AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to EnigmaKint05 for pointing out some unanswered questioned that this story had as well as bringing up Belladonna, Nameless, and Demon Painter. I would have never thought to include them in the narrative without your comment. Thanks!

Also, due to some formatting issues with the site, Belladonna's text will look a little odd. This is because it's written like in the game, with the notes as periods. The correctly formatted version is posted on my Ao3, which is linked on my page.

"This song I can hear, it makes my heart shake. My heart is scraped away and while I am naked I feel the illusion…it passes through my heart."

"She has talent."

Akechi received only silence from Lavenza in response. When he tried to speak again, one of her thin fingers rested on her pink lips. Yellow eyes reflected a warning glance to stay his silence. The teenager engaged her stare for a moment but knew better than to try and win against it. With a sigh he fell back against the plush blue couch with pursed lips. Immediately the small girl's finger fell from her mouth and atop her other, attention snapping back to the woman standing in the middle of the room alongside a pianist.

She had greeted him in song, this woman, and never once left the podium with her microphone. Her back seemed eternal stiff, held into a pristine posture, almost as if she was a statue. Her dark purple hair seemed to hold itself up against the weight of life yet was streaked with two stripes of gray. The woman was inattentive to her audience; rather, she stared ahead with determined eyes surrounded by deep and thick purple eyeliner. Occasionally her neck craned backwards at a particularly high note, arms moving outwards further as if welcoming in some physical force.

The man behind her hadn't even said anything to his visitors—simply given Akechi a wry smile. Not that his mannerisms had been what taken the ex-detective's interest the most. No, that honor certainly went to the thick blue cloth tied securely over his eyes as his fingers danced expertly over the keys of the piano in front of him. Every once in a while he would pause, as if he was listening to some sound that the rest of them couldn't hear, then resume with that same wry smile painted on his features.

It was certainly like nothing Goro Akechi had seen before. But it was also certainly something that he couldn't make sense of either.

"Lavenza—"

"Please. It is near completion."

He sighed as the statuesque woman's voice pitched higher and higher, her companion's fingers flawlessly following the direction of her operatic voice as their music swelled further and further. Akechi wasn't quite sure where it was coming from but he could swear he heard an orchestra of violins joining in on the sharp lyrics and careful notes. It seemed to go on, so much higher and higher, so much louder and stronger, and the teenager found himself clutching at the white dress shirt he had been provided.

And then, right in the middle of the largest swell, they both went quiet immediately. Fingers were still above the keys of the piano and operatic trills died down into the throat of the woman who stood still in front of them. Akechi hesitated a glance at the blonde next to him—she too, had not moved. Cautiously he leaned forward only for the girl's pupils to sway in her still form and focus in on him. She watched him, he watched the musicians, and the musicians stayed at an unfathomable standstill.

It was like the world had stopped.

And then, as if nothing had happened, fingers pressed back down on piano keys. Soon thereafter it was followed by the return of the woman's melodic opera. The sound bounced off the walls and echoed all around them, and Akechi realized with a start that the pair had started over the same exact song that they had been playing before. Not even that they had started it over but that their perfection of their arts was so pristine that it sounded exactly identical. As if he was hearing the same song being played over and over on a CD.

It grasped at him and he didn't quite understand why he felt like his stomach was twisting, why his heart was constricting, why his head felt dizzy.

"You mustn't let it confuse you. You have to just give into it."

Lavenza's hand felt like the only solid thing in the room when it hit his back, running across the back of his neck. Fingers clutched there as if to keep him grounded in their world, whatever that world was. She was humming slightly and Akechi realized he had allowed himself to, in his fervor, be pulled to his feat and walked over to the pair standing in front of them. Neither musician faltered for a moment in their song.

"Can you hear the fall and rise of the human soul?" The masked man finally spoke. His attention did not fall from the song for a minute. Akechi stared at him blankly, unable to compute what the musician was saying. "You are both with and without the flow of the human soul. I can see why you were brought here. You are as wild as you are tame, cold as you are compassionate. Even with all of your contradictions you fit into the aria. How beautiful."

