Persona 6: REM
Chapter 5: 9/5
Previous Chapter Next ChapterSeptember 5th, 2019
Wednesday
Cloudy
Morning
Starlight was feeling much better this morning, so she felt like she could go to school. Shockingly, she found Beatrix eating breakfast with the rest of the dorm. When Starlight sat down at the table, Beatrix even looked at her briefly, and if she didn’t know better didn’t scowl in hatred this time.
Well, it was progress.
This time around Starlight chose to head to school herself as opposed to being driven, which Celestia did offer. She probably wanted to make sure she was okay after last night. Being completely honest, Starlight wasn’t sure where her head was concerning that. But thinking about Beatrix made Starlight feel like she needed to take action, and not just in terms of saving her from her dream. She found that she felt that same desire to protect her even in the real world.
Speaking of Beatrix, she was actually waiting for Starlight outside of the dorm. She played it off as they were going in the same direction, and she wanted to make sure Starlight found the school easily, but Starlight knew better. She was clinging to her for protection. Even if she didn’t know whether or not the Starlight she saw in her dream was the real Starlight, she probably was beginning to see her as a symbol of hope. Someone that she needed to keep close to stay safe, and possibly alive, as she was still staring death right in the face more than likely.
Starlight didn’t mind in the slightest.
The train ride was completely silent. Even though they found a place to sit together, the two of them didn’t say anything to one another. Starlight could tell that Beatrix wanted to say something though. Not knowing what else to say, and getting the feeling that she needed to keep the true nature of the dreams a secret for now, she took Beatrix’s hand comfortingly and gave her a kind smile. Beatrix turned to Starlight surprised, but then looked down at her lap with a soft smile.
“Thanks…” she said, a light blush on her cheeks.
After getting off the train, the two continued in silence toward the school. There were two boys in front of them talking, and Starlight couldn’t help but listen.
“Man, Blueblood was not in a good mood yesterday.”
“I know, right? When he threw the ball to me in practice, he damn near knocked the wind out of me! Seriously, what happened?”
“I dunno. His girlfriend wasn’t at practice though, so that might have had something to do with it.”
“Well, I hope she’s there today. I can’t take another practice session from hell.”
Beatrix moaned in sadness and frustration, her expression one of pure defeat and hopelessness. Starlight didn’t like this, and had enough mind to tell them to stop being selfish, but she did promise Beatrix not to tell anyone.
Still, this was getting ridiculous.
Daytime
Since today was her first full day, she got to feel out her schedule. She was surprised by how many classes she and Beatrix shared. That was going to make it really easy to protect her and hopefully strike up a full on friendship with her when all of this was over. Part of her wondered if Celestia had a hand in that somehow. Probably not, considering in the end she was still a History Teacher.
Most of her classes were just her catching up, but one class caught her attention right away. That being English, which was taught by Bulk Biceps, the gym teacher! He didn’t even change out of his t-shirt, and had his whistle and headband on and everything. Was this due to being understaffed, or did he actually want to pull double duty like this.
It had to be the latter, because otherwise it didn’t make sense for the gym teacher to also be teaching English.
But he was quite the character. Okay, scratch that, all of her teachers were quite the character. Bulk Biceps had a habit of quoting Shakespeare, and seemed to really like poetry. He even had a prop skull on his desk. Seriously, this was too insane. Starlight and Beatrix (who sat together in every one of their classes) couldn’t help but giggle at his antics. Starlight didn’t even care that he shot them a look afterward.
She was just happy to see Beatrix acting somewhat like a normal girl.
After School
When classes ended, Starlight caught up to Beatrix and convinced her to walk with her back to the dorms. She was understandably apprehensive, but relented after a second. Starlight wanted to keep her away from Blueblood as much as possible.
Sadly the universe had other plans though, because as soon as they exited the classroom, they saw Blueblood leaning against a wall, arms folded. He did not look happy.
“Trying to dodge me, Beatrix?” Blueblood asked with a dangerous tone.
“N-no,” Beatrix said weakly, “I told you… yesterday my roommate was sick, and my teacher asked me to-”
“Right, your roommate,” he pushed off the wall and walked over to them. Starlight stepped forward getting between Blueblood and Beatrix, and shot him a glare similar to what she shot his Shadow version inside Beatrix’s Dungeon, “I take it that’s you, correct?” Blueblood asked, “If I were you, I’d get out of my way.”
“You’re not me, and I’m just fine standing right where I am,” Starlight shot back at him. She felt a slight burst of courage from telling him that.
“I don’t know what rumors you’ve heard, but what Beatrix and I do together is none of your business, goth,” Blueblood narrowed his eyes at Starlight, “Beatrix, come. I have football practice, and I’m going to want to make up for not seeing you yesterday.”
“I…” Beatrix looked away and tightened her fists. It looked like she was trying to fight his influence.
“Beatrix, come,” he said, that dangerous tone returning. Whatever that tone meant, Starlight didn’t like it. However, it seemed to have the desired effect, because any strength Beatrix had gathered left immediately as she gave a defeated sigh.
“Yes. I’m coming,” Beatrix said, voice weak and almost monotone. Starlight quickly grabbed her arm, silently begging her not to go with him, “I’m sorry Starlight… but I… I have to. I’ll see you back at the dorm…”
Beatrix pulled her hand away from Starlight’s and walked over to Blueblood, who wrapped an arm around her shoulder guiding her away. As they turned to the stairs, he gave Starlight a dangerous glare that made her feel really uncomfortable.
When they were gone, Starlight looked to the ground, trembling in frustration. She didn’t just want to save Beatrix from dying in her nightmare, she wanted to get her away from the source of said nightmare. A comforting hand landed on her shoulder, and she looked behind her to see Celestia looking at the stairs with a slight glare herself.
Seriously, for as nice as she was, seeing her glare at anyone was terrifying.
