Yamato dashed between the legs of the spider, her feet dancing on the glass on the side of the building as she evaded the spider's legs. She was surprised something so big could move so fast. The sharp and twisted blade like legs swiped at her, but she always seemed to narrowly avoid being hit by the blades.

As she danced, her blade would constantly make contact with the spider's legs or abdomen, but would always just clang off the metal like skin of the spider. It was indestructible. She would have to rely on more unconventional methods of attack. She needed a distraction

Glancing at Volf, the animal leapt off the building and collided into the spider's large head, the large fangs narrowly avoiding the beast as it scrambled onto the spider's back. As the tips of its fur began to glow a feint blue as the energy it wielded erupted from beneath the surface and began to flow across its body, Volf reeled back his fists. Large arcs of electricity cascaded down its shoulders and fists into its strikes as it smashed into the top of the arachnid's head, the beast screeching loud enough to shatter glass as the attacks hit their marks. Volf wondered if it was affecting Simon at all.

Anansi threw its head up which sent Volf into the air. The large wolf crossed its arms across its chest in defense as the spider spat its thin razor wire at the wolf, wrapping and cutting into the animals wrists. Volf needed to be able to block out the pain. If he couldn't, Sebastian would be greatly affected by the attacks he would sustain. He needed to keep his damage at a minimal. It was unclear if Anansi was the target to be destroyed or if Simon was.

Anansi threw its head to the side, pulling down Volf into the side of the building. A quick flash of white and the strands were cut as Yamato dashed between her loved one and the spider, her blade cutting into the side of the building, carving as she moved in large circles around the spider. Anansi had little time to watch as Volf leapt again at the spider and slammed his first between its large red eyes.

Anansi faltered only slightly and drove its large legs into the building for support, pushing back against the attack. Volf felt his arm buckle and he fliped backwards through the air. He was falling. Drawing his sword from its sheath, Volf drove it into the side of the building to slow his fall and eventually stoped himself. Anansi was watching him, her fangs clacking together.

Volf flipped around on his sword, pulling himself up and balancing himself on the hilt to stare up at the spider. Climbing back up was going to prove to be difficult.

Anansi turned its attention from Volf back to the soldier as it made its circles around the large arachnid. It swept its legs at her, trying to cut or slash at the soldier with its twisted body. It sunk its legs into the building as it moved, sometimes its body dropping into the building when it stepped into a spot that could not support its weight. It would have been a smarter move to construct its web along the side of the building; something to grip onto. But it was too late for that.

Instead, she simply tried to keep the pressure on Yamato, spitting her web and swiping with its legs. Eventually the persona would run out of energy and her speed would falter which would give her the opportunity to strike and devour the soldier.

Yamato continued to carve along the glass, swiping her sword with expert precision. Almost done. Almost done! But when she spun to make her final incision along the side of the building, her body collided with the thick twisted metal leg of the large shadow and she fell backwards, propelled by the extremity and collided into the glass. The blades of the leg had cut into her uniform and she was now bleeding along her chest and shoulder but she was intact. Just a little shaken.

She glanced up to the shadow as it approached slowly, its fangs clicking together and its mouth seeming to water as it approached. Yamato, on the other hand, smiled under her helmet and swiped her sword in front of her at the glass, the last swipe she had needed to make.

When the glow of purple began to protrude from the building's side, even the shadows below stopped their assault to watch. Anansi glanced about at the circle she now stood on, runes having been carved into the glass and the circles that had been etched into the building. Anansi glanced up to Yamato who had a smile from ear to ear inside that helmet as the side of the building exploded in a shower of glass and smoke, the purple circles tearing the building almost in half.

Anansi lost her footing and began to fall from the building, her legs frantically trying to find something to grip onto as she fell, screaming in fear and anger when she couldn't find one as her prey fell further and further away from her. She tried to spit her thread at the soldier, but a simple swipe with her sword deflected the attacks, the white thread sinking in the building around her, never hitting her target.

