Midas stands his guard, raising his arms in front of Jones and Astra to keep them safe. Astra tugs on his waistcoat while Jones sheepishly waves to Slone with a nervous smile.

"Hah... Heeeey Slone. Long time no see huh."

She rolls her eyes.

"Indeed it has been a long time." She agrees. "Too long. I've had enough of this cat and mouse chase between the three of us."

Midas steps forward, gripping on to his staff.

"For once I can agree with you Doctor. I'm tired of you and I.O chasing after me and Jones like a dog."

He charges towards Slone, his staff glowing with light and intent on finally finishing her off.

She simply smirks and steps aside. As she does, Midas' eyes widen as an armoured figure slashes a blade in front of him, slicing off a bit of his waistcoat in the process. He stumbles backwards but manages to keep his balance.

The figure keeps their blade ready to attack as they stand beside Slone. Midas straightens his waistcoat as Jones steps forward.

"Okay... That guy looks new. I've never seen him before when I used to work with I.O." He says as he holds Midas by the arm.

"Of course you haven't, you blond numbskull." Slone sighs. "Midas, meet my latest experiment and henchman...

8R3Z."

They look up at Midas, his reflection coming off their blade. The mastermind clenches his fists, readying his staff once more.

"You might as well call this your last experiment Slone. Because after I'm done with this shameless display, you'll be next."

Jones looks over at the cyborg in front of them. He could see the confident yet empty look in their face. Midas' snarky remark to Slone sounded very overconfident too. While he knew Midas was strong, this might be on another level.

"Midas wait! Let's not be so cocky about this!"

8R3Z leaps at Midas who retaliates by blocking his blade with his staff before he sends a shockwave of light at them, causing them to get sent propelling into the air. The mastermind dusts off his outfit and wraps his arm around Jones.

"See Doctor? I can take on anything you send after me."

She simply smirks and folds her arms.

"Can you, Midas?"

As she asks that question, a thud on the ground could be heard coming from behind the boys. They swiftly turn around and find 8R3Z there having landed on his feet completely unharmed. Before Midas can even react he's torn away from Jones who is clocked in the face, knocking him on to the ground.

Midas goes to attack back but 8R3Z grabs him by the wrist and holds him there while raising its cybernetic left arm. To his horror, it shifts into some kind of laser cannon and blasts a shot against him, knocking him down to the ground.

He struggles to get back up, blood leaking out of his mouth. Slone chuckles slightly, finding pleasure in Midas' struggle. 8R3Z lowers their blade down on his arm, but he thankfully manages to cover his body in gold before they can do any real irreversible damage on him. Though it does leave a scar that begins to bleed out.

Despite the blood running down his nose, Jones finds the strength to get up and charge towards the cyborg.

"Get your hands off my Midas!!"

He punches them in the metallic side of their face, but it doesn't even leave a dent, so he then uses his foot to kick them into the nearby tree. They're quick to recover though and charge towards the blond with a clenched fist. Jones readies himself to retaliate...

But 8R3Z instead wacks his hands aside, catching Jones off guard and leaving him open to be attacked! Then, as a final blow, they force their blade through Jones' stomach, stabbing him right in front of a badly beaten Midas.

"JONESY!!!"

The blond whimpers as he puts his hands over the rapidly bleeding out wound and falls on his knees. Midas groans in pain trying to push himself up only to be pushed down by 8R3Z's blade, causing him to let out a pained yell.

"Maybe that'll teach you to be so cocky and underestimate me Midas."

She then turns to Astra who is simply ridden with fear.

"Ah, and who's this?"

The girl tries to run, but 8R3Z grabs her effortlessly and holds her in front of Slone. She smirks at her, countless ideas running through her mind.

"You might be of use to us. 8R3Z, keep a good grip on her, she's coming with us."

They nod.

Astra begins kicking at the cyborg, trying to wiggle her way out of their grasp.

"Stop! Let me go!!"

She looks over at the downed boys on the grass. Midas was struggling to lift even an arm and Jones' legs were wobbling like jelly as he tries to stand up, thus causing him to lose more blood.

"Let go of me!!"

They continue to ignore her. She begins to shake suddenly as she clutches on to the staff Orelia gave her and her empty socket gains a bright glow.

Her scream shakes the ground, the bright light near her eye socket flowing and covering everything and everyone's vision. 8R3Z flinches slightly, dropping her and unintentionally allowing her to rejoin Midas and Jones.

"How did I do that..?"

"AHH!! My eyes! What the fuck is that girl capable of?!" Slone yells out, the blinding light being that bad that not even her glasses could protect her eyes.

Astra desperately begins shaking Midas to wake him up.

