Dave woke in a cold sweat the next morning. For a moment he thought that he had visited the Velvet Room the previous night, but he couldn't remember anything that was said; this was in stark contrast to his normal visits where each cryptic riddle that Igor muttered had become burned into his mind. No, what he had dreamed of was just that; a dream. A nightmare, truly.
He couldn't show anyone that he was having so much trouble coping with his precarious situation. It was paramount to keeping up his cool exterior, and it would probably demoralize the others to see their unwilling leader having a mental breakdown.
A quick glance to his clock showed him that is was 5 AM. It was probably not the best idea to simply return to bed. He didn't want to dream anymore.
Dave descended the stairs in his school uniform, in case that Terezi would be rescued in time for school. With the way time passed in the computer world, one could never be sure.
As he suspected, no one was awake yet. Dave pondered making pancakes, but ended up settling for just a cup of coffee instead.
A soft knock on the door startled him a few minutes later. Who the hell was knocking at 5 in the morning?
A quick peek through the door's peephole answered his question. When Vriska said 'first thing in the morning', she really meant it. Dave opened the door and let her in.
"I know I'm early, but I couldn't sleep." Vriska said, carrying her laptop to the sofa. "I didn't think any of you would be awake either, really. I was prepared to wait outside for a few hours."
"Well, you just joined the 'Couldn't Sleep' club. I've been acting president for a few days." Dave responded, passing her a cup of coffee as well as a bit of cream and sugar in case she wanted any.
Vriska nodded in thanks. "Are we gonna wake any of the others?"
"I can go get Egbert and English, I guess. I'm not sure if the three people we're not taking will take kindly to being left out. But we need at least someone going to school today." Dave answered. "We're already a big enough group that we might get some shit for skipping class together. If we all did it at once, administration would probably group us together and take steps against us."
"Yeah, 'went into freaky computer world to save classmate's soul' is a pretty shitty excuse, huh?"
"Fuckin' shame, too, since it happens so often." Dave mused, sipping his coffee. "Let's let the others sleep a little longer while we stew in our early rising. They'll need their energy."
Dave had just placed a note on the fridge explaining that he needed Jade, Jane, and Dirk to skip out on the computer world today to prevent all of them from being punished together when he heard footsteps. John, Rose and Roxy descended the stairs with their laptops.
"Couldn't wake Jake up." John said. "He can go with the others today. Five of us will be enough."
Dave nodded and opened up his laptop on the coffee table. "We ready, then?"
Roxy nodded and placed her laptop out. "Ready as we'll ever be!" she exclaimed. Dave was surprised by her energetic mood. The specifics of her alcoholism continued to elude him; he was certain that she had plenty to drink the previous night, yet she seemed to not be hungover in the slightest. All the better for their upcoming mission, at least.
Rose was the last to open her laptop. "I'm ready." she confirmed.
Dave nodded to everyone and typed the code, losing consciousness a moment after.
The group was greeted by the voice that filled Asphodel. "New user registration confirmed. Player limit increased to six. Welcome, Vriska Serket."
Vriska took a step forward from where she had appeared, then reached up to her head. The candy-corn-like horns that had appeared the last time were there once again, and her skin was once again a dull grey tone. "What gives?" she asked no one in particular, running her hands along her horns.
John approached her, studying them. Their texture was bone-like, and the colors were distinctly separated, not blended as gradients. "I don't really get it. If this place is like a game, then maybe this is like a glitch?"
"Whatever it is, it only happens in here." Rose commented. "Did you hear what the voice said? Player limit increased to six. I assume we can take more people into each world now."
"Sounds like it." Dave agreed, nodding. "Five should be good. Let's go."
Roxy jogged over to a new door. "The place looks bigger than the last time I was here."
"Asphodel likely expands itself to create room for more doors." Rose answered. "As more people are brought in to create more worlds, the arcade will grow accordingly. This is all assumption, anyhow."
"Yeah, yeah." Vriska said, standing next to Roxy at the new door. "Let's get Terezi while we still can."
Rose huffed and joined the others in walking through the door.
Dave was last, doing what the others failed to do; reading the label of the door.
"Terezi Pyrope: Sadistic Courtroom. Great, more crazy." he muttered as he stepped through.
True to the door's label, Dave found himself in a dimly-lit court-house hall. By squinting his eyes, he could tell that the walls were accenuated with random smears of blood.
