Ren Amamiya was in a dark void of some sort. How he had come to be here, be it a dream or the result of some Shadow's power, he was unsure. What he was sure of, however, was that this place was colder than any place on Earth. But it was deeper than a simple lower temperature. It was a chill that had been following him since he'd first pieced together than reality was being altered and that only he and Akechi were aware of it. And the extreme amplification of this frigidity made him think he might now be at the point of origin of that chill.
He heard giggling behind him in a familiar girly voice. He whirled around to find what looked to be a family of three: father, mother, daughter. He recognised them instantly: Sojiro, Wakaba, Futaba. It was only because he knew Sojiro and Futaba's hair and clothing so well that he was able to identify them, as all three faces were completely covered in what appeared to be black opera masks of the happy variety. Disturbingly, rather than holes for the eyes and mouth, these features were crudely drawn on with what could have been either chalk or white paint, based on the almost rushed look of their application.
He heard similar laughter from behind him, whipping back around to find the similarly masked Makoto and Sae with a masked man in a police uniform that could only be their previously late father. Ren heard more laughter from all around him. Everywhere he looked, he saw more of these haunting figures: Ryuji, Morgana, Yusuke and Madarame, Haru and her father, Hifumi and her mother, Mishima, Ms. Kawakami and Taiki-kun, Takemi and Miwa-chan, Ohya and Kayo-san, Iwai and Kaoru-kun, Mifune, Yoshida, Shinya and his mother.
When he turned again, he was face-to-face with another of these masks. From the long platinum-blonde hair sticking out from behind the mask in twin bushy pigtails, her identity was obvious. As was that of the black-haired girl stood beside her in an identical mask. Both were giggling happily, but there was a certain, forced quality to it, as plastic and unreal as the masks adorning their faces. Ann's acting was infamously unconvincing, but even that always managed to sound more genuine than this.
Ann's hands were suddenly on Ren's shoulders, her nails digging into his skin, even through his shirt. One hand eventually relented and made its way back towards her face. It gripped the mask and began to slowly tug at it. From the way her muscles tensed and strained, and how the giggling that had continued uninterrupted became somehow even less genuine from the strain, this act required a lot of strength - more, perhaps, than his friend possessed.
He so wanted to reach out his own hand to help her pry the mask off of her, but it was as if her fingernails were coated in some paralytic fluid that prevented his muscles from obeying. He could only stand and watch as the mask slowly started to become loose from the intense force Ann was applying to it. As it slowly became unstuck, images flashed through Ren's mind of Kamoshida's Palace, when Ann tore off her Panther mask for the first time to manifest her Persona. Having been through the same thing himself, yanking at a mask that had been fused to his face until the skin tore off, he knew the agony she felt.
Only, this mask seemed even more firmly kept in place, like it was more difficult than even that had been. Some sort of inky black substance came into view, elastic strands of the stuff trying to keep the mask in place over her natural features, even as other strands snapped and fell limp. As roughly half of the mask came loose from Ann's agonising struggle, more and more of her red face came into view and Ren couldn't tell if the redness was from the strain or the supernatural adhesive she was fighting against. But the source of the redness in her eyes was all too clear.
Long tracks of tears streaked down her cheek as her true feelings began to surface in a haunting, high-pitched scream of, if it was not physical agony, then it certainly was emotional. He hadn't seen her face look like this since Suzui had switched schools, leaving Ann feeling helpless and alone on the school rooftop. He was able to reassure her of his and the rest of the team's place in her heart back then, but he was being blocked from doing a single thing to help her now.
As her screams made their way into his mind, no doubt to fester and play in perpetuity in his dreams for years to come, Ren noted, to his horror, that her arm muscles seemed to be loosening, as if her strength, both physical and mental, was failing her after only getting the mask half-free. Her eyes bore into his, begging him to help her as he had so many times before - when he'd followed her and heard her out as she'd cried over what Kamoshida was putting her and her best friend through, when he and the other two had helped save her from Kamoshida's Shadow, when she had cried in his arms on the school rooftop - but he felt as if his own pool of strength was even lesser than her own as her fingers struggled to maintain the pressure on the mask.
It was almost a metaphor for how he'd always felt about her and her superhuman strength of will that had seen her through so much hardship. He felt that way about all of his friends, but Ann most prominently. And this made it all the more heart-breaking to see her fingers finally give in and slip away from the edges of the mask, allowing the black tendrils holding it onto her face to reconnect themselves and snap it back into place with the force of an alligator snapping its powerful jaw shut on the flesh of its prey.
