Mementos

The Phantom Thieves, now joined by Morgana, were making their way to the Imperator's palace. When they came across it, it was glitching. Its form flashed and shifted between many distorted versions and forms. The general shape and design, however, remained the same. Yusuke said, "Without the darkness holding it together, his mind is falling apart at the seams."

Ryuji said, "How are we supposed to get in?"

Morgana said, "You checked all sides of the building right."

Ren said, "We couldn't call ourselves Phantom Thieves if we didn't."

Morgana said, "Well then. I guess that leaves it up to me."

Morgana took several steps back from the group, and yelled, "Morgana! Transform!"

He jumped into the air, and in a quick puff of smoke, he had transformed into a van. It was black with a yellow stripe, and two blue eyes as headlights, along with Morgana's tail on the end. He said, "Everyone in! It looks like the only way is to bash our way inside. Ordinarily I wouldn't go for something like this, but we're out of options."

The Phantom Thieves stepped inside and Ren took the wheel. He floored the gas pedal as Morgana flew forward, driving directly into the palace. The doors were smashed to pieces as Morgana blasted through them. They landed inside, Morgana transformed back into his original form, and the Phantom Thieves were left standing where he was. They found that no shadows or creatures were inside.

Yusuke said, "Intriguing. Nary a shadow in here."

Makoto said, "Perhaps he's been sedated, and as such, there's no activity in his mind, so no activity with the shadows.

Haru said, "This means that now is as good a time as any to secure an infiltration route!"

Ren said, "Let's move."

The Phantom Thieves made their way through the distorting building. All the time, voices echoed and whispered through the the halls. Some voices said, "Make us whole".

Other voices said, "Set me free".

Ann asked, "Is anyone else getting the chills? Something is seriously messed up with this guy's head."

Suddenly, the image of a little girl appeared in front of them. Her skin was pale while blood ran down her face, and out of her orifices. Her eyes and mouth glowed as her body wobbled and distorted, like she was being seen through a glitchy video monitor. She slowly turned towards the group, then flashed forward, appearing in their faces as the voice above screamed, "WHY CAN'T YOU LET ME GO?!"

She vanished as the group was frozen in shock.

Ryuji said, "What the hell is wrong with this guy?!"

Makoto said, "Who was that girl? Was that his daughter or sister or something?"

Ren said, "We'll figure that out when we change his heart."

As they continued, they came a pathway leading to underground. They went down to find an area that was a rocky cliffside. The sky in this area was a dark, decayed green, and a Marker was floating beyond the horizon. They saw the Imperator's shadow hunched over on his feet, scratching symbols into the dirt. He was saying to himself, "Step 1: Crawl inside. Step 2: The screws go tight all around. Step 3: Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle in your eye."

He repeated these to himself as he scribbled the Marker symbols in the ground.

Morgana said, "I can sense the treasure in here. It's the Marker over there in the distance!"

Ryuji said, "No way! We haven't even sent a calling card yet!"

Ren said, "I suppose his awareness of the Metaverse allowed his treasure to manifest, combined with his already broken mental state. The symbols on the Marker are scribbled all over the ground. It's like he's devoted to it or something."

Yusuke said, "If it's here, that means we can take it now."

Morgana said, "The only thing standing between us and that treasure is his shadow. Let's do this!" The Thieves ran towards him, loaded and ready for combat. He heard their footsteps and said, "So...you've returned to steal my heart. Good. I was hoping to tear you to pieces here and now. When I awake in the real world, soldiers will be here to collect your mangled corpses. You'll be among the very first necromorphs, and the progenitors for the Convergence. Doesn't that sound wonderful? I hope it does, because I'm not giving you any other option."

Music - Awakening - Persona 5 soundtrack

The Imperator's shadow started cackling as a reddish-black goop began forming over him. He backed towards the edge of the cliff, falling in a ball of goop as he vanished into the greenish fog below. A massive red flash illuminated the fog below. Ryuji said, "What's going on, you guys?"

A massive pincer leg rose from the depths, crashing into the cliffside with enough force to shake the ground. More legs grabbed onto the cliffside. What rose from above was a crustacean-like beast with armor covering its body. It had an elongated body along the lines of a centipede, with its mouth lost in a twisted mess of fangs and limbs that lines the stomach. It roared and spoke with the voice of the Imperator's shadow, "Show me the resolve that brings you here! Hold nothing back!"

Music End

Music - Will Power - Persona 5 soundtrack

The Phantom Thieves scattered, attempting to avoid getting taken out at once by the monstrous form of the Imperator's shadow. He slammed his tendrils into the floor, and the Thieves jumped out of the way to evade them. Ren yelled, "Keep him distracted so I can summon Satanael!"

