For the next few days, the group avoided Devyn, and he went about his days seemingly unconcerned. He perpetually had his headphones on and still cooked almost every night. Whenever he crossed paths with the others, he'd wave and smile, then they'd drop their eyes and go their own way. Finally, after school on the first of May, the young American was lounging at his desk enjoying a little music when he noticed Yukari and Junpei talking. Normally this wouldn't interest him in the least, but as he leaned back to finish his song in peace, he saw Yukari glance his way. As hard as everyone had been trying to ignore Devyn, the little look spoke volumes. So he waited for the pair to approach, all the while singing to himself, "Doesn't matter what I say, long as I sing with inflection..."

His fellow shadow slayers approached casually, obviously trying hard not to act like anything happened. "Hey man," Junpei started, "Akihiko-san's at the hospital getting a checkup. He called me earlier and asked me to bring him something. You wanna tag along?" Devyn stood up, smiling as he continues his song, "Cause the hoook brings you back. I ain't tellin' you no lies." The two of them seemed confused at his remark, until Devyn gestured the two of them to lead the way. They seemed even more surprised when he pulled a harmonica from his pocket and began playing along. Eventually, the song ended and he removed his headphones, "Sorry, I just really love that song." Yukari shook her head, "It's no problem. You've actually got a pretty nice voice." Junpei laughed, "Yeah, who would've thought." And just like that, the archer's good mood vanished, "Stupei."

The American laughed at his friends antics, following along silently. It actually surprised the boy that he had been able to make friends so fast. Sure, they were all in the same boat, with the Shadows and Persona, but that doesn't constitute a friendship by any means. It had been a long time since Devyn could really relax around anyone. They continued on this way until they reached the hospital, then Devyn slipped on his sunglasses, hitched up his collar, and tied a bandana on his head. He walked confidently through the hallways, making his disguise look like it was anything but. "Dude," Junpei said, "why'd you cover up like that?" Devyn looked over his shoulder and answered, "There was one nurse in particular who seemed fiercely against my leaving this hospital. I'd rather not run into her again." They stepped into Akihiko's room and glanced around. He wasn't in, but a guy in a purple peacoat and black beanie sat in the corner of the room.

Junpei, being his normal self, was intimidated by the guy, "Um... Is... Akihiko-senpai...?" Devyn scoffed, "Oh, for the love of...hey, we're looking for Sanada. He here?" Just then, the boxer came in behind them and asked, "What are all of you guys doing here?" Yukari spun around, "We came to see you! But... it doesn't look like anything's wrong with you." Akihiko shook his head, "I'm just here for a checkup." The chair scraped across the floor as the beanie man stood, "Is that it, Aki?" He looked over and nodded, "Yeah, thanks." Beanie man scowled, "Tch, I don't have time for this shit." As he moves to leave, Devyn steps in front of him, "Watch your tongue in front of a lady." The taller man tried to stare him down, which gave our Wild Card his chance. "Remember, Castor, only Polydeuces was immortal."

This once again caused collective shock, and Devyn began to wonder if he shouldn't downplay the theatrics for a while. Beanie man was so freaked out he forgot to act tough as he stepped around him and exited. "How do you do that, Sullivan?" Devyn turned and smiled insolently at Akihiko, "Do what, Sanada-san?" Yukari showed off her wonderful sense of timing by adding, "Didn't he do the same thing to Mitsuru-senpai?" He groaned inwardly and said, "Junpei, didn't you have something for Akihiko-san?" The magician suddenly remembered and said, "Oh, right. Here you go, senpai." He passed the senior a sheet of paper and Devyn zoned out for the rest of the conversation. 'Hey, Ogoun. What does it mean when two unrelated people have personae based on brothers?' MOST LIKELY THAT THEY'RE AS CLOSE AS BROTHERS. CHANCES ARE THEY'RE NEIGHBORS, OR ORPHANS WHO GREW UP TOGETHER. 'Thanks for the opinion. It definitely makes sense. By the way, how come all the personae we've seen so far are Greco-Roman? I got a Haitian voodoo persona.' YOU ALSO GREW UP IN A DIFFERENT PLACE AND MORE CLOSELY IDENTIFY WITH ME. IT'S ALL ABOUT FRAME OF MIND. BESIDES, THERE'S ALWAYS THE BLAME IT ON THE WILD CARD EXCUSE. He noticed that the others were leaving the room, and followed.

