Shadow Over Trolberg
A Hilda/Persona 4 AU
By Daring D.D. Danger
23: The New Potential
"Stop trying to face reality. There's nothing you can do to change it," Trevor said as his Persona clashed with Randall's, filling the ruins of Trolberg with sparks. "Why choose reality when you can have a world of your own making? That's clearly the correct choice." Magatsu Izanagi swung its blade over its head, forcing Orpheus to the ground. "We all prefer the easy life." Trevor gave a wink which sent a small beam of light, and forced Randall to the ground.
"All reality gives you is boredom. No one actually wants to live in a world like that, they just deal. Because they think they have no choice." Trevor walks up and holds his gun to Randall's head. "If you don't have talent, you are left to rot in despair. Game over. Wouldn't we be better off without this reality shit?"
"This is not a game. These are lives!" Randall yelled as Trevor pulled the trigger.
"Someday, you will all understand what I'm saying. That reality sucks," Trevor's copy said to Kelly as her Persona neared its breaking point. "The fog will soon consume our world and the humans will turn into Shadows. That's what the masses truly desire. In that sense, I'm doing the world a favor."
"If you want to stay here, then fine. Just leave me out of it!" Undine made a lunge forward and pushed the Shadow back.
"There's nothing I hate more than naïve brats. You should really listen to what I'm saying. I'm speaking from experience." Kelly suddenly got distracted by a large object in the sky: a black ball surrounded in smoke.
"It's coming!" Trevor reached up to the sky. "Soon, all the humans will be Shadows!" He laughed.
"It's clearly a massive concentration of energy, and it's headed here fast." Alfur looked up at the ball. Hilda and Frida stood behind Astria, with worried looks on their faces.
"There's no reason to be afraid." Trevor's copy was lounging in some rubble. "Yes, all the humans will be Shadows, but everyone will keep on living." The large Shadow toppled Frida's Persona, sending her to the ground.
"You okay?" Hilda extended a hand to her friend.
"The people will be oblivious to their surroundings, but that's no different than our current reality. If you're lucky, you'll carve out eighty or so years and then bam! It's over. As Shadows, everything will be better! No more repressed emotions, no more pretending we don't see things."
"The world you're envisioning is bullshit!" David yelled at his copy of Trevor.
"Think back to when you first met your Shadows. Didn't they seem to enjoy life more than you ever have? Our Shadows move on pure instinct. They only go crazy when you resist them!"
Randall stared at the ground in front of him, where the bullet had entered.
"Scared, right? I've always wanted to fire this, you know," Trevor said. "You guys don't know when to quit. What do you want that's worth your life? Did you want to find a sense of justice?" Trevor lifted Randall's chin using the gun. "I know. You just wanted to add some spice to your boring life? You're not that much different from a murderer. You just sit around playing your guessing game." Magastsu Izanagi was stamping Orpheus into the ground. Randall couldn't breathe. "Did you ever think about what you'd do with the truth once you found it? No one cares about the truth. Van Gale was the serial killer, case closed. That's what the world sees. What would happen if you did catch me? For a brief moment, the point of focus would shift, but it wouldn't matter because people don't care who the real killer is. That is the truth you've been searching for, like it or not." Magatsu Izanagi plunged it's blade into Orpheus. Randall began gagging and trying to draw breath as Trevor sighed.
"You're wrong! That isn't the truth!" Randall choked out the words. Trevor walked up and put the gun to Randall's face.
"I'm done playing games. You don't have what it takes to shoot me!"
"Really?" Trevor asked with a smile.
"I've heard enough! It's all bullshit! No matter what you say, you won't get away with this!" Randall weakly grabbed the gun and began pulling it away. "And that is the truth!"
"What you're spouting… is just the rantings of a lunatic!" Kelly's Persona toppled the large Shadow. "We need each other to survive! If you sever ties with society, of course life becomes difficult!"
"What do you know!?" Trevor yelled as Kelly defeated the large Shadow.
"Hilda, now!" Alfur yelled as Hilda's persona took a large punch, defeating her and Frida's large Shadow.
"There's nothing special about you at all! You're just a lame thug!" David yelled.
"Shut up! Shut the hell up!" Trevor yelled as David's Persona pinned down the Shadow, and Twig's Persona sent it up in flames.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you like I did everyone else!" Trevor backed off and covered his face as his Persona took several swipes at Randall's.
"That's not the way it's going to happen." Orpheus took a final swipe at Magatsu Izanagi.
"You will pay for your crimes." Trevor let out a scream.
