The golden sky burned blue, cracking with energy and shaking the world. Down below, gasps and screams of fright filled the city as the chaos above became more prominent.

'About time they started to wake up.'

Morgana, embodiment of humanity's hope, found his thoughts were bittersweet. Humanity was starting to notice the danger and the chains tying them down, breaking them off to try and save themselves. With each passing second of their struggles, he grew stronger as humanity's apathy grew into hope. It was a moment of triumph, as those feelings fueled the Phantom Thieves' efforts to fight.

But the small thief couldn't help but feel that triumph turn sour; he knew what would come if they succeeded with their mission. He would disappear, along with the Metaverse. He was ready to anyway, the alternative of allowing that overgrown Holy Grail control humanity couldn't be allowed to happen. But, he felt regret that he would have to leave his friends.

The floor cracked behind him, and he took off just as the floor got carved in half. Morgana was running, dodging a rain of attacks from the shadow hot on his heels. He jumped down the spine shaped platforms just as another bright flash illuminated the area. Fox dashed, katana swiping left and right to cut the Dominions apart. A large swarm of them tried to storm the Japanese styled thief, but the ragged wings of Lucifer blasted them away. Mona jumped just as Joker let out a sadistic laugh.

Rolling on the floor, Mona turned to see Noir shoot her grenade launcher at the surrounding shadows, while Panther engulfed the platforms in fire. Queen burst through the fire, unleashing a flurry of punches on the unsuspecting shadow before disappearing in the flames and chaos for another sneak attack. Mona heard a screech from above and lunged to the left to avoid the deadly blades of a Kali, the shadow hissing in pure sadistic rage as it tried to hack him to pieces. The cat growled and jumped towards the shadow, burning blue.

"Mercurius!" His Persona burst forward, spinning, gathering a hurricane of wind and unleashing it with a kick towards the Kali. The shadow clashed against the torrent of wind until it exploded with a deafening bang that sent Mona flying and crashing against the hard floor. "Ow!"

The small thief groaned and hissed, looking up at the still raging winds. He got up on all fours, when three Kalis burst out of the debris and charged at him. Mona's eyes went wide at the sudden turn of events, barely able to jump back back to dodge.

"Seiten Taisei!" The monkey Persona of Skull flew above Mona like lightning and crashed into the three shadows. The Persona whirled his staff like helicopter blades and blasted the enemy with thunder until they were reduced to nothing but black smoke. "You okay, Mona?"

"I'm fine Skull, what about the others?" Mona asked the blond thief as he slouched behind him.

"Still dealing with all those Aba...Abaddons? Yeah the nasty looking things that look like a big pile of dump." He pointed toward the back, at a blue flash mixed with heated red color on the platform above. "Joker and Fox are dealing with the dick on the chariot."

"Oracle! Who should we help?" Mona asked up at the ball above surveying the battlefield.

"Right now? You two should be worrying more about what's coming from the tower." Oracle's voice filtered into their ears, making the thieves look at said tower, and their faces paled. Space twisted around the skyscraping tower as more and more white masks and mechanical angels poured out and transformed. "Big enemy wave incoming! You need to break their formation!"

"Belay that order!" Joker's voice called out. "We need to retreat and sneak by, this is too many enemies for all of us to just take head on."

"Passing on your orders to Queen and her group, boss man. Listen up! We're pulling back and sneaking by, so cover your eyes," Oracle said. As Prometheus spun above, Mona and Skull crouched and looked away. A bright light exploded, blinding the world and causing the shadows to crash against one another. "Okay! Run!"

Mona stood up, looked to where Prometheus landed and jumped after it, Skull following. Queen burst through one of the Abaddons with Panther and Noir running through the cleared path. The thieves reconvened amidst all the chaos, hiding behind some debris from the elevated platforms. The cat looked at his teammates, breathing roughly, damage spreading through their outfits. But their gaze was still filled with bright power.

"That's an absurdly high number of enemies," Queen said, glaring up at the descending shadows as her knuckle braces scraped against the floor.

"We'll have to cut them all down." Noir's hold over her axe tightened. "Maybe we shouldn't split up, it would be best to keep ourselves united as a front."

"That's a wonderful idea. We can elegantly and swiftly dispatch all these enemies." Fox's large katana had a bright glint as he took it out of this scabbard.

"As long as I don't have to deal with the pricks...urgh, disgusting." Panther just shuddered, blonde hair bobbing at the suddened movement. Oracle looked up from her laptop and shrugged.

