Tyson awoke in a dark, cold cave, lying face down on the ground. It wasn't a pleasant feeling; it was a damp dirt surface that was very compacted and hard. Small bits of rock were digging into his skin, leaving behind small twinges of pain that were enough to make Tyson wince. Grunting, he pushed his hands against the ground and managed to push his body up, although he found that very hard to do. As soon as he was up on his knees, pieces of gravel fell off of his body, landing on the cold, hard ground around his body. His eyes were tired, and his eyelids felt heavy. Now that he was sitting up, Tyson could feel patches of dried dirt covering his arms and face. It was a gross, unpleasant feeling. Desperately, he looked around for Hilary, trying to fight the overwhelming feeling that something bad had happened to his wife. He was nowhere to be seen, however. Tyson tried to call her name, but discovered that he could not find his voice. Try as he may, Tyson could not get a single sound out of his throat. It was easily one of the most frustrating things he'd ever dealt with.
"Daddy…"
That small voice caused Tyson's heart to shoot all the way into his throat. He quickly turned around, and found Tyra to be huddled up by the wall. The little girl looked so pitiful and worn down. She was in an even worse state than her father. Her body and face were also covered in dry dirt, but that same muck was also clumped into her normally bright chocolate hair, which was now matted and tangled. Her clothes were ripped and she was visibly shaking. She looked cold and scared. The little girl's auburn eyes were unusually dull, so much so that they looked nearly black, especially in the darkness of the mysterious cave.
Still being unable to speak, Tyson crawled towards the girl and threw her a comforting look, hoping that would calm her down. It did seem to, as the child's face visibly relaxed and she stopped shaking. This caused Tyson to smile. He was happy that he was able to help his daughter without even talking.
But as soon as Tyson came within a close enough distance of Tyra, the cold ground beneath her began to break apart. It started with a small crack by her feet, which went unnoticed by either Tyson or Tyra. But soon that crack grew, and it branched off into even longer cracks. That's when Tyson noticed the ground coming apart. Fearing for Tyra's safety, he reached out to grab the girl, but as soon as his arms flung forward, the ground beneath her gave out completely.
Tyra shrieked as she fell into darkness, slipping right out of Tyson's grasp. His eyes widening, Tyson jumped into the endless hole, not even thinking before taking that action. He watched in horror as Tyra fell away from him more quickly, soon creating a large enough distance where he couldn't reach her at all.
Tyson tried his hardest to push himself forward, to get closer to Tyra and grab her. He finally did get within several inches of the terrified child and threw a hand out, his last attempt at saving her. She reached out with her own small hand, and Tyson managed to grab it. With the darkness surrounding them, however, Tyson was unable to see a misplaced branch sticking out from who knows where, and he slammed into it on his stomach. The brunt force of the impact caused his hand to involuntarily open, and Tyra ended up slipping out of his grasp with a final, heart piercing cry of, "DADDY!"
"TYRA!" Tyson finally found his voice, screaming at the top of his lungs as he threw himself over the branch. He was soon free falling again, still screaming Tyra's name as his body soared through the air. But it was too late. Tyra had fallen too far for him to see. Tyson had failed.
But he kept screaming Tyra's name, over and over and over again, hoping that somehow she'd be able to hear him. He needed her to…he needed his baby to fight…
"TYRA! TYRA!"
"AH!"
The man snapped up in his bed, eyes wide and breathing erratic as sweat rolled down the back of his neck. From beside him, another figure stirred and sat up, staring at the startled man with a look of concern.
"Tyson…are you alright?"
The Beyblade Champion was still panting, practically wilting over as he tried to regain his breath. He felt like he had just taken a long run in the middle of desert without any water. Frowning, the woman next to him leaned over and began to rub the man's back, whispering quiet, soothing words to him. Finally, his breathing calmed down and his eyes managed to close, although the sweat was still clambering down his skin.
"What happened?" She whispered, her breath ghosting into his ear.
"I just…had a bad dream, that's all," Tyson sighed, rubbing at his eyes with the heels of his palms.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Hilary asked.
Tyson said nothing in response, but only shook his head. Removing his hands from his eyes, Tyson began to look around the room, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the night. It wasn't as dark as the cave in his dream, but it was still enough to send his heart racing. Looking over his shoulder, Tyson glanced at his pillow and gasped when he realized there was nothing there.
Whipping his head back around, Tyson stared at the end of the bed. Nothing. There was nothing there.