The smile inside Yamato's helmet disappeared quickly when the large hunk of concrete struck her in the back and caused her to fall, disorienting her. The strings hadn't been meant for Yamato. They had been meant for what was around her. Anansi was more clever than either Yamato or Volf had given her credit for. She was using her environment as a weapon. Two more shots of thread, and Yamato's body was pinned to the concrete as it fell. Anansi was going to crush her under the weight of the building.

Wind screaming in her ears, Yamato tried to free herself from the binds but couldn't. The thread would cut her wrists off before it would break free. The ground was getting closer and she was running out of options. She closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath, not wanting to see the impact happen.

She screamed with the explosion of concrete, but when she felt those strong arms around her, she fell in love all over again. She opened her eyes to Volf holding onto her as they fell together. He had thrown his body into the slab of concrete and broken it from around her. The concrete crumbled away, freeing her wrists.

Volf balled up one of his fists, driving it deep into the support beam along the side of the building, dragging his claws through the concrete to slow their fall. She leaned her head up, kissing him hard through the glass of her faceplate. Volf would have liked to return the compliment, but could only focus on Anansi.

The large spider had fallen away from the building. It threw its head left and right to try and spit its web and brace its weight for its large body, but even with its manipulated strength in its abilities, the web would only snap and drape along the buildings like a poorly done haunted house effect. It was going to hit hard.

When the crash finally happened, Anansi landed against one of the neighboring buildings and forced its first few floors to collapse under her weight before she slid off the top and landed on the asphalt. The spider fell hard on its back, trying to scramble to get itself back on its feet, its legs kicking. The arachnid thrashed angrily, its legs carving out at the building it had landed on at its ground floor.

The large beast rolled from side to side to try and force its way onto its stomach as a rain of glass and small fragments of concrete showered down on the street level. After a moment of effort, the arachnid was able to turn itself over onto its front and shake off the daze of the fall. That had been quite a distance for her to fall. She was impressed she had come out unscathed.

Her red eyes twisted and glanced up to the wolf and its mate, still gliding down side of the building. It snapped it's jaws at the two and took a few steps forward, halting at the snap of concrete and the wine of rebar. Anansi glanced behind it at the building as it began to buckle from the clawing it had done and the weight that was forced to compensate.

Yamato smiled down at the beast and ran her fingers through Volf's mane. Volf snarled with a smile and felt his fur bristle again. Yamato wrapped her arms around his neck to hold on as he threw his now free arm out and an arc of electricity cut through the air and flew towards Anansi, the spider closing its eyes and hiding behind its large legs to defend itself from the attack.

When it did not come, the spider seemed to smile as it peeked above the legs it had hidden behind to glance up at the two. It stood back up and screeched up at them, noticing too late when the building fell upon it, crushing the spider beneath the rubble of the structure. Yamato and Volf held no relief in their faces. It was going to take more than that to kill that bug. If anything, they had only managed to piss it off. Volf drew his sword from his sheath as they hit the ground. Yamato however, watched as Volf's expression turned to desperation and he glanced up the side of the building looking at the top. He put his sword into his mouth and sunk his claws into the concrete before he began to climb up the side of the building. Something was wrong with Sebastian.

The explosion, as Anansi burst from the building rubble, sent large chunks of cement and rebar in all directions into the army of shadows. Large pieces would land in the army and roll several dozen feet before stopping, killing many in the process. Kanji ducked as a piece of rebar flew overhead and crashed into several large hound like shadows that had encircled him. He glanced up at the explosion

"What the hell was that?"

Yosuke dashed past him, cutting down and stabbing at a smaller shadow which had been primed to grab onto Kanji while he was distracted

"Focus, Kanji-kun!"

Kanji turned his attention back to the ocean of black that swirled around him, keeping his back to his friends who were all defending themselves and each other against the onslaught. There was so much black it was hard to focus on one specific shadow. It was as though they were all clambering over one another to get their hit in.

Yukiko ran her hand along Teddies arm, making sure the heal spell had gone through and he was sealed up from the jester like shadow that had snuck up on him.

"Better, Teddie?"