“I know honey. Believe me, it frustrates me too,” Celestia said gently, “For now though, let’s focus on what we can do.”
“Can I go back into her Dungeon tonight?” Starlight asked.
“Yes, tonight’s a good night for that,” Celestia wrapped her arms around Starlight lovingly, “Don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Starlight thanked Celestia before heading back to the dorm. She’d get an early start to her homework so she wouldn’t have that weighing over her throughout the night.
Unknown to either of them, a certain rainbow haired teen was standing behind the corner listening to them.
“Dungeon? Does that have something to do with Beatrix's sudden change?” Rainbow Dash asked folding her arms, “Wait a second, if that’s the case, then does that mean…”
“There you are Dashie!” Pinkie Pie said, turning to the corner Rainbow Dash was hiding behind, “Dashie, are you okay? You seem tense.”
“Y-yeah Pinkie Pie, I’m okay,” Rainbow Dash said, “Hey, if you were dealing with any issues, you’d tell me, right?”
Pinkie averted her eyes ever so slightly, “Well duh! You’re my knight in shining armor. I know you’ll always protect me.”
“Exactly, I’ll always protect you,” Rainbow Dash said, taking Pinkie Pie’s hand, “Let’s head to the arcade before going back to the dorm.”
Pinkie Pie nodded, showing no visible signs of stress. Rainbow Dash wasn’t buying it though. She’d been having the same dream every night since the school year began, and at first she thought it was just stress due to the new school year. Honestly, she had no reason to be concerned. Throughout the day Pinkie Pie seemed like her usual self.
So why was Pinkie Pie crying in her sleep?
end song
Evening
It was getting late. Beatrix was cutting it really close. Starlight had finished her homework early to keep herself calm, but she had hoped Beatrix would come in during that time. So when she finished her assignments, and she still wasn’t in, Starlight went from tense to full on worried.
As she paced back and forth in the living room, both Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were watching her from the couch, visibly concerned themselves.
“You okay?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Don’t worry about Beatrix,” Pinkie Pie said, “She may cut it close at times, but she’s NEVER late for curfew.”
That might not matter in this sense, Starlight thought to herself. She looked at her phone to check the time.
7:57 pm
Seeing that, she couldn’t hold in her frustrated groan. She didn’t care about curfew right now. If Beatrix didn’t get inside within the next three minutes, Starlight was heading outside to search for her.
Right when her fears began to hit a head, the door opened. Starlight breathed a sigh of relief seeing Beatrix walk in, but she could immediately tell something was wrong. The vibe she was giving off, it felt… off.
Beatrix closed the door behind her, and met eyes with Starlight. She tried to give Beatrix a look of assurance, asking if she was okay, but her response wasn’t what Starlight had hoped or expected.
She closed her eyes in sadness, turning away from Starlight.
Starlight frowned, and walked over to Beatrix as she signed her name on the sign in sheet and tried to ask her what was wrong. Not only did Beatrix not answer her at all though, but she pushed past her running upstairs, refusing to meet her in the eyes.
“Ah, so now you’re at that phase,” Rainbow Dash said, catching Starlight’s attention, “You’re not the first student to reach out to her. Typically though, that only lasts for about a day before she starts pushing them away even harder. Believe me, I tried.”
Starlight tightened her fists in frustration. She was not giving up on Beatrix. Not when she knew so much more about the situation. She ran upstairs to their room and pushed it open, getting confirmation that something went wrong.
Beatrix was sitting on her bed, crying just like she did in her dream when Starlight saw her.
Starlight sat down next to her and tried to wrap her arms around her, but Beatrix pushed her away.
“Don’t touch me!” she cried.
“What did he do to you?” Starlight asked immediately.
“Nothing,” she folded her arms and turned away from Starlight, “He and I are just fine, okay?”
Starlight shook her head, “No you’re not. You were crying just now,” Starlight put her hand on Beatrix’s shoulder, which prompted the distraught teen to start trembling, “I’m your friend, Beatrix. You can trust-”
“SHUT UP!” she screamed at Starlight, “YOU’RE NOT MY FRIEND! I TOLD YOU BEFORE NOT TO GET INVOLVED WITH ME, BUT YOU KEEP PUSHING AND PUSHING! WHEN WILL YOU GET IT! I HATE YOU!” she completely broke down into deep heavy sobs, “There… I said it, okay? Now go back downstairs and be with people who… who actually want… to be… your…”
Starlight thought carefully about what to do next. She realized that this was probably something that happened every time someone got close to Beatrix. Chances are, Blueblood said something, either telling her to stay away from Starlight, or making Beatrix feel like she needed to stay away from her. She thought about Rainbow Dash, and how she hinted at being someone who was at the other end of one of these outbursts in the past. She thought about the number of students who tried to stand up for Beatrix, only to then be pushed away at the last moment, and told to leave her alone.
But she also took it a step further, wondering how Beatrix felt about this. In fact…
“Use your magic, my pupil. Use empathy to see what her heart is truly saying.”
Starlight nodded internally to Morgana, took a deep breath, and opened herself completely. She then placed a hand on the crying teen’s shoulder.
It's not fair...!
I finally find someone who wants to be my friend... and now I have to get rid of her too...!
Hate me Starlight... PLEASE just hate me...!
Starlight took her hand away from Beatrix’s shoulder, taking in the deep sadness she felt from her roommate. Beatrix turned to Starlight, giving her the same dark glare she gave her when they met.
“Why are you still here?” Beatrix asked harshly, “I told you to-” Starlight embraced her tightly, cutting her off, “S-Starlight…”
“I don’t care what you say, I’m not leaving you!” Starlight said, tightening the embrace, “Hate me if you want, but you need a friend, and I’m going to be that for you! I won’t abandon you!”
Beatrix gasped in shock, “W-what did you… say to me…?”
“I said that I won’t abandon you,” Starlight looked her dead in the eyes, “I swear, I’ll find a way to put a stop to this!”