"We can't have a good Without a bad It is the nature of the aria of the soul That you join in and be the warrior " The woman sung out suddenly, her spoken words going along exactly with the flow of her previous opera. "I praise visiting warriors Who challenge the monster called thyself O, are you of the unusual card borne of fate Fate is both for you and against you So you cannot falter "

Akechi stared, convincing himself he wasn't shaking, as the surprisingly tall woman fell back into her usual opera. She sung as if she hadn't even said anything at all, the man playing his instrument like he had not chose to interact ever. As soon as they reached out of their aria, they sunk back in and resumed the flow of it. The aria of the soul.

"Belladonna is one of our most interesting residents, wouldn't you say?" Lavenza broke Akechi out of his reverie with only a mere tug on his shirt. "She and Nameless are always playing songs. They wish all of our visitors to hear our song. But the Velvet Room is so vast that sometimes they hide away from the eyes of those we choose. They hid away from Elizabeth's Hero. They hid away from Margaret's Hero. And they hid away from my Hero, too."

Akechi started, suddenly, twisting in his stomach turning into a boiling fire instead.

"Why do you call him that?" He snapped. Lavenza looked at him with curious eyes, as if she didn't understand the question. "HERO. Why do you call…HIM that? He was a thief, a manipulator, a man who worked under the nose of the authorities. Akira Kurusu made himself judge, jury, and executioner. He isn't a HERO. He's nothing but a TRICKSTER."

"The Trickster can be the Hero. You will find that they are titles that can very easily overlap. Most of our Heroes went under the nose of the authorities, and many of them were in the position of being judge, jury, and executioner. What makes them more than just Tricksters is that they have the ability to make the right choices and not let that power go to their head." Lavenza replied without missing a beat. "I called him Trickster to his face. If you would prefer I call him Trickster to your face as well, then I can. But it will not make it go away that he is indeed the Hero as well."

Akechi's fist clenched.

"To you, he was the Hero as well. You simply won't admit it."

A clatter rang out as the microphone was torn from Belladonna's hands, smacked to the ground by young hands. It did not seem to distress the woman. Even without it she sung on, still as a rock and arms spread out. Nameless' fingers did not cease in following her muted rhythm but he tilted his head to frown at the brunette boy with dark red fury blazing in his eyes. He stood almost as still as the singer in front of him.

For a moment her mouth closed, her song lost, her eyes finally locking into something other than her music.

"It will do you very little good To turn from the truth and lie to our eyes The human soul is as clear as it is mudded And it will do much better without the mud O dear child " She sung, returning to the tone of the aria but keeping her eyes steadily locked onto his as she followed the rhythm. Nameless glanced back for a moment but then followed after her words flawlessly, the tune of the aria reverberating off the walls once more. Akechi's body stiffened defensively as her hands reached out to his face—covered with thick leather lacking any distinct smell, and cold as ice as she cupped his cheeks in her fingers.

"O my child do not lie For what has it gotten you so far Shed the skin of the lie and breath the air of the truth Perhaps your pain will begin to subside "

"SHUT UP! Shut UP, shut up, SHUT UP!" Akechi screeched, hands digging into hair abrasively and pulling at the roots. Carefully Lavenza stepped backwards to allow him space, but Belladonna did not move at all. Her bright and unnerving eyes just locked into his furious dark ones. "I didn't ask for this! I should've died back there anyways! But now I'm locked in here listening to some madwoman sing some cryptic bullshit about…about ME?! What kind of joke do you think this is?!"

Fury was bubbling around Akechi's edges; the blue and black dress suit was melting away to crisscrosses of dark black and grey. Lavenza narrowed her eyes as the blue mask on the boy's face cracked, a sliver of dark transparent red edging out from underneath it. Quickly she stepped forward, slicing between the teenager and the singer, to press one hand tight against Akechi's chest. He let out a throaty, angry gasp but the fabric ceased its burning.

