Chapter 8

"Who is that?" Weiss asked.

"That appears to be Shuji Ikutsuki." Naoto replied. "He was the researcher in charge of the experiments performed on Sho. He was the closest thing Sho had to a father, at least until the experiments failed." She knew him from the files on the Kirijo Group. "Since he was confirmed dead years ago, I'd say that's a shadow."

"Naoto's right, that's definitely the shadow." Rise confirmed.

"The real surprise is that you're still alive." The shadow continued. "I didn't think you had it in you. You are a failure after all. We did everything we could to get you to manifest a Persona and nothing worked."

"I have a Persona now." Sho countered.

"Too little too late I'm afraid." The shadow said. "It seems the mechanical maidens we developed were far more effective than you could ever be. You're worthless."

"I am not worthless!" Sho yelled. "You're the failure. It was your stupid experiments.

"Is that any way to talk to your benefactor?" The shadow asked. "I gave you everything you have. Your combat skills, your newfound Persona, your money, it's all mine. Without me, you're worthless. You're trash to be tossed away. I don't know why anyone would take an interest in you. I certainly feel foolish for having taken one myself. What a waste of time, effort and money."

"I'm not worthless." Sho said, this time with less conviction.

"Sure you are." The shadow pressed. "No one cares about you. Even that scumbag Adachi kicked you to the curb as soon as it suited him. I should have done us both a favor and just had you killed like I wanted to. Those damn bleeding hearts in the Ergo Lab wouldn't let that happen."

"That can't be the truth." Sho said. His confident and strong façade was breaking down rapidly. He fell to his knees and dropped his weapons.

"Well, that's a mistake I shall correct here and now." The shadow said. With that the shadow collapsed into a puddle before reforming into a mechanical monstrosity. It bore the general form of Ikutsuki but was more robotic and had blades in place of its forearms. It was also twice as large.

"Enough!" Yu shouted. He stepped back from the glass and blasted it with wind. The pane collapsed under the onslaught allowing RWBY and YYRN to come to Sho's rescue. They rushed in and took up positions between the shadow and Sho.

"Wonderful, more test subjects." The shadow growled. "This will be quite the combat trial."

Yu opened the attack by assaulting the shadow with a bolt of electricity. Unfortunately it only seemed to make the monster stronger. It charged the group, swinging its bladed arms wildly. Yu stood his ground, dodging one slash and blocking another with his own sword before he got inside the shadow's effective range and unleashed a series of slashes of his own. They were ineffective and the shadow simply kicked him away, sending him tumbling back.

The shadow stomped toward Yu, hoping to hit him while he was down but it was forced back by twin blasts of wind from Yosuke and Naoto. While not good at doing damage, the wind seemed effective at keeping the shadow at a distance. That was until it braced itself and thrashed its way toward them, forcing the group to scatter. Ruby fired several sniper shots at the shadow. Though they failed to penetrate, the impact was enough to stagger the monster. Yang saw an opportunity and charged in, leaping into a punch to the shadow's chest. She followed it up with a flurry of blows that put the beast off balance. With the shadow distracted, Blake rushed in, extended Gambol Shroud's ribbon and wrapped it around the shadow's legs. Seizing the moment, Yosuke and Naoto blasted the shadow with wind. It tripped and clattered to the ground.

The group rushed in and hit the shadow with everything they had. The sound of metal on metal and the crackle of gunfire was overwhelmed as the shadow growled and thrashed wildly, forcing them back once more. It climbed to its feet and began slashing wildly at its attackers. Weiss failed to get clear in time and was tossed across the chamber and hard into the wall. Yosuke too failed to get out of range and was sent flipping through the air to a rough landing. Yu encased the shadow's legs in ice and it let out a roar of pain as it struggled to free itself.

"That's it!" Rise shouted. "Attack it now!" Yang charged forward and landed a solid punch to one of the shadow's frozen legs. It shattered, causing the now unbalanced monster to fall on its side. Yu continued to pile the ice on as Yang punched away, slowly cracking bits off of the beast. Weiss got to her feet and added more ice to the equation and soon the entire shadow was engulfed. The combatants charged and after a series of blows, the shadow was reduced to nothing but shattered pieces that melted and evaporated away.

Now all attention returned to Sho. He still knelt there, his head down and his eyes closed as if expecting a deathblow. Perhaps he wished for it. "Why are you assholes here?" Sho growled. "I thought I was finally done with you."

"We're here because we care about you." Yu said.

"Oh God, don't start with that power of friendship bullshit you love so much." Sho sighed. "You don't give a damn about me."

"We traveled to a parallel universe for you." Rise said. "Then, we came here to save you. I think that says we care."

"We saw everything too, so there's no point in acting tough." Yosuke added.

"Oh fuck off." Sho grumbled. "Just leave me alone."

"You know we can't do that." Yu said. He carefully approached Sho and kicked his swords away. "Remove the attachments." Yu commanded to the others. Yang picked up one of the blades and wrenched off the attached gun. Blake took care of the other. "I offer you a choice." Yu said, turning back to Sho. A glowing blue door appeared behind Yu. "You can stay here and go to prison for your crime. After all, you're a wanted man here. Or, you can step through that door and go back to earth."