The way Beatrix was looking at her was odd. It looked like she wasn’t sure what she was looking at for a second. In that moment, she almost felt like she was in her witch gown, and she could see Beatrix in that humiliating leotard from her dream. Still in that weird emotional illusion (which Starlight was beginning to think was actually happening on some level) Beatrix wrapped her arms around Starlight tightly, as if she were a lifeline.
“He’s… he’s going to try something…! I know it…!” Beatrix sobbed, “If he sees you making contact with me… he’ll…!”
“Let him try,” Starlight said, allowing Morgana to speak through her as she tightened the embrace, “I’m not afraid of him. You can lean on me, Beatrix. Please lean on me.”
“This is weird… but I feel like I saw this in a dream a few nights ago…” Beatrix said softly, still in Starlight’s arms, “In it… you were trying to protect me… and you wouldn’t leave… even when the situation turned hopeless…”
That confirmed it. She did remember the dream, if only partially.
“That’s just the kind of person I am…” Starlight said, lovingly rubbing her roommate’s back, “When I threw my life away, there was someone who didn’t give up on me. So I refuse to ever give up on anyone else. I don’t know how, but we will get through this… together.”
“T-together…?” Beatrix asked looking up at Starlight hopefully.
“Together,” Starlight said, giving her the same assured smile she wanted to give her in the dream. Like last night, they stayed together for the rest of the night, Starlight refusing to leave her side until Beatrix had gone to sleep. Seemed she was going to become her savior after all.
Both in the dream world, and in real life.
“How interesting,” Celestia said from outside their room listening, “For her to remember that much detail… that would mean she’s somewhat lucid as well. She doesn’t have as much potential as Starlight, but I wonder…” she looked back at the closed door thoughtfully, “Could Beatrix possibly be…?”
Late night
After seeing Beatrix to bed, Starlight took a shower to get herself mentally prepared for what waited for her. After finishing her shower, she wrapped her purple towel around herself and left the bathroom, once again thankful that no one else was up. Combined with her figure, her towel didn’t leave much to the imagination, and living with girls didn’t change the fact that-
“God you take such long showers.”
Starlight jumped in shock at the voice that cut through the darkness, almost dropping her towel to her embarrassment. She saw Twilight sitting on the floor next to the bathroom, fully clothed and reading something on her phone.
“You… waited for me?” Starlight asked the awkward, slightly antisocial teen.
“Ms. Tia said you and I are partners now, and wants us to work more closely together. Come with me to my room. I have some ice tea, chamomile. You can drink that while I answer some of your questions.”
Twilight got up and walked toward her bedroom. God this girl was strange. She almost seemed alien in her mannerisms. Starlight pointed out that she was still in her towel.
“You can change into your nightgown first, but keep in mind that’s not much better,” Twilight said, giving Starlight a knowing smirk.
That cheeky bitch. She knew what she was doing.
Starlight sighed and just followed Twilight to her room. This was so awkward. She could be sexy and confident in the dream world, but that was different. She didn’t know why it was different to her, but it just was.
Oh well. Twilight was straight, so it shouldn’t have mattered, right? Right? Maybe she could convince herself of that if she said it enough.
The inside of Twilight’s room was exactly like how Starlight imagined it would be. Clothes thrown across chairs, papers on the floor, a mini fridge next to the bed, and books, books, and more books lining a large bookshelf. They all had complicated names, probably either on quantum physics, dreams, philosophy, or other cool smart stuff Starlight was too dumb to understand.
This girl was on a whole different level.
As Starlight sat down on the bed as carefully as she could to not flash Twilight, Twilight leaned before her mini fridge and pulled out two small bottles. One was an ice tea, and the other was some sort of energy drink.
“Here,” Twilight said handing Starlight the tea, “You should get in the habit of drinking this stuff before going into the Phase. The more relaxed you are, the more vivid the dream, and the stronger your magic will be.”
Starlight thanked Twilight, taking the drink but still carefully keeping her towel closed. She felt even more awkward when Twilight sat down next to her on the bed, perfectly relaxed as she began drinking whatever beverage she pulled out.
“So, ask away,” Twilight said. Starlight had a lot of questions, not all of them relevant to the moment, but she felt like she needed to stay focused. Something told her that if she strayed off topic, Twilight would probably yell at her or something.
“You keep calling that place the Phase,” Starlight began, opening her tea, “Why is that?”
“Okay, so you’ve heard of Astral Projection, Lucid Dreaming, and Near Death Experiences, right?” Twilight asked Starlight, who nodded, “The few scientists that believe in that stuff see them as separate, but in reality they’re all the same. When you have a moment like that, you’re entering what the Kirijo Corporation has taken to calling “The Phase”. It’s a section of the collective unconscious that connects all people. You could say that it’s the most basic aspect of the collective unconscious. The Midnight Channel, the Dark Hour, Palaces and the Metaverse, all of them were places within the collective unconscious that started from The Phase, and then bled into the real world at different levels.”
The only one of those that sounded familiar to Starlight was the Dark Hour. Nothing else she said really made sense outright, but she did get the whole collective unconscious thing.
“So wait, if all of those other incidents got started in The Phase, and then bled out into the real world, does that mean what’s happening now is the reverse of that?”
“That’s what it looks like,” Twilight answered, “See, people don’t know this, but the internet is also kinda sorta connected to the collective unconscious as well, but it’s closer to the real world than even the Dark Hour was. Because people spend so much time on their phones and computers, they’re actually coming into more contact with the collective unconscious, except instead of needing to exert effort or have a Persona, they can just tune in anytime they want. This is a double edged sword, however.”
“How so?” Starlight asked, sipping her tea.
