Somewhere in Mementos, one day after Clovis perished.
A blonde-haired girl breathed heavily as she heard footsteps approach. Only a few seconds passed and then the girl turned around to see who was chasing her. It was a figure that she assumed to be the Black Mask. It work a black cloak on its body that somehow concealed the clothes worn under the cloak in shadow. Under the hood of the cloak, the figure wore a helmet that was inspired by the helmets worn by Britannian Knights during the Medieval Period. The helmet's face mask combined with the darkness of the cloak concealed the face of whoever was wearing it.
"Subject FB15, otherwise known as Alice... you are to be terminated." the figure spoke emotionlessly.
Alice shook her head in disagreement. She knew that the Black Mask was likely using a voice scrambler underneath its helmet. "I will not go down quietly. We shall fight to see who survives. Prepare yourself!" she replied as she drew her sword.
"Suit yourself." The Black Mask said while drawing out a sword similar to what Alice was wielding. At an unheard signal, both Alice and the Black Mask moved towards the other with killing intent. The Black Mask was slightly slower, so he found himself being forced onto the defensive.
"Rrgh, you think you can win?" The Black Mask grunted.
"Oh, I know that I can win." Alice replied.
The Black Mask ceased talking as the former experimental subject pressed him in a sword duel. No matter what he tried, he was not able to disengage long enough to summon his Persona as he was pressed too hard by Alice to even begin summoning it.
The clashing of swords was so loud that neither Alice nor the Black Mask could hear the sound of rattling chains. Before long, a nearby wall came crashing down as a tall humanoid figure appeared. It fired the revolvers that it held in each hand, barely missing the heads of the dueling swordwielders.
"Mark my words, Black Mask. We will battle each other once again." Alice said before running away.
"Get back here!" The Black Mask shouted as it tried to give chase only for the humanoid figure to shoot at it.
"Tch, damn Reaper! Why do you insist on fighting me!? Why won't you stay dead!?" The Black Mask screamed as he charged towards the Reaper, slashing any bullets that it shot at the assassin.
Meanwhile with Alice, she had just managed to reach the entrance of Mementos. While running as far from the Reaper as she could have, she had the misfortune of encountering a Shadow that split into two odd figures that were composed of a pumpkin that had been carved to give it a face that was a wide jagged smile, a triangular nose, two half-closed eyes that had white dots in the middle of them that were probably the figure's actual eyes, a white-gloved right hand holding a lit lantern, a blue cloak, and a faded hat atop its head. One of them had been able to set her straightjacket on fire by launching a fireball at her that she dodged but one of its sleeves got caught by it, forcing her to take the straightjacket off and fling it at a Crypt-Dwelling Pyromaniac as she now called it. The straightjacket landed on the Crypt-Dwelling Pyromaniac's face, momentarily blinding it and forcing its partner to launch another fireball at the straightjacket. With them distracted, they did not notice that Alice was on her knees and clutching her head with her hands.
"It seems that your fear will not be enough to survive against these pyros. Do you desire to live on and show your sister that she did not die in vain?" a feminine voice called out to Alice.
"Yes," Alice said without hesitation, her red eyes flashing gold for a split second before she continued, "Thou art I, and I am thou. I shall fight to avenge those wronged by Britannia."
A mask then appeared on Alice's face. She then ripped it off and screamed, "Asherah, blow them away!"
A female humanoid with white skin that had thin black stripes running along its body and holding a large stony knife in its left hand appeared in blue flames, its long blonde hair not being marred by the mystical fire. It silently made a cutting motion towards the Crypt-Dwelling Pyromaniacs, who found themselves getting torn apart by the winds. Asherah then spoke, "It has been done, my lady. I am now a part of you." before vanishing into a card that sank into Alice's chest. She pulled herself out of that memory when she felt a breeze and realized that without the straightjacket Alice was only clad in white panties and a matching bra. Her face turned slightly pink from embarrassment before running off to find clothing.
While searching for clothes, Alice frowned as her thoughts turned to the Black Mask. She had heard the name while escaping from the Narita laboratory, but it hadn't been until today that she encountered it firsthand. She found a short black skirt and a black tank top that were both her size while counting herself lucky for meeting it and surviving. Putting on the clothes that she found, she sniffed and knew that she was going to need to bathe soon as she exited Mementos.
Bizarre location in the Metaverse, the day of Clovis' funeral.
