Private HIVE laughed as he kicked at a few rocks down at his trailing-behind mission partner. "What's wrong, solider? Finally realizing that a leather jacket ain't right for combat?" He then ignored Fang's irritated response as he continued scaling the mountain.

Joining the Brotherhood of Evil was the best decision Private HIVE had made in years. For the first time since he was enrolled in HIVE Academy, he was leading his own mission and had his own solider to order around. Granted, his new solider was a spider-headed freak who thought skinny jeans was appropriate mountain-climbing attire, but still. Private HIVE relished being in control, so much so that he began to develop his own plan of attack without care for what his companion may have wanted to do; General Immortus had given Private HIVE complete control of the decision making, declaring that as long as he captured this Titan, he would never have to listen to orders again.

This was basically the only information General Immortus granted him, however. Anything else about this Jericho character, what his powers were or what he even looked like, was unknown. Private HIVE assumed that the Titan must be powerful then, as he had heard plenty of tales of super-powered beings isolating themselves away. A powerful foe needs an experienced opponent, so that must have been why he was called in.

However, after peering over the final level of the mountain to see what this new Titan looked like, Private HIVE's assumptions were dashed. In fact, Private HIVE was a little offended to see that in actuality Jericho was skinny and weak-looking, seemingly lacking the second sense to let him know that he was being stared at.

Private HIVE turned away, his body automatically crouching down into a hiding position. Did General Immortus really expect him to waste his efforts on him?

He did not have time to ponder his worth, however, as the answer to his question came to him in the form of Fang finally reaching him. Private HIVE gave a grin of realization. He was an experienced commander with an inexperienced solider - and all fresh trainees needed combat practice.

Private HIVE pulled his companion up to his feet and then put him in a headlock, laughing with superiority. "Good news, solider. This new Titan we're after? He's chicken, hiding away on a mountain out of fear. You've been handed a training session as your first mission." He shoved Fang away.

"We'll go for a sneak attack, since this Jericho is so unobservant. You'll tangle him up with your webbing, and then I'll knock him out." Private HIVE swung his shield for emphasis. "We'll have him back to base in no time."

Still not letting Fang speak, Private HIVE grabbed him again and swung him around to look at his opponent. "You'll probably get a kick outta just how pathetic he looks!"

This action soon shattered Private HIVE's plans for a sneak attack because, whether it was his arrogance blinding him to the need to be stealthy or his general loudness, it altered Jericho to his presence.

The two of them made eye contact for a split second, just long enough for it to halt Private HIVE. A chilling sense of familiarity held him in place as Jericho's features - large green eyes, wispy blond curls, the softness his in movements even during urgency - made him recall memories of someone he had not thought about in years. He looked just like-

Joesph.

This proved enough of a distraction that Jericho was able to start retreating down the mountain, but Private HIVE didn't notice. He was still in a daze.

'That can't be Joesph', Private HIVE thought to himself, 'it's just some Titan who looks exactly like Joesph. Joesph is dead.' He tried to rationalize himself back into moving, but the memory of learning that his closest family members had died kept him rooted in place.

He was locked away in solitary confinement for the night when a piece of paper suddenly slipped under the door. The guard on the other side whispered to him that "reading it while being punished is against the rules" and "not to tell anyone". He never heard from that guard again.

Private HIVE carefully opened it, noting that it was typed in a very offical-looking font. He was terrified of what it must contain to make the guard break the rules, and took a sharp breath when he saw that it addressed him by his real name.

Dear Grant Wilson-Kane,

We must regretfully inform you that two of your family members, Adeline Kane and Joesph Wilson-Kane, have recently passed. They sustained fatal injuries during a home invasion, and while the culprits of the invasion have been captured, both of them had died by the time authorities arrived.

We also must regretfully inform you that, due to the rules and vetting process of the institution you are attending, both funerals will have happened by the time you receive this letter.

We wish you a speedy mourning and recovery process, and

Private HIVE did not read the rest of the letter. Instead, he let it fall from his hands as they balled into fists and began pounding on the door. He demanded to be let out and to know who kept this information from him. But all he got from that was a hoarse voice and bruised knuckles.

Once he re-lived that memory, Private HIVE came back into reality and realized Fang had been yelling at him the entire time.

Private HIVE tried to prevent his companion from seeing his tears and started yelling back. "What are you still doing here, solider!? I gave you an order to go catch the Titan, and I expect you to follow it! Now go!"

Fang hesitated, and then started following the path Jericho had run down.

Private HIVE himself hesitated, wanting to compose himself first. A leader wasn't supposed to cry over his enemy just happening to look like his dead baby brother - a leader followed a mission through with no hangups.

Private HIVE was going to follow this mission through, but he couldn't quite let go of the emotions eating away at his mind. So he forced the feelings of sorrow into rage, and used that to propel himself towards his target.

Along the way Private HIVE amended the mission plan in his head. After his solider successfully webs up this Jericho character, he wasn't just going to knock him out - no, he was going to absolutely pummel the guy for having the audacity to look like Joesph.

