The Darker Side of Life (Crossover RWBY/Persona)

"....Who? What does that mean?" Lapis stood oblivious to the meaning of the boy's words once she had brushed herself off, gazing amongst the group. Her nails gently scratched at her arm, a nervous twitch she did when she was having a moment of anxiety. Her tongue clicked gently. "I get the heebie jeebies around here." The doe muttered as her ears began to twitch furiously.

Lucy and Cruccifix merely nodded in response to Peter's assumption, both of them feeling rather secure in the fact that the young ursine could scarcely guide a mouse to a piece of cheese even if the two had their minds linked and the cheese was inches in front of the small creature. The two of them seemed so unified in their assumption that they coincidentally adopted the same stance: arms crossed, with their eyes closed and head tilted slightly downwards.

"Well, y'see, Lapis, "Leeroy Jenkins" is when someone charges at a clearly superior foe with absolutely no strategy a-" at that moment, time seemed to freeze around Peter "-nd okay, what the hell? Why is everything all monochromey all of a su-and nobody else is moving.... I have a feeling I'm not going to like this..." Peter said. As if on cue, a voice rang out through the forest once again "Hahaha... Hahahaha... Oh how I wish I could use this moment to just snap your neck right here...." the voice said before a figure came out of the trees once again. It was, of course, Pete's shadow, wearing the same strange armour he wore previously "Oooooohh nooooooooo.... Is this how I die?...." Pete said, clearly in a panic "Eeeeh... It might be.... Depends...." "...If it is... I forgot to mention.... That armour is fucking stupid...." he said, trying to keep calm and absolutely failing as Shadow Peter came closer and closer until they were merely inches apart "...Okay, y'know what? I was gonna make this painless, but you don't really deserve it...." "Wait wha-?" Pete said, he couldn't finish before Shadow Pete suddenly poked him in the chest, right over his heart, for some reason Pete suddenly felt an unimaginable pain coursing through his entire body. He fell to his knees, groaning in pain "Aaaaaaaah.... What did you just do?.... Am I going to die?!...." "Oh suck it up, you cry baby..... Worthless little worm, that's all you are..." "We have confirmed this, yes... Can I have my Persona if I don't die the-?" "Shut the hell up, you cretin!" Shadow Peter yelled as he suddenly kicked Pete in the face, knocking his other half to the feet of his frozen ally, Lucy "Ow.... If I have to die here, please let it be not in a frozen void of time and space and whatever...." "Yeah, I might just do this for a second... Tell that creepy bastard, Igor, I said hi..." "Wait what?...." And with that, Shadow Peter waved his hand and the real Pete suddenly felt very tired and heavy "Oh I don't like thiiiis...." he said before passing out.... "You better be worth the wait... I don't want this entire moment to be wasted...." he said angrily, clearly disgusted by the true Pete's very existence... He walked back into the forest. After a few more seconds after he disappeared time turned back to normal. With time now flowing again, Pete's allies could clearly see Pete just suddenly unconscious when just a half-second ago he was completely fine....

Lucy immediately tensed up, her Aura Shortswords materializing almost instantly as she scanned the area around her. Her eyes shifting as she dropped to her knees over Pete. She dropped her blades on the ground besides her as she shook him, worry evident in her eyes and stance as she knelt besides him.

At about the same time Cruccifix had already drawn her chakrams, having sensed something in the split moment before being frozen. She blinked several times in mild disbelief as she saw Pete on the ground, her stance stiffening as her gaze swept over the area around her.

During the majority of the occurrence, Corvou had his head tilted up in order to allow his gaze to trail after Ryuujin as it soared up to retrieve the item up high. Due to this, this was how he was kept both before and during the time that had passed.

...Or the lack thereof, to be more precise.

