"Keep your guard up, everyone!" Oracle ordered from Necronomicon.

"DON'T BOTHER…" Abyzou sneered, "IN FACT, I INTEND TO MAKE YOU LET YOUR GUARDS DOWN!"

"What does that mean-"

With a maniacal cackle echoing through the air, Abyzou's eyes began to glow a furious pink before shooting out splitting beams that froze almost half of the team in place.

"What the hell?!" Jack gasped as she watched their paralyzed allies' eyes turn completely pink.

"Heads up!" Skull exclaimed when Beat suddenly threw a Maeiga at the group. All of the remaining team - Joker, Chance, Jack, Skull, Panther, Red, Mona & obviously Oracle - managed to dodge the blow unscathed.

"...What did you do?" Joker demanded.

"OH, NOTHING MUCH," Abyzou gave what would have been a cloying smile if it weren't for her blood-red teeth and generally frightening form. "I JUST MADE THEM A BIT MORE MANAGEABLE, THAT'S ALL!"

"We have to snap them out of it," Red gasped as he evaded a Freila from Queen, "and fast!"

"I think if we can hit Bustier hard enough, we might break some of her control!" Oracle called out, typing furiously on her keyboard. "Attacking our allies is only going to hurt them, so try to minimize the damage!"

"So focus on dodging and retaliating?" Panther asked, looking up somewhat as she attempted to block Ryuko's blade. "Sounds like a plan!"

"All right then!" Jack snarled. With a flourishing movement, she ripped off her mask, "Blast them, Wenet!"

A mighty-looking anthropomorphic white hare with long, flowing black hair appeared, floating on what seemed to be jet-propelled skates. Extended in front of her left hand was a glowing barrier that played the role of not only a shield but a light cannon as well.

Most of the Thieves didn't know that last part yet, but as Jack cried, "Freidyne!" they quickly found out.

From the shield, the barrier morphed into an blue energy ball that was launched directly into Abyzou's abdomen, exploding and causing her to shriek in pain.

"Holy shit…" Skull gasped in wonder.

"How's that, Oracle?" Panther shouted in Necronomicon's direction.

"There's no change in the amount of control she has!" Oracle reported. "Aim for her head!"

"Viper… you guys…" Chance mumbled. "No… I WON'T LET YOU TAKE THEM! MULAN!"

Summoning her Persona, Chance near-screamed, "KOUGAON!"

The Bless spell drilled into Abyzou's cranium, eliciting a loud screech from the Shadow Self.

The pink lights in the controlled members' eyes flickered, causing them to stagger for a few moments, but Abyzou quickly recovered and regained control over them. "FOOLISH CHILDREN!" she snarled.

"That's what you get!" Mona shot back. Calling Zorro, Mona cast a quick Mediarama on the group.

"IT'LL TAKE MORE THAN THAT TO STOP ME!"

"One more good hit should snap them out of it!" Oracle reported. "The key to victory after that will be keeping them out of that control!

"Can do!" Red nodded. Taking aim with his rifle, he took some potshots around Abyzou's hips to keep her busy.

"YOU…! YOU WOULD DARE STRIKE YOUR MOTHER?"

"You're not my mom! Unless you get your shit together, you never will be!" Red spat.

"And from what we can see, you got a tonna that shit!" Skull added on.

"THEN YOU WILL DIE A PAINFUL DEATH WITH THE OTHER BRATS!" Abyzou bellowed, releasing a mouthful of Mapsiodyne on the team. Everyone screamed in pain, Jack's cry being the loudest as she was knocked down.

"Jack's down! Somebody heal her!" Oracle exclaimed.

"Got it!" Panther responded. "Hecate! Diarama!"

The healing magic washed over Jack, allowing her to slowly get to her feet. "Now you're in for it!" she cried, "Everyone, together! Triple Down, Wenet!"

"Mulan, Kougaon!"

"Garula, Zorro!"

"Hecate, Agidyne!"

"Seiten Taisei, Assault Dive!"

"Bufudyne, Peruggia!"

"Tantalus, Psiodyne!"

One by one, each attack rammed into Abyzou's head.

"AAAGGGHHH!" Abyzou screamed, clutching her head. In her pain, she accidentally released her hold over the remaining Phantom Thieves. The pink glow in their eyes faded away.

