A/N: Welcome readers, and if you've read my last fic, welcome back! This is my Persona/3H crossover fanfic that I've been working on. This is just the first chapter, put forth as kind of an 'interest test', among other things, though don't be worried - I'm going to be writing all the way to the first completed Palace, at minimum. An FAQ about the setting has been put out, the easiest way to get to it to go to my profile.

-Garreg Mach Academy-

"Garreg Mach Academy, huh? 'For those of exceptional qualities.'" Byleth parked his car in the almost-empty facility parking lot and got out, slowly musing over the school motto proudly displayed on the side of the building. "That kind of makes me wonder why I was never a student here. Oh well. No use thinking about it now."

Byleth twisted the keys in the ignition to shut the car off, unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the car, pocketing the keys as he did so. He looked a bit youthful for his twenty-five years with his clean-shaven face, and, somewhat in a vain effort to compensate for it, he wore a full-length black duster to add to his look, with enough pockets to hold whatever he felt like. He walked to the trunk, popped it, and took out his suitcase.

The college wasn't scheduled to start for nearly a week, and even still, the teachers weren't expected to show up until three days prior, but, given that Byleth was a brand-new teacher, the headmistress had asked him to come in early, so he could 'settle down fully before the students come'. Byleth didn't mind, particularly, especially considering that she was apparently a former friend of his father.

A quick stop at the facility dormitory, which was less a dormitory and more of a luxury suite, and Byleth had managed to quickly start putting away his things. Traveling the world with his father when he was younger had instilled upon him the habit to pack lightly, so he really didn't have much to decorate the room with. He had just finished unpacking the majority of his things when there was a knock on the door.

That's unusual. Byleth spared a glance at the watch on his wrist. Headmistress Rhea said I was to meet with her at 6:00 pm. It's not even 5 now.

"Hello? Sorry for bothering you but I saw you come in and I was wondering if we could make introductions?" the voice came from beyond the door. Too young and too male to be Rhea.

"It's fine." Byleth opened the door to find a young man standing outside, someone of medium build with a cheerful grin and what only appeared to be a Padawan-style braid hanging from his hair. "Can I help you?"

"Sure. Claude Riegan. You know, of Leicester Conglomerate." Claude extended his hand. "Please to meet you, Teach."

"Teach?" Byleth accepted the handshake.

"Yeah, the only ones on the campus this early are the faculty and the prefects." Claude said. "So I'm guessing you're a new teacher here?"

"Byleth Eisner. Please to meet your acquaintance." Byleth responded. "I'm the new literature teacher here."

"Ooh." Claude said, grinning. "I mostly do economics, but I think I have a requirement to take care of this semester, so I should be in one of your classes. You wouldn't happen to be related to Jeralt Eisner, would you?"

"My father."

"Dang!" Claude whistled. "I'm a huge fan of his work, you know. So, can I help you in any way? Care for a tour of the grounds, for instance?"

"Why?"

"Because, like I said, I'm going to have to take a class with you this year and I'd like to brownnose to you as much as possible." Claude winked. "I'm all about that easy A life."

Byleth could help but chuckled at the audacity of the sentence. "You're really going to admit that?"

"Think of it this way. Would you rather have a suckup who pretended he wasn't a suckup, or someone who's actually honest about it?" Claude asked. "Besides, there's only a handful of others on campus right now. Headmistress is too busy to give you the tour herself, and most of the other teachers haven't arrived yet. I think Professor H is here, but good luck dragging him out of the lab. Besides, the other two prefects are boring as sin."

"Boring as sin?" Byleth raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, maybe not that bad, but still. Dmitri acts like a stick in the mud and Edelgard's pretty enough, but you can tell that she's hiding something. The girl's probably an axe-murderer or something." Claude laughed at Byleth's face. "I'm joking, Teach! They aren't that bad. But they can't give you the color commentary like I can."

"Well, I've got an hour," Byleth checked his watch, "so lead the way, Claude."

