Dangan Persona AU: Beginning of 9th Palace and just what’s going on
Let’s make the entrance to the shadow realm the back of the Izuru Kamukura statue on school grounds, right where the entrance to the secret lab was.
WTH is going on: So the Persona series has a long, storied history of gods meddling in the affairs of humans and requiring a bunch of spunky young heroes to do something about it. And this AU will definitely not be an exception because Tiamat, the primordial goddess of the sea in Babylonian mythology, is our main villain of this charming vignette. All the calls of death, despair, and misery from the Tragedy had reached her ears in her soul’s prison, down below the waves. Calls for revenge cries for help, begging the uncaring gods above that they could somehow turn back time. But while those high and mighty assholes did nothing, she heard their calls decided to help them in her “infinite benevolence.”
She stole the grand dragon skin staff of Babylonian God of time Marduk (her murderer in mythology). Using the powers, she turned back time and decided to alter things here and there for the benefit of humanity. However, it definitely didn’t leave people without scars (explaining the Shadows remembering the past world). Unfortunately, that’s not all she can do with the staff, and she’s been biding her time all this year to build up enough energy with the staff (hidden under HPA because, of course, it is). Her plan is to reverse her defeat by the old Babylonian gods and bring back her beloved consort Apsu. The problem is that her downfall and death meant that they created the earth and the heavens from Tiamat’s body, so that would undo life and humanity as they know it, so they need to stop her.
Story:
It’s a bit after the HK twins’ dungeon. The holidays are imminent, looming over the general population and the students in particular. They still haven’t found out why all the Shadows seem to remember a world that had phenomenally been fucked, through a combo of the school administration and Junko’s fuckery that about half of them had joined in on. All they know is that shit was BAD, bad enough that Makoto’s Shadow was genuinely going to kill Mukuro before they stopped him, and it’s Makoto we’re talking about. They found out some more stuff from the twins’ Palace, but still not much, and the fact that they’re in a boarding school means that when most of them get banished back home for the holidays, they won’t be able to collaborate as well (especially Sonia, since Novoselic is several timezones away).
It’s about the start of the winter solstice (December 21) when shit starts going to hell in a handbasket. They’ve been getting unusual earthquakes for most of the year, but this one is definitely the most brutal hit yet. Then the underground of the school has begun to flood, ever so slowly. As far as they can tell, a pipe had burst somewhere, but that’s not it at all. Tiamat has finally gotten enough power for her mission to turn back time, and if she’s not stopped soon, she will wreck everything. The underground facility remains are already flooding with seawater, and they have only so much time before she floods the world.
They’re talking about what things they know about the previous world and frankly thank God for Kyoko and Izuru being in on this because there’s a lot to unpack there. They can understand that these Shadows are the alternate versions of themselves who had gone through something called “the Tragedy,” and the cause of it was Junko, Mukuro, and the classmates in Class 77-B. And judging from how everyone had been acting, it killed a lot of people, including the captives of each Shadow (maybe, no idea what was up with Komaru and Shadow Fukawa), leading to their protectiveness to the point of harm. But the real secret sauce is in what had happened with Hajime, Izuru, and their Shadows because that fusion crap was not at all normal!
However, they know that it was from how Hajime and Izuru got into the school. Because this place was gonna cost a pretty hefty penny before the “mysterious disappearance” of the SC (Tiamat killed them and their scientists on the IK project to take over the facility about a month before the start of the game). Still, the H-K parents do not have that kind of cash, no matter how good their jobs are. And given the “turned me into a freak of nature” comments made by the Fused Shadow, maybe there were things behind the scenes that allowed Hajime into the school for nefarious purposes. Hajime does have a vague memory of meeting some people about being part of some project for admission, but he thought that was just part of a weird dream on the train there for the opening ceremony. Kyoko knows that Principal Kirigiri was investigating the SC’s disappearance (how can he not, a bunch of some of the most powerful assholes in the world suddenly vanish without a trace), and the SC itself before then. Hence, she decides to check his files to see what he has, and they split up for the night.
They didn’t get to really examine it at all because, in the middle of the night, there was a noise that sounded like metal scraping against itself and as dread-inducing as something unidentified hitting a submarine. It wakes up everyone, including the heavy sleepers, and Makoto climbs out of bed to find that it’s up to his ankles in water. Never a good thing to wake up to, but then when he hears yelling outside, he knows that it’s not just “his bathroom decided to explode,” but this is a much more severe issue. Makoto rushes out and finds everyone in chaos because that’s what people do when they see their bedrooms flooding. Jin is trying to make himself heard over the mess to order everyone to evacuate to the courtyard.
It’s still fucking cold and the middle of the night with wet feet/clothes, but they all do it, so they don’t get drowned, but that doesn’t mean much when there’s still actual flooding going on from what seems to be the solid ground beneath them. The party meets back up, and the twins rush over from their place after getting their friends’ calls. Everyone’s trying to figure out what’s happening as strange warping sounds are coming from the school, in what seems to be the air itself scratching a record like a DJ. And then the actual air starts to shift, and holy shit, is that the fucking building going through some freaky time warp?!
Indeed it is, warping and shifting through a long myriad of timeframes of the building itself. Then whatever freaky magic starts spreading to everything around the building, and everyone decides ok, time to panic! People start running like hell while the adults desperately try to get a grip on the situation, but Kyoko notices something: the Izuru Kamukura statue, which is somehow shinier than ever before and glows with an eerie light.