The instant that the clock began to turn yet again, Ryuujin would have returned down, and Corvou would have caught the scrolled-up Goho-M in his hand after his spiritual companion flung it back down from the skies. After getting a firm grasp on it, he sighed, turning a little bit to face the others. It would be then that he spotted Peter as he lay upon the ground, his tail flickering and his eyes narrowing in caution and surprise before he snapped his gaze to the clearing. God, nothing can ever end on at least a decent fucking note, now can it...? he thought with mild agitation as he quickly strode over and crouched besides both Peter and Lucy.

"I haven't the slightest idea regarding what has just occurred, nor would I wish to know..." the drake murmured lowly under his breath. Shaking his head, he knelt down a bit more to get a closer look at the bear as Ryuujin swept by his flank and hovered calmly over the pair before him. His head tilted for a moment as he inspected the leader, and he closed his eyes in impatient defeat as Ryuujin began to focus itself another time. Rather than casting a mass array of thunderbolts as it had done earlier, however, a sort of light would be summoned to envelop Peter; a sort of healing mass for his benefit. "He does not seem to have suffered any major physical wounds... Or...any physical wounds for that matter. Better safe than sorry, though..."

Lapis, rather slow on the return, gave a slow blink at first as she scanned everyone, before gazing downward. A series of fussing worried squeaks and squeals came from her. "Oh no is he okay???" The doe leaned over him as she gave another few squeaking squeal noises. "O-Oh man okay d-dON'T PANIC GUYS THIS IS NOT A TIME TO PANIC." Her voice kept raising in pitch until it was basically on a squeaking tone that would hurt the ears.

"Indeed, it is not the time to panic... So please heed your own words and do calm down a little bit, Miss Adonis," Corvou sighed softly, rubbing the back of his neck as he opened his eyes once more. He gave Lucy a slight, yet solid gaze, gesturing down to Peter as a sort of silent notice that he would be caring for him for the meantime. After doing so, he reached outwards, murmuring softly while lifting the group leader up from the ground. Following this action, the drake would stand up and glance around the clearing for a couple of moments before locating the train and walking towards it. Ryuujin followed behind him, eventually settling within its prior spot behind the train cars like it had been before they arrived in the current location.

At first, he stopped by one of the passenger cars, gently setting the ursine upon one of its seats before glancing back at the others. "One of you do me a minor favor and watch over him. I shall go see if I can work the train so we can depart. Excuse me." With those words, the man backed away from the car that he had been stationed at prior, making a quick, short stride over to the conductor's car and sliding in with some effort. Sighing, he sat down within its seat, glancing around at the panel of controls. He debated on pressing a few of the buttons to experiment with their supposed functions, though remembered about Peter's comment regarding the mind-controlling aspects of this strange source of transportation.

He peered back at the group once more while debating with himself, but, after a few seconds, groaned quietly before shifting his attention back to the controls and slowly beginning to fiddle around.

Let's...just...see if the logical way of working this would actually work...

Lapis had taken some deep breaths, and had tugged at her dloppy doe ears to relax herself as she sat by Pete to watch him. Her gaze remained on him as her ears twitched and listened for different sounds. "I hope you're okay." She whispered.

At Corvou's motion, Lucy would merely nod silently in worried response. Watching the drake set yhe young bear on the seat of the train, Lucy immediately jumped up to watch over Pete as Corvou busied himself with the controls. The Nightmare nodding again to the drake as she sat herself down near Peter.

Throughout this entire exchange, Cruccifix had only barely changed position to be slightly closer to the train, her watchful gaze sweeping constantly in search of any signs of danger as she slowly stalked backwards to the train.

(Mood music!)

While all that was going outside his mind, Peter had a very... Strange encounter with a very strange man inside his mind...

Peter found himself in a long, pitch black hallway ".....Okay, what the hell is this...?" he said with clear confusion before turning 180 to see what exactly was behind him, but as soon as he did that he gasped in joy "Oh! Oh! I know what this is!" He said as his eyes came to rest on a blue, shining, and very elaborate doorway... Peter ran up to the door and opened it as quickly as he could to find.... An arcade... "Ooookaaaay...? Not what I expected...."

There seemed to be about twenty machines in the place and the only exit besides the door to nowhere he came in through was a large archway blocked by a shutter, it seemed to lead out into a very empty mall-like structure, the only other store being a comic book store with a blank sign...

