"What do you mean, you think your Persona has been akumatized?" Morgana asked dubiously on the chat the following morning.

"Is that even possible?" Ryuji wondered.

"Terpander said he was transformed into a stronger self, calling himself Krotos and everything… akumas talk similarly."

"Wait," Yusuke suddenly said, "Krotos, you say? Ann, Ryuji - is this not similar to what happened with Goemon, Captain Kidd, & Carmen?"

"Oh, yeah!" Ann realized, her eyes opening wide in understanding. "Luka, remember Yusuke's former Persona Goemon?"

"Yeah? It's that other one now, though… Kamu Susano-o, was it?" Luka said confusedly. His eyes then flashed open in understanding. "So, my Persona transformed like yours, huh?"

"Sounds like it," Akira said, "I think it happens when you take on a… how should I say this… 'new vow.'"

"New vow?" Kim asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"When one awakens to their Persona, they take on a vow to not bow down to the oppression of society," Futaba attempted to explain, "When you take on a new vow to better yourself as a person, I guess your Persona transforms with you."

"That makes sense," Marinette nodded along, "Do you think we all can transform our Personas?"

"I'd assume so," Makoto answered. "I can't say what would trigger it for each of you, though… speaking of Luka, however, are you okay? I saw that battle yesterday, and you took quite the blow there…"

"Don't worry. Marinette healed me up for good," Luka smiled sadly, "There will be ghost pains for a little while, but I'll be alright."

"It was quite romantic of you to take that blow, Luka," Kagami remarked, "It would be more so if it wasn't real life, granted, but…"

Morgana sighed, but it didn't last long. "That reminds me," he said in a severe voice, "We need to give Ryuji the Second here a codename."

"I'm not even gonna bother," Ryuji grumbled to himself but leaned in nevertheless.

"Well… Shakespeare, anyone? Considering his thief outfit looks like something an old-time actor would wear…" Alix joked.

"Uh, no way!" Kim protested.

This earned a good laugh from the group. Then Nino suggested 'Sprinter' or 'Jock.'

"No, no, that's too obvious!" Ryuji exclaimed.

"How's it too obvious?" Ann asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Gah, it just… doesn't feel right, okay?" the blond said.

Marinette frowned. This felt similar to when Alix joined when they bounced around a ton of codename ideas before deciding on Jack. She grinned a little to herself as she remembered the joke about completing the set sometime.

Wait… 'complete the set'? Hmm…

"How about King?" Marinette piped up.

"'King'?" Futaba asked.

"Well… we were talking about completing the set a while ago, right? So, why not?"

"Completing the-OH!" Akira exclaimed, "I get it! Very clever, Mari."

"Huh? What's clever?" Nino asked, a little lost.

Akira grinned, "I'm the Joker. Makoto's the Queen. Alix is the Jack. And if Kim wants that codename, he's the King. Like in a card set."

"Oh!" Nino nodded his head, "I get it! I like it! What are your thoughts, Kim?"

The jock shrugged, "Works for me!"

"Well then, welcome to the team, King!" Morgana welcomed.

"Sweet!" Kim cheered, "So… now what?"

"Well, we were planning to go to the Palace today, right?" Makoto reminded everyone. "Shall we go today?"

"Sure!" Marinette nodded, pulling up the customized, password-protected schedule on her phone, "I think we have a good two-hour opening to investigate."

"It still scares me how fast you were able to pull this together," Ann commented.

"Powers of creation, right?" Marinette said, punctuating her words with a cutesy wink. Tikki giggled and copied her.

"Let's not waste any more time, then," Kagami declared decidedly. With a few phone taps, the group left for the Palace.


The storm was still brewing outside the prison, but the rain had ceased to a small drizzle for the time being.

"We just got here, and already I'm feeling the need to take a long, hot shower," Beat commented, shivering in the cold.

"No kidding," Queen muttered.

"Let's head towards where the old tree trunk is," Joker said, "Bustier's Shadow knows we're here, after all."

"I feel like someone's breathing down our neck whenever we come here," Viper said, shuddering slightly as the Phantom Thieves furtively made their way to the tree bridge.

