The day dragged by as Dave looked for an opportunity to talk to Rose, but his sister had made herself busy since they had arrived. She was always reclusive, but since they had arrived at the high-standing Sassacre Academy, she had become even more distant due to her pursuit of high marks and grades. Now that they attended a reputable school (especially in comparison to their old High School), she had an even greater chance of going Ivy League if she wanted to.
To make matters worse, Jade seemed to be avoiding him that day. Every greeting, every utterance of "hey" was met with an "I should go" or an "I need to be somewhere" from her. Was she upset that Dave was once again taking all the responsiblity of talking to the next potential Persona user?
John had been the only person that Dave was able to talk to throughout the whole day. He knew little about the world inside the computer or the Gateway Code itself; a quick internet search turned up absolutely nothing. Apparently, the Code only existed through word-of-mouth. In that case, it must have been a local Urban Legend, which made Dave wonder who originally discovered it. Was it possible that there were others capable of entering the computer? It was a possibility that they couldn't discount.
On that matter, Dave had learned of the Code from plane kid, who had attended the school as well. Dave was thoroughly convinced that plane kid, whatever his name was, was involved with the computer world as well. Maybe he had gotten Karkat into it as well. There was only one way to be sure, and that was to get the information from plane kid himself.
Dave found that he was incredibly hard to track. Whenever he had found him in the halls, he would always disapppear from sight before Dave had a chance to stop him. With no name to call out, Dave couldn't verbally stop him either. Neither John nor Jade knew anything about him; they knew Karkat since he had attended the school as a freshman, but his friend was notoriously elusive.
He considered asking Karkat. That seemed to be the best course of action. Who else knew him? Besides, Dave actually took classes with Karkat, while he took none with plane kid.
Dave's missions were clear; talk to Rose, talk to Karkat, talk to plane kid.
As he walked through the halls with John to their final class of the day, they passed by one of the janitors. Dave was alarmed to see that he was, in fact, saying goodbye to plane kid after a conversation.
"Hang on." Dave said to John, heading over to the janitor. Plane kid had since disappeared into the crowd of students moving from class to class, but maybe the janitor knew something. "Uh, excuse me." Dave said.
The janitor turned around, looking at Dave. The man looked like quite the oddball; he had skin of an almost orange tone, with rather plain brown hair. His janitor's uniform was worn casually, with a green T-shirt featuring a winged sword being visible underneath. He wore a nametag that said "Hello, my name is Andrew"; which was odd, because none of the other janitors wore nametags.
Andrew said nothing, simply looking at Dave. Dave looked around awkwardly, having expected a "What?" or a "Yes?".
"Uh... Did you know that kid who you were just talking to?" Dave asked.
"Yes." replied Andrew.
Dave was a little unnerved. Either he was socially inept, or he was simply an incredibly odd person. "What was his name?" continued Dave.
"Gamzee Makara. Junior." Andrew replied. "'Junior' being his year. Who knows what his father's name is."
Dave finally had a name. "Alright, thanks." he said, still a little weirded out by Andrew's knowing stare and blank expression. Dave made note to avoid him in the future.
Dave returned to where John was, and together they walked to their last class; Physical Education.
As was the usual with PE, the gym teacher Mr. Harlan placed some sports equipment around and then sat down, letting the students do whatever they wished. A few of them sat aside (Dave and John included), while a few others grabbed a few dodgeballs and lobbed them at each other.
Dave and John were talking about miscellaneous topics when they both heard a loud 'thunk', then a 'thud'. They both whirled their heads around to see one student on the ground, having been hit with a dodgeball. Another 'thunk' and one more student was on the ground, nearly five feet away from where he was standing. Dave had never seen someone getting nailed with a dodgeball so hard; whoever had thrown it must have been a powerhouse.
John shook his head at the two poor saps that had been grounded. "Looks like Equius is on the field. This won't last long."
