A/N: Hello everyone! I hope you're enjoying The Dreamworks. Trust me when I tell you we're just getting started. This next chapter is short, but followed up with lots of action and fresh perspectives. Before going forward I would like to take this moment to clear up a few things. One, this story is not just a self-insert. This story tells the tale of Shepard, myself and my friends, and contains original storytelling of all kinds that weaves in and out of canon, to ultimately bring you a better-than-canon experience. After my disappointment of playing Andromeda, I want to tell the tale of the original trilogy like never before.

So if you're enjoying it, leave a follow and a review! You guys rock and I hope you stay immersed in this adventure until its epic conclusion :)

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Chapter Two: Avatar

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The view from up here, wherever here was, took my breath away the moment I opened my eyes again. None of it was what I expected. This place… heaven nor hell could be used in its description as it eluded all but the most obvious contemplation.

An infinite twilight. Irreprehensible. Omnipotent. Color-tinged clouds whirred past like a fast-forwarded movie clip. They didn't stop- sky above, sky below; there was no end. No beginning. I was suspended, free of any earthly limitation or the binding laws of physics. Suspended in animation one might call it, yet I was not suspended indefinitely. I vibrated ceaselessly, in color, in sound, as if I existed but only in an ever-shifting, temporary state. Like an unstable electron cloud I moved infinitely and not at all. There was no doubt in my mind I was dreaming; lucid or not, this was not natural...

It transcended everything I thought I knew.

In my hand was a ticket, like one of those old-style carnival ones. It was completely blank. I turn it over in my hand and again, devoid of any printed number or design.

Suddenly, from all around me, an old voice resonated in a tone both pure and wise, as infinite as the surrounding sky.

"You."

The booming voice resounded back to the thousands of origins from whence it came. It caught me off guard, rattling my insides with apprehensive fearfulness. Woah.

"Uhh… yes?" I croaked. "What do you want?" I assumed I was at this voice's mercy.

"I have summoned you here for a reason. Do you know why?"

It was a question of immense portent- one I couldn't answer. I'm dreaming… I don't have to be afraid.

"I don't. Why am I here? What is this place?" My words fell flat in this ethereal dreamscape. How could I even be heard?

"In your hands is your future. One choice, any number of destinies."

"It's… a ticket," I replied, lost. What the fuck am I supposed to do with a stupid ticket?

"It is a blank ticket. You received it upon birth, and are now presented with it.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"Everything. But that does not matter, what matters is the question you are ultimately here to answer."

"What question?" I realized by now that my consciousness felt real. Scary real- but I'd had visceral dreams like this before.

"It is simple. Stay where you are, have always been, and will continue to be… or leave?"

Does this mean I didn't die? Still, what a vague question to ask. What did he really mean? But since I'm dreaming, why not have a little fun…

I clear my throat and proclaim with confidence-

"Leave."

The infinite sky sounded as if it tore itself apart with the avatar's laughter. Louder than loud, almost mocking. Like it was to a joke only he understood.

"Very well."

Goosebumps crawled to the surface of my skin with the anticipation of this event. The vibrating intensified, the shell of my physical self dispersed further. I went numb save for my brain. Tingling accompanied the strange sensation… and then, I exhaled, suddenly as relaxed as could be. The calm hit me again. The white light. The universe, unshackled.

I am consumed.

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Atom by atom I materialized in darkness.

I heard echoing sounds, a foreign scent passed through my nose. My skin unusually receptive to the subtle draft and cool air.

Shit. Gravity was back before my vision, and I was standing on nothing but air.

I slammed into the rough stone ground with a bone-cracking thud! Eyelid squeezed shut through the shooting pain in my arm, there was warm light beyond them, but I did not look to see. I felt raw, like a child ejected from the womb without notice. I felt reborn.

I lay curled in my own ineptitude for a moment, completely naked, senses rushing back with clearer and clearer consciousness. I muttered something I couldn't even understand and prepared to face reality. Right from one dream to another. Wincing as I slowly pried my eyes open I bore witness to the location of my catharsis, and again, it was not what I expected. But at this point what the hell were expectations anyway?

A shallow grotto marked by orange and red stone laden with dirt, carved out by what long ago would have been flowing water. Light poured in. Even in the shade it felt like it should've been a lot cooler than it was. I stumbled to my feet, relying on my sense of touch to move forward, vision hazy as if I was still drunk. There was no way I could be. I was still sleeping. There was no other explanation. A rank odor filled my senses, like a mix of burning petro fuels, but dirtier.

Yuck.

That was when I torpidly staggered outside into the sun- probably the worst decision I'd ever made in my life. My skin burned with scorching heat and radiation on contact. My eyes set fire, seared like tiny quail eggs in a frying pan.

"OWW! Holy shit, holy shit, balls, OUCH!" I scrambled back inside as quick as I could, endured the passing sensations. The world was a convection oven, and I, dinner. Creeping back to the cave's entrance I saw the sun, red and unabashed, mostly eclipsed by a smaller shroud. Radiation bleeds from it like an aura.

Damn, I wonder to myself. A few minutes out there would kill anyone.

And so it seemed as if I'd 'teleported' to a dystopian earth. Some bleak, distant future where men died under the exposure of the blasting sun. I loved sci-fi, literally anything involving it, but a dream this lucid I would have to pass up. I positioned myself to get a better look outside of the grotto- a dead wasteland of salt flats lay on the leftmost horizon, scorched and bleak. On the right was the remainder of a cityscape that jutted haphazardly out of its own decay. Once advanced, but tasteless; as if the technology here outgrew the culture exponentially. The scene hung before me, lifeless, not a single indicator that anyone lived here anymore. And in that moment, something even worse hit me…

I'm still drunk.

Consciousness peaking now, I looked down and frantically gripped myself, feeling my presence, my perspiring skin. I taste my sweat. I slapped myself in the face once, twice, three times. None of my wakeup cues worked like they normally did.

There's no way it could- no. No, no, no… NO-

I swung at the wall, a decision I would later regret. I was too incredulous in the moment to care. I paced back and forth across the small but spacious den, hundreds of beads of sweat covered my body. My heart rate spiked as I breathed more and more heavily.

I was losing my mind. I was inconsolable…

I wasn't dreaming.