"It certainly seems to exude that aura, doesn't it?" Mona agreed as they crossed the trunk, "Even before Bustier told us that…"

"So… I meant to ask this the first time I came here, but if this is a prison… who are the prisoners?" King questioned nervously.

"Well, considering this is how your teacher views your school, you can take a wild guess," Panther snarked.

King gulped, not liking the answer he found but understanding there wasn't much working around it other than to change his teacher's heart.

As with before Kim's awakening, there was a guard around the entrance.

"You all up for a rematch?" Chance smirked as Joker ripped off its mask to reveal a trio of Shadows - one of which, funnily enough, was a Philosophical Prosist.

"Rematch time, huh?" King sneered, looking the Philosophical Prosist in its eyes, "Bring it!"

The other two were pale-skinned blonde women in sheer white dresses, twirling around whimsically. Each of them held odd little coins in their hands. Joker went with the nickname of Dancing Toll-Lady for the two of them.

"Alright, Lê Lợi," King declared, summoning his Persona, "Maragion!"

The Fire spell knocked down the Philosophical Prosist and did considerable damage to the Dancing Toll-Ladies.

"Yaas, King!" Oracle cheered.

Viper grinned and shot their newest member a thumbs-up, before pulling off his own mask, "Let's try this out - Clap them, Krotos!"

A large, four-armed centaur-like creature appeared where Terpander once would have appeared. A tremendous shining bow and arrow was clenched in two of his hands, while another held a lamp glowing a bright green.

"Garudyne!" Viper declared, and a miniature storm tore the Philosophical Prosist to pieces.

"Sick, Viper!" Skull cheered, "But now it's my turn!"

"Seiten Taisei…" he grinned with a high-five to Viper, "Mazionga!"

The Electric attacks knocked both Dancing Toll-Ladies to the floor, the duo of foes on a sliver of life.

"Should we put you out of your misery?" Jack snarked as the group surrounded them.

"Hold on," Joker called, "I have something I'd like to try."

Turning to one of the Dancing Toll-Ladies, he forcefully inquired, "Is there a way to turn off the alarm system?"

"Will you spare us if we tell you?" the first one asked.

"Perhaps," Joker answered smoothly, "if you give me good information."

"Strong, aren't you? You remind me of… ah, yes, I recall now! I'm no mere Shadow - I am one of the many who resides within the sea of humanity's souls…"

"Call me Dame Blanche," the ex-Shadow smiled, the other one taking its chance to disappear, "We shall put on a show they won't forget!"

In a flash of light, the Shadow turned into a mask that flew towards Joker, merging with his own. Ryuko & King just stared as Joker grinned.

"So, is there a way to turn the security off?" Fox asked.

"How did…" King muttered, pointing between Joker and where the Shadow once was.

"Oh, yeah," Beat said, "That's a special something Joker can do. To simplify it, that Shadow works for us now!"

"Only Joker is capable of this?" Ryuko asked.

"From what we can tell, yeah," Chance nodded.

"So… about that security system?" Queen asked.

"I hope it isn't like Madarame's, and we have to open a door, in reality, to get past it," Skull groaned.

"Unless she's got something in the teachers' workroom or something, I doubt it," Oracle noted, "I'm not sensing anything like that from what I've got…"

"We should search for a control room or something on this floor," Queen decided, "There's got to be something that can turn the security off."

"Good idea," Chance nodded, though everyone could see how her shoulders tensed, and her legs seemed to quiver slightly.

"Everything will be okay, Chance," Viper reassured her, "Just because the cells are over there doesn't mean we have to look through them again."

Chance nodded slightly. "Let's get this done, then," she said.

With that, the Phantom Thieves moved out.


"I wouldn't look in there if I were you, King," Jack warned as they passed through the cell block. King only nodded and straightened up, looking forward until they came to an end.

*Crack*

Looking down, Fox lifted his foot to see that he had stepped on some sort of glass shard. Fortunately, it didn't pierce through his shoe or anything of the sort.

"What was that?" Panther asked before noticing a few more shards trailing their way off to two side rooms, one of which was another Safe Room.

"Oh, thank whoever," Skull breathed a sigh of relief at the Safe Room.

"Of course, you ignore the broken glass…" Mona grumbled.

"Leave my boyfriend alone, Mona," Joker scowled.

