Hey, guys! Well, I'm playing a major game of catch up with these themes. Anyway, here's theme twenty-six. I figured I'd do some family fluff since the last theme was dark. However, the first section of this chapter includes injury to a child and child death; just a warning to those who find this kind of content uncomfortable. Anyway, read and enjoy.

"My nightmares are usually about

losing you."

-Peeta Mellark from Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

XXVI.

"Daddy!" Ben cried in fear, squirming against the strong hand that held both of his arms behind his back with a bruising grip.

"Stop squirming, you little brat!" the masked man holding Ben demanded, backhanding the boy across the face.

"Don't you dare touch him!" Seto roared, keeping his gun trained on the man holding his son captive.

The only thing that kept Seto from firing several rounds into his son's captor was the danger of shooting Ben by mistake. Seto was an excellent marksman, and he doubted that he'd miss his target, but he didn't want to take any chances. But the more he watched his son struggle, the stronger his urge to shoot became. The bruises on the boy's face and the rope burns visible on his upper arms made it obvious that the boy had been treated rather poorly during his weeklong captivity.

"Daddy, I'm scared! I want to go home!" the boy cried. Blood fell from his lip that had split open from his captor's ring when the brute backhanded him. Despite the boy's obvious fear, he continued to struggle.

"It's okay, Ben. I'm here to take you home."

"Not so fast, Mr. Kaiba. I believe you owe us something in exchange for your son's safe return."

"I'll give you what you want as soon as you release my son," the brunet growled, gripping his gun tighter.

"That's not how it works, Mr. Kaiba."

"You're lucky I'm giving you anything at all after the way you treated my child."

"No, you're lucky we've decided to return him to you. We could've sold him off to someone, I'm sure plenty of people would pay a hefty price for the son of one of the world's richest CEOs." The man paused to pull a pocket knife out of his jacket and press it close to Ben's throat, causing the still struggling boy to freeze.

"Don't!" Seto demanded, though it came out as more of a plea.

"I'm really starting to lose my patience, Mr. Kaiba. Give us what we asked for or I'll slit his throat while you watch." The man's threat made Ben whimper in fear.

When the CEO didn't respond immediately, the man pressed the blade even closer to the boy's neck, threatening to break skin and causing the boy's lip to tremble.

"Okay!" the brunet called out in desperation. He held on to the gun in one hand and used the other to dig into his pocket for the zip drive. The zip drive that held all of KaibaCorp's account information. The zip drive that would ruin him and his company. When he came to rescue Ben, he had no intention of turning over the zip drive to his son's captors. He had planning on double crossing the kidnappers, but seeing his son with a knife pressed close enough to his neck to nick the skin, that plan was no longer an option. He was just about to toss the zip drive to the kidnappers when there was a loud bang outside.

"Police! We have the place surrounded!"

"We said no police," his son captor said darkly, his eyes narrowing to angry slits.

"No, I didn't call them-," Seto vowed in attempt to stop his son's captor from doing what he feared was about to happen.

"You broke our deal," the man replied. That was the only warning Seto got. In the next instant, the man was dragging the blade across Ben's throat.

"Ben!"

xxx

Seto bolted upright, chest heaving and choking on tears. He clasped his hand over his mouth to prevent waking Alissa as his breathing returned to normal. Once his breathing returned to normal, he slipped out of bed to check on his son. He knew that his son was okay; he had been the one to put him to bed a few hours prior, but he needed to see it for himself to ease the ache in his chest. Upon reaching the young boy's room, he was alarmed to find the bed empty. His heart started to hammer in his chest. Ben had to be okay. He had to be. Maybe he was in the bathroom…but no, Seto had walked past the bathroom on his way to his son's room and it was empty. The brunet's breaths started coming out in heavy pants. He had to find Ben. He had to find Ben. He had to-.

"Daddy?"

The CEO spun around upon hearing his son's voice and found the boy standing at his feet, holding a glass of water with one hand and sleepily rubbing at his eyes with the other.

"Ben," the brunet gasped out in relief, kneeling down and grabbing onto his son's shoulders. "You're supposed to be in bed!"

"I was thirsty," the boy replied with a yawn.

The CEO swallowed around the lump in his throat and nodded. "Yes, of course." Without another word, he wrapped his arms around his son and pulled him into his chest for a tight hug.

"Uh, Daddy? What's wrong?" Ben asked, wrapping his tiny arms around his father's neck to return the hug.

"Nothing, Ben. Nothing's wrong," the brunet reassured.

"Did you have a bad dream?" the boy asked, pulling himself out of his father's grip a little so he could see his face.

"Yes," he answered honestly.

"It's okay, Daddy. It was just a nightmare," the young boy comforted, hugging his father again and patting the brunet soothingly on the back.

"I know, Ben. It was just a nightmare," the CEO repeated. And thank God that's all it was.

Well, there's the twenty-sixth theme. Seto was probably a little OOC, but one of my major head canons is that Seto really softens up through the years, especially in the years after he has children. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this theme. Themes twenty-seven through thirty should be up periodically throughout the day tomorrow. Thanks for reading and I'll talk to you guys soon!