"Equius?" Dave said, looking up. Equius had to be the musclebound student in suglasses who was lobbing dodgeballs like cannonballs.
"Equius Zahhak." John said, pointing the musclebound student out. "Freakishly strong guy, one of those foreign exchange students. Remember when Jadce said that we used to have an archery team until there was an equipment shortage? He couldn't pull a bowstring back without snapping the bow in half. Getting hit by him is a death sentence, so people usually steer clear with him."
"Exchange students?" Dave asked, looking at John.
"Yeah. During our freshman year, we got 12 new students. They were all in some sort of accident in their home country and they all moved to the US. They all have some sort of post-traumatic amnesia and can't remember anything about where they're from or what happened to them. All they know is that they're all really close, and they all hang out in one group most of the time. They all have a dorm to themselves."
"Do you know any of the others?" Dave asked.
"Sure I do." John replied. "I can point out a few that are in this class right now. There's Equius, like I said before; Sollux right over there, who's a master computer programmer. He teaches the comp applications teacher things, I hear; there's Eridan over there, who's kind of an oddball. He's really into science and stuff. And there's also Tavros; he's been in a wheelchair since he got here, but he's still a really happy, capable person."
Dave noted the four of them. "The other eight aren't here, right?"
John nodded. "Karkat and his friend are in a different class right now, and the girls in the group obviously don't take PE with us. Aradia, Nepeta, Kanaya, Terezi, Vriska, and Feferi."
"Weird names. They don't sound like the usual 'Pierre', 'Hanz', or 'Jose'. You sure you don't know where they're from?"
"Positive. Neither do they. They just showed up one day for all we know." replied John. "You sure it was Karkat's friend that gave you the Code?"
"Gamzee is his name, and yeah, I'm positive it was him." Dave said. "I'm wondering if any of them can use the Code too. I don't know why he would tell a random stranger like me and not tell his friends."
"Maybe he didn't know it was legit and just wanted someone to try it out for him because he was curious about the Urban Legend." John said. "Maybe he was too afraid to try it himself."
"I don' know." Dave said, crossing his arms.
As they continued talking, Equius came over to them.
"Greetings." Equius said, more to Dave than to John. "I understand you're new to the school, yes?"
"That's right." Dave said, standing. "Dave Strider. Spinner of ill beats." he said, extending his hand to Equius.
Equius took his hand in a firm grip and shook it, causing immense pain to Dave, who felt that he wouldn't be able to use his right hand well for a few days. "A pleasure to meet you. Perhaps you should consider joining the Track team. We are short on members and some new blood would be appreciated."
Dave recovered from the intense grip, trying his hardest not to tear up or audibly cry out in pain. "N-nah. Sports isn't really my thing."
Equius tightened his grip.
"Shit, shit, shit, alright! I'll check it out sometime later!" Dave shouted, pulling his hand away from Equius' guillotine of a hand.
"Thank you." Equius said with a smile, revealing many missing and broken teeth. "I shall see you there, Strider."
With that, Equius took his leave as the final bell rang.
Dave felt a familiar tingle in his head, and could see another card in his head. The voice that he had heard yesterday rang in his head;
"I am thou.
Thou art I.
The bonds that you forge will become your strength.
You shall receive a blessing when creating Personas of the Strength Arcana."
So this was what Igor was talking about. He must have gotten the Strength Arcana from Equius. However, there were much more important things to pay attention to at the moment.
"Fuck!" Dave said as soon as Equius was out of earshot. "Son of a bitch, it feels like my hand is broken!"
John shook his head. "I told you he was freakishly strong. Also, 'Spinner of ill beats', Dave?"
"Hey, don't judge me for getting my spin on, yo." Dave said, shaking his hand out of pain. "Sometimes I gotta represent."
"Stop talking like that, Dave."
"Hater."
Dave didn't find any trace of Gamzee after school and left to the dorm, resigned. Maybe heading to the foreign exchange student dorm would be a good idea once he found out where they lived.