"I wish you'd let me die." Sho said. "Both of those options suck."

"One sucks less." Yosuke said. "Just go back home. Things really aren't as bad as they seem."

"Yeah, I'm sure everything will work out for you." Rise encouraged.

"Yeah, yeah, blah, blah." Sho said. He stood, picked up his damaged blades and walked to the blue door. Before entering he turned and faced the group. "One day I'll kill you all."

"We know." Yu said with a gentle smile.

"Before you go, what's Torchwick up to?" Blake asked.

"Hell if I know." Sho said. "He does meet with his associates a lot. He didn't say a word to me about it."

"What about Adachi?" Naoto asked.

"That son of a bitch…" Sho growled. "He's working for someone. I don't know who but they wanted Torchwick's pal Neo dead. Apparently I just got in the way. I don't know how but he's incredibly powerful."

"We'll stop him." Yosuke said.

"Maybe I won't have to kill you after all." Sho said. "If you fight him he'll do the work for me." With that he stepped through the doorway and disappeared into the blue glow.

"I think we're finally getting through to him." Yu smiled.

"Dude, are you delusional?" Yosuke asked. Yu shrugged. "Well we didn't learn anything useful but at least we saved him."

"Who would want Neo dead?" Weiss asked. Yang started to raise her hand before lowering it. "Why her and not Torchwick?"

"Who knows?" Ruby said. "Maybe's it's a personal thing."

"If Adachi is working for the White Fang like the rumors say, maybe they wanted her dead." Blake said. "I can't imagine why though. They're all supposed to be working together."

"We can figure all this out later." Rise said. "Right now we should go back."

Adachi had just finished tossing Team JNPR through his TV. He had thrown along their weapons and some other personal effects too. He wanted to make it look like they had left of their own accord, not been the victims of foul play. Surprisingly the fight had not broken any of the furniture or damaged the room. Apparently the walls were made of solid stuff because no one seemed to have heard the commotion either. Perhaps fights occurred at this school regularly. It was a combat school after all. There was little he could do about the blood, but he figured it would not be a big deal. They were students and a little mess was to be expected.

He packed the TV into his briefcase and walked out, quietly closing the door behind him. He walked out as fast as he could without looking suspicious and took the airship through the pouring rain back to Vale. His little trip had been fun but he would not be going back to Beacon. His cover-up would only buy time, eventually someone would realize something was wrong. If he returned he may be recognized by someone. He knew he was powerful and confident in his ability to defeat anyone, but there were literally hundreds of trained warriors at Beacon. That was a hornet's nest he did not want to poke. No, he would need to find another way to get to Team RWBY.

The TV Yosuke had produced for their exit had been a tight squeeze. It did not help that most of them exited head first and so crashed into YYRN's room that way. Still, they were out and it felt good to be somewhere relatively normal and safe. "We should tell the others that Sho's been dealt with." Ruby said. "I'm sure Team JNPR is worried."

"Good idea." Yu said. "We'll wait here for the Midnight Channel to make sure no one else is in there." Ruby headed off to announce the good news.

"How long were we in there?" Yang asked.

"A few hours." Naoto replied. "It's almost midnight already."

"It seemed like longer." Weiss observed.

"I don't think time works the same way in there as it does on the outside." Rise said. "Sometimes minutes feel like hours and hours feel like minutes."

"I still don't understand what that place is." Yang said. "It's so bizarre."

Ruby burst back into the room with a look of panic on her face. "They're gone!" She exclaimed.

"Maybe they just went somewhere." Weiss suggested. "Did they take their things?"

"Yes, but there was blood." Ruby said. "And one of Pyrrha's earrings was broken and on the floor."

"Why them?" Blake asked. "They have nothing to do with any of this."

Without warning the screen flickered on with a screech of static. "Hello viewers!" It was Nora, but not Nora. The girl on screen looked far too deranged. It must have been her shadow. "Tonight on Double Date we find out if our couples can find true love!" Behind her Jaune's shadow stared longingly at a photograph of Weiss while Pyrrha's shadow desperately tried to get his attention. She was being very aggressive but he was having none of it. "Now come here Ren!" Shadow Nora shouted. The camera panned to reveal Ren's shadow, a look of sheer terror on its face. Shadow Nora ran toward Shadow Ren who took off running. The picture faded to static as Shadow Nora continued her chase and Shadow Pyrrha got increasingly provocative.

"Well, I guess that confirms it." Naoto said. She tried to remain professional but it was clear that what she had seen made her uncomfortable.

"What did I just see?" Ruby asked.

"One day when you're old enough, I'll explain it." Yang said.

"That might be the most disturbing thing I've ever witnessed." Weiss said. "That world just keeps getting weirder."

"I've seen stranger." Yosuke said. "Kanji's was definitely worse." He and Yu both shivered at the memory.

"Were ours that bad?" Naoto asked, her embarrassment clear.

