Y'know what's a great idea? To take an already extremely long game and then slow down the progress with an intermission chapter! Jokes aside, welcome back. Last time Blake had awakened her Persona… both in the game and for real!

This was originally supposed to come out after the next chapter of the Death Battle fic but I ended up finishing this really quickly.

Anyway, yeah we're taking a break to discuss this. If you don't care about the intermission then here is everything that will happen in it:

Explaining how Blake summoned Arsène & how multiverse bleeding works. And making WhiteRose official.

That is it. (Well that isn't all it, those two are definitely going to be expanded upon, but you get the point.)

If you don't care to read about either of these, you can skip this chapter, but I really do hope you read it because despite not being able to think ahead for shit, I do put in a lot of effort for this fic and I do legitimately appreciate the support.

With that, let's get onto the reviews!

triscythe59: Glad you're enjoying the story! And yeah things are definitely getting crazy that the multiverse is bleeding into the RWBY characters.

NinjaAssassinM: The whole thing regarding characters getting powers from their counterparts is gonna be explained in this chapter. And don't worry about discouraging me in the reviews or anything, like I said they are helpful. And I definitely understand your point about covering characters changing gender and stuff like that. The Sanji example you brought up is a great example and definitely one of the downsides of doing the whole story. As for when we swap, I originally chose Ryuji/Yang's awakening since I sort of see that as "the halfway point" of the Kamoshida arc, although I think either point works. Honestly might leave it up to a vote. And finally for the Pyrrha thing, Pyrrha is replacing "Kasumi" and not "Sumire". I went back and forth between which one and while I definitely think it'd be a fun mystery for the gang to ask "why is Pyrrha called Kasumi or [Insert Name of OC for Pyrrha's sister]" I think the reveal is definitely going to hit harder if Pyrrha replaces "Kasumi". Glad you're enjoying the DB reaction fic and yeah I've seen the fic that has Sun as Morgana, it's pretty good.

edudastico: Yeah I get what you mean. I've read both of the fics you're talking about and rest assured they won't be gaining their counterparts personalities. And yes I do plan on doing the third semester and the Maruki stuff.

As always, I hope everyone enjoys the story, and let's get this show on the road!

—

Blake didn't know what to think. I mean… What do you even say in this situation? A giant ghost creature with a top hat just came out of her body!

After what felt like an eternity, Arséne finally introduced himself to the group.

"Greetings huntsman, huntresses and such, I am the pillager of twilight, Arséne!"

"W-we know who you are, Arséne, at least sort of, but how are you here?!" Ruby asked.

As Yang was trying to make sense of all this, she eyed her partner (who looked like she was on the verge of freaking out) and noticed something different about her.

"Blake," She began, "your clothes!"

"Huh?" Blake asked, surprised. Sure enough, she looked down at what she now wore and it was exactly the same as what her counterpart had on when using Arséne.

"Woah," Blake started, "I… actually kinda like this."

"I mean, the outfit does look good on you." Coco admitted, still trying to wrap her head around the giant Persona in the room.

"As cool as Blake's new outfit is, I think it's best if we got to the bottom of why the giant red and black chain ghost is in the room with us!" Qrow pointed out.

"Apologies, I had forgotten that your world doesn't contain Personas or even Shadows. Although, it would be favorable if your hosts would explain to you at least partially the reason I am here."

Everyone suddenly looked at Odd and Draken as Odd defensively put his hands up.

"Hey don't look at me, I have no goddamn idea why this is happening." Odd rapidly said.

"As do I, the multiverse bleeding shouldn't have-"

"Wait, the fuck you mean 'multiverse bleeding?'" Odd questioned his co host.

"Wait, you don't know?!" Draken exclaimed.

"No, I don't know, you're the one who studies all this multiverse stuff!"

"It was your idea to bring them here, I assumed you were at least knowledgeable enough to know what would happen!"

As Odd and Draken bickered like a married couple, the groups could only watch as they went back and forth, that was until someone interrupted them.

