Emerald

by WhiteFangofWhoa

Six years after the disbandment of the Phantom Thieves, the sea of human consciousness grows wild, a tide of chaos threatening to swallow up the recovering world... But at the burgeoning academy of Koashimizu, a band of eight defiant souls seek redemption, and a home they can call their own. Rated for mature situations and violence.

40. Divine Powers Battle

This story is a work of fiction. Any similarities to events or persons living or dead in your world is purely coincidental.

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Look Inside To Break The Seals

Ascend To Realms Beyond The Real

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6/14 Saturday

Evening

This was far from the first time that Morgana had saved his life.

He'd heard the stories from Aiko Tsuruga, from the others. About how the sea of dark water reflected things in the sky that did not exist, or how it lay lined with dozens of islands of varying sizes. About the gargantuan Leviathan Shadows which prowled those waters, frozen bone maws eager to devour ships or, finding none of those, each other.

None of those stories really did it justice. No matter how important it was to stay focused, he felt his mind beginning to wander into appraisal of the scenery more than once, to the point that Akira Kurusu began to wonder if that was some innate side effect of the place.

"I don't think so", Morgana's voice came to him with just a hint of reproach. "I think it's just because you haven't been to the Metaverse in six whole years. Remember how long it took for Skull to stop pointing and gawking at every little thing?"

"This isn't the Metaverse", Akira protested mildly, holding tightly onto the wheel as they sped past a stone archway surrounded by dangerous-looking whirlpools. "It has the same kind of feel to it, sure. Another cognitive world, or the same one in a new form after we wiped the old one out... but it's not the Metaverse. Your new form is proof of that, right?"

"Faraway Lands", Morgana's voice remarked in a dismissive tone. "That name seriously lacks the necessary style, in my opinion."

Thankfully, his earlier worries about surviving in this place had been alleviated when the water's touch had transformed his feline companion into a sleek black motorboat, similar in many ways to the strange tailed black van which had ferried the Phantom Thieves through the claustrophobic tunnels of Mementos so many times. The blue lights at the front functioned as eyes just as before, occasionally twitching, while the tail had hardened and become a powerful propeller.

While amply cushioned and large enough to make him feel safe, he knew that wouldn't have been the case if his entire crew had been there with him- this new form was faster, but smaller as well. Even with the van form, they had begun to become overcrowded towards the end of their travels with only two rows of seats for seven thieves.

"Oh really?", he countered, feeling himself slip into the currently abandoned role of Morgana's foil without any effort at all. "Then who named 'the Metaverse'? Did you decide on that?"

"N-no!", Morgana protested. Akira had known him long enough to know when he was retreating from uncomfortable territory. Like most humans, he didn't like dwelling too much on unknowns, and pushing him further when he was the only thing between him and the endless ocean wasn't a good idea. "...But you have to admit, it was a fitting name, no?"

"Just as fitting as this one", he said neutrally. "Hey, this one must be it."

"Are you sure?"

"It matches the description", he nodded towards the cluster of towering buildings, the glare of floodlights peeking out from everywhere and several strange gray zeppelins drifting overhead. "Pretty hard to mistake it for anything else, like that one we saw with the floating castle."

"I guess", Morgana agreed reluctantly, veering off towards the starkly-colored city. "Hey! If this place had a bit more color and cheer to it, it might actually look kind of like Shibuya!"

"Maybe", Akira added hesitantly. There would need to be a lot more positive changes made before this Land could be considered even close to a match for the enormous district that he'd gradually come to think of as a second home.

For one, the 'Shibuya scramble' square was always choked with thousands, millions of people, most of whom always seemed to be in a massive hurry to get somewhere. By contrast this city was downright somber by comparison, a feeling only enhanced by the lack of any color but black or white and a greater percentage of tall buildings. Except...

Morgana said nothing, but the way his motor slowed down to a purring crawl made it clear he'd seen it too. An enormous ship already docked at the Land's harbor entryway, a long, thick-looking hull running flush against the curved shell composing the top, both looking to be composed of different shades of gold.

