My consciousness almost fades into the darkness as my brain enters the sleep state. My body feels heavy and desnse as if it was composed of and is paralyzed. A natural mechanism to prevent self-injury from dreaming. Evolution thinks it is a good idea not to reenact jogging in my dream and falling off a cliff in real life. Flashes of light appear, white then blue. I am entering the dream state.

"Are you finished yet? Playing pretend with these people? You are disgrace" the voice comes from an obsidian man with an offsetting orange aura.

"CRAP! I thought I dealt with you" I said to my internal demon. It is not one of those literal demons. They don't exist in this universe as far as I am aware.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You are supposed to be progressing. You are wasting your time with these people" It berates me. It is making me angry. Very angry.

"HEY I can do whatever I want. I'm immortal and have all the time I could want. I was a good person in my first life and have been for thousands of years. I don't have to take this crap!" I scream.

"You're supposed to be advancing into the higher energies. Jumping from physical world after world for entertainment is pathetic" It said.

"We both know I can't. I tried and I was blocked. I don't know why I felt so full of anguish when I tried to reach upwards but I did. I tried for hundreds of years and thousands of different ways and made zero progress" I said.

"It is because you're weak idiot" his words make me explode.

"WEAK?! IDIOT?! I fought through the worst mental state a being could go through and survived it. I was the one who figured out how to free myself. Sure, I stumbled into it, but I was the one who tried everything he could and realized what happened despite the ridiculousness it seemed. I don't have to take this from myself. You tortured me in my first life and only made it more miserable. I deserve better and I will enjoy my life now. I earned that much. I will eventually work up to the top, but until then I am going to find a way to be happy. This is over" I force myself awake. My body jolts up and involuntarily shouts. My heart is racing. I haven't seen that thing in ages.

"********* what is the matter?" A man in sleepwear said as he got up from his bed. Why am I sharing a room with this dude. He looks familiar.

"Kaiden? From mass effect?" I ask.

"Yes, it's me. Mass effect?" Kaiden said. The memories start coming back up.

"Ohhhhh. Sorry bud I had a nightmare. It is pretty rare I get those. It is coming back to me" I rub my temples.

"I get those. You're tossing and turning woke me up. Do you want to talk about it? You came out of it fighting pretty rough" Kaiden said.

"I would rather not. Thank you though. I'm getting some water and will go back to sleep" I do just that. I open the door to my room. I hope the noise didn't wake anyone up. Several other alliance members are working the night shift. Because it is a ship it is essentially daytime to their perspective. My eyes are forced to adapt to the bright lights. I keep my head pointed to the ground and squint to block as much light as possible. I get a glass of water and enjoy the cool satisfying taste. I sluggishly head back to my room and return to sleep. No nightmares this time.