Ann stood facing Ren, both of her arms falling limply to her sides, as if entirely run dry of energy or will to resist. Her face was once again entirely obscured by that unnerving mask. She pushed him hard in the chest with both hands, her arms suddenly seeming even more energised than they had before. The suddenness of her assault, coupled with the surprising power behind it, sent him tripping over his own feet and tumbling onto his back.
Unlike a real fall, the landing didn't hurt at all, but that was soon made up for by the emotional distress that engulfed him as Ann stood over him, staring down at him, joined soon by the rest of the Phantom Thieves, and then by the rest of Ren's friends. Every single one of them was now drowning him with that same forced laughter that exposed the true turmoil buried beneath their masks. He wasn't sure if the masks were moving closer or actually growing larger, but they soon engulfed his entire vision.
He jolted back into awareness in the same void, only now he was standing and alone. He looked around for any signs of the others, but found none. What he did find, however, was a massive crystalline surface before him, like some fantasy-themed mirror in which he could see his own face. Or couldn't, as the case truly was, as his face, like those of his friends, was now obscured by one of those horrifying black masks. He hadn't even noticed he was wearing it until he saw it. While his Metaverse mask wasn't perceptible enough to be distracting, he was always aware on some level that he was, in fact, wearing it. But this thing only registered visually. Even after realising it was there, he couldn't feel it on his face at all. He could, however, feel it under his fingers.
Just as Ann had before him, Ren gripped the mask as tightly as he could and pulled with all his might. As he'd suspected from observing Ann, this was very similar to his Persona awakening - that horrid burning across his skin as the mask came looser; only amplified tenfold, like a metaphor for the difficulty of resisting the pull of this altered reality's sweet siren call. But he could not relent. Even if his fingers snapped and his face was torn off, he would not stop pulling until this horrid blinder was cast from his face.
As blood started to spurt out and stain the reflective surface before him, he saw the approaching hollow puppet reflections of Ann, Ryuji, Morgana, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, Haru, Sumire, Sojiro, Sae, Mishima, Kawakami, Takemi, Hifumi, Ohya, Iwai, Mifune, Yoshida and Shinya. He wasn't sure if they were actually behind him, or if they simply existed in some mirror dimension, but every one of them continued their chorus of forced laughter and he could almost swear he heard some of them speaking too. He couldn't make out the words or their intent. Perhaps, they were trying to convince him to give in as they had, to embrace Maruki's realty and just be happy with it. Or, maybe they were begging him to resist, to break free and help them to do the same. Whatever the case may be, he would not surrender his will, no matter what Maruki threw at him.
Pain and sadness were an essential part of life. He knew that better than anyone. After all, without his wrongful assault charge and year-long probation, he would never have gone to Tokyo and met the best friends he had ever had. He would never have made so many connections, been able to improve the lives of so many others, if not for that pain and sadness. Dr. Maruki intended to take that away from the world, to take away people's ability to find strength through perseverance, as not only Ren, but Maruki himself had. Even if he had to stand up to Maruki's false reality alone, Ren would not back down.
Of course, he wasn't alone. In addition to Lavenza, who had been with him every step of the way, he also found help from the most unlikely of sources: Goro Akechi, whose own will to oppose Maruki's reality was just as strong as Ren's. Both now stood beside his reflection, offering their power to help him persevere through this most taxing of trials. And with one final heave, the mask finally came completely loose.
Blood gushed from the places where the mask had connected as the residue of that disgusting supernatural adhesive burned away. Despite this, a familiar sense of relief and elation spread through his body, as it had when he'd first torn off his Joker mask and summoned Arsène. And just like that time, the blue flames of his rebellious spirit spread out from the wound and consumed him, once more giving rise to a new power: the power of Raoul.
Ren awoke back in his room above Leblanc. Morgana, now human thanks to Dr. Maruki's alterations, slept peacefully on the couch across the room. He shivered in his sleep as the blanket covering him was slipping off. Crossing the room, Ren fixed the blanket over his friend, who seemed to relax, oblivious to the part he had played in his friend's nightmare, and to what that same friend was about to take from him.
The guilt of taking everyone's fake happiness away was palpable, but Ren was sure that restoring the true reality was the right thing to do. Maruki believed he was offering true happiness and peace, when all he could truly offer was stagnation that would eventually break down, all the suffering that had been buried beneath the surface by the forced smiles of the hollow masks all coming out at once in a crushing display of misery. Whether a fabrication of his mind or the result of a failed indoctrination attempt by Maruki, Ann's tears were very real to Ren.
He would not let Maruki's misguided power destroy his loved ones. Whatever it took, he would steal back his friends' hearts. After all, no matter the reality, Ren Amamiya was a Phantom Thief.
The story was inspired by this art piece by jazlyn_jin on Twitter: twitterdotcom/jazlyn_jin/status/1377387406316429313