Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 4 or RWBY they are the property of their respective owners, any resemblance to any other Persona 4 or RWBY fan fiction is coincidental and plagiarism is not intended. No flames please constructive criticism only.
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After falling through the portal Yu found his feet touching the ground. He looked around to get his bearings as Glynda landed next to him. His surroundings were different than the TV World he knew, it looked like the entrance hall of a European castle, with columns in the four corners and large wooden double doorway in front of them, stone walls and behind them was a large widescreen TV.
"This place is...a castle?" Glynda wondered. "I can hardly see with all this fog."
Yu mentally smacked himself, of course, the fog would be here if Adachi had recreated this place. Yu, however, was no longer affected by the fog replica or otherwise. He dug into his pockets and found the special glasses Teddie had made for him so long ago and handed them to Glynda.
"Here, put these on they'll help you see through the fog." Glynda nodded and took them, replacing her own normal glasses with them.
"My word," Glynda said as she adjusted to her surroundings. "But what about you?"
"The fog doesn't affect me anymore," Yu told her before looking at the double doors and pushing them open, they moved easily outwards revealing not a room, but a massive large open space, it was a plain of grass so large that he couldn't see the end of it.
Stepping out into it, something looked familiar, the sky, instead of being the normal blue, it was an orange colour like an eternal sunset where the sun was just about to dip beneath the horizon.
However the most striking thing was a large black hole n the sky high above them, which had something slowly drifting into it from the ground lots of coloured something's, they looked like ribbons hundreds of them all going to that hole.
"What are those things drifting into that hole?" Yu wondered aloud.
"Aura streams." Glynda informed him "I've seen several huntsmen and huntresses who had semblances which can drain aura from a distance and that was what it looked like. It seems that void is draining aura from lots of people but slowly." She gasped and her eyes widened. "No, can it be? A domain!"
"What's a domain?" Yu asked.
"A domain is an extremely rare semblance that allows one to summon their inner to encroach upon the real one. It requires a massive amount of aura to maintain and as such is only used for minutes at most. He must use the people he kidnapped to drain their aura to offset the maintenance cost of this place. The more people he takes means less aura being drained from them overall, which turn makes them all last longer."
"What else could this place do?"
"I imagine that's just one thing, if he can really use any solid screen TV as entrance or exit he could theoretically appear anywhere in the world, this domain could be used as a shortcut. No wonder the White Fang's usual smuggling contacts have gone dark, they've been using this place as a means of travel instead!" Glynda realised. "We need to shut this place down, such a thing is a major security risk. This must be how Roman Torchwick has been escaping recently."
"Roman Torchwick, what does he have to do with this?" Yu asked.
"According to testimonies of shopkeepers and dust storage facilities workers, Roman has been working with the White Fang to steal dust, but for what I don't know."
"So Adachi is working with Roman Torchwick and the White Fang, but for what? I guess we'll find out when we get him." Yu said.
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Adachi sighed in boredom as he lay down on a sofa watching the TV. In the middle of a wide-open grassy plain. On the screen, Yu and Glynda were walking together clearly in search of their missing students.
"So he's finally here. About time." Adachi said as he sat up, "Let's see how that blonde moron is doing." He changed the channel to see Jaune looking around his personal hell and panicking just as his shadow walked out from the darkness of the forest. "Oh? it's finally getting interesting, let's see how you do now loser."
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"Y-you're-" Jaune couldn't finish and stumbled backwards falling onto backside as his shadow stepped towards him.
"I am you!" It said walking forwards and Jaune crawled away. "I know how pathetic you really are, you wanted so desperately to be a 'hero'" The shadow said the word mockingly. "You're nothing, you swung Crocea Mors, a sword our great-great-grandfather earned and called that training when it didn't even come close to preparing you for a huntsman's life, not that you were ever prepared to begin with."
"I can get better!" Jaune protested. "Pyrrha wanted to-"
"Nora and Ren, they worked hard, coming up from nothing to become real fighters."The shadow cut in. "Ruby's a prodigy, she earned her place here. Weiss was able to learn from the best tutors in the world. Pyrrha, she trained hard and worked hard to get to where she is now, she's the hero you'll never be, and when she first offered you a chance to become what you wanted you denied the offer. You'd probably follow Cardin to the point of being one of his lackeys if he ever found out. "
"S-stop it that's not-" The Shadow approached Jaune and stopped within meters of him boring into his eyes hauntingly causing Jaune to freeze up. "Face it, the truth is in your quest to become a hero you wasted all the opportunities in your attempts to hide that 'secret' prioritizing it over your dignity, dream and even your friends especially Pyrrha."
