Eaglebones startled awake with a sharp gasp, sitting upright and hunching over with a heaving chest. He spent a moment or two panting for breath while his head caught up with reality, and then his wide eyes scrunched shut in fatigue and he groaned quietly. Reaching up to rub his face, he also ended up wiping the cold sweat off his brow, pulling his ragged hair back over his shoulders.

For another minute or so, he just sat there in bed, disorientated. Waking up from a bad dream was not something that occurred often with him, so his whole body just felt confused.

With a considerable amount of effort, the guitarist lifted his head up to gaze around the room listlessly. As expected, the other three Aquabats present were still slumbering away; across the way, Ricky was turned towards the wall in soundless sleep, Crash was curled up comfortably with his bear in hand, and above him, Eaglebones caught the subtle snoring of his Commander, moaning in his sleep about a bacon-swiss sandwich, or something.

Eaglebones sighed through his nose, not entirely sure what to do with himself now. Confusion gave way to the slightest irritation when he came to the conclusion that going back to sleep wasn't an option; maybe taking a quick walk would help clear his head?

With that, he heaved himself out of bed as noiselessly as he could manage, socked feet padding across the icy cold floor. Though he tapped the glowing button carefully, all efforts to be quiet were dashed the moment the bedroom door buzzed to life and slid open for him. He recoiled and lifted his hands and almost shushed it, but a wary glance back confirmed that the others hadn't stirred one bit. He let out another deep sigh, then stepped through the portal, and it hissed closed behind him.

Eaglebones shuffled through the BattleTram's halls, still rubbing his face and neck and giving out the occasional stretch. He was sort of drifting without much rhyme or reason, but as most of the Tram was dark, he quickly noticed the soft blue light coming from Jimmy's Lab through the frosty, honeycomb-like windows.

The robot must've finished charging, and was up and working away tirelessly. Without much thought, Eaglebones gravitated towards the lab, nearly tripping over his own two feet in the process.

This time, the door opening was definitely noticed. Jimmy turned away from his chemicals briefly to behold his bandmate barely standing upright in the doorway.

"…Eaglebones?" he voiced immediate concern. "What are you doing awake so early?"

He blinked blearily, face twisting in thought before he gave out a lame shrug. "Bad dream. Can't sleep."

"Ahh, I see." Jimmy nodded in understanding, giving him a soft smile before turning back to the table. "Feel free to come in! Just mind the chemicals."

Comforted by the invitation, Eaglebones strolled in as nonchalantly as he could manage while partially awake. He settled on a stool opposite of Jimmy, leaned over the table and looking over the various vials and tubes and Petri dishes scattered across the otherwise pristine surface.

"Whatchu workin' on, Jimmy?" The robot glanced up quickly as if not expecting conversation. But a warm smile showed that it was welcomed.

"Ah, I'm just analyzing the residue left from the beasts we fought today," he replied, his irises spinning as he scanned over the substances.

"Cool." Bones took in a deep breath, trying to induce a yawn but not quite getting there, and he sighed in small exasperation. "Need any help?"

"No, I think I have everything handled, but thank you."

"Alright."

A weighty silence fell over them as Jimmy continued to bustle with his equipment and catalogue notes internally. He found himself pausing occasionally to glimpse at Eaglebones, whose own blank gaze drifted off in attempts of deep thought.

"…so! A bad dream, you say?" The guitarist shook his head and glanced up as the robot adjusted his microscope while engaging conversation again. "Hah, it's strange, usually Crash is the one to visit me in the early hours for that very reason."

Bones threw out a cocked grin, not surprised by that at all. "Not me, though, huh?"

"No, both you and Ricky tend to have the best quality sleep out of the entire team, I've noticed." As he leaned over to peek at his specimen through the microscope, he continued, "Might I ask what the dream was about? If you can recall it at all?"

Eaglebones grunted, rubbing his temple numbly as he was finally prompted to contemplate it. Jimmy took his composure as annoyed, and quickly added, "You don't have to answer, of course, I was just curious."

"Nah, no, I'm just… tryin' to remember it." He pursed his lips in concentration, shutting his eyes and trying to bring some kind of visualization forward.

