Okay so I went out to write a bit of a black mask!Makoto AU and...it went places and added an additional backstory clusterfuck that just makes the November heist even more complicated.

All you need to know is that Makoto is Shido's hitman and she's known as the Iron Mask in the Metaverse. She gained her powers two years before the start of P5 and was using them to take down criminals so Sae would have less work to do and thus come home less stressed out more (spoiler alert: turns out it did not lower her stress)

Over time, she was going in to relieve her anger she was keeping inside to keep up with her Obedient and Reliable Honor Student Who Could Do No Wrong facade

At some point she meets Shido at a party Sae had to take her with her to and talk of the Metaverse somehow got into conversation and long story short, Makoto got a college sponsorship and a new job. Shido also never told Kobayakawa that Makoto was his underling so the principal knew that Shido was going to send somebody to investigate the Phantom Thieves but didn't know who so he told Makoto to find the Phantom Thieves first to beat Shido's lackey to the punch

She was also planning to murder Kamoshida but the Phantom Thieves took care of that before she could make any headway into his palace. She didn't know changing hearts was an option and she's been pissed about that ever since.

Anyway, here's the...result. I'm still feeling iffy on this but then again, its been a long time since I wrote fic for Persona 5 and Scramble/Strikers brought me back in and I'm getting ideas for it again. Erm, enjoy I guess.

Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 5. That goes to Atlus and Sega.

Foiling the Iron Mask

By Bilbo-sama

"Akechi-kun?" Goro Akechi stops as he sees a surprised Sae Niijima in the hallway. "Why are you here?"

"Oh, Sae-san," greeted the Detective Prince with a similar, "what are you doing here?"

"I just finished my interrogation with the suspect," replied Sae before scoffing, "I had not much luck. The agents before me injected too much truth serum into his system so he spent an hour babbling about palaces and shadows. What nonsense."

"Perhaps I could give it a try?" Akechi offered.

"You could," Sae said dismissively, "he did seem to regain some lucidity towards the end but I doubt he'd be more helpful."

"A shame," shrugged the young man before he frowned, "by the way, its surprising that he's being held so far underground..."

"I suppose to make things harder for him to escape," mused Sae before tilting her head in concern, "but if things get violent, back up would take longer to rescue you..."

"Oh, I'm not too worried," Akechi smiled reassuringly, "I'm sure the serum would make things easier to defend myself." He adjusted his grip on his brief case which caught Sae's attention.

Ah, of course. He'll be fine.

"Well, good luck in there, Akechi-kun," Akechi steps aside to let the prosecutor pass.

"Have a good night, Sae-san," he waved before he continued walking towards the cell containing the leader of the Phantom Thieves.

"Finally," he whispered as he opened his briefcase and removed a green object from it after the red lights on nearby cameras went out.

"Excuse me," said the confused guard, "this area is off limits."

"I have authorization to be here," the visitor held up a form that allowed their presence this far deep underground, "On Shido-sama's orders as his proxy."

"O-oh," stammers the guard, "But-"

"I'm here to interrogate the prisoner," Shido's proxy explained before suddenly realizing something, "but if it would make you feel better, you may accompany me inside."

Reluctantly, the guard unlocked the door and allowed the proxy inside first before following.

The guard heard the prisoner dazedly say, "Makoto?" as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

And then Makoto Niijima stole the guard's gun, installed a silencer on its barrel, and shot him with it.

"Fucking finally," she growled as Kurusu made a shocked noise, "this farce is coming to an end."

"W-what?"

Makoto smirked, "Did you really think you idiots could get away with your shenanigans without someone noticing? You've been really vital to Shido-sama's plans once we figured you out."

She turned the gun to Kurusu, a maniacal grin forming on her face, "But alas, your purpose is over now. You will no longer be a thorn on Shido...no, on my side any longer. Now why don't you just be a good little criminal and die for me?"

Kurusu attempted to speak up, presumably to plea for his life, when Makoto pulled the trigger. Kurusu made a gurgling noise before falling forward and wetly smacking against the desk, dead.

Makoto expertly removed the silencer on the gun and placed the gun in the former phantom thief's hand. She looked herself over to check for evidence on her clothes but found none.

Pleased with how her night was going, Makoto marched out of the interrogation room and missed the transition between worlds by blinking.

"Tomoki...?" mumbled Akira as he leaned against the older boy. "How did you...?"

"I got in here from the metaverse," Tomoki explained as he carefully half-carried Akira out of the room and into the hallway, "we needed to get you out of here somehow, so..."

"Oh," Akira nodded sluggishly as he slowly comprehended what was just said, "and you volunteered, Crow?"

"Yeah," he suddenly froze. "Ah."

Without warning, he dropped down to the ground, taking Akira with him. By doing so, he dodged a kick from Sae.

"Who are you?!" she demanded as Akira bit back a cry of pain when his injured leg hit the floor, "Where are you taking him?!"

"Sae-san!" Akira's pain hazed mind noted how Tomoki's voice seemed to have changed to a different but familiar voice, "Stop!"

"Give me one good reason why I should," Sae demanded as she swiftly took off one of her shoes and held it as if she planned to throw it.

Tomoki ripped off the black haired wig on his head which knocked off his large bulky glasses in the process. His brown hair tumbled down to frame his heavily covered up face and to hide the line where the make up ended.

"I'm on both your sides!" revealed Goro Akechi to Sae's shock and Akira's mutter of 'I knew it'.

"Kurusu didn't mention this," Sae glanced at the boy on the ground, "And neither did Alibaba."

"Well-" Unfortunately for Akira, he pass out before he could hear Akechi's explanation.

Okay so Akechi's side of things is down here to hide the backstory that he has a tendency to go under cover in hopes he gets taken seriously. So what he did was try to investigate Kaneshiro and that went badly for him (but mostly for his Tomoki persona). The Phantom Thieves noticed how stupidly this random kid went all 'take me to your leader' to some Yakuza guys and the party brain cell was like 'we should rescue him!' and got caught up in the mess.

Once 'Tomoki' enters the bank palace, he gets more into danger by mouthing off Kaneshiro's Shadow and would've died if Robin Hood didn't show up.

The Thieves allow him into the fold but they were suspicious of him because Akechi is not as great as an actor as he think he is. But like over time Akechi grows fond of the Phantom Thieves and when they were staking out the police station in the metaverse without Makoto knowing, he was like 'I have a confession to make: I'm Akechi' but the Thieves were like 'we figured that out in September thanks to Futuba lol.'

Anyway, that's all I'm getting for this AU. Hopefully I'll be back with something more coherent. :O