Dust billowed from the mark Lila's tail smash made, as each of the Persona wielders leaped out of harm's way. Several coughed and waited for the smoke to clear.
"Agh!" Skull gasped, barely raising his club in time to block a strike from-
"Woah! Queen! It's me, Skull!" he shouted frantically.
"Hey! What's the big idea, Beat!" Alix (come to think of it, they needed to think of a codename for her) exclaimed, nearly getting tackled by Beat.
"What's happening?!" Panther shouted, barely dodging Fox's sword slash.
"Hold up! Persona!" Viper shouted calling upon Terpander, "Garula!"
With a burst of wind that blew through the entire room; the three attacking PTs froze and blinked.
"What the-? Alix, where'd Lila go?!"
"What are you talking about! You were attacking me this whole freaking time!"
"That's it! Illusions!" Chance shouted.
"Lila somehow tricked you three into attacking the others, making you think it was her!" Oracle added.
"Kitsune. Tricksters. Lies. Makes sense," Joker growled, eyes narrowing at the monster in front of them. All he received in return was a feral snarl.
"Wait, so how are we supposed to figure out what's real, and what… well, isn't?" Skull demanded.
"I don't know, but I bet it has something to do with those tails," Mona theorized, "What else do we know about kitsune besides illusion casting?"
"I know in some stories they can control all the elements," Queen informed them, "as well as transform into anything."
Before anything further could be discussed, a bright light surrounded Shadow Lila, forcing the group to shield their eyes. When the light faded, Chance nearly groaned.
At least a dozen replicas of the monstrous liar had assembled in front of the group.
"GODDAMNIT!" Skull cursed, "How are we supposed to figure the real one out?"
"Only one way to find out!" Panther shouted, before lashing her whip at one of the duplicates. With a mocking giggle, it vanished in a cloud of smoke.
"Guys, get back!" Beat shouted, whipping out his gun. Once the rest of the team moved out of the way, Beat fired rapidly at the crowd. There was a small yelp of pain from the one near the center as the rest vanished like the last one did.
"Wait a second… everyone, next time she tries something like that, don't attack right away!" Oracle ordered, "I wanna test something I thought I saw!"
"We're counting on you, Oracle!" Fox shouted.
"Pestēs!" the Shadow Self sneered before a light flashed again. This time when it cleared, there was a large row of ballistas, locked and loaded aimed directly at the group.
"Fuck! Move!" Viper cried as the ballistas fired away.
"Hold it!" Oracle shouted.
Just as the arrows were about to hit, Necronomicon swooped down in front of them, taking the shots… only for the attacks to vanish into the air.
"I got! I know how to tell the difference!" the Navigator proclaimed.
"Well, don't keep us waiting!" Joker exclaimed.
"It's the shadow! None of those illusions just now had one!" she explained.
"The shadow… of course! Illusions are just tricks of the eye!" Chance realized, "They aren't made of any kind of matter or substance, so of course nothing is there to reflect the light!"
"Then let's watch for that," Alix said, punching her fist into her palm.
With a roar of anger, Shadow Lila raised her tails again, then with a swish, two simultaneous attacks of ice and fire barreled towards the group.
"Those aren't illusions!" was the only warning Mona was able to exclaim before the attacks hit, sending them flying backward.
"Dammit! Even though we know how to tell, we barely have any time to register it before deciding to dodge or not!" Viper said.
"We may need to be as sneaky as her in this," Panther muttered.
"What do you suggest? One of us sneak up behind her or something?" Alix asked sarcastically.
"That's worked several times before…" Joker muttered.
"Hey! Wait a second, that was sarcasm!" Alix protested.
"Even so, if we could find a way to do that…" Joker mumbled to himself, deep in thought.
"It can't be Chance," Queen muttered, "Lila would notice she's missing right away…"
"I can do it again," Mona whispered with a grin, "I'm the least likely to be noticed sneaking off."
"That could work," Skull smirked.
"They're seriously serious!" Alix said softly in shock.
"If this has worked before…" Chance said quietly as she dodged another blast of fire as a precaution, "then I trust them. Let's do it!"
