Rikard Colby’s dreams were often filled with strange and fascinating things, but none of them had ever really prepared him for what dreams were like now that he had been corrupted. No, not corrupted. Corrupted was the word that the Sailor Senshi used for he and his kind. What was it that Demetri, Scheelite, had called them? Enlightened.

Yeah. Something like that.

The nightmares had started during the battle for Elysion. He had thought, perhaps, that once the dream world had either been claimed or settled that things would return to the way they had once been. He had, of course, been wrong. Nothing at all was the way it had been before and he was simply going to have to get used to it, nightmares and all.

His heart was pounding now as he sat up, fingers running back through sweat damp locks of hair. He groaned softly before reaching over to turn on the bedside light, taking a moment to glance over at the still-empty bed across from his own. He shook his head slowly before peering at the red numbers glaring at him from the face of his clock. 3:45 am. Bleh.

He snagged one of the hair ties he kept on his night stand, pulling his hair back before flipping the light back off so that he could flop back into bed, arm covering his eyes. He had only been asleep for two hours; not nearly long enough to warrant wanting to even attempt to stay awake even if it meant chasing off the dreams that he knew would try to return the moment he closed his eyes. Blood. Battle. Hate. Despair. Uselessness…

He was right in thinking that the dreams would return, but at least this time they were different. Instead of finding himself dropped down in the middle of yet another situation he couldn’t do anything to control, his mind had placed him back on the training field with the lady lieutenant that had caught his eye and piqued his interests. She had, despite her temper, said a good many things that made sense. She was certainly no dummy when it came to this battle that they were fighting and a mental replay of the situation was certainly better than everything else he’d been dreaming of.

When Rikard awoke again it was to the sound of his alarm cheerily blaring. Only a couple more weeks of class left and then it would be summer vacation; time for parties, planning, gaming and fun. He rubbed at his eyes as he sat up once more, stretching out slowly as though he were a cat ready to crawl away from a nap. He had set his alarm early enough that he could afford time for a shower before class… And hell, maybe he would even go and get something for breakfast. Not that the mess hall ever had anything worth eating for breakfast, or ever really, but if he was going to start trying to throw himself into this new life he was going to do it right. After all, how could he even think about siphoning energy off of others when he had no energy of his own?

Breakfast; the way every Negaverse agent should go about starting their day…