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cold.
it’s dark. Empty.
It feels like I’m floating.
What happened?
Everything had happened in a blur. The battle, the takedown, the sabotage. All that remained were those last moments of consciousness where he swore he’d take the Ice King down once and for all when he returned.
Then it was cold.
Everything that could’ve gone wrong went wrong. The Visitor’s shieldbreaker malfunctioned, shocking The Foundation’s suit into uselessness. Plan B was entirely on the spot, and it ended with The Foundation’s visor shattered and the zero point in the hands of The Dark Voyager.
He had won. The Seven was no longer the heroes who always won. They couldn’t save the loopers anymore.
They had failed.
And now, The Foundation was trapped in his own personal ice prison. All because his idea of a Plan B was diving right into The Ice King’s rage-inducing banter.
He felt sick. If he could feel sick, that is. The cold made it a little hard to understand what he felt at the moment. Maybe numb was a better word to describe how he felt. He couldn’t see, couldn’t exactly breath. He was just another trophy for the Ice King to show off. Another toy in his collection.
And he wasn’t even the most prized anymore.
It was stupid. All of this was stupid. Everything that had happened was all for nothing. It was pointless in the end. Half of The Seven was gone. The Order was with Jones and Hope and The Visitor, trying to lay low and rebuild, most likely. The Scientist and The Origin were dead, lost to chrome. No doubt about it. Nothing survives the chrome. The paradigm had sacrificed herself to the zero point. She laid her life on the line all for it to be for nothing. And the Imagined… Her and her father had been long lost to the zero point in that last war.
And now, their fearless leader, their strong leader, their only leader was frozen by his own ego getting to him. He was their beacon of hope, and here he stood dimmed by the only one who managed to get to him. He was stupid, really. No other way to put it. Actually, some would say he was reckless, neglectful, and violently out of control. Usually The Foundation’s actions spoke louder than words, but recent events proved otherwise. He had been reckless. He had been out of control. Jones tried to snap him out of it. Jones tried to hold him back.
Jones. A panic set into The Foundation’s bones. Where was he? He’d have tried to contact The Foundation by now. How long had it been? Surely not more than a couple of hours, right? Jones would be searching every inch of the island for any sign of life from him. Jones would’ve had the rest of the Seven scanning for him at this point. Jones would’ve found him, melted him out of his prison, and made some stupid quip about finding him. Damn. He would kill for a stupid quip from Jones now. It’d remind him he was alive.
Alive. That’s right. He was alive. Cold, frozen, but still alive. His heart was still beating. This wasnt the end just yet.
If only he could figure out how to get out.
—-
“We’ve gotta find him soon. Who knows what’ll happen if The Foundation really is-“
“I promise you, Hope. If he was dead, AMIE would’ve known already.”
Hope stopped her speed walking, trying to calm her pounding heart. The Foundation was the only person Hope could think of still contacting, considering Jones wasn’t exactly answering all of her fifty-trillion and a half calls and distress signals trying to get his attention.
“You’re right. I-“ she inhaled shakily,” I just- I’m worried that if we don-“
“We will find him. And he will be alive, Hope.” Slone out a hand on her shoulder, trying to keep Hope from spiraling. Hope smiled softly at the action, before continuing her trudge through the beach.
“Any signs of life?” She called out, turning to see slone’s radar scanners searching every inch of snow with a -beep- ……-beep-……-beep-.
“Nothing just yet, though, Zero Point energy is seemingly increased out here,” Slone hummed, continuing to control her scanner’s floating through the beachy air. Hope continued her own personal search for any clues on what happened, when The Order suddenly landed on the beach with a shower of sand.
“I think I found something.” She spoke, echoed through the speakers of the Seven suit.
The sand covered much of the body, so much so that only the head appeared above it, but the helmet no doubt was in fact The Foundation. Albeit a bit shattered, it wasn’t so much to raise any red flags. Hope watched as Slone stepped closer to the debris.
“Yeesh. Ice King really did a number on him, eh?” Slone chuckled to herself as her radar scanners flew over the mask. They sent glowing green grids across the shoreline slowly, analysing. “It’s good we didn’t find him in the snow. Would’ve been hell to try and resuscitate him. If it’s possible.” Slone watched the green holograms in front of her face, taking in the scans of The Foundation’s body.