The boy nodded and stood up, looking at the sleeve of his shirt

"I really liked this shirt. Can't believe they ruined it. Murrr…"

Yukiko smiled at him

"You can always get another shirt. Watch my back while I take care of Chie"

Chie sat on the ground, putting pressure on her leg where an axe wielding shadow had come at her. The axes had missed her, but the kick she had landed against it had damaged her leg pretty badly even with the armor strapped to her legs

"How is it?"

"It hurts like a bastard"

Yukiko put her hands together, the red dancer in the sky pouring down her magic to heal the wounds of her friends and personas. Yosuke's persona was having a hell of a time defending her; needing to focus all his energy to keeping his shurikens spinning around her and keep her protected from any shadow that tried to draw near it.

The blades spun furiously around her for a few moments but then would come spinning back to its hands. In that short amount of time it took to throw them again, she was vulnerable and in turn, so was Yukiko. Yosuke's only wish was that no shadow got smart and attacked in that brief moment.

When a gunshot rang out amidst the screaming and clawing and crackling of energy, Yukiko screamed and put her hands on her chest, flopping on the ground like a fish as her persona fell from the sky, landing with a hard thud on the asphalt.

Chie, having forgotten about her troubles, came to her aid and propped her up into her arms and squeezing her to stop her spasming

"Yukiko?! Yukiko!"

Kanji grit his teeth and roared as he swung his chair into the head of a taller shadow, the shadows head spinning around before it fell to the ground. Kanji was now on the hunt as he swung his chair, diving into the sea of black to find the one that had gunned down Yukiko's persona.

The sound of chains didn't register until it was too late as the sea parted for the beast that approached the group.

Effortlessly, its shredded cloak fluttered to a nonexistent wind as he approached Kanji from the sea, its small head swinging from side to side, its one eye staring deep into Kanji's soul that made him freeze in terror. Its long arms rested at its side, the barrel of one of its long revolvers still smoking from the shot it had fired. A Reaper.

The very sight of it made Kanji freeze. He couldn't move his legs. He couldn't move anything. All he could do was stare up at the creature that peered into him. Slowly its hand raised one of its revolvers up to meet Kanji. He couldn't move. Its thumb cocked back the hammer. Kanji wanted to scream, but no sound came from his throat as the reaper pulled the trigger.

'DEFEND'

Kanji's hand instinctively spun his chair around and braced his legs as the bullet from the Reaper smashed against his chair and caused Kanji to fly backwards through the sea and back to his group. Crashing into Yosuke, he rolled over top of him and landed on his face before coming to a rest. He knew his nose was broken.

He tried to get up, his words slurred from the blood in his mouth

"Pro-problem! Big fucking problem!"

Kanji touched his nose lightly, wincing at the pain that arced across his face. It was broken alright. He looked down to his chair, dented from the bulled that had struck it. He was surprised the metal had held on. But…why? That voice.

Glancing up to his persona, it swung its lightning bolt sword above its head before it released a loud metallic hiss and screech, the priming of electricity and machinery. Had his persona just spoken to him? His hand started to shake and he clenched it into a shaking fist before turning his chair over to his other hand. A deeper connection. A deeper understanding and symbiosis between wielder and persona. That is what Naoto had spoken of. This is what she had been experiencing.

He smiled and spat out a bit more blood from his mouth before running his arm below his nose to sop up the blood before he cracked his neck, charging at the Reaper.

"I live for this part!"

Yosuke watched as Kanji rushed the Reaper, the creature drawing back the hammer of its revolver again. He wanted to help, but his friends needed help more. He looked back at Yukiko who was staring off into the distance. She wasn't blinking. Chie clung to her, rocking back and forth.

'Go!'

Yosuke felt a pain begin to radiate behind his eyes as if something was growing and pushing his eyes out of the way to grow. It was excruciating.

'GO!'

Yosuke shook his head when the pain disappeared and looked back at his persona as it threw its shurikens to spin around Chie and Yukiko, defending them

'I will protect them.'

Yosuke felt a smile tug at his lips when the long white legs of his persona leapt from the ground and kicked a sharp toothed shadow in the jaw, snapping it's neck back and killing it instantly before spinning and roundhouse kicking another in the head, also snapping it's neck

'Now go!'

Yosuke was slow to respond but began to nod slowly as his legs started to carry him towards the reaper.