Entering the dorm, Dave saw Rose reading on the sofa, while John and Jade were saving up groceries in the kitchen.
"Rose, can I talk to you for a bit?" Dave asked?
"Is it about the dreams and the world inside the computer?" she asked, not even looking up from her book.
Dave looked at Jade and John, crossing his arms. "You told her? Seriously?"
John shrugged. "Don't look at me!"
Jade nodded. "Well, you were taking a while. I decided to fill her in. She believes us."
"Do you?" Dave asked Rose, looking at her.
Rose noddded. "I had an odd dream identical to John and Jade's. It would've seemed coincidental if they hadn't guessed it before I was able to tell them about it. I'd like to see this computer dimension for myself."
"Just a warning." Dave said, crossing his arms. "When you're in there, you're going to be faced with a shadow version of yourself. It's going to talk to you about your weaknesses and innermost thoughts. You'll have to be able to accept it. If you deny it, it'll turn on you and go berserk."
"I'm well in-tune with my own emotions. I'll be fine." Rose said, preparing her laptop. "Shall we?"
Dave nodded. "Yeah. Let me grab my computer really quick."
Within a few minutes, the four of them had gathered in the living room.
"Ready?" Dave asked.
The other three nodded in reply.
"Now." Dave said, inputting the command. Jade, John and Rose followed and in a moment, they had all slipped out of consciousness and into the computer world.
_
Dave awoke to feel his hands on cold brick. Opening his eyes, he could see that he was in some sort of Gothic castle or cathedral.
The architecture was magnificently detailed, and the paintings that decorated the walls portrayed wizards of all cultures and types. The generic western wizard, the eastern carpet-flying wizard, and many more. The chandeliers that hung from the ceiling burned with flames of many different colors. Lining the walls were pedestals holding several magical items; wands, wizard hats, and crystal balls.
Dave heard both John and Jade coming to behind him. "Rose's place is pretty slick." he mused, looking around.
John rubbed his forehead. "Talk about." he said, reaching over to touch a wand on one of the pedestals. His touch was interrupted by an electric shock, sending him back a few feet.
"Dude!" Dave shouted, going over to help him up. "Lesson learned. Don't touch the cool wizard shit."
John nodded, patting down his hair that was now up on end. "Right. Let's go."
"Hang on." Jade said, materializing her weapon into view. "Remember how I told you to summon your weapon?"
"Yeah. Just focus really hard and grip your hand." John said. As he said, he foucsed himself and tightened his grip. The characteristic flash occurred, and John was holding a warhammer. John nearly dropped it, but was able to hoist it up. "Wow, neat." he said, giving it a two handed swing. The hammer struck the ground, causing a crack in the stone to form.
Dave nodded, impressed. "We better get to Rose, quick. I'm pretty sure she'll just tell her Shadow self to fuck off, but you never know."
The other two nodded and followed Dave through the castle, encountering greater resistance from the Shadows than in John or Jade's instances. John's Persona, Perseus, seemed to be wind-oriented, being capable of conjuring great gusts to blow their enemies away. This created an opportunity for teamwork between him and Jade, who could freeze them while he blew them away to shatter them against a wall.
John was performing better than Dave had thought. Then again, this kind of thing was probably John's dream; to be a hero like in all of his shitty movies. Maybe once they got Rose into the gang, they'd find out more about themselves and why they were given their powers. She was good at deducing things.
Dave, meanwhile, wasn't seeing what Igor meant by changing Personas. When he tried calling out the name of a different Greek God, Hermes appeared anyway and the other two looked at him weird.
Regardless of his single Persona, Dave was still easily the powerhouse of the group. Having been the one with the Persona before anyone else, regardless of how short of a time frame there was between each of them receiving their Personas. He was still the most experienced, and his Persona seemed like a cut above the rest.
As they continued through the halls, John repeatedly hammered the bricks so that they could tell where they had already been. Eventually they reached a large set of double stone doors, obviously the entrance to a grand room.
