The title is from a Pat Benetar song - I just thought it was appropriate since both Mitsuru and Sho were kids when they went through hell at the hands of the scientists.

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"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH...!"

Chaos. By the time they had begun celebrating Sho's collapse, Mitsuru had gone down the same way.

"Senpai?"

"No, Senpai!"

"MITSURU! Oh, shit...Mitsuru, what's wrong?" Akihiko immediately fell to his knees, trying to comfort a shrieking Mitsuru who appeared not to hear him.

"STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!" she screamed. "MAKE IT STOOOOP!"

Fuuka was sobbing and shaking. Rise was sobbing and shaking. Teddie wailed and started running around in circles, with Koromaru running with him, yowling at the noise.

Yu just stood in place gaping, the situation slipping completely out of his hands. "What the-?"

Akihiko rounded on him. "What the hell did you do?" he growled.

"I didn't do anything!" Yu could only hold his ears as the cacophony got even louder. "It was supposed to work on Sho...because of the experiments!"

"You IDIOT, MITSURU was an experiment!"

"What?"

Everyone who wasn't screaming gasped. "Oh, my god...!" Tears streamed down Yukari's face as she began connecting the dots.

"M-Mitsuru-san – she got her Persona in a lab, too?" Labrys would have gone pale if she had been human.

Akihiko had lost all semblance of patience and could only communicate with rage. "Why the fuck do you think she didn't want to talk about it, huh? What did I fucking tell you? I told you to drop it! I told you to stop pushing her to talk about it! But no, you just had to push it, didn't you? Now look at her!"

"I-I didn't know, I..."

"Why didn't anyone say anything earlier?" Yu asked. After a beat, he realized something else. "Where was this information WHEN WE FIRST MET MINAZUKI?"

Mitsuru had fallen to the ground sobbing, curled up in the fetal position. She was wailing something completely unintelligible and ice crystals were beginning to form at the ends of her hair. Naoto didn't dare get close when Akihiko was hovering over her like a rabid wolf, but she could see that Mitsuru had scratched bloody furrows into both her wrists.

"The bleeding!" she managed to choke out. "Stop the bleeding!"

Yukari jumped forward, fumbling with her Evoker. Akihiko had to grab Mitsuru's hands and separate them in order to keep her from doing more damage, and the agonized wail of pain she let out nearly made the others vomit.

"WAAAAAH!" Teddie had reached the end of his tolerance and ran off sobbing into the night.

"Teddie!" Yosuke had no choice but to run after him. Chie followed shortly behind. This left Yukiko and Kanji to buffer Rise, who was crying so hard, her mascara ran down her face in black streaks, giving her the appearance of a melancholy zebra.

Koromaru had started howling at the top of his lungs. "Koromaru, stop!" Ken tried to hush his friend. "Calm down, boy-OW! He...he bit me!" All the screaming was driving the dog to madness, and he quickly ran away and hid under a bench. Junpei looked very uncomfortable with Fuuka sobbing into his shirt, and he watched Mitsuru with dawning horror on his face.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO...! NOOOOOOOOOOO, NOOOO!"

Akihiko wasn't having any luck consoling Mitsuru, who was gripping her head and crying like a baby. He was near tears himself. "Shh-shh-shh. Mitsuru, hey. You're all right, you're not in the hospital anymore. They're not-they're not hurting you anymore!" She didn't appear to know where she was or who was speaking to her. "Come on, open your eyes. Look, look, you wanna hear something funny? I found those stupid cat ears the kids stuck on me – I could put them on, you want me to put them on? Huh? Or, hey, we'll put them on Aigis – robot cat girl! No? How 'bout this – how 'bout we put 'em on Koromaru and he'll start chasing himself around? Wouldn't that be funny? Would you like that? God, Mitsuru, please stop crying!" Regardless of who was watching, he cradled Mitsuru like a baby, rocking her and stroking her hair so she'd stop trying to pull it all off of her head.

Marie had been watching Sho with the device droning away when she finally realized why someone else was screaming. "Wow. That's unexpected."

It took Akihiko all of two seconds to zero in on the device in Marie's hand. "Give me that!" He snatched it and used a Zio spell to fry its circuits, in the same manner that he had blown the security camera at the station. With the droning noise gone, Mitsuru finally stopped screaming, and went limp. Akihiko flung the broken device off in the direction of the river.