A dark-skinned African girl was in the shadows along with a pale-skinned Japanese girl who had pale hair. They were hiding from the Shadows that served someone in the Metaverse. As they hid, the two did overhear some of the cognitive Britannians talking along with the sounds of construction being done by cognitive construction workers.
"I heard that Clovis perished and that the funeral will be held today." a cognitive male Britannian said.
"Oh dear, on one hand it means that we might get someone who will crack down on our activities as the new Viceroy. On the other hand, Clovis being dead means we have a golden opportunity to make some more Britannians and Japanese vanish." a cognitive Mafia soldier replied.
"By the way, I was given a look at the schematics for the tower and apparently 'To reach the Treasure Room, one must first obtain the Statues of Extortion, Drug Manufacturing, and Sexual Exploitation from the Money Laundering Office, the Refrain Processing Plant, and the Sex Trafficking Brothel .' Meh, not my business to stick my nose where it doesn't belong."
"Damn right you are. Now then, is there anything else that you wanted to discuss with me?"
"Yes, in fact. I'm hoping that the Black King can get blackmail material on Lord Stadtfeld so that I can arrange a marriage between my only son and his daughter Kallen so..." the cognitive Britannian spoke to the cognitive Mafia soldier as the two walked away from where the two girls were hiding before they were both out of earshout for the girls.
Unknown to them, the pale-haired girl had been writing things down while overhearing people. She along with the dark-skinned girl had pilfered some pages of writing paper and pens from the Narita laboratory during their escape. One of the pages was already full, detailing some of the experiments that they had been subjugated to and survived. The page she was currently writing on had two key pieces of information that she thought would help anyone who planned to steal this 'Treasure' whatever it was: the information about where the Statues of Extortion, Drug Manufacturing, and Sexual Exploitation were, and the answer to the security question for the elevator that led to the Sex Trafficking Brothel.
"There, that should do it. What do you think, Dalque?" the pale-haired girl said to the dark-skinned girl as she showed her the page she had been writing on.
"Looks good, Lucretia. Now we should find one of those 'Safe Room' things where the distortion is weak." Dalque replied.
The two girls were silent as they snuck through the area and avoided being seen by the guards. Twice they were almost spotted by surveillance cameras, but Lucretia noticed them with a quick glance before she or Dalque stepped into their field of vision and found a way to bypass them. In the span of ten minutes, the two were now inside a Safe Room. Lucretia sat at the table inside the Safe Room and read out the memo again:
"To those who intend to steal the Treasure of this Casino,
"The path to the Treasure Room requires three keys to open: The Statue of Extortion, the Statue of Drug Manufacturing, and the Statue of Sexual Exploitation. You can find them in the Money Laundering Office, the Refrain Processing Plant, and the Sex Trafficking Brothel respectively. Furthermore, you have to answer a security question in order to even use the elevator to the Sex Trafficking Brothel.
"May luck be with you Thieves, Dalque and Lucretia, former experimental subjects of Code-R."
Underneath that last sentence of writing was the answer to the security question. Satisfied with it and aware that no guards would enter the Safe Room, Lucretia and Dalque left the memo out on the table before taking a secret route back to the entrance. The two then left the Metaverse, emerging in the Ghetto before they took refuge in an abandoned home.
"Whew, I'm glad that we didn't have to fight in there." Dalque said.
"Indeed, sister. If we had been spotted, we would have had to summon our Personae." Lucretia replied.
A/N:
Asherah - "A Semitic goddess who was the one to bring fertility to the Babylonian lands.
She is known as the mother of the gods. It is believed that in Phoenicia, she became Astarte."
Although Alice was a failure of Code R in that she did not develop an artificial Persona, the experiments caused her to develop abilities that seemed supernatural to those unaware of the Metaverse. In Alice's case, during times where she experiences extreme fear her speed increases to an insane extent.
Alice's code name is The Fear due to being able to inflict Fear on herself.
Asherah's current skills (skills created for this story will have their effects explained):
Garula
Freila
Magaru
Mafrei
Fearful Dodge - Guarantees evasion of enemy attacks and will not withdraw from battle while inflicted with Fear.
Scare Down - boosts Alice's attack power and multiplies the damage of her next physical and magic attack by 2.5, but inflicts herself with Fear.
Tiamat's current skills:
Bufudyne
Mother Earth (deals heavy Ice damage to all enemies and heals Sancia for half the damage inflicted)
Eiga
Maeiga
Ice Boost
Ice Amp
Ice Break