"Ok…OK!"

He turned and rushed at the shadow with Kanji

"Get some!"

He threw one of his Kunai at the Reaper, the blade striking the cylinder of the revolver causing the reaper to fire wide from Kanji. Kanji rushed the Shadow and jumped as hard as he could, smashing the top of his chair against the side of the Reapers head with all of his strength, roaring wildly as he did so.

The reaper stumbled back and swung the barrels of his revolver at Kanji who ducked them and rolled backwards to evade the backhand follow up. The Reaper pulled back on the hammers of both revolvers and trained them on Kanji again as he raised his chair to defend himself. If the shadow could have smiled under its hood, now was the time it would be as it squeezed the triggers.

Both shots fired wide again as the second Kunai thrown by Yosuke clanged with expert precision against the cylinder against one of the guns and knocked it into the second one. The shadow snarled and howled as it trained one of the guns now on Yosuke, taking a step back, defenseless now that he had lost both his weapons. It wasn't going to miss this time with one trained on Kanji and the other on Yosuke.

Something felt wrong. It wasn't sure what it was, but something seemed out of place as it kept both its guns on the two. It couldn't figure out what it was, but something was wrong with this picture enough to give the powerful entity pause. It felt a shiver run through its both and glanced toward the blond boy who approached him, fists clenched, spiked gauntlet tight in his grip and teeth bared like an animal. It cocked its head at the boy.

"You don't get to touch my friends like that…"

When Teddie was angry, he was quiet. It was a scary angry that entirely broke from his character. When Teddie would get mad, he would get loud and talk fast; but when he was angry at his core, furious, he spoke quietly.

The Reaper felt the chill again and looked up at the large block of ice that hovered above its head, the cold of the mist seeping down onto him. The shadow looked back down again at Teddie and tried to bring his revolvers to aim fast enough at the boy as he rushed at him, but was too slow as the large block of ice came crashing down onto his head, knocking him to the floor.

The large shadow shook it's bandaged head as it tried to clear it's vision to focus on the boy as he came rushing up, striking the Reaper along the head and face as hard as he could with the spiked gauntlet. The Reaper fought against the strikes from the boy at first, but the constant puncturing of the gauntlet in its face was slowing it down as it tried to get back up.

It turned its face away from the boy only to have it smashed by the steel of Kanji's chair as he struck him again and again to keep the foe down. He screamed at the top of his lungs, cursing at the creature with every strike as he pummeled the Shadow's head into the asphalt.

"AGGGHHH! FUCK. YOU. FUCK. YOU."

The Reaper bellowed deeply as its head was smashed one direction by the chair and then up by the gauntlet before falling to the ground and remaining down as Yosuke, having retrieved his kunai, plunged them both into the Reaper's head and brought the shadow to its end, the body going limp.

Yosuke had to put his foot on the creature's head in order to yank his Kunai out from the body having plunged them too deep and up to the handle. He leaned over and spat onto the corpse before it began to fade away in a small flash of red light.

From up above, the fat red persona of Teddie's floated down to its sitting position again. Teddie put his hand on his shoulder, winding up his arm a few times. He had damaged his rotator cuff. The fat persona put up its hand as Teddie walked up to him.

'High five!'

Teddie smiled and slapped his hand

'Yea!'

Teddies smile disappeared when reality broke his small accomplishment and he remembered Yukiko. He ran past his persona, knocking him over, back towards his friends with Kanji and Yosuke in tow. Yukiko was shaking slightly in Chie's arms, tears running down either side of her face, her mouth agape like she was trying to scream but no sound came through.

Chie held her tightly, rocking back and forth as she sobbed, her whole body shaking. Teddie leaned down to his knees and put his hand on Chie's shoulder. She immediately threw her arm out, knocking his hand away. Teddie persisted though and wrapped his arms around her tightly, holding both of them. Chie struggled at first, screaming for him to let go. He ignored her and held tightly.

The tightly clad yellow warrior spun it's glaive about as it cut down several shadows, the constant pushing seeming to have let up slightly after the death of the Reaper. Undoubtedly they were responding to the death of such a powerful shadow at the hands of the three persona wielders. This was good. It was giving them a chance to get a breather in. Bach to Back, the persona's encircled their wielders and fallen persona, protecting them while they dealt with their own.

