is heard saying...

Ares is on his knees holding his head with one hand and Slone can be seen quite disoriented and coughing away the smoke. Astra goes to form another attack, but Origin puts a hand in front of her saying...

"You did enough. Calm down now."

As Slone gets her bearings, she can see Jones approaching with a clenched fist. With no hesitation, he punches the woman hard in the face.

"That's for capturing my boyfriend and torturing him." He says, retracting his first that has a smidge of blood staining it now.

He returns to the group.

"Let's get outta here."

He gives a nod to the rift butterfly and all 5 of them are teleported away. Slone holds her bleeding nose and readjusts her slightly broken glasses.

"Bastard... I'll make him pay for that..."

She grabs Ares and pulls out some kind of teleporter from her pocket. Then she disappears with him just as the blimp reaches the town. The blimp then explodes, destroying a portion of Tilted Towers and a majority of the I.O guards.

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

The group lands just outside the Sanctuary. Jones breathes a sigh of relief as he begins holding Midas bridal style.

"Phew. That was REALLY close. Nice one lil buddy!" He smiles, holding out a hand for the butterfly to sit on.

His smile fades though as he looks at the creature in his hand. It had lost its glow and looked exhausted.

"That took a lot outta you didn't it?"

The rift butterfly flutters its slightly broken wings weakly before its body crumbles to pieces, particles of it drifting out Jones' hand and floating away. The blond sighs and looks down at Midas in his arms. He seemed relaxed, but his face showed that he was in pain from the stab wound, his head lying on Jones' chest.

"Let's get you some medical attention baby."

He then makes a mad dash to get to the med-bay and hopefully find someone who could help. Though as soon as he gets there and lays Midas down on one of the beds, the Foundation happens to come in and find him.

"Jones."

He jumps and turns around, sweat already forming on his face.

"Foundation! Uh..."

He smiles awkwardly as The Foundation looks down at him.

"I know what you're gonna say, I know I disobeyed you, and I'm sorry! I'm sorry for stealing one of your weapons too." He says frantically.

Jones grabs the rift sniper from behind his back and shoves it into The Foundation's arms.

"If you could, can you help me heal Midas... please?" He asks before begging him. "I-I'll do anything you want! I won't leave the Sanctuary again! I'll-"

The Foundation puts a hand on Jones' shoulder.

"You don't need to beg for forgiveness Jones. I should be the one to apologize. I'll allow you to leave the Sanctuary whenever you wish to. Just...be careful and don't go stealing my weapons again please."

Jones smiles while chuckling slightly.

"Thanks big guy. Y'know you're not so strict and overprotective after all." He chuckles.

"I'm NOT overprotective. Don't push your luck Jones. Now help me get him stable."

"Right."

---------

Many hours later...

After The Foundation and Jones had managed to stabilise Midas they tended to his wounds, old and new, and soon he had a lot of bandages around his arms and where he was stabbed. After they were finished, The Foundation let Jones excuse himself and asked him to return later.

It had been quite a few hours now and Jones had long since dozed off somewhere in the Sanctuary. He deserved the nap really as he risked his life to rescue Midas.

"Jonesy?"

The blond's eyes flutter open as he's greeted by Jules holding a cup of tea and her wrench in her left hand. She sits down beside him as he gets his bearings. They were in a quieter area of the engineering bay, and sat on an old sofa.

"Hm? Ngh, what's up Jules?"

"I came to check on you. You were helping me get the choppers up and running before saying you were gonna go fetch a drink but you never came back." She explains, taking a gulp of her tea. "I can see why you fell asleep though. Want some of my tea? It'll wake you up."

Jones smiles a little while accepting the offer. A hum leaves his mouth as the warm refreshing liquid runs down his throat.

"Thanks Jules. Midas is lucky to have such a kind and great little sister like you." He smiles.

Jules laughs and grins.

"Ah jeez. Thanks Jones. By the way, how is Midas? I was sorta filled in by The Origin of what went down."

"Uh, not sure actually. I'm guessing he's still in the med-bay. Why don't we go have a look?" Jones suggests.

"Sure!"

Jones finishes off the last of Jules' tea and both then head off to the med-bay to see Midas. However when they arrived, the bed he was in was empty. The Foundation was the only one who was left inside the med-bay.

"Huh? I thought he'd still be here recovering." Jones mutters.

"He was. But when he woke up he insisted that he was fine and wanted to go back to his quarters." The Foundation sighs. "If you want him, that's where you're going to find him."

Jules and Jones thank him and head there instead. As they approach the door they hear two voices inside.

"It's not your fault Midas."

"But if I had gotten him out of the debris, maybe he would have..."

"Come now. You didn't know Slone was going to do that to him."

Jones and Jules step inside and find Astra consoling an upset Midas. She notices them there and gets up from the bed.

"I'll give you three some time alone."

And walks out with the door closing behind her. Jones and Jules go to join Midas.

"Hey buddy. How you feeling?" He asks.

Midas simply shrugs, hugging his bandaged arms. Jules shuffles closer to her brother, worried about him.

"Who were you talking about with Astra? Why were you upset about it?"

Tears begin to well up in Midas' eyes and he grips on to his head as pained sobs come out his mouth. Jones and Jules' eyes widen and they do everything they can to comfort him.

"Jules... Jones... You wouldn't believe the torture I went through in that cell." He cries. "At one point, I became stuck in my own mind. I couldn't wake up. I was trapped in my nightmares..."

Jones then comes to a realisation.

"That device around your head when I found you must've been the reason why!"

"Not only that, because of me, HE'S been turned into Slone's slave."

Jules raises an eyebrow.

" 'He?'. Who are you on about Midas?"

He lets out a hiccup before responding.

"Our father, Jules... She's brainwashed Ares into becoming her servant. He doesn't remember any of us... And it's all MY FAULT!"

Upon uttering those words, Midas eventually falls into a mental breakdown and begins shedding even more tears. Jones and Jules cuddle close to him, trying to hold back their own.

"It's not your fault baby." Jones shushes. "Just take all the time you need to calm down. We've got plenty of it, and we're not going anywhere."

For the majority of the evening the three of them remain together on the bed comforting Midas and trying to support each other.

It was going to be a bumpy healing process...

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