tfw you get a sequel done faster done than the third chapter of yw re

Anyways! This is a sequel of sorts to Xenotale, my previous Xeno crossover! There will be references to that work, but afaik it shouldn't be necessary to read that work except to know why Shion and Fei's groups know about Homs and some other things here and there!

There will be spoilers for all of the Xeno series games thus far, Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona Q, and Undertale with references, so please be careful if you aren't up to date with spoilers!

Enjoy!

"What is this…?"

On a distant planet, a group of people were gathered around a large glowing point of light out in an odd-looking wilderness. It stood about as tall as the brown-skinned woman standing near it, shimmering brighter as she neared it for a few seconds.

"That's what we've been trying to investigate all day," a man with long black hair explained. "Cross said they had stumbled upon it while looking for more places to plant probes. Where are they, again?"

"NLA, they had to talk with Eleonora," a small, black-haired girl responded. "Didn't expect them to send us all out here, though."

"Sorry, I'm sorry!" a voice called before a young adult with short brown hair, tanned skin, and armor all over them ran up to the group. "I had to check with her about my BLADE level, I'm so close to getting another level soon…!"

"It's alright, Cross!" the black-haired girl assured. "Anyways…how did you find this?"

"I was combing Primordia with Celica, Nagi, and HB earlier, and we just…found that," Cross explained. "Don't know what it is, honestly…"

"Ooh, ooh!" a Nopon spoke up. "Tatsu have idea! Glowy thing piece of monster!"

"I doubt it," the dark-skinned woman responded, shaking her head. "This thing looks almost…intangible. We haven't encountered anything like this on Mira at all before."

"So what should we do with it, then?" Cross wondered. "This might be too dangerous to leave lying around…"

Before anyone else could say anything, Cross reached out to the glowing point. The woman's eyes widened as the world around them started to glow brightly.

"Cross, no–"

Within moments, the group was gone, as was the point of light.

–

Shion shuddered as she found herself in what was definitely not the Elsa, her group at her side along with Shulk and Fei's groups.

"…we're not in our homes," Fiora realized. "I thought we could go home after freeing all the monsters, why…?"

The land they were in was…dark. The soil was pitch black, a faint gray path leading somewhere Shion was afraid to guess where. When she looked behind her, she winced at seeing there was hardly any land behind them. The sky was dark gray, hardly any light present…Shion had to squint to see just where the path led, and even then she couldn't tell where the path would go.

"…I can't see any of those glowing points of light," Shulk noted. "Are they gone now…?"

"It seems so," Dunban confirmed. "Are we all alright?"

The party checked themselves over. Shion grimaced at all the the dirt and bandages on her friends: they spent how many hours running around the underground, she didn't feel like she was in perfect shape, but…

"I think we'll live," Shion spoke aloud. "Are we still able to use our Ether skills?"

MOMO, Billy, and Citan nodded. Sharla paused before nodding herself. "I'm not sure if my healing skills will work on humans, but…well, they've worked on High Entia and Nopon, so…"

"Let's get going, I don't like the feel of this place," Jr prompted.

The group slowly started walking forward, Shion looking around as she walked. The land just seemed to…dip off at some points, and she couldn't see anything else past the dips. Occasionally, chunks of earth were suspended in hair, but they were too high up in the sky for anyone to touch.

"There's just…nothing here," chaos commented. "Did we do something wrong?"

"We did everything right!" Melia responded, wings fluffing up. "We saved all of the monsters! I thought we could go home…"

Eventually, Shion spotted something in the distance, and broke into a run. Several people shouted at her in surprise, but she didn't stop until she reached what she had seen: a group of people were lying unconscious, sprawled out all over the ground. Shion bent down, only to rear back in surprise when she saw a girl that reminded her strongly of MOMO, minus the hair color and hair-clips. A man was lying near the girl, and Shion thought she could have easily mistaken him for Dunban if she had gotten separated from him.

"Shion! Oy!" Bart shouted as the party caught up. "Don't run off like that! I can't believe I'm the one saying that!"

"These people…are they more humans?" Melia asked Shion.

"Maybe…though I haven't seen most of them before…" Shion confessed.

"Riki see nopon!" Riki gasped, darting over to what looked like a nopon in a green outfit. "Though this nopon not familiar…"

"Some of these people…this girl looks like MOMO, and the man near her reminds me of Dunban…" Shion confessed.