“Well, think about it. On one hand they’re able to get information at a much faster rate, and can connect to one another much easier,” Twilight sipped her energy drink, “But on the other hand, they stop connecting to each other because they don’t feel the need to, which weakens their resistance to negative thoughts. Why go over to your friend and give them a hug when you could just send them a hug emoji and be done with it?”
Starlight had to think about that, and yeah, that made sense. With things like social media, email, and texting, you could connect to people much easier, but that could also lead to isolation since now there wasn’t as much of a need to physically see the person.
“Because of this, people aren't as protected against the Shadows. Depression rises to the point of becoming a full on epidemic, and if you haven’t faced your shadow, you’re a lot more vulnerable to falling into despair. Since people who go to sleep enter The Phase regularly, they carry those feelings of despair with them, which means instead of needing to wait for people to fall into one of the many holes connecting the collective unconscious to the real world, the Shadows can just draw people into their turf and attack them directly within the Phase.”
“Since this is so unusual, you needed a Persona User that could enter The Phase directly,” Starlight reasoned.
“Now you're getting it,” Twilight said sipping her energy drink again, “See, Persona Users are the only ones who can enter the collective unconscious safely and of their own free will. For example, during the Dark Hour incident, Mitsuru’s team were the only ones who could perceive the Dark Hour without going insane, the Persona Users in Inaba were the only ones who could enter the world that created the Midnight Channel by entering TVs, and Joker’s team were immune to the distortions found in the Metaverse. While there is bleed over among the different types, each Persona User is specialized to handle a particular aspect of the collective unconscious, which makes their powers weaker to a degree until they can adjust.”
“What do you mean?” Starlight asked.
“A Persona User from Inaba could experience the Dark Hour too, but they’d need a Kirijo specially made Evoker to summon their Persona. Alternatively, one of the Phantom Thieves could enter Inaba’s collective unconscious just as easily as any other Persona User simply by putting their hand on a TV, but unless they can call on their inner rebel, they wouldn’t be able to summon their Personas, where as in the Metaverse that happened naturally because they actually were invading people’s minds.”
“So that means The Phase also has requirements,” Starlight said after taking another sip of her tea.
“Yep. We’re still trying to figure out what those requirements are, but you awakening does give us hope,” Twilight leaned back in her bed looking up, “You see, the Kirijo Corporation was trying to do experiments to create a Persona User that could enter The Phase. Unfortunately they didn’t have enough information to go off of, and thus the project was scrapped,” Twilight tightened her fists briefly before continuing, “However, Celestia appeared and gave them an alternative. Find a newly awakened Trickster.”
“Is the Trickster really that special?” Starlight asked, taking note of Twilight’s more tense mood.
“Apparently,” Twilight shrugged, “From what I’ve been told, the Trickster is the one that typically leads the charge into new territory. They have an innate understanding of the rules of that aspect of the collective unconscious, either being a natural or picking up on things really fast. They have a tendency to draw other people with the potential to awaken Personas to them, and often helps them awaken. Finally, they have the ability to use and summon multiple Personas at once.”
That made Starlight’s heart jump a bit. Would she have that same ability? Did she want to have that same ability, knowing the responsibility it carried?
“So now you know why Ms. Tia so adamant about you joining us,” Twilight sat back up and glared at Starlight, “If you’re the Trickster, then we won’t need to create a Persona User to enter the Phase, because you’ll be able to just bring people in with you. For Beatrix’s sake, I hope Ms. Tia is right about you.”
Starlight nodded to Twilight, finishing her tea. That conversation more or less answered all of the questions she had about what was going on, but there were a few more things she was curious about.
“You mentioned before something called an Evoker,” Starlight asked, “What’s that?”
“You’re actually wearing yours right now,” Twilight said, pointing to Starlight’s ring, “An Evoker is what you use to summon your Persona. Inaba is the only place where an Evoker isn’t needed for some reason, but everywhere else, you need to have one in order to draw out your Persona. Usually it’s something that simulates death or pain,” Twilight leaned in close to Starlight and gave her a mischievous smirk, “Be happy you’re not a member of Mitsuru’s team. Her team had to use Evoker’s shaped like guns to summon their Personas.”
“How… did that work…?” Starlight asked, somewhat afraid to answer.
“How do you think?” Twilight asked in an almost taunting manner, holding her fingers up to her own head like a gun and pretending to shoot herself in the head. Wait, did that mean Mitsuru’s team had to shoot themselves every time they wanted to summon their Personas?
Holy hell that was hardcore.
“So be glad you don’t have to go that far,” Twilight said rising from her bed, “Mitsuru had to literally stare death in the face and not falter. I don’t know how you do it, but you don’t strike me as someone who could overcome death itself. If you don’t have anymore questions, we should get ready. I’ll be using the Remote Viewing system to support you in The Phase, so I’ll see you there.”
end song
Starlight nodded to Twilight and left her room, heading over to hers and Beatrix’s room. She wondered why Twilight was so dismissive of the idea of the Trickster. Oh well, not that it really mattered in the scheme of things. Right now, Starlight had a mission to get to.
Once in her room, she quickly checked on Beatrix. She seemed okay for right now, but it was clear just from seeing the stress on her face that she was running out of time. Hopefully Starlight could at least buy her more time, even if she couldn’t outright save her. Feeling determined, Starlight quickly changed into her nightgown and got in bed. She was asleep in a matter of seconds.
The Phase
For the last few nights Starlight always appeared inside Beatrix’s Dungeon, outside of the carnival. As such, she was a bit confused in the beginning when she found herself standing in the middle of the Akashic Records. She looked around at her surroundings, and noticed that everything felt a lot more vivid. It was like she was still in the real world from her perspective. She looked at herself, and just as she thought, she was now dressed in her witch attire. It seemed like she now wore this dress by default whenever she entered the dream world.
“There you are,” Twilight said, her wisp form flying down to Starlight, “Glad the tea I gave you helped.”
“It looks more solid here to me,” Starlight asked, still looking around.