More strangely still, the top of the bright shell became a second, smaller deck, ending in an arrangement of stairs bringing to mind the pictures of Mayan ruins from Shujin history books. The top ended in an entryway nearly itself again the height of the hull, shaped like a fanged maw of some great serpent with sapphires for slitted eyes. The hull, which he could now see was decorated with numerous spiral patterns twining in on each other without end.

"Whoaaaaa!", Morgana allowed at last. "That one's huge! That can't be that bird-brained friend of Tsuruga!"

"Not a chance", Akira agreed softly, unable to take his eyes off it even while clambering off Morgana's deck. "I know that he can transform into a ship, but he wouldn't just sit here in the wharf while Tsuruga and the others were in danger, would he? More... do you feel that? Coming out from it?"

Transforming into a sight he once thought he would never see again- the diminutive round-headed biped with large, cute eyes beneath a black bandanna and the unshakable trace of feline features, a dagger clutched in one dexterous paw ready to fend off enemies and a yellow scarf flapping around his neck- Morgana waited before responding. "Oh? Ohhh. Yes, I can feel that too."

Not everyone would, Akira figured. After all, the hull and the top shell might have looked slightly sinister, but what his greatest sense, the much-disused Third Eye of the trickster, was warning him of was now so much more than simple garden variety uneasiness.

Inside of that gaudy shell was an intangible... something. A gathered knot of distorted awareness that reminded him most of a time a few years back, when on a foolish bet with Ichiko Oya to 'celebrate' his reaching the legal age to do so, he had actually become drunk enough to drift into a haze of clouded, unstable fractured consciousness... except that this felt considerably less wholesome than what he could remember of that mercifully brief period had ever been.

"Yeah", he breathed out in a rasp, sensing Morgana's uneasiness without looking and feeling a hand creep up to his head to try and massage away the pain. Deep inside of that scalloped golden structure was a hole in sanity. Something born of the purest form of madness that he had ever felt, surpassing even the wild desperation and delusions of the Phantom Thieves' most deranged targets. His headache got even worse when they got closer to examine the spiral-decorated hull more closely; for a moment, he felt the giddy urge to burst out laughing at absolutely nothing, and perhaps never stop.

Then he heard that dark, twisted laughter come to life.

It wasn't him, he realized with alternating shock and relief. The laughing sounded like him, but thankfully his mouth wasn't opening. As one, he and Morgana turned around to find the source of it waiting eagerly for them.

He was perched up on one of the stacks of shipping crates, booted legs folded casually, one saddled across the other, red gloved arms holding him in place as he leered down at the two of them, a grin plastered across his face only enhanced by some kind of black tracings at the corners of his pale lips. While his eyes lacked the telltale inhumanity of a Shadow, his skin was far too drawn and pale to possibly be natural, actually shading into a noxious semi-turquoise around the tips of his cheeks, spots of diseased yellow in other places.

But aside from all this, everything else from his shape to his attire to his mask were a perfectly identical copy of Akira's Phantom Thieves outfit. No, he realized. That wasn't quite right. Not an exact copy. This one is younger, thinner. Ganglier. He's the same age that I was at the time of the Phantom Thieves.

Not-Akira laughed again, even more maniacally than before, his head arching all the way back before he vaulted off the crate, giving an ironic little bow. "We will take this country."

"Oookay", Akira observed, blocking whatever uneasiness the ship and now the young doppelganger might have caused him with dry wit. "Guess someone had a bit too much pocky?"

"A Shadow?!", Morgana yelped in equal confusion. "No, that can't be possible! You overcome that part of yourself years ago! He has to be a cognition."

The impostor's stance dropped into a sleazy, hunched position which seemed to be his default posture, drawing a familiar knife from within his black coat. "Hahaha... That's right! Before that happens, we will take this country!"

Keeping a safe distance from the clearly loopy being, Morgana nodded his round head. "Of course. That settles it. It's most definitely a cognition of you, Joker."

"Looks like someone doesn't have a very high opinion of me", Akira commented disgustedly, drawing his own identical knife and wondering for the hundredth time if he still had the winning edge that had saved the world six years ago. "This guy looks like a drug addict or something."

"More importantly", Morgana noted. "He's repeating the same lines. Remember? That's from only time the public ever heard you speak as the leader of the Phantom Thieves."

