The second Makoto asked that question all expression left Lucas' face and let behind was a mask, one that produced no answer to the question she asked to him. She was shocked at the reaction, it was like all emotion left his body at the sound of her name.

"Is that any of your business Niijima-san?" Lucas asked, he only used honorifics when he was hiding his feelings, something he was doing right now, on the outside he was indifferent, but on the inside, he was an emotional wildfire.

"N-no, we were just curious, and concerned since you were calling out for her." Makoto said hesitantly not wanting to set him off.

Lucas kept giving her that dead stare and shook his head. "Well, don't be curious and don't be concerned, its nothing you need to worry about and I have no reason I should tell you anything." He said sternly and moved to sit at the counter before his legs buckled.

Lucas looked at Akechi with a curious eye, not knowing who he was. "So, who's the new guy?" He asked with a switch of his gaze to Akira.

Akira shifted slightly in his seat before speaking. "That's Akechi… a friend and fellow Persona user."

"But he's not a part of the Phantom Thieves like you guys, so similar to me." Lucas looked towards Akechi again who in turn fixed him with a level stare. "Lucas."

Akechi nodded. "Goro Akechi, just call me Akechi, I like it better than my given name."

"Alright, I'd give you my last name too, but I discarded my family name when my family died." Lucas said casually, shocking his fellow Persona users on how casually he said that.

"But… your uncle is living." Ann said.

"His last name is different now, it was mine but he changed it to Takumi, and besides, my uncle is a serial killer." Lucas responded and moved to Leblanc's door. "Man, it's dark as hell out. What is it the middle of the night?"

"11:24 actually." Yusuke said.

Lucas sighed. "My uncles is not gonna be happy I'm getting home so late on a school night."

Ryuji suddenly exploded. "Alright already!" He shouted startling everybody, they turned to look at him in confusion as he continued on. "Dude, how can you act so calm about this? You can use two Personae at once, your uncle is a serial killer that imagines you as his apprentice in the future and you only care about school?!"

"That's not actually the most interesting thing that happens to be about me." Lucas said, and explained the things that Igor told him, how he is a special wild card, how he's supposed to break the seal, and how he thinks he knows who it is due to him somehow invoking Orpheus, the seals old Persona.

The room went dead silent after that, and Akechi was ghostly white. Lucas looked straight at Akechi. "You know something." He said getting Akechi's attention.

Akechi swallowed. "I do indeed." He said and retold all of what he knew, Lucas sat down and put his head in his lap.

"So Christopher is part of some group that wants to destroy the world, and they want to break the seal like me… I don't understand why I need to break the seal then, why not let them do it then take them down?" Lucas wondered.

"Maybe if you break the seal something different will happen?" Haru asked, Lucas thought for a moment longer before shrugging.

"I dunno. But this demon… Nyx, no goddess of death. Reminds me of my own Persona Grim Reaper. But he's a king." Lucas said.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help more." Akechi said mournfully, Lucas gave him a pat on the back.

"Nah, don't be it's cool. You've helped more than enough already." He said.

Even if I piece this all together that's still not enough, there's too many holes. I need more information.

"Morgana." Lucas said and the cat perked up. "Any ideas yourself?"

Morgana thought for a moment before something akin to a lightbulb went off in his head. "Perhaps the seal isn't really in Shibuya per say?"

"Huh? I don't understand." Akira said.

"What I mean is I doubt we're the only people in the world who have Persona's. What if this seal is in another place, as a matter of fact…" Morgana trailed off and looked at Futaba. "Maybe Christopher has ideas where the seal is, maybe he even knows where it is."

Futaba smirked. "I'll look that up too while I'm at it, see if I can find anything about this seal."

"Alright, seems were making some ground." Yusuke said then looked at Akira. "Leader, when do we go back in?"

Akira thought for a long moment. "Saturday." He said. "Two days from now."

"What about Shiho?" Lucas asked giving Akira pause. "Shouldn't we save her as fast as possible?"

"I agree with that. But if we rush in blind, tired and unprepared we'll succeed in getting not only her but ourselves killed. We should take time to prepare, this will also help get Christopher off your back a little, because if you keep coming back so late he'll get suspicious." Akira reasoned.

Lucas nodded and smiled shocking the group, from the short time he knew them he seemed to rarely smile. "That's actually a good plan, alright. I'll follow your lead for now." He said, acknowledging Akira.

Makoto sighed with relief, she was concerned Lucas would protest like before, but he seemed to be a lot more reasonable now than in the metaverse.

They both got genuine leader qualities. Makoto thought. Once Lucas gets more experience I have no problem relying on him, as of right now he's like a lightning bolt.