“That’s because you awakened to your Persona. With that, you can now move around in The Phase as if it were a physical environment. The upside is that you won’t randomly wake up if you take too much damage or get surprised. The downside is that you can’t just open your eyes to wake up anymore. Also, if you die in the dream, you die in real life too.”
“So… I’m like how Beatrix is right now?” Starlight asked, a bit unnerved at the thought that she could actually die in the dream world.
“Sort of. Only difference is your body still has warmth to it. I’ll tell you how to wake up when it’s time to leave, but for now, let’s head to Beatrix’s Dungeon. It’s up on the second floor of the Akashic Records. Follow me.”
Twilight took off, guiding Starlight toward a small lift in the Akashic Records. She took it up to the second floor, and after a bit more running she and Twilight found the door that lead to Beatrix’s Dungeon.
“Oh, one more thing about Dungeons,” Twilight said, “The time we can spend in a Dungeon is limited.”
“Limited?” Starlight asked. What did that mean?
“Even though you can’t wake up normally, Beatrix isn’t a Persona User, so she can. If you’re still in the Dungeon while Beatrix wakes up, you’ll be ejected out of the dream back into the Akashic Records. Sadly, that means anything we find there can could be useful will be lost unless we can get it back, so that means going in to get it next time.”
Which meant wasted time. Okay, Starlight understood a bit more about what was going on.
“For now, we need to get more information on what it is that’s causing this nightmare. I’m not entirely convinced that it’s just Blueblood’s abuse.”
“Why not?” Starlight asked, folding her arms.
“Because of the circus theme, and how Blueblood's Shadow keeps telling her that she can't be a star without him. Also, there are a few posters there that don’t show Beatrix’s picture, but I can’t identify them. For now, I need you to do two things for me in there. One is to find Beatrix in the Dungeon, and protect her. Saving her from peril in the Dungeon will buy her more time, as it gives her a sense of safety. Two, I need you to find me one of those posters and tell me who’s on it if you can. From there, we can search for the keyword in the Akashic Records, and finally start making headway in rescuing her.”
“Find a poster, and keep Beatrix safe. Got it,” Starlight said, mentally preparing herself to go inside the Dungeon. This was the first time she was going in officially, so she was a tad nervous. Not that she was going to tell Twilight any of this.
“Whenever you’re ready, head through.” Twilight said. Starlight took a deep breath, and opened the gate leading to Beatrix’s carnival from hell.
Inside the Dungeon, Starlight activated her Channeling Ring to call forth her scythe and looked out at the terrifying carnival in the distance. She hoped there was just another show there, but somehow she had a feeling she wasn’t going to be so lucky. After all, the dream adapted after all. The dream would know to be on the lookout for her, so there was probably not as many stage shows.
Which kinda worried Starlight about what he’d replace them with.
Realizing she didn’t have much time, she ran straight for the Carnival. Once there, she noticed that there were less Shadows representing customers walking around, and more bouncer Shadows. It looked like they were all searching for something, or someone.
“This is bad,” Twilight chimed in, “The Shadows are on the lookout for you. This means Beatrix probably isn’t anywhere out in the open.”
“So where is she?” Starlight asked.
“Last time she was in a cage where the animals were, so it would be safe to assume she’s still in the same place. I imagine that would be inside the tent.”
Starlight looked around for the tent, seeing pretty far off in the distance. She couldn’t help but growl in frustration at that.
“Trust me, I hate it too,” Twilight sighed, “But that’s just the way it is. Rescuing damsels in distress isn’t easy, otherwise Beatrix would probably have more people lining up to rescue her.”
Twilight really had a way with words, despite being absolutely right. Well, no point in complaining, Starlight figured as she began running toward the tent. She was careful to stay hidden for the most part, as to not waste time on battles that would just slow her down. After running for a few minutes, she reached a point where she didn’t have much of a choice if she wanted to get by, as a single bouncer was patrolling the only path forward. She was so close to the tent too.
“That’s fine,” Twilight said, “Try to stun it. Wait for it to turn around, and then jump on it’s back and pull the mask off. Do that and you’ll force it into it’s true form, but it’ll be stunned, giving you an opening.”
Something within Starlight like the sound of that. She waited till the Shadow turned around and walked away a bit, and then she rushed out as fast as she could, jumping on it’s back and gripping the mask.
“Show me your true face!” Starlight shouted, ripping the mask off his face and jumping away. The bouncer melted away, and in his place Starlight saw what looked like a black horse, but with two horns on it’s head instead of one like a unicorn.
“My database has this enemy ID being “Bicorn”,” Twilight said as Starlight got in her fighting stance, “You don’t have any Electric spells on your Persona, do you?”
“I don’t think so,” Starlight preparing to charge while the Bicorn was still gathering himself it seemed, “Is that bad?”
“It’s not ideal. You can beat it for sure, but we won’t have an advantage. Think of this as a warm-up fight.”
Starlight charged at the Bicorn and slashed a few times with her scythe. She managed to get in a few lucky hits with it, but the Shadow seemed to figure out what was going on and met her scythe with his horns. The two of them pushed against one another’s weapons for a few seconds, but then jumped away. As the Bicorn circled around Starlight, she gathered her energy, focusing on her Channeling Ring.
“Persona!” Starlight shouted, summoning Morgana to her side. Just as the Bicorn lunged at Starlight, she willed Morgana to take a fighting stance. Morgana grabbed the Bicorn with her claws, and began slashing at the Shadow, knocking him back a good deal. She then followed up again with another slash that seemed to hit it in a critical spot.
Instead of finishing it off though, Starlight felt something within her reach out to the Shadow. Tilting her head, she narrowed her eyes to get a closer look at it, and sure enough she could perceive a line going straight from her heart over to the Bicorn.
