Howdy! Yep, another chapter already, guess I'm a groove for this one. And stuff happens in this chapter as we get introduced to the strange world in this story, read on and see! Enjoy!
Chapter 2: The Dream World
[Background Music: Persona 4 OST: Mayonaka TV]
Alex opened is eyes with shock when he saw he wasn't laying in his bed. Instead he was in a completely white area surrounded in fog. He couldn't see anything else, just white and fog.
"Am I having another dream…? It feels… real, like I'm in a real place." Alex thought. Not sure what else to do, he began to walk forward. He walked for quite a while and there was nothing, after a few more steps however, he saw something in the distance. It looked like someone was standing there.
"Who's there?" Alex called out at the figure. No response. He ran forward to move closer and as he did, he noticed that it didn't look like an actual person. There was no face, no clothes, no nothing, it looked like… a shadow, a silhouette of a body. "H-hello…?" He said to the figure.
As soon as he asked that, a quick flash blinded him before his head felt like it was splitting in half. "AH!" Alex shouted in pain as he dropped to his knees and held his head. While this happened, the fog seemed to swirl around him as a voice was heard around him.
"I am thou… Thou art I… Thou art the one… From the sea of thy soul, I come… When thou in need, call my name..."
And just like that within seconds, the fog moves away from Alex and the headache is gone. When Alex moved his head up however, the black shadow was floating above him. Still no face or anything, but it was clear it was looking down at him. He slowly moved back up to his feet, unsure on how to feel about what was happening. The shadow then turned into something smaller, something that fell into Alex's hands.
Alex looked at what he was holding onto. It was a blank black half mask that had three points on the bottom with the middle one being longer that the other two on the sides. He raised his eyebrow looking at this.
"A mask…?" He asked to himself.
The fog once again surrounded Alex and engulfed him in, making him drift away.
Date: Monday, August 14th
[Background Music: None]
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Alex's eyes shot awake hearing the loud beeping of his alarm clock. Groaning, he moved his hand over and slapped on it to turn it off. As he went to use his other hand to rub his eyes however… he noticed he was holding something…
...It was the black mask from the dream.
"What the…?!" Alex shouted nearly out loud. "That… that was a dream… right? But… how…?"
After looking at the mask in confusion for a few seconds, Alex pushed the thought to the side and put the mask on his desk. Weird or not, he had to get ready for his first day of school. He got dressed, did his business in the bathroom, had a quick breakfast downstairs, and ran back upstairs to his room to grab his backpack before running out of the house to school.
[Background Music: Persona 3 OST: Want To Be Close]
Once Alex got to the high school, he had to find his homeroom which was Mr. Thomas's room. When he arrived in the class and homeroom started, he got called up to the front of the room.
"Everyone, we have a new student in our homeroom this year, looks like he'll be joining us in our fourth and final year together as a homeroom. Go ahead, introduce yourself." Mr. Thomas nodded with a smile. Mr. Thomas had long gray hair put in a ponytail and had on a white suit and glasses.
Alex stepped forward, "Hi everyone, my name is Alexander Gerdelman, but you can call me Alex. Nice to meet you all."
"He's going to be in our homeroom this year? He looks like some wannabe rockstar!"
"He's got girl hair! Get a haircut!"
"Hmm… he doesn't seem too bad."
"I think he's kinda cute..."
The reaction of the class seemed to be mixed on Alex, he expected that being a new student.
"Thank you, Alex. Welcome to Slivercrest High School and my homeroom. You can take your seat now." Mr. Thomas said.
"Ooh! Ooh! Sit here, Alex! Sit here!" A female voice was heard in the class. That voice belonged to Rayna, who was furiously pointing at an empty desk next to her.
"Oh hey, Rayna!" Alex waved to her and sat in the empty desk.
"Now since this is the first day of school, for the rest of homeroom you all can chat and do what you want." Mr. Thomas said as he sat down behind his desk and everyone in the class began to talk.
"Cool! We're in the same homeroom." Rayna smiled.
"But it seems Ember and Jax aren't here." Alex said, looking around for the other two he met the previous day. "Guess they're not in this homeroom."
"No, Ember is in Mrs. Torin's class and Jax is in that jerkhole Mr. Salvador's class." Rayna sighed. "Ugh…! And Salvador is teaching Calculus this year, a class seniors are required to take!"
"I take it that teacher is bad?" Alex asked.