"Tyson?" Hilary questioned softly.
"Harry…" Tyson murmured, "WH-where's Harry?"
"I don't know…"
"H-he came to bed with us," Tyson muttered. "I placed him right between us."
"I know that, but-"
Tyson jumped out of bed and ran straight out of the room. Hilary furrowed her brow in confusion, but decided it might not be the best idea to follow after him. Tyson tended to have a lot of nightmares, but he never wanted to talk about them. Hilary desperately wanted to know what they were about, and where they stemmed from, but she didn't want to upset Tyson any further. Every time he woke up from one of those brooding nightmares, he was always startled and frustrated and sometimes even angry. Hilary knew that when her husband got like that, it was usually better to leave him alone and let him figure everything out by himself. If it became too serious, though, Hilary would help the young man. She'd do anything, in fact.
Outside in the hallway, Tyson was looking into every room, behind every door, and in every corner. He was completely frantic. The Beyblade Champion knew his son had to be around there somewhere. He couldn't have gotten that far! But he couldn't yell in the middle of the night.
Finally, Tyson reached Tyra's room, and he began to feel his heart slowly inch up into his throat again. The vivid memories of the nightmare were crawling back into his head, and that was something Tyson didn't want. Biting his lip, the man opened up the white door and set his eyes on the white wooden framed bed in the far corner of the room.
Sleeping in the bed was Tyra, her eyes closed and body slowly moving up and down with her gentle breaths. Most of her was hidden beneath her aqua blue comforter, printed with white petaled flowers that contained pink, green, orange, and yellow centers, but she had one arm on top of the comforter, rather than beneath it. This small, slender arm was wrapped around protectively against Tyson's object of search. The little boy was cocooned in his sister's arms, breathing delicately and not moving an inch, sleeping peacefully just like the girl who was holding onto him.
"Tyra…Harry…" Tyson whispered to no one but himself. "How did he get here?"
He walked slowly into the room, as if he was being drawn in by a magnet. Being as quiet as he possibly could, Tyson knelt down beside the girl's bed and gently brushed his fingers against her smooth cheek. Tyra sighed contently in her sleep and snuggled the other side of her head deeper into her yellow pillow, the corners of her lips bending up slightly to form a small but distinct enough smile.
Tyson smiled too, but his was more melancholy. He had suffered from nightmares quite frequently, ever since he was a child. When Tyson was young, most of them had to do with the absence of his father in his life. He would often crawl into Hiro's bed and in such process, those bad dreams had ended, for the most part. He would still have a few every once in a while, but he tried not to bother anyone with them. Those were mostly about Dragoon, and losing him. After he began to date Hilary, the nightmares had increased in their severity. He'd had many where he would lose Hilary due to some horrifying circumstance, and those always scared him far more than any nightmare he'd ever had about his father.
But the ones with Tyra were always the worst.
They had started after her birth, and Tyson had so feared losing her. The nightmares that centered around Tyra never failed to wake Tyson up, and usually in a very bad panic. Truth be told, he had never let Hilary know what those nightmares were about. He didn't want to scare her. Tyson knew it, but his subconscious apparently didn't.
He consulted a shrink about those dreams, only because he didn't understand why they always happened and why they were always so terrifying. Of course, he would never outwardly think of losing Hilary, Harry or Tyra, but those were three of his biggest fears, and they were stuck in the back of his mind. So, when he fell asleep and could no longer control what he was thinking, those fears could sometimes have a habit of sneaking up on him and coming out through his dreams.
It was a scary thought, but Tyson knew it made sense. Basically, he just worried too much.
"I just get nervous sometimes, that's all," Tyson whispered, resting the side of his head on Tyra's bed so he could stare at both her and Harry. "I love you all so much. I don't want anything to happen to you two."
In her sleep, Tyra frowned. Tyson furrowed his brow. He wondered now if Tyra was having a bad dream. It was entirely possible.
Picking his head off the bed, Tyson instead chose to crawl onto it and inch his way over to the end of the bed that was against the wall. Lying down on his side, Tyson pulled Tyra into his body and hugged her tightly, resting a hand on top of Harry's soft hair. He buried his nose into her hair and held her close, listening to the sounds of their soft, gentle breathing.
"I know you guys are okay," Tyson murmured, resting his own head on Tyra's pillow now as he closed his eyes. "But that doesn't mean I want to leave either of you."