"This must be it." Dave said, going forward to push them forward. The doors were locked. "Dammit, locked. We need to break them down."
"Got it." John said, stepping forward and swinging his hammer at the doors. His hammer met the stone with force, but caused no damage and shook John up from the recoil.
Jade looked up at it. "You know how to break stone, right Dave?"
"Hell if I know." Dave replied. "Hitting it a lot apparently won't work."
"If you rapidly heat it and cool it, it might break. We should try that." she said, looking to him.
Dave shrugged. It was a better plan than any. He summoned Hermes and had it blast the door with a continuous stream of flame until the door was slightly glowing with heat. Jade followed suit with a few blasts of ice, cooling the door down to a normal temperature.
"Now, John!" she shouted. John responded by summoning Perseus and having him ram the door with his arm-mounted shield. The now-brittle wall crumbled easily from the force, opening a way to the room where Rose and her Shadow were standing.
It looked like an elegant throne room, with royal purple drapes and banners hanging around, as well as massive murals of wizards lining the walls.
"Oh, look. Your friends are here to hear all about you." Shadow Rose said, sitting in the throne sideways with a hand supporting her head.
"You can continue talking all you wish, but you're not going to upset me." Rose responded. "I've already told you, I accept you as who I am."
"You can say that all you want, but is it really true?" Shadow Rose asked. "You have to mean it! And you don't. You're frustrated, I can tell. You're upset because I'm not going away when you tell me to. Because things aren't going your way."
Rose said nothing, her stoic, emotionless face giving way to a frown. Her Shadow was touching a nerve.
"You think you've got everything figured out, don't you?" Shadow Rose said, descending from her throne and approaching Rose. "Books, studying, being informed, being ahead of the academic game... That's knowledge. Not wisdom. You have a singular lack of a sense of practical application, and you know it."
"You're wrong." Rose said defiantly as her Shadow drew closer. "That's not what I'm like." she protested, her plan of ignoring her Shadow's taunting going up in flames.
"When you're out of your element, you get upset. When things aren't going how you like, your tough, high-and-mighty act shatters instantly. Even John is more adaptable than you are!"
"Stop!" Rose cried out, her facade of emotionlessness completely eroded.
"The world isn't going to bend to your will. It's high time you realize that and start doing something more productive than writing shitty fanfiction that no one will ever read! Trust me, I know! Because I am you, and you are me!"
"No!" Rose shouted. "No, you are not me!"
"Dammit!" Dave said, summoning his Persona. It was coming. John and Jade did the same, preparing for battle.
Shadow Rose cackled loudly, undergoing her transformation. The room became much brighter as two massive, pearlescent wings emerged from the red smoke. Shadow Rose's main body came into view shortly after, resembling Rose wrapped in fancy linens. Her shining appearance was of great contrast to the interior of the dark, dimly lit castle. Shadow Rose carried two lances, both of them held high and proudly.
"I am a Shadow, the true self!" Shadow Rose announced. "Come and show me what you can do!"
Dave readily drew his sword and immediately let Hermes unleash its flurry of flames.
Shadow Rose recoiled slightly, but it was obvious that the attack was like a bug bite to her.
John had Perseus go next, bringing up a gust of wind at her. Again she was pushed back, taking little damage.
"It's going to take more than that!" Shadow Rose shouted, raising one of her lances and summoning a bolt of lightning. The bolt shot out and struck Dave square in the chest.
"FUCK!" Dave cried as he flew back. If Jade's weakness was fire and John's was ice, then it appeared that his was lightning. He hit the ground hard and slid a bit, dropping his katana.
"Dave!" Jade said, commanding Hypnos to use a healing spell on Dave.
Dave felt his strength returning as the spell hit him, and he was able to return to his feet. This was not an ideal; they were doing crap for damage to it, and it possessed the ability to hit his weakness.