"Salvador is the biggest asshole in this school! He taught Algebra II last year and I almost died!" Rayna groaned.
"Oh come on, he can't be that bad." Alex chuckled.
Three periods later and Alex was sitting in Calculus, looking annoyed as hell as the teacher, who was Mr. Salvador was ranting on and on about how kids are these days.
"Stupid kids would rather play video games and spend hours texting on their phone than learning about useful things that could help them get a job!" Mr. Salvador ranted. He had almost shoulder length gray hair with a goatee and mustache and wore a black suit. "Especially teenagers, they are a bunch of slacking, spoiled brats!"
"Then don't teach school, you moron!" A student shouted with most of the class agreeing.
"QUIET!" Salvador barked. "And for that, you're all getting a worksheet to work on as homework!" This caused the entire class to groan.
"Wow… He really is bad..." Alex thought.
[Background Music: Persona 4 OST: Youthful Lunch]
"Hey Alex! Over here!"
Alex grabbed his lunch tray as he heard a voice call to him. It was Ember's voice and she was waving from a table. He noticed Rayna and Jax were also there as well as two other people. One was a girl with above shoulder length blonde hair, brown eyes, and wore a dark blue sleeveless turtle-neck shirt and blue jeans as well as white sneakers. The other was a boy who looked a little younger than the rest that had very light brown hair and brown eyes and wore a brown turtle-neck and tan pants.
"What's going on guys? How's the first day coming along?" Alex asked, sitting next to Ember at the table.
"Boring as shit..." Jax whined. "If only I was good at playing sick, I could go home..."
"You once tried to fake throw up and it was just you throwing chewed up food in a toilet." Rayna said.
"Hey it was a history test! I didn't want to take it!" Jax said.
"And how has your day been? Getting used to the school already?" Rayna turned her attention to Alex.
"Eh, day's going okay so far, still getting used to it." Alex said. "I know it'll take a while."
"Oh Alex! You didn't meet these two yesterday." Ember said pointing to the other two. "Guys, this is Alex, the new friend we told you about that we met yesterday."
"Good to meet you, Alex." The girl greeted with a smile. "I'm Kaylen Rotunda."
"Hi… My name's Owen Lesnar..." The boy said in a shy quiet tone.
"Owen, why are you still so shy?" Ember asked.
Owen's face turned slightly pink, "Sorry, I can't help it."
"Owen's a grade under us, he's a junior." Kaylen said. "We became his friends after we defended him from a bully last year. But he's very shy."
"Don't worry, Owen, I won't cause any trouble." Alex said, trying to warm up to Owen.
A slight smile formed on Owen's face, "I'll trust you."
"And didn't I see you in Geography earlier?" Alex looked over at Kaylen as he began to take a bite out of his ham and cheese sandwich. "Although you looked different, your hair seemed longer and in a ponytail."
"I don't have Geography in the mor- Oh… You probably saw my twin sister, Kiki." Kaylen said.
"Oh you have a twin?" Alex asked, a piece of ham hanging from his mouth.
"Yeah..." Kaylen said before sighing, not looking very happy saying that.
Owen leaned over and whispered to Alex, "Kiki has a very bad case of sibling jealousy towards Kaylen, they don't get along very well..."
"Oh… sorry about that..." Alex said, feeling bad as he set his sandwich down.
"No it's fine, you didn't know… But yeah, Kiki and I don't get along very well, we haven't in years..." Kaylen sighed again.
There was an awkward silence at the table for a while. That is until Jax broke it suddenly with, "Hey Alex, have you heard of the Dream World?"
"The Dream World?" Alex asked.
"Jax, don't tell him about that. It's just a myth someone came up with for people to sleep here at Silvercrest." Kaylen said.
"Well too bad, I'm telling him the story." Jax laughed. He looked over at Alex and spoke, "It is said that on rainy nights, if you live in Silvercrest and fall asleep right at midnight, you will go into a world where you can do whatever you want. You're in a dream, but it doesn't feel like that. But it'll only work on rainy nights. Snowy nights count too."
Ember scoffed, "Don't listen to him, Alex. That's just a rumor that's been going around recently. Everyone's calling it the Silvercrest Dream World Myth."
"I can't believe you still believe that, Jax. Many people have tried it and nothing's happened." Rayna said.
"Well that's because they don't go to bed EXACTLY at midnight!" Jax said.