Kanji left the group and rushed to the fallen persona, lifting its head up into his lap as he kneeled down. He patted her cheek a few times

"Wake up. Come on. Come on! She needs you!"

Kanji ran his hand down the Persona's chest, his fingertips gently touching the hole the Reaper had made. It was a clean shot, the bullet having passed straight through. There was no blood, the heat of the bullet having cauterized the hole almost instantly. Regardless, it was a hole in the chest. Kanji bit back tears, shaking the Persona.

"Wake up, damn it!"

Yosuke fell to his knees when Yukiko's eyes began to glaze over. Whatever she was focusing on was far away and getting further. She was dying.

"It..it can't happen like this…"

Yukiko's mouth began to close and her shaking began to subside. Her eyes closed and only the trembling of her lips gave any indication she was still alive. Kanji frantically began shaking the persona

"WAKE UP!"

Chie felt her entire body drop internally when Yukiko's breathing faltered and she began to struggle before she finally stopped breathing entirely. Her arms released Yukiko and she slid off of Chie's body and to the floor. Chie brought her hands to her mouth and began to scream into them. Teddie propped Yukiko's head up onto his lap. He couldn't hold back his tears

"We…we shouldn't have come in here. We should have stayed home…"

Kanji stood up, releasing the still persona, and made his way back to the group. He kneeled down beside Chie. It was cruel what he had to say, but it need to be said

"Chie, We can't stay like this"

She looked up to him

"We can mourn for her later. Right now we need to focus on keeping ourselves alive"

Chie looked back down to the body of her friend and felt anger wash through her.

"I'll…I'll kill them all. Every. Fucking. One. Of. Them."

Kanji grabbed her by the shoulders

"Chie! We can't do this out of anger. We need to keep focused!"

"Don't you dare tell me-"

"Chie, it's a miracle we made it this far. We're going to need another one to survive"

Chie's anger seemed to evaporate with those words of his. A miracle…

"Miracle…"

She scrambled out of his grip and to her feet, running up to Teddie's persona and grabbing onto the metal wheel on his stomach

"You! You can perform a miracle, right? We've done it before!"

Teddie's ears twitched. The Persona looked from side to side and scratched its head before shrugging its shoulders. Chie began to pull at the wheel.

"Perform that miracle. Do it to her! Do it! Now! Quickly!"

Kanji spoke out

"Chie, we don't know if it will work. It could destroy us all for all we know. We don't know what it will do!"

"It's better than just letting her die, you idiot! What if it was Naoto?"

Kanji went to speak but tripped over his own tongue. He glanced to Yosuke and then to Teddie. It was his persona.

"What do you think, Ted?"

Teddie took a moment to respond, staring down into the face of Yukiko

"Do it…"

The Persona, following its wielder's orders, raised its hands to the sky and strained, the metal of its body seeming to groan with strain and pressure as it tried to perform its technique. It was all up to chance now. Steam began to pour from its mouth and the open slits in its body until the wheel on its stomach turned and its belly opened, pouring a rainbow light onto the group. They all closed their eyes and clenched every muscle in their bodies, hoping that they would not all be killed or worse.

When the light faded and the fat persona fell onto its back in exhaustion, Kanji finally opened one of his eyes to look around. They were fine. Yukiko was still not. Yosuke put his hand on Chie's shoulder, gripping it tightly as he looked at his fallen friend.

"It was worth a shot, Chie"

Chie only looked at the ground, her expression cold and distant.

"There's no hole!"

Teddie looked up from the body to Kanji

"What did you say?"

Kanji, having gone to inspect the body of the persona, raised her head into his lap again

"No hole! No bullet hole!"

Chie glanced down at Yukiko

"But that means it worked…"

Yosuke pushed her and Teddie out of the way as he dashed for Yukiko's body. He pressed his lips to Yukiko's, blowing into her mouth.

"Yosuke, what the fuck?!"