"That beast is not welcome in the Velvet Room until it can be controlled." Lavenza said evenly. He let out a sharp gasp as her hand tightened its grip. A small dribble of blood slipped out of his mouth. "Igor warned me about you, Loki, and your malevolent ways. You are a piece of this boy, I will admit, but you will not have him until he can have you. So remember what you've been told…"

He eyes narrowed to slits, staring at the half formed creature perching on Akechi's shoulders.

"You are not yet welcome here."

Steam rose along with Akechi's screech as Loki faded behind him, falling to his knees in his plain white shirt and black slacks. Belladonna watched for a moment then resumed her singing, Nameless having not stopped his piano cords for a single moment. Lavenza kneeled down next to the moaning brunette teenager, pushing his hair away from his face to place a hand on his fevered brow. She didn't like having to do this but Igor and her had discussed it in private. It was how it HAD to be. It was how Akechi had been kept from rampaging the Velvet Room after manifesting into the cells below Igor and his attendant.

She closed her eyes tightly, remembering.

-I wish it did not have to be this way, Lavenza, but it must. Until he's ready to use Loki, TRULY ready, I have suppressed it. As is, however, he is not content enough with that part of himself to truly utilize it as it should be utilized.-

-Master…is this not wrong? To suppress the Persona, the true self…-

-He is already suppressing it. It is only by the sake of Yaldabaoth that he has access to it at all. Otherwise his self, mired in destructive thoughts and selfishly vengeful motives, would not have come to him. He cannot believe he is 'right' when his Persona represents so much wrong.-

-And of Robin Hood…?-

-I do not yet know the answer to the manifestation of that one. It appears to be fairly recent, and have some sort of moral compass that is not manifesting within Loki. It has a sense of control and lacks the ability to cause madness. He will need someone to fight alongside him anyhow…Robin Hood must stay.-

-But why? Why can he even manifest two Personas? He may be a Wild Card but the only time that has happened before has been when there was another soul living within the Wild Card. It's not a naturally occurring phenomenon.-

-Mmh. Well, my dear Lavenza, it could just be that he is 'manifested' in two different forms. Perhaps we have yet to see the 'true self' of Goro Akechi. Perhaps someday we will. Until then, I need you to help me in suppressing the beast. It cannot be controlled until Goro Akechi can control HIMSELF. Understood?-

-…Yes, Master. I do.-

She had understood, of course.

But with the aria of the soul floating around her, Goro Akechi's head lolling haplessly in his lap, Lavenza wasn't quite sure she really did. She could see pain on his face. It hurt to repress a Persona, everyone who lived in the Velvet Room knew that. And she knew well that this boy had a Persona that was not fully controlled. But something—was it guilt, she thought? Or was it sorrow, even pity? Something, anyhow, was rising in her throat as she watched the pained expression on the face of the child below her.

He called her a child.

Yet he was even moreso than her.

Broken, crying, in pain, mauled by demons that he had no way of defending himself from.

Demons that could not be swatted away because they lived with him. She stroked the Wild Card's hair carefully, fingers carding through the thick brown mass. Attending to Goro Akechi was nothing like what it had been like to attend to Akira Kurusu. Her memories were muddled in concerns of her time as Justine and Caroline but Akira had always been fooling and helping her as much as she had been doing so to him. It felt like a competition, even like a date of sorts. The kind of tension, thick and tense and yet not at all bad, that existed between lovers.

With this boy, however, it was different.

With this boy it felt like the kind of tension between mother and child.

Lavenza sighed.

"I'm sorry. I hope one day…" Her voice caught in her throat. One hand lifted to her eye—a stray tear. She hadn't even known she could do that but all she could do was shake it off. "…I hope one day you'll be complete."

The aria of the soul played behind them continuously as the small girl rocked the head of the boy who was not quite an adult but not yet a child.