"Well maybe he doesn't want to come back to your crappy prison where god knows what goes on!" Nate continued, raising his voice even higher. "And maybe I don't want to go back to a life of sleeping around and playing a character no one likes in a dying TV show!"

"You think here is any better than there!?" Mello asked. "Let me guess, Matt told you what this place is all about, didn't he!"

Mello glared at the redhead and Matt flinched.

"No!" Nate shrieked. "That's my point! He wont say and neither will you and I want to know what the hell I'd be condemning that kid back to if I help you bring him home!"

He sucked in a deep breath and calmed himself.

"Because god knows if it is anything like my childhood, I'd rather he stay there..."

"You don't think we care too?" Mello asked. "We know Near can take care of himself here."

"That's not true." Matt mumbled- making Mello look at him in shock. "...We know Near can take care of us here."

"I want to know what is going on," Nate informed, shooting them both a cold look. "I think I deserve the right to choose if I want to go back home and when you tell me the truth, its going to be a deciding factor. Now does someone want to give me a little honesty?"

Mello crossed his arms and looked away stubbornly. Matt took a breath.

"...I only left out specifics...I don't think it's hard to figure out." Matt said before crawling over to Mello reaching for him.

"Don't touch me!" Mello hissed- moving back.

"...He pretty much wants us to spell it out." Matt said firmly.

"Leave me out of it." Mello muttered.

"Psh, it's not obvious," Nate groaned. "Right now it looks like you get beaten and that can't be it, I mean... Mello's first right now, right? Why would they do that? And L wouldn't let that happen, I mean, he's a decent guy... so I want to know what's really going... on..." He frowned.

"I've been assigned the task of getting Near back." Mello said- not looking at Nate. "They didn't say I was first."

"L's in Japan." Matt told Nate. "He is decent enough...from what I've seen of him...he does this justice thing as a hobby, but we're more than just some successor investment, but they don't really let us see him and not when we're not being...monitored."

"It's because of that BB thing." Mello sighed. "So they got it all set up so that L has little to no contact with us to avoid it...but that L wasn't around when we might've needed him."

"...Neither of you are denying it," Nate whimpered, slowly. "...Why aren't you denying that's what it is? Why aren't you telling me I'm wrong...?"

Matt looked up at Nate- his face pained and concerned. Mello snorted and shook his head.

"...Now maybe you have a little bit of an understanding about how Near feels on a regular basis." Mello said. "It sucks when your right all the time."

Nate's pained expression went blank and he looked away. "If I... hadn't saved L, then Near would be in charge and this... would have stopped..."

"No it wouldn't have!" Matt said quickly. "And...and with L alive, there's more hope now...now we don't have to worry about it getting any worse...Mels doesn't escape to the mafia...I'm not dying and Near...Near doesn't have to be L...L's a victim too! Since he was a little boy!"

Nate looked surprised now, looking between the two of them. "Then why hasn't he stopped this? I thought he was in charge of this place!"

"Think about it Nate, just think..." Mello leaned forward a little. "Your whole life, since you were little, everyone's put you in this position, you've been treated like this to whole time with everyone telling you what to do and how to do it...every moment of every day."

"Nate...what would you be like if it were you?" Matt asked.

"...Probably an antisocial kid with asphies," Nate sighed, his shoulders slumping. "I... I can't bring Near back to this... I can't do that to him. I... I can't..."

The other boys fell silent before Mello spoke up.

"...Near believed...that one was worth saving many." Mello said slowly. "So he made a sacrifice...and since he didn't disappoint, he didn't have to worry and everyone else was safe."

"...Near's our friend." Matt told Nate. "Even if it's bad...we still want him back."