"Oh, that's lovely." Vriska commented, taking the lead. The others materialized their weapons, including Roxy who wielded a scoped, fully-automatic assault rifle. Dave had already found Jade's high-tech hunting rifle to be over the top; this was just ridiculous.
Vriska noticed what the others did and clenched her fist. After a small flash, she found a few dice in her hand. They seemed to be made of a high-quality blue gemstone material, and appeared to be of the D8 variety.
Dave's eyebrow quirked. "Well, that's a load of shit. Everyone gets a hammer or a fucking gun, but you end up with some shitty dice."
"Hey, these aren't shitty at all. I bet they'll be pretty useful, thank you very much!" Vriska retorted, smiling at her dice.
"If you say so. I guess that's what the Personas are for anyway." Dave answered, walking further down the hall.
Soft whispers could be heard from every direction, resembling the sound of a group of people trying to gossip in secret. The only sounds breaking the constant whispers were the words of the Persona-users or the occasional slamming of a gavel from deep within the courthouse. As they walked further, the whispers grew only louder.
Dave kicked open a door to find a large empty room. At the opposite side of the room was an ornate door, no doubt the one that lead to the main courtroom and Terezi's location. Blood splatters dotted the floor just as they decorated the walls.
"It's a little too quiet, isn't it?" John asked as he followed everyone into the room.
"Dammit, Egbert, that's right up there with 'what could possibly go wrong?' and 'it's probably nothing'." Dave muttered. As he finished his sentence, large metal bars appeared in front of both the entrance and the exit of the room, effectively locking the group inside.
Black puddles began forming in the far corners of the room, with various shadows taking form and slowly creeping towards the group. They resembled men in prison outfits, complete with a large of ball and chain on each one's ankle.
Instinctively, Dave called out to the Arcana that he held in his heart, settling on the Lovers. He felt that he had substantially more control over his power now, but still wouldn't be able to tell what Persona would come forth until he summoned it.
"Tam Lin!" he shouted, bringing forth the Lovers Card and slicing through it with his katana. Materializing into view was a blonde man clad in teal armor and wielding a deadly-looking spear. It was by far the most 'human' Persona that Dave had called as of yet,
The others called forth their Personas as well, including Roxy's previously-unseen Artemis. Artemis had the appearance of a huntress, clad in sleek armor and sporting long, shining purple hair. Her most striking feature was her lack of a right hand; instead, her right arm ended in a metallic crossbow, likely able to be used not only as a ranged weapon, but as a deadly bludgeon as well.
The shadows continued their slow approach, being joined by more of their brethren as they got closer.
Vriska was the first to act, tossing a handful of her dice at an approaching shadow. The small dice exploded into a burst of electricity, knocking the shadow away. Immediately after the throw, another set of dice materialized in Vriska's hand to replace her used set. Smirking, Vriska silently commanded Arachne to spray a small circle of webbing on the ground around her, helping to keep the shadows at bay while she peppered them with her dice. Each of her dice-throws seemed to have a random effect; some produced a fiery explosion, while others created a shower of icicles that rained on enemies.
Roxy, unable to get a good vantage point in the empty room, decided to make one herself. Artemis fired an arrow that struck the ground at Roxy's feet, creating an ice pillar that shot up and carried Roxy with it. With a height advantage, Roxy began picking enemies off with her rifle.
Dave was impressed by his new Persona's strong physical prowess, and found himself fighting side-by-side with Tam Lin in the middle of the fray. The shadows themselves weren't dangerous on their own; their numbers made them a threat, and their constant spawning rate didn't help the situation.
Completely unfazed, Rose focused on having Iris sending lightning bolts at any shadow that approached with deadly accuracy. Her curse-tag attack, Mahama, failed to hit with complete accuracy, and only took out a few of the shadows.
Despite their efforts, the shadows kept pressing their advance, forcing the group to back away closer to Roxy's ice pillar.
Vriska kept tossing sets of dice into the crowd, creating multicolored explosions that took at least some of the constant pressure off of the group.
"You've got to be fucking kidding!" Dave shouted as Tam Lin impaled a shadow on his spear, tossing it away with one simple swing.
"Got any other tricks up your sleeve?" John called as Perseus sent gusts at incoming shadows.