Makoto and Haru paired up, and Makoto summoned Johana, and the two of them landed on one of the shadow's tendrils grasping onto the surface. They drove up his arm with Haru firing shots from her grenade launcher into his face. From the other angle, Yusuke and Ann used Goemon and Carmen, respectively, to shoot a torrent of ice and flames into his underside. Morgana and Ryuji blasted him with wind and lightning, and the combination with the ice and fire created a storm of the elements upon the shadow's face. He roared in frustration, unable to see straight. Ren took this opportunity and said, "Pillage him, Satanael!"

Satanael was activated, but now at full power, he was the same size as the shadow's monstrous form. It pulled out its gun, aiming it right at the shadow's blinded eyes, and fired. The bullet tore through its skull, breaking its body apart. The bulk broke down and turned to goop as the shadow's humanoid form dropped to the ground. Makoto and Haru managed to land back on the cliffside. The second it touched the floor, the shadow jumped forward and began engaging the Phantom Thieves hand to hand. He charged into Ann and Yusuke, striking Yusuke in the stomach and throwing Ann over his shoulder into the ground. Makoto and Haru tried to attack him alongside Ryuji and Morgana, all powering up their personas. In an instant, the shadow flashed past all four of them, striking Morgana in the chin, Ryuji in his leg, Makoto in her stomach, and Haru in her face. This sent all four of them flying back. Ren pulled out his gun to try firing at the shadow, aiming for his legs to cripple him. The shadow jumped back and forth, dodging the shots as he rapidly closed the distance between them.

He soon had his face on the barrel. He swiftly shot his fist upward, breaking Ren's gun arm and causing him to drop the gun. He grabbed it out of the air and pointed it at Ren before smiling. The shadow then said, "It's begun, Ren. I've made us whole."

Music End

He turned the gun under his own chin and fired, killing himself. The shadow dissipated into dust as it fell back before finally vanishing.

Abraxas

In the real world, the death of his shadow caused the Imperator's heart to cease beating.

Deep beneath the temple, the Marker began glowing brighter as the bodies around it began to twitch and growl. They began contorting and convulsing. And one by one blades began bursting from their hands, small hands burst from their stomach. They lurched upwards, having fully transformed into necromorphs. Other corpses went through worse transformations...

Honorbound Base

BT sounded an alert, "Alert. I'm detecting a signal being broadcast from Abraxas. Unique to any frequency we've encountered before."

X said, "NO! That's the Marker frequency. It's been activated. Everyone, to Abraxas now. We need to get as many of the people out of harms way as possible and try to contain the necromorphs. BT, keep an eye on Tornado while we're gone."

BT said, "Copy that."

Goku said, "Everyone grab each other's shoulders!"

The group complied as Goku grabbed X, held two fingers to his head, and they all vanished.

Abraxas

They appeared just outside the walls of Abraxas and X began giving out orders. She said, "Alright, this time there will be civilians in harms way. Getting them to safety is priority number one. Goku, you're going around in the bulk areas and teleporting as many people as you can. Iida, I want you and your classmates to focus on locating any stragglers. In all the chaos it's way too easy for people to get lost and trapped. Toph, you focus on containment. Keep the monsters blocked off from the people, and try your best to lead them out of the city. Saitama, I want you staying out here. You're powerful, but the power of your strikes could potentially hurt someone, so stay put for now until we need you. Everyone else is running containment with me. We'll need to surround the palace at four areas. We need to hold off these monsters for as long as possible. When everyone's safe, we escape and seal the city. We'll figure out what to do next from there."

At once, the Honorbound began running inside Abraxas, prepared to fight.

Goku began teleporting back and forth between the city walls, disappearing and reappearing with different, confused citizens in hand.

The Crystal Gems were at the southern part of the palace. Garnet summoned her gauntlets, Pearl summoned her spear, and Amethyst summoned her whip. Garnet said, "Get ready, team."

Yang and Raiden were at the western side. Raiden said, "We hold them here and now."

Ruby, John, and Genos were at the eastern side. Genos said, "Don't let a single one past you."

X, Kratos, and Atreus were at the northern side. Kratos said, "Keep your distance, boy."

The gates of hell opened wide, and the monstrous necromorphs began pouring out.

Space, Rings of Saturn

The Taken students from class 1-A had arrived on a massive spacefaring capital ship. It was covered in twisting necrotic residue, dried and cracked, with eldritch symbols and designs around them. They entered a section of the ship that was completely shrouded in darkness. Black. They bowed to the darkness, and Izuku Midoriya said, "Master. Awake."

Three glowing orbs opened in the darkness, like eyes.