"…nnn I don't—oh. I remember I was running." As it was coming back to him again, he stared off at nothing and gestured aimlessly with his hands as he continued. "For a long time too, because I was panting and sweating. Then I—tripped, I tripped and hit the ground pretty hard… I was dizzy, right, but I look up, and, the BattleTram's right in front of me all the sudden!"

The only sign that Jimmy was listening was an irregular pause in the turning of the side dials, but he didn't interrupt and went unnoticed as Eaglebones was caught up in his recounting. "And like, it's the same size still but it feels bigger, I don't know how that even works but—anyways I was collapsed on the ground on the side of the Tram, right in front of the door… and it opens, and, th-there you guys are, standing in the doorway, looking down at me with like… no emotion at all….."

Jimmy glanced up, now fully focused and growing worried as his friend's voice wavered and hands began to tremble, but he still said nothing. "I-I don't know, maybe you guys were sad or something, I honestly couldn't tell, but I just did what made sense and I reached out for you but, but the more I reached out the farther you got away, I-I don't know…!"

"…Eaglebones?"

"—and I noticed the door was starting to swing close, like, really slowly, but still like, I, and I couldn't get up because everything in me felt like lead so I just started crawling I had to reach you guys before it was too late-!"

"Eaglebones…!"

"—and I got pretty close but it was too late and right before the door shut I looked up and I swear I saw fire, inside the tram, and then the door slammed shut and-!"

"Eaglebones!" He froze, holding his breath at his friend's suddenly commanding tone. He blinked back into reality to find Jimmy standing before him, his metal hands grasping at his arms as if he was about to shake some sense back into him.

Remembering himself, he deflated, and finished with "…and then I woke up."

Pulling back in relief, Jimmy gave out a sympathetic chuckle. "Well! …that's certainly a jarring mental image. No surprise at all that it awakened you."

"But it…" Bones, not remembering standing up, plopped back down on his stool, flabbergasted. "It doesn't make any sense, Jimmy!"

"You're right, it doesn't," the robot agreed, moving back to the other side of the table. "If ever there was a fire inside the BattleTram, the sprinkler system would've immediately been triggered."

Jimmy didn't understand what about that statement was so funny as to leave Eaglebones doubling over the table with burbling laughter, but he smiled politely, glad to have lightened the mood either way.

"In all seriousness…" Once his friend had recovered he continued, cleaning his lap equipment with an old rag. "I've read that dreams don't very often make a lot of sense. They usually reflect the subconscious in an abstract fashion. Hopes, desires, fears…"

As he opened a drawer and slid his tools away, his metallic blue gaze came up to meet his teammate's. "Perhaps you have an underlying fear of disappointing us? Of failing us? Of… losing us, even?"

Quietly aghast, Eaglebones' eyes wandered downwards, and he swallowed hard. "W-well… I mean, ha, duh, right?" He forced out a wide, crooked grin uneasily, which quickly crumbled. "It's not like… you guys don't mean a whole lot to me or anything, I just…"

A strong, yet gentle robotic hand reached across the table to rest on his shoulder, assuring him that he needn't say anything more. Almost shamefully, he dragged his gaze up to meet Jimmy's. "It's alright, Eaglebones, you needn't worry. As long as you continue to fight at one-hundred percent—which clearly you have no trouble doing—" He returned Bones' comforted smile. "—then you'll do just fine. And we all give you the same support in return."

His hand patted at the shoulder, and Eaglebones brought his own hand up to clench it tight in camaraderie. "We're a family. We're all in this together. Don't ever forget that."

"Yeah… yeah. You're right."

Jimmy beamed, finally pulling back and returning to his studies. Eaglebones lingered a little while longer before, at last, he let out a huge, relieving yawn. At the end he smacked his lips, rubbed his eyes, and said, "I'm… gonna try and get back to sleep."

"Good plan," Jimmy agreed, inspecting his other samples at another table. "We have a big performance tomorrow, after all."

"Agh, right, shoot, yeah." The exhausted guitarist moved to get up, but his body was currently protesting any movement. And frankly, he didn't want to fight over it. "I'll just…yeah… sle…ep."

When the robot turned away from the table with tubes in hand, he found his friend leaned over, snoring into the crook of his elbow. With an endearing smile, Jimmy set aside his work to take a now peacefully slumbering Eaglebones into his arms and carry him off to bed.