"Bad news then, there's like twenty of the big hentai dicks."

"Oh my gosh, no!" The blonde girl looked aghast at that. Mona felt his gentlemanly heart move at his Lady Ann's suffering. He moved to say something from that movie he watched with Ren, but said person cut him with a manic grin.

"No worries, I've got just the Persona to deal with them." Joker's mask started to burn slightly as he looked up. Mona huffed, feeling a twinge of emotion at having a moment stolen from him. Still, he let a smile cross his face as he looked at their rebellious leader.

"How do you wanna handle this, Joker?"

"We sneak by, there's too many like Noir said. We stick together." Noir smiled happily when Joker sent her a nod and a grin. "Rip those masks off and don't even let them get their bearing, just attack until there's nothing left of them. If you get spotted, just move. Our goal is to make it to the tower and steal that overgrown cup."

Everyone grinned, and Morgana couldn't help but join in on the cheekiness of it all. They were fighting for mankind's future and here they were, acting like those cocky characters from Ryuji's mangas. He couldn't fault them, the sensation of power fueling him grew stronger and stronger as the people down below looked up at them. Their earlier fight had already created a wave that was washing away the clutches of apathy that made them indifferent to the world around them. Morgana began to shine, hope pulsing within him.

Then the sky broke.

Morgana felt everything screech to a complete and deafening halt. No one moved, not even a single strand of hair as they all watched the golden sky break like glass and a moon fall.

"What the-!?" Mona attempted to scream in disbelief, but his words became trapped in his throat when he fell. He paws reached out, trying to catch the tails of Joker's coat. But he felt so heavy, his heart bursting with so many emotions. Feelings that he had experienced when he had been embarrassed, felt useless, his fears for his true identity and the fear of losing Ren during their plan to fool Akechi and the conspiracy. They all hit like a bat to the face, every single of those emotions making him want to gag and puke and cry.

He sank down into a sudden void of pure blackness. He couldn't breathe as he went down, a bitter taste filling his mouth and drowning his lungs. His eyes stung, as if someone was poking at them. Morgana screamed, but no sound came as the void simply swallowed it away. He tried to move and swim up, but he couldn't even lift his arms up as the pressure of the darkness around him grew and grew. Even if he wanted to move, which way was up?

But Morgana wouldn't let something like this deter him. If that overgrown cup thought it could break him by trying to drown him then it was absolutely wrong. Fire encompassed him as he readied Mercurius to burst out and blast the abyss with a powerful hurricane. Morgana flexed and exploded blue, his Persona standing proud behind him and destroying the darkness with his mighty rebellious spirit. Morgana could see now, with narrow eyes he looked around and stopped.

He saw a child being beaten by her father, a child pushed off the stairs of his school, never to walk again. A child being told he would only live for the next couple of days thanks to the failure of a surgery. A child abandoned. A child starving. A child being handed a gun and forced to kill.

A man defended himself from the child shooting and killed him, then he screamed when he recognized the face of his son. A man cheated of his job, a man cheated of his lover, a man cheated of his family. A man in his room, closed off, with a laptop as his only way to see the world, alone. A man with a gun to his head, being forced to rip the clothing off a crying woman.

The woman cried as she was forced to bare her body under the leering and lustful gaze of her assaulters. A woman looks into the mirror and sees nothing but negatives. A woman destroys her own life in the pursuit of perfect beauty. A woman holds a pale and still babe. A woman lies down, allowing the use of her body to secure her own future. A woman who lost her future for how she was born.

Morgana saw it all, dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions and billions of visions. He closed his eyes and tried to sink back into the abyss to avoid seeing all the suffering that surrounded him.

It's not fair.

Shh, shh, just stop, just stop.

I never meant for you to see this.

You could never have made it.

Your body was just too weak, but it wasn't your fault.

I killed my baby, I couldn't even birth him right…

I'm not alone, I have so many friends...I'm always messaging them…

Just spread your legs and you will get that promotion.

I can't walk...

Daddy...mommy...please don't go…!

Fuck you! You can't just leave me! No, please god no!

Morgana shivered, covering his ears to block out the noises. But they wouldn't stop pouring in. He opened his eyes and watched the billions of scenes come down at him like rain, each one piercing his body and filling him with nothing but a crushing feeling. His heart wanted nothing more than drop through his chest, to disappear and drown as he watched all the despair wash over him.

Morgana cracked, his body started to break like glass. Mercurius shattered and the fire was snuffed out, giving way back to darkness that wouldn't stay silent. Mona sank further into hopelessness, losing his arms, right ear and left foot. His tail started to fall into pieces as Morgana began to shut down and give up.

