Confrontation with Shadow Alice was inevitable. She had no intention of letting go of the Desires that she stole and would fight tooth and nail to keep them. Panther was ready for this outcome and wanted to beat the distortion out of her, so it worked out. They did not expect her to turn into a large rabbit, however. "I guess this really is Alice in Wonderland…" Queen said while staring at Shadow Alice's new form.
"Oh my! I'm late for a very important date!" Shadow Alice said with a spring in her step, bouncing in place while twirling her gigantic cotton candy colored cane. "Come along! I have such wonders to show you!"
"What wonders?" Sophie asked, genuinely curious as to what Shadow Alice had in mind.
"Ignore her, Sophie. She probably just wants to torture us or something." Oracle said while rolling her eyes.
Shadow Alice then propelled herself into the air with a big leap, twirling her cane around before trying to slam it down on all of the Phantom Thieves. They all had to jump aside at the last second, but the impact created a strong shockwave that still nearly knocked them off their feet. "Come one, come all!"
"She's tough…!" Violet said with a sweat drop. A mere shockwave hit all of them and nearly knocked them down, she didn't want to imagine what would happen if they were hit by that!
Joker and Mona called forth their Personas. Joker summoned Raoul while Mona summoned Diego, the two of them firing off respective elements at Shadow Alice, however she twirled her cane around to deflect the incoming wind and curse magic coming her way. "You Phantom Thieves seem awfully close!" Shadow Alice said while glancing around at the group before her. "Are any of you dating each other?"
"W-What kinda question…!?" Skull staggered back.
"What Dragon and I are doing isn't any of your business…!" Panther shouted from the fluster.
"WHAT!?" Mona's eyes went wide. This was news to him!
"Not how I wanted to the news to break…!" Skull was hoping for a moment that wasn't life or death.
Because Mona was distracted by this bit of information, it allowed Alice to swiftly move in and slam him with a home run swing. Mona was struck by the cane, crashing into a wall because of it. "Ow…" That one hurt.
"Mona-chan, are you okay?!" Noir said while rushing over to the currently stunned Mona.
"So that's your type, Takamaki-san?" Shadow Alice said while looking over towards Dragon. "The shy ones? I see!" She then rushed at Dragon and attempted to leap on top of her. With her size, she was very clearly trying to crush Dragon, but she leapt into the air to avoid it.
"I would appreciate it if you didn't look at me with that creepy grin on your face." Dragon said while swinging her staff at Shadow Alice, landing a hit, but she didn't seem too fazed by it. Instead, Shadow Alice latched onto the pole that was in the middle of the battlefield and began to spin around, knocking away Fox, Dragon, Queen, and Sophie who all tried to attack her in that moment.
"If you're what makes Takamaki-san so happy, then it's so obvious what I have to do!" Shadow Alice used her momentum to launch herself from the pole and towards Dragon, who was caught by Panther after getting hit. She tried to crash down on the two of them, but Panther was able to avoid it by leaping back.
"You're not hurting anyone anymore!" Panther said as she set Dragon down, her mask burning off as she summoned Celestine to throw a fireball in Shadow Alice's face. It was a direct hit! The fireball exploded against Shadow Alice and she let out an irritated snarl, staggering backwards from the impact.
"There it is! She's weak to fire, wind, and light! Let her have it!" Oracle reported.
"Looks like we're up to bat, Sophie!" Violet said.
"Okay!" Sophie nodded. The two of them stood side by side, Ella and Pithos aimed at their target. Multiple beams of light fired from the two of them, striking Alice in the back repeatedly, much to the Monarch's annoyance.
So she turned, smacking away the light with her cane before fixating on the two light users. "Oh, I remember you." She locked eyes with Violet. "You're the one that got upset when I hit Joker. I should warn you, he's just my type!" She kicked her leg forward, a shockwave of psychic energy booming outwards. It was so fast, neither Violet nor Sophie could avoid it in time and they were hit, tossed aside from its sheer force. "And I'm going to make him all mine!"