"You're a stain on the Earth! Shut up and die already!" he bellowed. "You can't ignore everything I said! Just accept the truth and die!" Suddenly, a large explosion went off and filled the area with dust.
"You had that coming," Trevor laughed.
"We've accepted the truth," Randall said. Before Trevor could finish reacting to him being alive, Orpheus broke through the dust. "To get here, we've had to come face to face with things we never wanted to see."
"You brats don't know what I've been through!" Trevor yelled.
"If you think you're the only one that's had it rough, you're the naïve one."
"There's no way I'm losing to you!" Trevor yelled.
"You need to face reality!" Randall yelled as Orpheus ripped Trevor's Persona in half at the abdomen. Trevor let out a scream and fell to his knees. Randall was hyperventilating.
"This isn't fun at all," Trevor whispered. "Who cares, though? the other world will be gone in no time. I'm never going back." He held the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Suddenly, he was surrounded by Shadows, which lifted him off the ground. Trevor now spoke in a voice that didn't belong to him.
"The humans will turn to Shadows. Once the worlds are unified, I will descend upon this land and rule over you all as the master of order." The smoke cleared from around the orb. It was a large eye, the retina shaped like a camera lens, the outside covered in metal spikes. "The two worlds will soon be inseparable, fused together by an eternal fog that will never lift."
"Who are you?" Randall asked.
"I am Ameno-sagiri, controller of the fog, awakened by human desires. Try as you may, you cannot stop your world's imminent destruction. It is all but a matter of time." A large pink beam shot from the retina, sending rubble shooting into the air. Randall found himself alive, but pinned under rubble, Orpheus destroyed.
"What's with the eyeball!?" Hilda asked as her Persona freed Randall.
"It's what's pulling the worlds together! We need to stop it!" Alfur yelled.
"How!?" Frida yelled.
"So you did this. You made the fog," Randall said.
"I desire what humans desire. When I find a way to fulfill their desires, I do it. Humans have long blurred the line between reality and fiction." Randall summoned Belial as it talked. "I've decided to expand this world, and erase reality for good." Randall attacked but the eye didn't flinch. "You played your part perfectly. You helped startle the masses and spread the madness, but now, your part is done, and you will turn into Shadows. Forget reality and embrace the shroud of darkness that comes with the fog."
"You're mental!" David and Twig shot into action, still having no effect.
"This world was spawned by the collective unconscious of the human race. It's a barren land swarming with your people's craving for delusion and desires."
"We get that already!" Kelly's Persona joined the others, still unable to move the eye an inch.
"I'm the one that made it possible for you to enter this land. That made it possible to bring about this fate."
"You're why we can enter the TV," Alfur said.
"So what? Who cares?!" Hilda sent her Persona, with Frida's following behind.
"Humans see what they want to see, as they want to see it. This is the world where those false perceptions gather. There's a window here that displays what they want to see."
"The Midnight Channel!" Randall yelled.
"That's why people who ended up on the news were on the Midnight Channel? Because we wanted to see more of them?" David asked.
"That bothered me. When we were in Van Gale's room, the Midnight Channel didn't show us her thoughts. It was what we wanted to see," Frida said.
"That means when we watched alone, we could've each seen something entirely different," Kelly noted.
"The more people become comfortable with the delusion, the less interested they get in the truth. The barren land must expand to accommodate this."
"You don't think people care about the truth? Bullshit! Do you know how hard we had to fight to get this far? The only reason we did it was to learn the truth!" David yelled.
"Yes. You're right, and that was the one thing I had not anticipated. One by one you conquered the Shadows designed to kill you, and turned them into a tool you could fight back with. It's a new facet of the human race. The question is, am I wise to put my trust in this aspect of humanity? The only way I'll know for sure, is if I put it to the test." Electricity gathered around Ameno-sagiri, suddenly bursting forth in all directions. "I will turn everyone into Shadows and start this world anew. Humans will have to prove they want the truth." Rubble began orbiting the eye.
"Not while I'm still alive, you won't," Randall choked. Shadows gathered around Randall and lifted him up to the eye.
"Why do you oppose this so fiercely? A single human cannot oppose me."
"Maybe not, but I'm not alone," Randall said.
"Human bonds simply do not last. Keep in mind this disingenuous world was created by people running away from reality. They prefer the lies."
"That- isn't the truth," Randall choked. "They don't want to embrace the lies. Human bonds are what make us strong. My friends have proven that to me. If I'm with them, I can overcome anything. We will never give up." Darkness filled Randall's eyes as he was swallowed in Shadow.
"Randall!" David's voice echoed. Suddenly, his Persona approached, and touched Randall's hand. Part of Ameno-sagiri exploded, propelling Randall free and into the Persona's hands. Randall's friends' Personas shone brilliantly as they all streaked across the sky and hit the eye, shattering its outer shell.