- Later that night, he entered the dorm and found Mitsuru sitting in the lobby reading. She looked up as he entered and quickly dropped her gaze. The blue eyed boy sat in the chair opposite and said, "Okay, I think it's time we acted mature about this and cleared the air." Mitsuru looked up and set her book on the table, "I suppose we must, if we are to continue living so closely together. I apologize for our earlier misunderstanding." He nodded, "If you didn't want me flirting with you, all you had to do was say something. But if there's one thing I cannot stand, it's having women afraid of me." The Kirijo heiress blinked, "Just women?" Devyn chuckled, "I'm sure you've heard the phrase, 'chivalry is dead'?" She nodded, "Well, I personally refuse to let it die. I believe that everyone is worthy of respect, until they act disrespectful. And I go out of my way to see ladies are treated as such. To see one so obviously terrified by my presence, is wounding."

This speech caused the redhead to take a closer look at the person sitting across from her. Devyn hoped that with this, she'd separate him from the unnamed mass of acquaintances in her mind and look at him as an individual. To see more than his face and name. To use those eyes that she had on the ride back after training so long ago. "And...that night in Tartarus?" He leaned back in his chair, "Now that, I'm not sorry for. Any part of it. I like a little alcohol sometimes, and you're a very beautiful woman." Oh wow, who knew her face could match her hair color? Mitsuru quickly grabbed her book and made her way towards the stairs, but as he watched her leave, he felt a rush of warmth. THOU SHALT HAVE OUR BLESSING WHEN CREATING PERSONAS OF THE EMPRESS ARCANA.

Yeah, somehow this situation was gonna work out.

- The next day, Devyn was back in front of the stove, making a rather simple breakfast. He was just pulling the biscuits out of the oven when the girls came downstairs. Yukari just came strolling into the kitchen and sat down, but Mitsuru shuffled, almost like she was avoiding looking at him. Well, he did drop a bomb on her last night, maybe it was too much to expect her to process it in one night. He silently placed a couple plates of eggs, bacon, and biscuits in front of them, made his own plate, and sat down. "Oh, almost forgot." He leaned back in his chair and grabbed the pot of tomato gravy and poured a generous amount on his food. Yukari made the usual exclamations of approval, but Devyn wasn't listening to her. They finished their meal, and he washed the dishes as they took off for school. "Oh, we're heading out to Tartarus tonight, so get back here on time." They nodded and left for the day.

School was dull, and Devyn spaced out for the whole day, coming to just long enough to eat his lunch. Once back at the dorm, he went straight to his room to get his gear in order. But while he prepared, he wondered if maybe he was asking people to accept an incomplete version of himself. At first the Wild Card shrugged it off, blaming it on the eerie quiet of pre-battle preparation, but it kept worrying at the back of his mind. 'Yo, Ogoun. You think maybe I'm not entirely honest with the guys?' KID, YOU'RE NOT EVEN COMPLETELY HONEST WITH YOURSELF. 'What do you mean by that?' THINK BACK TO THE PSYCHOLOGY THAT GADGET WAS SO INTERESTED IN. 'You remember Gadget?' DO WE REALLY HAVE TO GO OVER THE WHOLE I'M YOU THING? 'Right, sorry. But yeah, what about it?' WHAT IS A SHADOW? 'The suppressed emotions and insecurities that people have.' AND WHEN CONTROLLED BY THE EGO? '...A Persona?' AND THE MORON FINALLY GETS IT. 'Hey, if I'm an idiot, and you're me...'

"Hello again." Devyn spun to see Pharos sitting on his bed again, "Jesus, kid, you're gonna give me a heart attack." He chuckled, "It's been a while, are you well?" The American shrugged, "As well as can be expected. I'm not really used to people. What's going on?" "One week from now, there will be a full moon." The pale kid stood up, "Be careful, a new ordeal awaits you." Devyn shrugged, "If I gotta do it, then I'll do it. A full moon, huh?" Pharos smiled, "Yes, on such days you will face your greatest challenges." He disappeared for a moment, then faded back in by the door, "I'll come see you again when it's over. Goodbye for now." Then he just vanished. Devyn sat back down, "Damn, that boy is creepy. But as far as I can tell, he's a good kid. But back to what I was doing..."