"Maybe!" Dave shouted, recalling Tam Lin and mustering up his will to use the Fool Arcana next. Perhaps his next Persona would be more effective against large groups.
"Loki!" he called, bringing forth the card of The Fool and shattering it. In Tam Lin's place appeared a purple-skinned, blonde man draped in a long white cloak. Loki stood much taller than Dave, reaching at least 7 feet.
"That works!" Roxy called. "Now get him to do something! Quick!" she added as she picked off the shadows that began chipping at her ice pillar.
Dave turned his head to Loki, who simply nodded and swung his arm out dramatically, his cloak flaring about as he gathered his magical power. Dave continued slicing at incoming shadows, trying to buy Loki time.
A large crack formed in Roxy's ice pillar, causing the entire structure to shatter and causing Roxy to plummet back to the ground into the middle of a crowd of the shadows. Even from the ground she fought back with her rifle and with Artemis, though the shadows clawed at her in her vulnerable state.
Dave's eyes widened as he sensed Loki was finished with his charging. A single word came to mind, which he uttered aloud.
"Niflheim!"
A single snapping sound rang in the room before all fell to silence. Ice began to form on the walls, slowly spreading to the ceiling and the floor.
Everyone's breaths began forming clouds of vapor as the temperature of the room rapidly dropped. The silence was suddenly broken by a large icicle shooting from the ceiling, crushing a group of shadows and disappearing right after. Another icicle shot from a different section of the ceiling and crushed yet another cluster of shadows. Soon enough, the room erupted with icicles springing forth from the ceiling and the floor, aiming at the many shadows in the room but completely avoiding Dave and his group.
The icy atmosphere died down as the last of the icicles disappeared, and the ice faded away from the walls. With the last shadows gone, Loki gave a nod to Dave and faded from view. Dave took a deep breath and then fell to his knees, the usage of Loki's spell taking a tremendous toll on his stamina.
John ran over and caught Dave, helping him up. "That was insane! Are you alright?"
"I feel like I just ran a fucking marathon." Dave responded, panting. "I can't use that again, I think it'd kill me at this point. I just need a break for a bit..."
"We don't have time for that!" Vriska shouted, approaching the exit of the room. The metal bars that had blocked their way faded with the shadow ambush, allowing them passage to the main court room. "You can rest after we save Terezi!"
"He just saved us from that legion of shadows. You could stand to be a bit more grateful." Rose lectured, crossing her arms.
"I am grateful! But I don't have time to talk about it, do I? Hurry up and get in here!" Vriska retorted, having Arachne bash the door in.
Beyond the door was a lavish courtroom, populated by dark humanoid figures that sat in the jury section; more shadows, no doubt. These shadows seemed docile, however. At the defense podium stood who Dave assumed to be Terezi, while another Terezi sat at the judge's podium with gavel in hand. The blue fog surrounding the Judge-Terezi made it clear that she was the shadow. Similarly to Vriska, Terezi seemed to sport horns and grey skin inside the computer, though her horns were less elaborate and resembled small spikes.
"Terezi!" Vriska shouted.
"Ah, excellent! More witnesses to your pitiful, self-destructive mental breakdown!" Shadow Terezi announced with a menacing giggle. "Should I start all over or just start from where we left off before they took care of all the escaped prisoners for me?"
"No!" protested the real Terezi. "Don't do this with Vriska here."
"What, you think she's the only one who doesn't think you're a fucked up piece of work? She knows it too!" Shadow Terezi responded, slamming her gavel. "Terezi can never make up her mind. Terezi's being a sociopath again! Terezi's going to Gamzee's room again even though he makes her feel like a worthless piece of shit!"
"You bitch!" Vriska shouted, aiming a throw of her dice.
John grabbed her arm to stop her. "This isn't something being made up, Vriska... this is Terezi talking to herself. It's the part of herself she repressed. It's just like with you."
"Repressed? Oh please!" Shadow Terezi shouted, once again slamming her gavel. "She tells herself this shit every night! This isn't anything she hasn't heard before."
Vriska couldn't bring herself to say anything, unaware of the torment that Terezi must have been putting herself through.
"You couldn't help it." Shadow Terezi continued, turning back to her normal self. "You never can. You keep swearing off acting like an idiot, telling yourself that you'll go on the straight-and-narrow, but like a junkie looking for a fix, you go right on back and put yourself on the self-destructive path the very next day!"