'Is this what it means for humanity to wake up? Is this hope?' Morgana wondered as he felt everything leave him. His purpose, his memories, his connections. He closed his eyes and let-

"Morgana!"

A cry cut through the anguish, forcing him to open his eyes and look at the overwhelming image of suffering choking him. He narrowed his eyes, trying to find the voice, but it was impossible, he couldn't hear it with all the melancholy surrounding him. Yet, that voice sounded so familiar, so...

"Morgana! Please!"

Morgana's head snapped up and he saw a young teenager, falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit. A teenager whose future was destroyed by an adult with too much power, who was too willing to abuse said power. A teenager who saw too many people abuse their powers to make those around him suffer while he could do nothing but see the consequences. A teenager who lay down on the floor as the collective cognition of the masses forgot about him and his deeds, deeming him a failure.

Morgana saw Ren, frustrated tears and a body breaking into blackness desperately trying to reach out to him with his red gloves. Burning with blue fire as every Persona he had collected or fused together burst to life, protecting Ren from the crushing despair of humanity. The Personas held briefly, then died and broke apart, but only to be replaced by another one. And Morgana saw it, he saw that he was running out of whatever Personas he could pull in his desperation.

Morgana roared, the sound more befitting a lion than a cat, and he tried to move. But he had no arms to do so, so he moved his one good leg until it shattered and sent him stumbling further into the abyss. He used his damaged stump of a leg to pull himself up, but that too broke. His tail lashed out, until it was nothing but pieces. He bit into humanity's anguish and hauled himself up, losing half his face and an eye.

He looked up with his eye, seeing Ren forced down to his very first Persona, Arsene. The devilish gentlemanly Persona wrapped his wings around Ren even as he started to crack. Ren looked down at him, his expression losing that frustration to be replaced by one of defeat.

"To hell with that!"

Morgana didn't know he managed to scream that when he was missing his mouth and throat. But he roared his intentions and exploded like a blue supernova. He roared for Mercurius and tried to will his evolved Persona, the culmination of his journey, to appear and beat the misery around them. But only the embers of his Persona echoed weakly, no longer capable of matching his furious desire. He howled and raged, breaking his body until only half his face and good eye remained. His exposed heart beat and burned, until it cracked-

And exploded with heat beyond what Mercurios could ever hope to match as he came out.

Zorro burst through the fire and grabbed the remains of Morgana, blasting through the desperation and suffering like a comet going beyond the speed of light. He saw it all again and again, everyone's pain, everyone's worst moments. Like a loop that lasted for an eternity.

But Morgana bore through it all and crashed into Ren. His friend's defeated gaze gained fire as they soared through the abyss, holding each other.

"Mona...Morgana...don't disappear, please…" Ren whispered as he hugged his head. The cat saw the tears streaming down the cracking face of his friend.

"I won't Ren, we're going to overcome this, like we always do. We just need to find the others."

"Morgana…they broke in front of me...they…!"

"Hey! Stop that!" he admonished with a glare. "We're the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Like hell we're going to let something like this stop us, right!?"

Ren looked down at him and smirked. "Right."

Arsene cracked, and Zorro started to break apart. The two thieves faced the abyss of despair together as they felt themselves being pulled apart. Suddenly, a faint blue glow landed on the two. Forcing their eyes on the light, they saw a blue butterfly.

A female voice cried out, "Found you!"

And they disappeared from the abyss, crashing on the hard floors of a blue room. The two friends gasped, looking down at themselves in shock and then at each other. Their gaze moved towards the young yellow eyed girl in a blue dress. And towards the long nose man grinning at them. He made an inviting gesture towards them.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room."


Chapter today is an interlude, going back so we can see in what state of mind the Phantom Thieves really are. Next arc should be much more of breather arc than this one which will let me get interaction between the characters going and developing them.

Weissmann, your question depends upon two answers. One is if the Rogue Passenger get's the drop on Taylor's shard and forces it into bursting into reality, which will force the thieves to get to her Palace. And the second is if Taylor ever happens to become into a massive threat towards them and their goal in defeating the Rogue Passenger. The thieves wouldn't mobilize against Taylor just because of her mistrust and paranoia, not even Akechi who has some sort of dislike towards her. Ren has already been working his magic with her and has made begrudgingly trust him. All that's left is for them to get some development going.

That's it for now, hope you enjoyed and see you in about a week!