A/Note: I had this plot idea late at night. So I ended up writing it. I was playing P4 and Tales of Legendia, which sidetracked me quite a bit. I finished Tales of Legendia first because I was further in that and it was my first time playing. I was excited because I love the Tales series. My sister got me into it. Finished P4 wasn't too surprised by the plot twist; it was the first time I played it by the way. I watch anime, if you can tell by my name and what I have written. There was a line that was the same in Tales of Legendia that was in P4, cause of their darker selves that they had to fight too in ToL. If you're wondering which game is older, Tales of Legendia, you can tell by the graphics and the artwork. Tales of Legendia is still a good game though. Excuse my rambling.

Disclaimer: I don't own Persona 3.

Chapter 10

SEES

As the next day came, Mitsuru thought it would be a good idea to stay home instead of going out for the weekend. A lot of them agreed for the fact that some of them were actually injured. Everything had to be figured out since they only have so long. All of them actually agreed with it because of what made them do so. Junpei would've been against it if it wasn't for the fact that he was injured and can't be healed. No matter how much time in the evening they spent thinking about by themselves they wouldn't be able to come up with anything. Mitsuru mentioned that they all would have to talk about each different reality or universe that they had occupied.

A lot of them were quiet, as they started to gather in the lounge for the day. The last to show up was Ken since he was having trouble walking at the moment from the poison. Yukari sat there feeling nauseous to the pit of her stomach. Junpei was holding his bandaged side with a pained look on his face. They all looked at each other expecting someone to begin this conversation with none of them wanting to talk. Talking about such things was a bother it wasn't anything that anyone of them wanted to do at the moment. All of them didn't feel too confident about what they experienced. Aigis looked at Fuuka then at Koromaru then opened her mouth as if she was about to speak.

"My experience was in a dark place where I have exterminated all Shadows. Under the forces of my sister units, but I knew by the way everything looked that I wasn't in Tartarus. My sister units and I were looked at as heroes. I also remembered that I had someone that I must stay beside. I heard a voice grading me saying these words, 'You have succeeded in not falling for the façade. You are granted to return'. I followed a bright light to Tartarus."

Fuuka looked at Aigis, "You're the first to break the silence. I'm surprised."

"I believe that the ones that are not afraid to speak should go first," Aigis said with a reassuring smile.

Minato looked at Aigis then looked away.

Fuuka looked at everyone releasing a breath silently, "Mine wasn't that bad. My experience only had only four of the SEES members; Shinjiro-senpai, Akihiko-senpai, Mitsuru-senpai and Yukari. They were the only ones that lived in the dorm. Apparently I didn't live in the dorm either just like Ken, Koromaru, Junpei and Minato. I woke up on the floor of my classroom with everyone surrounding me. I kept sensing Juno faintly while I was there. That made me wonder why the SEES members never once spoke to each other. None of the members have the power of Persona. They told me that I had passed and my worries are what saved me. They took me to Tartarus… They helped me to the top, and that's where I heard the voice grade me as I went up the stairs, 'You have realized that this was a false reality before your wishes or weaknesses that you truly desire have been accumulated. You have succeeded'."

"I see why you questioned Elizabeth about that. It doesn't coincide with what she said," Mitsuru understanding as she crossed her arms.

Fuuka nodded, "Yes, but it did seem that way after I thought about it last night. It would've been a fake compared to ours… Koro-chan, what happened to you?"

Koromaru started barking a few times.

"Koromaru says, 'He was back at the temple where his master was still alive. He smelled food and was about to go over to it, when he sensed that something was off. It was too good to be true. Since he senses things sometimes faster than a human it helped him realize the situation before it got too late. He was told this when he was walking to Tartarus, 'You, the dog of SEES, has realized this world was false. You have passed'." Aigis translated.

They all sat there looking at the ground after looking down on the floor. They were gathering the information in their minds as the rest of them were getting courage to speak. Minato looked in the direction of the Akihiko who had his hand on the shoulder that was dislocated. He seemed as though he was in pain and didn't get much sleep. Minato looked at the ones in much pain and observed them with nothing being shown on his face. This was something that they all had to do, but it will be painful for the ones that are injured. Minato looked straight ahead looking at Mitsuru with their eyes meeting as she was looking at him.

Minato started to speak, "You know what happened through Elizabeth, but I had failed unlike Aigis, Mitsuru, Koromaru, and Fuuka."

Junpei looked at Minato, "You actually failed!"