Hope had already begun digging out sand from where the helm sat, careful not to get sand in the shattered mask but desperate enough that The Order had to nudge Slone for more information.
“Well?” The Order asked.
“Damn. The guy’s heart is still beating after all that. Could be adrenaline or rage keeping him alive, but he’s currently comatose.” Slone remarked as she watched Hope continue to dig the guy out of the sand. “It’ll be easy to take him back to your Sanctuary’” Slone joked.
“Are you here to help us or mock us?” The Order snapped.
“Which one would you rather me do?” Slone asked, crossing her arms.
Hope groaned, “I’d appreciate if both of you had the capacity to help me get him unburied instead of bickering with each other!”
Slone chuckled, meeting Hope at The Foundation’s body. She didn’t kneel. Rather, she let her floating robots blow the wind away and pick the unconscious man up into the air.
“There. Now you don’t need any help.”
—
It’s not cold. But I’m still feeling numb.
What’s going on?
There wasn’t an eternal quiet anymore. It wasn’t dark, either. It was almost… warm. Comfy. Safe. It was partially familiar to The Foundation. Like a memory from a long, long time ago that he swears doesn’t exist anymore.
Even so, he’s still alone with his thoughts. He’s still dwelling in his regrets, his recklessness, his shame. He’s still alive, no doubt. Just, somewhat more comfortably alive.
It isn’t until he feels the warmth of the sun on his face that he finally tries to open his eyes. And open them, he does.
The Medical Center of New Sanctuary has not changed one bit since before the battle. There’s some emergency cots laying out, empty except for the one The Foundation was laying in. The heart monitor attached to him was -beep- -beep- -beep-ing along to his heart rate, but something felt off.
Something was missing. Something important. Immediately looking down, he found himself in civilian attire, not his Seven Suit. Someone knew how to take it off of him while he was out, and he silently thanked whoever did.
Finally taking in the blue hair next to him in a chair, The Foundation let out a sigh of relief. Hope was still alive, and she was sleeping next to him.
She looked tired. Restless, almost. Like she couldn’t give herself peace until something familiar returned. Maybe Jones had finally come back. Maybe once he woke her up, she’d smiled and run out the room to grab Jones. Maybe she’d drag him into the room and Jones would hug him tight with a “I never took you for a beach enjoyer” joke or something along those lines. If that was what would happen, maybe he’d be okay with losing that last Zero Point Shard to Ice King.
“Oh, good. You’re alive.” A voice cheered. The Foundation looked up just for his stomach to drop. Doctor Slone was walking across the room to his heart monitor with a smile.
“Hope really thought you were dead. Said she wasn’t gonna lose you too.”
“Get the hell away from me!” He yelled, instinctively. Out of habit, he attempted to charge his power gauntlets, only to remember he didn’t have his suit on anymore.
“Who’s coming? What did they want? Just tell me where to aim, Sir!” The sudden shout startled Hope awake from her slumber, sending her unholstering her gun and holding it up in all directions.
“You here to finish me off? Catch me while I’m weak so you can finally claim your big win? That’s a cowardly move, even for you Slone.” The Foundation sneered, jumping up from the hospital bed to prepare to fight.
No one moved for a really long time. Especially not Slone, considering the display occurring in front of her. She couldn’t help but have to stifle a laugh as she clicked her pen.
“Relax, dude. I was just going to check your vitals.” Slone spoke, turning the heart monitor to face her.
The Foundation didn’t relax, still holding up a hand towards her in case she tried something funny. Slone took a glance at him from her peripheral as she continued to write.
“Vitals are stable. Though, your heart rate is spiked, likely because of your… activity at the moment. Patient has no difficulty speaking, or standing and shows no signs of memory loss. Congratulations! You are quite literally a miracle case, Foundy.” She praised, maneuvering her clipboard in her hand to applaud the guy currently in defense mode.
The Foundation stared at her, confused but still ready to fight. “…what?”