"I would appreciate it if you didn't talk about me like I'm some piece of meat!" Joker attempted to attack Shadow Alice from above, dropping down with an axe kick with Raoul by his side, but Alice used her cane to block this and push him aside. After this, Fox and Skull attacked together.
Shadow Alice was about to hop out of the way, but found that she couldn't move. "Huh?" She looked at her feet, only to see that they were iced to the ground.
"Let us see you try to avoid this!" Fox said while summoning Gorokichi.
"Hell yeah! Eat this!" Skull joined in with Willaim. Skull swung his pipe at Alice, but she blocked this with her cane once again. That didn't stop Fox and Gorokichi from attacking with multiple sword slashes, all infused with ice. Skull followed up with a bolt of lightning from William that hit directly on top of this.
"GGGGRRR…" Shadow Alice grit her teeth, leg strength showing up in force as she shattered the ice, slamming her foot into Fox's chest to send him crashing into Skull. They hit the wall, and she pointed her can forward, a pink heart shooting out to explode on the two of them as a follow up. "I don't like toys that don't do as their told! Or the ones that break too easy."
"You should stop playing with people's lives!" Queen was riding forward on Agnes, jumping forward so her bike could collide against the Monarch. Once again, that cane came in handy to fend off these pesky Phantom Thieves. "Now, Noir!"
"Lucy!" Noir attacked while Shadow Alice was occupied. Queen jumped back as Alice was enveloped within a psychic tornado.
"Wait!" Oracle exclaimed. It was too late, as that psychic tornado began to spin out of Noir's control, instead now being drawn in by Shadow Alice's cane.
"It doesn't work!?" Noir gasped. As a secondary measure, she pulled out her rocket launcher to fire.
"Feast your eyes!" Shadow Alice said while redirecting this psychic energy towards Queen. It came in fast and she attempted to outpace it on her bike, but it managed to swallow her and due to it being her weakness, she was sent crashing into the wall as well.
"Queen…!" Joker grit his teeth.
"Why are you doing this, Alice?! You've hurt so many people!" Panther asked, swinging her blazing whip at the Monarch, but she evaded it by leaping onto the pole again, spinning around.
"Huh? Don't blame me…" Shadow Alice said innocently. As she spun around, hearts of psychic energy were flying out haphazardly in every direction. Nobody wanted to be hit by this, so they frantically tried to avoid them. Dragon held her position with Bella's shield, one eye closed since these hearts packed a punch and she could feel it. "It's not my fault everyone's in love with me. What can I do if they say they only have eyes for me, ehehe!"
"What?!" Panther exclaimed, sticking behind Dragon while waiting for the chance for a good shot. "How can you say that?! All you're doing is manipulating them!"
"Oh? So you know about that, huh?" Shadow Alice once again launched herself from the pole, only she landed in front of this time. With the momentum she gathered, her impact with the ground caused an earthquake that threw everyone off balance and tossed them into the air. "I never would have guessed you were a Phantom Thief, Takamaki-san! Or you, Togo-san!" She then pounced towards the two in question. "Who will change whose heart in the end!? Oh, I just can't wait to find out!"
"The only heart being changed is yours!" Dragon launched a counter attack. She blocked and took plenty of damage defending, and now she was waiting for her chance to strike! "Aegis Counter!" Bella attacked Alice with her sword, and she used her cane to block it…however, this did not turn out as she hoped. Shadow Alice was quickly overpowered by Bella, receiving the full brunt of that slash.
"AHH!" Shadow Alice cried out in pain as she hit the ground. She wasn't given a chance to recover, because Panther and Joker moved in fast. Panther cracked her blazing whip forward, while Joker used Pyro Jack's flames to his advantage. A dual onslaught of flames collided against Alice and she slid backwards. She was growing more and more irritated by the second, so she went to latch onto the pole again, and the moment she did…
"Hah!" Queen and Mona pulled the party poppers on opposite sides of the battlefield. Confetti rained down on the stage as two potent blasts of wind sandwiched Alice between them, causing her to fall from the pole.
"Nice thinking!" Oracle gave a thumbs up. "That knocked the wind out of her sails!"
"Raining confetti down upon the stage…I must say, that is quite appeasing aesthetically." Of course Fox was the one to say this.