"Yeah, I was sent out to get some groceries. I heard someone mutter some names. Mina and Sato. I thought they were talking about someone they know. No, they were trying to say my name. That's when I was riding the bus to the store… I did question everything, but it was hard to when feelings for Shinjiro got in the way. I didn't understand why I loved him. I just remembered the times that I spent with him. And thought that I loved him, but I never felt that way. It felt as if a different force was making me feel that way. But when it was later in the day, me and Shinjiro went to bed and made love. There was too much unanswered. That's when Shinjiro was starting to act strange to me," He paused for a moment.

Mitsuru still looked at him, "What else had happened? Sorry, but we must know."

Minato looked down, "A skeleton with maggots form from Shinjiro while he was leaning above me. I pushed him and then he said, 'Do you want this decayed body so much to accept this reality'. After that I started to hear a voice saying, 'You have accepted the reality. Yet you, Minato Arisato, still accepted it with open arms. You have showed weakness to the one that you love'. I denied it because of the fact that I questioned. Shinjiro returned to normal when he was back to normal he went up to me, then kissed me starting to decay then he turned to dust right in front of my eyes."

They all sat in silence absorbing the information as if they were having trouble with pieces. The silence was something they didn't mind, but also was kind of disturbing with what had just been said. Yukari shivered just thinking about what happened to Minato. It was as horrifying as her experience. The Sanada looked at each one of them then looked down at his bleeding wrists. In that moment they all felt that they could understand what happened even more, as each of them spoke. Mitsuru was trying to piece the information correctly with hers or there would be a problem. In that moment one of their teammates went to go get some snacks to eat when some of them have the stomach for it. Fuuka sat the snacks down on the lounge table, and then sat down on the couch that she was on. The silence continued until someone else started to speak up.

Akihiko looked down with his hands together on one of his knees, "I awoke at a boxing match because I was unconscious from a hit. I lost fight, but I found out that my sister and Shinji were alive. My little sister Miki and Shinjiro were making my favorite food because of the fact that it was going to be my birthday soon. She asked him to help teach her to cook it. Shinjiro was arrested by Officer Kurosawa for a suspect of a death. It was actually some gang that had done it. I had to go beat some of them to get them to squeal. But in the end Shinji was the same person as he was here. The confusing thing for me to understand is that the Shinji that we know helped me, as if it was his spirit, but doesn't sound right."

"What do you mean, senpai," Yukari asked.

Akihiko looked up at everyone, "He helped me escape. He told me that this wasn't real. I was there for almost a week. A week, while putting all my suspicions to the side, and I should've kept to my gut like I usually do. When Shinjiro told me, I became aware of the situation again. As soon as I showed my gratitude to Shinji, everything around me changed to pitch black. That's when I heard the same voice as everyone else saying, 'You have failed to see reality in the end, but had regained the sense of reality. You have slightly passed, but you were average. You sank into that reality, but you came back'. That's what happened."

Junpei looked at Akihiko, "That's how you ended up with the injuries, right?"

"Yeah, something invisible started to attack me. I could barely protect myself. That coward," Akihiko answered clenching his hands.

Yukari looked at Akihiko, "I didn't get attacked like you, Junpei, and Ken. I… I awoke in the dorm at my desk. I guess I had fallen asleep there. So grabbed my stuff so I could head to school, but Minato was at the door. Since he was my boyfriend he walked me to school and back. He was acting different… When we came back to the dorm, I confronted the rest of team. They thought I was nuts. Tartarus was just some club that was going to open up. That's when I thought that meant my dad was alive. I called him and talked to him. Hearing his voice and seeing that it was true made me cry. Then Minato came to my room with a… cake… He said it was for our anniversary. We sat down and ate. I had two slices. He told me that he made it himself with his own blood. I ended up feeling sick after that. He had me scared when he started to act psychotic. He even slit my neck a little. I started to panic, but all he did was hug me I saw the cake turn into sludge that had his blood and other stuff that I could only guess came from people. There were even worms… I can't talk about that anymore. The cake was never ending. He was feeding me more of it as he kissed me. It even seemed as though he was going to rape me or something."

"You did get attacked though," Junpei said worried.

Yukari nodded slightly, "Yeah, but it wasn't as bad as it was for you guys."

Junpei looked at her closely, "What did the bastard give you?"

"I failed. While Minato was attacking me he said, 'This reality you have chosen was of naught. Minato will never be yours with your choice in choosing this path of weakness. Your father is really dead'," Yukari said having her hand over her stomach.

When Fuuka was about to say something to her, Yukari quickly got up and started for the bathroom. She was quick on her feet as she made it to the bathroom. Koromaru whimpered while looking over to the bathroom. They all sat looking toward that direction, and then they looked down hearing Takeba vomiting. The puking sounded awful as if it wasn't ending. Yukari walked out of the bathroom with Koromaru running up to her. He was trying to cheer her up. She petted him while having a small gentle smile take over her lips. Yukari then walked back into the lounge taking her seat with Koromaru sitting beside her now.