Terezi hung her head like a young child being lectured. "I know." she muttered.
"You talk about justice and a load of other bullshit. You want to be a big-shot, to put disgusting people in jail where they belong, but you're just as foul as the worst of them! Or should I say 'I'? Because I AM you. I'm the miserable sack of shit that you would see in the mirror every day, if you could even see!"
"I know!" Terezi shouted at her shadow self. "I know, alright? Everyone has these concrete ideas of what they want to do with their life but I don't! I never denied anything you said! I don't know how to make myself happy. Everything I do just makes me feel awful right after it's done."
Shadow Terezi looked onward, confused.
"Holy shit, is she accepting all that?" Dave asked. "Maybe we came here for nothing."
"Why do you think I stopped seeing Gamzee?" Terezi asked. "Why did I even ask you that, of course you know. I was trying to get away from how he made me feel... Like a piece of meat. You know all of that... because you are-"
Terezi suddenly lurched forward in a manner that seemed like her movements were not her own. She gasped aloud in pain, suddenly lurching backwards like a ragdoll until she was in a standing position. Her eyes began taking on a faint purple glow.
"Terezi! Hang on!" Vriska shouted, running towards the defendant's podium. Before she could make it halfway there, however, she too lost control over her body's movements and fell to the ground, convulsing and writhing in a similar manner to Terezi's lurching. Her eyes too began glowing a faint purple color.
"Oh, hell to the motherfuckin' no." called a familiar voice from behind the group. Dave whirled around, seeing who he indeed expected to see.
Gamzee, holding two flaming juggling clubs, strode casually into the courtroom. "What's good, motherfuckers? Enjoying the show?" he asked with an evilish grin. Akin to Vriska and Terezi, Gamzee also sported horns, though his were slightly curved and much taller than either of theirs. His skin was grey as well, though his face was painted white like a circus clown.
"You son of a bitch!" Vriska managed to cry as she attempted to fight the convulsions.
"So we were right. It was you." Dave stated. He readied his katana, despite the fact that he was still rather tired from his earlier exertions.
Gamzee laughed. "The fuck are you gonna do? There ain't no violence in the court, bro."
Shadow Terezi banged her gavel. "Excuse you, we're in the middle of a trial here! The last thing I wanted to hear was your voice."
"Just a sec, sis." Gamzee replied, suddenly standing among the shadows in the jury panel.
"Did he just teleport?" John asked, confused.
"Now, Rezi, what were you gonna say?" Gamzee continued with an evil grin. "What's the magic phrase that starts all the fun shit, huh?"
Terezi's mouth opened, again against her will. It was clear that Gamzee was exerting his control on both her and Vriska. Dave wondered why the same wasn't being done to subjugate himself and the others.
"You're... not..." Terezi muttered, as hard as she tried to stop herself from saying it. "Not... me."
Shadow Terezi stood from her podium. "Well, take what you can get, right?" she mused with a cackle, her dark blue fog turning blood red as she began her confirmation. Gamzee's laughter could be heard as well, though he wasn't anywhere to be see.
"Goddammit!" Dave exclaimed, summoning Tam Lin. He wouldn't be able to afford another elaborate attack like before.
The judge's podium crumbled and broke apart as Shadow Terezi's size grew, until finally the inky fog dissipated and revealed her true form. Shadow Terezi resembled her original self in face only; she floated from the ground but must have been at seven feet tall. Wrapped around her eyes was a blood-red cloth, and she was draped in a long judge's robe of the same color. In her left hand she held a set of scales of justice, and in her right she held a long, spiked judge's gavel that looked more like a warhammer than an actual gavel.
"I am a Shadow, the true self!" Shadow Terezi announced. "The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice! Prepare yourselves to be judged!"
Vriska finally brought herself to her feet; it seemed that Gamzee was no longer in control of her body. Arachne appeared behind her as soon as she was able to control her arms. "Gamzee, you're going to pay once we're done with this!" she shouted, even if Gamzee was apparently no longer there.
Shadow Terezi swung her gavel-hammer in a wide arc in an intimidating manner, turning her head to Vriska. Her blindfold glowed for a moment. "Your weakness has been judged!" she shouted, lifting her scales. A gust of wind rushed forth and struck Vriska and Arachne, sending them both away into a wall.
