Sup? Chaos Within is back. And it's not playing around. This is where it all starts going downhill for good. Ready for the downward spiral up ahead? If you are, read on. You might be in for a treat... Usual disclaimers. On with the chapter.

Yosuke was the last one to go through the vortex and set sights on the bizarre scenery.

Asphalt stretched far on a road in front of him and everyone else, broken pieces of... everything by their sides, and a red and black sky above. Bent 'stop' and danger signs, twisted street lights, broken bottles engraved on the pieces of concrete, random walls of rubble reached up and curved themselves over the group.

There was also the blackened landscape of a city far in the horizon. In fact... that city was Inaba.

Huh...

"Welcome to your grave, kids!" A voice echoed from above. "Hope you enjoy your stay, cause this is how the whole world will be after a while. Talk to you all soon." It was Adachi, mocking them from wherever he was. He said his piece in an eerily cheerful tone.

"Get down here and fight me, you piece of shit!" Kanji yelled back towards the sky.

"Oh, doth the little punk protest too much?" Adachi answered with a laugh from wherever he was. "At ease rascal, you'll get your cookie soon."

Yosuke was about to say some words, himself, but then he looked at Kanji.

The guy was frivolous. Absolutely livid.

His face was red, he was about to explode...

Yosuke was about to make a run for him and stop him from doing anything stupid, but then Kanji stopped shaking and took a deep breath.

Then he lowered his shoulders and exhaled. "Alright." He said calmly. "I'm not letting him get under my skin."

It was like he was talking to himself.

But more importantly... did he just calm down?

Did Kanji just calm down right before their eyes?!

Yosuke didn't say those words, but the way he looked at Yu surely passed the question across.

Narukami looked back at him and almost raised his shoulders as if to say 'I dunno what the Hell happened, either.'

Neither of the two paid much attention to the girls, which was kind of impressive, given how red Chie was, as well. But Yukiko and Rise had her back, so all was relatively well.

Emphasis on the 'relatively'.

Yu finally shook his head and breathed before raising his voice. "Let's get going guys, don't pay him any mind."

Everyone looked at him and nodded before recomposing themselves.

Narukami then slapped his forehead harder than he should have. "Actually, before we go anywhere, Rise, can you scan the floor ahead...? Sorry, almost forgot."

Rise looked at him and smiled. "It's okay, we're all livid. Thanks for reminding me, I almost forgot, too." She said, before calling her persona upon.

"Hey, before you do that..." Adachi's voice echoed again. Everyone looked up for whatever reason. "Don't bother, girl. There are no Shadows in this floor, I can tell you that much. On the next floor, however, there's a surprise waiting for you. See how nice I am?"

... Was that true...?

... "Don't listen to him, Rise, just scan the floor, anyway." Yosuke told her, to which Yu nodded.

The girl looked at the two before calling her persona upon, again. She closed her eyes and concentrated before...

"Agh!" She shrieked. Her persona shattered to pieces as she lost her concentration and fell flat on her behind, breathing heavily.

"Rise!" Everyone yelled, but Kanji was the first to rush and help her to her feet.

"Hahahahaha! Oh, my God, that was hilarious! I've been dying to catch someone with that since my little cousin years back! Are you sure you're in high school, girl?! Hahahahahah!" Adachi's laughter rang throughout the place, merrily as it was infuriating.

Yu rushed to her side, as well. "What happened?!"

"That bastard... he scared me half to death while I was scanning the floor!" Rise complained, before putting a hand to her forehead. "He almost blasted my eardrums, too... ouch..."

Yosuke was the one to approach next and offered her a painkiller pill. She looked at him funny, but eventually accepted it with a nod. "Thanks," she said.

"No problem. Can we just go, now...?" Hanamura asked everyone, and and consensus was reached. They began their stroll forward, as Yosuke, himself, took another pill.

His headache still didn't let up...

...

...

Adachi seemed to have spoken the truth. The first floor didn't have any Shadows.

That didn't ease the tension for the group, though. The silence which accompanied their careful walk was so heavy and dense, it was hard for anyone to keep their chin up.

It probably didn't help that they felt like they were being watched every time. And they most likely were: Adachi could be monitoring their every step, as far as they knew.

Yu looked around and noticed that his friends were also wary of their surroundings. They only moments they raised their chins above their chests' height was to scan the area around them.

But what interested him the most when he looked around at his companions was the fact that, despite all that's happened, they were somewhat together again. The way they looked around was more or less coordinated: no one looked towards the same direction. That meant they wordlessly acknowledged each other's presence, and no one was trapped in their own little world, or was worried only about their own safety.

Or maybe that was just one of those times where Yu read too much into the situation.

... He would like very much to believe his read, though.

The group finally arrived to what seemed to be another portal, like the one in the entrance. Rise confirmed it to be the gateway to the next floor without even summoning her persona. Without thinking too much, but bracing themselves for anything, they stepped through the portal into the next floor.

The road was pretty straight forward, stretching under the group in a single line that was far from hard to follow, until they reached a plain of sorts. It stretched far and wide, but some holes on the ground were visible. Scattered sparsely, in all sizes... and apparently bottomless.

Although the holes were far apart from each other, the group walk carefully along the floor lest anyone fell.

Yu was left to wonder what was the surprise Adachi talked about. It could have just been a plan to keep them on the edge... then again, it could e anything. Based on the little he knew, anything could be expected.

Another thing that kept going back and forth in his mind was the fact that Rise sensed Teddie was there. It didn't make any sense. He was gone. How did he...

"Teddie!" He heard Kanji yell, snapping him out of his thoughts.

What?!

