It was that dream again. She was running; running as fast as her legs would take her. She could barely breathe, and felt as if her lungs would burst. MJ looked behind her; that black figure still followed her.

Finally, she tripped, and instantly turned over to lie on her back. In horror, she saw the figure rising what she could guess was its hand, ready to strike her…and yet again, time seemed to stop as she suddenly saw all seven of her friends in their majestic form she saw before…only this time, she saw something different. Instead of looking like king and queens….they were king and queens. She looked at each of them in awe—until her eyes met Shani's. MJ could only stare at them as they looked into hers. MJ could see the hurt, the feeling of being betrayed in her eyes, and wished that she could hug her friend…but, even though she didn't know who made Shani feel this way, she could guess. It was her. It was her who made Shani feel this way. It was her who betrayed them. It was her who hurt them!

Tears filled MJ's eyes as her mind screamed, What did I do! I didn't do anything! Why is this happening!

Time resumed, and the figure gave no mercy. In an instant, MJ could see a dagger form inside its hand. Then, without warning, the figure plunged it at her…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" MJ screamed as she instantly sat up, her fur damp with sweat.

"MJ!" came Shadow's voice as the black hedgehog peeked around the corner; his eyes showed that he was concerned. "What's wrong?"

"I…I…" MJ felt around a bit, making sure that everything was real, and sure enough, everything was.

"Had a bad dream?" it was that ivory bat, who was standing behind Shadow.

MJ looked at Rouge, surprised. "How did you know?"

"Shadow had one, too."

MJ immediately turned to see that Shadow was looking at the ground. "Wh-what was it about?"

Rouge sauntered inside the room. "Oh…just about you…" she said, giving her famous smile.

MJ looked at Shadow again, shocked. She couldn't help herself but ask, "What about me?" even though she already knew what had happened to her in Shadow's nightmare.

MJ could barely hear Shadow's response as he muttered, "You died."

For a split second MJ thought she was going to faint. She looked over at Rouge, who was trying to find something of particular interest. Obviously, she wasn't too ecstatic about dreams.

"I died? How!" MJ's voice started to get more demanding as she got more and more frightened.

No one replied.

MJ looked at Shadow, and curled up into a little ball. She didn't want to die! She didn't want to die! MJ could actually feel fear consume her entire being as her mind kept yelling, I don't want to die! I don't want to die!

Rouge finally looked at the seal and said, "….It's just a dream, anyway. Not like it will actually happen."

MJ looked at Rouge, and shook her head; her eyes were wide open. "No…" she murmured, "…It wasn't just a dream…I had it, too."

At that instant, Shadow looked up at MJ for the first time that day. Rouge looked like she had seen an elephant walk across on tight-rope-wire.

MJ looked down, and started rocking back and forth, regretting that she told them.

Rouge looked at Shadow, then back at MJ. "Well," she said, trying to cheer up the matter, "I think we should start heading to ARK."

No one answered. Both Shadow and MJ just stared at Rouge as she gave an encouraging smile. When that didn't work, she said, "It won't do any good just moping about it. Come on; let's get it off our minds."

Shadow and MJ glanced at each other before nodding.

Rouge smiled. "Come on, I'll show you where the trasnporter is!"

…………

"Wow! What a spaceship!" Shani exclaimed, clearly fascinated by all the bright flashing buttons.

Tails looked down into his TORNADO and saw the single chaos emerald they had. He sighed. The enemy had the others...and they were probably after him for this one! The fox instantly felt a great weight on his shoulders.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up, hoping to see Sonic…but instead he saw Jet.

"Tails…I have to say. You're lucky," Jet informed.

Tails looked up at Jet as the brown animal debated whether or not she should tell him.

"How?" he asked.

"Well…" she hesitated, and made her choice. "If we weren't here, then….then Eggman would have been chasing you a long time ago…for the chaos emerald."

Tails looked at the jewel in his hands and nodded. "They're probably wanting it right now…"

Jet agreed. "I bet they are."

"I'm getting impatient!" Lee announced. "Sonic should've been here by now!"

"Just wait," Jet commanded, and Lee didn't argue. "He'll be here soon enough."

A while had passed, and Maya Eva and Shani were discussing the buttons, Krystal was sitting in an awkward position in her chair, fiddling with her fingers, Tails was staring at the chaos emerald while Jet stood above him, watching the digital clock in the ship, Lee had his chin propped up on his elbows as he sat beside Knuckles who was tapping his fingers on the metal control board, and Tia, Darkness, and Amy were playing down-by-the-banks without the singing.

"That's it!" Lee stood up, turning to Jet. "He's not coming! Even you have to admit!"