The gun was next, once again a perfect match for Akira's own. He hadn't been able to keep the arsenal he'd bought from Iwai's shop long ago, but a simple toy had metamorphosed into a facsimile of his favorite gun the moment they'd stepped into Faraway Lands. The crackhead impostor's weapon looked every bit as deadly.

"We will take this country! Heehahaha!"

"Yeah yeah, we heard you the first time", Akira snarled, fighting the urge to look away. No matter how he joked about it, this ranked up there in the most unsettling things he'd seen. The gangly impostor had his coat. His swagger. His voice, yet even that was twisted into something close to the villain of an extremely disquieting slasher film that Haru Okumura had taken him to once.

He hadn't slept at all the following night.

"Joker", Morgana's urgent chirp brought him back to himself, the utterance of his code name itself a fond memory rusted over until now, clearing away the mental dust. "We can't afford to waste any time. Samesaji came here to ambush the Dream Voyagers; that eyesore is probably his ship. You go on ahead and stop him. I'll deal with this... thing."

Thank you. The thought popped into his heard instantly. He hadn't been looking forward to fighting the impostor, not because he feared defeat but simply because it meant having to look at and listen to him more.

Still, some courtesies simply had to be observed. "You're sure, Mona?"

Morgana gave a mischievous chuckle, blissfully reminding him of what a mentally healthy person's laugh sounded like. "You're doubting my skills? I won't be long. He's only a cognition, after all. He's based only on what this Land's ruler knows about you, which as you can see, isn't very much... and I'm guessing that they don't know how Personas work either."

Taking the lead, he stepped in front of Not-Akira and focused his round blue eyes. "Time to shut him up! Arise, Mercurius!"

The way the black-winged, blue-robed figure burst into substance next to him quieted most of Akira's greatest fear when stepping into this new cognitive world; that some niggling regulation might prevent the Phantom Thieves from calling on their Personas here. If anything, Morgana's ultimate Persona looked large and more impressive than ever before, a wider wingspan than before protruding out of its boots nearly enough to enclose his fake, luxuriously bright golden bands wrapped around both the lean arms and an opulent winged staff at the ready, even thinner legs hanging down by the golden boots, red wings jutting out from the top of a black corseted torso like eyes.

"Strange", he noted teasingly. "For someone who hates Pelagio so much, you have an awful lot of wings on your Persona. Is there something that you're hiding, Mona?"

His old friend- the one who had been with him from very start- glared back at him in a distant way that suggested he couldn't believe Akira was stopping to talk like that to someone currently wielding such power. "S-shut up! That pompous bird-brain just annoys me with his preening, that's all! Acting like he's so pure and noble! You should get going!"

The fake ignored Akira as he ran past, looking up at Mercurius' radiant power before smirking horribly, still a warped parody of the true Akira even if he wasn't a Shadow. "That's right. Before that happens..."

Akira didn't bother to listen to the rest of the fading litany, instead sprinting forward into the main part of the city, his familiar Phantom Thief coat flapping behind him like some kind of dark security blanket.

It wasn't long before he'd forgotten all about the impostor. What he was doing now was much more enjoyable than anything related to that.

He smiled. Like riding a bike.

All his prior worries had been unfounded. He could still leap and dash around with agility that impressed even himself, agility that exceeded even the other Phantom Thieves back then. And this enormous city, whatever its other faults, felt like it had been perfectly designed for someone like him. It wasn't long before he was gleefully speeding up and down dour stone masonry, jumping from perch to perch like some crazed pigeon and easily dodging every single searchlight, zeppelin and Shadow.

All this time, I thought I'd grown up... But if not enjoying this ride really is a mark of adulthood, than I guess I really am still a child at heart. Guilty as charged.

It was true that he was a bit taller than he had been six years ago, a larger target. His formerly wild frizzy hair had been tamed somewhat, cut down to a shorter more regulation form to match his teacher's glasses. But the instant that those glasses had transformed themselves into his familiar white domino eye mask, he knew he hadn't lost it after all.

Which was good. Because he had an unshakable feeling he was going to need every bit of those old skills before today was over.