Roxy gasped and stood in front of Vriska, readying her gun as Artemis prepared to attack. A spear of ice struck and shattered upon Shadow Terezi, doing no significant damage. The Shadow grunted and turned to Rose, her blindfold glowing once again. Once the glow faded, a bolt of lightning shot through the air and hit Artemis, knocking both her and Roxy to the ground.
Rose looked to Dave. "She possesses the ability to identify our weaknesses at a moment's notice!" she shouted.
"Then let's hope Tam Lin doesn't die from a single lightning bolt." Dave muttered, hoping that he'd be able to stand another rough fight.
Shadow Terezi turned to John next, reading his weakness and sending a barrage of hailstones his way. At this rate, the fight would be lost in record time.
Dave readied himself and charged Shadow Terezi as she was turned on John. Tam Lin flew in after him and his spear met the shadow's hammer. Dave struck with his sword, ripping the long red robe as Tam Lin held her attention.
Shadow Terezi's blindfold glowed brightly as she attempted to scan Tam Lin but was unsuccessful in finding a weakness; in exchange for having no elemental attacks, Tam Lin was weak to no element. Shadow Terezi roared in defiance, pushing harder against Tam Lin's spear while Dave continued to harass her from below.
Rose attempted her unreliable Hama spell once more, and it again had no effect. It appeared that while it had the capability to wipe out weaker shadows, it was completely ineffective against stronger shadow forms.
John joined Dave in his harassment while Perseus used his buckler as a bludgeon on Shadow Terezi. Dave felt confident that their swarming tactics would be enough to overwhelm Shadow Terezi.
"Enough!" Shadow Terezi roared defiantly, a blast of energy pushing both John, Dave, and their Persona's a few feet back. Once her immediate space was clear, she lifted her scales and filled the room with a greenish smoke. Dave felt odd as the smoke washed over him, then felt a pain in his chest as he watched Tam Lin fade away in the face of the smoke. He looked around frantically and saw that everyone's Personas dissipated in the smoke.
"Fuck!" Vriska shouted, getting back to her feet after the harsh hit she had taken earlier. Roxy did the same and rushed behind the jury stands for some cover.
John and Dave leapt away from a gavel strike. "What the hell do we do?" John shouted, scrambling to get away from Shadow Terezi's icicle attacks.
Shadow Terezi cackled. "You can run, but you cannot hide!" she shouted, swinging her gavel wildly at the scrambling kids. In her triumph, she was caught off guard by a fiery explosion that struck her side.
Vriska tossed another set of dice, which erupted into a small burst of wind that cleared away a small amount of the smoke. While their Personas were unusable, Vriska was the only one capable of utilizing any elemental attacks. Her next dice barrage unleashed a spurt on noxious, purple liquid that coated Shadow Terezi's face, causing her to scream as it sizzled.
In a sudden moment of inspiration, Vriska tossed a handful of dice at John. John was alarmed at first but when the dice hit him, he was bathed in a brief light that dispelled the green smoke around him. Perseus reappeared behind him, much to John's relief.
Vriska then lobbed some dice at Roxy, but they erupted into ice instead. Roxy was hardly hurt by the attack since ice was her specialty, but Vriska's desired effect was not achieved. "Guess these things really are a gamble, huh?" she shouted to no one in particular as she continued to lob dice around the room. Some bursts cleared smoke, while others created various explosions that either hurt Shadow Terezi or narrowly missed the friends that Vriska was attempting to avoid hitting. Still, every so few handfuls of dice ended up striking one of the kids in an attempt to heal them.
Rose was next to be cured of the oppressive smoke. "Just a moment!" she shouted, raising her hand to command Iris. Iris raised her lance and radiated the same light that had cured John, sweeping the entire room clean of the smoke.
Shadow Terezi had freed herself of the corrosive poison that came from Vriska's dice, and the battle of attrition that the Persona users had waged against her was beginning to take its' toll on her. The greatest damage was to her blindfold, which had been almost completely destroyed by the acidic substance. She swung her gavel blindly, striking various parts of the courtroom but not the kids themselves.
Roxy ripped holes in Shadow Terezi's robe with her assault rifle and it was becoming clear that Shadow Terezi had no body beneath it; rather, the robe seemed to be her body. With a cry of pain, Shadow Terezi dropped her scales and gavel and collapsed, fading into black smoke and resuming her form as a complete lookalike of Terezi, wearing a simpler, black judge's robe.