Jet hesitated, and then nodded.

Tails was worried. "We need to send somebody to help him—and quick! He could be in huge danger by now!"

At once, a million voices suggested to go, but Jet shushed them all…except for one.

"Please let me go, Jet. PLEASE?" Jet turned to see the pleading look on Shani's face.

Jet studied her a moment, and then nodded. "Shani will go," she replied.

"YES!" Shani jumped up to her feet, ready to take off.

"SHANI, WAIT!" Jet stopped the light blue hedgehog before she exited the ship.

"Be careful," she said.

Shani nodded and gave a thumb up. But, just before she could take another step, someone else called out.

"SHANI!" it was Maya Eva.

"What?" the light blue hedgehog looked over to see her best friend say, "Remember how I told you that next time you'd win?"

Shani nodded.

"Well…I think that this is the time," the teal echidna looked at her friend with the biggest faith in the world.

Shani smiled, and replied, "I won't let you down, Maya Eva!"

"SHANI!" it was Knuckles.

"What?" Shani asked, a little irritated.

"This is bad…really bad…" Lee muttered.

Shani's heart fell as she asked, "What's bad?"

"The ship has taken an automatic lift-off countdown!" Knuckles announced.

"WHAT!" everyone exclaimed simultaneously.

"It will launch in 1 hour—whether we like it or not!" Lee added.

Shani took a quick glance at Maya Eva, and said, "I think this IS the time!"

"You can win! I KNOW YOU CAN!" Shani heard her friend shout as she ran out of the spaceship.

The light blue hedgehog racked her brain to remember how Sonic defeated the Egg Golem. She remembered the steps on his back, and the bright buttons on the last three steps…For a minute, Shani tried to think of how pretty the buttons were on the game. She shook her head. Come on, Bridget! Focus! She thought, and continued running.

Finally, she reached the room where the Egg Golem was standing still, looking for its opponent. Shani stopped and looked around. Where was Sonic? She looked down. The quicksand! Without thinking, the light blue hedgehog jumped off the platform and reached the sand.

"Oh!" she complained, having to keep jumping to stay up. "Sonic!" she yelled. "Sonic, where—" Shani gasped. She saw the gloved fingers slowly sinking into the sand.

"No!" She yelled, and hopped with one foot at a time towards the last spot she saw his hand. He probably can't breathe! Shani panicked.

Instantly, she dug her hands in the sand, and reached around. When her arms bumped into a solid object, she heaved with all her might to pull it up—but it was no use. She was sinking, too.

"HELP!" Shani screamed, trying in vain to pull the suffocating blue hedgehog up out of the sand. I have to win! I just HAVE to! Rachel knows I can—and so does everyone else!

Flashback

"Don't worry, next time you'll win! I know you will!"

End Flashback

With gritted teeth, Shani heaved again. Suddenly, her mind clicked—and just in time; the sand was up to her waist. With a deep breath, Shani ran as fast as she could, and before she knew it, she was making the sand around her fly away. With that in mind for encouragement, the hedgehog ran harder. As little beads of sweat crawled down her forehead, she looked around for the handle to haul them up to the platforms. Finally, she found it, and once her legs were free, she ran toward it, still dragging the unconscious Sonic. With the last ounce of her strength, Shani tugged on the handle, and sure enough, it carried them up to the platforms, where Shani literally just plopped off, exhausted.

After panting a few breaths, she could hear Sonic choking. Finally, she sat up, thankful that the Egg Golem had not seen them yet.

"Sonic?" she called.

The blue hedgehog opened his eyes, coughing, "Shani? Why aren't you on the spaceship?"

"I came to get you! We were worried," Shani explained as the blue hedgehog sat up.

"Thanks. You did a great job. But now," Sonic stood up, "I've got a rock to get back at!"

Shani smiled, and then watched as Sonic hopped up the platforms on the giant statue's back until he reached the last three. Then, he did a homing-attack on all three buttons and finally did a final homing-attack on the monster's head.

The Egg Golem cracked with electricity as it finally bent down and toppled over, defeated.

"Wow…did you already do that a few times?" Shani inquired, staring at the heap of rock.

Sonic nodded. "Yep, but that last time, I got stuck."

Shani gave an 'o' expression. Something then caught her eye. It was a clock. On it, it read: 2:55. Shani gasped. They only had five minutes left before the shuttle took off!

"Sonic! We have to get to the spaceship! It will take off with or without us in five minutes!" she exclaimed.

"WHAT! We better get outta here!" With that said, Sonic scooped up the light blue hedgehog in his arms, and made a dash for the exit.

Shani, surprised that Sonic had picked her up, couldn't help it but cling to the closest thing she could find: his neck.

