Disclaim: Me? Own Speed Racer: The Next Generation? You're funny.

Author's Note: When we last left young Speed Jr. he was in a car crash. I know what you're thinking, Speed Racer Jr. is a DRIVING GENIUS!!! HOW COULD HE FALL ASLEEP WHILE DRIVING??????? Well, even driving geniuses need their sleep.


I shot up like a rocket.

I had the nightmare again.

This time I fell asleep when I was driving.

"Good. You're awake."

"X?"

"Yeah."

"Where am I?"

"Your garage."

"Where's the Mach 6?"

"Outside, Connor's in the driver's seat. Dad's in the Shooting Star, and Lucy and Spritle are guarding the exits."

"Why?"

"Because I know my brother. Now, are you going to tell me why you've been depriving yourself of sleep? Because it's starting to affect your driving."

"Was anybody hurt?"

"No. You and I were the only ones in the crash. If I wasn't there, you would have hit a tree, and you would've died. I don't want to see you get hurt, Speed."I didn't want to see X get hurt either. I decided to make a break for it. X grabbed me before I even made it to the door.

"Told you. Now tell me why you're doing this to yourself." He let me go, but I didn't notice. X has a way of staring at you until he gets what he wants.

I sat down and pulled my knees to my chest, and, feeling a bit deflated, said, "You. Dad. Mom. Spritle. Connor. Lucy. Even Sparky. Every time I go to sleep, I have this dream, this nightmare, where you're all dead. And I'm not. I'm just sitting there. Alone."

"Every time? That must get annoying."

"It's not just annoying, X. It's torture. I know that it's going to happen eventually. Nobody lives forever. They say dreams come true. Whoever 'They' are left out the part about nightmares. It all started when I was 2. At least I think it did, because that's as far back as I can remember. I would be walking through a graveyard, and in the center of that graveyard would be a small hill. At the top, there would be two tombstones. No names, at the time, they were just marked 'mom' and 'dad'. After my first day here at the Academy, Connor and Lucy's graves were there, too. Then the day we found out we were brothers, you and Spritle were added to the mix, and mom and dad's names were on their graves, for the first time. And now even Sparky's name is there. I've tried to make myself wake up. I've tried so many times..." I might have been crying, I don't remember.

"It's okay, Speed. I would hate to have to see that, too."

"I don't hate it, necessarily. I hate the fact that they didn't write down how great all of you were. I fear that you're all going to die. I'm afraid that I'll be left alone, sitting there. With nothing that I could do to help. And no one to turn to. I would just sit there, until the rain fell, and woke me up from that nightmare."

"Speed... I..." For once, X didn't know what to say. But he did know what to do. Without warning, we shared a brotherly hug. I couldn't believe it. We were teenage boys. Long-lost-brothers or not, teenage boys don't hug.

"I will always be there for you, Speed. Even if I'm... dead, because I'll live on in your heart."

"You got that last part from a movie." I said as we broke it up.

"What? I care about you, but I am NOT a sap."

"Yeah, right."

"Whether you're a sap or not, you're right." My dad said as he entered the garage.

"Yeah." Connor walked across the garage and opened the door. Lucy and Spritle fell out.

"What?" Spritle said defensively.

"We were worried." Lucy added.

"Heh, heh. How much did you guys hear?"

"All of it. And I must say that I am not surprised you like the rain so much. If it wasn't for the rain, I don't know if you'd still be here." My dad said.

"What do you mean?"

"When you were born, Captain Terror broke into the house and tried to nab you. Trixie and I split up to give them a bunch of targets. She took X and I took you. I wasn't any more than five miles down the road when it started to rain. I immeadiatly closed the cockpit and activated the belt tires. Those other cars didn't have belt tires, so they crashed. Since then, there hasn't been a day that went by without me thanking the Lord for the rain."

As soon as dad said the word, 'rain', as if on que, the clouds broke. It started to rain.

That night, I slept without my worst fear haunting me for the first time in over a week. I never had it again.


Author's note: So, what d'ya think??? Please review.