"Let's make sure they're alright," Billy decided. "I wonder how they got here, we never saw them in the underground…"

One of the people started waking up: a dark-skinned woman with silver hair, clad in red. She slowly sat up, her eyes narrowed as she reached for what Shion could only assume was a weapon.

Gaignun stepped forward, shaking his head. "We're not here to hurt you. We found you all like this just moments ago," he explained.

"…who are you? I've never seen any of you around New Los Angeles," the woman asked.

"Ah…we've got a lot of people to introduce…" Shion realized, glancing back at the mixed group of people with her before turning back to look at the woman. "For now though…I'm Shion Uzuki, I'm from Vector Industries' First Division."

"Vector Industries…never heard of it," the woman noted, frowning.

"We've never heard of New Los Angeles either, lady," Jr muttered.

Shion simply nodded at the woman. "We'll all introduce ourselves properly once you and your friends have recovered. Please don't worry, we're lost in this world too."

The woman looked around, grimacing as she did so. "…where are we?"

"Don't know," Reyn admitted. "We're tryin' to figure that out too."

One by one, the unconscious people woke up. Shion started to realize two of them were definitely not human: one of them had blue skin and what seemed to be horns, while another looked human save for their pointy ears and odd-looking eyes.

"Are we all okay?" the woman asked. There was a reluctant murmur of agreement, a person with short brown hair and tanned skin approaching Shion.

"I'm Cross, member of the Pathfinder division of BLADE! I never thought I'd see so many humans here…" they greeted.

"Er…some of us aren't human," Shulk explained. "But that's probably best saved for when we know we're safe. I'm Shulk, by the way."

"Nice to meetcha!" Cross greeted, smiling brightly before frowning as they looked around. "This isn't like any continent I've been to on Mira…where are we?"

"We don't even know," Shion confessed. "We found ourselves here after we thought we could go home…"

"It might be best to stick together for now," Jin suggested. "If we run into anything dangerous out here, we'll be better off instead of just going alone."

"I agree. My name's Elma, by the way," the woman informed. "Where were you guys headed before you found us?"

"That way," Bart answered, nodding toward the path stretching toward the murky horizon. "Dunno where it leads, but nothing else was behind us. Might as well take our chances."

"Lin, can you pick up anything?" Elma asked the black-haired girl. She nodded before interacting with a device on her wrist.

"…no good. Nothing but static on the comm," Lin reported, frowning. "We're definitely not on Mira anymore."

"Ughh…Tatsu feel like nasty Prone toss him around…" the mystery nopon complained, slowly getting up. Shion had to fight back giggles at seeing that Tatsu wore glasses with a spiral design on them, giving him something of a comical look.

"Tatsu? Riki never heard of Tatsu before in Frontier Village!" Riki noted.

"Frontier Village?! Riki from legendary Frontier Village?" Tatsu gasped.

"Legendary?!" Riki exclaimed, ear-wings fluffing up. "Frontier Village real! Where Tatsupon from if not Frontier Village?!"

"Tatsu from Mira! Tatsu thought Frontier Village was myth! Where Frontier Village at?" Tatsu answered.

"Mira? Riki never heard of Mira before! Where that on Bionis?" Riki asked in turn.

There was an awkward moment of silence before Citan cleared his throat. "If I may interrupt your conversation, I believe your group is from another time and place, as most of us here are."

"Another time and place…" Elma mumbled before raising her voice. "What year is it for you all, then?"

"For my group, it's 4767 TC," Shion explained.

"If I remember correctly…it's 9998?" Fei answered, trying to think.

"…I'll be honest, I'm not sure what year it is on Bionis," Shulk confessed.

"…it was the year 2056 AD for us," Elma answered. "I think…for now, it's better to think of us as coming from different worlds, I don't know where to begin with some of you being possibly far off in the future."

"Understandable. Now…shall we keep walking?" Citan prompted. Cross' group slowly nodded, and fell into step with the others.

"Tatsu can't believe Frontier Village is real! Rikipon really from legendary Frontier Village?" Tatsu asked Riki.

"Of course!" Riki responded, puffing out his chest. "All Nopon on Bionis born in Frontier Village! But why Frontier Village considered legendary…?"

"All nopon told legend of Frontier Village! Paradise for nopon! Safe place for nopon to sleep and eat all day!" Tatsu answered.

"Not exactly it!" Riki answered, shaking his head. "Nopon are chosen every year for Heropon duty, and Riki is Heropon this year! Riki have Oka and littlepon to take care of…"

"Riki is Heropon?!" Tatsu gasped. "And have littlepon?! Tatsu thought Riki was young like Tatsu!"

