AN:/ Thanks once again to the glorious Immortal Thunder for Beta'ing this fic. Please enjoy this chapter of Persona 4: Renewed!
"Does anyone know what just happened?"
The Chariot, Magician, Priestess, and Teddie were all grouped in front of the bath house after fleeing per Hope's, their recently appointed Vice Leader, orders.
"Well…" Everyone glanced at Chie, who spoke up when she had the others' attention. "It may just be my imagination, but wasn't he yelling something? 'You killed her! She's dead because of you!'" Yosuke's eyes widened.
"W-wait, does that mean, that Shadow… killed one of Yu's friends?" The magician grimaced before looking at Teddie. "Ted, do you know anything about this? Did you ever notice other people like us in here?" The bear shook his head.
"I was the only one here before you and Sensei showed up. It was bear-ry lonely."
"...Doesn't that mean that Shadows exist somewhere else?" came Yukiko's voice. The idea had all crossed their minds before, but now there was actual solid proof that the idea could be fact.
"Damn. C'mon we can't think about this. We gotta stay positive," Yosuke said as he pulled out one of his kunais. "We need to go back and check on them. At the very least, if things did go wrong, we need to get them out of here. SUKUKAJA!" The magician cast the spell on the four of them before motioning to them. "Let's go! For Kanji! For Hope! For Yu!"
"Right!"
"Yeah!"
And with that, they all turned and ran straight into the bathhouse.
Rank up! The Priestess has gained some memories of a different life. Thou bond grows stronger.
Rank up! The Magician has gained some memories of a different life. Thou bond grows stronger.
Rank up! The Chariot has gained some memories of a different life. Thou bond grows stronger.
Yu stumbled as he and Hope reached the top of the stairway. The Velvet Fool reached out and caught him before he fell flat on his face. "You okay?" The Fool slowly got to his feet.
"Yeah, something must have happened to the others. In a good way, I mean. All of their social links ranked up simultaneously, and stopping and starting time consecutively isn't great for when you're walking up stairs." Hope gave a laugh before he turned to look at the Fool.
"This could be tough, so let's give it everything we got. Faith! Bravery! Protect! Shell!" He pushed the buffs into the Fool, before doing the same to himself. "Ready?"
Yu nodded. "Let's go!" He then kicked the massive doors open. The two Fools charged in to see Kanji standing there pounding his fists together in front of... two blue women? What? Kanji's shadow last time was he wanted to be accepted, and it took on the form of a very over the top version of Kanji's insecurities. But this? What does this mean? Is that even Kanji?
"Is that all you got!?" The man in the trench coat was throwing punches like crazy at one of the women. The other one just stood there occasionally throwing spells at the man, but they didn't seem to do anything. Hope and Yu quickly ran down to the fight, and they started attacking the one that the man was fighting. "What? Who are you two?!"
"Less talky, more hurty!" Hope raised his hand and threw a Protect spell at the other male.
"Hope?" He questioned, making Yu raise an eyebrow in wonder.
"What did I Literally JUST SAY?" the Velvet Fool called as he dodged away from the attacking woman. The Man moved in between the two and called out to the woman.
"Take me on!" The woman slowly turned to the aggressor before settling its gaze on Yu. "No! I'm the one you want!" He jumped and slammed his elbow in the tall woman's face. Having now successfully aggro-ed the attacking woman, The Man rose his arms up to defend himself from the assault. The other woman slowly healed Kanji, preventing him from getting too hurt under the onslaught. What kind of shadow heals its own self?
"Have some fire!" Hope yelled as he chunked Fire after Fire towards the attacker.
The Man however, had different plans for the Shadow. "SOVEREIGN FIST!" And with that called out, he leaped into the air and slammed his fist into the attacking woman. The entire area was covered in a bright light. When the light faded, the two women stood in front of The Man with smiles on their faces. It seemed as though they were softly talking to each other before the two vanished in a light and were replaced by a single tarot card. He walked over to the card, and as soon as he touched it, it vanished into his body. "That's new. Well, now that that's settled with..." The Mysterious Man turned to the two of them and rose a hand in greeting. "Yo! Hope, man it's been awhile since I've seen you! Around a decade or two? Hm? Why do you look so young?"
The Velvet Fool in question cocked his head in confusion. "I-I'm sorry, but do I know you?" Mr. Eious seemed utterly taken aback, and Yu stepped in to do damage control.
"Sorry, Hope recently lost his memory. We've been trying to slowly get it back for him, but the process is still ongoing." The man paused for a second, face screwed up in thought. The strange look quickly vanished, and was replaced by an easy-going smile.
"Well then, I'll just have to reintroduce myself." He walked over to the two and stuck out his hand for a handshake. "The name's Snow, Snow Villiers. We are old friends." And as soon as the two's hands touched, time stopped for Hope.