"THAT'S NOT ME!" Jaune yelled angrily as he tried to push the Shadow back only to get shoved instead skidding across the ground and bashing against a tree.
"That's you and you're denying it!" Black fog shrouded the shadow and expanded before revealing a gigantic black suit of armour at least for times taller than Jaune himself with red light streaming out of the helmet and massive bastard sword in its hands. "I AM A SHADOW THE TRUE SELF, YOU WANT TO KEEP PROTECTING THAT SECRET SO MUCH!? THEN DIE WITH IT!"
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Ruby felt like she was in heaven as she sat at the table and bit into one of her mom's homemade cookies. The smell, the texture, the flavour of the chocolate chips it was all exactly as she remembered. Her sister and dad sitting on the sofa watching TV together, her mother humming a familiar tune while washing dishes. It was blissful, it was everything she wanted. Ruby never wanted it to end.
Yes, never end. Here there was no pain or sorrow, nothing but happiness. Her mother was here, her family was whole and happy. It was everything she ever wanted.
"But that's it," Ruby said with a sad sighed as she finished off the cookie. And not looking at her mother who stood with her back to her. "You're not real, are you?"
All the sound in the world seemed to stop. Her father and sister had vanished from the sofa and the TV was turned off. It was as if the whole world had frozen. Ruby found herself no longer sitting at the table but standing in front of her mother who in answer to the question shook her head with a sad smile.
"It's all so amazing, everything is like I remember, and you even smell the same but...I can't stay." Ruby panicked a little bit waving her hands frantically. "It's not that I don't want to! It's just that there are people who need me; real people, my friends, people being terrorised by the grimm. That's why I have to go. I really want to stay but if I do then I'd be betraying everything I believe in. I want to be a hero, one that gives people hope for a brighter tomorrow...but still..."
Tears fell from Ruby's eyes and she found herself crying.
"But I can't!" She cried through her tears. "I said all that stuff, but if I go I won't ever see you again. I can't leave it hurts too much!" Ruby kept trying to rub the tears away from her face but they just kept falling from her eyes.
Ruby suddenly froze up when her mother wrapped her in a tight hug causing her to feel warm in her chest.
"Ruby, it will be fine. Even if it is not time for you to face yourself, you still have the strength that you need already." Her mother informed her warmly.
"But where?" She sniffed "The thought of never seeing you again hurts so much and I-"
"I love you, Ruby." Her mother said warmly stroking her hair and wiping away the tears from Ruby's face. "I might be gone, but I will be with you always."
Suddenly a strong gust of wind picked up, Ruby opened her eyes and saw a swirling tornado of white rose petals in her mother's place. Steadily they turned from white to red before coalescing into one point which burst into blue flame revealing a tarot card similar to the ones Professor Narukami had shown her when they met. It had the image of a star falling from the sky on it. XVIII. The Star was written below the image.
"I am thou, thou art I. I am Red riding hood, the girl who skinned the big bad wolf."
She reached out for it and it burst outwards with the sound of shattering glass. In a swirl of blue flames, a girl appeared before her; she wore a red hooded cloak and had a picnic basket in her left hand. Looking closer Ruby could see red droplets falling from the bottom of the cloak and onto the ground where they vanished quickly. That wasn't water.
She had a smile on her face, but not a nice smile it was a creepy smile that she had seen on a child in one of Yangs horror movies. The girl reached into her picnic basket and pulled out the folded up Crescent Rose and handed it to Ruby who gingerly took it. The girl...no her Persona nodded and transformed back into the tarot which turned into blue energy and settled inside of Ruby's chest.
"Ok." Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose and made her way out of the house which dissolved into golden dust behind her, she could just about make out that she was in a foggy meadow, however, she could barely see anything due to the thick fog. "Time to find a way out of here."
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Adachi clicked his tongue angrily as he watched Ruby leave her collapsing illusion.
"What the hell?" He growled as sat up to watch her wander through the fog-filled meadow.
"I thought I hated those brats who came after me but this?! I gave her everything. She had exactly what she wanted to be happy, a perfectly happy little world with her dead mother back, no worries at all." he paused for a moment. "SO WHY THE HELL DID THIS BRAT LEAVE IT?!" Adachi screamed furiously. "HOW DID SHE REALISE IT WASN'T REAL! THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN NO GIVEAWAYS; HER BRAIN WOULD HAVE MADE EVERY SENSATION REAL. SO WHAT THE IN THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!"
Adachi tossed the remote control against the TV screen which it bounced off harmlessly and landed near his feet where he picked up after taking some deep breaths to calm himself down.