---

"It seems impossible that I haven't met you all before now", Prince Taurus remarked amidst the crackling fires and wreckage that had blocked off the Dream Voyagers' escape route. The red horn-headed Persona, Mithras, advanced beside him as a lethal spectre smelling of fresh blood. "Heck, some of you might not even know who I am!"

"We know who you are", Jiachi was first to find his voice again, gazing back in determination not to show fear. "You're Guiledhalsim Samesaji."

Taurus laughed out genuine mirth. "Ha! Good one! But you'd know, wouldn't you? I met your Shadow, after all. I sure hope you've gotten stronger than it was, or this will hardly be any fun at all."

Instantly understanding the danger in his words, Aiko shakily stepped forward, trying to be a leader once again no matter how she felt inside. "You're from the Masked Circle. Like Lady Scorpio."

"Got it in one", Samesaji nodded, pleased to be recognized. "But I'm getting ahead of myself here. She's the boss, so I do have to make this offer before I get my turn."

"Offer?", Noel asked in confusion.

"The same offer she gave your leader a few weeks ago", he explained, gesturing towards Aiko. "Who knows? Maybe she's come to her senses by now as well. But this offer goes out to all of you."

"We have no time for this foolishness", Pelagio growled. "The Shadows will be upon us soon."

"No worries, beaky", Samesaji assured them. Behind him, the air chilled itself to near zero as a large wall of ice formed itself into place between the guardrails of the highway. "I also killed a lot of them around here to send 'em a message, so I don't think we should be interrupted. If we are, leave it to me to take care of them. My treat."

"That power...", Pelagio seemed momentarily thrown by how fast the ice wall had formed. "Captain... that is a top-level ice skill! We must use the greatest of caution!"

"I know", she acknowledged. "His ice took down the zeppelin." Bad. Bad bad bad. Jack Frost has Bufula, but this guy's leagues beyond that, and we're all running on fumes.

And yet... Somehow, I don't seem to care. The expected tremors of fear running up her bones were nowhere to be found. Still, I'd better drag this talk out long as I can... and pray for a miracle.

"Ice melts", Jiachi said, bucking up as much feigned confidence as he could muster. "Especially if you expose it to my fire."

"Yeah! That's the spirit!", Samesaji grinned savagely in approval. "It's no good if your enemy has no confidence of their own. But like I said, I'm jumping the gun here."

Taking a deep, overly formal breath, he regarded each of the Voyagers in appraisal. Just as the last time she'd seen him, it was easy for Aiko to recognize a 'hearthrob', a man with a fresh, handsome face well-practiced at charming women his age or younger, healthy dark hair braided into several colored locks at the back. A common sight on the streets and alleys of Shinjuku, and just like the club hosts of that unique district he obviously used that gift for corrupt purposes. His single spiral earring dangled as he spoke.

"I can see that you've all got Personas. That's good. That's what we want. The more people have them, the better. Without them, humans have no chance of surviving into the next century... at least, that's what Lady Scorpio says."

"And you just go along with that?", Aiko chipped in with exaggerated scorn, trying to buy them more time. "A bull who follows a scorpion's commands? Have you ever heard the fables about scorpions?"

Taurus just shrugged in good humor though. "Her Persona's powers let her peer into people's minds and into this dimension. Mine just let me destroy anyone who pisses me off. It wasn't really hard for us to decide who should call the shots there. She's the brains, I'm the brawn. Besides... her ambitions are way more interesting than mine."

"So instead you just act as her pitbull", Noel said contemptuously. "Smiting whomever she orders you to."

He smiled back as if they were complimenting him. "What can I say? I get to save the world, and enjoy being my true, superior self along the way." Swinging the block of his hammer back, he studied Julian closely. "You like it too, don't you? Being able to get away from your boring old lives at school, drop your masks and just act natural?"

"I think we have very different ideas of what counts as 'natural'", Aiko commented, refusing to be baited.

"Maybe", Taurus considered. "That'll be up to you. Our world... is about to change forever. It's up to you if you want to be on the winning side, to be a part of our Salvation... or if you'd rather turn down our generous offer, and die here, without anyone in the real world ever knowing what happened to you."