Fuuka recovered enough to run to her senpai, and the Shadow Operatives closed ranks. For a terrifying second, Naoto was certain Mitsuru was dead, but Akihiko had found her pulse, and Aigis stared intently at her for a few seconds before confirming that she was just unconscious.

With Rise wiping her tears on his shirt, Yu cleared his throat. "What the hell just happened?"

"Super Shirtless just broke my Wubb-wubb-wubb Machine," Marie replied. She looked up. "Hey, where'd that boy go?"

"Sho-kun!" Labrys scanned the area, but found no trace of the other lab victim.

"How the hell'd he get away so fast?" asked Kanji.

"We gotta go look for him!"

"NO," Akihiko stood up with Mitsuru in his arms. "We're leaving! I've had enough of this shit. Come on!"

"But we can't just leave him!" cried Labrys.

"That's an order, Labrys! GO."

Junpei had been fiddling with the cross he wore around his neck, but his head shot up. "Whoa, whoa! Wait a sec – you're ordering us around now? Didn't you quit being a Shadow Operative?"

"Aren't you backup members?"

"Yeah?"

"Then back up." Akihiko wrapped his cape around Mitsuru and bridal-carried her off, not waiting to see if the others would follow him.

"But what about Sho-kun?" Labrys hadn't moved from her spot. "He could be passed out somewhere, too!"

"Where the hell do your allegiances lie, Labrys?"

"Where do yours?" Labrys shouted back, and everyone gasped. "Are you thinkin' about the Shadow Operatives...or your girlfriend?"

"Sister!" Aigis chided.

Labrys' synthetic hair was realistic enough to stand straight on edge as a jolt of electricity passed through her. If she had been human, it would have been the end of her. Akihiko didn't even look back to see if she was all right as he began calling for Mitsuru's limousine.

"Senpai, you can't just-"

"AIGIS!" Akihiko shouted, sounding so much like Mitsuru it was as if she'd possessed him, "PROTOCOL!"

Aigis replied on cue. "In an emergency situation, control of the current mission passes to the Operative with the lowest serial number. Akihiko-san, you are Shadow Operative Number Two..." Aigis' voice trailed off as the Shadow Operatives moved out of earshot.

"Akihiko-san!" Yu called after him, but to no avail.

"We appear to have been mistaken about a good many things," Naoto began, more for herself than anyone else listening.

Kanji picked up on her musing and added, "So the other one the doc was talking about was Mitsuru-san."

"She was just a little kid," Rise struggled to say. " Senpai, I saw things. Horrible things, I...I don't ever want to feel like that again!"

They were all waiting on Yu's command, and the stress of being leader was starting to show on his face. Who was to assume control of the Investigation Team when their leader was unable to continue?

"Yu-kun?" Yukiko nudged him.

Yu ran his hands through his hair and sighed. "See if you can get Chie on the phone," he told her. "We're going to need Teddie for this."

Father?

Mitsuru was warm, and she didn't hurt anymore.

Father always carried her home from the experiments since she was so tired. They took so much out of the small girl and just when she thought it would never end, her father's voice reached her, and he would scoop her up and make them stop putting things in her head. And she would snuggle deep in his arms and know that she was safe again. No more hospital smell. She felt loved.

No...Father is gone. But...?

It took a great while to recover from the psychic trauma. Often, Mitsuru would feel disassociated from her physical body on and off until the following day. She didn't know where she was, just that she was moving. Slowly, she began to regain a sense of her limbs, trying to reach for a collar that wasn't there. The sensation of being held and his familiar scent were reassuring as he readjusted her, but his heartbeat was too erratic, and his touch was fleeting and restrained, almost hesitant. And then...his chest fluttered.

Akihiko.

It was easier for Akihiko to ignore all the complaints coming from the rest of his friends than admit that he'd been wrong. But what was he most wrong about? He hadn't stopped Mitsuru from taking on too much of her asshole grandfather's sins. He couldn't find the time or the balls to tell Yu and the Inaba kids just why he was worried for her.

Most importantly...he was too ashamed to tell Labrys that she was 100% right.

