The Monstrous Nightmare

"Nngh... L-let me go..." Milla muttered in her sleep, for the first time in a couple days, she was finally able to sleep, more to exhaustion from being awake than actually being tired.

"NO!!!" She shot up from the floor, she was offered a bed in Lilac's treehouse before, but her animal instinct made it seem that actually sleeping LIKE a dog was a bit more comfortable. She could feel the sweat along her fur, and the tears from her eyes. She looked around the room, Lilac and Carol were still asleep. She poked her head into the living room, their new friend, Lightning, was awake, he was looking her direction.

"Milla? Are you ok? Come here." He offered a spot on the couch. Lilac let him use the couch as a bed as long as he kept it clean. She did value movie night and wanted a nice place to sit.

Milla went over and sat with Lightning, who gave her a hug, with it, she felt better already.

"Are you alright? You're trembling a little. Was it a nightmare...?" Lightning wanted to make sure she was alright.

"It was... about..." after a few moments of silence, it hit pretty quickly. When she became a monster thanks to the green space jerk.

Lightning never did mention that he had to fight her to get her back to normal.

"Aw, Milla, it's ok, sometimes we have bad dreams. I mean, I can sleep thinking about... for example, a window, and I'll end up dreaming about a field instead." He hoped that explaining would help her, but he noticed something, her breathing seemed a little bit odd.

"It's not just a dream... it's in my head too... I feel these awful thoughts... telling me, that destruction is something that's fun." By the sound of it, she had a hidden wild side. Did her turning into a beast awaken it?

Lightning looked at the clock. 2am. He sighed mutely. There was one thing he could do. He remembered recently that he can enter dreams. Maybe if he found the root of the issue, he can help her.

"Okay, Milla. I want you to lay on the couch. Trust me. I think I can help you. I'm going to enter your dream and see if we can't get rid of that nightmare for good. But you have to relax... just think happy thoughts like Lilac and Carol, and being their friend."

As Milla laid down and closed her eyes, she thought of her two best friends and smiled. Lightning sat on the ground in front of her and closed his eyes, in a meditating position.

Minutes later, Lightning found himself in Milla's dream, it looked like a field of flowers, maybe when he mentioned it, she thought it was truly soothing.

"She really does hang on every word. Let's find that nightmare." Lightning started off in a direction that seemed a bit more lively.

For those that want to understand how this'll go, it's like this. Milla's nightmare exists because of a traumatic event. In this case, it's not injury, but rather what she was forced to do. Milla as a beast was still fully conscious too. She couldn't stop herself from attacking her friends. Despite her best efforts, the only way she was freed was getting attacked. She thankfully can't remember who she fought. Lightning believes that if he can destroy the nightmare, it may leave her alone.

Lightning found a couple doors, one had "friends" labeled on it. He was curious but knew he should leave it alone. He came to help her, not invade her privacy.

After a bit of searching, parts of her dream were dark and corrupted.

"Bingo. Nightmares love causing trouble. Only thing is, hers is big trouble. It's basically a part of her. Why am I talking to myself?" He shook his head and carried on.

He followed the corrupted parts of her dream and found what looked like a twisted door, he couldn't read the label.

"The stress is giving it power... Milla, if you can hear me, just relax, ok? I'll help you, I promise!" At that moment, he turned around and saw the event that led up to it again, this part wasn't fun.

"Fine, the card is out, just let her go." And the rest followed. Now that monster was here, it looked at Lightning.

"Oh lovely, I didn't want to fight her again... I hope this doesn't hurt her... Milla! You need to think! Think of all the good things! Lilac! Carol! Even Sushi! Think of all the good the journey had! This beast is inside you, but you control her. It's YOUR choice!" Lightning hoped it helped, but he still had to handle it, the beast grabbed and slammed him down. He kicked it away in the head and cartwheeled back to his feet. "Really glad I've been training that!"

Lightning did his best to dodge and harm the monster as minimally as he could.

After a couple good shots, Lightning was starting to tire. He was still sleepy.

"Lightning? You're right. It has no control on me! And if I do have a bad dream, the morning sun is always there, right?" It sounded like Milla got control and made the creature vanish. Lightning got himself out of her dream and woke out of meditation.

"I was asleep... odd." Before he could say anything else, Milla hug tackled him, thanking him for showing she had the bravery all along. "It wasn't me, Milla, it was all you, Milla the Superdog.

She smiled and blushed. Just then, her friends came into the room.

"Woah, what's going on?" Lilac asked, confused by the hug. "Were you having trouble sleeping, guys?"

"Nah, we're good." Lightning smiled and helped Milla up, then he got up and gave Lilac a kiss on the cheek. "You and Carol sleep well?"

"About as well as can get, huh, Carol?" The Wildcat stretched, not really paying attention.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure, whatever you just said." She dismissed it with a wave.

Then, an idea struck.

"Hey Carol, do you think that OLD bicycle could beat me in a race?" Lightning said, a smug smile.

Carol said nothing, she looked over with wide eyes.

"You're on." The two smiled and raced outside, before anyone knew it, they were off.

"...what's for breakfast?" Milla asked. Lilac only looked up, smiled and shook her head.

Over time, Milla stopped having the nightmare. She had dreams of her fiends doing many fun things. If it was something they could do for real, they did just that.

The End

Authors Note: Hi guys! I had this little story on hold for a while now, that's why it's appearing now. It's just another self-insert. Honestly? Probably the last I do for sometime. Well, Freedom Planet wise. There will be a main storyline I'll explain later, I hope you enjoyed this short story. The next one I got planned is a main story entry, and yes, self-insert. Look, I planned some of this before I even typed them. Sorry.

Thank you as always!