Chapter 5

Ruby opened her eyes, struggling to adjust to the bright light. She lay in an unfamiliar place. "Ruby!" Yang said cheerfully, sitting at her bedside. "We were so worried. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that." Yang bent over and gave her a hug. It was characteristically too tight.

"What happened?" She asked groggily. "Where am I?"

"After you defeated that shadow, you lost consciousness." Blake said. She had been standing nearby, but Ruby had not previously noticed her presence. "The person we rescued let us use his house." That answered both questions in a literal sense, but Ruby still did not really understand what had happened.

"You were unconscious for two days!" Weiss shouted. "We were worried sick! I don't care what Ozpin says, if you pull something like this again, I'm taking over as team leader." Weiss tried to hide it behind anger, but it was clear that she really cared. Ruby was vaguely aware of others in the room.

"I was in a blue room…" Ruby started. Everyone gave her a confused look except Yu. She decided not to continue. "Never mind. What about the other missing people?"

"We haven't been back." Yang said. "I didn't want to leave your side and the others didn't want to go without us."

Ruby sat up and spun to the edge of the bed. "I feel fine now, we should go." She jumped up to her feet and only avoided falling down because Yang caught her.

"You're not going anywhere yet." Yang said.

"Yang's right." Naoto agreed. "There's no reason to go before you've fully regained your strength. We talked to the first victim – the one you saved – and it seems the victims are held in some sort of suspended animation. We can afford to take our time. While we waited for your recovery, I did more investigating. Apparently there is one more missing person we didn't know about."

"How?" Blake asked. This was the first time Naoto was reporting her findings.

"No one reported him missing." Naoto replied. "For all we know, he has nothing to do with this. The gate guards say he just left one day and never came back. He's a hunter, even if he didn't train at a major academy, so I doubt the Grimm are responsible for his disappearance. The people who knew him say he didn't report any strange dreams either. His brother recently died, and he became quite depressed. Then one day, he said he 'had it all figured out' and just left. Apparently he often left without warning, so no one thought it was strange. This all happened before the first confirmed case, so I can't be sure it's part of the same series."

"Just get some rest." Yang told Ruby. "We'll keep investigating until you're ready."

"Okay, but can I speak with Yu for a minute?" Ruby asked. "Alone, please." The others left the room to give them privacy.

"What is it?" Yu asked. He was his usual impassive self.

"Well, when I mentioned the blue room, you didn't seem surprised like the others." Ruby said.

"The Velvet Room." Yu corrected her. "I've been there."

"There was weird looking old guy there who said I had the power of the Fool." Ruby continued.

"I have the same power." Yu explained. "It normally allows me to use multiple Personas, but for some reason I haven't been able to here."

"He said there was something altering the power." Ruby said. "He didn't explain it though. He also said I signed some sort of contract, but I don't remember doing anything like that."

"You agreed to solve the case with us." Yu said. "That's a kind of contract." It was Yu's turn to ask a question. "Was a woman named Margaret there as well?"

"No, just the old guy and a man named Theodore." Ruby replied. "Is it important?" Yu gestured to indicate that it was not, but Ruby could see that he was hiding something. "You can tell me. If it's a secret I won't tell anybody."

"Don't worry about it." Yu said. "Just get some rest; we need you ready to fight." He turned and left the room.

"How did Ruby get a Persona anyway?" Chie asked. "We all had to accept the…darker side of ourselves to gain our Personas. She didn't. She just kicked the shadow's butt."

"From all we've seen, it seems the shadows and their world here do not work the same way they did for us." Naoto said. "Maybe instead of accepting your shadow, you must defeat it in battle to transform it into a Persona. I can't say for sure, but it seems to be a logical conclusion."

"I hope she's really okay." Yosuke said. "Facing my shadow was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it only had my face. She had to suffer through having her dead mother berate her with all the things she's insecure about. I don't think I could have dealt with that." It was a depressing thing to think about, but he was right. The shadows in this place were more insidious than anything they had faced before.

Something else has been bothering me." Yukiko said anxiously. "We've been here for days. Back home they must be worried sick."

"My ma's gonna' be pissed." Kanji said. "I hope she doesn't get too worked up."

"Your uncle's going to kill you." Yosuke joked. "Forget about not being home, skipping school for this long is a capital offense for him." Yu was not amused, and seemed to have something else on his mind. No one was going to ask what, they knew he would tell them when he was ready.

The next day they returned to the cave and the shadow world. It had changed since Ruby had last seen it. The portal leading to the snowy forest was gone, leaving the fortress gate wide open. Inside was a large courtyard lined by five doorways. Straight ahead, at the top of a set of stone stairs, a larger door loomed. It appeared to lead to the fortress's keep. The large door had four locks on it; one was open, but the others remained locked tight.

Ruby took a closer look at the other doors. Four of the doorways were more or less the same, and similar in appearance to the portal that had led to Ruby's world. One of the doors was very different though. It was blue and had an otherworldly glow. Stranger still, the others did not seem to notice it.

"You see it, don't you?" Yu tapped Ruby on the shoulder.

"You mean the blue door?" She asked in reply. Yu nodded.

"Come with me." Yu said confidently. The two walked up to the blue door. It opened to Yu's touch and they stepped inside.