"Ugh… what happened?" Beat groaned, clutching his head.

"Were we akumatized somehow? Because it sure felt like it!" King wondered.

"No, but we're glad to see you're back!" Panther exclaimed.

"Did… did we hurt anyone?" Viper muttered softly, looking at Chance; the 'Did I hurt you?' went unsaid.

"Oh…" Ryuko growled, looking up at the monstrous form of Abyzou, "you are going to pay for that!"

"I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY!"

"Looks like akumatizations and Shadows have a connection after all…" Chance muttered, remembering Zombizou's powers being similar to what just happened.

"As intriguing as that sounds, we should leave it for later," Fox exclaimed, "Here she comes!"

"TAKE THIS, TWERPS!"

"Watch out!" Oracle exclaimed, casting a quick shield over the entire group to save them from a mighty gust Abyzou had started up with her wings.

"So far she seems to specialize in some sort of Brainwashing attack," Joker noticed. "We need to watch and make sure she doesn't try that again!"

"Yeah, well, how do we do that?" Jack called back as he dodged a swipe of her clawed hands.

"The blasts came from her eyes, right?" Panther recalled. "Maybe we should aim for them! At worst, it'll blind her!"

"Good plan," Ryuko noted as she swept forward and took her mask off. "Jingū Kōgō! Mazionga!"

Dual lightning bolts crashed into Abyzou's eyes, causing her to recoil in agony.

"Y-YOU…! YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!"

"That phrase is wasted on you!" Red returned, "Chance, with me! Let's finish her!"

"Lemme help out!" Oracle shouted eagerly. With a cry of "Power up!" the team was engulfed in a red energy that increased their strength.

"Sweet! This will be awesome!" King exclaimed as he twirled his warhammer around.

"Mulan, Kougaon!"

"Bufudyne, Peruggia!"

The twin attacks send Abyzou sprawling back, before she slumped forward onto the building with a loud thumping sound. Dark energy poured out of her, and when it had all left to dissipate into thin air, Shadow Bustier was left there, sprawled out on the ground.


Pushing the painting off of her back, Shadow Bustier slowly and groggily rose to her feet. Her hair was slightly mussed, and most of the awards adorning her shirt had been blown off of her outfit.

"You done yet?" Red scowled. Before Shadow Bustier could do it, Fox grabbed the painting from next to her.

"No-"

"Bustier, please just stop!" Chance snapped, having finally lost her patience. "Nothing you say is going to change anything, least of all our minds!"

"Why…?" the Shadow Self sobbed, "Why are you doing this?"

"If you think this is personal only for us, Bustier, you're wrong," Beat said, "You messed up a ton of students because of how you did your job. Did you know that most of your former pupils have criminal records now? If you did, that should have been your first clue!"

"One's a convicted murderer," Oracle piped up sarcastically, "just so you're aware."

"But you didn't care, did you?" Queen frowned, staring Shadow Bustier down. "You were on a one-track mind, but the rails were leading you further and further away from your desired destination."

"I… I just thought," she stuttered, "that if I led by example, others could-"

"Oh for 'eff's - get your fucking head out of the clouds already, lady!" Skull shouted, "That's not how real life works!"

"Through your methods, you set your students up to fail from the start!" Panther added. "With a bonus of trauma for your precious little 'examples.'"

"I was just trying to teach forgiveness-"

"Forgiveness or not, that's no excuse to not reprimand and punish the offender," Ryuko said. "Instead, you've just encouraged that behavior by not punishing them! That makes people believe that what they're doing is okay!"

"I have a sister who had been in your class since the day she entered collége," Viper hissed, "and you let people walk all over her! Like when Chloe Bourgeois locked her in the bathroom on picture day! Did you even notice that one of your students was missing?"

"And what about the first day of school?" King added, "I was the one picking on Ivan, but you sent him to the office, not me! It's no wonder our class is the 'Akuma Class.'"

"Okay!" Shadow Bustier cried, genuine tears of guilt beginning to fall down her face. "I get it! I'm a terrible teacher and don't deserve to have gotten away with what I did, nor should I have done what I did in the first place!"

"And…?" Joker gestured to her to continue, a stern look on his face.

"What…?" the teacher's true self gasped.