"Teddie?!" Yu, himself shouted in disbelief as he looked for the round bear in the landscape. Indeed, there was a figure approaching. Kanji was a bit ahead of them, so maybe he had a clearer view of whoever that was, although with that shape, it was pretty hard not to say it was Teddie.

"Teddie, is that you? We've been looking everywhere for you!" Chie said, taking a subconscious step forward.

Yosuke opened a smile, but then looked at Yu's face, which raised some questions in his head. But those could wait. Teddie was finally there. Holy Hell, it'd been a while since he'd seen the little bastard. "Come on, let's go home, you idiot!" He said.

Walking ever closer, the round figure was indeed Teddie, but something was strange.

For one, his bear form now had claws and what seemed to be fangs. And the most alerting of all...

Big... round, unblinking and bright yellow eyes.

"... Is this thing on...?"

The group heard Adachi's voices from above.

"Ehem... Ladies and gentlemen! For the evening's main event, I present you... the abomination versus the group of misfits! Let's see how the kids fare against their monster of a former friend! Will they fight? Or will they cry themselves to death? Buckle up, cause this is gonna be a wild ride!" His speech ended with a laugh.

It pissed Kanji off to no end. He literally bit his own lip open and swallowed down his own flowing blood. His face also reddened like it never did before and his fists clenched bloodless white.

Yu didn't think he was going to calm down, that time.

Rather, he was the one who should have been calming down and thinking.

It was time to cut the losses and step up. His first step forward already triggered a huge wave of remorse that washed over his mind, but he couldn't allow himself to be swayed.

Shaking his thoughts aside, he stood in front of Kanji as Teddie continued to approach and brandished his katana.

Everyone lost it at that point.

"Senpai?!" "What are you doing?!" "Yu?!" "What the Hell?!" Were the yells that echoed around and bounced off his ears. He couldn't really listen to them, that moment.

"Get ready, everyone," was what he said to them, without looking back. "Rise, you stay back."

"But..." The idol began to protest, but as the bear approached in his stroll, she could feel something wrong without needing to summon her persona. In fact, she was pretty sure everyone else could feel that too.

Teddie was indeed dangerous, as much as people would like to believe otherwise.

Regretful, she acknowledged that fact, lowering her head and running to the back line.

"Rise, no! We won't fight him!" Yukiko reached for her, but Rise refused to answer. When she turned back, she couldn't help but run her eyes at Chie, who was confused to frustration. She couldn't understand what was going on.

Kanji, however, didn't take long to join Yu in the front. He didn't understand a lot of what was going on yet, but he aware that Yu knew exactly what was up. Without questioning yet, he followed his action and stood on guard.

Yosuke was the one who couldn't believe it, though.

No way in Hell he was gonna believe that Teddie would hurt them.

So, he stayed a while in the TV world to find himself and found out he was a Shadow, maybe. Fine. That didn't mean he wasn't gonna take the kid back home and scold him for making him so damn worried. No matter what he was, he still had to work and pay for the expensive suit he was always wearing.

Hanamura was about to grab onto Yu's shoulder to turn him around and ask some questions, when he saw saw his partner skid back. He had just blocked a lightning quick charge.

Narukami just barely turned his face to speak to his friend. "Raise your guard." He demanded. His unwavering tone was a harsh blow to his confidence in Teddie's return.

In fact, an almost killing blow.

His face fell instantly as the round figure rebounded and joined its claws before its own eyes, before bringing them down.

Yosuke didn't understand it at first, but when he felt the temperature drop around him, his instincts told him to roll to the side, avoiding the ice spikes that were about to rain on him.

By that point, Chie had also snapped out of her surprise. She took her fighting stance, but without hopping around as she was used to. Her feet were planted on the ground and her guard was very high.

Yukiko couldn't see her face very well, but she could imagine why she took that stance. She still didn't brace herself, though.

Teddie set his eyes on Amagi, who seemed the closer of the easiest preys and broke into a quick dash, far faster than his short stubby legs seemed to allow him to. With her in his sights, he tried to dash past everyone to get to her...

But there was a Kanji in the way.

With a shoulder tackle, he knocked the bear out of his track.

Upon recovering, Tatsumi looked over at both Yukiko and Yosuke.

"Look alive, dammit! He ain't done by a long shot!" He said, setting his eyes on Teddie once more.

"Izanagi!" Tatsumi heard from behind himself. A bolt of lightning rained down on the bear, but with a swift hop to the side, he dodged the danger and replied by shooting multiple ice shards from his claws at high speed, still aiming at Yukiko.

This time, however, Chie finally sprung into motion and stood before her friend to block the ice coming her way.

The Shadow stared at the group once more, seemingly unsure about what to do next.

That gave them the split second they needed to breathe, and that Yu needed to think.

"Chie, stay behind us and Kanji and defend Yukiko! Yukiko, only attack when you're safe! Me and Kanji will take the front!" Yu gave the orders, but he felt that regardless, that was what was going to happen.

"Yosuke!"

Narukami's roar snapped the brunette out of his thoughts.

"Come with us!" The leader continued. "We'll need speed for this."

Hanamura took a second to answer, but eventually nodded, readying his card.

With one last growl, Teddie charged forward towards the group, again.

...

*headbangs* Am I Eviiiil?! Yes, I am! Am I Eviiiiil?! I Am, man! Yes, I am! Behold this cliffhanger! Critics and opinions in the review box below, I am Raidou the 16th and I approve this message. *thumbs up* See you next chapter.

Actually, let me advertise some stuff: Alone In The World, by Changling96, and Bloodlust/Fallen Messiah, by Nightly 7. All of those are on fire. Well, now I'll take my leave. Peace!