"Have you been feeling that way all night," Fuuka asked with concern.

Yukari nodded, "I feel awful at every minute of the day."

"That sucks. It's like us being in pain every minute of the day with our wounds," Junpei voiced with his hand on his side then looked at his other bandaged hand.

Ken looked at Junpei with sweat going down his forehead, "What happened with you, Junpei? You keep looking at your hands?"

Junpei looked at the wounded child, "Wellll, mine was kinda odd…"

"Odd," Ken asked touching where the spider had laid its eggs.

Junpei nodded, "To me it was. I had been woken up in class by Ms. Toriumi. I thought I was dreaming about everything. Chidori was my girlfriend so I hung out with her sometimes. Hell even Ryoji was there. I tried to talk to Minato about Aigis. He knew nothing about her. No one knew who I was. Minato and Yukari were the only ones that knew who I was because we are in the same class. I just started to enjoy the peaceful time I was having with them. After probably a few days, things started to go downhill. It went down like this, everything started to mess up in my eyes as if I knew I shouldn't believe the place. Then the lights went out. Everyone started to freak out as that happened while Ms. Toriumi was trying to calm everyone down. Something invisible grabbed her around her neck picking her up… It killed her… Next thing that happened Yukari got attacked, while all of our classmates were trying to escape. She ended up…"

"What did I do," Yukari asked not sure if she wanted to know.

Junpei decided to continue, "Well, whatever was crawling on you was starting to make you…well, stripped. But you were doing it to get it off of you. I was trying to hit with a ruler, but you weren't standing still. You ended up trying to jump out the window when you just had a bra on with skirt and underwear. When I finally got it off of you, you calmed down and was given a jacket to cover yourself. While I was going to get rid of whatever it was that attacked our class out of the way Minato came up and stabbed me in the side when my back was turned. I ended up falling to the ground. Yukari even helped him injure one of my hands. She strangled me with her bow while she was on my back naked. Her and Minato were laughing at me as I was bleeding and getting choked to death."

"Um… Sorry, you know I wouldn't do that to you," Yukari apologized with blush knowing what he said about her being naked.

Junpei smiled a little, "Don't worry, Yuka-tan, I know you wouldn't do that. You'd step on my foot, but you wouldn't try to kill me."

"No, I wouldn't," Yukari smiled at her friend.

Junpei's smile got bigger, "That's better, Yuka-tan."

"What about you, Ken? I've been wondering how you got so injured," Yukari asked toward the direction of Ken.

Ken looked down with sweat beading down his head, "My mom did this to me. She summoned two arthropods. A scorpion and spider. They came from inside her. The spider infected my body with its own babies. The scorpion just poisoned me badly when spider webbed to the wall. That's how I ended up like this. Also my mom tried to drown me in the bath tub. I survived though. In the beginning something wasn't right when I woke up in my room. I heard my mom's voice calling me down for breakfast. Went to school after hugging her, but I ran into Yukari and Minato talking on the train. I ran into almost every member of SEES, without anyone realizing it. I had a dream that had my memories telling me something important. That's when all of it started with that person called my mom started to attack me. The voice was the same as hers. But the voice didn't change when it graded me, 'Time for your results. You had good understanding to know that you should stay in the thought process of your memories. Yet, you, Ken Amada, had trouble not seeing through your mother even though you had plenty of time to do so. You had done nothing to figure out the situation… In the end you failed'."

"I don't get what we have to understand before facing that asshole," Junpei expressed with annoyance.

Akihiko nodded in agreement, "For once I have to agree with you… Like we've said before maybe the answers are within them."

"Yes, and we only have one more to listen to before we try to figure it out some more," Mitsuru replied.

Junpei realizes something then looked at Mitsuru, "Wait a minute! Senpai, you're the only one that hasn't said anythin'. You've been staying quiet, even though you passed your test."

"Yes, I may have succeeded in guaranteeing my safety. The other SEES members made me concern about the others in their reality. It would seem mine is the closest to any reality with alternate decisions that have been carried out," Mitsuru said crossing her arms.

Yukari looked at her confused, "You mean the decisions that the other SEES made? Were they that different than us?"

"Afraid so, Takeba. It was in the middle of a speech that I was giving that I came to. I knew there was something wrong. I remember sensing a presence among the students and staff. The presence was lingering for some time. It was even there when I was in the shower later. Since I was cautious ever since being put in the situation, my alertness was escalated. I didn't pay heed to anyone around me after noticing people that were legitimately dead; having seen their demise in person. I wasn't suede to believe that actual reality, yet everything felt real enough. Every person that I saw had liveliness within them," Mitsuru explained.