"And as in what are you going to do about it?" Joker rephrased. "This obviously won't get fixed on its own. You've left problems to fester for long enough - time to shoot the dog and confess your wrongdoings."

Shadow Bustier flinched at the metaphor, but understood what he was saying. The Shadow Self sighed.

"All right… I will…" she finally said. A bright light then overtook her, and she faded away, indicating she had returned to her true self.

Suddenly the ground rumbled and walls started to crack.

"Whoa! What's happening?" King exclaimed in fright.

"That's our cue! Run like hell!" Mona shouted, already far ahead of the group.

"The Palace is collapsing!" Fox briefly explained. 'We need to get out, now!"

Not wasting another second, the group sprinted through the broken-down door and scrambled down the halls. Even Red managed to keep up, with the adrenaline pumping through his scrawnier body.

"Get the Nav going!" Chance cried, "We're almost out!"

"Got it!" Skull shouted, fumbling for his phone.

Once they were out of the prison, all they could see in front of them was water.

"Jump!" Viper shouted, the team doing so just as the last of the island collapsed and submerged underwater.


Instead of hitting the water, the group landed in a large pile of leaves in a familiar looking park.

"Augh-pft!" Nathaniel spat the maple leaf that was plastered on his face.

"Everyone okay?" Luka called out, sitting up with several leaves tangled in his hair.

"Marinette, are you alright?" Kagami asked, hastily brushing a stem off her school uniform.

"Y-Yeah! Peachy!" Marinette said a little too cheerfully.

"Um… where are the-"

Nino's question was interrupted by Marinette's phone blowing up and the designer scrambled to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Oh thank god!" Makoto's voice exclaimed over the phone, "Did you all make it out?"

"Me, Luka, Alix, Nino, Kagami, Kim, Nathaniel… we're all here!"

"Well, I'm not where I'm supposed to be."

Looking over in the direction, the team saw Akira, hair more disheveled than usual and glasses slightly askew.

"What are you doing here?" Alix exclaimed.

"Beats me," Akira shrugged.

"Hey, is Akira with you guys?" Ryuji asked over the phone, "He ain't with us!"

"Yeah, I'm here," Akira said, putting himself in the screen's view, "I guess it was too much to ask for to have everyone end up where they needed to go…"

"So what's the real Treasure?" Nino asked, "Yusuke, you were carrying it, right?"

"It's still a picture," Yusuke answered, "one of a younger Bustier in a wedding dress and an unfamiliar man."

"It's probably my dad," Nathaniel shrugged sadly. "Am I in there?"

"Nope," Ann responded. "Sorry…"

"Next time we see you, we'll get it to you," Morgana promised. "If you want it, that is. If not, we can throw it away."

"Maybe chuck the photo but keep the frame?" Nathaniel suggested. "You could sell that and make some money off of it. It looks pretty vintage…"

"You sure?" Ann asked skeptically.

"Yeah, it's fine," Nathaniel repeated.

"Okay, if you say so," Futaba shrugged.

"So… what now? Do we just wait?" Kim asked.

"Yep…" Alix nodded, "though we shouldn't wait to get Akira back."

"Ann, you still have the Horse Miraculous on you, right?" Marinette asked.

"Oh, yeah! Kaalki, how's it going?"

There was a while of quiet - presumably Kaalki responding - before Ann nodded at something offscreen. She then looked back to the Parisians and Akira and asked, "Where should we meet you? It'll take two trips, but I can return the Miraculous, by the way."

"I can sneak us into the Louvre. I know the places people rarely go and where the cameras are," Alix suggested.

"That could work," Nathaniel nodded. "We go there enough regularly that we won't look too suspicious."

"Sounds good! Text us when you get there!" Makoto said before hanging up.

"Well, let's get going, then!" Luka suggested. "The police will still be on high alert. The sooner we get home, the better."

"I agree, let's move," Kagami added, "but we should walk. Less suspicion."

"Right, act casual," Kim grinned, walking off with the others, trying to whistle a tune.

"Not that kind of casual, Kim," Nino hissed, elbowing the jock.

"Sorry," he muttered back, rubbing his elbow.


AN: Well, there you have it! Caline's Palace has crumbled. As for the aftermath? We shall see very soon!