"Can you two stop arguing and explain whatever the hell 'multiverse bleeding' is?!" Cinder snapped at them.

Draken groaned at her. "I'm about to not explain it if you get pissy with us again."

Draken took a deep breath as he began to explain. "So you all probably know what the multiverse is, well, much like how universes are grouped off into separate multiverses, the same holds true for multiverses themselves. Xenoverses, Hyperverses, Omniverses, honestly I'm not really sure what the specifics are but much like how universes are separate, so are entire multiverses, your universe's multiverse is separate from the Persona universe's SMT Multiverse-"

"What's SMT?"

"That… is in an extremely large can of worms to go through but basically it's a larger and greater part of that entire multiverse. Anyway, usually different universes within their own multiverses interacting with each other is fine, although sometimes it varies," (Draken thought back to a specific "Spider-Verse" for that one). "However, when two of the same people from different multiverses interact, everything… doesn't like that." Draken explained.

"And by 'doesn't like that', you mean…?" Weiss questioned.

"It means it could potentially destroy all of reality." Draken bluntly stated.

Everyone was completely shocked at the sheer suddenness of dropping such words.

"Of course, all of… existence, has counters to this. Luckily, the first thing it tries to do isn't destroying both of them, so instead it attempts to 'merge them'". He continued. Draken suddenly poofed in a diagram, with two black LEGO bricks.

"For example, here is Persona Blake," Draken held up a black LEGO brick that had been in a circle titled 'Persona Universe', "and here is your Blake," Draken held up the brick that had been in the 'your universe' circle.

"If these two were to meet each other, things would start to collapse, so what happens is that the two-" Draken proceeded to connect the LEGOs together, "-become one."

"So wait, does that mean-"

"Before you ask Blake, no you didn't merge with your counterpart. You have to be physically present with them for that to fully happen. However, viewing your counterpart like this seems to… trick reality? I'm not entirely sure how or why it happens but viewing your counterpart for extended periods of time, especially in a manner like this seems to 'halfway' merge you, meaning you'll gain the abilities of your counterpart, nothing about your personality or biological structure will change." He continued to explain.

"So… as we play through these games, we're going to get more and more powers?" Jaune questioned.

"Precisely." Draken answered. "For example, Qrow, your counterpart is a, quite frankly, amazing coffee maker. Why don't you go make a cup of it in the kitchen?" Draken had created a doorway to said kitchen.

"…Sure." Qrow hesitantly said, still a little skeptical, walking into the kitchen.

It only took a few minutes before Qrow came back out with a cup of coffee… and a shocked expression.

"I-I know how to make coffee. Well, I mean I knew before, but like, actual, good freaking coffee." Qrow said surprised.

"Let me see that…" Winter said, not sure if Qrow was just messing with her. She grabbed the cup of joe from Qrow's hands and took a sip. She instantly froze.

"Winter? Winter?!" Weiss called out to her sister.

"…This is the best coffee I've ever had." Winter said in shock.

"Okay the coffee can't be that good…" Yang said, taking a sip for herself. Her eyes widened. "I-It's that good."

"Well, there you have an example." Draken calmly said.

"So… is that why I have a Persona now? You also seemed surprised." Blake asked.

"Well, the thing is, a Persona, especially Arséne, shouldn't have manifested in you. You'd maybe gain the capacity to summon a Persona, but your world doesn't even have Demons or Shadows, and by extension Shadow Selves, and by extension Personas. And even if you could summon one, it would be unique to you, not Arséne."

"Guess we'll have to ask Arséne then. Hey… Arséne? Where is he?" Ruby asked.

It became pretty clear that Arséne was no longer with the rest of the gang.

Odd however, realized something. "Hey Blake, you have that mask back on. Pretty sure you take that off to summon your Persona."

"Really?" Blake felt her face and sure enough, she felt the same mask her counterpart wore back on her. "Okay, I'll get him out then."

Unfortunately, try as she might, the mask wouldn't come off again.

"Come on, why won't this stupid thing work?!"