-Academy Grounds-

"So, the first thing you need to know is that this was a former monastery. And, yeah, it's been renovated basically over everything, but there's still kind of a monastery influence. It's why the main dining hall still has stained glass windows and everything." Claude gestured in front of him. "You see that? Dining hall. It's off the main hall which is where we have the study hall, of course. And, to the right of that, we've got the extracurricular building – you know, stables, archery range, that sort of thing."

"This place has an archery range?" Byleth raised an eyebrow.

"It's weird, right? I'm not complaining. I need to practice, or I get rusty. Left of the main hall are the classrooms, we're going to skip them because they're boring. The first number of the classroom is the floor it's on and the other two number are where on the floor. It's not complicated." Claude said. "And, left of those buildings are the dormitories, of course. It's split into three houses."

"The Golden Deer, the Black Eagle, and the Blue Lions." Byleth said. "And you're the prefect of the Golden Deer dorm? How'd you wind up with that job?"

"Headmistress decides. Something about the fact that, despite my general demeanor being what she refers to as 'being the antithesis of what she's looking for', my extracurricular accomplishments have convinced her otherwise." Claude shook his head. "I can't pretend to understand it, but I'm glad to have the authority to misuse properly."

"Why do I get the feeling that we'll either get along really well or not at all?"

"Hey, that's what most people say about me." Claude said. "I guess I just have one of those faces."

A poker face, more like it. Byleth wasn't fooled. He's hiding something beneath that façade of his. But he doesn't seem to be doing it maliciously. Father warned me that few people at this place were who they seemed. I guess this is just one extension of it.

"Penny for your thoughts, Teach?"

"How do they decide who gets into what dorm?"

"Oh, we give a speech at orientation and try to attract people with our various forms of charm." Claude said. "I try to use the everyman approach, you know? Feel really friendly with everyone using my homegrown rustic charm. Dmitri gives some speech involving diligence and honor; and Edelgard … well, OK, I'll be honest with you, Teach. I kind of fell asleep last time so I don't know what she said."

"I don't know what astounds me more, your general attitude, or your candid nature about it."

"Well, continuing on the tour." Claude said. "The back left you see all the way there? That's our gymnasium and we have a pretty sweet bathhouse next to it that we converted from the monastery. Showers, sure, but it's actually got a sauna and a hot bath. Pretty sweet, right?"

"And the floor above the study hall?"

"Oh, that." Claude said. "That's the library, I think. I mean, Lysithea usually disappears there most afternoons and Hilda won't step foot there, so by process of elimination, it's the library. And the Headmistress's office. Then there's the roof, but we're not allowed on the roof, so there's that."

"Excellent. You've done a great job of pointing out all the landmarks." Byleth said. "I'm sure I couldn't have gotten in from the campus map that I read."

"Well, if you want, there's something else I know about." A gleam appeared in Claude's eye. "There's an old ghost story in our school, one you won't find on any guide, but if you want, I can show it you…"

"Well…" Byleth frowned. "Can I assume that it's probably forbidden for students to go there?"

"Only without supervision." Claude said.

"Let's leave that for another day, alright?"

"Aw, don't be like that, Teach." Claude said. "I'm going to feel bad now, and it's really not that bad. Students just hype it to make it sound worse."

"Well…"

"Bullying a newly arrived teacher, are we, Riegan?"

"Yeah, yeah." Claude rolled his eyes. "Way to jump to conclusions, Hresvelg."

"That's because anytime I don't jump to conclusions around you, I quickly find that I'm a few steps behind," the newcomer fired back, a woman wearing the school uniform in red and black. She was pale skinned with pale hair and eyes to match, thought carried herself confidently. "Can I assume you're one of the new teachers?"

"Byleth Eisner. You're also one of the prefects?"

"Indeed I am. Edelgard von Hresvelg, of the Black Eagles." Edelgard gave a polite bow. "Can I assume that you're related to Jeralt Eisner?"

"He's my father." Byleth supplied.

"Oh!" Edelgard smiled. "So we'll have a father-son duo teaching here this year."

"Wait, what?" Claude interjected. "Jeralt's teaching here?"

"Of course you weren't paying attention." Edelgard rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Claude, did you not read the pamphlet that was sent out over the summer?"

"Yes! … once." Claude said. "Aw. Was this in the updated one? Because I kind of figured it was a waste of my time to reread it."

