A/N: Persona 5 can't come to the west quick enough and I started writing this while being caught up in the excitement and I'm not too sure how far I'll go with it. Characters are aged up to fit a more mature story, with Lincoln being sixteen. I'm sure you can figure out the ages of the rest of the cast from there. Anyone interested in beta reading, let me know in a PM, not in the reviews.

Now relax and enjoy the story.

Sunday, April 3rd, 2016

Evening

It was thirteen minutes to midnight and Lincoln was struggling to stay awake as he sat at the foot of his bed. Across from him sat Lucy who was shuffling a deck of tarot cards in the middle of a small circle of lit candles on the floor of his bedroom. Lincoln couldn't really complain about the situation, he had promised his little sister that he'd participate in her fortune telling since she helped him with writing a poem for a creative writing assignment, but she never told him it'd take place this late at night.

"Cut the deck." she suddenly said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Okay." Lincoln said as he did so.

She shuffled the cards one more time, then set the deck down in front of Lincoln. She took the top card of the deck and set it down. "The Tower is in the upright position." Lucy stated.

"Meaning?"

"Disaster, chaos is in your immediate future."

He shrugged, "What else is new?"

Lucy flipped over the next card, "The Ten of Cups is upside down, meaning the loss of family and misplacement of values...

"...right." Lincoln narrowed his eyes, "Lucy, do you really believe this stuff?"

"It would be foolish to completely trust a deck of cards, and it would be equally foolish to disregard them completely." she drew one more card, "The Page of Swords in the upright position. You will soon be challenged, and should embrace it by moving forward."

"Everyday is a challenge Lucy, especially in this house."

Lucy gave a heavy sigh, "Lincoln, I'd appreciate it if you would stop mocking my reading."

Lincoln sheepishly smiled and scratched the back of his head, "Sorry Lucy, it's late and I really don't think cards can predict the future."

Another sigh, "Oh well, it seems that your future is destined to just be the same chaos day in and day out. How disappointing."

"Okay then, well let's clean up then head for- ah!" Lincoln yelled as he felt a sharp pain in his temples, both of his hands shot to either one and pushed down in reaction.

"I am thou, thou art I." spoke a deep, mysterious voice.

"What?" Lincoln asked, "What are you?"

"Lincoln, are you okay?" Lucy asked.

Images of Lincoln's family flashed in his mind as he tightly shut his eyes. He saw all ten of his siblings and his parents surrounding him.

"Your loved ones are in danger, a terrible thing is coming."

"What terrible thing? You're not making sense!" the boy yelled.

"Lincoln, stop, you're scaring me!"

"Will you be able to save them? Or will they fall victim to a gruesome fate?"

The vivid visions violently assaulted Lincoln's mind. Images of his family members being attacked by creatures he could only explain as large masses of shadows with massive teeth and multiple arms with hands holding blades that were quickly coated with a dark red substance.

Lincoln shook his head, "No! No! Make it stop!"

"Lincoln!"

"Try as you might, but time is short."

It was too unreal to be true, Lincoln started to hear them cry out for his help. He screamed. His voice rang out all through the house, waking up anyone who wasn't already woken by his yelling.

"And time waits for no one..."

XxXxX

Lincoln's sight was fuzzy as he found himself sitting in what looked like the living room of his house. This room, however, was not the living room. Confusion started to build as Lincoln observed that everything in the room was blue. The walls, the furniture, and even the floors were tinted with an abundance of blue. Adding to that, the couch cushion he was now sitting on felt as though it was made of velvet material, much unlike the polyester he was used to. Finally, as if this room couldn't get any weirder, a very somber yet calming song could be heard being played on a piano with an accompanying singer, but the musicians were nowhere to be seen.

What could be seen however, was a very bizarre-looking, short, balding man with a long nose, white hair, and bulging eyes wearing a black suit and an unnerving smile that unnaturally stretched from ear to ear. This man sat in the armchair just left of Lincoln, and he was staring intensely at the boy as he clasped his fingers together in front of him.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room." the old man greeted with a deep, yet oddly soothing voice.

All the alarms went off in Lincoln's head at once, and panic gripped tight as he found he couldn't move his body. So many questions filed into his mind, most of them having to do with where he was and why he was there but the shock of the situation stunted his voice. Desperately, he managed to squeak out the words: "W-Who are you?"

"My apologies, I seemed to have frighten you." the small man remained seated and gave a small bow, "My name is Igor, I am delighted to make your acquaintance."

Lincoln observed the room again, gradually feeling less uneasy due to it looking just like the inside of his home aside from all the blue and velvet. The familiarity gave him a modest sense of safety, and the song helped soothe his initial anxiety, "Where am I? Is this a dream?" he asked.

"You could say that." answered the long-nosed man, "This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter." he looked away from the boy and examined the room for himself, "The Velvet Room tends to change accordingly to accommodate our guests, and here we find ourselves in a family room meant for togetherness." he then looked back at Lincoln with his eerie smile, "It's quite rare for someone so young to be family-oriented."

"Maybe it's because my family is so big?" guessed the boy, "They take up quite a bit of my life."

Igor nodded, "Indeed, they appear to be very important to you, so much so that your other self woke up when it sensed the danger from your sister's tarot reading."

Lincoln eyed the old man suspiciously, "My what woke up?"

"In the coming days, your other self will fully awaken. After that, you will return here."

"Wait, what did you mean by my 'other self'?"

"We can discuss the details later." the strange man said, dodging the question with a smile, "A small piece of it awoke when it sensed a terrible catastrophe happening to your family in the immediate future. If you don't stand against it, your family may meet a terrible fate."

"Hey, I don't like the sound of that!"

"Don't worry, it is my duty to provide assistance to our guests to ensure such a fate does not happen."

Lincoln tried to make sense with the information given, but was unsuccessful, "I still don't understand what's going on."

"That is fine, for now." Igor assured, "Although there is one more thing I should mention..."

"What's that?"

"My services are available only to those who have entered a contract in one way or another. Once you've entered this contract, I'll do everything in my power to help you. I'll also introduce you to my assistants, who unfortunately could not be present for your arrival. Until then, farewell..."

Lincoln felt lightheaded, and his vision began to fade again.

XxXxX

The commotion caused by Lincoln's screaming had alerted the rest of the Loud family currently residing in the Loud House. The parents, along with Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lola, Lana, Lisa, and Lily rushed into Lincoln's room only to find him unconscious with Lucy trying to wake him up. After concluding that Lincoln was just scared by Lucy's tarot reading, Mr. and Mrs. Loud put Lincoln back in bed and everyone headed back to their respective rooms. Everyone, that is, except for Lynn who needed to use the bathroom first.

After doing her business, Lynn washed her hands and lazily eyed her reflection in the bathroom mirror. It was past midnight by this time, which reminded the athlete about a game that her spooky sister told her about. It was a ritual game where someone stares into a mirror at midnight alone, with the lights off, and recite a chant to get their reflection to start moving on their own.

Thinking that it'd be fun to try for the hell of it, Lynn switched the lights off and made eye contact with her reflection, just faintly being able to see it in the dark. "How did that stupid thing go again?" she asked aloud, trying to refresh her memory on what Lucy instructed for the game. "Oh yeah!" she cleared her throat and began the chant:

"Persona! Persona! Come over here!"

Lynn stared at her reflection for a few minutes, but nothing happened. She grinned a bit smugly and turned away from the mirror, "What a load of bull! I can't wait to tell Lucy about this!" she said as she left the bathroom.

She didn't notice that her reflection was still facing her, or that it was reaching out towards her.