A day had passed as the four brothers waited for Nick to calm down. To their delight, Nick had gone back to his own home, afraid to disturb his friend Brian anymore. That was when they had to make a move!

Dredge started the game. It was at night when he began the game. He first entered Brian's mind since Nick was closest to Brian. With little effort, he invaded the man's mind and pulled out the deepest darkest feelings Brian had for Nick. It was hard, because Brian mostly had good, fun-loving thoughts of Nick. Dredge saw all the times that Brian and Nick had gone out and had fun. He saw the two friends share a room and played video games until they collapsed in exhaustion. He saw the two fight each other for food and goof around like immature children.

Interesting, Dredge thought to himself. But it was impossible not to find an argument, a rift between the two. Dredge dug deeper into Brian's subconsciousness. It couldn't be that hard, could it? It took him nearly an hour before he was able to find one moment in time in the past that Brian was angry at Nick. Oh yes! Dredge congratulated himself.

Brian was yelling at Nick and Nick was yelling back. They were arguing about something. Hmmm. Interesting. They were arguing about Kevin. Brian was defending Kevin while Nick was blaming Kevin for something. Dredge didn't really care what the issue was. Quickly, he pulled the argument from Brian's subconscious to a more superficial, more easily accessible part of Brian's mind while summoning all the anger and the hatred. He let the dreams begin as the past played itself over and over again in Brian's mind so that when Brian awoke, he would remember and feel that anger.

Dredge smiled slyly. Step one-success!

Clay snuck into Kevin's place pretty easily. Unlike Dredge, he didn't invade people's minds. Rather, he manipulated emotions. He stepped into Kevin's room and watched as the older man sleep soundly on the bed. Clay placed himself on the bed and began to weave a spell around Kevin's heart. It was the spell of paranoia. And Clay tried to direct the paranoia at Nick. As he wove this spell, he opened Kevin's eyes and imprinted in Kevin's mind the image of Nick.

He shoved images of Nick in bed with Kevin's girlfriend into Kevin's mind- wild, erotic and untamed images of Nick. He planted the seeds of suspicions one by one until Kevin's mind was filled with darkness, until Kevin's heart could no longer register reality.

Clay smiled. Strike two!

Andrew took care of AJ and Howie since Brent claimed that he couldn't bear to do it. And with them, he clouded their minds with ignorance and negligence, creating a barrier between themselves and their emotions. For whatever will happen between Nick, Brian and Kevin, these two will never be a part of it. They would walk away should Nick ever need their love, their support.

Nick was bare now. They had quickly stripped him of his closest circle of friends, flayed him open on Earth. And the only step is to let the drama continue to roll and clean up the mess. It was too simple.

That night, Brent watched over his littlest brother. Nick was not asleep, but rather watching a movie while lying comfortably on Brian's couch. He looked so peaceful, so youthful. And soon, they would not just watch him from afar. No, they would talk with him, touch him, let him be a part of their circle. Nick definitely looked the most beautiful and innocent of them all.

Brent started to wonder whether he had touched that face before. If Nick didn't disappear from their world until five, then shouldn't they at least have memories of their interactions with him. But Brent's mind went blank. It was as if all memories of Nick were blocked off. Now that he thought about it, he began to get excited. Yes! He had interacted with Nick when Nick was about four or five. But how come no real memories or images came to mind? Something was blocking the access to the past.

Maybe bringing Nick back to their world will uncover the secrets that the Queen so desperately tried to veil from them, or even from the people from their homeland, Infierno. Nick may not know it, but he had to have something that the Queen wanted desperately. Yes. She was desperate for something that only Nick possessed. Problem was, Brent didn't know what Nick possessed, and he doubted that Nick himself knew, either.

Nick was awaken by a loud crash early the next morning. Something in the kitchen fell and broke. Sighing, Nick quickly went to see what had happened. To his dismay, Brian was up and looking grumpier than ever. His frazzled hair look didn't help either. He looked pissed!

"Umm, what's going on, Brian?" Nick asked, disturbed.

Brian turned around to glare at him. "What's going on? Are you blind? I dropped a glass! Sheesh."

Nope, not in a good mood at all. "Let me help you," Nick answered quietly as he walked up and started picking up the pieces. Brian nodded with irritation, but didn't offer to help.