Private HIVE caught up with his companion, but didn't see Jericho around. Before he could question the Titan's whereabouts, Fang suddenly turned on him.

He managed to duck out of the way of webbing shot at him. "Failed one mission and you're already turning traitor, solider? Pathetic."

He charged forward, ramming his shield into Fang's spider legs in an attempt to knock the hybrid over, causing Fang to stumble backwards. Another round of webbing was shot towards Private HIVE in retaliation, and some of it got stuck on his shield.

Private HIVE slammed his shield against a nearby mountain wall to try and get off the goop. It did not work, but seeing Fang attempting to regain his balance out of the corner of his eye gave him an idea.

He angled his shield in a way that would allow it to spin fast enough to take the goop off while still hitting Fang to trip him up again. He sent the shield flying.

Fang lurched forward, and out from his eyes came what Private HIVE could only describe as a translucent Jericho; the Titan avoided the shield coming at him, but Fang, now rubbing his face and stumbling around, got a shield directly in the face, sending him backwards and knocking him out cold.

Private HIVE reflexively caught his shield when it came back to him. Seeing the Titan in action had spooked the aggression out of him. His first assumption had been right; this pansy-looking guy was powerful, creepily powerful. No wonder the Brotherhood of Evil wanted him captured so badly.

"You're mind control or whatever it is you do won't work on me!" Private HIVE announced, lifting his shield in defense.

It was a little too late, however, as before he knew it, Jericho was in front of him, looking dead into his eyes. The Titan began to fade into translucence again, and Private HIVE found his body tensing up and his mind fogging over. Soon the only part of his body he could still control was his vocal chords.

"What are you doing!?" Private HIVE cried as his head was forcefully titled down and his hands unwillingly moved around his shield in examination. Pain rippled throughout his head as he tried to fight against his possessor.

Private HIVE couldn't think clearly, as Jericho seemed strong enough to disrupt his thought patterns. His body suddenly began doing seemingly random physical exercises, punching and kicking the air. He needed to think of a way to push the Titan out of his mind so he could control himself again.

He couldn't consciously, but that did not mean his brain would give up without a fight. Before Private HIVE was aware of it, a particular memory that had been lingering in the back of his mind since that first split-second eye contact flooded his mind. He remembered, he remembered that-

It was a particularly warm Saturday. Grant and Joesph were supposed to be at their father's house that day, but he was out of the country, so they remained with their mom. Wintergreen offered to come watch them for the day as their mom already had plans; that meant they had to spend the day doing child-appropriate yard work to get that "necessary Vitamin D". Fortunately, Wintergreen also knew how to make yard work enjoyable.

"Here's the battle plan, boys. These enemies are ones we've faced before - dandelions, plantains, bindweeds, and the ever-menacing thistles. They're back in full force, and they're here to starve out your mother's favorite flowers." Wintergreen pointed over to the flowering bushes, but Grant didn't look over; he automatically knew that Wintergreen was referring to the potentillas. "They've adopted camouflage to try and blend in, but I faith that you two will find and destroy them before any harm comes to the flowers."

"Yessir!" Granted gave a salute and ran off, with Joesph following behind him. Weeding was one of the few chores Grant actually liked doing. It gave him an excuse to wear old clothes and go barefoot so he wouldn't dirty up his nice attire, and let him tear things up without getting in trouble. When he reached the garden, he went straight for the potentilla bushes. "I'm going for the frontlines. Joey, you stay behind and scout for those straggling behind."

Grant always took on the weeds closest to the bushes, as he never cried like Joey did when the thistles poked him or the bindweeds rubbed against his hands weirdly. Instead he yelped and ripped them up, and then further shredded the plants and let the remains fall to the ground. That's why he sent Joesph to handle the weaker plantains and dandelions.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw that Joesph had cleared the garden of the plantains, but not of the dandelions. Instead, Grant watch as Joesph gently plucked each dandelion and placed them into one of two piles. It looked like Joesph was talking to himself as well, but Grant couldn't tell until walked over to him.

"What are you doing?" Grant demanded to know.

"Rebilitation." Joesph answered. "See?" He plucked two of the dandelions. "One from Grant-" he placed a dandelion in the left pile and then the other in the right pile "-and one from Joey. We give them to mommy and she rebilitates them."

Grant knew exactly what television program Joesph was trying to parrot back. "You really think these dandelions deserve rehabilitation? They're invaders trying to steal food from mom's favorite flowers!"

"Maybe they're hungry too," Joesph argued back. "Mommy will give them food and they won't attack her flowers anymore."

Grant almost pointed out that the dandelions wouldn't attack mom's flowers anymore because they were dead, but didn't. "What makes you think mom would want to rehabilitate them?"

"She likes yellow flowers." Joesph pointed over to the potentilla bushes, but Grant again didn't look as he already knew that his mom had only planted yellow ones that year.

