CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

“Hold on Nick! I’ll give you a hand!” Howie called.

Suddenly, there was another Nick walking beside him, sword at the ready. One of Howie’s illusions.

Dystex was completely confused. He couldn’t tell which one was real and so he rained fireballs down upon both of them. Nick dodged the attack and quickly jumped forwards to stab the Daorian with his sword, but it passed straight through the cloud as if there was nothing there. Dystex laughed and then blew at Nick’s sword.

“Ow!” Nick screamed, as he felt the handle of his sword become so cold that it burnt his skin. He dropped it to the floor where it shattered as if it were nothing but ice. Nick was at a loss now. He had nothing to fight the evil being with.

Suddenly, AJ fired his guns at the huge monster, but the light beams went straight through the Daorian, not harming him at all.

“YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME! I AM ALREADY DEAD! NOW YOU WILL JOIN YOUR FRIEND!” He laughed in a booming voice that shook the ground. Then he stopped as he noticed the strange hissing noise that had suddenly filled the bay, and an odd force that was pulling at him.

The light beams from AJ’s guns hadn’t blasted a hole in Dystex, but they had blasted two holes in the far wall of the bay. The air was rapidly being pulled out into space, and so was Dystex. His cloud like structure was easily being sucked through the holes. And Dystex screamed and tried to hold on to a ship, but his cloudy fingers went straight through it.

“NO! NO! THIS CANNOT BE! I WAS SO CLOSE!” he yelled. He glared at the Backstreet Boys. “THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” he threw another fireball at them, but that was also sucked out straight through the holes and into space.

Soon all that was left of Dystex was his face. The boys watched in horrified fascination as the Daorian emperor was dragged out into space. His eyes were the last things to go and they were pulled through separate holes so, for a moment, It seemed as if the wall had two malice filled eyes.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” he screamed and then he was completely gone.

“Come on, guys!” Zanell said, fighting her way to their ship. She pulled open the door.

The pressure inside the bay was forcing the holes to expand in size and the boys found that the force pulling things out of the bay was becoming increasingly stronger. They themselves were beginning to be pulled towards the holes in the wall.

Nick picked up Brian’s body before he was dragged off of the crate and into space. He couldn’t bare the thought of having his body floating around in space. AJ gave him a hand while Howie helped Kevin limp towards the ship’s door. They could feel the air ripping at their clothes and hair as it rushed past them on its way to space. They could barely breathe. Soon, the bay would be nothing but a vacuum.

“Quickly!” Zanell said, helping them one by one into the ship.

AJ was the last one inside and he slammed the door closed and locked it. Nick placed Brian down on a couch at the end of the ship and knelt down beside him. He couldn’t believe it. Why had things turned out this way?

Zanell slipped into the pilot’s seat and began pressing a number of buttons. Then she pulled back on the throttle and the ship’s engine roared into life. She began steering them towards the exit, but the bay door were shut.

“Um, Zanell? The doors are shut!” Howie yelled, as their ship sped towards them.

“Don’t worry,” Zanell replied. She pressed another button and a bright beam of white light blasted from the front of the ship and smashed straight into the bay doors, making them explode in a glorious ball of light and fire. Their ship burst through the fireball and into the blackness of space.

Now that they were safely away from Zator and out of danger forever of Dystex, the real tragedy of the events began to sink in. AJ and Howie joined Nick and Kevin. Nick began to sob again as he saw all of the blood on Brian and upon his own hands.

“Please don’t cry Nicky,” Howie begged, feeling his own tears beginning to fall. “You’re starting me off.”

“It’s my fault, it’s my fault,” Nick sobbed.

“If you hadn’t of done it, Nick then we would all be dead by now. That includes everyone on earth, too,” Kevin said.

“Out of the way, guys,” Zanell said, coming over.

They all just stared at her.

“Out of the way,” she repeated. “I can help him.”

“There’s nothing anyone can do,” Kevin said, sadly.

“I may be able to save him,” Zanell said.

“What? How?” AJ asked.

“I haven’t shown the powers my own amulet gives me, have I?” Zanell said.

“You can - ?” Kevin stammered.

“I can heal people,” she replied.

“And bring them back from the dead?”

“Only if I hurry.”

She placed Brian’s own amulet around his neck and then placed one hand on her own amulet and another on Brian’s face.

“Please, Frick,” Nick whispered.

Zanell’s amulet began to glow but Brian still didn’t respond.

“Come on, Brian,” She said.

Carefully, she pressed her hand against the sword wound on his chest and Brian suddenly gave a cry of pain. She moved her hand and the wound was gone. The only evidence that it had ever been there was the torn, blood stained shirt. Brian gasped as he sat up coughing. Then he opened his blue eyes and blinked a few times.

“Brian!” the boys all screamed before piling onto the couch to give him a hug.

“W – what?” Brian asked, vaguely.

“Go easy with him, guys!” Zanell said, but she was smiling.

They all gave Brian one last hug before seating themselves down beside him.

“What happened?” Brian asked. He stared at the blood on his shirt and rubbed the spot where the wound had been. Then he looked at Nick.

“I’m so sorry,” Nick said, his tears falling again.

“It’s okay, Nick. You did what I wanted,” Brian said, almost crying himself. “Only a true buddy would do that.” He held his arms out and Nick gave him a big hug.

“Don’t ever make me do that again, you hear me?” Nick sobbed.

“I don’t intend to!”

“And Brian don’t ever, EVER scare us like that again and this time I mean it!” AJ said, with a laugh.

Kevin grinned and put his arm around his little cousin.

“How come I’m here?” Brian asked, in confusion. “I thought I was - ”

“You were dead, but Zanell bought you back. She’s got healing powers,” Howie said.

“Hey, what was it like being dead?” AJ asked.

“It was, weird but I can’t seem to remember it. It’s like one of those dreams, you know the type where you can never remember them when you wake up. I remember that it was all dark, though, and peaceful. It kinda scared me,” Brian said, uneasily. “What happened to the Daorian?” he asked, changing the subject.

“He’s gone. He got sucked outta the bay and into outer space!” AJ said.

“Huh?!”

“We’ll tell you everything when we get back home,” Kevin promised.

Howie looked about them suspiciously.

“What’s wrong D?” Nick asked.

“Doe anyone else get the feeling that we’ve forgotten something?” he replied.

“Like what?” AJ said.

“I don’t know, just something.”

AJ glanced about and shrugged. “Couldn’t have been important.”

For a moment, all was silent.

Brian spoke first. “Say, what happened to - ?”

“N*SYNC!!” the boys screamed.

“Oops,” AJ said.


**********************

Back on Zator’s ship, Justin banged on the cell door furiously.

“Let us out of here!” Lance shouted from beside him.

“Where are those damn Backstreet Boys when you need them?”

The Backstreet Boys are bound to come back for them sometime when they next have time off!