Later, during the Dark Hour, SEES was gathered in Tartarus once again. "Alright, you two. This time, I won't go running off. We're gonna start from the last floor we were on, and see how far we can get." Mitsuru chimed in, "Last time, I detected a barrier a ways up from your position. I think that should be our objective for the night." Devyn nodded, "Understood, now let's go." The trio touched the transporter and found themselves back on the fifth floor. "Okay, let's move." The group started smashing their way through, Devyn holding back a little to let Junpei take the lead on charges. After a couple floors, he started to get a better feel for his weapon and Devyn saw him becoming a rather formidable ally. Yukari, on the other hand, was a real pain in his ass. Literally, when she shot him. Finally, he'd had enough, "Okay, let's stop for a second. Takeba, do you mind putting some of those arrows into the ENEMY?" The archer got defensive, "It's not my fault! You guys move too fast, and once I shoot, I can't change where the arrow's going."

Oh really, Devyn grabs her bow away from her, "I'm about to teach you something, Takeba. Watch this." As he drew back on the bow, he called out in his head, 'Angel, do you mind?' Not at all. He loosed the arrow and reached quickly for the Persona's wind powers, lessening the resistance in front and causing a blast of wind that shot the arrow around the corner, and into a Shadow from the sound of it. As he handed the bow back to the astonished girl, he said, "Personas are summoned by strong emotion. Feel something, then use the power you have to push the arrow where you want it. And for the love of all that's holy, don't shoot me in the ass anymore." And so for a while, Junpei and Devyn played bodyguard while Yukari got the hang of her new guided arrow skill, only jumping in to keep some distance between her and the Shadows. Once they hit the tenth floor, the only enemy was a large hand with a face. "Mitsuru-chan, can you give us an analysis?" Devyn heard their support utter an affirmative, and he started in on the guardian. For a while, he cycled through his personae, checking for any weaknesses while waiting for Mitsuru, then she finally came back with, "It seems ice attacks will have no effect. Unfortunately, it's only weakness is striking attacks."

The leader looked down at his weapon, "Well, then this is useless." He stuffed the sword back into it's sheath and grabbed his Evoker from a shoulder holster. He twirled it around so he was holding it by the barrel, and hoped Ogoun saw what he was going for. Sure enough, when the ersatz gun smashed into the Shadow's mask, an explosion blasted out and threw the glove across the room. "Let's go wild, gang!" The SEES kids rushed in and began cruelly beating the living hell out of the guardian, but after a few minutes, the monster regained it's feet(?) and began flailing. Everyone jumped back to avoid the wild swings and Devyn got ready to pistol whip it again as soon as it stopped. But from the corner of his eye, the leader noticed what appeared to be heat waves rising from Junpei's blade. 'He finally got pissed off enough to use it, huh? Well, let him go.' Devyn stepped back and yelled, "Iori, take him down!" Without hesitation, the Magician rushed in and brought a massive strike down on the Shadow's mask. As soon as the blade made contact, flames exploded outwards, forcing the sword down quicker and slicing the mask in half. Devyn applauded as the guardian dissolved, stopping to grab the large ring the Shadow dropped. "Very good, Junpei." He said, "Pretty soon the both of you won't even need your Evokers. You'll be able to do this," Angel appeared over his shoulder, "all on your own." He passed the ring off to Junpei, "That's for doing a good job tonight. You can sell that at Palownia Mall for a good bit of cash. Now let's get out of..." Devyn turned and saw five figures in cloaks standing in front of the transporter. He whipped his sword from it's sheath, "What the hell, Mitsuru? Why didn't you say there were more Shadows up here?"

Silence.

"Mitsuru? You there?" Still no response. Suddenly Devyn began to panic. They left a lady and an injured guy down there, and they had no way to defend themselves if anything big got down there. Suddenly, a flurry of fireballs rushed toward SEES and they flung themselves to the side to avoid being barbecued. Devyn tried to charge the cloaked figures, but a brutal gust of wind stopped him in his tracks. He strained against the pressure forcing him back, and a sudden intuition told him to jump back as spikes of earth shot from the ground beneath him. 'Well, if you can't get close to them...' Devyn reached into his pocket and grabbed the revolver he'd used in his speech for Junpei, fully loaded this time of course, and fired at the lead cloak. The bullet hit and the unknown enemy rocked back. There was a moment of stunned silence, then the figure stood straight again. A loud roar burst from his hood, and something shot from his sleeve. Devyn only had a second to look at this new weapon before he was attacked. Almost before he could react, Cloak 1 had closed the distance and came down with an overhead strike.