Instead, Grant glanced around the garden, noting how the rest of the non-dandelion weeds had been either mercilessly destroyed by himself or more mercifully just pulled out by Joesph. With the majority of the invaders down, maybe rehabilitating a few of them wouldn't be the end of the world. More importantly, Joesph had said that these dandelions would be gifts to their mother from both of them, and Grant wanted to make his mom happy.

"All right." Granted conceded, pulling up two dandelions of his own and placing them into the piles. "One from Grant, and one from Joey."

Private HIVE's mind suddenly cleared and the pain in his head dispersed. He had control of his body again, but all he could muster was to slightly move his eyes to notice Jericho solidifying and then staggering away from him.

He took in large gulps of air to try to regain himself. He couldn't stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks, but almost welcomed it was it was proof his body wasn't completely stiff. Very slowly he was able to begin moving around, starting by tilting his head slightly and bending his fingers.

Private HIVE soon began moving larger parts of his body; he pushed one leg forward followed by the other, until he was moving towards Jericho.

He observed the scenery around him as he was inching along. Small patches of yellow flowers pushed through cracks in the mountain, which Private HIVE guessed was the factor that caused that particular memory to be highlighted amongst the other years worth of memories he had with his brother. He didn't think they looked like potentillas or dandelions, but apparently that didn't matter. He also did not think that memory was a particularly sad one, but apparently that didn't matter either, as he was still teary-eyed by the time he reached Jericho.

Private HIVE watched how Jericho was reacting to what he presumed to be that memory. The Titan had his knees pulled to his chest and seemed to be crying even harder than Private HIVE was. His face was red and his nose runny as he tried and failed to wipe away his gushing tears with his wrists.

Joesph always wiped his eyes using his wrists instead of his hands. Joesph always had an exaggerated crying face and a seeming abundance of tears. Joesph would always cry at the littlest things - like a long-forgotten childhood memory.

This had to be Joesph, Private HIVE couldn't deny it anymore.

He took in yet another breath of air as he tried to figure out what to do. His thought-dead brother sat in front of him, and he had orders to bring him to base to be frozen alive. If he followed them, then his brother may really die and it would be his fault.

But if he didn't complete his mission, then what? Private HIVE had many questions he wanted answered - Was mother alive? When did Joesph get those mind control powers? Why was Joesph alone on this mountain and where was their mother if not here with him? But he didn't know if Joesph would be willing to answer those questions. After all, this was the first time in years the two of them had seen one another, and it was because Private HIVE had come to attack and capture him. Would Joseph even want to reconcile with him after all that?

Private HIVE noticed that Jericho had at last stopped crying, and assumed he was getting ready to confront him again. So he made his decision. He was not going to turn in his brother to die, no matter what orders he was given. It may be dishonorable to abandon a mission, but not to lose it.

He pulled off his mask so he could talk to his brother as Grant, not as Private HIVE.

"Joesph." He commanded.

Joesph looked up at him but had no other response.

Grant hesitated for a second as his face softened. "Do ... do you remember how that day ended, when we were finished weeding the garden? How Wintergreen made us trash the dandelions and you threw a fit?"

Joesph paused and then looked away, the same reaction he always had when he was embarrassed.

Grant gave a smile. This gentler approach seemed to be working. "Yeah, Wintergreen was totally shocked that you were the one misbehaving. Of course, I couldn't just let you get in trouble alone, so I went and dug through the yard waste until I found some dandelions to give to mom. Wintergreen didn't like that much either." He opened up his arms. "I've missed you, Joey."

Joesph must have missed him back, as he stood up to accept the offered embrace. It was a tender hug, with no tears or words or even eye contact. Just love for one another.

But it couldn't last.

Grant pulled away from Joesph, and for the final time had to swallow his emotions and try not to cry. He needed to be the strong older brother again, a role he now realized how much he missed. "As much as I want to, we can't reconnect here."

He saw the hurt in his brother's eyes but forced himself to continue. "There's a war going on, Joey, and somehow we ended up on opposites sides of it. We -Ican't let the Brotherhood of Evil know that we're related, all right? I don't care what you tell the Titans, but the Brotherhood can't know." He rested a hand on Joesph's shoulder and tried to give a reassuring smile. "After all this is over, I'll come find you again, I promise. You're my brother and-" A tear snuck up on him so he paused to wipe it away "-I love you."

Grant stepped back and held out his shield. "Now, defend yourself, Joey." He made sure Joesph took the shield, and then began to put his mask back on. "What happens next is that Private HIVE is defeated by Jericho, who then escapes to safety with the Titans."

And with that, Private HIVE straightened up and closed his eyes. He wanted to tell Joesph - Jericho - what to do, to make sure he gets to safety. But he couldn't be Grant again until he had separated from the Brotherhood of Evil, and to do that Joesph can't have any connection to him. So instead Private HIVE waited for Jericho to defeat him. And waited. And waited.

At last the shield struck him across the face and he collapsed.