Chapter 3

The woman walked out of her house and headed straight for the wall surrounding the village. She did not even bother to close the door behind her. She stopped just a few feet short of the wall and crouched down. With a single swift motion she leaped twenty feet into the air and over the wall.

"Well, that explains why no one sees them go." Ruby said.

"Is it normal for people in this world to make superhuman leaps in the middle of the night?" Yosuke asked. He was a bit thrown off by Team RWBY's lack of reaction to the sight.

"No, but most hunters and huntresses are capable of this." Yang explained. "Either she's secretly a huntress or something strange is going on. We'd better follow her."

"We can't make that jump." Chie said.

"Ruby, take them around the long way." Blake advised. "I'll follow her." With that Blake rushed forward and bounded over the wall and out of sight.

"I shouldn't let her go alone." Yang said and headed off as well.

"If we just try to leave through the gate in the middle of the night like this, the guards are going to have a lot of questions." Weiss said. "Is there any way your Personas could get you over the wall?"

"We could give it a shot." Yosuke said. He summoned his Persona and it picked him up. "Looks like it shouldn't be a problem." His Persona leaped over the wall and out of sight. The others soon followed.

"I really hope nobody saw that." Yukiko said after leaping over the wall. "It would be quite a shock." She sounded out of breath.

"Why are you out of breath?" Ruby asked.

"Using our Personas requires extreme concentration and exertion." Naoto explained. "Even a short duration use can be exhausting."

"Did you try to stop her?" Ruby asked.

"We tried walking in front of her, talking to her, even standing in her path." Yang replied. "It's like she's sleepwalking. She just ignored us."

"I'd be worried about trying to stop her physically." Blake said. "She could hurt herself or us."

"We'll just have to follow her." Ruby said. They had gone quite deep into the forest. They had expected to be attacked by Grimm, but no attack had materialized. They had seen some, but the Grimm appeared to be keeping their distance. It was bizarre.

The woman continued her trek, heading for a mountain at the edge of the forest. She arrived at its slope and immediately headed for a large cave. The entrance to the cave had a strange, unnatural look and feel about it. The woman walked into the cave and the group followed.

"Now this is like the TV world." Yosuke said confidently. He put on a pair of glasses. "Definitely the same."

"I can't see anything, it's too foggy." Ruby said in frustration.

"Try these." Yukiko took off her glasses and handed them to Ruby.

"Wow, it's like there's no fog at all." Ruby said after putting on the glasses. "Where did you get these?"

"Teddie made them for us when we first met him." Chie explained. "There's fog just like this in the TV world. It's disorienting if you don't have the glasses." The Persona users looked at Teddie expectantly.

"My time to shine!" Teddie exclaimed. "Ta-da!" He produced four sets of the glasses and handed them out to Team RWBY. "I always keep extras just in case!"

"Maybe he's not totally useless after all." Weiss said. Teddie just smiled, seemingly oblivious to the sarcastic and backhanded nature of the compliment.

The looked around, but the woman was gone. More worryingly, the location did not look like the inside of a cave at all. They appeared to be standing on a dirt path, an imposing fortress looming in the distance. Team RWBY was visibly concerned by the turn of events.

"I wouldn't worry too much." Kanji said. "This kind of thing always happens."

"It's hard to explain, but in the TV world, there are many locations that take strange forms like this." Yosuke said. "The cave probably wasn't a cave at all. It was probably some kind of portal, sort of like the TVs we use to enter and exit the TV world."

"So what do we do now?" Ruby asked. She did not fully understand what he was saying, but Yosuke clearly had experience she did not have.

"Well, that's up to our leader." Yosuke said. "Yu, what should we do?"

"First we need to find her." Yu replied. He nodded in Rise's direction.

"Kouzeon!" Rise shouted. Behind her, the figure of a six-armed woman in an elegant dress, with a telescope for a head, appeared. The figure placed a visor in front of Rise's face as she concentrated. The Persona vanished and she collapsed to her knees. Yu was nearby to catch her as if he knew it would happen. "I'm alright." She stumbled to her feet. "That way." She pointed deeper into the world. "I'm not sure if it's the woman we followed in here, but I sense a tremendous source of power in that direction. There are lots of shadows here too, powerful ones."