Thou art I… and I art thou… thou hast re-established a genuine bond. A Defier of Fate, The Sentinel of the Weak, The Lord of the Feast-Hall. Rejoice as the Emperor shall give you strength that only few could imagine.
Time resumed as Hope nearly crumpled to the floor, holding his head. "Shit!" Yu quickly went to his side and held on to him. "C'mon buddy, let's get you out of here." Snow moved to the opposite side of Hope and picked him up, carefully slinging him over his shoulder.
"Let's get going." The Fool nodded, and as soon as they both turned towards the door, it burst open with Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko with their personas at the ready.
"Don't worry guys, we're he-" Yosuke stopped mid-sentence, seeing that no one was actually in danger from shadows.
"Hope-kun!" In a flash, Yukiko was right next to the two Fools, and wiping out her fan. "Come forth, Persona! Diarama!" The spell flew and the quiet groaning from Hope stopped.
Yu reached into his pocket and pulled out his Goho-m. "Everyone gather up, make sure you're touching me. We need to get Hope to Margaret." Eventually they were all connected, and in a flash, the Goho-m activated, sending them back to the entrance of the TV. As the others were just regaining their senses, Yu was already walking to the door to the Velvet Room. He slowly pushed the door open and peeked inside to see both Marie and Margaret staring at him strangely.
"Yes?"
"Just making sure you were here. Snow! Bring him this way." With a confused look on his face, Snow did as he was told, and Yu took Hope from Snow's arms. The Fool pushed open the door more and dragged Hope into the room before setting him down in his usual spot. "I'll explain later, okay? Gotta do some damage control."
Margaret was already inspecting the Velvet Fool, who seemed to have lost consciousness.
"Go. I'll make sure he is okay. Marie? Please come over here for a moment." It still amazed Yu how quickly the Velvet Attendant could switch from happy and carefree to serious and no-nonsense attitude.
Leaving them to it, Yu left the Velvet Room to come face to face with a very confused and concerned Investigation Team. And considering I just witnessed one of them punch out his own psyche I'd rather not make them angry. Yu decided to break the awkward silence by giving them some information. "Hope's gonna be okay. He's seeking medical attention right now."
Snow rose a single eyebrow, face full of suspension. "But that doesn't explain how one moment, You are holding onto Hope, and facing away from us, and the next, Hope not being here anymore and you facing us."
You have a point. "It's kind of hard to explain, but I'll do my best. You three remember when I was talking about Margaret right? Hope's Guardian?" He waited to see the confirmations in their eyes before continuing. "Well I just took Hope to Margaret. Margaret is apart of this… group, called the Velvet Room. They do their best to help people. And as you can see, the Velvet Room is special. Only a select few can see it, myself and Hope included."
"Whoa… does that explain why you can use multiple Personas!?" Yosuke's eyes widened as he came to his own conclusions. Yu nodded in affirmation.
"I'm what they call the Wild Card." He rose his hand and crushed his first Tarot Card, summoning Izanagi. "Izanagi is my True Persona." He summoned another card, crushing it as well, summoning Sumeo-Okami. "I have a few other Personas. Some are cool. Others…" He summoned another card, and with a crush, Slime appeared. "Not as cool. But they are all effective in their own way."
Snow took charge of the conversation again. "So Hope is going to be okay?" The Fool once again nodded.
"Yeah, I have a few friends in the Velvet Room that can help me keep tabs on him to make sure he's okay. He must be living some intense memories though…"
"Nora Estheim. She was my mother. And she DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!" Hope cried as he rose up a knife before he plunged it downwards to Snow's head. In a flash though, a large explosion blew up behind Hope, sending him flying. Everything went black.
When Hope regained consciousness, he laying was on Snow's back, and in a different location than he previously knew. "Hey." Came Snow's surprisingly soft voice. Hope slowly sat up, still being held onto by the Sentinel.
"Why'd you save me?" The question was running through his head, over and over again, so he finally decided to ask it aloud. He was not expecting an immediate answer.
"I was asked to keep you safe. By Lightning." Snow was starting to stagger. Is he wounded? I mean, we did get flung off a building. He was so lost in thought that he almost didn't hear Snow continue. "And by Nora." Time seemed to stop as Snow continued speaking. "I'm sorry. What happened-it was my fault. I put her in danger. I know that. Let me try to make things right." The amount of self-loathing radiating off of him, was so large it was even affecting Hope.
"You told me before that you couldn't-"
"And that words were useless, and a lot of other things I shouldn't have said." His voice shook as he took a breath. "L-look I didn't know what to do, didn't know how to set things straight. So I didn't. I thought if I couldn't make up for it, than all the apologies in the world wouldn't make things right. So I decided I had to find a way to pay for it first, before I even had the right to say sorry." In the brief moment of silence, Hope tried to start digesting his words, but stopped as Snow continued speaking. "But, it's like you said. I was using that as an excuse, so that I could run from my guilt. That hit home." Snow tried to stand while still carrying Hope, but winced in pain and fell forward instead. "Look, Hope. I know what happened was my fault. I don't deny it and I am sorry." One of Snow's hands stopped supporting Hope, and came up to his face. In it was Lightning's Knife. "Here. That's Light's, isn't it?" The Ravager slowly took the knife from the Sentinel's grasp.