“What are you doing? Finish it off!” Twilight urged. Starlight held out her hand telling Twilight to give her a second, and then allowed herself to once again merge with Morgana mentally. Through her Persona, Starlight cast a more powerful empathy spell, this time making the Shadow feel her emotions. This lasted for a few seconds, with the two of them communicating almost emotionally, until the Bicorn bowed to Morgana and burst into flames, flying directly into Starlight’s Channeling Ring.
“What… did you just do?” Twilight asked as Morgana vanished. Starlight shrugged, as she had no idea what she did. However, she did feel a few new spells come to her if she focused on the image of the new creature.
Oh well, for another time. The enemy was gone now, so she she decided to just keep moving forward.
Once she made it to the tent, she looked around a bit to see if there were anymore Shadows wandering around. None so far, so she was probably safe to look around a bit. She didn’t see any of those posters on the way, but maybe she’d find something lying around here.
After looking around for a good minute or so, she came across what looked like a torn up poster of a magician. From what Starlight could make out, he had long blue hair similar to Beatrix’s, but darker. It looked like he had an arrogant smile in the picture, was wearing a blue tuxedo, black magician’’s hat, but Starlight couldn’t get anything else in terms of the physical features. His eyes were sadly on one of the pieces that got torn off.
But she did see a name at the top. “Balazar”.
“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere,” Twilight said after Starlight relayed the information to her, “We can look that name up once we get back to the Akashic Records. I get the feeling that’s REALLY important to this case.”
Starlight played that name in her head. It sounded so familiar to her. In fact… she remembered when she met Beatrix for the first time, her last name stood out to her. Right now though, she couldn’t quite-
Starlight heard a scream from inside of the tent. It sounded like Beatrix screaming!
“Wait a second!” Twilight called out, her wisp flying in front of Starlight, “Doesn’t this seem a bit too convenient? You’d think the Shadow would try to keep her hidden a bit more.”
“What does it matter?!” Starlight asked harshly, “Part of why I’m here is to protect Beatrix, and right now it sounds to me like she’s in danger!” Starlight ran around the wisp, rushing into the tent. Twilight sighed.
“Great. Fainthearted in the real world, and suffering a bad case of chronic hero syndrome in the Phase. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.” Clearly rolling her eyes, she followed after Starlight closely into the tent.
Starlight knew that she was running into a trap. Not just because of the obvious set up, but also because of what it seemed happened in the real world. With how terrified Beatrix was, she wasn’t surprised that the Shadows capitalized on that fear the second she came in. Honestly, she was counting on that.
Hopefully she could get a piece of Shadow Blueblood to take home as a souvenir.
“There she is!” two bouncers shouted, running over to her. Starlight jumped away as they tried to grab her, doing an elegant backflip with one hand (she loved dreams so much) and getting in her fighting stance as the two bouncers shifted into their true forms. One turned into a tiny green gremlin like creature in a yellow vase with a pentagram on the front, and the other one turned into a tiny fairy wearing a purple leotard and red hair.
“Damn it, two this time!” Twilight cried, “The one on the left is Agathion, and the one on the right is Pixie! Be careful, as I don’t know if any of these are weak against your magic!”
The tiny fairy, apparently named Pixie, rushed at Starlight and began flying around her quickly, hitting her with tiny strikes that were really hard to block against. At the same time, Agathion charged up it’s magic and fired an electric attack at Starlight, who rolled out of the way just in time.
Once she landed on her feet, she rushed at the Pixie and tried to slash at her with her scythe, but the tiny fairy was too quick and small to hit with her weapon. Agathion hit her with another electric spell, this time actually hitting Starlight and knocking her back a bit. Pixie then kicked Starlight into a wall, knocking the wind out of the teenage witch, who fell to one knee.
“Hey! Why don’t you try NOT getting hit!” Twilight fussed. Starlight rolled her eyes ignoring her, and took a different approach.
“Persona!” Starlight shouted, summoning Morgana to her side. Morgana cast Bufu on the Pixie, knocking her to the ground doing massive damage.
“Oh good! She’s weak against Ice. But what about that other one over there?” Twilight asked, which was a good question. Starlight didn’t know what it was weak against, but so far the only spells she had were ice spells.
“No, my pupil, that’s wrong now. Focus on the other spirit we acquired. Trust me.”
Morgana’s words echoed in Starlight’s head. She looked within, and saw the image of Bicorn there, and he actually nodded. Could she…?
"BICORN!" Starlight shouted, this time summoning Bicorn as her Persona in place of Morgana.
“Wait WHAT?!” Twilight cried in shock. Before the other Shadow could attack again, Starlight focused on the first spell that came to mind this time, the words “Garu” appearing in her head. This time when she cast, Bicorn sent a small gust of wind at the tiny demon, knocking him to the ground as well.
With both of the Shadows knocked to the ground, Starlight could feel their inner emotions, but only Pixie resonated with her. Once again using Morgana as a base, Starlight sent her emotions to Pixie, who after a few seconds perked up, blew Starlight a kiss, and then turned into a tiny flame going into her Channeling Ring. During the confusion, Agathion apparently took that as his chance to escape.
So that was what Celestia and Igor meant by unlimited potential.
end song
“So you really are the Trickster…” Twilight’s said, her voice a bit more distant than usual, “No time to think about that. Look, if you’re really going in there to save Beatrix, you better hurry. That fight wasted a lot of time.”
Twilight was right. Starlight nodded to her wisp partner and continue running toward where she heard the scream, feeling a bit more confident now. Maybe she could do this.
After a bit more running, Starlight stopped in what looked like a gladiator’s pit, as the ground in the middle of the room was lowered and surrounded by Shadows in seats cheering. Across from Starlight she saw Shadow Blueblood sitting in a throne in the distance, petting a large black lion with demonic red eyes.
And inside the pit, backing away from a large demon in red armor riding on a black horse, was Beatrix.