"We should rest." Yu said. The other Persona users nodded and began to head for the exit, a cave entrance that was a mirror image of the one they had used to enter the world.

"But we have to save that woman!" Blake shouted. "We can't just leave!"

"Trust us." Naoto said. "We haven't slept in more than a day, and you're in this world for the first time. It is imperative that we are fully rested and prepared."

"In our experience, people aren't killed by the shadows right away." Yukiko explained. "That woman and the others should be alright for a while. Besides, if we can't save them, there's no one else. We need to be ready."

"They're right." Ruby said. "Just being here makes my head hurt and I am pretty tired. We should go to our camp and get a night's rest."

"I'm worried about them partner." Yosuke said to Yu. They were on watch while the others slept. "We all faced our shadows, they haven't yet. What if we run into their shadows? The way they fight without Personas, their shadows would be incredibly powerful. And who knows what secrets they're hiding. It could get weird, Kanji-weird. Besides that, it took us all time to recover after accepting our other selves."

Yu shrugged. "Working together, I'm sure we can overcome anything."

"Another thing's bothering me." Yosuke admitted. "This world, we were transported here by Margaret, but she didn't meet us here. When we went into the Hollow Forest, she was there to explain things and provide an exit. When all this is over, how will we get home?"

"I'm sure she wouldn't send us here if there was no way back." Yu said.

"You know her better than I do." Yosuke sighed. "I just hope you're right."

The group trudged down the path leading to the fortress. If not for the yellow sky, constant fog and warped sense of distance, there would have been nothing to distinguish this place from the real world. Upon entering the world, the fortress had seemed to be miles away, but they arrived at it after just minutes of walking. They were greeted by a roiling red and black mass where the gate should have been.

"It's a portal." Yosuke explained. "The TV world was subdivided like this too."

"The power I sensed earlier is definitely inside." Rise said.

"This place kind of reminds me of Yukiko's castle." Teddie said.

"Can we please not talk about that?" Yukiko said with a mix of annoyance and embarrassment.

"Well, in we go." Kanji said as he confidently stepped through the portal. The others followed. The inside was entirely incongruous with the outside. While the outside had been an imposing fortress with towering stone walls, the inside was a narrow snow-covered path. The path was lined by trees and bushes too thick to push through, so the only way to proceed was straight ahead.

"This place seems…familiar." Ruby said. "It's like I've been here before."

Yu and Yosuke exchanged knowing looks. "If this is like the TV world, it is partly created by the minds of the people in it." Teddie said.

"In our experience, it's a place from your imagination or that relates to the part of yourself you keep hidden." Naoto explained. "For us, it was related to the kidnapping victim, but it could be different here." The Investigation Team was not going to say it, but somewhere inside was likely Ruby's shadow, assuming this was 'her' world. They would cross that bridge when they got to it.

Rise summoned her Persona and scanned the area. "There is definitely a person in here." She reported. "There are shadows too, and some powerful ones."

"We should get moving." Yang said. "We won't do any good just standing here, there are people who need saving."

They walked deeper into the snowy forest, for hours it seemed. It was hard to keep a sense of time. The scenery never changed, so they could not judge how long they had been walking by how much progress they had made. It was a good thing the path was a straight shot; with no landmarks it would be easy to get lost. Finally, Kanji said what most of them were thinking. "So, where are all the shadows?"

The group looked to Rise for an answer. "I've been tracking them. They're acting differently than I've ever experienced. The weak ones we'd normally be fighting have been avoiding us. They're all around, but outside the bounds of the path." Yu pressed his hand against the foliage lining the path. Instead of feeling trees and bushes, it was a solid wall. He shook his head to indicate they could not pass through. "Maybe they can sense our power and don't want to fight us."

"Or maybe they're setting up an ambush." Naoto cautioned.

"I don't think so." Rise said. "If they were going to ambush us, you'd expect them to gather in one place. They're just getting out of the way as we pass and then going back to normal." She stopped to scan the path ahead. "There's a strong shadow nearby. It's just around the corner and I doubt this one will be running away."