There were very few things in his life that hadn't come from Mitsuru. Had she not approached him that fateful afternoon, he'd probably still be scraping by, wishing he had more power but feeling hopeless as to where to find it. Through SEES, he had found a new sense of self, a purpose, and a strength he didn't know he had. Mitsuru had faith in him and his abilities. She encouraged him to pursue his dreams, and she made them possible. When he brought up the idea of traveling the world instead of going to college, she didn't shoot him down. She simply asked him where he wanted to go, and a few days later, emailed him flight information. And when he told her he wanted to quit the Shadow Operatives and join the police force, she supported him in that, too. Yukari had accused him once, ages ago, of only valuing the chance to fight. He did...but he valued Mitsuru more. It was Mitsuru who made the fight possible – both then and now.

Mitsuru sat on his lap in the limo, weighing next to nothing aside from her catsuit. Her entire wrist fit between his thumb and forefinger with room to spare. Had she always been this tiny? She was clinging to his cape in her sleep, trembling but unable or unwilling to wake. It was killing him.

Akihiko could count on one hand the times he'd seen Mitsuru Kirijo cry. Mitsuru was tough as nails, and she could kick his ass. She was not a whiner, and rarely ran from a fight. Seeing her on the ground tonight hysterical with pain brought out every overprotective instinct he thought he'd squelched down years ago, and he wanted to punch someone's face in. He couldn't be helpless this time. He had to save someone. He had to save her.

"Senpai." Yukari's voice brought him out of his brooding. "How long have you known?"

"Since the beginning," he began. His throat hurt from all that guttural growling, but he couldn't stay silent any longer. "She didn't want to talk about it then, either." He forced himself to stop watching Mitsuru breathe and looked up at them. "You know how hard it is to summon a Persona. It's even harder to force yourself to summon so you can tag along with your idiot little brother/friend. Mitsuru, she made it look so natural that we felt stupid next to her. Shinji and me just thought she'd been born into it. She'd make us practice with the Evokers, take out one Shadow at a time, just offense, just defense – it was like going to school twice. One night, Shinji finally snapped and told her we weren't 'lab rats in her experiment'." He shuddered. "She just...broke. We'd never seen her cry before. No, this wasn't an experiment – 'experiments' involved having your brain jacked into while machines blew your eardrums out until you either summoned a Persona or shit yourself."

"D'you think," Junpei spoke so faintly it was hard to hear him at first, "d'you think that's what...everyone went through?"

Akihiko wished he could tell him for certain that Chidori didn't suffer as well. He suspected the procedure was the same for all of them. Whatever she and the other members of Strega had done to them was more than likely tested on Mitsuru first – and it had killed 97 other people.

Mitsuru gasped and twitched herself awake, looking lost and dazed. Akihiko brushed the hair out of her eyes and found tears there. "Hey, you still with us?" He wasn't sure if she recognized him; her eyes were slow to focus, and she moved as if she'd just became human. In the end, she just gave up and put her head back down on his shoulder.

Koromaru was softly licking Ken's hand, his tail between his legs and a guilty expression on his face. When Mitsuru sniffled, he nosed her leg and gave a whimpering whine. "Won't you tell us what happened?" Ken asked for him.

Mitsuru tried to speak, but nothing came out at first. What followed may have been broken French. Jeez, her brain's been fried! She just looked up at him, eyes pleading with him to understand. Akihiko could only rub her back and try to will his strength into her. Please don't let this be permanent.

"I think it's in those files," Fuuka said, "I'm sorry it took me so long, but I finally decoded the last of Ikutsuki-san's files, and...well...there was a folder with your name on it, Mitsuru-senpai." She reached into the bag by her feet and pulled out a disc. "They appeared to be video files...I converted them to DVD."

"Was he THERE?!" Yukari shouted suddenly, making everyone in the car jump. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Senpai! I just remembered – that memory we saw, when Mitsuru-senpai first summoned her Persona."

That Abyss of Time shit was disturbing. Seeing their own memories in front of their eyes like that, as if someone had recorded them...Akihiko was just grateful that he didn't have to relive the orphanage fire over again.

Yukari continued. "There was that one scientist that was really excited, like he hadn't just seen one of his friends turn into a Shadow right in front of him. Was that...was it Ikutsuki?" Now they were all thinking back on that moment, trying to remember the man.

Mitsuru nodded.

So Akihiko had assumed correctly. "Well, he had to learn how to operate on Minazuki somewhere."

They had reached the hotel. "What are we going to do, Senpai?" Fuuka asked.

