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

Many hours later...

Inside the blimp up above Tilted Towers, all was quiet as a few guards remained armed and awake in case intruders found their way on the blimp. They quickly stand up tall as Doctor Slone makes her way past them, accompanied by a quiet Ares. She approaches a locked door which has Gunnar asleep and slumped by it.

"Hey, Gunnar!" She shouts with a slight whisper.

His eyes fly open as he rushes to straighten his posture as if to look professional.

"Doctor Slone ma'am!"

"I thought I told you to keep an eye on Midas, NOT to fall asleep on the job!"

"Right! Sorry ma'am." Gunnar apologizes. "Speaking of the prisoner, it might not be long until he wakes up after the tranquilizer dart's effects wear off."

Slone smiles.

"Hmph. Good. Because I'd like to have a word with him."

Slone then grabs a key from her pocket and puts it into the lock, twisting it until a click is heard. Then, she enters the room alongside Ares, closing the door behind them.

She looks at the man in the cell in front of her and the cuffs on his wrists. Gone was his formal-ish attire, and he was now dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit.

Slone had also taken into account that if she were to put regular cuffs around his wrists, he'd probably have no trouble escaping.

So instead she used a special device that encapsulated both his golden hands and wrists. That way he couldn't use either hand to escape or free himself. Plus it was locked with a key that Slone had entrusted Gunnar with, and it was near impossible to break.

"Midas. Wake up." Slone says, switching on a dim light.

The mastermind slowly shifts in his sleep, refusing to comply. The doctor sighs in annoyance and turns to Ares. Knowing what to do he draws his katana, sticks it through the cell bars and slashes it across Midas' cheek, waking him up instantly.

"AHH! Fuck! What the hell?!"

Midas glares up at Slone who simply folds her arms with a smirk.

"We meet once more, Midas Rex."

"Slone. I should've known you were the one who shot that tranquilizer dart at me. When I get my hands on you I'm gonna..."

Midas goes to grab the bars of his cell, but his hands don't budge. He looks down and sees the device imprisoning his hands and shivers.

"Yeah, I don't think you will be getting your hands on me anytime soon Midas, thanks to this here device."

The helpless mastermind turns towards his father standing beside Slone. He didn't seem phased by her torturing him.

"What have you done to my father you bitch?!" He yells at her.

Slone begins to laugh as Midas stares her down behind the bars of his cell.

"Well, I suppose since I plan to be rid of you soon, I might as well explain."

Midas glances over at Ares, wondering why on earth he would join I.O.

Not after finally changing his view on Midas after so many years...

"After The Foundation and your father took Jones back they locked me in the room I had him in. After my guards finally got me out, and the island had almost completely flipped, I barely had time to fish out an outfit for me to swim through my flooded base."

Slone then turns to Ares.

"That's when I find... something interesting..."

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

A few months ago...

Ares watches in despair as Midas and the others are torn away from him by the current. The rocks and debris crushing down on his lower torso prevent the water from dragging him up with them.

"Oh well. It's not like I had much of a life left. All I can do now is wait for the sweet release of death. Maybe then I can be reunited with my dear Agatha..." He thinks to himself. "Or get dragged back to hell where I belong..."

He's about to let go of the breath he was holding, but something made him keep it in. Someone in a scuba diving suit was swimming towards him. Ares quickly recognizes them as they get closer to him.

"Wait. Is that the woman who held Jones captive?!"

He begins frantically trying to get free of the rubble holding him down. However, as moves about, he lets go of the breath he was holding. Ares covers his mouth as bubbles leave it. However, Slone takes out some kind of weapon and fires it at the debris and it explodes into pieces. The explosion was quite big, and it ended up knocking Ares out cold.

Slone then grabs him by the wrist and swims away with him to a safer place.

---

A week later...

"Wake up."

Ares groans as he opens his weary eyes. He was sat in a chair and in front of him stood Doctor Slone herself.

"Oh it's you. Slone, right?"

She nods.

"And you are Ares Rex. Midas' father, correct?"

Ares shivers slightly.

"How do you know that?"

"My friend, I know everything there is to know about your son. We, at the Imagined Order, track and record every detail about each civilian on the Island."

He rolls his eyes, clearly not interested.

"Yeah whatever you say lady. Why'd you rescue me?"

Slone smiles a little.

"Because, Ares Rex. I believe you have great potential in working with me. Working with the Zero Point, visiting realities you didn't know existed. Wouldn't that be fun?" Slone tells him.

Ares growls, getting up from the chair.

"Sorry Doctor, but I'm not interested in joining your little cult. And even if I was, I'm going to be knocking on death's door soon." He shouts. "So just forget you asked."

Slone stands there in silence before laughing to herself.

"Oh, Ares. Haha..."

Her face twisted into a sinister grin.

"I wasn't asking."

She pushes Ares back into the chair and he's pinned down by chains wrapping around his legs and right arm. His breathing begins to speed up as Slone goes to a weapons cabinet and pulls out, to his surprise, an axe. Although it had a futuristic feel to it with the glowing energy blade.

"W-What the FUCK do you have an axe for?! What are you gonna do to me?!"

Slone laughs, readjusting her glasses.

"Why, getting rid of your cancer of course. I did a scan on you and it turns out that your cancer is in your left arm." She says. "Can't have you dropping dead so quickly, can we?"

She leans closer.

"I am a doctor, after all."