"Ok, ok, so that was a wash, maybe some comedy will lighten the mood." Adachi said breathing in and out to calm down as he switched the channel back to see Jaune and began laughing as the giant armour-clad shadow swung a massive sword at the boy who was just barely dodging death. His laughing stopped however as he noticed that others had just entered into Jaune's nightmare, their figures appearing in the tree line. "God damn it, that kid really knows how to be a buzz kill."
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Moving through the trees which had simply appeared without warning Yu and Glynda had heard loud noises and decided to follow them. Eventually, they found Jaune Arc running away from a large suit of armour which was attempted to kill him with the huge sword it held. He just barely avoided being bisected by it numerous times. Glynda held out her riding crop which gained a purple glow only to stop when an armoured hand was held out in front of her. It belonged to Agravaine who shook his head.
"Do not intervene yet, the boy is at a crossroads now. Allow me to handle this; if he is simply saved his potential will be forever stunted." Agravaine insisted.
Glynda wanted to argue but conceded when Yu nodded with a look which said 'trust me' on his face.
"Don't worry we'll step in if it gets really out of hand."
Agravaine stepped forward into the clearing.
"Boy!" He shouted causing and the shadow and Jaune to pause.
"Sir Agravaine?" Jaune said with relief as he just barely dodged another strike.
"This is your shadow, gone berserk because of your denial of the truth," Agravaine stated. "Upon observing you in the battle in the forest with that creature, I believe you are merely a slacker, it is time then you that you stop running away. Although it is up to you whether to reject the shadow or accept it, though I must admit that it would be a waste to do the latter. You do have potential, much potential, but it is up to you to cultivate it."
In the lull, Jaune had managed to pick up Crocea Mors and now turned to face the shadow.
"I get it now, you're right, I've just been running away from you." Jaune said to the shadow. "You're the part of me that knows and understands that I am really just a lazy fraud who stole things that weren't his. My place in Beacon, even this sword right?"
The shadow cried out in pain as its strength began to leave it, cracks began to appear in the armour.
"E-enough just die!" It brought its sword down on Jaune only to meet
Crocea Mors. Surprisingly it didn't crush Jaune but rather he pushed back causing the shadow to stumble and lose its footing and fall onto its backside.
Jaune ran, he jumped onto the armour and up the chest plate to the helmet and stabbed between the slits on the visor causing black ichor to leak out from it. The whole shadow turned black before exploding into nothing, all that was left now was a copy of Jaune standing before him.
"There you have it." Agravaine nodded. "The first step was to for the boy to overcome himself."
"He didn't need our help to beat it, that's kind of surprising," Yu commented.
Yu theorised that when he had his revelation the shadow had held back. Shadows were beings of desire after all and it still had Jaune's desire to be a hero. Or maybe the shadow was simply that weak after losing its strength who knows?
"What happens now?" Glynda asked.
"Now he either accepts it or rejects it," Yu stated.
"I understand you now," Jaune said approaching his shadow. "You are my guilt, the part of me that knows I am lying, stealing fraud who feels guilty about it
.. I just wanted to pretend you didn't exist and hoped you'd fade away with time. But I can't keep running away. So I'll move on ahead, I have to get serious, this isn't a comic book, my actions could cost my friends their lives, I'm not entitled to anything least of all my place in Beacon. Like or not you are part of me."
The shadow smiled and nodded before a blue glow surrounded it. After a few seconds, it transformed. Now standing before him was a young man with short blonde hair and aqua coloured eyes, his armour was plain and undecorated.
"I am thou, thou art I, I am Sir Gareth Knight of the Round table, I am with you now and always." The knight declared holding his sword aloft.
"Of all the beings it could've been... hmph well met Sir Gareth." Agravaine said walking forward and acknowledging his fellow knight.
"Greetings Sir Agravaine...er about back then."
"What's done is done there is no more that needs to be said on the matter." Agravaine cut off Gareth "For now we should look forward."
The forest dissolved around them leaving an empty foggy meadow. Jaune spotted Yu and Glynda as they walked towards them.
"Professors." Jaune greeted with relief, then gulped as he realised that they must have seen that. "Am I expelled?"
"No Mr Arc," Glynda said before glaring at Jaune who froze up at her glare. "But expect your combat classes to be strict and unforgiving, I will make a huntsman out of you even it kills you."
"That's an expression right?" Jaune's fear grew as he got no answer from her.
"I think you should entrust your team at least with your secret, don't you?" Yu suggested.
"Yeah, I will." Jaune agreed.
Gareth smiled and dissolved into a tarot card. On it was a man hanging upside-down from one leg with his other leg crossing it, forming a "4" just below was written 'XIII. The Hanged Man'. The card turned into blue energy and settled inside of Jaune's chest.