He brought his sword up and stopped the bone blade a scant centimeter from his face. While he fought to push the weapon away, he threw his foot forward hoping to push his adversary back. Apparently, Cloak 1 had thought of that as well, and they both got thrown back to their respective comrades. "Anytime you guys wanna help, that'd be great!" Devyn yelled as he stood up. "Dude, what do you want us to do? You can barely keep up with these guys!" Yukari nodded her agreement, "I think we should run. We can't do anything against these Shadows yet." The leader shook his head as Cloak 1 came back toward them and began wildly slashing, "Something's up with Mitsuru. We gotta get to the transporter and get down there to help her. Now do what you can to push through. If you see an opening, use the transporter. We'll be right behind you."

The next few minutes were a blur as Devyn fought to survive the quickening strikes of Cloak, Junpei started running headlong into the others, and Yukari tried to sneak around while sniping into the group using her curving arrows. There was an explosion in Junpei's direction and Cloak 1's attention slipped long enough for Devyn to get a slash through to his enemy's chest. Cloak leaped back, and Devyn rushed toward the transporter. He just barely managed to make it to the machine before the bone blade hit him in the spine. What he saw in the lobby wasn't much better. Mitsuru was thrown against a pillar off to the side, and Devyn couldn't see Akihiko anywhere. But sitting on the steps, whistling a tune, was another cloaked person. "Dammit, another one? You freaks are everywhere!" This new enemy just chuckled, grabbed a sword from where it lay at his side, and stood. "Oh, you wanna go?" Devyn asked, shifting his weapon to his left hand, "Then let's party, motherfucker." He closed quickly, thrusting at the enemy's heart, but New Cloak slapped his blade away and came around for a cut to the neck.

The American ducked it and pushed for a shoulder charge, but Cloak stepped back and kicked him in the gut. To New Cloak's astonishment, Devyn caught the leg and brought the hilt of his sword down on the offender's knee. Then, to Devyn's surprise, the knee didn't break. Confused, the Wild Card almost forgot to dodge when New Cloak tried to cut his leg out from under him. He retreated to a safe distance and tried to get a better feel for his opponent, but unfortunately, New Cloak had another trick up his sleeve. Suddenly, he disappeared and Devyn, thinking quickly, spun around. That wasn't the trick, however, and he was smashed in the skull with the back of Cloak's blade. The edge of Devyn's vision darkened, and he nearly fell to his knees. He heard New Cloak's footsteps as he turned to leave, and rage filled the SEES leader. This monster thought it could beat his friends and just walk away? The insolence! Devyn used that rage to force feed Dia through his system and he tackled New Cloak, yanking the hood away from his face to see who he was about to pummel. But when he saw Cloak's face, he froze. It wasn't possible, there was no way. He'd seen her die years ago. He'd buried her, for God's sake! His old leader sneered up at him, "What's the matter, boy? Can't hit me now that you know who I am?" A spike of red lightning hit Devyn in the chest and threw him hard against a pillar. "You always were soft. Even after your own father tried to kill you, and I scarred you. Pathetic. You were never cut out for this life."

Another lance of the red lightning hit him and his body exploded in agony. Every muscle seized up and he couldn't even scream from the pain. After what felt like an eternity, the pain died down and he could breathe again. As he gulped down air, he looked up and saw that the other cloaks had arrived, two of them carrying Junpei and Yukari. "I guess he's grown a little, to make you remove your hood, honey." Devyn's head jerked to the cloak holding Junpei, who had spoken. He saw the boy looking and dropped his hood to reveal a man with light brown hair, pulled back into a short ponytail. The yellow eyes were new, but there was no mistaking the scar over his left eye, "Leon? What the hell's going on here? You died! Are the others..." His voice died in his throat as the rest of the hoods were drawn back and he saw the faces of his old crew. The boss flipped her red hair back over her shoulder and laughed, "He may have gotten stronger, love, but he's still that kid we tossed around in the street. Look at him, he's got my knife harness on. It's been four years, let go already." She grabbed the katana from where it had fallen, "If nothing else, you had a good eye for blades. This Muramasa has served me well here." Devyn's legs were going numb, "Stop changing the subject, I watched the Reaper destroy you guys. How did you guys get here, Melody?" His old mentor arched her brow, "I don't recall giving you permission to use my name, boy. Oh well, I'll let it slide since it's been so long. But to answer your question, you only saw Reaper beat us, not destroy us. We got back up and killed him." Devyn shook his head, "Bullshit! I buried you." Melody yawned, "This conversation is boring me." She tossed a ring down by Devyn's feet, "If you really wanna know, you're gonna have to grow up a little. That ring'll help you. Wear it all the time." Then, they all just vanished again.