"For someone who professes to love ferreting out secrets, you're remarkably ill-informed." Edelgard said. "Well, there's nothing for it. Come on, Reigan. I'm not having you jeopardize your dormmates with your ignorance. We're spending the rest of the afternoon reviewing what you should already know."

"Help me, Teach!" Claude sent a frantic look his way.

Byleth checked his watch. "Excellent timing. I was supposed to meet with Headmistress Rhea in a few minutes, anyways. It's always nice to see students spending their free time learning."

"What do you teach? History?"

"No, that's my father's specialty." Byleth said. "I teach literature."

"As in, how to write it or do you teach famous literary works?"

"Yes." Byleth grinned. "So, can I look forward to you in one of my classes?"

"I'm a political science major." Edelgard said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "I was looking forward to taking your father's classes on the Austrian Empire, but I think I might take a literate class this semester."

"Remind you of home, Edelgard?"

"Oh, shut up, Claude." Edelgard turned to Byleth. "I'm descended from European royalty on my father's side – hence the name 'von Hreslveg'. It's kind of pretentious and embarrassing, but I'm my father's only child, so I keep the name. And, yes, I have some Austrian blood within me."

"All European nobility did. Hardly suprising."

"Wait, they did?" Claude asked.

"It's called the Hapsburgs. Read a book sometime." Edelgard snapped. "Honestly, I can't believe they made someone like you a prefect. Don't you have a hotel chain or two to buy right now?"

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you, Teach." Claude said. "My name might be Claude Reigan, but my mom's side of the family is Leceister, as in, the Leceister Conglomerate. So, you know, I'm filthy rich. Well, not actually, because the old man doesn't give me anything and my parents believe in 'self-reliance', or something, but yeah. I've got the richest family in the school. I try to not let it get to my head."

"And the scary thing is that I believe you." Edelgard shook her head.

Byleth watched the two, fascinated. He couldn't tell whether the two students were actually friends, or just such good enemies that they got along that well. Clause being rich … well, it kind of surprised him, but he knew that there were weird students at Garreg Mach. Still, the first student he met being the grandson of a multibillionaire and the second being European nobility was a bit suprising.

"So, are there any other notable students here?"

"Dmitri, for one. The prefect of Blue Lions." Edelgard answered almost immediately. "His parents were notable politicians – two senators. And, oddly enough, on opposite sides of the political isle at that."

"How'd that happened?"

"Don't know, but apparently things were more civil back then." Edelgard frowned. "They both passed away a while ago, so I wouldn't ask him about it. He's also in political science with me, so we'll probably both be in the same class if we end up in one of your classes."

"Aside from that… hmm." Claude ticked them off his fingers. "A few local students, some foreigners, an odd genius here or there, some sons or daughters of famous people, and that's about it. You'll meet them all soon enough. The school isn't that big."

Byleth's watched beeped a single time. He nodded to the two. "Well, I'll be off. I hope to see you in my class."

"See ya, Teach." Clause made to slink away, only to be effortlessly thwarted as Edelgard grabbed his collar and pull him after her with a surprising amount of strength.

"Come on, Riegan."

-Headmistress's Office-

Byleth felt a little bad for leaving Claude behind, but only a little. He'd gotten the sense that Claude knew exactly who Jeralt Eisner was when he had asked him earlier and had lied to Edelgard about not knowing it. For all the time that Byleth has known Claude, lying about what the Golden Deer prefect knew seemed perfectly in character for him.

He made his way to the second floor and found the Headmistress's office fairly fast, knocking at the door faintly.

"Come in," a sweet voice responded.

Byleth opened the door and slowly walked in. Sitting behind an incredibly large desk with mountains and mountains of papers stacked all over it was a woman who had a commanding look of maturity, but also a face youthful enough so that she might escape being called even middle-aged. The headmistress of the academy, Rhea Seiros.

"Would you mind introducing yourself to me?"

"I'm Byleth Eisner."

"I know. I just wanted to hear you say it." Rhea said with a sweet smile. "I was good friends with your father a long time ago, back before I ran this academy. Did he ever tell you about me?"