"Come on, now! Take it!" Kelly yelled.
"We're all counting on you!" Frida yelled.
"I love you! Now get him!" Hilda was projecting as much as she could.
"Take his ass down in one blow!" David added.
"Make us all proud!" Alfur said through Astria. Randall began floating upward, the cards matching his bonds surrounding him. They all came together in his hand.
"Persona!" A column of light erupted from him, revealing his largest Persona yet, bearing demon horns and 3 sets of bat wings. Hundreds of lasers shot from Ameno-sagiri, but deflected off the Persona. Light shot from the Persona's hand, piercing clear through the eye. It shattered as a hole opened into the sky, sending light into the TV world.
"You have proven the extent of human capability. Human desires are my desires. I shall return whenever the human race calls upon me. Farewell, children of this new potential." The eye faded into the light.
The group approached Trevor, lying in the rubble.
"Leave me, I'm almost done for. The Shadows will devour me, and you will have your wish. That is why you came here, to kill me?"
"Hell no, you idiot," David said. "Your game is over. You're going to live and pay for your crimes. That's how things work in the real world."
"Trevor, let's go." Randall held out a hand.
"I don't believe it! The fog's gone!" Hilda ran through the streets. The group had fought overnight and returned to see the morning sun.
"We really did it this time, didn't we?" Frida asked.
"It's over, isn't it?" David looked to Randall.
"Yeah, and somehow we won." Randall took David's hand and shook it. The other added their hands to the pile.
"What are we doing?" Kelly asked.
"Who cares? It's fun!" Hilda yelled.
"On three. One, two, three, we did it!" Hilda raised her hand and yelled while the others looked at her.
"You're expecting a lot if you think we're doing a team cheer," Kelly said.
"Alright. Come on, let's do Hilda's cheer," Alfur said. "Lead us off."
"Now I don't wanna." Hilda hid in her sweater.
"I'll do it then," Randall said. Hilda returned to the circle and the group all cheered their victory.
12/25
Several poppers went off in Randall's home as the entire investigation team yelled "Merry Christmas" to Lil' Hilda, who'd gotten out of the hospital just in time. Randall's uncle pulled him aside.
"I owe you a thank you. I don't know how you did it, but Trevor confessed to the two murders. There's some vague areas still, but I have no doubt he'll pay for his crimes. This was one weird case, if that TV World you mentioned was real, it would all come together. But don't think I'm buying it. You've done a lot to help me, haven't you? I was supposed to be taking care of you. Now spring is almost here. I'll be glad to have you around until then."
"I'll be glad to have you guys around, too," Randall said.
Hilda nudged Randall as people began filing out for the night.
"What?" He asked.
"Do it," she said.
"Do what?" He asked.
"I can tell when you stare at David," Hilda said. "Just ask him out." She left and Randall approached David in his yard.
"David," he began.
"What's up, bro?" David turned.
"Would you like to..." Randall trailed off.
"Out with it, dude," David joked.
"Would you like to stay the night with me?" Randall finished. David blushed.
"You mean... like, a date, don't you?" Randall nodded at David sheepishly. "I don't know, dude. I've never really questioned if I'm into guys." David put his hand behind his head. Snow fell between the two in silence for a minute. "Okay." David nodded, and Randall took his hand. The two smiled at each other.
3/21
It was two minutes to Randall's train back to the capitol. The entire group was gathered, as well as his uncle and cousin.
"I guess it's time," David said. Kelly was crying quietly.
"He hasn't left yet, Kelly," Frida said.
"Big bro! Don't go!" Lil' Hilda was bawling her eyes out. "Don't leave me!" She clung to his shirt. "Someday, when I grow up, I'm gonna marry you!" She yelled. The entire group let out a shocked sound followed by laughter.
"Hilda," he said softly.
"You wouldn't be the worst choice," His uncle laughed loudly.
"You promised not to cry," Randall said to his cousin as she returned to her father.
"I decided to leave your room as is. You're family, and it will always be there," Uncle Elison said.
"Thank you for everything," Randall said.
"I'm sure we'll see each other again," Kelly said. "Stay in touch. Promise, okay?" She smiled.
"Come visit us on breaks!" Frida said.
"The train will soon arrive. Please stand behind the white line for safety, and board the train promptly," A male voice said.
"That's it, bro, time to go," David said. Randall walked up and gave David a small kiss.
"Yeah, it is," Randall said as he boarded the train. He waved out the window as the others ran alongside the train, until they were out of view.