"…it amazes me that nopon don't even know each other's ages sometimes," the Dunban-lookalike remarked.

"They aren't from the same world!" Lin reminded. "I don't think they'd know each other's ages if they weren't familiar with each other."

"Probably shouldn't expect much from a pair of xenos," a bald man snorted, prompting Cross to elbow them.

"Bozé, lay off them," they sternly reminded. "It's nothing to insult them over."

"I said I wanted you to call me 'sensei', Cross," Bozé protested.

Cross shook their head, huffing. They fell quiet, squinting into the distance. "…someone's there."

"An indigen?" Elma asked, stopping dead in her tracks as she tried to see whatever it was Cross saw.

"No, human-shaped…can't make out any features, though," Cross answered. "Doesn't look hostile, though."

The group slowly approached the figure, the being becoming more clear as they approached them. They stood slightly taller than Shion, their entire body covered in a black robe and hood. The odd person seemed to carefully watch the party as they approached. Out of the corner of her eye, Shion could see chaos frown deeply.

"…who are you?" Shulk asked, wringing his hands together.

"…I have no name," the being responded with a quiet, boyish voice. "I am simply a guide for those who are lost. Where do you wish to go?"

"We…We're trying to get back to our respective worlds," Shion responded. "Can you help us?"

"I might," the being responded, nodding. "Please, step forward."

The large group slowly stepped forward, and the air before them rippled and shimmered before showing a murky image of…what looked like a large, humanoid creature, dressed in robes and a crown.

"That's not…" Shion began before a strong wind started blowing. Shion glanced behind her to see bright yellow eyes peeking out of the hood, a sharp-toothed smile visible.

"Enjoy your trip."

Shion felt herself falling backwards, and everything suddenly went dark before her eyes.

–

Minato would be lying if he said he wasn't tired. He and the rest of SEES had wound up in a strange school, had to go through some strange labyrinth/festival exhibit called You in Wonderland, and now just as the Queen of Hearts and her card army was close to overwhelming them, new Persona users had shown up, very obviously not from Iwatodai.

The battleground was complete chaos, the sound of spells going off left and right as more and more Card Soldiers reared their ugly mugs. An Agi spell from Orpheus neatly dispatched one, only for another to take its place.

"We're not going to last long like this!" Mitsuru realized as she stabbed another Card Soldier with her rapier. "How are there still so many of them?"

"Hey! Who's fighting the Queen?!" Junpei called.

Minato grunted before turning his sword toward the Queen of Hearts. "On it."

Before he could move, however, he saw Yukari look up and gasp. "Oh my god, what the…"

Minato looked up, and pushed back the hair covering his eye in surprise to make sure he wasn't missing anything. A large group of people were falling from somewhere, landing smack-dab in the center of the battlefield.

"Oh shit," Minato hissed, forgetting about the Queen for a moment to hoof it over to the new group of people. Thankfully, almost all of them looked conscious but disoriented, and nearly all of them had weapons visible on them.

"Where the hell are we now?" groaned a blonde man with an eyepatch covering his eye.

"You're kind of in the middle of a fight, you better get up if you don't want to die," Minato responded before spotting a Card Soldier rearing up near the fallen group. He darted at it, pushing his sword into its chest before it vanished into a miasma of smoke.

Several people in the fallen group immediately got up, drawing weapons of all kinds. The eyepatch guy had a whip, two kids that looked pretty similar to each other each drew a pair of guns, some glasses-wearing guy drew a sword, and another guy with his hair tied back into a ponytail didn't hesitate to start unleashing martial arts moves of some sort on the monsters around him.

"Honestly, the moment I see that guide asshole again, I'm going to show him what a shitty idea it was to push us into this world!" one of the kids snarled.

"I was hoping we wouldn't have to fight," the glasses-wearing guy remarked, "but I suppose it's unavoidable."

The only one who wasn't fighting at all was some guy in a suit with black hair and green eyes, and he was doing his best to stay out of the chaos. All of the other people who could were battling, thankfully, and yet…didn't this guy at least have a gun on him like nearly everyone else in that group seemed to have?

Whatever. Whatever, Minato needed to take down the Queen of Hearts, he could worry about him when they got out of this labyrinth. He returned his attention toward the Queen of Hearts, only to watch as some blonde kid with a sword that wouldn't look out of place in a JRPG start slashing and stabbing her.