"My father never really liked discussing his past. I think the memories of my mother made him feel uncomfortable." Byleth said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude." Rhea said. "Such a pity. Well, I am a good friend of your father, and I'm glad that I was able to get the two of you to work here this year. My, I don't know what I would have done. We're an academy which prides itself on excellence, yet I was missing both a teacher for both history and literature. You have my thanks."

"No problem, Headmistress. I was just glad that I could get a job."

"Oh, you mustn't call me that. Headmistress is so formal, and I was a friend of both your father and mother." Rhea shook her head, firmly. "Please, call me Rhea."

"You knew my mother?"

"Yes. But I don't think its my place to tell you about her." Rhea said. "But this is about you, Byleth. How are you? Did you arrive here alright?"

"Yes, I arrived here fine. One of the prefects noticed me coming in and showed me around."

"Dmitri?"

"No, Claude."

"Claude?" Rhea's eye grew wide. "I guess he must have seen something he liked in you because he's not normally that helpful to outsiders. Or … well, actually he's very helpful to outsiders, it's his friends that he constantly pranks. I was conflicted about making him a prefect, but … well, he is the most suited for the task, even if he feels the need to fight it at every turn."

"He seemed interesting." Byleth smiled. "Don't worry, I haven't dropped my guard around him."

"Well, that's alright, then. Okay, I guess I better go over the basics. Don't worry." Rhea searched around her desk for a while, looking for something. She eventually selected a folder of papers and removed it. Byleth caught sight of an official-looking paper under the folder with the words Cognitive Pscience in bold on top before Rhea shuffled her desk and the paper disappeared in a stack somewhere.

"Here you go!" Rhea said, cheerfully. "I've taken the liberty of putting your schedule together. You're teaching three courses this semester. The first is a fairly standard writing course, the second is a more advanced one for the advanced students, and the last is a survey of literature throughout history."

"I don't remember discussing the last one the last time we talked…" Byleth said, somewhat confused.

"Oh? Oh! Sorry, it was a last-minute addition on my part. It's just an elective for students who want to learn more about history. I thought that you would be well-suited to teach it, especially given that your father's a historian." Rhea sighed. "I'm sorry for dumping this on you, but I did warn you that there might be more work for you."

"I'm fine." Byleth was a bit flustered by her apology and accepted the folder. A third course wouldn't be that difficult to teach, and it wasn't as if he didn't know the material. It would mean more work, but he was pretty sure he could manage it.

"Okay. Now, I don't want to put too much pressure on you, but have you thought of forming a club of some sort?"

"I gave it some thought, but could you fill me in a bit more?"

"Well, here at Garreg Mach we pride ourselves on our exceptionalism. We do this is a lot of ways, of course, and one of the ways we do that is selecting students by invitation early." Rhea said. "And, while that does make the student composition a bit … unique … I find that it really helps, so I encourage teachers to do the same."

"You want me to make a unique, invitation-only, club on school grounds?"

"Most of the teachers do it. Professor Hannerman has a dedicated little biology group, and Miss Manuela has her little team of songbirds." Rhea said. "You don't have to do it right away, but if you want to form some kind of group, feel free to do so."

I don't think that I'll ever need to do that, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

"Now, I'll just need you to sign this." Rhea removed a contract from a drawer on her desk. "I hope this doesn't scare you off, Byleth, but it's the standard contract that I like to have all the teachers here sign. It's nothing serious, I suppose, as long as you're conscious of your standing at all times."

"Didn't I already sign a contract?"

"Yes. This isn't for your job." Rhea smiled. "It's just an acknowledgement that you are responsible for your actions from this point onwards. You'll be a teacher here for the next years, and everything that you do here will have consequences."

Byleth accepted the contract and looked over it carefully. It really was just as Rhea said – a contract for him accepting responsibility for all his actions in the upcoming year. Byleth nodded to himself and gently signed the paper as Byleth Eisner.

"And, lastly, I think it's best if you toured the entire grounds." Rhea smiled. "Really try to familiarize yourself with every nook and cranny, alright? Well, it was great speaking with you, Byleth. If you want to speak with me at any time, feel free to just walk into my office. I owe a lot to your father, so I'll be glad to help you whatever way I can."

