The dreams are real.

I suppose they're nightmares to other people, but not me.  I look at them as a confirmation of what I'd been feeling, and I always go by my feelings, so it's reassuring to know I was right.  I mean, it's not comforting to know the school - the whole world - is in danger, but that I can be a part of saving it makes me proud.  And perhaps, in a dark and negelcted corner of my mind, a bit greedy.

 Let me play

I've been dying to let you in

It's all I want to be

So when Yumi spills the beans, tells me the gang's secret, I agree whole-heartedly to her proposition.  I want to fight, and to succeed.  I want to be a savior.  And getting Yumi's attention is not a bad side benefit.

But now that I'm here, ready to take the plunge, only then does the uneasiness inside manifest itself.  The butterflies in my stomach aren't here; slight rumblings of misfortune replace them.  My mind tells me this isn't the wisest thing I've done and I tell it in turn to shut up for a while.  Then the light takes me, and I don't know what to think.

But then I'm there, and it's all my dreams fulfilled in an instant.  I have new powers, abilities I'd never known.  I can smash any enemy, and I am enjoying it.  My mind disobeys my earlier order and warns me that maybe I'm enjoying it too much.  I only concentrate on my blade, my target, myself in a new guise.

So won't you take it from me

When the trouble hits, I'm clueless.  Oh sure, I had warnings - Aelita told me, my mind told me, but I chose not to listen.  I was having fun, experiencing new things.  I was a new, better person for those fleeting moments.

I wonder why the less I get the more I give.

And then it's in my mind, rooting around for all it's worth.  I don't catch a name, but the evil I sense as he plunders through tells me enough.  He sees everything that makes up me - the good and the bad.  He digests all of this, and speaks, a voice at once very far away yet right in my skull.

"You want power."

He said it as if it were unquestionable.  I never thought of myself as power-hungry, but...

"I can give you that power you crave.  Being a hero only limits the extent of your abilities.  I can open up whole new spectrums for you."  I try to tune out his persuasive pitch.

It's all I want to be

So won't you take it from me.

I could tell he was trying to paly to my weaknesses, and his power of suggestion was strong.  I was literally in a bind as I looked down at myself, not able to do anything but wage a personal war in my brain.

"Your power will know no bounds," the entity went on, probing deeper into my psyche. "Like your ego," he added, a malicious afterthought.

I want you eyes

I want your eyes on me

I want your eyes to see

I want someone to notice me

He took my ego and exploited it when I couldn't muster an adequate resistance.  He beamed images to my mind, of a black-clad me with an aura surrounding my body while standing at a pinnacle.  And I caved.

I want to be your new victim.

I want to be your new victim.

And just like that he dropped me, apparently finished with what he set out to do.  I was physically released, and I slumped to the ground.  I could tell he was still preying on my thoughts, hiding beneath the surface, biding his time.  He'd take control of that dark corner of my mind soon, that dark corner I'd earlier been foolish to ignore.  I felt another change sweep through me then, another surge of power even stronger than when I first arrived here.  I felt alive. Self-righteous.  Driven. 

And undeniably evil.

No regrets even if it's all I get

It's all I want to be, so won't you take it from me

One by one I dispatched my friends ("Enemies," he reminded me) brutally, swiftly, efficently.  I had what I wanted, what I did not even know I had truly wanted until he made me see.  Then why did I feel so bad inside?

It still hurts

It's never easy to forget

Do I want to be?

Well, you never asked me.

So I fought back.  In the darkness that had engulfed me after his tasks set before me were accomplished, I struggled against my mental bonds.  And I wanted him to know I was rebelling.

I want your eyes on me.

I want someone to notice me.

I'm right here, so come and get me!

"Is this what you really want?" His skepticism was pronounced.  In answer, I give into his pressure and let him take me once more.  Into the core of my mind he dove, searching for the dissenting parts he now realized he'd left there.  He found it, and smiled.

I hefted my weapon, closed my eyes, and struck.

I want to be your new victim.