"Hey Blake, maybe you should hold back a little, I don't think most of us want to see your face start pouring blood again." Pyrrha suggested.

Blake stopped for a moment and proceeded to calm down. That's when Arséne, dormant in her soul, spoke to her.

'You have to do it with conviction, the rebel's power you hold in thyself. Focus, and I call forth myself with intent!'

Blake closed her eyes. She thought about her struggles, of being discriminated against, of working with the White Fang, of… Adam. Her mask began to ignite as she called forth her Persona's name.

"Arséne!"

The mask she wore came off, and erupting from it once again came Arséne.

"Very good. Doing such an action will become more natural as time goes on. Now, I do believe I have some questions to answer."

"Uh yeah… Draken said that we shouldn't even have Personas, and you should be linked to the other Blake, so how are you here?" Ruby asked.

"An excellent question, my existence here can be explained by Blake's nature as the Trickster… although that is a status she only recently obtained."

Draken thought about Arséne's words for a bit before understanding what Arséne meant. "Wait… the multiverse bleed gave her the status of a Trickster? Is that even possible?"

"It is. The caretaker of the Velvet Room, Igor, oversaw such an event, and allowed it."

"Wait a second, Igor knows we're doing this?!" Odd exclaimed in surprise.

"That is correct, in his own words, he was very curious on what this would lead to, and so he gifted the permission of letting the status of a Trickster and a Wildcard go through."

"Okay… so then what? Still doesn't really explain why you're here." Yang responded.

"Igor's influence did not stop at simply giving you the Wildcard. I was summoned from the Velvet Room's compendium and was sent here to lay dormant inside until your awakening."

"But doesn't my other self need you?" Blake asked.

"Rest assured, your other self has many other tools of her trade, such is the nature of a Trickster."

Blake just stood, taking all the information in. It was very strange… but it also felt right. She smiled at Arséne. "Well Arséne, it'll be great working with you."

"The sentiment is very much the same."

With that, Arséne disappeared as Blake gained her mask back. Yang eyed her girlfriend top to bottom.

"Gotta say, you really do look good in that." She said.

"R-Really?" Blake said, blushing.

"Of course, although I may be a little biased." Yang said smiling, putting her metal arm around Blake.

"Would you excuse us for a moment? I need to talk with Draken." Odd said, practically dragging Draken into another room.

"Well, on that note; Weiss, Ruby, would you come with me? You said we'd talk during a break." Winter said.

"O-oh right, we did say that." Weiss said nervously.

"Let me join in on that, Ruby is my daughter after all." Tai said.

Ren suddenly looked at Qrow and Yang. "I'm surprised you two aren't joining him."

"Ruby's my niece, I love the girl but it's not exactly my authority to decide who she dates." Qrow responded.

"Rubes and Weiss already know how I feel about it." Yang said, still hanging her arm around Blake.

"So… what exactly do we do now?"

—

"Okay Draken, what the hell do we do now?" Odd asked.

"What do you mean?" He said with the same blank expression.

"Are you not aware of the circumstances of Cinder and her team being here?!"

"Yes, and I still don't think it's much to worry about. If they get too strong, can't we just take their powers away?"

"No, for one we can only seal powers, not take them away, and two we can only do that if those powers are weak enough, Semblances and even Maiden powers are one thing, but there's a lot of stupid shit in these multiverses." Odd explained to his friend. It was very clear that he was stressed.

Draken sighed as he thought about it. "So what, are we going to just send them home?"

"I…" Odd couldn't say anything, he didn't know what to think, until he came to an answer. "No, Blake already has Arséne and… if Cinder's group gets too powerful, I'm confident we and the rest of Ruby's group can stop them. And…"

"And?"

"Well, I am a bit interested to see where this all goes, although it does feel like I'm in the process of experiencing a car crash in the making." Odd admitted.

Draken chuckled at that. "Well, sometimes that's just life Odd."

—

The air was tense between Ruby, Weiss, Winter and Tai. You could probably hear a pin fall. Winter had a stern but intrigued look on her face while Tai's expression was unreadable.