Terezi rose from her place on the floor after she had lost consciousness in the presence of her Shadow and trudged over to her Shadow self. Vriska rushed over to help her up,
"I know you already kinda did, but... You've got to accept her, Terezi." Vriska said. "Officially. And hopefully without any interruptions this time!"
Terezi nodded, understanding and "looking" in the general direction of her shadow. "Yes... Like I said... I never denied that I keep doing all of this to myself. I can't just say 'I'm trying!', because I'm really not... As much as I hate it, this self destructive act is part of me. And I can't beat it alone. I have to stop facing it by myself, just making it worse. You know that, right? You're me."
Shadow Terezi smiled for a moment, fading into a Persona. Terezi's Persona closely resembled statues of 'justice' seen in many courthouses; a woman wrapped in white linen robes, with a scale in one hand, and a blindfold in the other hand instead of a sword. It was unclear why she held the blindfold instead of wearing it. She also sported a Greek-style helmet on her head, and had a shield strapped on her back.
"Athena." Terezi announced as the Persona faded into a card. The card was labeled with the numeral 'VIII' and depicted an upside-down sword, with a scale hanging from each side of the hilt. One side of the card was red, while the other was white. Once Terezi accepted the card, she was bathed in the characteristic blue light before collapsing into Vriska's arms.
"We better get her out of here." Dave said. "Where's the door?"
Roxy pointed to the room that had preceded the courtroom, the one where they had battled the onslaught of prisoner shadows. Where the entrance to that room had once stood, a glowing doorway was now standing.
"Let's go, then. Can you walk, Terezi?"
Terezi nodded. "Yeah. Just a little tired." she answered, getting up to her feet.
As the group entered the room, they heard familiar laughter. Vriska immediately readied her dice and summoned Arachne. "Gamzee, come out so I can smear the walls with you!" she shouted angrily.
Gamzee stepped out from behind the glowing door with his flaming clubs still in hand. "What's good?"
"That's all you have to say?" John asked. "Why are you forcing people in here?"
"This fucker thinks I'm gonna spill everything just cause he asks." Gamzee mused with a chuckle, shaking his head. "Couldn't just let sis here be all buddy buddy with her shadow, ya know? It's more fun for everybody when everything goes motherfuckin' haywire."
"This is your idea of fun?" Dave asked, crossing his arms. "Couldn't you just go torture a few woodland animals like a normal insane person and leave us alone?"
Gamzee laughed aloud. "Who says I ain't doin' that now, huh? Besides, this game is way more motherfuckin' fun, bro. It's a game I intend to fuckin' win. And I'm gonna drag you motherfuckers along whether you know it or not!" he shouted, readying his clubs.
Dave and the others readied their weapons, prepared for Gamzee's attack, but an attack never came. Gamzee grinned and struck the ground instead, a puddle of blackness forming at the site where his club struck the ground.
"Is he summoning a Shadow?" John asked, his warhammer gripped tight.
"Why don't y'all handle this? Y'all could use the motherfuckin' experience the next time we run into each other!" Gamzee shouted, leaping back into the glowing door as the puddle began to grow and form into a larger figure. Once it finished growing and morphing, the liquid blackness dripped away from the figure inside, revealing a massive, stone, statue-like shadow carrying a sword and a scale.
"Is a break so much to fucking ask for?" Dave shouted, readying his blade and summoning Yatagarasu for a change of pace. The others readied their Personas as well, save for Terezi.
The statue swung its sword in a sweeping motion, forcing the John and Dave to duck as they approached the shadow. Vriska, Rose, and Roxy stayed back, as their attacks didn't require them to get close.
Dave had Yatagarasu shoot a bolt of lightning at the shadow. The bolt struck but the shadow didn't flinch at all. "Lightning's no good!" Dave announced.
Terezi "watched" as the group launched various attacks that had absolutely no effect on the massive shadow. Suddenly the card that she had accepted earlier appeared before her. Instinctively she reached out and grabbed it, shattering the card and summoning Athena behind her.
Vriska whirled around. "Terezi, what are you doing?"