“No…! Not like this…!” Beatrix begged. The armored demon raised his spear and lunged it at Beatrix, but she scampered away screaming. Now backed up against the wall, Beatrix trembled looking up at the large demon as it loomed over her. Beatrix closed her eyes tightly as the demon raised it’s spear again. “STARLIGHT!!!”
The attack never came, as Starlight managed to get in front of her just in time and blocked the attack. Beatrix opened her eyes, shocked to see her savior there before her.
“You… you actually came!” Beatrix cried.
“I said I wouldn’t abandon you,” Starlight said, pushing the demon back and then holding her arm out in front of Beatrix in defense.
“I had a feeling you’d show up if I put her in peril,” Shadow Blueblood taunted, completely undeterred, “Not that it matters though. This time I actually planned for this occasion.” he snapped his finger with an arrogant sneer, and the armored demon was joined by two large Bicorns.
“According to the database, the armored one is named Eligor,” Twilight said flying down next to Starlight, “This one is stronger than the others, as are the two Bicorns. He really did plan this.”
“Don’t care,” Starlight said readying her scythe, “I’m not letting them hurt Beatrix.”
Behind her, Beatrix was actually blushing a bit looking at Starlight.
Eligor began galloping around the entire field on his black horse. At the same time, the Bicorn on the left charged at Starlight while the one on the right charged up magic. Starlight held up her scythe in defense.
“Get somewhere safe!” Starlight commanded Beatrix, who nodded and immediately ran out of the way of the fighting. Now that she wasn’t too close, Starlight summoned Morgana, and had her slash the Bicorn she was attacking away. Before she could get an attack in herself though, the second Bicorn cast Garu at Starlight, actually doing massive damage and knocking Starlight off her feet.
“Shoot! Morgana’s weak against wind attacks?! Switch to another Persona, fast! Preferably one NOT weak against wind spells!” Twilight fussed.
Starlight tried to shake off the attack and was about to switch Personas, but Eligor turned in her direction spinning his spear over his head and lunged at her with it. Unfortunately she took that hit directly, slamming into the back wall.
“Damn it! I wish I could be in there helping her…!” Twilight said, clearly frantic and getting frustrated.
Beatrix bit her lip, based on her expression both worried for Starlight and scared for herself. Up in the stands, the crowd was of course cheering for Starlight’s defeat, and Shadow Blueblood’s arrogant sneer got larger seeing her take so much damage.
Starlight looked around, seeing Eligor still galloping around the field, and now both Bicorns slowly approaching her. She needed to think fast. First thing she needed to do was switch to another Persona before she took another hit.
“PIXIE!” Starlight shouted, summoning the new Persona she acquired. In her mind, the word “Dia” was screaming in her head, almost as if Pixie herself were screaming at her to cast it. She focused on that spell and quickly cast it, a wave of relaxation coming over her.
Okay, so Dia healed. Definitely keeping THIS Persona handy, Starlight thought to herself.
Before they could attack her again, she swung her scythe at the two Bicorns, knocking them away and then summoning Pixie again, this time casting the second spell she saw come to her mind, this one being named “Zio”. A bolt of electricity fell down on top of the Bicorn on the left, knocking it off it’s feet. She quickly took advantage of the opening and launched Zio again on the second, achieving the same result, and then quickly turned around to slash at Eligor as he charged at her again, actually knocking him off his horse.
"YES! Keep going, Starlight!" Twilight cheered. So she did know how to be positive.
The crowd was booing now. Starlight couldn’t have cared less.
“Damn it! How is she winning?! It’s just her in there!” Shadow Blueblood shouted, slamming his fists on the arm of his throne.
“Go Starlight!”
Shadow Blueblood looked down at Beatrix, eyes wide in shock as she cheered for Starlight, who was now fighting off both Bicorns with a combination of both Pixie’s magic and her scythe.
“You can do it, Starlight!” she continued. Starlight turned to Beatrix giving her a confident smile, and then did a more creative move. She slammed her scythe on the ground, and spun around the handle kicking both of the Bicorns away from her. She then rushed at Eligor as he charged at her. She jumped high, flipping in the air once, and slammed her scythe downward, Eligor meeting her scythe with his spear.
She landed back down onto the ground, and clashed weapons with the horse riding Shadow for a few seconds, eventually rolling back from the two Bicorns as they tried tackling her from either side, forcing them to hit each other.
That got a really loud and angry boo from the crowd. Beatrix on the other hand, cheered even louder. Honestly, Starlight felt herself getting stronger hearing Beatrix cheering for her. Something about this felt right to her.
She turned to Beatrix, and was surprised to see how bright eyed she seemed watching her. Normally she had a really dark expression, but something about bright eyed Beatrix felt right to Starlight. Like that was how she was supposed to be.
Seeing that, Starlight felt even more inspired. She needed to protect that smile at all costs.
She rose up, and summoned Pixie again. Both Bicorns were charging up their spells as Eligor galloped around the field again, but this time Starlight was ready for them.
“OUT OF MY SIGHT!” she screamed, casting Zio on both Bicorns in succession, killing them both instantly. Now that they were gone, she could focus on the big guy.
“He doesn’t have any spells. If he did, he’d have used them by now,” Twilight said, “I think it’s safe to switch back to Morgana to finish him off.”
Starlight nodded to Twilight, activating her Channeling Ring, “MORGANA!” she shouted, her default Persona appearing behind her again. While she loved being able to summon multiple Personas, Morgana was easily her favorite.
She willed Morgana to charge at Eligor, and she rushed at Eligor slashing him a few times with her claws, ending her combo with a drill kick with her bladed feet. That attack seemed to knock Eligor off the ground.
Starlight took that as her opening to slash at Eligor with her scythe, imagining that it was Blueblood she was slashing. Since he was on the ground, he couldn’t defend against her long combo, which ended with her slicing Eligor in two, killing him instantly.
Starlight raised her scythe, relaxing a bit, but was shocked when Beatrix ran up to her and hugged her.