"Reyn! Fiora! Time for a Chain Attack!" he called to some guy with ginger hair and a lady that faintly reminded him of Aigis, and within moments the three went to town on the Queen. The Queen screeched in agony, unable to fight back. Before long, she finally toppled over and vanished into smoke, the rest of the Card Soldiers disappearing with her.

"We won!" Junpei cheered. "Sweet!"

Zen and Rei cautiously approached the new group of people, Zen slowly putting away his crossbows. "…you all fought well, even though you fell down here like that. Who are you?"

A brunette girl with a shield was the first to speak. "We…might be best off explaining that when we're safe, we have a lot of people to introduce, it seems. Where are you guys staying?"

"We're…staying at this weird school festival thing that may or may not be disconnected from reality as we know it," Minato answered.

"…to be honest, that doesn't surprise me as much as I thought it would," the blonde kid with the giant sword admitted.

"Disconnected from reality as we know it? I'm…sorry, what?" Lin repeated, folding her arms and tilting her head.

"It's…a long story," Minato admitted. "Might as well get back and show you."

"Ah, wait…the treasure chest the Queen was guarding!" Rei realized. She hurried over to it with Zen, and the two opened up the chest.

"What's in it?" Yukari asked, unable to resist trying to peer over their shoulders. Rei took out a stuffed rabbit, eyes wide.

"…Z…Zen, maybe you…you better have this," she spoke aloud, shoving the rabbit into Zen's hands.

"Ah…are you sure, Rei?" Zen asked.

"Positive! Let's…Let's just go already!" Rei responded.

–

As Minato guessed, the new group of people were completely bewildered by the school festival as SEES had been…though whether it was because they knew what a school festival or not was up in the air. As before, none of the other students would interact with them beyond giving a a few phrases they'd just repeat over and over upon being talked to.

"…they're like video game characters," the one kid with the guns that had a foul mouth noted.

"This is kind of creepy…I'm glad to be somewhere that has some people, but…" the brunette girl commented.

Minato had to pause to look at the new people a little more closely. A good number of them were covered in dirt and scrapes, their clothing was generally disheveled and likely not from the recent fight, and he could tell at least the one guy who wasn't fighting had bags under his eyes.

"…where were you guys before you, ah…fell down the rabbit hole?" Minato asked.

"We were…under a mountain that was filled with sentient monsters. And they wanted one of our souls to break the barrier they were trapped behind," the brown-haired girl responded.

"…sentient monsters? Seriously? You're not pulling our legs?" Junpei asked, raising his eyebrows.

"We aren't. Trust me, you wouldn't believe half of the crazy stuff we've been through…" the girl confirmed, nodding.

"Maybe we should get introductions out of the way," Minato suggested. "We've…got a ton of people to meet and greet, it seems. Who wants to go first?"

"I will!" someone volunteered, their hand shooting straight up. They had brown skin and short brown hair, and…was wearing some sort of futuristic armor that looked like something out of that one scifi game Minato couldn't remember the name of.

"My name is Cross, and these are my friends Elma, Lin, Tatsu, Lao, L, Hope, Mia, Alexa, Yelv, HB, Irina, Gwin, Doug, Bozé, Celica, Frye, Murderess, Nagi, and Phog!" they greeted, gesturing to each of their friends in turn–was that a sentient stuffed animal they had with them? And one guy's skin was blue, what the–

"I'll go next," JRPG Sword Kid volunteered. "My name is Shulk, and these are my friends Reyn, Fiora, Dunban, Sharla, Riki, and Melia."

Another sentient stuffed animal. What were those things…? And one girl had wings on her head?

"I suppose I'm next," Brown-Haired Girl decided. "My name is Shion Uzuki, and these are my friends chaos, Ziggy, MOMO, KOS-MOS, Jr, Gaignun, and…my older brother Jin."

Minato had a feeling Shion and Jin weren't exactly on good terms, but he chose to keep that to himself for now.

"I'll go next," Ponytail-Martial Arts guy spoke up. "I'm Fei, and these are my friends Elly, Bart, Billy, Citan, Maria, Rico, Emeralda, and Chu-Chu."

Third freaking stuffed animal, and Rico's skin was…green? Everyone looked like something out of a video game…not that SEES probably wouldn't be out of place in one, either, but whatever.

"I guess I'm next," the silver-haired guy from the other Persona users declared. "I'm Yu Narukami, and these are my teammates Chie, Yosuke, Yukiko, Kanji, Teddie, Naoto, and Rise."

