Making his way through Weeping Woods a guilt ridden Midas hums sadly, disappointed in himself.

"I shouldn't have yelled at her like that... what was I thinking?"

His mind traces back to everything Jules had said about Jones, reflecting on it.

"I know he sent the hunters after her but he never did it himself. Besides, the kid told me it was a guard who shot her."

Groaning in frustration Midas shakes his head and continues to walk through the woods.

"Fuck it. It doesn't matter right now. We can discuss it later."

"Hey, Mr M!"

He pauses in his tracks upon hearing his name...or initial in this case, be called. Looking to the cabins he can see an I.O guard waving. However he could trust this one since he defected from I.O ages ago and wasn't wearing a mask.

"Ah, Jerry I believe. What do I owe the pleasure?"

"Hey man, sorry to bother you but have you seen Jim and Ryan lately? I haven't seen them anywhere."

"I apologize but I can't say that I have."

"Huh. I honestly thought you of all people would know." Jerry sighs, scratching his head. "It's weird. We were face timing a week ago, then they went to answer the door. Since then I haven't heard anything from them."

Midas listens to Jerry, a unnerving but obvious answer stuck in his mind.

"There's a very high chance they could have been abducted by the Kymera."

"You really think so?"

"Mhm. It's the most likely theory I have in my mind." He nods. "Tell me, did you know of their whereabouts when face timing them?"

"Yeah. They said something about researching what was going on at the slurp factory."

Both men turn around and look up at the Mothership in the sky. An abduction beam had been fired down and was starting to abduct parts of the factory.

"...ah. That might explain their disappearance." Jerry mutters.

"Don't worry. At some point maybe we'll find a way up there. We will find them."

"I know we will."

With that, Midas bids Jerry farewell and continues to make his way to the location he thinks Oro's sacred sceptre is at.

---------

Sliding down the mountain, Midas comes to a halt as he sees a ruined building in the distance. It looked a old decaying castle, or the ruins of one at least. Some greenery was surrounding it such as a few flowers and bushes, but not much else.

"This must be the place."

Noticing a few rocks making a pathway of some kind he takes advantage of it and carefully makes his way across as it was quite easy to fall into the ocean if you're not able to keep balance. As Midas gets closer he could point out some symbols engraved on the walls, and they looked exactly like Oro's face.

"Maybe this castle used to belong to him? And when he died it fell into ruin..." He wonders. "But if so, how come I've never seen or heard of it until now?"

Entering the ruins, he makes a turn to the left, and there it was:

Oro's sceptre, embedded in a rock, surrounded by a few dimly lit candles.

Midas gazes at it in awe. He's seen it multiple times because of Oro's visits in the past, but he was actually going to wield it himself for the first time.

"Since this castle emerged from the ocean, many people have come here seeing if they could get the sceptre and break it free from its confines." Orelia explains, her voice echoing through the ruins. "However it always ends the same. It wouldn't budge. So I assume only someone worthy of it can wield it... someone like you, Midas."

He reaches a hand out and clasps it around the handle, slightly nervous. However the staff quickly responds to his touch, it's golden texture returning slowly. He could feel a rush of energy flow through him, an ache of pain originating from his hand.

"Maybe this is why no one else could free the sceptre. No human could go through such excruciating pain like this..." He grunts, breathing heavily. "... well, all but me I suppose."

He puts his other hand around it and it speeds up the process a little more. Midas gasps for air as this power continues to course through his body. His knees wanted to give way, and he desperately wanted to let go and hold his hands. But he couldn't stop now, he'd come to far just to give in to the pain.

But at long last the gold reaches the tip of the sceptre and stops spreading.

Midas immediately loosens his grip on the sceptre and keels over onto his knees, clenching his hands and letting a shout out.

"Shit...my hands feel like they've been through hell and back."

Turning them over he's relieved that they seem to be the same as always, only in agonizing pain. But he felt tired and exhausted, even his powers seemed out of it. He looks over at the staff, and notices how it has its gold colour back, but its shining glow was missing.

"Maybe if I can release it from the stone, it power will return."

Just as he's about to grab it and attempt pulling it out the rock, the sound of a laser weapon begins to be audible. Midas turns around, just too late though, and is sent propelling into the wall.

"Argh, fuck... what in the?"

A crowd of aliens surround him, clutching their weapons. One alien and a human accompanying them step forward at look down at Midas.

"Hmph. I thought you'd have a lot more fight in you Midas." The human mutters. "At least your capture should go smoothly without a problem."

"Who are you and what do you and the aliens want from me?"

"Oh. I'm no human."

They take ahold of something the back of their head and pull on it like a zip. The human disguise slips off to halfway, revealing an alien underneath.

"You can refer to me as Joey though. I'm an alien undercover disguised as a human 'working' with Doctor Slone. And no, she didn't send me after you."

While the aliens talk amongst themselves briefly Midas slips out the note he wrote that morning and turns it over to the blank side. Pressing it against the wall he grabs a piece of rock and begins scribbling something on it.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, he knew the harsh truth;

In the state he was in, he was in no condition to fight back against the Kymera. His powers needed time to come back to him and his hands were brittle and weak. It felt as if they were on fire, not literally though.

Folding the note up again he slips it under a rock out of view. Two aliens then restrain him, gripping his wrists and keeping him in place.

"Now, keep still human." The alien next to Joey orders, pulling out a scanner of some kind. "This won't take a moment."

As they begin scanning him, Joey slips his disguise back on and makes a sign with his hand. His fingers being put into pairs, leaving the middle open. Strangely, Midas' eyes begin to close...

And the last thing he sees is the alien beside Joey slipping on a disguise that looked exactly like...

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

Meanwhile...

It was a couple since Jones had come back from his run, and he had been down in the basement using the training exercises for a while. Heck, he was even practicing his aim when using weapons with some old shooting targets he found.

"Boom! Another perfect shot!"

His smile fades away as he places down the pistol and sits on a nearby chair though. He couldn't stop thinking about that argument between the siblings earlier this morning. A single thought kept replaying is his mind;

"It's YOUR fault their family's so broken... You tore them apart..."

He couldn't shake it away and decided to just train, hoping it would block the voices out for a while.

Sighing softly, he heads back upstairs and enters the living room. He can't help but notice Jules' door upstairs slightly open, and goes to inspect the place. She was sat on the floor, hugging her knees.

"Jules?"

"The fuck do you want?"

Jones flinches at her harshness, but stays outside the room.

"I... wanted to see if you were okay. I heard what happened between you and Midas and..."

"Ugh. Save your sympathy John. I don't care."

"But-"

"I said zip it!"

Jules gets up and storms towards Jones, backing him into a corner.

"I don't care how many fucking apologies you give me, it's not gonna bring my mother back!" She yells at him. "She's dead, all because of YOU."

"Jules, it was Slone who put the bounty on her head not me. You can't just keep clinging onto that memory just so you have an excuse to loathe me. You'll have to move on someday, like Midas did."

"Oh yeah? Says the guy who's STILL grieving over his dead ex! You claim to love Midas with all your heart, yet you can't let go of her!"

Tears form in Jones' eyes as Jules tells him that.

"She even gave you her ring and openly admitted that she didn't love you anymore, didn't she?!"

He remains silent.

"You're even still wearing your own one."

She pauses to catch her breath, tears going down her cheeks.

"You broke our family apart and stole my brother, my only family left alive, away from me." She sobs, stepping back into her room. "Hope you're fucking happy John Jones."

With that she slams the door, leaving Jones to wallow in self pity. That is until he receives a call.

"H-Hello?"

What he hears from the other end sends him running out the door.