After all this time, he had expected Slone to kill him the first chance she got. He wasn’t going to blame her for coming to get him when he was barely conscious. Why wasn’t she doing anything? Why was she pretending to check his vitals if she was just going to kill him in a few moments?
“Your whole Ice King Zero Point fiasco left you with a broken-down suit, a couple of battle scars, and a coma. The fact that you don’t have broken bones or broken ribs, punctured lungs, hypothermia, hell, even a concussion is nothing less than a medical miracle. You are tougher than you look, big guy” she laughed.
“Now I would recommend you get back into the hospital bed before you end up on the floor from dizziness.” Slone chimed. “I’ll come back with your food. Highly doubt Ice King kept his trophies well fed.”
The Foundation watched as she disappeared through the doorway, before immediately trying to shake Hope awake. In the midst of the chaos, Hope had managed to fall back asleep in her chair while Slone was watching The Foundation’s vitals.
“Hope, wake up. Hope. Hope. Hop-“
“What do you want?”
“Why is Slone here?”
“Why is- what?”
“Why is Slone here? Why didn’t you do anything?”
“Whadoyu mean? She saved you..”
“She what?”
“Jones called her to save you…he knew you’d need someone to bring you back…”
Hope immediately went back to sleep after that sentence, leaving The Foundation with no further answers.
Jones called for her? She saved him? In an alternate universe, she would’ve saved him. But now? In this timeline? There was no way she was here because ‘she was called to save him’. Like, seriously? Doctor Slone? The girl that tried killing him and Jones on multiple occasions, got destroyed in a tank by The Paradigm, and worked for the Imagined Order is here to save him? He might have to give himself a concussion to believe that nonsense, but thinking too hard about it at the moment was beginning to give him a headache.
Reluctantly, he settled back into the hospital bed just as Slone returned with a tray of food.
“Before you ask, no I did not put cyanide or any other sort of poison in your food. No, I’m not here to kill you, and neither am I trying to take you down from the inside. So, just eat the damn food, alright?” She requested as she handed him the tray. The food didn’t look all that bad, and looking at it made The Foundation realize how bad he needed to eat. “If I eat this… will you answer any questions I feel like I need answers to?” He asked, already beginning to eat.
“You don’t have to eat for me to answer you, y’know. I’ve got questionsg myself.” Slone smiled, grabbing the empty seat on the side of the bed. “What kind of questions do you have for me?” The Foundation asked, scarfing down the food like a starved man, which, he technically was, at the moment.
“What kind of questions do you have for me?” Slone asked back. The Foundation pointed at her, chewing through the food, as if he was gonna say “touché” but couldn’t because he was eating.
As soon as The Foundation finished his meal, Slone woke Hope up gently, urging her to go to sleep. With a sleepy nod, Hope retreated from the room. “She’s been through a lot, that kid.” Slone thought aloud, before turning back to The Foundation.
“…Why?”
Slone almost laughed, “Why what? Why did I save you?”
“I guess, yeah.”
“Well, Jones called and I answered. He knew that if you and Ice King got into it, one or none was going to walk away and he needed his own little Plan B.” Slone answered. “Trust me, he would’ve been so glad to see you alive if-“
“If what?”
Slone paused, pressing her lips together.
“What happened to Jones, Slone?”
He didn’t like her silence. It brought every single bad thought to the surface of his mind. She had said earlier Hope couldn’t ’lose him too’…
No. There was no way. Jones wouldn’t have died in the aftermath, could he? The dude was practically immortal, he wouldn’t have just died. Unless…
“He’s honestly not in any better shape than you.” Slone joked, not laughing herself, though. “Ge- The Visitor. He-“
No.
“He tried his hardest to get rid of the guy. Lucky for us, Jones has never exactly been easy to kill.”
“How is he?” The Foundation sat up a little straighter at that news, a new panic settling within him. “He’s alive… mostly. His Vitals are stable and he’s not brain dead, but he-“
“Where is he?” The Foundation demanded, standing up from his bed. “Found-“
“No, I have to-“ The world began to spin out of nowhere around him, sending him leaning into the bed with a groan. “Hey.” Slone stood up, approaching him. “Jones will be fine. He’s stable and he’s safe from harm.”