The path ahead curved lazily before opening into an open field. It was circular, more like an arena than a natural feature. In the center stood a shadow that looked like a twisted version of a Deathstalker. It stood its ground as the group approached. When they got close, it hissed and snapped its claws threateningly but did not charge them.

"I'll take care of this!" Yang shouted, charging straight at the shadow.

"Wait!" Rise warned. "You shouldn't…" Before Rise finished speaking, Yang slammed her fist full force into the Deathstalker shadow's face. There was a brilliant flash of light and Yang recoiled in pain, clutching her arm. "It reflects physical attacks." Rise finished. With a swipe of its claw, the shadow sent Yang sailing across the field. She slammed into the side of the clearing before falling flat on her face. Even with her aura to protect her, it was tremendously painful.

Ruby fired a shot from Crescent Rose. It hit the shadow and deflected harmlessly into the air. "We've got to use something else." Naoto implored. "Your normal weapons won't hurt it." She took a step forward and summoned her Persona. "Yamato Sumeragi!" A figure wearing formal attire, knee-high boots, a sharply pointed triangular helmet, and trailing a cape and flowing blond hair behind it appeared. The Persona made a sweeping motion in the air with its sword and a square of light appeared beneath the shadow. The square collapsed with no effect. It was replaced by a black circle. It too collapsed without doing any damage. "Light and darkness don't have any effect either." Naoto cautioned.

"So what should we use?" Blake demanded.

"I can't get a good reading." Rise replied. "Just try some things and see what works." She sounded as frustrated as the others.

The shadow was now on the attack, charging at the group with its claws and stinger. They scattered but the shadow zeroed in on Weiss. Yu tried to distract it, his Persona delivering a shot of electricity from the flank, but it seemed little more than an annoyance for the shadow. In desperation, Weiss used her glyphs to encase the shadow's legs in ice. The shadow hissed in pain and recoiled, circling back away from her.

"That's it!" Rise encouraged. "It's vulnerable to ice!"

Chie and Teddie stepped forward and summoned their Personas. Chie's Persona was the form of a female samurai, clad in golden armor with a two-bladed sword. Teddie's was just as strange as the man himself. Rainbow colored and conical, it sported a large, confident smile. Its defining feature was its tail, a rocket. Both Personas unleashed a torrent of ice into the shadow. The ice first pinned it in place and then encased it. The two Personas flew high into the air before coming crashing down into the frozen shadow, which now shattered into innumerable pieces. The pieces evaporated and the shadow was gone.

Yang stumbled back over to the group, still wobbly on her feel. "Yang, are you alright?" Ruby asked with clear concern in her voice.

"I'll be fine, just a scratch." Yang replied confidently. Her confident front was undermined by her appearance. She still clutched her arm and blood trickled from a cut near her hairline. The others looked at her with apprehension. "I've had worse." She let go of her injured arm to wipe the blood from her face. "I definitely didn't see that coming."

"You can't fight shadows the way you fight Grimm." Yosuke warned. "Lots of them, especially the strong ones, have hidden properties. They're most dangerous when they use your own power against you."

"You really must fight them more tactically." Naoto added. "See what works and what doesn't first, and then hit them hard when you know it won't backfire."

"That kind of hesitation is dangerous." Blake countered.

"It is." Yukiko agreed. "But it's necessary, and the abilities Teddie and I have can buy us the time we need." She turned to Yang. "Let me heal you." Yang stepped forward, unsure of what this healing would entail. "Sumeo-Okami!" The figure of a golden woman with elegant wings and flowing hair appeared. With a flourish, Yukiko's Persona surrounded Yang with brilliant light. In an instant her cuts and bruises were gone and her arm no longer hurt.

"Thanks." Yang said. Her aura would have healed the damage in a short time, but instant healing was certainly a plus. "That was…interesting." The feeling was hard to describe. It was a warm, perhaps loving feeling. She stretched and flexed her arm to make sure it was fully healed; it was. "I'd rather not need it again, but that's a cool power to have."

"There are no other shadows in the immediate area." Rise reported. "Just a few relatively strong ones and a very powerful one further in. The strongest one is very close to the person in here, we should hurry."