"Shut up, Chie! She needs CPR"

He laced his fingers over one hand as he pushed down on her diaphragm

"Well you can tell by the way I use my walk I'm a woman's man, no time to talk. Music loud, and women warm, I've been kicked around since I was born."

Kanji stood up, watching him

"Yosuke…what the hell are you doing?"

Yosuke breathed into Yukiko again and her body spasmed before she coughed several times and she leaned up, gasping for breath. She looked around for a moment before she looked to Yosuke and hugged him tightly, refusing to let go. He looked to Kanji.

"First aid class. The human heartbeat matches Staying Alive's beat"

Kanji was speechless, so Chie said it for him behind her choking tears.

"You've gotta' be fucking kidding me…"

Sebastian took two swipes at Simon's face before he leaned back to avoid a punch. The last thing he needed right now was to be struck down by those bone breaking swings of his. He needed to keep his speed up. He threw a punch which was blocked by Simon's forearm but then bucked his own elbow to throw it into the side of Simon's head. The boy dropped his guard and approached Sebastian.

When he would throw a punch, Simon would simply throw his head into it. It was like punching a brick wall. Little progress to be made as Simon grabbed Sebastian by the throat and threw him against one of the walls of the hallway, the drywall breaking under the force. Sebastian felt a wooden support beam crack under the strength. He was unsure if he was screaming or not when his scar crashed against it and he fell to the floor.

Simon kicked at Sebastian while he was down, striking him in the shoulder and then the side. Sebastian felt two more ribs break and his shoulder dislocate but he rolled away from the third kick and swept his legs at Simon, striking him in the side of the knee and dropping the boy to one. He turned a little more on his back and struck Simon as hard as he could in the face, knocking the boy onto his back.

Sebastian scrambled up to his feet as Simon crawled at him and struck where he had been previously lying. Sebastian curled one of his arms around his side and held it against his chest. The pressure felt good. He back up into one of the offices. He was trapped, but he needed a moment to gather his strength and his breath.

Simon stood up at the doorway and rolled up his sleeves as he approached Sebastian, smiling as he did so, clapping his hands together.

"Well done, Detective. But I need to know, now that you have your back to a wall, what are you to do?"

Sebastian tried to stand up straighter, but couldn't muster the strength to ignore the damage. Adrenaline wasn't pumping through him like last time.

"You know, Simon, a greater man than I once told me what to do when your back is against a wall…"

Simon clenched his fists

"What is that?"

"Break down the fucking wall!"

Simon crossed his arms over his face to shield his eyes from the debris that exploded inward over Sebastian's shoulder. As the dust cleared, Simon could make out the outline of a beast through the hole of the building, its claws outstretched towards the boy.

Simon closed his eyes tightly as he braced for the hit as the clawed hand exploded with a bolt of lightning and struck Simon in the center of his chest and caused him to fly backwards from the force of the strike. As the boy hit the ground, he had a hard time focusing as Sebastian climbed on top of him and began to claw at his face and neck, stabbing and slashing at his skin.

Simon felt fear run through him. If he did not kill this man quickly, it was a possibility, although slim, that he could be beaten and then who knew what would happen? He kept his arms up trying to defend his head and face until the tingling in his entire body subsided and he could see again, but the nerve damage in his body felt catastrophic even for the amount of personas he had consumed.

"Volf, get back to the fight. Find a way!"

Sebastian would not let up on his onslaught. When Simon would bring his hands up, to block his face, he would strike between his arms and carve a little more off. He wanted Simon to feel all of it. He wanted the boy to suffer for what he had done. It seemed unobtainable when Simon pushed him off and sent Sebastian to the ground so he could lean up.

Sebastian was quick to get up, refusing to let his prey get away as he jumped into Simon's lap and wrapped his legs around the boy's waist, striking him again and again in the head and neck and face. He tried his best to aim for the nose and keep his senses scrambled in order to keep the pressure on the boy.

Simon screamed as he forced himself to his feet and began to run with Sebastian still attached to him. He ran head long in whatever direction he had chosen. Eventually he would come into contact with something hard. When he finally struck another wall of drywall, he crashed through it into the next room.