"Your partner's aid aside and Professor Goodwitch's tutelage, I shall throw my lot with you as well." Agravaine declared. "Rest assured by the time I am done with you, it will be impossible for you to bring shame to the Round Table squire."
"PROFESSORS! JAUNE!" The group looked to see Ruby Rose running at them with a happy expression on her face. "I'm so glad to see you, I awakened my Persona!"
"So did I" Jaune told her with a smile.
"That's awesome, so what do we do-" Ruby was cut off as both she and Jaune vanished into thin air.
"Mr Arc, Ms Rose!" Glynda cried out for them, only to get a peal of sinister laughter in return.
"Adachi." Yu glared into the air. "He's taken them, we have to go get them back."
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When they came too both Ruby and Jaune felt dizzy and had to use each other for support to stay upright.
"Ugh, what happened?" Jaune asked trying to hold down his dinner.
"I'm dizzy," Ruby whined.
Eventually, the world stopped spinning for the both of them and they managed to get their bearings, they were still together but they had been separated from their teachers. They were still in the foggy meadow but the only thing of note was an empty sofa and a large TV in front of it.
"PROFESSORS!" Ruby called out only getting an echo of her yell back in response.
"We have to go and try to find the-" "Don't move." Jaune froze not only at the voice but at the clicking sound which accompanied something hard and cool pressing against the back of his head, he didn't need to see to know it was a gun.
"Hey, you're the police officer from before, Tohru Adachi!" Ruby exclaimed jumping back in surprise "What are you doing?"
"Don't you move either ya brat." He grumbled. "I know what your semblance is Ruby Rose, you so much as twitch wrong and I'll blow his brains out."
At this Ruby froze dropped Crescent Rose as she did so Jaune also dropped Crocea Mors.
"Are you really a police officer?" Ruby demanded to know.
"I was." Adachi replied with a wistful sigh, "At least until that damn kid and his friends found me out and got me busted. Torchwick got the badge for me with contacts at the police department."
"You're working with Roman Torchwick but wait, why did you kidnap us and what is this place?"
"This is my semblance, they call it a domain, apart from a few solid rules I call the shots here," Adachi explained. "As for why you? It was to draw Narukami here and he came just like I thought he would. Of course, the picture I sent him with your scroll probably helped him along."
"This is a trap for him?" Ruby asked, "Because he caught you and put you jail?"
Adachi just shrugged with replying.
"Now, onto business." Adachi focused his attention back onto Jaune and moved his head closer to Jaune's shoulder, pressing the gun into the back of his head.
"You know I really hate fake little punks like you," Adachi stated with a hateful tone. "I busted my ass working to get where I did and while I hate talented people especially the asshole who came along and ruined things for me and got me sent to the boonies, I really can't stand frauds like you who steal jobs they aren't qualified for and collect paychecks that shouldn't be theirs."
"H-how do you-"
"The guy you got your transcripts off of works for Torchwick, he told me all about you, ya fake little punk. It's why I put you in that nightmare, I hoped your shadow would kill you off but I'm not that lucky tonight, so it looks like I'll have to do it myself."
"NO!" Ruby launched herself at Adachi only to fly through empty air and skid across the ground.
Adachi was now standing behind the sofa glaring at both of them.
"And you! I gave you your dead mother back! So why the hell didn't you stay put why did you leave!" Adachi demanded angrily.
"Because I always wanted to be just like her," Ruby said walking to stand to Jaune's right. "And I know that she wouldn't abandon people who were in trouble for her own happiness that's the kind of hero she was!"
"Ah crap you're one of those 'hero of justice' types, people like you make me sick." Adachi growled "Now be good little kids and die quickly! MAGASTU IZANAGI!" Adachi held his head as if he was in pain and out of a burst of red flames appeared a blood-red version of Izanagi which looked vicious and ready for battle. It moved its blade causing a blast of unpowered wind to blow both of the students back a bit.
"We have this power too!" Ruby declared getting her bears and summoning the Arcana as did Jaune.
"Yeah, you're not gonna get away with this!" Jaune yelled.
"PERSONA!" The two yelled crushing the Arcana.
Red Riding Hood and Sir Gareth both appeared in a burst of blue flames before their wielders. Sir Gareth readied his sword. Red Riding hood's smile got a bit wider as she reached into her picnic basket and pulled out a pair of submachine guns and pointed them at the enemy Persona.
"Oh, a knight and brat from a fairy tail, you two are way out of your league," Adachi smirked. "This is gonna be easy, I almost feel bad."
"You're going to regret not taking us seriously" Ruby yelled. "LET'S GO!" "CHARGE!"
Both Riding hood and Sir Gareth charged to meet Magatsu Izanagi who also rushed to meet them.