Normally, I might complain about the rampant nepotism, but that is what got me the job in the first place, so I have no leg to stand down. Byleth nodded and got up, stowing the folder in his coat. She seems a bit earnest to become friends with me, but I suppose that could just be the fact that she was close to my parents, so I should give her a chance.

"It was good meeting with you, Headmistress."

"Call me Rhea!"

"Sorry, Rhea." Byleth said. "I look forward to our next meeting."

"Don't me a stranger, now. My office is open anytime."

-Academy Grounds-

"So, you're finally out." Claude was waiting for him as Byleth exited the room. "You have some nerve, you know. You tossed me under the bus!"

"You shouldn't have lied to Edelgard in the first place about not knowing my father was teaching here."

Claude opened his mouth as if to respond, and closed it, looking a bit sheepish. "Got me in one, Teach. What gave me away? I'm usually a better liar than that."

"You seemed to know about my father when you asked me." Byleth said. "He's famous, but not that famous. He's only well known in certain circles, and those aren't circles someone who studies economics would know about. Also, my instincts told me."

"Hmm. Well, that ordinarily would be a good argument, except I have someone in my dorm who won't shut up about your father. It's kind of annoying." Claude said. "She's good company otherwise. I wonder if you two will get along."

"I hope so."

"Oh! So, you want to check out the haunted tomb?"

"Haunted tomb?"

"Yeah, there's an old crypt on the academy grounds." Claude said. "No one ever talks about it and the one time I asked Headmistress she gave me a stern look and told me that it was strictly off limits."

"And, naturally, that made you more curious."

"Of course! Also, there are a ton of rumors flying around about it. Here, come on this way." Claude started walking. "So I snuck it one night and … it was pretty boring. I mean, there's a giant marble slab in the center of the room, but that's it. It's pretty empty aside from that."

"Did you try moving the slab?"

"Too heavy. Besides, I knocked and it wasn't hollow."

Claude led Byleth down the stairs, exited to the west of the main hall, before going north, and the two found their way to a concrete bunker set to the far side of the campus, up against one of the academy's walls. There was an abandoned building next to it, something like an old cathedral. It seemed too far away from the academy to be of any use to anyone there.

"That's a bunker, Claude. Not a crypt." Byleth sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I should have known better. Of course college students jump to conclusions. There's nothing here to indicate that there's anyone buried, just a general shape."

"Wow, Teach, don't tell me that you're interested all of the sudden."

"Actually … I am. In spite of myself." Byleth said. "So, are we going inside?"

"…well, it's your call, Teach."

"Headmistress Rhea did tell me to make myself familiar with all parts of the building." Byleth stepped inside, followed closely by Claude. Byleth looked around. It was, as Claude had described it, depressingly mundane. The walls and ceiling were a boring concrete and while there was a marble slab in the center of the room, it was as mundane as it was unremarkable.

"Told you, Teach. Nothing here."

"…So it would seem." Byleth blinked. "Hey, Claude… does that slab in the center of the room seems a bit unusual?"

"Unusual? No. You seeing things, Teach?"

"I don't think so." Byleth shook his head. "No, I must have imagined it. Anyway, I have work to do. Thank you for the tour, Claude. I'll see you in class."

"Okay. I guess it's going to be like that." Claude said, stepping out of the bunker. "Later, Teach."

Byleth was left alone in the bunker, with no else in sight. Still, he couldn't shake the weirdest feeling that he was, in fact, being watched.

"How long are you just going to stand there!?"

Byleth spun around upon hearing the voice. But there was nothing. Nothing except Claude coming down the stairs, looking worried.

"Hey, Teach. You, uh, didn't do anything funny, right?"

"Claude, what are talking about?"

"Um, the academy is gone, and I have no idea what's happening right now."

"…What do you mean, the academy is gone?" Byleth took the stairs up and out of the bunker and stared in amazement. "Oh."

The modern Garreg Mach University was no more. In its place was a gigantic stone building, mostly crumbled as if it has just gone through a war of some kind. Walls had fallen and brick lay scattered, though from what Byleth could tell, the building placements seemed eerily similar to what the university had.