"Midas c'mon! You're the only one who can teleport us out of here!"

Midas groans as he opens his hand, trying to muster any energy he had left to summon his staff and get the three of them out of there. When it appears, he grips on to it as well as Jones and Astra. They huddle together and using the last of his strength, Midas teleports the three of them to the only place he knew they'd be safe.

Slone, meanwhile, rubs her eyes as the light disappears. She was pretty disoriented after what happened, but a nearby 8R3Z catches her and helps her keep her balance.

"Tch. He may have escaped this time, but we'll get him at some point. Either way, that'll take him a while to recover from."

She turns to the cyborg.

"Good job 8R3Z. Winning this war is going to make things a whole lot easier with you by my side."

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

"What on earth happened to them? Who are you?"

"I mean no harm. I'm Midas' friend. Can you help them?"

"Of course. They're our allies. We'll need them if we're to win this war. Help me carry them to the med-bay and I'll get The Scientist."

"Okay."

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

5 hours later...

*beep*

*beep*

*beep*

"Midas? Can you hear me? Are you awake?"

The mastermind groans as he slowly wakes up from his unconscious state. He blinks a few times before opening his eyes. The first thing he sees is a light high above on the ceiling as well as the sound of a life monitor beeping.

"Ngh...Where...am I?" He mumbles.

He finds himself on a bed that looks like it was dragged out of a hospital, covers wrapped over his body. He tries to get up, but a huge pain in his back sends him back down again.

"Ow, shit. That's not good."

"Don't try to get up Midas, you're nowhere near fully recovered yet."

He looks to his right and notices The Foundation standing beside him, arms folded. Midas flinches as he moves slightly while removing the covers off his body. He finds bandages wrapped around his stomach, a red patch pointing out where he was stabbed.

"How...long have I been out? How did I get here?"

"You can thank your friend in the dress over here." The Foundation says, pointing over to the left.

Midas looks over and notices Astra asleep on a chair with a blanket over her. He turns back to The Foundation.

"I see. Where's Jones? Is he okay?"

The Foundation simply shrugs.

"I left him in the care of The Scientist. I don't know how he's doing as of now."

Conveniently enough, at that moment, the doors to the med-bay open up revealing The Scientist and another Seven member pulling in an unconscious bedridden Jones. Midas' eyes widen in horror.

"We did what we could for him. Even though Midas was the most bruised, the stab that Jones received was pretty fatal. He's gonna need a week or so to recover." The Scientist explains.

Midas tries again to move and get to Jones, but is once again forced down by the agonising pain in his back as well as The Foundation wanting him to remain in bed.

"Midas you need to stay in bed to recover. You're in no condition for doing anything."

He grumbles, slightly annoyed.

"Could you at least move me closer to him and call my sister to tell her where we are?"

The Foundation sighs in frustration before moving Midas' bed closer to Jones'. Then, after requesting permission to use it, calls up Jules on Midas' phone. The Foundation and Scientist then leave them alone, the other Seven member glancing over at Midas.

"You're Midas I see." They say. "You may call me The Origin. I'll be watching you closely."

Midas grips on to the bedsheets, wary of The Origin. He too felt the same. It's like they both could sense the impression that there was something about the other they couldn't trust.

"Do you happen to know what attacked you by any chance?"

"Mhm. A cyborg that's on the Imagined Order's side. I tried fighting him off but...well, that went as well as you can expect..."

"Hm. I see. You can tell us more when you're feeling better."

Without another word The Origin leaves the room, giving Midas some privacy with Jones.

He turns to the unconscious blond.

"Jones...can you hear me my darling?"

There's no response except the beeping heart monitor. It made sense. Jones took a really bad blow from that cyborg, no wonder he was out cold right now.

"I'm sorry we couldn't enjoy that lunch I bought for you. It's probably stone cold at this point..."

Aside from the plaster on his nose, Midas notices the bloodied bandages around Jones' stomach, much redder and dirtier than his own. At that moment, he can think of nothing but taking ahold of Jones' hand and holding him close.

"It's okay baby. You're strong. You'll pull through this."

He gives the blond's hand a soft kiss in reassurance.

"We both will. And I'll get you the lunch you deserve when all this is over. I promise."

With that he slowly slips into a deep slumber to get some well needed rest. He wanted to be in top condition if they're going to live through this war after all. And sleep is the best way a person can heal and get better.

And as he falls asleep, he swore he could've felt Jones' grip on his hand tighten ever so slightly followed by his thumb rubbing against his own.

He sneakily opens up his good golden eye and smiles as he sees the warm, calm and smiley expression lying on Jones' face. He hums softly before closing his eyes again and dozing off into a deep sleep.

"Sleep well my darling. You need it."

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