"Have you ever tried it?" Rayna asked.
Jax went silent, "Well… no..."
"Then it's a myth! There's no Dream World and there never will be!"
Rayna and Jax continued to argue over the myth. However this got Alex thinking… The dream he had last night… It felt real. The pain in his head, being in that foggy white area, that mask in his hand when he woke up. Maybe what he witnessed the previous night… was being in the Dream World.
"...It's raining tonight, maybe I'll give it a try." He thought.
[Background Music: None]
The rest of the day went off without a hitch; Alex went home with Ember after school and after dinner was done he went to his room to do his homework he had. Once his homework was finished, he had quite a bit of time to spare before midnight so he killed some time playing on his copy of Dragon Age: Origins on the computer, without his parents knowing he was staying up late of course.
At around 11:55, he looked out the window of his room in his night clothes. It was raining all right.
"Almost midnight, let's see if this works." Alex said to himself. He went to lay down in bed, but before he did, he looked over at his desk where the mask was still laying. And he didn't know why… but some lingering feeling told him to grab it and take it with him. He kept looking at the mask; a plain, black half mask with three points… what was so special about it?
He once again pushed the mask thought aside as he turned off the light and laid down in bed. After a few minutes he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep…
...Right as his alarm clock struck midnight.
[Background Music: Persona 4 OST: Who's There?]
Alex opened his eyes and was a bit underwhelmed at what he saw. He was just in a room with dark walls, it was all empty. He also noticed he was back in his casual clothing. But he knew one thing, this was feeling real, he didn't feel like he was in a dream right now.
"...This is the Dream World?" Alex asked, sounding disappointed. "Well… I know it's actually real."
"Hey Alex! You're here too?" A voice was heard. Alex turned and saw it was Jax walking over. "Yeah I was expecting something cooler, but hey the Dream World ACTUALLY exists! That'll show those girls and Owen! I don't even feel like I'm in a dream!"
"I don't know why, but I have a feeling something isn't right..." Alex said. He then thought to himself, "Last night it was all white and foggy, and then that… shadow thing appeared."
"I agree with you, man." Jax said. "I mean if THIS is all the Dream World is, then this is freakin' lame. ...Hang on, maybe we need to think. Maybe if we think our thoughts will be here!" He closed his eyes and began thinking.
Just then, Alex suddenly saw a single gold door appear in front of them. Is that what Jax was thinking about?
"Jax? ...Were you thinking of a door?" Alex asked.
"No, I haven't even started thinking- Oh hey a door!" Jax began to beam when he opened his eyes and saw the door. "Did that all of a sudden appear?"
"It did and that's why I thought you thought of it." Alex asked.
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go inside!" Jax said in excitement as he and Alex opened the door together.
What they saw made Jax's smile turn to a frown. What they were looking at… was a hall of a prison. The cells were empty and it was dirty and broken down. It looked like a riot happened in it.
"A jail…? This is what we get? A jail?" Jax asked. "I wasn't thinking of this!"
"Well since we're here, we might as well explore and then we can find a way back." Alex suggested as he stepped inside the door and into the prison. Jax followed behind and the two walked down the hall. They looked into the empty cells and noticed the bars were rusting up. It was also so quiet they could hear their footsteps. "...It feels a little too quiet..."
"Yeah, it's kind of creepy, actually…" Jax said, nervously looking around. The two stopped at the end of the hall, leading way to more halls in front of them and to the right of them.
"Which way do you want to keep going? We should be fine as long as there isn't any-
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
[Background Music: Persona 3 OST: Crisis]
Alex and Jax jumped back slightly when they heard a loud man's scream. Seconds later they could hear sounds of footsteps running from the right hallway. They saw a man with short black hair, gray shirt, and black pants running frantically, looking like he was running for his life.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Alex's instincts kicked in as he got in front of the man. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"Careful Alex, is that guy even real?" Jax asked.
"...How did you get in here?!" The man asked, then shook his head. "Nevermind! This monster is after me, don't let him get you either! Get out if you can!" The man then ran off in the other hallway.
"Come on, Jax! We gotta help this guy!" Alex encouraged.
"But how?! He said he was being chased by a mon-"
"Come on!" Alex grabbed Jax by the hoodie and the two ran down the hall trying to find the man. They went through turns in the halls and opened up every door to see if he was hidden in there. They ran for a while and no luck finding the man until they made it to an open area.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Alex and Jax shouted.