Igor's words rang in his mind; Bonds were his power. Who was he close to?
Dave looked at Jade, who had a look of worry on her face. He remembered the card that had appeared in his mind, and heard a name being called out in his mind.
"Yatagarasu."
Dave understood what that meant.
Rising to his feet, Dave walked back over to where Hermes was floating, and raised his hand at it. Instead of directing it to throw more fire, Dave motioned his hand as if flipping something over.
Hermes faded into blue light and became a card again, floating back down to Dave.
"Yatagarasu!" he shouted. The Fortune image that was on his card changed to the Sun, and when shattered, a different Persona emerged in front of him.
A large, three-legged crow floated in the air in front of Dave. This is what Igor meant when he referred to his multiple Personas. He couldn't control more than one; at least, not at one time. It made sense now.
Dave felt confident with his new Persona floating above him. Shadow Rose, on the other hand, looked enraged. With an inhuman roar, she sent another lightning bolt at Dave, intending to snuff him out permanently.
The bolt reached Dave, but was instantly reflected back at Shadow Rose, striking her with great force.
"Badass!" Dave shouted in delight. John and Jade looked at Yatagarasu in awe, wondering if they too could use multiple Personas. Dave would have to inform them otherwise at a later time.
Rose's shadow rose from the ground and flapped its wings angrily. "Very well! You leave me no choice! Hama!" it shouted, raising one of its lances. The lance shone with a twinkle.
Jade was surrounded by shining pieces of paper, resembling Japanese curse tags. The tags floated for a second and then brightened, catching Jade in a bright flash. She cried out for a moment, then fell to the ground unconscious. Her Persona faded away as she hit the ground.
"Jade!" Dave said, having his Persona send out a blast of fire.
Shadow Rose backed down slightly. John went over to Jade, looking to Dave. "Goad her into throwing another lightning bolt! I think she might take more damage from attacks reflected back at her."
Dave nodded and stood in front of John and Jade, his Persona flying in front of him.
Shadow Rose again threw out a lightning bolt that redirected itself back at her. Dave wondered how much she could take before she realized it was pointless.
With another shriek, Shadow Rose unleashed the attack that she had used on Jade. Dave found himself surrounded by the tags, and braced himself for the flash. He felt himself completely unnafected, however; his change in Personas made him effectively immune to Shadow Rose's attacks.
"Take it out!" Dave shouted, having Yatagarasu fly forward and strike at the shadow with its three talons as Dave charged forward.
Shadow Rose descended as she was assaulted by the crow, and when she was within reach, Dave leapt forward and dug his sword right into her, dragging her down to the floor completely. She dropped her lances and dissipated into smoke, leaving a tired Dave to revel in his tactical victory.
Jade came to shortly after, struggling to her feet. The battle had taken a lot out of her; they would have to be weary of any attacks like that in the future.
Dave looked back towards the throne, where Rose was getting back to her feet and looking at her shadow. She seemed to have calmed down.
"Rose, we don't judge you!" Jade called out. "We understand!"
Rose looked at Jade with a forlorn frown, but nodded. She turned back to her Shadow. "Alright, I'll admit it. I can be a spoiled brat. I can be impossible to deal with when my dealings go sour. I accept that as a part of myself that I hope to diminish. There's no point in being confident about who I am unless I truly accept everything about me. Which includes you... because you are me."
Shadow Rose smiled and faded into a card, and then to a floating robed woman wearing a crown and sporting smaller versions of Shadow Rose's pearlescent wings. Rose announced its name to be 'Isis', and was bathed in a blue glow as it disappeared.
"Ready to leave?" Rose asked, turning to the others wearily. She fell to her knees, but Dave ran over to pick her up and support her.
"Ready when you are." he responded, helping her through the newly formed door to the outside world, followed by John and Jade.
_
The rest of the night passed quickly as the entire group was considerably worn out, and sleep quickly took them as they went to bed.
The following Saturday morning, Rose called them all to the living room table and laid out a deck of cards.