Akihiko nodded, "I know what you mean, Mitsuru. Shinjiro looked real enough to touch him, and he body heat."

"Yeah, I understand that too. Chidori was so alive and I was able to touch her. Feel her again. She felt alive and she looked well," Junpei spoke as if he missed it.

Mitsuru nodded taking their comments in, "I see… Then I will continue. As my suspicions were high, I gathered the SEES members when they all returned from their affairs after school. I wanted to speak with them about my concerns. They acted as if they knew nothing, when truly did know something. They took me to Tartarus guiding the way as if they already had treaded it. Their Tartarus was completely different from ours. Tartarus seemed more welcoming towards them. That place was more unfathomable. I had no comprehension of the place. The team seemed to enjoy mercilessly killing the Shadows. Their Minato was acting as leader, but was more of controlling than anything. He ordered them around as if they were dogs. He made orders without mercy towards them. They didn't mind though because of the fact that they were bringing Nyx…"

"Wait a minute! They were the ones bringing Nyx! But we're supposed to be the heroes," Junpei exclaimed shock.

Fuuka shook her head, "That can't be right!"

"I'm sorry, but that's how they were. Strega was fighting for our reasons. I tried to get their Akihiko to be leader, but he denied position for that reason. I am afraid to know what exactly that Minato does with that team if they don't succeed. That Minato may look frail, but he was indeed some sort of tyrant when it comes to Tartarus. I couldn't question them about much since that Minato tossed me to the stairs. I heard the verdict on the scenario, as I had told you yesterday," Mitsuru finished as she crossed her legs.

They all went silent once more not knowing what to say. All their thought processes were all on high. Junpei scratched the back of his neck not sure what to think. Their minds trying to tell them what pieces they need to put together. No one knew when the pieces will be set in the places that they needed. The team started to scatter throughout the dorm to think everything through. It was getting later than any one of them would think. While thinking about the occurrences that were told, they went on with their daily lives within the dorm. As they all came to their own conclusions, SEES started to bring themselves back to the lounge.

Members began sitting down in their usual places. There were snacks still sitting on the lounge table. As they all began to get comfortable once again, Akihiko drank his protein shake. Junpei went for a snack that was sitting on the table. Minato took his earphones off his ears and started to turn off his MP3. Each of them was getting themselves prepared to speak what they had come up with. They all were ready to end this with the person or Shadow that they were up against. They weren't going to take anything that their enemy is going to throw sitting down.

"I believe that maybe they were alternate realities, because we were able to feel the pain that were upon us. Nothing that would be an illusion would feel that real," Mitsuru began.

Akihiko nodded, "I agree with Mitsuru. Shinjiro and everyone else were too real to be an illusion."

"Even though the SEES members that I meant said they were fake, but I do believe they were living and breathing with like us. They even said that they have my friends image, but that didn't mean that they were completely fake," Fuuka admitted while agreeing with them.

Yukari agreed, "Then it truly was an alternate reality then. Everything didn't feel or taste phony to any one of us."

"Yeah, then what type of Arcana might this enemy might be," Ken inquired towards Fuuka.

Fuuka shook her head, "I have no idea. I don't think any of us could possibly be able to figure that out on our own. We should've asked Elizabeth while we still could."

"That doesn't matter. You could figure that out once we get 'em," Akihiko mentioned.

Aigis nodded, "Indeed. We shall analyze the enemy before performing offensive maneuvers. We will most likely have a high casualty rate. I also believe that the rating system is for knowing how easily we may fall for a ploy or our worth in fighting."

Koromaru barked.

"Koromaru agrees with my theory," Aigis translated.

Minato looked at everyone with his eyes, "Does this mean we all agree with each other?"

Everyone nodded as Mitsuru began to speak, "I believe so. We shall return to Tartarus immediately tomorrow night."

"Does that mean we should prepare for tomorrow," Ken asked wiping away some more sweat.

Mitsuru nodded, "Yes."

Everyone all agreed about heading back to Tartarus tomorrow. SEES decided to head back to their assigned rooms to prepare with what little that they had. Tomorrow will be their victory to the enemy that had asked for their hands in battle. They will get all the equipment that will be needed tomorrow as well as new weapons. They will unleash every inch of their power if they have to. All of their potential: because they are the only ones that can stop it.

A/Note: Sorry for that rambling in the beginning. It just that I remember that from a month ago, something like that is hard to forget. Anyways, thank you for reading this chapter. I would love to know your thoughts on this thus far.