"Hey Ruby." Yang called. There was no response. "Ruby?" Ruby and Yu were standing side-by-side, holding their arms as if reaching for something. They were totally unresponsive. "Guys!"

"Don't worry." Yosuke said. "Yu does this all the time. Maybe Ruby's got the same power."

Ruby was surprised to find herself in the Velvet Room, Yu at her side. "Welcome back." Igor said. "Ah, you have brought a guest. I am afraid that as he is not the Velvet Room's current guest, I cannot offer him my assistance. He is, however, welcome to stay."

Beside Igor sat a man with blond hair and yellow eyes. He wore a blue suit and hat, the color matching the room. Yu could not help but see a resemblance to Margaret. "You must be Theodore." Yu said, reaching out to shake his hand.

"I don't believe we've met, but yes." Theodore said. "I take it Ruby told you about me."

"Do you know Margaret?" Yu got straight to business.

"She's my eldest sister." Theodore replied. "I have not seen her in some time. My sisters always leave me in the most difficult situations."

"She sent my friends and I here, can you send us home?" Yu asked.

"I know what she did." Theodore answered. "Unfortunately, the skills she used are far beyond my ability. She did not simply transport you through space, but also altered time. That is also the reason for the change in the Fool. The normal flow of time is integral to the fusion of Personas and their use in general. I'm actually quite surprised you can summon your Personas at all." Yu looked disappointed. "Perhaps that is why you are able to summon Personas outside the shadow world now." Theodore observed.

"I'm sure Margaret will get you back home when we've finished." Ruby encouraged him.

"I agree." Theodore added. "She always spoke quite highly of you. She wouldn't cast you adrift on the sea of time without a way to bring you back." Yu was not so sure, but he would just have to hope for now.

"Before we go, she has the same power I do, correct?" Yu asked.

"The Fool, yes." Theodore replied. "No two guests have exactly the same power, but hers is of the same nature." He sighed. "Regrettably, the change in the fool means you both have the same limitation at present. I will be sure to summon you back here if there is any further change."

Yu looked troubled, and Ruby had some idea of what it was about. "Are you jealous?" She asked.

Yu seemed taken aback by the question. "A little I guess." Yu admitted. "I thought I was unique." He shrugged. "It's not a big deal though, I'll get over it." That admission did not seem to help him.

"There's something else, isn't there?" Ruby asked. He just sighed. "You can tell me."

"I'm just worried, that's all." Yu said. "We've been through a lot and there's more to come. After that, I have to figure out how to get home. I can't let my friends down. Without the full extent of my power, I can't help but feel weak, and that means I can't protect them the way I want to." The pressures of leadership, Ruby knew them well. Perhaps they had more in common than she had thought.

Yu and Ruby suddenly seemed to snap out of whatever trance they were in. "You really need to stop worrying us like this." Yang said, again giving her a tight hug. Yu explained to Ruby why the others had been worried and apologized for not warning them in advance. He then told the Investigation Team what he had learned about his Personas and Margaret.

"Well, four doors, four locks, and four remaining missing people." Yosuke said. "I think it's pretty clear what we have to do. We may as well stop worrying and get on with it."

"Let's do this." Chie said. She walked up to one of the doors. "This one seems as good as any." They passed through the doorway and were again transported to another world.

Again, the setting was totally incongruous with the place they had come from. Leaving an imposing fortress, they had stepped into an elegant mansion. "Why wouldn't it be?" Weiss suddenly said. "Of course this one's mine." She sounded very agitated. "They really know how to twist the knife!" She shouted at no one in particular.

"I take it this represents the place where you grew up." Yang said.

"What do you think?" Weiss glared at her. "This whole world is a sick joke." Weiss went on ranting as Ruby and Yang tried to calm her down.

"This doesn't look like such a bad place." Kanji observed. "She must be super-rich."

"Weiss is the heiress to the world's largest dust company." Blake explained. "She hasn't gone into much detail, but apparently she had a rather unhappy childhood. The company made her friends and family targets for…" Blake paused, wondering how exactly she would explain the White Fang. "…an extremist group. It made life very difficult for all of them." Blake could not help but feel somewhat responsible, even though she had not been a killer. "Apparently her father became very stressed and angry, so that surely had an effect on her."

"I can deal with this." Weiss said, finally calming down. "This is all an illusion anyway, right? Let's just get this over with."

"I wonder what kind of shadows we'll face here." Yukiko pondered. "In Ruby's forest, the shadows were based on Grimm, which made sense for the setting. What kind of enemies would make sense for a fancy mansion?"

"This place kind of reminds me of your castle Yukiko." Teddie said. "Maybe here you'll find..."

"If you don't shut up, I'm going to burn all the fur off of you." Yukiko threatened. Teddie hid behind Yu in fear. She turned to Team RWBY who were clearly concerned. "It's still a touchy subject. Even after facing and accepting my shadow, it's still a painful and embarrassing experience." She turned back at Teddie who was still cowering. "He brings it up too often."

"I'm sorry." Teddie said sincerely. His apology may have been genuine, but he was sure to make the same mistake again. It was just who he was.

"Let's get going already." Weiss said. "I'm sick of standing around and thinking about it." The others agreed and moved on.