"These are Tarot Cards." Rose said, laying out a few as an example. "Apparently we each correspond to one in the computer world. I am represented by the High Priestess..." she said, flipping over the card of the High Priestess, numbered II.
"Jade, by the Sun..." she continued flipping over the card of the Sun, numbered XIX.
"And John, by the Fool." she said, flipping over the card of the Fool, numbered 0.
"What about me?" Dave asked, reaching for the card of the Fortune, numbered X.
"From what John and Jade told me, you summoned a second Persona during the battle. I was hardly conscious for most of it, but I trust what they say."
"Yeah, I can do that apparently. I have this 'Wild Card' power. I get dreams sometimes, different than what you guys get. I appear in this room, that they call 'The Velvet Room'. It's got this freaky dude with a huge nose, and this blonde chick standing with him. They tell me all about what I can do, but it's all cryptic and shit. I have to sit there and think about it."
Rose tilted her eyebrow. "The 'Wild Card'?"
Dave nodded. "Yeah. Igor says it's the ability to turn 'bonds into power'. Basically if I'm friends with someone that represents a tarot, I can summon a new Persona from that. Like Yatagarasu, he came from the Sun Arcanum or whatever you call it, which is Jade's."
Jade blushed, thankful that she was able to help.
"I think only people who are invited to that room have that power, though." Dave said. "He called me 'one of the first guests in a while' or something. So there must have been people before me."
"Then it's safe to assume that the three of us do not possess the ability." Rose said, taking a sip of her coffee. Dave couldn't help but shake her head; Rose took her coffee black, something which confounded Dave. He could never drink coffee without tons of sugar. No cream though. He wasn't a little girl.
"Dave, I think it's also safe to assume that you will most likely be more powerful than any of us with this ability." Rose continued. "If you can adapt your abilities as the situation demands, then you will have more versatility than any of us."
Dave nodded. "I guess that's pretty useful." he said.
Jade looked up. "I wonder what it's going to be like now that we've all got Personas though. Each time we entered with someone who was new, we ended up in some little world tailored towards them, including me and that forest. If we've all got Personas, where do we go?"
"We should find out." John said. "Maybe they're something like tutorials, and now that everyone's got a Persona, we can enter the main game."
"Except that this isn't a game, Egbert." Dave said.
"It's kinda like one." John replied. "Things have elemental weaknesses, we hit bad guys with blunt or sharp objects, yadda yadda. Sounds like a video game to me."
"In any case, we'll just have to find out when we go in the next time." Rose said. "Now that each of us possesses a Persona, we should be able to combat anything that threatens us. With Dave's Wild Card, we'll be at an even greater advantage."
Dave hated having people depend on him or viewing him as a leader, but it appeared he had no choice. It wasn't like he could just give his power away to one of the others. At least, he didn't think he could.
"Alright. We'll go later tonight though; it's still early." Dave said. "And as much as I hate to admit it, we still have school to worry about. So we should probably limit computer world visits to once a night. We're all exhausted after going in anyway."
Rose nodded. "We'll also have to keep this a secret from the others."
Dave looked at her. "The others?"
"The seniors? Dirk, Jake, Jane, and Roxy? They're all moving in starting next week. Seniors start a week later than we do."
"They should be here tomorrow, actually." John said.
"Then we'll have to do this someplace else. One of our rooms." Jade said.
Dave and John immediately threw their hands up, saying "Not mine" simultaneously.
Rose shook her head. "I'd prefer it not be mine either."
Jade sighed. "Alright, my room. We can do it there."
"Then it's settled. Tonight, we'll head in from here and see if anything's up. Then tomorrow, if we need to go back, we can use Jade's room. We can just say we're studying together or something." Dave said.
"We'll just have to avoid getting caught." John said. "It's kind of exciting!"
Dave nodded with a slight smile. He had no idea that the situation was much larger than they all could have ever realized.
