The next morning, Knuckles jumped off the lounge and woke the other boys up. Shadow whacked him one with a pillow before lying back down but Sonic and Tails were eager to see what he was in such a panic about, considering it was a rare occurrence.

'Alright, calm down, Knuckles.' Tails said as he rubbed his eyes.

'What are you wailing about, Knucklehead?' Sonic asked through a yawn.

'Tikal, she came to me again!' Knuckles exclaimed.

'That sounded so corny. So what, anyway?' Shadow mumbled.

'And she actually told me something, so HA!' Knuckles said proudly.

'Oh yeah? What did she have to say?' Sonic said as he rolled his eyes before standing up to stretch.

'She said we're going the wrong way, that we shouldn't be near the ocean.'

'What?' Tails asked confused.

'She said something about changing course and going through a small patch of desert before coming into rainforest. She said that's where the tombs are hidden.'

'Is that all she said?' Shadow asked.

'Uh… yeah? Why?' Knuckles answered quickly.

'Just asking? Chill out.'

'Well then, let's get the girls and get going!' Sonic said with his usual, large grin.

Tails, Knuckles and Shadow went outside to make sure the Tornado was ready to go, Tails hoped the sea salt hadn't affected any of the other machines. Sonic walked past the kitchen on the way to wake up the girls when he saw Juliet making herself a cup of tea in the kitchen. The blue blur couldn't put his finger on it, but something looked off about the turquoise hedgehog. As if she was tired, run down or just sad.

'Hey there, Juliet.' Sonic greeted her.

'Oh! Good morning, dear.'

'I hope we didn't wake you.' Sonic scratched his quills awkwardly.

'Not at all.'

'Great. Sorry to be off so early but we have to get going, we've figured out we're headed the wrong way and Cream isn't getting any better so I'm just going to get the girls and-'

'The bat friend of yours… Rouge, isn't it?' Juliet cut him off.

'Um, yes?'

'Does she have some sort of relationship with the red echidna?' She asked firmly, almost frightening Sonic.

'Uh, well, uh… I guess you could say that.'

'Hmmm.'

'Why is that?' Sonic asked curiously.

'My daughter, Alycia, she took a great shine to him. I noticed a great tension between her and Rouge, however, I figured he may have had something to do with it.' Juliet said as she took a sip of her tea.

'Oh, well… I really don't-'

'I think you all best leave before she wakes up. She has quite a temper…'

'Oh, ok? Well, I'll get the girls and we'll be off. Thanks for your hospitality and all, we'll be sure to pay you back some day.' Sonic said with a smile.

'No, dear. This is me paying you back for saving my life, please travel safe.' Juliet said, returning to her sweet self as she gently pecked Sonic on the cheek.

Sonic nodded politely, hiding his confusion and slight fear before dashing off to the room where the girls lay. He first picked up Cream and dashed her to the Tornado where Tails had set up her special seat once again. He then ran back to wake up the other three and get the hell out of there…

'Amy! Amy, wake up!' Sonic exclaimed in a whisper.

'Huh? Sonic?' She replied sleepily.

'Get up we have to go.'

'Where's Cream?!' Amy looked around.

'In the ship, now get up!' Sonic shook her again before moving on to Cosmo and Rouge.

Amy shook off his strange actions before standing up and beginning to fold the blankets on her bed. She quickly tidied up the room before poking her head out the door to try and find Juliet, maybe even Diego or Alycia. Sonic reefed her by the arm and made her face him.

'Sonic! What are you doing?' Amy looked at him worried.

'Are you ok, Big Blue?' Rouge asked curiously.

'Something is wrong here, let's just go.'

Just as the words slithered out of his mouth, they heard a large bang come from upstairs. Next came light screeching and screaming and smashing and crashing. Then Juliet started yelling for someone to calm down before the next voice started protesting…

'But I want him!' Alycia bellowed.

'Alycia, please calm down.'

'No, Daddy! He should be with me! Not that stupid bat!'

Rouge smirked when she realized the dark lavender echidna was acting like a two year old over the fact Knuckles was leaving. Sonic, Amy and Cosmo shot her a serious glare before they all dragged each other out of the house. Rouge picked up Cosmo and flew towards the ship after hearing someone thumping down the stairs.

'Sonic! What's going on?!' Amy asked in fear.

'I don't know, Ames. Let's just get out of here!' Sonic said as he grabbed her hand and started running.

Lucky for all of them, Tails had no choice but to park the X-Tornado a few hundred metres away from the house. By the time Sonic and Amy made it there, everyone was ready to go, all exchanging weird looks before looking to Sonic asking for an explanation.