“How am I supposed to trust you without seeing it for myse-“
“Sit back down and I’ll tell you everything .” Slone rumbled, guiding the man back to the bed.
“The Visitor was the last person with him. Why didn’t he-“
“Because you had a mole in your midst.”
The Foundation stared at Slone for a long moment. The Visitor? Out of everyone? She had to be lying. The guy wouldn’t hurt a-
“Turns out your little Seven member was the very same guy you’ve been trying to hunt throughout the zero point.”
“…Geno?” The Foundation questioned.
“The one and only.”
The Foundation couldn’t believe what he was hearing. All this time, the visitor had been against them. Even worse, he was the exact man The Foundation had been fighting so hard to destroy. A fresh wave of sickness washed over him. He knew it was sickness this time.
“It’s not your fault. It’s happened to the best of us.” Slone shrugged, way too casual about this for The Foundation’s comfort.
“If Geno’s here,” The Foundation started.
“He has control of the Zero Point thanks to The Dark Voyager. He’s planning on rebuilding the Imagined Order from the Ground up. Bigger and Badder than ever, I hear.” Slone stood up as she spoke, stretching haphazardly.
“Yeah, I figured. But, why aren’t you working with them anymore?” The Foundation asked, watching Slone pace the foot of the bed. “Because I finally woke up, obviously.” Slone clarified, “What, you thought I was trying to keep you alive just for Geno to kill you himself?”
“Kind of, yeah. It wouldn’t be the first time…”
Slone raised a brow at that, “Oh really? Like how that debacle with the Ice King wasn’t your first failure to end a villain?”
This was a can of worms both of them would regret opening. But it was too late now.
“Hey now-“
“Oh don’t stop me now, Foundy. You’ve fucked up as many times as I have. Especially with Ice King. You let your own issues get in the way of the greater good.”
“Yeah, and I-“
“You would’ve what? Won if The Visitor didn’t betray y’all? You really expect me to believe that when Jones is sitting in a life support tank fighting for his life because of your recklessness?”
“Hey, I didn’t ask for you to save me-“
“Yeah, well I didn’t ask for my entire Childhood to be spent becoming a weapon!” Slone yelled. “I didn’t ask for Jones to try and stop me from fighting him, but it still happened, didn’t it? The Loopers didn’t ask for the Paradigm to sacrifice herself to the Zero Point-“
“You keep her name out of your damn mouth!” The Foundation barked, wincing at the sharp pain in his abdomen from the change in motion. “What’s even the point of this fight if you’re trying to save me?”
“My point is,” Slone began, grabbing a handheld x-ray machine,” No one gets everything they ask for and we don't get what we ask for either. That’s just how life is. Trust me, I didn’t want to save you when Jones sent for me, but there is no one else in the world he trusts like me. Or you.” She mumbled as she set the system up to scan The Foundation for any unchecked injuries.
“So why’d you come back?”
“Hm?” Slone hummed, still occupied by the system boot up.
“why did you come to the rescue?”
Slone stopped what she was doing, pulling the screen away from her face.
“Because I’d never forgive myself if I let Jones lose everything again.” She returned her attention to the screen, “Now hold still.”
—
It had been a few days of bed rest for The Foundation, and it was finally getting easier to get up and out of the bed. He hadn’t broken any bones, but whiplash was hell to recover from when it’s paired with near hypothermia and comatose. He still wasn’t allowed to leave the Medical Bay according to Slone, but it wasn’t like he’d listen to her anyway.
He’d wander through New Sanctuary grounds from time to time, but he stuck around the Medical Bay in case Slone or Hope or The Order came to check on him.
Today was different.
He wandered through the sanctuary grounds like any normal day, except he found himself in a new area. Well, not exactly ‘new’, but refurbished. The room had ceiling to floor screens on one wall, a dashboard littered with buttons and levers and switches galore. It looked like Slone had made herself at home in the sanctuary.
He stared at the screen, trying to decipher even just a single word to understand what Slone was trying to figure out. Unsuccessful, he turned his attention away from the screens and found himself face to face with Jones.