Akira suddenly stood up and stretched. "I'm gonna go walk around Shibuya, with so much happening all of a sudden I didn't really get a chance to get reacquainted with the area." He said.

"I assume that's the disbandment of this meeting?" Akechi asked, Akira nodded as the Phantom Thieves got up and slowly made their way outside, Akira locking the store up.

Lucas watched Makoto and Akira tentatively holding hands as they walked away with a little amusement. "I gotta get home, I'll be seeing you." Lucas waved Lazily and walked off down the street, ignoring the 'bye's' and 'see you 'laters' he got.

Line Break

"Yo Uncle." Lucas called out using the spare key his uncle gave him to get in. "I'm home, sorry I'm late I…" He trailed off as he realized no one was home.

"Huh, lucky me." Lucas shrugged his shoulders and went up to his room, almost immediately clocking out in his bed.

Line Break Lucas dream?

This… darkness, is not natural. Lucas thought, looking around. He knew this wasn't the place he spoke to Igor considering, well, that there was literally nothing around.

Just pitch black.

"It's spreading…" A raspy weakened voice said behind him, Lucas spun around in shock.

Suspended in the air arms spread like a crucifixion, a boy with medium length blue hair covering his right eye looked at him pale and sickly, he didn't look like he was supposed to be alive, he looked chained without actually being chained.

Something stirred inside Lucas as they looked at each other, and he couldn't help but feel like he should know who this was. But how? He didn't know this person.

"What's spreading?" Lucas asked, and the boy jerked in his invisible chains in shock and looked at Lucas in a way that made him feel bad.

"You… can actually hear me?" The boy asked, Lucas was confused by the question.

"Should… I not be able to?"

The boy let out a hollow laugh. "I… don't know. It has been so long…"

"What's spreading?" Lucas asked again.

The boy looked him in the eyes in such a way that it seemed like it pierced Lucas through his very soul.

"The dark hour." He said gravely, and somehow Lucas knew exactly what he was talking about, suddenly the boy started spasming, gasping and crying out in agony.

Lucas wanted to help him, but had a feeling he couldn't do anything, he watched with trepidation as the boy stopped spasming, taking a few… well not breaths but moments.

"It seems that she's growing stronger, I do not know how much longer I can hold her back." The boy said, pain in his eyes.

"Hold who back? Who are you?" Lucas asked, and once again, the boy gave him that same piercing stare, but in the shadow's of that same boys eyes someone… no, something else was there for a fraction of a second.

"I'm…" The boy began, but suddenly seized up on his words, like couldn't say them. Like something stopped him from saying them.

Lucas' mind whirled, and slowly he started piecing it together. His eyes widened. "Y-your him… the seal. My god your holding back her." He said.

The boy looked at him again with relief. "Yes."

Lucas' questions were rapid fire. "Where are you?! How do I find you?! How do I save you!?"

The boy's smile was sad. "I don't think you can save me. I don't think you can even find me." Suddenly, he seemingly started to fade away.

"No." Lucas said reaching his hand out. "No not yet! Where are you seal!?" He yelled in desperation.

That boy gave him one small, sad smile. No, not him, somehow without him realizing, Orpheus had manifested on his own, and was staring at his old master with sadness and grief so raw it made Lucas choke up.

They seemed to speak without actually speaking, such was the bond of the seal and Orpheus and right then Lucas knew that while he had Orpheus, he would never truly be Lucas'.

"Orpheus…" The boy said and faded out, and Lucas knew no more.

Line Break Akira

Akira walked around Shibuya, gathering his thoughts, there were little to no people out which surprised him, after all Shibuya was super busy at night as well as the daytime.

Perhaps Christopher's murders have had more influence than I thought. Akira thought.

He heard a distant rustling sound, but wasn't really worried assuming it was a stray animal, he still looked back though and sure enough, a yellow cat ran out from the ally way around the corner.

Akira chuckled softly and kept walking returning to his thoughts. Lucas… Needs to break some seal somehow, but Christopher's little group need's to do the same to cast infinite despair on the world, but how is Lucas supposed to do this without casting infinite despair on the world itself? Is it related to his ability to use two persona at once?

Akira shook his head while that was a unique power, even more so than the wild card itself in ways he didn't think that was it.

Akira's thought's halted as he realized something minorly unsettling, somehow while in his thoughts he had wandered away from the main streets of Shibuya.

Because of this he was utterly alone, no one in sight. Suddenly, another rustling sound sent a chill down Akira's spine and he whirled around to face the noise hoping it was another cat.