"We'll look at it in a moment," Queen reassured the feline Phantom Thief, "But we should secure as many of these Safe Rooms as possible."

Mona sighed and nodded as they entered the Safe Room. She was right; furthermore, it was best to prepare mentally for any more surprises this Palace had.

After exiting the Safe Room, the team opened the door, careful not to step on the glass shards as they did so.

"Maybe the heavy hitters should go first?" King suggested, gripping his hammer, "You know… just in case?"

"If you think so," Oracle said, "But if you wouldn't mind defining heavy hitters…"

"Do you mean strongest Persona-users, or… just strongest members?" Chance asked.

"...Either one?" King cringed, "You know what? Forget I said that…"

"Just be on guard," Ryuko advised as they entered, "We don't know what's in there."

With that, they looked inside.

It seemed to be another cell block - a special one, in fact. The windows were tinted red, and inside the two nearest ones were small piles of debris - one blonde-yellow and the other maroon and orange.

"...Uh…" was all King could say. He looked extremely dumbfounded. It made sense since he had yet to see any of the dolls of their class.

"Failure #007," Beat read on the label above the door containing the yellow pile, swallowing.

Taking a deep breath, Joker walked in first to inspect them.

"This one," he gestured to the yellow one, "it looks like it's been here for… a while."

Looking closer at it, they saw their leader was right. Though broken, the doll was covered in a layer of dust.

"Wait a tic…" Jack suddenly whispered before turning over a large round piece of it. When they saw the face, King yelped quietly, while Jack, Chance, and Beat nearly screamed.

It looked like Chloe.

"Do you know who this is?" Queen asked cautiously.

"...That's Chloe," Beat said.

"Oh… shit!" Skull cursed.

"Then, this newer one must be…" Fox muttered as he inspected the orange one. Sure enough, he found the second head, which was a porcelain face of Lila.

"Failure #008," Ryuko read the inscription in front of the last target's door.

"Ah, yes…" Shadow Bustier's voice rang out, "Chloe and Lila. I had high hopes… well, for Lila, anyways."

"Ack!" Beat jumped. The team looked around but saw nobody but each other.

"The intercoms, you stupid children, " Shadow Bustier audibly smirked. "Did you seriously think we didn't have intercoms? "

"Of 'effin course," Skull growled.

"Hopefully, that will deter you! " Shadow Bustier said, the Phantom Thieves able to practically see the vicious smile on her face, "But just in case it doesn't…"

"Wait! What do you mean you had high hopes? And why just Lila?" Viper demanded. There was no answer but the sound of a Shadow appearing.

"We'll have to find the answers on our own," Panther sighed, before readying her whip as a Shadow guard stepped out of the darkness.

"Sorry, kids, but you're not leaving alive," the Shadow said without a hint of remorse, transforming into a triad of cloaked, almost-skeletal females with bright red hair. They let out loud, frightening cackles that echoed through the room.

"Seriously?" Jack shouted as she and the others covered their ears.

Joker growled as the Shrieking Demonesses finally quieted down. He wasn't sure if that was just an attack or another kind of alarm. If it was the second, Shadows would be converging on their location at any moment.

"We'd better make this fast," he called out, "That scream there will likely attract a ton of Shadows!"

"Understood!" Ryuko exclaimed, "Jingū Kōgō! Rising Slash!"

Obediently, the Persona slashed into the middle one. It only managed to do a little damage.

"So they resist that…" Oracle murmured, "No Physical attacks, guys!"

"Gotcha, Oracle!" Chance nodded, "Makouga, Mulan!"

The first Parisian Persona blasted two of the Shrieking Demonesses with Bless attacks (the middle one dodged it), knocking them on their feet.

"Allow me, Chance!" Fox cried out. Chance ran up to him and high-fived him.

"Kamu Susano-o," he spoke dramatically, summoning his Persona, "Bufudyne!"

The Shrieking Demoness that was still standing froze to death… pun intended. With that, the Phantom Thieves surrounded the remaining two Shadows.

"We really don't have time to finish them," Mona declared, "Let's get 'em!"

After hastily finishing the Shrieking Demonesses off, the Phantom Thieves quickly escaped from the Palace.


AN: So... sorry I didn't upload these chapters right away. My week has been crazy with school.

R&R, and stay tuned!