Nick picked the pieces one by one. When done, Nick looked at Brian like a lost child. Brent felt nauseated all at once. 'If he had known me, he would gaze at me with the same love, that of a little brother yearning for an older brother's affection.' Brent knew that that was what he missed in his life. His other brothers loved him, but not in the same innocent way that Nick loved Brian. 'Maybe separating Nick from his Backstreet friends will be good after all. Then we would have our youngest brother back.'

Brent watched with new resolve as Brian brushed Nick off again, feeling unhappy with the vehemence in Brian'' voice. He watched as Brian slammed the door in Nick'' face and left the poor boy distraught and helpless. But Brent knew that he had to continue to inflict more pain on Nick. He still had to help sever the other relationships. As much as he dreaded it, Brent couldn't help but feel a tinge of happiness. He wanted to claim Nick as his brother again.

Slowly, but subtly, Brent planted an urge in Nick's mind. He needed to lure Nick to Kevin, AJ and Howie and land the last blow. Brent reached out with his mind to Nick's more fragile one. When he found it, he tried to place the urge to see Kevin into Nick's mind. Nothing could have prepared him for what happened next.

The moment he tried to invade Nick's mind, he felt an explosion and he reeled from te amount of force generated. Nick's mind, or rather his soul, was sheer power. Brent began to panic. He had never felt an aura so powerful, so alluring, yet so mystical before. Nick possessed something dangerous in his mind, something that had been locked for so long. Suddenly, Brent realized that the Queen will try to access whatever it was that Nick's mind harbored. Brent felt his blood go cold. For the first time, he felt a fear that made his body freeze.

The impact between Nick's mind and his must have been exceptionally strong because within one second, Andrew, Clay and Dredge were by his side.

"What is going on?" Andrew asked. His voice was fearless, but Brent noticed that there was an edge to it.

"I tried to touch Nick's mind, to lead him to Kevin . . . " Brent answered shakily.

As soon as Brent said that, all eyes focused on Nick. To their surprise, Nick's body began writhing, as if from pain. Clay and Dredge watched cautiously from a distance while Brent was too dazed to move. Andrew was the first to make a move. He quickly materialized and clutched Nick's body, trying to shove Nick's aura out of his body.

"Quick, we have to catch his soul and bring it back to Infierno with us. NOW!!!!" Andrew's voice was shaking, trying to maintain some calmness.

"Back to the Queen?" Clay asked doubtingly.

"NO!" Andrew shouted, but his eyes pleaded with the other guys to help him.

Brent, Clay and Dredge immediately knew that Andrew was not strong enought to contain Nick's soul. And Andrew was one of the most powerful auras in Infierno! Brent knew that this was not a good sign. Finally all four struggled to drive Nick's soul out of his body. After a whole hour, the four brothers gasped from exhaustion but smiled in relief as they strapped Nick's weakened soul to Andrew's exhausted one. Then they set forth, back towards Infierno, back to their mystical homeland, leaving Nick's lifeless body for the Earthlings.

So their plan backfired. But that was the least of their problems now. They needed to get Nick's aura back to Infierno, but not back to the Queen. No, not back to her. They needed to find The Mind, whose wisdom was well-known across the ages. They needed his help to discover what it is that Nick's mind possessed that the Queen so desperately wanted.

As they passed the gates to Infierno, they felt the background shift into a mystical blue color. The green grass was replaced by a cream-colored fluffy ground. The trees were replaced by tall smooth stalks that were strewn with diamonds. The world that they lived in, the world that Nick belonged to, was richly lavished, unlike the barren Earth. At last, they had come home.

So herein lies the beginning of a trek for the truth. And they all knew that that truth lies within Nick. They began to float towards the general direction of The Mind. In this world, gravity does not exist because their auras are not made of flesh. They floated, carrying with them the most beautiful aura that ever graced Infierno-that of their little brother.

Infierno had been plagued with war and strife for too long. And while the Queen was busy fighting off the foreign beings, Andrew, Brent, Clay and Dredge will uncover the hidden truths behind Nick. The first and only thing on their minds at that moment was why Nick was exiled to Earth when he was so young. Hopefully, his hidden memories would give them the answer.

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