Terezi stood up and turned to Athena, who lowered herself and wrapped her held blindfold around Terezi's eyes. The blindfold began glowing, and Terezi grinned. "You'll see!" she announced, running forward with Athena right behind her. "Because I can see!"
Vriska's eyebrow quirked. "You can see?"
"Yes! That shadow there can't be harmed by what they're throwing at it. You'll need to use a spell of darkness. 'Mudo' is what it's called, I think." Terezi told Vriska.
"How can you tell?" Vriska asked.
"I can just see it, alright?" Terezi responded. "I think you're the only one here that can use Mudo. Show me what you've got, sis!"
Vriska looked at Terezi silently for a moment. "Alright. I trust you." she said with a nod, raising her hand to command Arachne.
Dave narrowly avoided the statue's next sword strike. Their attacks were completely ineffective, and they couldn't just walk around the shadow while it completely blocked off the exit door. Just as he readied himself for another strike, Dave saw a purple flame appear before the shadow's face. After a short moment of burning, the flame exploded and took the shadow with it, leaving the way to the doorway open.
Dave turned back to Vriska and was surprised to see Terezi utilizing her Persona. "How did you know to do that?"
"We can talk more about it when we get Terezi out of here!" Vriska said, catching Terezi as she collapsed again from the exertion. "Come on!"
Dave nodded and stepped through the door, letting the others follow him out.
Dave jolted back awake as he regained consciousness in the real world. He turned to check the clock: 7:15 AM. They had been inside the computer for barely an hour, apparently. The others in the dorm had probably already left, though they might have not even made it to class yet.
Vriska was the next to wake. She instantly placed her laptop aside and made her way to the front door. "I'll be right back!" she announced, running out to get Terezi.
Everyone else was awake when Vriska and Terezi returned to the dorm. They were hornless and fair-skinned once again.
After filling Terezi in about everything that had happened and the basics of what they knew about the world and their Personas, the group allowed Terezi to ask questions.
"I really don't get why we looked different." Terezi said. "Well, according to all of you, anyway. I wish I could see these horns myself."
"Didn't your Persona let you see, though?" Vriska asked.
"Sort of." Terezi answered. "I guess I couldn't call it 'seeing' like all you can. I see a lot of colors and from that... I guess I can tell what the enemy is weak to or strong against. It's difficult to explain fully."
"Sounds like an invaluable skill." Rose commented. "With Terezi's help, we could be far more effective against any enemies we encounter. Particularly since Dave possesses the skill to use just about any elemental attack."
"Jeez, no pressure, right?" Dave said. "But I guess you're right. Still, I can't just do this all by myself. Switching Personas isn't as easy as you'd think. I have to concentrate."
"Of course, I didn't mean we'd be leaving it all up to you." Rose clarified. "You're simply the greatest asset in battle we currently have. Not to discount the rest of us, of course."
"It'd be really baller if we could have had Dirk in there." Roxy commented. "He's the strongest of all of us. He doesn't have Dave's versatility, but he was able to crush Jane's shadow like it was nothin'."
"We'll have to take him next time then." John said. "I don't want to have to struggle again like we did today. If Dave hadn't pulled off that awesome ice move, we'd have been goners."
"Yeah, speaking of which..." Dave muttered, wincing. "I'm still worn out as hell. I don't think I'm going to show up today at all. I feel like I can barely walk."
"I assume that expending energy in the computer world takes its toll in the real world as well." Rose deducted. "We'll need to be careful about that."
The others nodded.
"Terezi, we should get back." Vriska said. "You could use some rest."
Terezi nodded tiredly.
"We'll talk more when we aren't all feeling like shit." Dave added. "Something needs to be figured out. I've got Gamzee on the brain, specifically."
"You and me think alike, then." Vriska answered. "I'll see you guys later."
John waved. "Bye, Vris!"
Vris cracked a smile and waved back, exiting with Terezi.
With a groan, Dave stretched himself out on the sofa. "Wake me up in a few hours." he said to no one in particular. "I feel like I haven't laid down in years."
John nodded. "I guess we should go to school. We can just say we overslept."
Rose stood from her seat. "Yes, that would be best. We've got about five minutes until the first bell rings at 7:30. We might make it if we hurry."
Roxy giggled. "One tardy won't kill you!" she told the others as she strode out the door. John and Rose followed her out, leaving Dave alone in the dorm to take a much-needed nap.