Without any warning, Slone brings it down upon Ares' left arm, cutting up to his elbow. Ares screams in agony as all feeling on his left side disappears instantly and blood runs down onto the floor as well as splatter on Slone's clothes.

She grabs a premade bowl- shaped bandage with string hooked to it and wraps it around Ares' neck, the bandage part cupping his bleeding arm. He breathes heavily as tears fall down his face, the doctor's psychotic laughter ringing in his ears.

"You're mad!! You're fucking crazy you are!!"

Slone then pulls a lever on a nearby panel and down comes the same circular device she tried using on Jones. She attaches it around his forehead and goes to the panel.

"When I get outta here I'll tell Midas EVERYTHING you did to me!! He'll rain hell upon you."

"That's the thing, Ares. After this, you'll have no recollection of him. You won't even remember who you are." She smiles, the light reflecting off her glasses.

Ares shivers in fear.

"You're gonna erase my memories of my family and myself?!"

"That's the plan. Now, any last words, Ares Rex?"

He remains silent, the throbbing pain on his left shoulder irritating him so badly. He sighs sadly.

"I'm sorry Midas. For whatever she does to me, and whatever I do to you... I'm sorry... Please look after yourself... And keep in mind that I'll always love you and your friends..."

Finally, he glares up at the doctor with a defiant look.

"GO. TO. HELL."

"Hmph." She hums. "Farewell, Ares Rex."

And she turns on the machine, going to max power immediately. Ares shouts in pain as his mind pounds. Slone stares at him as he writhes in the chair, bloodcurdling yells bouncing across the room.

As the computer says those words, Ares' screams stop. The chains on his feet and right arm disappear, his head drops forward and he lands on the ground beside the pool of his blood.

"Let us fix you up with some cybernetic enhancements shall we, Experiment 8R3Z?"

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

Midas stares wide eyed at Slone, mortified by everything he's heard.

"You tortured and brainwashed my father?!" He yells. "You brainwashed him to become your slave!!"

Slone just laughs at him. Midas growls in anger as tears brim in his eyes, leaping at the cell bars and slamming against them with the device around his hands furiously.

"I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE SLONE, I SWEAR TO ORO!!" He screeches, his golden eye glowing vibrantly. "You have gone WAY too far this time!!"

She rolls her eyes at him and unlocks his cage, nudging Ares inside.

"You won't get the chance to kill me Midas. Because when my master plan is complete and operating, you along with your annoying family and the Island will cease to be."

Ares grabs Midas by the collar of his prison jumpsuit.

"And not only that, I'll rip Jones away from you and do what I've done with your father. I'll make sure he never remembers your face."

Midas' breathing begins to spiral out of control, manifesting itself into a full blown panic attack. He watches as Ares pulls the long sleeves of his suit up to his elbows and takes out the dagger Midas dropped earlier that day.

"No! Please! Leave Jones alone!! Don't touch him!!" He cries out, turning hopelessly to Ares. "Dad, if there's even an ounce of you left in there, please..."

Tears roll down Midas' face.

"I'm your son... I'm not your enemy, SHE is..."

Ares just gazes at him, expressionless. He pulls Midas closer, quietly uttering 4 single words...

Midas' eyes widened, those words striking a nerve with him, and he shouts as Ares slices the blade across his arm, making a small gash on it.

Then he does it again... and again... and again...

Slone just watches as Ares repeatedly slashes Midas' arms, making cuts bleed out. Midas could only yell in pain, begging him to stop.

He felt small, helpless... powerless...

Just like he did as a child all those years ago. All those years he suffered under his abusive father because of the curse he was born with.

And now he was going through all of it again, but 10 times worse.

At least in the past Ares did stop at some point after beating his son senseless, to give Midas time to heal before doing it again a few days later.

With this brainwashed version of him though, all he needed was Slone's will to tell him what to do and when to stop. And if she wanted to, she could have Ares keep going until Midas passed out or died!

Slone was purposely making him relive his childhood trauma, and she was loving every second of it judging by the cruel smile on her face. Ares raises the dagger near Midas' blind eye, his red eye piercing into Midas' single golden one.

"Please, stop." Midas' voice croaks out, glancing over at Slone, then back to Ares.

Eventually, Slone raises a hand. Ares sees it and, taking one last look at Midas, drops him harshly on the ground and steps out of the cell, Slone locking it behind him. She puts the cell key on a hook near the door and lets Ares out of the room.

"Don't cry M. When this is over, and the Island is I.O's, your suffering will end soon enough..."

Then she follows Ares and slams the door shut, locking that too. Midas breathes heavily, sitting up and curling up in the corner of his prison. He was shaking like a leaf, his scars bleeding out and coating his arms in blood. He desperately tries to pull his hands out of the device holding them, but to no avail.

He only makes himself more frustrated and upset.

Defeated, he relaxes his arms as best he can. The words Ares muttered to him ring through his mind repeatedly.

"I have no son."

It sounded so similar to the insults he'd give Midas back when he was a kid. Midas already had tears sliding down his face but he shakes his head, trying his hardest to not fall apart again.

"No Midas. Get ahold of yourself! You're 32, not 12!" He tells himself. "Jones will come find you. I just have to survive and endure this for now..."

With a shaky breath, Midas closes his eyes and allows himself to cry as well as to sleep. He hadn't felt so devoid of hope in a while that he couldn't think of anything but to just cry...

"Jones... Please... Get me out of here..."

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

*smacks table*