What they were refering to was the man they were chasing after was trapped in a corner in a large open area. And he was right about being chased by a monster as the monster trapping him was towering over the man. It had the body of a minotaur, but the face and horns of a devil while it also had what looked like sharp swords for nails.
"Wh-what do you want with me…?! Leave me alone!" The man shouted. "H-h-how did you even get here before me?! I-I-I was running from you!"
The monster chuckled and spoke in a deep distorted voice, "You can say I took a shortcut, I knew you'd run here… And you won't accept me, so I guess I'll have to kill you…!" It then grabbed the man with his large hand and held him up, causing the man to scream in both pain and fear. "I am a shadow… The true self…" The creature then all of a sudden used one of it's sword nails… to stab the man in the stomach as the sword went completely through him!
Alex and Jax's eyes and mouths were wide with fear and shock. They just saw a gigantic monster STAB a man straight into the stomach! And he had no idea why, but Alex had the urge to do something. He stepped forward and shouted, "HEY!"
The monster turned around hearing Alex. It grinned seeing the two and threw the now dead man down like a doll. "Well, it looks like we have intruders, young ones nonetheless."
"I don't know what you are, but what you did to that man is disgusting!" Alex shouted.
"Alex! Are you freaking stupid?!" Jax yelled.
"You killed him in cold blood! What do you have to say to that?!" Alex asked.
The monster laughed at Alex's words, "Foolish child, I am a shadow, if it's remorse you're looking for I do not possess it." It turned it's entire body towards the two. "Killing that man was a little too easy, maybe I can have some more fun killing you two children."
"Oh NO! OH NO! We are out of here! Come on, Alex! Let's get out of- HERE!" Jax shouted as both he and Alex barely missed a swing from the monster's giant hand! They would've gotten hit if Alex didn't tackle Jax to the ground.
This caused Jax to start panicking in gibberish, but he was able to get out, "I-I'm tougher than this! I shouldn't be scared as a girl…!"
Alex got off of Jax and stood back up, "Stay down, Jax! We are not dying in here!"
"Alex, how can you be acting so brave?!" Jax asked.
Even Alex didn't know the answer to that. He was normally dimwitted, silly, and sometimes a coward. But something made him stand up to this monster, could be the possible danger involved or just survival instincts.
"Idiot children! If you were smart enough you'd run!" The monster said. "Then again..." It smiled as it used both of it's hands to send Alex and Jax back flying opposite directions across the room.
"OW!" Jax shouted.
"UGH!" Alex shouted.
"I like playing with my victims…" It's grin turned more sadistic as it turned over to look at Jax. "And since you're the most cowardly, you'll die first."
"No… NO…!" Jax shouted, trying to crawl back as the monster raised a sword nail to attack. "HELP!"
[Background Music: Persona 3 OST: Persona Invocation]
Jax's shout echoed in Alex's ears as time suddenly seemed to stop around him. When time stopped, what seemed like blue flame surrounded him.
"Wh-what's going on…?!" He shouted. That's when he saw the plain mask he held before falling asleep fall into his hands. The difference however was the mask was no longer plain black; it was now mostly red with some black and white designs on it. As he looked at it, he then heard the voice from the previous night:
"When thou in need, call my name..."
With hearing these words and the flames still moving around him, he forced himself up as a look of determination appeared on his face. He looked down at the mask again, slowly moved it towards his face while saying…
"Per…
...so…
...na!"
At that instant outside of the flames, time resumed and just as the monster was about to slash Jax, the flames let out a large explosion, stopping the monster.
[Background Music: Persona 3 OST: Unavoidable Battle]
"GRRR…! What was that…?!" The monster growled. But then it looked in shock when it saw what was now happening. "...It can't be…!"
Alex stepped out, finally being seen by the viewers, but his outfit looked different. Along with the red, white, and black mask on, he now had on a gray collared shirt that looked like armor, a long dark red jacket, black gloves, gray pants, and black boots. The blue fire continued to move behind him causing his brown hair and the jacket to flow with the wind it was forming.
But that wasn't all as a figure began to appear through the blue fire and float above Alex. This figure looked male and was clad head to toe with red and white armor. His head and face was metal looking like a helmet with two yellow eyes glowing out of it as well as having his own long brown hair and black flowing cape. He was also holding a long royal looking silver and red sword.