Okay, why the heck was some guy wearing a comic bear suit or whatever? How did anyone even fit in it?

"…guess that leaves me. I'm Minato Arisato, and these are my teammates Mitsuru, Junpei, Yukari, Akihiko, Koromaru, Ken, Shinji, and Fuuka. The two not part of any group, as far as I can tell, are Zen and Rei."

"Seems that's everyone," Dunban noted. "May I ask what those…things were back there?"

"Ah, they're…" Minato began before glancing at Mitsuru. She folded her arms and closed her eyes before sighing.

"…they have a right to know, they helped take down the Queen of Hearts," she decided.

"True. The things you guys fought are called Shadows. They're these monsters that basically want to kill people," Minato explained.

"Monsters that want to kill people…from the looks of it, you guys seemed accustomed to fighting them," Ziggy noted.

"Well, in a way, we are," Minato confirmed. "But that's a little hard to explain right now. You guys seem pretty used to fighting yourselves."

"That's probably as long of a story as you fighting Shadows," Elma guessed. "We'll probably have lots of time to explain everything later."

"Indeed!" Elizabeth's voice pierced the air, making everyone jump as she, Theodore, and what Minato guessed was another Velvet Room attendant with longer hair than Elizabeth's approached the group.

"And…who're these guys?" Jr asked.

"Elizabeth and Theodore, and…" Minato began, blanking on the other attendant's name.

"Margaret. She's my attendant," Yu spoke up.

"…attendant?" Gaignun repeated, raising his eyebrows.

"Long story, we'll explain later–"

"We can explain now!" Elizabeth assured. "The Velvet Room is a place between dreams and reality, mind and matter. We aim to help all Persona users on their journeys and provide services for them."

"…Tatsu understood none of that!" Tatsu chirped.

"Persona…?" Shion repeated.

"We'll…explain. Later. Okay?" Minato responded, trying to pretend he wasn't feeling overloaded by how much he had to explain to the new people. Mother of Orpheus, how was he going to explain the whole Persona deal?

Shion nodded in response. "Understood."

Minato sighed deeply. "Alright. Elizabeth, why are you guys out here?"

"One of the locks on the doors has broken!" Elizabeth cheerfully responded. "Three more remain!"

"Doors? So there's a way out of here?" Bart asked.

"Well…we think so, at least. We found these three doors in the Velvet Room, but they have chains around them. The working idea is if we explore these labyrinths that crop up, we'll unlock the doors and possibly get out of this place," Minato explained.

"Three doors…I suppose we might not get to go home yet for a while," Shion guessed, frowning. "At least, depending on where that last door leads."

"How did you guys get here, anyways?" Yosuke asked. "I mean, people don't usually just fall out of the sky…"

"We were…trying to get home, but then we ended up in this weird other world, and there was this guy that…now that I think about it, reminded me a little of you, Minato," Shion explained.

"Yeah! He had the same voice as you…up until he got us into this world," Jr added.

"Weird. I'm pretty sure I was with Mitsuru and the others over here, not in some bizarre other world," Minato commented.

"Maybe we'll run into them again!" Cross suggested. "Then we can figure out what's going on!"

"Let's hope so. My team and I were investigating a glowing point of light that appeared out in the field, but when Cross touched it…we were knocked unconscious and sent to that other world," Elma explained.

Shion, Shulk, and Fei's groups noticeably froze up, looking over at Elma. "…did you say…glowing point of light?" Fei asked.

"Yes? Why?" Elma responded.

"It's…" Shulk began before hesitating. "…maybe we're…better off explaining later…"

"Don't worry, we'll wait," Cross assured. "But for now…I think we've gotta rest. Some of you guys look really out of it."

"That'd…probably be for the best," Shion agreed. "Where's the nearest place we can rest?"

"There is the nurse's office," Elizabeth responded. "Though I'm not quite sure if we have nearly enough beds for all of you…"

"I think my group will be okay," Cross commented. "As much as I don't want to sound like a jerk, we seem to be in better shape than the other guys who came with us."

"You are right on that," Shulk admitted. "Though…those who can should probably use the beds first and foremost."

"Cross, is your group going to the nurse's office or coming with us to explore the school?" Minato asked.

"I think we'll stay in the nurse's office! We'll send someone in case something happens!" Cross responded.

Cross, Shion, Fei, and Shulk's groups shuffled into the nurse's office, Elizabeth following after them. Once the door clicked shut behind them, Yu turned to face Minato.

"So, shall we start checking this place out some more?"