"Just give the signal when you're ready Joker," Mona grinned with a wink.
"Right…" the Phantom Thief leader smirked.
"Sure, just tell me your plan right in front of me!" Lila cackled as her tails whipped outwards again, this time sending waves of wind and nukes. Not wanting to take chances, the group dodged the attacks, which were indeed real again. It seemed Lila was planning to stick to her illusions if they figure out how to get past them already.
"We need to draw her attention somehow," Queen said.
"You think all of you are so special because of some extra powers. Well, take that away and what are you?!" the Kitsune shouted.
"Um… honest, hard-working students?" Panther quipped, "And what about you? You spend so much energy on your lies, but don't even try to make a name for yourself in some other way so you do have something to brag about!"
"Oh I will!" the monster sneered, "Once those goodie-goodie heroes are finally dealt with, the Miraculous will be in the correct hands! Like Volpina's! Me!"
"Um…" Beat hesitated, knowing that this could backfire spectacularly, "I think Volpina sucked!"
The kitsune monster actually froze for a second, before her pupils contracted and with a furious roar, actually leaped towards the DJ.
With a scream of terror, Beat ran for his life. However, the PTs weren't going to take this window of distraction for granted.
"Mona, go!" Joker hissed urgently, pointing towards the stairs.
"You got it!" the cat-like being saluted.
"Tikki, Sass, go with him just in case," Chance ordered.
"Underssstood," the Snake kwami bowed, while Tikki nodded in affirmation.
"Volpina isn't the only one that sucks!" Alix screamed with Atalanta firing a Freila at one of the kitsune's tails, "Timebreaker, Bubbler, all of Hawkmoth's goons do! And that fact that you're praising them is totally BS!"
"Those with power make the rules, dummy!" Shadow Lila snarled, barely flinching from the attack, "Those who don't, follow them!"
"Hawk-bastard has all the power, huh?" Skull growled, "And what makes you think he's going to share any of it with you?!"
"Can't you see that you're just a pawn to him, Lila?!" Chance exclaimed after Mulan fired a Kouga at her, "That's his entire MO! He's just using you! The second he gets what he wants, he'll just toss you away! What possibly makes you think he's going to hold a deal with you?! And at what cost?"
"Tacēte! I won't listen to a word of what you have to tell me!" Shadow Lila bellowed.
"Lila, we'll ask again, what on Earth did you plan to achieve from those lies?!" Beat exclaimed, "And so what if Ladybug called you out?! You could have just apologized, it wouldn't have been that hard!"
"How else was I supposed to get his attention?! Adrien only has eyes for Ladybug, and always will!"
"Well, if you knew that, why did you still try to do it?!" Beat demanded, "And besides, his relationship with Kagami seems genuine enough, even you can see that!"
"She's just a replacement!" the kitsune scoffed, "He's settling for second best, is all!"
Chance wanted to scream at Lila saying that she was wrong, but held her tongue. She knew that the fox was just baiting them.
"All right…" Viper started calmly, "you think your plan would have worked so flawlessly? Then what do you think would happen if someone actually talked to Ladybug about you? What then?"
"She was never supposed to find out!" the kitsune shrieked, "I had Adrien hanging off my every word before she came in and ruined it! She made me look like a liar!"
"You say that as if you aren't one already…" Fox pointed out in disgust.
"He would have figured it out eventually!" Beat defended, "You said you were a superhero, but what do you think would happen if you couldn't transform or something?!"
"Big talk coming from you of all people," Shadow Lila taunted, "you were a superhero and now you can't transform yourself!"
"True, but you can thank your 'buddy' Hawkmoth for that!" Beat retaliated, throwing an Eiga at her. Viper nodded in agreement.
"Funny how disposable you are to her, huh?" Lila smirked, "I mean, it's clear that the same person can have two different hero identities. If she really wanted you, Ladybug could have helped you out there."
"That...that's my own fault!" Beat argued, "I lost her trust, and deserved it too!"
"And that's a prime example there, Lie-la!" Alix argued, "Chloe willingly helped Hawkmoth, and once things started going south, he left her! Now look where she is!"