He wasn't that lucky. At the end of the street Akira had found himself on (Which wasn't that far away) a man stood there, encroached in shadows hiding all of him, only his silhouette could be seen.

Standing there in a long trench coat and a fedora, in his right hand, held a large carving knife. Large enough to cut open my heart. Akira thought. I cant believe Christopher is actually about to try and kill me.

Akira took a step back, Christopher forward.

Back.

Forward.

Back.

Forward.

Bastard wont get the chance.

Suddenly Akira turned and started sprinting, seconds after heard footsteps behind him, not far off, Akira turned the corner and started running harder, jumping over a fallen trashcan and through another alley way, the whole time the pounding of feet behind him. He jumped another trashcan and pulled out his phone. Intending to call the police.

FUCK. It's 11:50. The station would be closed at this time, best I can do it find some stray person if im lucky. Akira thought in a minor panic.

Akira stumbled over a trash bag, losing his phone in the darkness and falling scraping his knees on the pavement.

"Shit!" Akira cursed as he got up and continued running gasping for breath as he moved along footsteps still behind him, acutely aware he left his phone behind somewhere. "That's… what… I… get…"

Akira made a mistake, he came to a fork In the alley way and turned right, leading him right to a dead end, Akira turned around to double back but found himself staring at Christopher, still hidden by his outfit and the shadows.

He started to panic as he realized he was sandwiched with no way out. He was pretty sure he whimpered and was really hoping the smell of pee was from the alley way, not his pants.

"H-hey come on man you don't have to do this." Akira managed out, his mouth tasting like ash.

Christopher took a step closer, Akira couldn't go anywhere. He backed up against the wall and desperately tried to think of a plan.

"Ah crap, I was really hoping I could live long enough to marry Makoto before I died." Akira mumbled, unable to think of a plan.

Christopher took a few steps forward, gripping Akira's shirt with a gentleness that shocked him, and pushed him fully into the wall wetting his shoes and socks in a puddle in the process, Christopher got in close, and stroked the knife across Akira's cheek.

He pushed the knife to Akira's heart just enough to draw blood, and for the first time Christopher spoke.

"I'll make this as quick as possible. It'll hurt though."

Akira closed his eyes, taking his last deep breath.

Except it wasn't, suddenly all the pressure on Akira's chest fell away, the grip on his shirt went slack and he no longer felt Christopher's breath on his face.

He slowly opened his eyes, which widened in shocked confusion, the sky had turned a strange tint, and the moon was blood red, and standing in the place Christopher was supposed to be:

Was a coffin, a red tinted coffin the strange tinted sky making the coffin look even creepier. Akira looked down instinctively and nearly jumped out of his shoes, the water his feet had gotten soaked in had turned to blood, sickening Akira's stomach a bit.

"What the hell is going on here?" Akira wondered aloud, it was like reality had shifted without using the metaverse.

Akira slowly walked down the ally way, backtracking in an effort to find his phone, getting lucky it wasn't to far away from where he dropped it, he groaned sadly when he picked it up, having a large crack across the screen, he tried to turn it on but it wouldn't work.

"Damnit man… can this day get any worse?" He said to himself, then looked around at the strange stuff happening. "I really should not have said that with the world the way it is right now.

Akira moved out of the alley way into the street, noticing he was somewhere in between the Shibuya terminal and central street. He looked around and found more coffins, presumably with more people inside.

"What is going on here? I'm not the only one not in a coffin right now right?" Akira wondered aloud.

"Kurusu-san?" A calm voice said behind him, he turned to find Akechi standing there, shock and relief on his face, Akira feeling much the same.

"Akechi-kun thank god. I thought I was the only one not in a coffin." Akira said walking up to the former wild card.

"I share those sentiments, I don't know what happened… Once it hit twelve o clock it was like the entire city… Just changed. I hope the others are well." Akechi said.

Akira looked around and noticed something else. "The power… the entire city is out. Whatever this is Akechi-kun, it's not normal."

"I can tell, this is rather strange." Akechi mused, Akira raised an eyebrow at the composed boy.

"You don't look nervous at all." Akira noted, Akechi looked up and smirked.

"I could say the same about you, god slayer."

Akira laughed. "Perhaps."

Suddenly Akira and Akechi started hearing a slimy slithering sound, instinctively they went back to back and started looking for it.

"What is that?" Akira whispered.

"I don't know, keep your guard up." Akechi whispered back, suddenly dropping form the top of a skyscraper, landing in front of them both.

A pure black monster with several hands carrying large knives, a mask in front of it's body being held up by one of the hands, it made noises that traumatized the human ears.