"Shani…you're choking me…" Sonic muttered, still running.

"Oh…sorry," the light blue hedgehog loosened her grip, but still had her arms around him.

……….

"They've only got 3 minutes left!" Knuckles announced.

"Sonic!" Amy whined.

"You think they'll make it?" Krystal asked.

Maya Eva turned to Krystal. "I have no doubt that they'll make it."

And sure enough, they heard a resounding BOOM that knocked them off their feet.

"Was that…?" Knuckles didn't finish.

Krystal finished for him. "A sonic boom!"

Everyone's hearts filled with joy as they gathered around to await their friends' arrival. Little did they know that the countdown was still ticking one minute left…

…….

Shani couldn't speak. Her ears were ringing from the sonic boom that they made.

"Hold on, Shani! Here comes another one!" Sonic warned.

"Oh no…" Shani braced herself as they rammed through their sound barrier, making a loud, BOOM!

"How can you stand those?" Shani yelled, feeling as if she were deaf.

Sonic gave his famous smile, saying, "Oh, I'm used to it."

Shani mumbled something as they continued on, and glanced up. "The spaceship!" she exclaimed.

……

The group was cheering for them, urging them to hurry…but Maya Eva was the loudest. Lee happened to look behind him to see how much time they had. His heart sank.

"Guys…" he croaked.

Everyone looked at him, wondering why he wasn't excited. Darkness got the message. "What's wrong?" she asked, knowing the answer.

"We're taking o—" at that instant, the ship started to rumble, and everyone fell on their bottoms.

"SHANI!" Maya Eva yelled, struggled to get up, but when she did, she only fell down again.

"We've got to get buckled in the seats!" Knuckles shouted.

Everyone hustled over to a chair and buckled themselves in….everyone except Maya Eva.

"Eva, you've got to get in a chair!" Jet yelled at her, so then she could be heard over the roar.

"No! I'm not settling down unless I know that Shani is here!" Maya Eva retorted.

"Eva, come to your senses! It's ridiculous to stand and wait when you can sit and wait!" Jet yelled.

Finally, Maya Eva agreed, and sat down in the seat right in front of the door as Jet sat in a seat in front of her.

"Hold on!" Lee shouted.

Maya Eva did hold on—to her faith that Shani and Sonic would make it. Her hot pink eyes watched the open doorway, until finally, she could make out the faintest blue spot….

"SONIC! SHANI!" Maya Eva yelled excitedly as they brushed past her—just as the shuttle took off.

"Oh, my—AH!" Shani exclaimed, feeling the intense pressure as they lifted off into space.

Everyone couldn't speak—they could barely breathe! The force was so strong that all they could do was hold on for their life.

After a while, the force lightened, and Sonic was able to join Knuckles and Lee at the control board.

Tia, sitting near a window, watched in awe as she saw the earth shrink and shrink as they went farther and farther away from it.

"It…it's beautiful…" she gasped.

Darkness, who was sitting behind her, nodded. "I agree…."

"It looks so…different," Shani said.

Maya Eva laughed. "That's because we are looking at it from a different point of view," she replied, happy that her friend was alive.

"Whoa! What happened to the moon?" Sonic pointed toward the giant grey rock, which had the top of it no longer there.

"It looks like if something zapped it!" Krystal noted.

Knuckles nodded, and looked down. "Eggman did it."

"What!" everyone said in unison, turning to their red echidna friend.

"He did it while you were sleeping at that apartment," he answered.

Sonic growled. "Oh, that Eggman! When will he ever give up?"

Silence settled as either everyone was watching in awe at the earth or were just plain bored.

"Hey," Tails exclaimed suddenly, "I see the ARK!"

Everyone at once saw the gigantic space colony.

"It's huge…" Maya Eva whispered.

"Yeah," Shani gulped, "It's like they say: everything looks different when you're actually in the game."

Maya Eva gave a half-hearted chuckle. "Yeah. Literally."

Suddenly, the shuttle hit an asteroid, making everyone bump around.

"Is everyone all right?" Jet asked.

"Yeah…but the cargo hold isn't!" Knuckles informed.

"Don't sweat it, Knuckles. The only thing in that storage is the Master Emerald shards!" Sonic replied.

"What do you mean, 'no sweat'!" Knuckles argued.

"It's not the end of the world if you lose them."

"Yes it is! We need to go after them!"

"No we don't! Just land on ARK! You'll find them!"

"No! We have to go after them!" with that said, Knuckles reached for a switch.

Sonic gasped. "NO! DON'T TOUCH THAT LEVER!"

Too late. Knuckles had already pulled it, making the whole shuttle spin into what seemed like endless space…