EDIH

8: One Reason

"I love you."

Tyson felt himself straining to crane his neck to look at his attacker once more. He was a young man with long white hair and black eyes with too pale skin. Erebus, he thought with a jolt. Tyson then glared before he began to speak, even as his life began to fade away.

"I'll . . . always . . . hate you."

Then his world turned black and he woke up screaming. The first thing he did was touch his neck and almost cried in relief when he didn't feel any blood or gash. He heard footsteps and Ray came into his room, followed closely by Tala and Rick, "Tyson, what happened?"

"Erebus killed me." Tyson whispered, remembering his pain, fear, disgust and desperation. They weren't his emotions but that just made it scarier to him because someone had experienced that.

"What?" Rick asked before Ray sat down in his bed. He could see his friend looking at him and he wondered if the fear from his dream was visible. Ray sighed, "You're not dead, Tyson. You're still here."

"Yeah," Tyson nodded, "I'm still here."

Ray nodded before grabbing his hand, "What did you see?"

"I was someone else, someone running in a forest I didn't recognize. It was during World War II and Erebus was chasing me. He caught up with me and he slit my throat and I died in his arms. I felt myself die-."

"It wasn't you, Tyson."

"But it was someone, Ray. Someone was killed in that horrible way." Tyson said, touching his neck in remembrance. He gulped, "Why was he killed in that way after suffering through so much?"

"We can think about that later," Tala said, much more gentler than he usually spoke. Perhaps he was still mellow over the events of today. He started to leave, "Third woke up. She wants to talk to us."

"Okay. I'm on my way." Tyson said, leaving the comfort of his bed and following the three males out of his room to go into the dojo. It had become the home of so many of them ever since Eden's Rapture's attack in Australia.

Third was looking less like the corpse she had appeared to be about three days ago. She had regained some color and looked like her usual self. She was dressed in a simple black dress with long sleeves and cut off at her ankles. She was beautiful, even in this weakened state of hers.

"Hello, Third." Tyson greeted. She offered him a smile before patting the seat next to her. Ray groaned and sat next to her and she practically beamed, Riku laughing softly next to her.

She wasn't trying to play favorites but Tyson knew that, out of all the Elders, Third viewed the beasts she created as her children. The tamers of her children were, by extension, her grandchildren and her favorite child had been Byakko, who had split and become Driger and Dark Driger, the holy beasts of Ray and Riku. It wasn't a shock to see her being so close to Ray and Riku.

"Hi, Tyson." She turned serious, "My condolences over Kai. If things hadn't happened the way they did, he and you would be cuddling somewhere obnoxiously, making a lot of people jealous."

Tyson touched his neck, "It's okay, Third. It wasn't your fault. It was Erebus's. That's something we can all agree on."

Max nodded, "What is it that you wanted to tell us?"

"Since the ancient rules of Elder neutrality are being overruled, I'll stop being cryptic and tell you guys everything straight up. To cut to the chase, shit hit the fan when Yggdrasil began to wilt." Third answered honestly.

"Yggdrasil is wilting?!" Max gasped out and they all felt the distress of their beasts at the news. Max ran a hand through his hair, "That isn't good. Without Yggdrasil, the worlds will die and so will the Elders. Nothing will survive."