A shuddering breath was the only way you could tell Akechi was unnerved. "Is that creature a shadow." He said, voice faint.

"Nothing like anything we've ever seen before, our clothes haven't changed, so I don't know if we can fight this thing." Akira said taking a step back.

The shadow lashed out with one of it's knives and Akechi dove out of the way as Akira jumped back, the shadow striking the ground instead cracking it.

"Holy crap, that thing cracked concrete." Akechi said moving back beside Akira.

"Oh yea, we need to run!" Akira said, prompting the both of them to take off.

"This day cant get much worse can it?" Akira said while running. Akechi gave him a look that said 'shut up' before, suddenly making a right, pulling them into an alley.

"Oh great job genius it's a dead end." Akira said sarcastically to Akechi, the shadow appearing at the end of the alley behind them.

Akechi grit his teeth and looked around, then pointed. "There!" He said. "Up the fire escape to the roof." He jumped and grabbed the ladder, grunting as he hauled himself up, and reached back down Akira quickly jumping and grabbing his hand.

The shadow struck just as Akira was pulled up, shattering the wall behind him, they sprinted up the fire escape and to the both of their horrors, the shadow latched onto the wall with it's knives and started climbing.

"FASTER!" Akira yelled as Akechi started sprinting up the stairs Akira right on his tail, the shadow not far behind.

They got to the top of the building and to their horror they found that there was nowhere else to go, they couldn't jump to another building because it was to far, and there was no door to go inside the building, the shadow came up the building the mask contorting into something that resembled a face of amusement.

"The piece of shit is taunting us." Akechi said angrily.

"We're trapped, damnit, if only we could use our persona." Akira said, hand falling from his face.

The shadow struck again, this time with all it's hands, Akira and Akechi dodged some, but were still sliced in various places, Akira fell to the ground his left leg sliced up as well as his right arm.

Akechi wasn't too much better, his torso had gotten hit as well as his face, a long-jagged cut across it.

"Ugh… this is not looking good." Akechi said as the shadow moved closer.

"This is bullshit." Akira growled, trying to stand but the pain in his leg forcing him back down.

A lightbulb seemed to turn on in Akechi's head. "I have an idea." He said, clutching his chest as he moved away from Akira.

To the edge of the building. "HEY! You bastard!" He yelled out, miraculously gaining the shadows attention.

Akechi got into his fighting stance ignoring the screams of pain his chest let out. "Come at me you monster." He taunted, the shadow actually roared, an inhuman sound and rushed at Akechi using it's hands to propel it forward faster.

"What the hell are you doing Akechi!?" Akira said trying to stand up again to no avail.

Akechi took a deep breath. "This is my redemption!" He yelled out and rushed the shadow, at the last second before the shadow struck he slid under it coming out behind the creature.

Putting the shadow on the edge instead of Akechi, with all the strength he had left he slammed into the back of the shadow, or what could be considered the back, the shadow flailing as it careened of the building splattering on the ground presumably killing it.

Akechi fell to his knees breathing hard, throwing a weak smile Akira's way, Akira couldn't help but grin back and sigh in relief.

"Woah, not bad for two people without an evoker." A feminine voice said. Akira and Akechi whipped their heads to the voice in shock.

The girl had fluffy green hair and warm blue eyes, such a contrast with the halberd she was holding Akira wondered if he was hallucinating from pain, she was looking at the both of them with some admiration.

"Who are you?" Akira asked.

"I'm the girl that can actually fight these things normally. Airi Kusunagi is the name." She introduced herself then looked at Akechi. "Hey pretty boy, get back away from the ledge, that thing isn't dead."

As if on cue the shadow Akechi pushed off the building leaped up it, landing with a crack of the ground, it wiggling furiously, Akechi to his credit was able to move quick enough to get behind the new girl.

Airi sighed and stepped forward, pulling a gun out of a holster Akira had failed to notice. Putting it to her head Akira and Akechi's eyes widened. She was going to kill herself!

As if sensing their reactions Airi smirked. "Don't worry pretty boys." She said and glared at the shadow. "Come! Aphrodite!" She yelled and pulled the trigger.

Instead of her brain, blue ice exploded out of the side, her eyes glowed a brighter blue and a persona manifested behind her, scantily dressed her persona was remarkably beautiful.

"A persona?" Akira and Akechi said in unison. Airi looked at them in shock.

"You know what this is? Who are you guys?" She asked then shook her head. "Doesn't matter, it's coming! Stay behind me!"

The shadow screamed that demonic scream. Then charged.

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! No responding to reviews this time because I cant give anything away by accident, just want to tell you I appreciate yall.