"So," Winter began, "do you two mind telling us what this is about?"

Weiss and Ruby both had nervous looks on their faces, slightly blushing. Weiss finally responded.

"Well, we sort of… have crushes on each other." Weiss explained slowly.

"I see that. Now, when did you two exactly get these crushes?" Tai asked a bit sternly. It was a very important question due to… circumstances.

"Well, at least for me, it started back during our food fight." Weiss explained.

"Food fight?" Winter said, taken aback.

"Let me guess, did it turn into a full blown war with tables and stuff flying everywhere?" Tai asked, now smiling a little.

"Yes… wait how did you-"

"Rubes, you're team aren't the first at Beacon to get into food fights, you should've seen Raven, she wielded that shish kebab immaculately." Tai said a bit fondly.

"Well, getting back on topic, it was when Ruby held me in her arms and screamed out dramatically. Over the top yes, but I could tell there was something slightly more to it." Weiss said with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's when it started for me as well." Ruby sheepishly said.

"I remember leaving for Atlas, before my 18th birthday, and realizing how much I missed my team, especially Ruby. I think that's when it really blossomed out." Weiss said.

"I see…" Winter said, looking at the two, a little less stone cold.

"As for me… well…" Ruby began, looking down. "It was at Haven… when Cinder impaled Weiss…"

Weiss grimaced thinking back to that, Tai looked down, and Winter's eyes widened.

"I remember how much I didn't want to lose her, if Jaune hadn't saved her with his Semblance…" Ruby never finished, not knowing what path she would have taken if Weiss died.

"You should've seen Ruby after I turned out okay." Weiss said with a little laugh.

"Well, I can tell you two definitely care about each other." Tai smiled.

"Honestly, as do I." Winter said, also smiling, although it did fade once she asked another question. "I'm assuming you haven't made things official yet." She asked very seriously.

"Well, yeah obviously we didn't. Ruby is still 17 after all." Weiss confirmed.

Suddenly however, Ruby had an idea. "Wait a minute!" And before anyone could say anything, Ruby was gone.

"What is she doing?" Winter asked.

"I honestly have no idea." Weiss responded.

Tai turned towards Weiss. "Well either way… once Ruby gets to be an adult, I'm fully okay with you two." He told Weiss.

"I agree actually, I was initially skeptical but… she really does love you and I think that's good." Winter added.

Weiss smiled at both of their acceptances.

But, as if on cue, Ruby and for some reason Draken appeared in the room again… only Ruby looked different. Her hair was now much longer, not as long as Weiss' or Yang's but still it had grown noticeable length, and Ruby herself actually seemed to get a little taller as well, and her hands seemed to be heavily worn out, with symptoms of carpal tunnel, muscle strain and other injuries.

"Ruby, w-what happened to you?!" Tai asked.

"Should I explain it or…" Ruby asked Draken.

"I think it's best if we both." Draken told her.

—

Flashback…

—

Draken had just finished talking to Odd when suddenly, Ruby Rose herself appeared in front of him.

"Hey, Draken, can you… help me?" Ruby asked.

"With… what?" Draken hesitantly asked.

"Do you have some sort of power to… age me by a year?" She asked.

"No and… why do you even want that? Wait, it's about Weiss isn't it?" Ruby nodded. Draken sighed. "Ruby even if I could, I wouldn't, sure you'd be physically a year older but you'd still mentally be 17, I know that doesn't sound like much but you'd be surprised at how much difference a year makes." He explained.

Ruby looked down, understanding what Draken meant, before getting an idea. "Well, do you have, like, an area where time moves differently, like a minute here is like, a day somewhere else?" Ruby asked.

"Ruby of course I don't- wait, I do actually." Draken realized. Ruby eyes lit up as Draken led her to a room that was vaulted off.

"1 second out here is 1 day in there. I'll set a timer for 365 seconds and then you can come out." Draken explained.

Ruby was about to go in before Draken stepped in front of her.