"You can enjoy the aesthetics later, Inari!" Oracle said.
Shadow Alice picked herself up, visibly angered. "Why are you being like this? I was finally able to find true happiness!"
"Does being like this truly make you happy!?" Violet asked.
"Of course it does!" Shadow Alice yelled in response. "Are you here to take everything I had!? Just like she did!? JUST TRY ME!" She then snapped her cane over her knee, then got down on all fours as a feral response. "TIME TO TAKE YOU ALL TO SCHOOL!" She then charged forward like a wild animal, barreling down Fox, Panther, Joker, Oracle, and Queen just from how sudden it was. They were able to recover, but Alice was just not letting up on her assault.
"Oooow…" Oracle whimpered. She was not built for defense like everyone else!
"Ngh…" Queen was down. Alice's affinity for psychic magic in this fight was just not her ally, despite how hard she was trying to stay in the game. One could only take a blow with their weakness but so many times.
"Why is she so fast now!?" Mona gasped, diving out of the way when Alice attempted to stampede over him next. The battle ramped up in difficulty, because Shadow Alice was moving in such a feral, unpredictable manner, so they couldn't judge what she was going to do next or where.
"She's not slowing down at all!" Noir said while leaping to grab Queen and keep her out of harm's way. "What do we do!?"
"She refuses to give up…" Panther watched Shadow Alice act defiantly with pain in her eyes. "Alice, what made you like this!?"
Shadow Alice made a sharp turn, digging her hands into the ground to slide to a halt while glaring at Panther. "You'd never understand, Takamaki-san! I've been treated like shit all my LIFE! I had EVERYTHING taken from me! You don't know what that's like!" She lunged at Panther with violet swipes, one of them managing to land and sent Panther into the wall with a pained grunt. "The further up the social ladder, the shittier they were to me!" She went to follow up, but she was pelted by blades due to Dragon's intervention, causing her to snap to her attention instead. But still, she kept talking and attacking, just shifting to whatever target riled her up. "Even if they saw someone getting tortured, they smiled like I didn't even matter! How could trash like that NOT deserve it!? And I'll show you that you're trash too!"
"Is that why you changed?!" Violet asked, getting Alice's attention.
"Of course it is! How could anyone not change after such horrible experiences! I learned what I had to do, and now I have the power do it! Once I get a man in my grasp, I never let go!" Shadow Alice curved her back slightly and fired off a pink heart directly at Violet.
Violet narrowed her eyes and slashed through it with her rapier while charging towards Shadow Alice in turn. "I feel so sorry for you, feeling forced to change because of such a bad environment. But I wonder if this is really the type of person that you wish to be!" Violet flipped in the air, pointing her rapier down as Ella appeared, firing off beams of light down towards Shadow Alice. Shadow Alice was in such a rage she ignored the damage caused by the light, instead swiping at Violet to knock her out of the sky. It was a direct hit and Violet tumbled, but she managed to stick the landing, wincing from the impact. "You shouldn't look away from who you are just because of the past!"
"What do you know!?" Shadow Alice snarled, growing more and more irritated that the Phantom Thieves pried into her past, that they were speaking as if they could possibly understand her. She leapt into the air with the intention of crushing Violet with her body weight. But the moment she was in the air, she left herself vulnerable to the other two confetti cannons on the stage, fired by Noir and Fox. "Agh!" And so she crashed onto the ground, writhing in pain.
"You should actually listen to the girls; they know what they're talking about!" Joker said while throwing Raoul forward. Raoul swiped his 'cape' forward in a manner that completely enshrouded Alice's surroundings in darkness.
"W-What did you do…!? It's dark…!" Shadow Alice had a whimper mixed with a growl. The darkness just brought back those bad memories she was trying to push down, and this in turn angered her.
"Go down!" Joker said while snapping his fingers, hurling a potent blast of curse magic in Shadow Alice's direction. It was a hit and she slid backwards from the impact, her vision restored. "I think we're just making her angrier."
"She's definitely taking damage!" Oracle reported. "Just a little more, I'm sure she's feeling it!"