'I don't know, I swear!' Sonic exclaimed, sub-consciously still holding Amy's hand.

'You're the only one that has met them before, surely you knew that something was wrong!' Rouge exclaimed.

'I have only met Juliet! When I rescued her, I got hurt and she brought me back to help me heal. I remember her telling me that her husband was away somewhere on a business trip and she had a daughter but she was spending sometime away somewhere.' Sonic explained, suddenly realizing he was still holding Amy's hand before quickly dropping it.

'At a mental institute?!' Shadow exclaimed.

'Come on guys, chill out. We can't jump to conclusions.' Cosmo jumped in.

'Cosmo's right, we don't know the whole story and we don't need to, let's just get outta here and find these tombs!' Tails exclaimed as he fired up the ship.

Sonic helped Amy into the Tornado before he and Shadow dashed off into the distance. Knuckles and Rouge lay back on the wings of the Tornado and took in the crispy, salty breeze, deciding to take it easy today while Tails, Cosmo and Amy worked out coordinates that matched up watch Knuckles had explained in the vision Tikal had sent him.

'I can't work out what he's talking about!' Tails slammed the dashboard in frustration.

'It's ok, Tails, we'll work it out.' Cosmo said as she placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, making him blush.

'Have you found anything relating to what Knuckles told us?' Amy asked.

'Well, I've found traces of a huge rainforest. But there are no signs of a desert anywhere!' Tails exclaimed.

'Can't you zoom up in the GPS?' Amy asked.

'Well, yeah?'

'Do that. Maybe it's so small it hasn't picked up on it yet.'

Tails keyed in all the possible advanced settings he could before low and behold, up popped traces of a hot, sandy desert. The three exclaimed in glee before realizing how far off course they had been, they really had wasted time since they had left home. Amy couldn't help get a little fired up when she realized the trip to that sultry cat's property was completely unnecessary.

Tails sent out the good news to the other's communicators and turned the Tornado onto the right course, allowing Sonic and Shadow to follow him until he was on the right track. They couldn't smell the beach anymore, so they must be getting somewhere.

'There it is! I can see mirages of the desert up ahead!' Tails exclaimed as he pointed ahead.

'Great! How far do you think we are, pal?' Sonic asked through his wrist communicator.

'A few miles at least, not too far though.'

Sonic nodded before closing his communicator. Everyone when quiet as they watched the desert grow bigger and bigger as they got closer to it. It was only seconds later that Tails, Cosmo and Amy nearly jumped out of their skin after hearing an almighty scream in the back.

'Cream?!' Cosmo wailed as she turned around to see the rabbit tossing and turning.

'Mama! Mama! Run away!' Cream screamed in her sleep.

'What's she talking about?' Amy screeched in a panic.

'I don't know?!'

Tails panicked and struggled to regain himself as the Tornado started shaking. He couldn't keep it back on course. Rouge and Knuckles wobbled about on the wings before Knuckles slid off, luckily being narrowly caught by the ivory bat. Sonic and Shadow looked up to see the ship was losing control and began to worry.

'What's going on up there, Tails?' Sonic asked firmly.

'Cream's going berserk?!' Tails screeched.

'WHAT?!' Sonic and Shadow exclaimed in sync

'Land the ship, you doofus!' Knuckles wailed, beginning to slip from Rouge's grasp.

'Help me! Help Mama! It hurts!' Cream wailed again.

Tails tried to land the X-Tornado as quickly as possible. He was easily the most skilled pilot anyone in the entire team knew, but when it came to someone he cared for in danger then combine that with operating heavy machinery, he couldn't help but panic a little. He managed to only scrape up the left side of the ship, which Knuckles and Rouge easily dodged.

He turned off the engines and open the glass roof. As everyone leapt onto the wings to get a better view of their small friend, she stopped screaming. Her tossing and turning had dialed down to a few rolls here and there before she sunk into her pillow and the small, sleepy smile returned to her face. Everyone looked at her in astonishment and confusion, wondering what happened.

'What the hell was that?' Amy said with a shaky voice.

'I don't know, she just…' Cosmo trailed off, Tails remained silent.

'What happened? You guys were the only ones to see it?' Shadow asked.

'And the only ones to nearly kill us.' Knuckles mumbled.

'Chill out, Knucklehead.' Sonic snapped.

'What happened?' Sonic said as he walked in front of his brotherly figure.

'She just started screaming?' Tails answered.

'She was calling out for help.' Cosmo added.

'She was telling Vanilla to run, then she said it hurt.' Amy stated, fighting back the frightened tears.