"I… Why'd you-?" Hope was so confused by the gesture, he hardly recognized that Snow was now walking with him still on his back.
"That knife was a present from Serah. To keep her safe." Hope slowly flicked the knife open. I could do it. Right here. Right now. Operation: Nora. "She trusted you with something that important? You should be the one to carry it." Snow started to descend down a flight of stairs, all other routes out of the question with him so injured. "I'll find a way to make things better. Just give me time. If nothing I do is good enough, then I'll take any punishment you want to dish out."
Hope felt his own voice speaking, no thought in his words, just pure emotion. "She's gone, Snow. You can take the blame… but it won't bring her back."
"I'm sorry…"
"I knew it all along," Hope continued. "I knew it, but I had to blame someone. I had to. I needed a reason to keep fighting." The knife was gently closed by his own hands.
"It wasn't someone's fault. It was mine. Take it out on me. And keep yourself alive until you do." Almost immediately after he finished talking, Snow collapsed to the ground, his wounds causing too much pain for him to keep moving. Gasping for breath, Snow tried to push himself up, but his arms gave out on him. "I have to keep going." Crawling over to a nearby lamp post, he grabbed onto it, and slowly pulled himself up using the post as support. Hope could tell it was nearly unbearable for him to stand as Snow turned around, leaning his back on the post. The Sentinel had a pained grin on his face. "Look at that. You don't even need any help. You're all right. That's good to see." The smile faded as his head slouched forward. "Just let me… catch my breath." His eyes focused in concentration before worry filled his face. Snow pushed himself off his support and walked a few steps forward, staring at Phoenix, the Fal'cie of Light. Hope turned to look at what he was staring at only for a giant machine to fly at the two of them. "Hope! Get back, I got this one!" Snow yelled over the whirl of the machine's engines and shoved Hope behind him, standing defiantly against the enemy. No sooner did he extend his arms as a shield did the machine punch Snow into the far wall.
"Snow!" Hope called as Snow's body went slack. "Always the Hero… You want to die?" The Ravager slowly stood up, rage slowly filling his face. He slid Light's Knife into one of his many pockets and pulled out his trusty Airwing. "You can't!"
Battle Team Changed:
Hope - Ravager
Hope's magic was swirling around him as he flipped open his boomerang. "I WON'T LET YOU!" He flung his Airwing with incredible strength, using the AMP technology to position it behind the Psicom Machine. "THUNDAGA!" The magic shot forward and pulsed through the Machine, sending shockwave after magical shockwave through the enemy. "FAITH!" Taking advantage of the now stunned machine, Hope buffed himself before catching his Airwing. "THUNDAJA!" The magical energy now pulsating inside him, exploded outwards in the form of a giant thunderstorm surrounding the machine as it temporarily shut down on itself. "BLIZZAJA!" A massive block of ice encompassed the machine to keep it frozen in place, as Hope raised his arm and slammed his magical energy down with a cry of "QUAKE!" The ice and the machine inside of it shattered to hundreds of tiny pieces. The raging aura of magic around Hope faded away as he slumped down. A hand gently touched his shoulder and he looked up.
"You okay, Hope?"
"Light." He smiled, then gestured his head over to Snow. "Don't worry. He's too stubborn to die." The Ravager slowly reached behind him and pulled out her survival knife. "Operation: Nora didn't really work out." There was a pause before Hope suddenly felt warm all over. It was Light. She's hugging me? Hope was quick to return the gesture.
"You'll be okay. I'll keep you safe."
"Lightning… I… Me too. I mean, at least I'll try. I'll try to watch out for you, too." Light chuckled, pulling back and playfully pushed his head with one finger.
"Don't forget about this one!" called the mysterious woman who had arrived with Snow so much earlier today. She now held him up with her own strength. Lightning moved over there to assist with moving the big lug. "We need to get him somewhere safe to heal up. Any ideas, kiddo?"
Hope thought for a moment, and looked around the area to try a get an idea of where they were. It was only fitting that Hope be their guide in his own home town. "I think we are near my house. Let's get going there."
Hope awoke to see Margaret directly in front of his face. "Well, it's good to see your back among the conscious. Have you remembered something?" The Velvet Fool simply stared at the attendant before smiling at her.
"Indeed. Thank you for taking care of me Margaret."
The Attendant simply smiled back at him, and having spent such a long time with someone of a similar nature, that smile was all he needed to know that she cared.
AN:/ Shit's going down IRL. I'll try to keep updating, but it will be a bit less frequent for a while.
Please Read and Review.
TheFallenAlphaAngel