The machines were all labeled with Roman numerals and were all on attract mode. Pete's eyes went randomly from one to the other four times. The one marked "I" seemed to be a rail shooter themed around Wizards. "XV" was a 16-bit Centipede clone with the eponymous creature replaced with an parade of demons and the mushrooms appeared to be fire. X seemed to be another rail shooter themed around the wild west, but as soon as the screen was cleared, it suddenly switched from a small desert town to an underwater laboratory, once the screen was cleared again, it switched to an alley in a Chinese-themed town. "XX" was a fighting game with the fighters shown in the attract mode being some kind of metallic angel-like being and a normal-looking man with a pistol. "Huh... These look pretty fun... Wonder if they work.. I guess I'm supposed to find zero..." he thought aloud as his eyes scanned through the selection of machines, then finally landing on 0. It was seemingly broken and being worked on by a young man with platinum blonde hair and a dark blue work uniform, Peter approached him "Uh... Hey. That thing broken?" The man stopped working at the sound of Pete's voice, it took him a few seconds to actually respond "Almost, just gotta push this little button here and...." he said in a charming voice similar to that of the singer from the train ride "And ooookay! It should be good now!" He said happily before looking up to Peter to reveal that.. His eyes and mouth were sewn shut... Yet it was clear he could still see and speak... Pete flinched at the sight, shocked, but knowing he was friendly, he just tried to ignore it "Uh... Oh, right, it's the face thing... Yeah, don't worry, I was just born this way, y'know... ♫I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way.♫... Heh, y'know what? Nevermind..." "Uh... Yeah... What's your name? I'm Pete... Peter-" "Born? You look like a Born..." "Yeah. Peter Born." "I guess I should've expected that..." "I'm Victor, nice to meet ya. Word of warning, if you see a guy 'round your age, weird red eyes, don't talk to him, he's mean... Anyways, my break's here, so I'll see ya 'round." he said before walking away through the same door Pete came in through...

"A guy with red eyes...? No, it can't be.... It just can't..." he said before moving up to the machine's front and looking at the screen. It was a blue back ground with the number 0 on it in white, below the number was the words "Press Green to start". Pete looked down at the controls and found that there were only three large, round buttons, a green one, a red one, and an orange one. He pressed green and a sort of lounge remix of a familiar tune started playing through the speakers of the machine. The screen went black and faded back in on a shot of a table with a deck of tarot cards on it. A sentence appeared on the screen "I... Am Igor... And welcome to the Velvet room...! Press Green to continue." Pete pressed green "This is the realm between Dreams and Reality...! Only those who have- Press Green to continue." "Signed a contract can enter here... But you seem to be different... How- Press Green to continue" "Interesting... It is my job to assist you on your journey, whatever it may be... Press Green to continue." "Do you want your fortune read? Press Green for yes, Red for no." "This is weird...." Pete said before pressing the green button again. As soon as he did so, a gloved hand came down from the of the screen and moved a card onto the screen, the reversed Chariot "The Chariot in the Reversed position represents the immediate future. It's meaning is a lack of direction, and aggression. Press Green to continue" "The card that represents the future soon after is... The Hermit, in the Upright position. Perhaps some soul-searching is necessary. Press Green to continue." "It seems that you will face some kind of spiritual crisis some time in the future. You must stay strong in this time in your life... I shall be with you all of the way, but it seems that for now, you must leave... See you then..." the screen went dark and Pete became light-headed... Very, very light-headed... "Oh so this is what it feels like to be kicked out..." he said groggily as the velvet room vanished from his vision and it all went black....