Sonic looked at Amy, watching her lips shake as she forced herself not to cry. He wanted to comfort her but he knew it would only be misinterpreted. Plus, apparently he still had to apologise for something to which he didn't know exactly what it was. That aside, he'd never seen Amy so scared. Not even when she was facing death in the hands of Eggman.

'She was having a nightmare!' Rouge exclaimed, breaking the silence, and Sonic's train of thought.

'Huh?' Knuckles questioned.

'We figured out that she is simply asleep, right? What you described simply sounds like a nightmare. Doesn't that mean she is in something called REM sleep or something?' Rouge asked, not really knowing if she was right.

'What does that have to do with anything?' Shadow asked.

'Well, you can wake people up from a nightmare. You shouldn't, but you can. Try waking her up!' Rouge exclaimed.

Shadow and Knuckles took a step forward before leaning down to the small girl, still curled up in her small seat in the Tornado. Amy stood in front of Cream and outstretched her arms, pushing her friends away, without saying a word.

'What are you doing, Amy?' Cosmo asked.

'Rouge just said even though it's possible to wake them up, it shouldn't be done. We all know that this isn't an average bad dream, especially when Egghead is involved. I don't want to risk it.' She said bluntly, looking at her red boots.

'She's right. Let's just… figure out what we're doing for tonight and go from there.' Sonic said, trying to back up Amy's point.

The walked around for a little while before checking out the side of the ship. It was certainly more damaged than first anticipated, and unfortunately someone had to tell Tails before he saw it himself. He jumped into the driver's seat and started scanning the GPS. No fresh water this side of the desert, nor any signs of houses or towns until a few miles into the rainforest. Tails was growing increasingly frustrated and angry, plus his worry wasn't lessening about Cream.

'Tails?' Cosmo said, startling him.

'Huh? Yeah?' He answered blankly.

'Sorry to scare you but, you need to come and see the side of the ship.' Cosmo bowed her head.

'Why?' Tails said, trying not to grit his teeth.

'Please, just come.' Cosmo said before walking off.

Tails followed her to find everyone, except Cream of course, around the left side of the ship, staring at the Tornado. The girls hung back, sitting on the little bits of grass that lay around while the boys inspected the damage. It looked as though a tree had ripped right into the side and made a big hole. Luckily it had missed all the engines and such, but they certainly couldn't be on display. That's when they'd get ruined.

'I'm real sorry about her, buddy.' Sonic said, sympathetically.

'Reckon you can fix 'er up, Tails?' Knuckles asked.

The two tailed kitsune just stared at the damage blankly before walking up to it and tracing a patch of it with his fingertips. Cosmo took a few steps towards him before Shadow put his arm out to stop her. He let out a sigh and bowed his head before massaging his temples. He turned around to face the other and slapped on a small smile.

'It's no one's fault but mine, I should have been more careful.' Tails said blankly.

'It's not your fault, Ta-'

'There is no fresh water or civilian life around here.' Tails began, cutting Amy off. 'The Tornado will make it to the other side of the desert and onto the outskirts of the rainforest. Cream needed water if anything. When we get there, I'll fix this up while you all go and find somewhere or someone we can stay with. Ok?'

Everyone was taken aback a little by Tails' 'take charge' attitude, but they figured it was simply because he was tired, frustrated and worried about Cream. To top that off, he now had to fix the ship before they could go much further. Everyone nodded to agree with him before he turned around and made his way back to the driver's seat of the Tornado.

Cream and Amy checked on Cream once more before strapping themselves into the passenger seats and Knuckles and Rouge made their way back onto the wings on the ship. Knuckles couldn't help but feel a little nervous, but he knew he would probably get back-handed by a certain white bat if he said anything. Before they knew it, they were off again and crossing the small patch of desert before the rainforest.

The desert wasn't as small as Tails had hoped, causing him to grow more and more nervous about the Tornado. That was, until Cream started moaning in the back seat. Amy turned around to see her visibly sweating and… crying? She stripped the blankets off of her and splashed a little cold water on her face. It made her stop crying, even though it was only in her sleep. Tails' nerves began to rise in his stomach once more as he felt rumbles coming from all around the ship.

'How much further, Knux?' He asked calmy.

'It couldn't possibly be much further. She said it was only a small patch, I swear!' Knuckles protested.

Sonic gave Shadow a look before nodding, as if the both understood each other with a simple look. The two sped off into the distance without a sound, leaving the others dumbfounded. They returned only seconds later, leaving a dust storm behind them with news that stopped Tails from having a heart attack.

'The rainforest begins over this hill, a mile tops.' Shadow said with a hint of a smile.

'Thank God.' Tails mumbled to himself.

'Let's get going then!' Sonic cheered before he and Shadow dashed off again.