"Yours wasn't." Yosuke said. "Rise's was something else though." A smile spread across his face.

"Pervert." Rise said as she slapped Yosuke.

"You all seem troublingly at ease with this." Blake said.

"We've been through it all before." Yu explained. "Some of the things we've seen will haunt us forever. This was tame by comparison."

"We need to save them." Ruby said.

"Tomorrow." Yu said. "We need to rest. With four of them in there, that world is going to be more dangerous than ever."

Sho did not appear on the Midnight Channel. That had Adachi concerned. Either it worked differently in this world or somehow Sho had escaped. He had not shown up anywhere around Vale but he could be lying low. Sho was resourceful, maybe he had gotten himself out. That would have been a neat trick. There was a more troubling possibility however. Maybe someone had saved him. But who? There was only one group in any universe that Adachi was aware of that could have done that. He would have to look into it.

Teams RWBY and YYRN just wanted to rest, knowing they would have to venture into the shadow world to rescue Team JNPR later in the day but it was not to be. As far as Glynda was concerned, one member of YYRN was still untested. That had to change. Glynda had originally planned to have Naoto fight Ren, but his absence caused a change of opponent. Now Naoto would be fighting Sun. Naoto was happy to be out of the skirt that went with her uniform but was mortified to find out that the locker room was co-ed. Luckily, Sun did not need a change of clothes so she had it all to herself.

Dressed in her normal street clothes, Naoto felt much more at ease. Of course Sun immediately destroyed that ease as they met in the amphitheater. "I like you better in the skirt." Sun said with a carefree smile. Naoto's face turned bright red. "Are you embarrassed?" Sun seemed genuinely surprised by her reaction. "I guess you and Blake have more in common than just being quiet and mysterious."

"Please stop." Naoto said.

The buzzer sounded to start the match, ending the awkwardness. Sun slid his staff, bent in four, out from under his shirt and snapped it into one piece. He opened with his semblance, sending spectral clones charging at Naoto. She shouldered her rifle and snapped off two shots, striking each clone in the head. On contact the shots caused the clones to explode. Naoto was glad she had taken them out at a distance. Any closer and that would have hurt.

The clones were only a distraction as Sun charged in close. Naoto hurriedly converted her weapon to its rapier form and deflected Sun's repeated strikes. She was not skilled enough to do more than that however, being very out of practice. She needed distance, so with a wave of her arm she unleashed a blast of wind that forced Sun back. Naoto converted her weapon back into its rifle form and snapped off a series of shots. Sun kept moving and dodged them until Naoto had to reload.

Sun started to charge back in but Naoto reached out her arm and unleashed a blast of fire at him. He spun his staff in front of him, forcing the flames away as he continued to close in. Naoto was forced to change tactics as Sun got close, switching her weapon back into a rapier. Sun changed tactics too. His staff split in half and the halves became nunchucks. Now Naoto was hopelessly outclassed and could not help but take several hits while getting in none of her own. It got worse when Sun started using the nunchucks as shotguns, peppering her with fire. Sun reared back and put all his force into one hit, smashing Naoto in the midsection with both nunchucks and firing at the same time. She skidded backward and slammed to the ground.

Looking up at the scoreboard, it was clear that Naoto was close to defeat. The sliver of aura she had remaining would not endure another hit. Sun, on the other hand, was totally untouched. A loss this lopsided would be an embarrassment. She decided desperate measures were called for. She had never attempted it on a human opponent, but the power of darkness might carry the day. She sat up, wincing in pain. She made a circular motion with her hand and a black circle appeared below Sun's feet.

"What the…" Sun started. The circle collapsed on itself and Sun fell flat on his face before he could finish the sentence. The scoreboard showed his aura completely drained. Naoto got to her feet, still a bit wobbly, and stumbled over to Sun. After verifying that he was indeed still breathing, she let out a sigh of relief and walked away so Sun could be attended to.

"Are you okay?" Yu asked Naoto as she exited the combat floor.

"Not really." Naoto said. "That fight hurt quite a bit. I took a real beating."

"Is he okay?" Yosuke asked.

"He's alive." Naoto said. "I didn't want to use that on him, but I didn't want to lose so one-sidedly either."

"You did fine." Yu encouraged her. "This is a whole new style of fighting for all of us. At least you won, unlike Yosuke."

"Hey, I could have…" Yosuke started.

"What?" Rise challenged. "Not gotten your balls crushed? It was over."

"Yeah, I guess." Yosuke admitted. "Well, 3 of 4 for the team isn't bad. It sucks to be the only loss though."

"At least now we can focus on tonight." Naoto said. "I hope I'm feeling better by then."

"Oh, what's happening later?" Glynda asked, suddenly right behind them. Shocked, no member of YYRN could come up with a compelling excuse. With a sly smile she reached into her pocket and produced a small vial. "Dust infused medicine. Rub it where it hurts." She handed it to Naoto.

"Where was that after my fight?" Yosuke asked.

"Do not apply to eyes, mouth or genitals." Glynda added sarcastically.