Jax was no longer scared, but more of shock and surprise as his jaw was agape. What happened to his new friend just now? "What… in the HELL?"
"So… you have the power of Persona, don't you? But you didn't manifest a shadow!" The monster said. "No matter, you will still die!" The monster roared as it charged towards Alex.
Alex, with his determined look still, narrowed his eyes towards the creature and pointed forward, "Odysseus! Attack!"
Odysseus charged towards the creature and almost got hit with a punch but was able to swiftly dodge it and kneed it in the face, sending the monster stumbling back slightly. It began charging again, but Odysseus rammed his head forward and sent it down to the ground. He then lifted up his sword and went for a slash with the monster rolling out of the way, getting back up, and punching Odysseus in the midsection.
"AH!" Alex shouted in pain holding his midsection and dropping to a knee. Then when the monster punched Odysseus in the back, Alex held onto his back as well. "Ugh!" It seemed whenever Odysseus got hit, Alex felt the pain.
Seeing this as a moment, the monster ran over and grabbed Alex with it's hand, increasing the pain. "Even with a Persona, you can't beat me!"
"AH!" Alex groaned in pain, trying to struggle out. But he was able to be set free when Odysseus tackled the monster down again, letting go of Alex and having him fall on his butt. "...Thanks."
Odysseus gave a nod before kneeing at the monster again. The monster was getting weak, it was slowly getting up.
It was here Alex had an idea. "Odysseus! Bufu!"
At this command, Odysseus's pointed his sword at the monster which caused a large piece of ice to encase it and explode on it. The monster roared in extreme pain at this attack.
"No… I won't… Let you beat me!" The monster shouted.
"Sorry big guy, but this battle is over!" Alex said. He put two fingers on his mask before issuing another attack. "Hit him with Cleave!"
Odysseus nodded at Alex again before charging forward and slashing the monster with his sword. The monster roared loudly as it had a huge cut on it's chest now.
"Okay, I think we can do one more! Finish it off with Power Slash!" Alex commanded.
With a close up of his glowing yellow eye, Odysseus charged one more time, and with one diagonal slash, the sword went completely through the monster. The monster released one final dying roar before it dissolved into darkness.
[Background Music: None]
Once the monster was gone, Alex was breathing heavily. Jax however, stood up with his mouth as wide open as he could. He walked over to Alex looking at him.
"That… was… AWESOME!" Jax suddenly had a huge smile on his face and began talking really fast. "Ididn'tevenknowyouhadacoolpowerlikethat! Howdidyougetit?! Holyshitthatwassofreakingcool!"
"Jax, Jax, calm down..." Alex rubbed his head.
"Sorry, it's just… wow! You even have a kick ass outfit! I didn't know you had something like that!" Jax said.
"Neither did I..." Alex said.
"You were very brave too! And when I first met you yesterday you just seemed like a silly goofball." Jax said.
"Heh, may have been survival instincts, the fight or flight response you know?" Alex chuckled. He then looked behind him and saw Odysseus was still floating above him. "...What exactly are you?" He asked.
"I am a Persona of the Fool Arcana." Odysseus said. "I am the King of Ithaca, Odysseus, and I shall fight by your side." Odysseus then turned into a bluish orb and looked like he went inside Alex's mask as the mask glowed for a second after the orb touched it.
"...A Persona…?" Alex whispered. He carefully took off the mask causing him to return to his casual clothes and turned to Jax, "Jax, we have to get out of here."
"Good idea! I had enough of this place for toni-" Jax looked over where the man's now dead body fell… and it wasn't there. "...Wasn't the dead body there?"
Alex looked at the direction, but as he did he suddenly heard some strange noises. He didn't know exactly what they were, but they sounded like shrieking. "Jax! Let's get out of here!"
"Right behind you!" Jax said, hearing the noises as well.
Alex and Jax began running from the direction they came and ran as fast as they could. As they did, they avoided some strange dark slimy creatures, which sounded like they were making that noise.
"What are those things?!" Jax asked.
"No time to think on that now!" Alex shouted as the two were able to make it through the prison halls and to the golden door. Once they ran through the door and closed it, they ran into a white light on the darkened wall and disappeared into it.
So... what do you think? I hope I did the Persona series justice with Alex getting his Persona here. And yes, I may not have Persona 5 yet, but I am using masks and outfits for this fic, sounded cooler for them to use.
See ya next chapter!