"Um, Teach… I don't want to believe in ghost stories, but you might want to look behind us."

Byleth slowly turned around to look at the bunker, except it was no longer a bunker. Now, it was a crypt, and what was more, the marble slab was now a marble tomb. Claude swallowed audibly next to him, still looking around and taking things in.

"I know I wanted to discover this place's secrets, but I really didn't mean it like this!" Claude said. "Please tell me you know where we are, Teach!"

"If I could hazard a guess, I'd say this is the original monastery that the current one is based off of."

"We traveled back in time!?" Claude said. "Oh, that's horrifying. Do you think that if we go back to that crypt we can get back to our time?"

"I don't think we traveled back in time…" Byleth said, slowly. "Because time travel is impossible."

"So what do you think happened to us?"

"I'll tell you as soon as I figure it out." Byleth said. "But, let head back to the crypt for now, okay?"

"I'm right behind you…" Claude blinked. "What are those?"

Black oozes started appearing from beneath the stones in the courtyard, swarming together so they resembled giant black slimes. The pair looked at each other and started backing slowly and carefully, in a very concerted effort to not provoke the slimes.

It was for naught. One of them turned, somehow, towards them and swirled up, manifesting itself into some kind of monster. It had a jack-o'-lantern head, and a tattered scarecrow cloak wrapped around itself. A thin pair of gloved hands protruded from the cloak and held aloft a lantern.

"A Will-o'-the-Wisp…" Byleth said, staring at the monster, "but it's just supposed to just be a myth."

"What is that, Teach?"

"A wayward soul who seeks only to maliciously deceive and mislead travelers." Byleth said. "It's an old Irish legend."

The creature laughed and advanced its way towards the pair.

"On three, we run towards the crypt and hope that this is some kind of nightmare." Claude said. "Ready? One, two, thr-"

The creature lunged at the pair. Byleth wasted no time and shouldered Claude out of the way of the monster's attack, ready to take the brunt of it himself. He braced himself against the incoming flame attack, but nothing hit him.

"Honestly! What are you accomplishing with that little stunt!? It's like you're trying to get me killed, you fool!" A harsh voice berated Byleth. Byleth looked tentatively at the attacking monster, but it had been battered away and he was now guarded by a dragon-like spirit creature.

Byleth stared at the creature in wonder.

"If you keep running from your problems, how are you ever supposed to solve them? And if you never stay and fight, how will you discover what you're truly capable of? I can't believe it was you two who discovered my crypt." A girl appeared in front of the pair, standing in front of the monstrous creature. "Well, if you're going to be guests in my world, I guess I had better at least teach you the rules. Or at least how to defend yourself."

"Careful, that's a Will-o'-the-Wisp!"

"Pyro Jack, actually," the girl corrected. "But you can learn that later. There are only two things you need to know right now. The first is that my name is Sothis, that I am also called the beginning, and that I'm your only chance in and out of this place. And the second is…"

"Hee-ho!" Pyro Jack shot out a jet of flame out of its lantern.

"Come forth, the ancestor of dragons! Bahamut, aid me!" Sothis clenched her fist and a symbol appeared in the air around her as the gigantic draconic form materialized again, this time around her, using its wings to take the brunt of the fire. Sothis smirked and chided the shadow. "Oh, come now. Do you think a little Agi is going to cook my dragon? Now, Bahamut, use Hamaon!"

A circle of light appeared beneath the unfortunate Pyro Jack and with a flash, the creature vanished in thin air.

"As I was saying." Sothis turned around as the dragon faded into obscurity. "There are two things you need to know. The second is that that was a Persona. If you're going to survive out here, you're going to need to get ones of your own."

Persona Compendium:

Sothis's Persona: Bahamut, the Progenitor Dragon

Immune: Light, Weak: Dark

Notable Abilities: Sothis an early-game healer and can use powerful instant-death spells. Her Persona is at a remarkably high-level, but she has no offensive spells save for the Hama line and only has access to Dia spells, not Recarm. Bahamut was chosen because, while technically not a dragon in the original myth, Bahamut is considered to be a dragon in modern culture, and its one of the oldest known examples of a dragon.