Akihiko sighed. First the Public Safety bullshit, and now this. "I've gotta talk to Kurosawa. Public Safety's gonna love this. Someone...someone figure out where Labrys went. I don't really want to talk to her right now." Mitsuru was staring at him, but he did his best to ignore it. "We've got to get the hell out of Inaba until we know what we're doing." Tactical retreat was not Akihiko's forte, but it seemed like something Mitsuru would do. They needed to think, and he needed to cool off.

Mitsuru, lacking the linguistic power, seemed to approve as he set her down to climb out of the limo. When he picked her back up, she managed to reach out and touch his face. The hint of a smile confirmed it. By the time they made it to Mitsuru's room, Mitsuru had recovered enough to wrap her arms around Akihiko's neck to steady herself in his arms. It did not make it easier for Akihiko to concentrate.

The door opened by itself. Kikuno stood in the entryway, eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Lady Mitsuru!" When she saw Akihiko carrying Mitsuru, she immediately blushed. "Forgive me for interrupting!"

"Kikuno?" Mitsuru managed to say.

The implication went unaddressed for once as Akihiko still had quite a bit of anger in him. "Oh, funny meeting you here - where the hell have you been?"

"I'm so sorry, Milady!" Kikuno sobbed. "I had to see for myself...if it was true. Your father insisted that all of Kouetsu-sama's henchmen were gone. I never had any reason to doubt him!" She did her best to recover. "Aigis-san let me in. She said that Fuuka-san had found something Ikutsuki-san left for you." Finally, Kikuno noticed that Mitsuru was pale and listless. "Milady?"

"Yeah, that's great. You can grovel later. Help me with her, will you?" Akihiko got about two feet into the en suite bathroom and stalled. "I'm...gonna let Yukari know you're all right. I'll just be out here."

Mitsuru was swaying, but determined to stand. "Yes." she said. It was the second most disturbing thing he'd seen all night; the near-muteness of a woman who could bring a man to his knees with a few well-chosen words.

Akihiko's phone was going off every few seconds as Yukari grew more and more impatient with the lack of news – in the five damn minutes they'd been apart.

What's going on?

Is Senpai awake?

Did you find Kikuno-san? Aigis said she'd be there.

So, are we going back home now, or...?

Tell Senpai I'm SORRY! :(

God, this girl. Akihiko kept having to erase and retype his text with each new hyperactive message.

She's FINE. Kikuno's helping her change now. No, I'm not looking, don't even go there – yes, you WERE, Yukari, jeez, is that what you really think of me? We'll probably leave tomorrow if Mitsuru's okay with that. I'm not letting her worry about anything tonight.

Akihiko allowed himself to collapse on the couch, and massage the bridge of his nose. He could hear water running and – thank god – coherent Japanese from Mitsuru. Hopefully, one night would be enough to get her back to normal. Then she'd chew him out for being an asshole – not that he would blame her.

The rest of the messages were from Naoto. Akihiko figured Yu was just as upset and static charged as he still was, and the detective was the cooler head. He was surprised to find messages that read the exact opposite, though.

APOLOGIES FROM I.T. HOPE MITSURU-SAN IS WELL.

WOULD STILL LIKE TO RECONVENE ASAP RE: MINAZUKI. WILL ACT AS TEAM LIAISON.

It's a text message, not a telegram! Sensing a wall of text would just be unnecessary, Akihiko was terse in turn.

I'm working on it.

Labrys?

It took a while for Naoto's next message to arrive; the water turned off in the bathroom and soft crying could be heard.

LABRYS AMAGI INN ATM. SAFE.

Well, that was somewhat reassuring.

MEETUP Y/N?

She was certainly tenacious.

If a car shows up on Sunday, get in. If not...well, we'll have to figure it out from there.

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Yes, where WAS this information in the canon games, Atlus?

Evidently, this is only available in Japanese supplementary material, but Mitsuru was experimented on by her grandfather. There's that one so-brief-you-might-miss-it mention on the P3 side of Persona Q, where Mitsuru admits she was given her abilities, but of course, none of the characters remember that. When Jin reveals that Strega were test subjects, too, there's no mention of it (Mitsuru looks upset, but that could easily be written off as Kirijo guilt). When Sho is introduced, and everyone is discussing his life, there's no mention of it. I assume that (aside from implanting a Plume of Dusk) the Potential process is the same for all of the subjects.

Fans have suspected that the one scientist in Mitsuru's memory who's more excited than scared is Ikutsuki, even though he's not named. It would fit with his character. Other than him and Yukari's dad, I'm only using OCs since I don't know anything about the other named Kirijo scientists.