Sebastian held on tightly, he couldn't let go. If he let go, Simon would either kill him or escape and neither of those options were acceptable. So when Simon crushed him between the powerful shadow controlled boy and one of the concrete walls and felt another rib break, he refused to let go and just kept striking.

Sebastian moved to stab now, doing his best to jab and stab his claws into Simon to get as deep as he could. If he couldn't bring him down, it would all be on Naoto and he needed to give her as much of an advantage as he could. He stabbed his claws into the boy's neck and then into his shoulders and down into his legs.

Simon felt like his entire body was on fire as he bled through his shirt and jeans onto Sebastian. No matter how many times he hurt this man, he kept coming back. It was as though he had no desire to win. No strategy. So in his desperation, he turned to a different method and flattened Sebastian against the wall again. He felt Sebastian's strikes weaken and crushed him a second time, then a third and then a fourth.

When he felt Sebastian's legs get tired, he screamed and threw his shoulders into the strike and Sebastian fell to the floor, pressed against the concrete. Simon threw his fist down to Sebastian but the man moved away from the strike and Simon's fist crashed through the concrete. He roared as he ripped a long piece of rebar from the wall and with both hands, ran it through Sebastian's side, pinning him to the wall.

Sebastian screamed and kicked as the rebar passed through him and kept him down. It was too long to pull himself off of and even with the adrenaline running through his veins; he was unable to simply lean up off it.

Simon struck Sebastian hard across the face and the man's head fell back against the concrete, smacking into it. Sebastian did not feel the second or third strike.

Naoto hammered the button for the 65th floor, ready to dash out from the elevator and kill that son of a bitch. She only hoped that Sebastian hadn't done anything stupid. 55-56-57-58-59.

Simon's body was shaking from the damage Sebastian had done to him. The constant clawing and stabbing of his now dented and mostly dull claws had done quite the number on him. Simon only smiled down at the man, shaking quietly and whimpering with both hands on the rebar, trying to pull it from himself in vein.

"I tried to tell you, Detective. All I wanted was for you to give up and let me have your wolf. Instead, we are here. It could have been much easier"

Sebastian let his head fall back, looking up to Simon

"Why…are you doing this?"

"What do you mean why? I want to grow. I want to control. I found a way"

Sebastian shook his head a few times. He was getting quieter so Simon leaned in closer

"Why…is Simon doing this. Who hurt him?"

Simon shook his head.

"The truth?"

Sebastian nodded, his eyes getting heavy

"I want to be the only person left."

"I don't…"

"Of course you don't understand. It's not about power anymore, Sebastian. It's about control. I want to be the only one with a persona left. Anansi wants to grow, I want to be special. I don't want to be as basic as you or anyone else. What makes me special? A persona. But there are so many others with one. I want to be the only one. I want to be special"

Sebastian was disappointed. Was that really all there was to this?

Sebastian tried to keep his eyes open as he locked eyes with Simon.

"You want to be special, don't you Anansi?"

Simon nodded

"I don't want to be like every other shadow or persona. Unlike you, Sebastian, I gained complete control over this boy when he was still in the womb. Simon died long before I ever drew my first breath. He is still here within this body, but it's a personality that is entirely controlled by me"

Sebastian tried to speak, but his breath was too quiet and Simon leaned in closer

"I have to stay with you this time, Sebastian. Make sure you die and don't come back"

Simon coughed and felt his entire body tense up as Sebastian impaled the boy's stomach with his claws, driving them deep into his body in his last effort to finish his part in the case. Simon glanced down without a word, his body slipping slowly into shock as he pulled away from him, the silver claws still slightly gleaming as the glove slid off of Sebastian's hand. Simon placed his hand along the claws, unsure if he was to pull them out or not

Naoto stepped out onto the floor, surveying the damage that the fight had done. Walls caved in, glass everywhere, blood spatters. Where were they?

"You…"

Sebastian smiled and let his hand fall

"I did my part, Simon."

The boy gripped onto the claws and pulled them from his stomach, blood running down his jeans and onto the floor. He grit his teeth and ripped one of the claws off of the glove, driving it down into one of Sebastian's eyes.

Naoto felt her heart sink at the scream as she ran towards the sound.