"So we just gotta wrap it up in one push! I got it!" Skull said. "Let's go guys!" They had the numbers so they could easily swarm Shadow Alice.
"I won't let you stop me! I won't let you take those Desires! They're mine! MINE!" Shadow Alice jumped forward and began spinning in place, before rocketing forward like a dangerous buzz saw. Everyone realized the dangers of this and desperately lunged to the side to avoid being hit. Alice was bouncing off of the walls, putting everyone in danger. This was only circumvented by Dragon using Aegis to deflect her off in a different direction, but…
"I'd rather not use up all my stamina defending against this…" Dragon said.
"How the hell are we gonna stop her…!?" Skull asked.
Queen may have been unable to continue fighting, but that didn't mean she couldn't provide support. "Sophie…could you use your yoyo's to stop her momentum when she passes you again!?"
"I've got it." Sophie nodded, her yoyos prepared while watching Alice's movements. Alice was going for Joker and Violet, so that's when she struck. Her Yoyo's flew forward, wrapping around Alice's arm and leg. Sophie was dragged along for a bit, but Skull and Fox used their muscle to fight back against her being pulled way completely. "She's…strong…"
"Hold fast, we will not move from this spot!" Fox yelled.
Shadow Alice was slowing to a halt, because her momentum was forcefully ended and she was tangled in Sophie's Yoyos, "Ngh! These…release me…!?"
"Negative. I am here to assist the Phantom Thieves, so I will do no such thing." Sophie replied firmly.
"Now we can finish it!" Violet said.
"Ngh…why are you….I'm not doing anything wrong!" Shadow Alice exclaimed. "All those girls looking down on me…They'll see! They'll see how every man is mine!"
"Look at me, Alice." Panther said while slowly approaching the temporarily restrained Alice. "Is that really what you want, Alice? Don't be stupid! I remember your real answer! You have to remember too, Alice! Tell me! What do you REALLY want!?"
Shadow Alice had other plans, however. In her fit of rage, hearts and spheres of psychic energy began shooting from her body in every direction. It was the same attack from before, but it was much more volatile due to her anger and desperation. Sophie and the others had no choice but to pull back. "I…!"
"Shit….!" Skull cursed.
"We can't get closer to her like that!" Mona grunted. They were so close too!
"I can!" Noir said while rushing in. Due to her affinity, Alice's own was negated. It was a two way street, which allowed her to close in the distance easily. "Lucy!" Noir summoned her Persona, allowing the heavy artillery to be released to be released in the form of several rockets. These rockets pierced through the impromptu psychic barrier, exploding against Alice with enough force to send her into the wall for a change.
"Panther, this is yours to finish!" Dragon exclaimed.
"Right." Panther nodded and slowly approached the recovering Shadow Alice. All she could see was Panther walking towards her. "It's Showtime." Panther slowly floated into the air, a ring of fire appearing around her as Celestine was behind her. "Your heart is mine." An explosion of fire occurred on Shadow Alice directly, just loud enough to drown out her defeated cry of pain. As the smoke from the explosion faded….
"Did we do it…!?" Oracle asked. It felt tense…
Shadow Alice was on the ground, back in her regular form. She was lamenting her weaknesses while panting and heaving from that fight. "No…how can I still not be strong enough!? Why can't I change! I'm not the victim anymore!" She was barely withholding her broken sobs. Even after all this…she was still…
Panther stood before the fallen Monarch, letting out a heavy sigh. Violet soon walked up next to her. "Enough, Alice." Panther said. "If you keep going, you'll just make yourself feel even worse."
Shadow Alice snapped at Panther. "How would you know?!"
"…Panther's just like you." Dragon said. "You should listen to what she has to say, truly."
"We knew we were probably going to have to fight you." Violet said. "But Panther-senpai knew this was the only way to get through to you. So we apologize for the violence…but it looks like you're willing to listen now."