“You did it!” she cried happily, “I knew you could!”
“T-thank you,” Starlight said bashfully, her face feeling a bit flushed as she returned the hug. They’d hugged a few times in the real world, but something about this felt different. Was this because Starlight was seeing a bit of the real Beatrix right now?
“No no NO!” Shadow Blueblood screamed, “Go! Retrieve her!”
The black lion jumped down from next to Shadow Blueblood’s side and charged at Starlight and Beatrix. Starlight released Beatrix standing in front of her, and prepared to defend, but was shocked to see that the lion actually was strong enough to knock her away from Beatrix onto the floor.
“STARLIGHT!” Beatrix cried. Starlight got up and looked to see the lion had apparently grabbed Beatrix in it’s mouth and jumped back to Blueblood’s side. Shadow Blueblood yanked Beatrix’s arm and slapped her.
“So, you’re cheering for that witch now, are you?!” he screamed at her, “Just for that, you’re spending the rest of the night in the cage!”
Starlight rushed over to where Blueblood was about to jump up to rescue Beatrix, but three bouncer Shadows appeared in front of her.
“Starlight, we need to get out of here! You can’t take another big fight like that! Not alone!” Twilight urged. Starlight hated this, but she could see what Twilight meant, she needed to retreat.
“Mark my words, Witch,” Shadow Blueblood spat, “The next time I see you in this dream will be the last time you ever leave it! Whether that means trapping you here myself, or killing you!”
“Just try it!” Starlight shouted, “I’m not letting you keep Beatrix! Not in here, or in the real world! Beatrix, hold on! I’ll end this, somehow!”
Despite her situation, Beatrix managed to nod, giving her a helpless but still assured smile, “I believe in you, Starlight. Thank you for rescuing me again.”
Starlight nodded and ran back out of the arena. Naturally the Shadows gave chase, but she wasn’t concerned in the slightest. She knew where Beatrix was now, and she more or less knew the layout of the entire Dungeon.
“I think there’s a checkpoint nearby!” Twilight said flying next to Starlight, “I saw it while we were on our way!” Starlight was confused, and asked Twilight what she meant by a checkpoint, “I’ll explain in a bit! For now, just follow me!”
Starlight nodded, following her wisp partner as she flew ahead of her. Eventually, they stopped in front of an odd looking door that sort of stood out. For one, it looked like a normal brown door, which was odd in a tent. Second of all, it seemed almost like it wasn’t entirely there.
“I’ve connected this door to the Akashic Records!” Twilight said urgently, “Go through, quickly!”
Starlight chose not to ask any questions, opening the door and running through. The door vanished behind her, in a manner that suggested that it might not have ever been there at all.
Starlight was not expecting to end up back in the Akashic Records, but after going through that door she was back in the endless library’s first floor, walking toward the main plaza.
“Whew, glad that’s over for now,” Twilight sighed in relief, “Checkpoints can be used to bring you right back to the Akashic Records. My computer can save two different dreams on it, so don’t worry about needing to run all the way back to the tent again. Just go through this door, and you’ll be right there.”
That was really handy. She was a bit fussy, but Starlight was still really happy she had Twilight on her side.
“Now, about that poster. What was the name on it? Balazar?” Starlight nodded, “Okay, let me type that into my terminal… see if that name brings up anything important in her Akashic Records.”
Wait, Twilight was going to read Beatrix’s Akashic Records? Wasn’t that a little personal though?
“Um… that feels a bit invasive, don’t you think?” Starlight asked, “I mean, that’s Beatrix’s entire life record. I don’t even know if she’s aware it exists.”
“Look, if you wanna save her, then we have to get information on her by any means necessary. This is obviously something she doesn’t want to think about, so unless you want to tell her we’re poking around in her head, this is the only solution we have for now.”
Starlight understood the validity of it. Still though, these were sacred. She apologized to Beatrix mentally as Twilight worked.
“Okay, got it.” Twilight flew off to the second floor, next to the door leading to Beatrix’s Dungeon. Starlight followed her, stopping when she saw a single book on the shelf that was glowing. She picked it up and saw the name “Balazar” etched on the front.
“I’m going to need to analyze that, it might take a day or so,” Twilight said, “There should be a mail box on the first floor that you can put that into. That’ll turn the book into a file for me to analyze on my computer.”
Starlight looked around on the first floor a bit, spotting a red mail box typically used to return books in a library. This one had fancy wings on the side that were constantly flapping.
Starlight took the nearby lift back to the first floor and put the book into the mail box, which hilariously enough jerked a bit as she put it in, as if it had eaten the book.
“You should rest up for the rest of the night,” Twilight suggested, “When you want to leave from here, just take your Channeling Ring off. That’ll disrupt the connection and put you into a dreamless sleep until the usual time you’d wake up.”
Starlight felt a little odd just going to sleep from here, but there wasn’t much else she could do. Choosing to take her partner’s advice, she said goodnight to Twilight and took off her Channeling Ring, vanishing from the Akashic Records in a golden light.
end song
Twilight took off her headset and folded her arms, fully aware that Celestia was sitting behind her on the couch drinking tea.
“So, believe in her now?” Celestia asked, “She’s able to use multiple Personas. That makes her the Trickster.”
“I guess I have to just accept it now,” Twilight said, hiding her frustration. Celestia rose from her couch, walked over to Twilight, and embraced her from behind the chair.
“You know you’re still important, right Twilight? No one could ever replace you.”
“Right, I know,” Twilight said curtly, “I need to get to work on this before morning, that way Starlight can get back in there at least within the next two days.”
Celestia sighed, but released Twilight and left the room, letting her student work. Once alone though… Twilight tightened her fists in frustration.
“Damn it! Why does it have to be someone like her?!” she closed her eyes tightly, fighting back her tears as much as she could, “It’s not fair…! Mitsuru chose me…!”