Meanwhile, Corvou would have just stared at the simple panel of controls spread before him after deciding that he would be logical. A deadpanned look would be spread across his face as he stared at the single lever stationed on the side, with the words 'On' and 'Off' located on the top and bottom of the lever, off to the side. ...This...really seems legit... he thought while slowly and hesitating reaching downwards to grasp the knob of the switch. In a slow manner, he pulled it up so that it locked on the supposed 'On' function, and just stared at it for a few moments more before skeptically glancing back up; first through the front of the train, and then to the sides. After a few moments of inactivity, the reptilian sighed quietly and brushed the remaining hand through his hair. "Aaaaaand it didn't work... Somehow, I'm not surprised..."

With that thought, the man gave a low, annoyed groan before leaning back and finally sitting down in the conductor's chair behind him. Tiredly, he lounged further back into it, crossing his legs and rubbing his neck while continuing to stare at the control panel. Jesus, I wish Peter was still awake... God, this thing just needs to fucking move so we can-!

Before he could conclude that thought, the train jolted forward and abruptly began chugging forward at a semi-fast pace. Out of surprise and shock, Corvou shot forward a little bit and nearly fell off of his seat, quickly grasping the closest structure in front of him to prevent that from happening. Given a second or so had passed, the transportation source would begin to slow down to a leisurely pace as Corvou collected his thoughts, and he sighed softly in relief. Oooookay... So maybe the train really is mind-powered... He glanced down at the seat beneath him, rubbing his face. ...Maybe it's just that the last person to touch this thing gets to control it... Huh...

Soon enough, the train would actually have chugged backwards once more, stopping close to its prior location in order to allow Cruc to be given the chance to actually board the train this time around. While waiting, the dragon remained lounged back into his seat, and he stared up at the ceiling board of the conductor's cart. .......I wonder~. Pete managed to play music when he controlled this thing.

Once this thought was concluded, a period of dead silence would practically overwhelm the cart for several moments. The sounds of a particular song suddenly began playing throughout the train's span almost immediately afterwards though. Upon hearing the tune, Corvou couldn't help but allow a childish and idiotic smile and snicker to escape from his lips.

"....Oh my~."

Lucy smiled softly as she heard the song, tapping her foot in time with the beat as the train chugged along. She swayed slightly as she hummed the song, trying to place the last time she heard it. She looked down at Peter's sleeping form as Cruccifix looked out the windows of the train car, reminding any others in the train of what the opening to an anime would look like. The silent assassin removed one of her chakrams from its holster and inspected the round blade for a few moments before putting it back and closing her eyes with her arms crossed.

Lapis felt rather comfortable as she sunk to the floor of the train car, laying on her side as she glanced at Pete. The doe was mentally exhausted from the anxiety that had raced through her since the moment they came in, and it was finally slowing to a near halt. Her ears twitched as she listened carefully, laying her arms over her head with a yawn. "Wake me up later."

As soon as Lapis finished speaking, Pete began to stir in his sleep, then slowly wake up "Did anybody catch the licence plate on that truck...?" he said jokingly "I'm alive, everybod-!.... Oh my Philemon, this music.... Corvou! Put it onto a jazzy track, if you please!" he said, still tired and slightly slurring his speech...

Lucy closed her eyes in silent relief as Pete spoke, still swaying to the song as she leaned back in her seat. She was receiving a sidelong stare by Cruccifix as the assassin herself merely continued to look out the window absently.

While the others went on with their own gestures and whatnot in the cars further back, Corvou simply continued to grin to himself while absentmindedly nodding his head along to the upbeat melody of the song that was playing. Upon noticing that Pete was conscious once more and hearing what he had to say, however, he opened his eyes and glanced over his shoulder. "...Jazzy...?" he said, sighing softly and in a slightly disappointed manner as he lounged back into the conductor's seat. Mmm...and here I thought I could have a lot of fun with this... he thought to himself while tilting his head to face the outer window of the head train car.

Afterwards, the music slowly cut out, only to be replaced by yet another song.

Her breathing was soft and short as her mind began to wander and drift, ears bobbing to the melody and tail wiggling slightly under her cloak. The deer faunus' breath would hitch for a moment, but slowly release as a heavy sigh escaped. Sometimes, she wished every moment was as worry free as that rift in between her dreams and waking life. Everything was tranquil and harmonized.