Shadow Alice fell silent for a moment. "I just can't compare to you, Takamaki-san. All my life, I'm no match for the real winners. And I tried SO HARD to change! But I was still made fun of – still bullied…! I just wanted to stop being miserable. I poured my heart into fashion and worked so hard to get so far! But then, she showed up again, and started running her mouth about my past! She told everyone what a pathetic little shit I was! That's why I took all of it from her! Her boyfriend, her social circle, EVERYTHING!"
"…." There was heavy silence from everyone as Shadow Alice poured her heart out about her past.
"And that STILL wasn't enough for me!" Shadow Alice kept going. "It wasn't just her. Everyone that talked behind my back, all the people who stood there when I was getting…" She felt the tears welling up, recalling all of those painful days. "I'll destroy every single one of them!"
"Alice…" Noir felt so bad hearing this.
"So this is a wound in a heart…" Sophie understood what trauma was.
"With this power…I can get revenge, so I…" Shadow Alice said.
"So you became a bully?" Panther said with a heavy tone. "You IDIOT! What good does that do!? Now you're just as bad as the people who made you suffer! Is that how you wanna live? Like one of those bullies? Didn't you want to be something else!? A ray of light for others – and for yourself!"
"…" Alice didn't respond, but she merely whimpered, because she knew in her heart that Panther was right.
"Alice…" Violet spoke up. "Even if it's not quite the same, I know full well how it is to feel forced to change. To change because you can't stand looking at yourself in the mirror…to change because you just wanted to be someone else…to change because you think the world would be better off without who you are. But…I can't stand here and let you think that way anymore." She and Panther crouched down in front of Shadow Alice. "It's never too late to change…but are you proud of the person you changed into? Is this the type of person you want to be? Someone who does nothing but make others suffer? It's completely understandable to hate how you once were for all kinds of reasons, but it's just as important to never forget who you are or where you came from…the past can hurt, but you can't let it define you."
"She's right!" Panther nodded in agreement with Violet. "You can't give up because of those selfish bastards! You can be something much better, and much brighter than you are now!"
"Takamaki-san…and…" Shadow Alice weakly looked towards Violet.
"Yoshizawa." Violet responded with a gentle smile.
"Takamaki-san…Yoshizawa-san…" Hearing their words, Shadow Alice felt like she found something she was missing for a long time. When did things get so bad..? "You're right…both of you. I wanted to change and help people just like me. To rescue them, but I…I…!"
"You can do better." Panther said with her own smile.
"And you can start by atoning for your crimes." Violet added.
"Yes, I can…" Shadow Alice nodded slowly. The Monarch then reached for the crown atop her head, and gently set in front of her abdicating it to the two women in front of her. She conceded her throne. "I want to apologize to the people I hurt and start over."
Hearing this, Panther smiled. "Mhm! I'm sure you can turn it around. I've been through the same thing, but thanks to my best friend, my girlfriend, and the Phantom Thieves, I was able to stand up for myself and do the right thing. So I know you can too. You're never alone. Once you're back to your real self, let's be friends, okay?"
This shocked Shadow Alice. She looked up to Panther with shocked, hopeful eyes. "Y-You wanna be friends…really?"
"I'll be your friend too." Violet added. "I may not know fashion that well, but…I've learned that sometimes, someone just needs a friendly hand.
"I mean, I totally love Alice! We even share the same dream." Panther said with her soft smile.
"Ann…" Dragon placed a hand on her chest, smiling gently at the scene that played out before her.
"You've both come a long way." Joker said with a proud smile.
"Hah…" Shadow Alice was finally able to smile. "Okay. I'll back…to where I belong." It was time for Shadow Alice to return to her real self. She vanished from view, and shortly after she did, the Castle began to rumble.
"I forgot about this…!" Noir admitted.
"It's coming down…!" Mona warned.
Everyone had to scatter, because the large Desire up above was falling. It fell and exploded in a brilliant burst of pink light that towered high into the sky. After this, a gentle rain of Desires cascaded down onto the Jail. All of the Desires that Alice stole were being returned to their rightful owners. Once they did, the Shadows of the victims were released. The Phantom Thieves stood atop the wreckage of the birdcage, enthralled by the beautiful sight of it all: the beautiful sight of their first mission complete in a long time.
The Phantom Thieves were back and better than ever.