"Oh please! I'm not as stupid as Chloe Bourgeois!"
"...But apparently the fox isn't smart enough to notice the leopard sneaking up behind it," Joker smirked.
Lila didn't get the chance to register what Joker said when she felt something sharp pierce into her back.
With a scream of agony and rage, Lila flung around trying to knock Mona off. However, that was simply another distraction.
In the process of Lila's transformation, the tiara had morphed from a headpiece into a golden collar. As Mona rodeoed around on the kitsune's back, smiling gleefully as he did so, Sass and Tikki got to work to unhinge it.
It wasn't too difficult to unlatch the gold hook and the collar fell with a clank once again to the floor.
With a cackle of his own, Mona flipped off the fox and landed gracefully next to Joker and Queen, who both smirked victoriously.
"Y-You!" Lila shrieked in outrage.
"It's over for you!" Chance shouted, signaling for an All-Out Attack. In a flurry of movement, the Phantom Thieves charged, slicing and bludgeoning the Shadow with everything they had.
With a final flash of light, the tiara shrunk and shifted to its original form again, rolling to a stop at Chance's feet.
"Dammit!" Shadow Lila cursed, falling to her knees in exhaustion.
"Are you done?" Chance asked, picking up the laurel wreath gently.
Lila snarled, "No! This isn't over! I won't-I won't settle for this!"
"Are you serious?!" Skull demanded, "Just save yourself the trouble and admit defeat!"
"At least you can keep some dignity if you do so now," Fox added with a scowl.
"NO!" she screamed, "If I can't have it my way, then no one can!"
"Lila, you've lost!" Viper snapped, "Even if you tried to, you'd just be beaten again!"
"No…" she giggled, "he won't let me be beaten…" she snickered almost hysterically, "I… I'm much too valuable to him to let it end here!"
"What…?" Queen whispered.
"Hawkmoth…" Lila said as she stood up shakily. She threw her arms out wide as if to embrace something, "Assist your most trusted servant now! Help me to crush my enemies and your foes at once!"
"She can't be serious!" Beat gasped.
"She's lost her mind…" Panther agreed.
Before anyone could voice any further opinions, the ground shook. Then it shook again, harder.
Then, the windows around the room darkened.
"Don't tell me…" Chance muttered fearfully.
With shatters of glass, thousands of akumas began pouring in through the broken windows.
Over the roaring of the wind picking up, the only sound heard otherwise was the insane cackle of Lila as the moths swarmed her form like a twister of black smog.
Then, with a burst of energy, the room itself shattered into pieces, bricks falling haphazardly from the extreme height of the tower they had climbed.
Chance jerked forward, the tiara still in her grasp. She grunted as she tried to keep a hold on it, but with one final tug, the wreath flew like a comet back towards the mass of darkness now hovering in the air.
Finally, like a butterfly breaking from its cocoon, the cloud dispersed, the akumas flying this way and that.
In the center where the Imperatrix once stood was another being. Skin as tinted violet, that seemed to be highlighted by the black moth wings now attached to its back. Hair no longer in its sausage tails, but fanned out like electricity was coursing through it. Her dress was no longer orange with a purple sash but black that faded out into violet at the tips, though the overall design was still quite romanesque.
"Now fAce tHe WraTh oF LorD HawKMoth'S mOSt TruSteD sErvAnT!" she bellowed, her wings picked up wind as they flapped behind her.
"I thought the fight was over…." Oracle said, "But it looks like it's just begun!"
"Everyone, brace yourselves!" Joker exclaimed.
"DIE!"
o~o
AN: And there's part one of Lila's boss fight. Sorry if it seems kind of rushed, I really struggled to put this fight together. Video game fights are usually so structured that it's hard to apply them in a freeform like a fanfiction without it seeming robotic. I hope that it's at least a bit decent though.
So, Lila 'Lilith' has officially lost it, willing to throw it in with Hawkmoth the second things go south for her. How are the Phantom Thieves planning to deal with this now?
...Well, you'll have to wait until next time. Next chapter is the official final battle with the liar! R&R and stay tuned!