"Are you… sure you want to do this? There's a lot of stuff in there but you're going to be alone for an entire year." He asked her.

"I'm positive Draken. I want to do this." Ruby told him.

"Well alright then, food is near the entrance and it's a year's supply of stock so you should be good." Draken said.

With that, Ruby went in and Draken closed the entrance behind her.

—

End of Flashback…

—

"And that's why I look like this, I'm officially 18, an adult." Ruby explained.

It was quite a ridiculous story but Draken had backed it up, not to mention Ruby's physical changes. Weiss didn't really know what to say… until…

"Ruby, y-you dolt!"

"Huh?"

"You threw away a whole year of your life, why would you do that?!" Weiss asked frantically.

"Well… for you silly." Ruby simply said. Weiss wouldn't lie, she was kinda touched when Ruby said that.

"Ruby, that was seriously impulsive of you, wasting a year of your life like that." Tai told his daughter.

"Well, I know dad, but I really wanted to make things official and to do that, I wanted to be an adult." Ruby told him.

"I can't really comment on the decision itself but I wouldn't say she spent that year wastefully, she might've created a giant project." Draken said.

"Hey it's still not done… stupid hands hurting." Draken fixed up Ruby's hands with his power. "Thanks."

"I can't exactly say what you did was smart… but it does reaffirm my belief that you two were made for each other." With that, Winter took her leave, but not before turning back. "Oh, and be sure to invite me to the wedding." Winter uncharacteristically teased. Both Ruby and Weiss began blushing profusely.

"Well then, are you two 'official' now?" Tai asked.

Weiss and Ruby looked at each other and smiled. "Yeah," Ruby said, "I'd say so."

"By the way… what was that project you built in there?"

—

"I owe you how much?!"

"Hey you landed on Boardwalk, now pay up." Mercury said, extending his hand.

Jaune sighed. "Fine. Here's 200." Jaune said giving the fake money to Merc.

"It's what you get for picking the thimble my guy." Odd told Jaune.

In the middle of the Monopoly game however was Weiss' loud voice, coming from another room.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU BUILT A MECH?!"

Soon afterwards Winter appeared back in the game room and then Ruby, Weiss and Tai.

"Hey guys, Rubes, why do you look… different?" Yang asked.

From there on, Ruby explained everything that had happened to the group… including the fact that in the year in the time dilation room, Ruby had somehow nearly built a whole ass mecha.

"A mech… A giant. Fucking. Mech" Jaune said, unable to process everything that had happened.

"Ruby, you seriously spent an entire year by yourself?" Yang asked, a bit concerned for her sister.

"Yep." Ruby said simply.

"Can we see the mech?!" Nora asked excitedly.

"Nope! I'm not done, my baby needs some more work… although this might be the first time I'm tired of weapons." Ruby told her.

"Ruby there are weapons, and then there are entire mech suits! And you said it's bigger than a Paladin?!" Weiss exclaimed to her girlfriend.

"Uh huh." Ruby said.

Blake said nothing out loud but talked with her new Persona. 'What do you think about this?' Blake asked Arséne.

'She's something alright. I believe you have picked some good friends.'

"Alright enough with the mechs and lover stuff, how about we get to Persona 5 Royal?" Odd asked. Everyone agreed as they took their spots back and continued where they left off.

—

So, this was shorter than a regular chapter and actually a lot quicker to write as well.

To reiterate what was said here, while Blake is the only one getting a Persona, the abilities of other people's counterparts will bleed into them.

I gotta be honest that whole multiverse bleeding took up less time than I thought.

On to the WhiteRose stuff, oh god. The whole "Ruby spends in a year in the totally not a ripoff Hyperbolic Time Chamber" was only to make the ship official right now during the fic and not after it. I don't think the 2 year age gap is bad or anything or else I wouldn't even ship WhiteRose.

Also, as a 17 year old who has never been in a relationship before, I'm not sure if the shipping stuff was written very well, probably not lol.

As always, stay safe everyone, and see you guys next chapter!