Except Jones wasn’t looking at him. Suspended in some blue fluid and attached to a mask was Jones, for sure. Same blonde hair, probably the same blue eyes if he opened them, same… bullet wound in the abdomen.
He looked so vulnerable in this state. Trapped in the only way to save him. Usually it was The Foundation coming back to Jones’ quick jokes and corny remarks. This time, he came back to no stupid joke waiting for him; just the body of the man he had known.
Whether it was survivor’s guilt getting to him, or just a need to be close to Jones again, The Foundation was found by Slone sitting in front of the tank holding and keeping him alive.
“I figured you’d sneak in here eventually.” Slone said, breaking the unbearable silence between the three people in the room. “He’s a tough guy. Highly doubt he won’t make a full recovery.” Slone continued, standing next to The Foundation.
The pair watched the unmoving man for a moment longer before Foundation finally spoke up.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“How did you survive that tank crashing down on you?”
“I got over it,” Slone joked, nudging The Foundation with her leg. The joke got no reaction.
“He would’ve thought that was funny.” The Foundation sighed.
Silence filled the air once more.
“Geno took everything from me.” Slone started, making Foundation look at her.
“He almost did the same to you, didn’t he?” Slone asked. The Foundation turned his attention back to the unconscious man fighting for his life in whatever blue liquid was keeping him inside. He reached a hand out of the tank, pressing it against the glass. A part of him hoped Jones would open his eyes, and reach for the hand pressed to the glass. He wanted to see him move again, see him stir, see him do something. Jones stayed still, eyes closed and floating in the tank. He pulled his hand away, staring at the floor ahead of him.
“I want to help you. I want to help Jones” Slone admitted, meeting The Foundation on the floor. “But I can’t help you if I don’t know if you trust me.”
The Foundation laughed. “Slone, I-“
“You and I both know it’s a risky choice to make. Hell, I wouldn’t trust me either.” She laughed. “but if you don’t want it to be Jones fighting for his life again, you’ll put aside everything I’ve done in the past and give me a chance.”
“I’m doing all I can to keep you and him alive. The Order and I are keeping Hope occupied enough that she doesn’t come in here and stress herself out. Both of them trust me enough for me to do that with no issue. The hardest thing thus far is getting you to trust me.” The Foundation didn’t answer her.
“What’ll it take for you to trust me?” Slone pleaded.
“Why’d you join the Imagined Order?” The Foundation asked.
Slone stared at him for a moment, “Truth is, it wasn’t exactly my choice. My mother and father were both IO Scientists. When I was born, they tried to retire so I wouldn’t grow up around…that. It worked for a few years. Until Geno sent IO guards to take ‘em out the old fashioned way and take me as collateral.”
“From that day on, I was manufactured into the perfect scientist the IO had ever seen. They only saw me as a weapon, even at five years old.”
“What broke you out after all that time?”
“Funnily enough, that tank nearly ended me,” she smiled, reminiscing like it was a fond memory. “Geno realized I was as disposable as any other agent. He had no more energy to deal with his greatest weapon if she could be destroyed by a tank.”
“Sounds like him.” The Foundation sighed. “Any more questions or can we set our problems aside until Jones is awake again and the island is safe?” Slone asked, holding out her hand as if offering him a deal.
He looked between her face illuminated by the blue glow of the tank and her hand, inviting, albeit distrustful. In a dumb and poetic way, they weren’t much different from each other. Slone had lost everything to ignorance, while he had lost it all to recklessness. She wanted to help, and The Seven needed it more than ever now.
They had both been surrounded by death their entire lives, stuck in an endless cycle of losing people over and over again. So many had died. The Foundation had watched colleagues, friends, family die over and over again like nothing. He had gotten used to death in his line of work. You can’t exactly grieve every life lost when you’re expected to lead people. If there was any sort of reason that he was still alive when so many around him had died, he wanted to be alive long enough to find out why.
He took Slone’s hand in his, firmly shaking a deal into fruition.
“Do not make me regret this, Slone.”
“I’ll try not to, bud.”
“Don’t call me that.”