"By which you mean we'll join you", Aiko grunted, her anger dissipating any lingering malaise from earlier. "Join the Masked Circle and work for Lady Scorpio. Like hell."

Taurus spread his muscular arms imploringly. "Why not? We can give you all part-time jobs at the Karma Club. It won't interfere with what you've been doing here. In fact, we'll even give you the resources to help you on your way. By all means, save as many as you can. Each one can become another Persona-user and fill out our ranks. Any good friends you've got at school? We can try finding a Persona in them too, if you like."

"And then they'll die if they can't Awaken in time", she argued. "That's not an offer. That's crazy."

"They'll die anyway if they don't have a Persona in them", he countered. "Legem Naturae. Weak-hearted people like that are destined to die off in the new world, with or without us. Honestly, we're doing them a favor."

"Ah. There we go", Julian sounded quite satisfied, drawing his revolvers into a spinning dervish. "Here I was almost starting to like you, and then you go and say shit like that, reminding me that you're really just a d-bag who preys on people weaker than you."

"Hmph. Correct for once", Pelagio affirmed beside him, drawing his sword and shield. "Whatever honeyed lies this horned fool may try, we already know firsthand the various depravities of the Karma Club. To willingly become a part of such barbarity... would be to betray ourselves!"

Nodding back serenely as if he'd expected nothing else, Taurus turned his gaze to Mira. "How 'bout you, gaijin girl? You haven't said anything yet. Aren't you interested in become a part of the next big chapter in humanity's history?"

Mira remained silent for a long time. She had become absolutely, deathly, perfectly still, giving no sign of drawing her weapons or calling on her Persona.

Then the whispered, ominous words came out like stones: "Are you the one who hurt Nijima-san?"

Feeling everyone's glares renewed with energy, Taurus chuckled lightly.

"Heh... I can sense that lovely anger rising in you all. Would you fight harder if I said yes? Eh, sorry. I can't lie about that one. That was King Leo's doing, not mine. You'll get a chance to meet him too, if you join us."

"No thank you", Mira replied, eyes and voice both uncharacteristically cold. "I'd much rather defeat him face to face. After we defeat you, that is."

Taurus only looked happier at her threats. "Excellent. Even more confidence in your victory... I love it! But, I did make that promise to Scorpio. I'll give it one more try then."

Regarding Aiko again, he took a moment to take in all the details of her outfit before moving on to the others as well.

"You know, the reason we were offering to let you keep going with this is that it's completely meaningless. All you're really doing is destroying a lot of Shadow scum. Which in my opinion is a fine way to pass the time, but you kids... You're so damn naive! You act like you're actually serving some kind of greater good here. Like you're a bunch of freakin' magical girls, making sappy speeches about love and justice and all that preschool shit."

"We're not magical girls", Mira said, staying completely calm. "We have magical boys too."

"I'm not a magical boy", Jiachi joked back, though his irritation wasn't feigned as he brought his hands together menacingly. "Although we're definitely gonna punish you, d-bag."

"I wouldn't mind being a magical boy", Noel quipped, amused at the way his words made Jiachi flinch in surprise. "My Persona is certainly magical enough."

"I think we've gotten the point across", Aiko remarked, amusement of her own not quite diluting the threat in her words. "Sorry. None of us are going with you, Samesaji-san. If they really wanted to, I'd let them. But they don't. Instead, we're going to leave this place for now. Try to stop us, and it's five against one. I'm friends with your sister, so I'd really rather not go down that road. Your call."

"Yes", he faced her, still eerily happy at the prospect. "Exactly. My call. Now that I've made our generous offer like Lady Scorpio wanted and you've refused it like I expected, it's my call. Just like this is."

He raised his one free hand in a gesture and the team tensed up for an assault, but instead a spray of familiar green healing energy descended, covering them and erasing wounds from their earlier battles as well as some of the torture Kaneshiro had put Aiko through.

"What...?"

"The Mediarama skill. Obviously you've all been through the wringer, fighting all the Shadow scum infesting this place", Taurus explained as if it were obvious. "It's hardly fair if you all start out beat up before we fight. Less fun for me that way."

It wasn't a complete restore, she felt. The physical exhaustion that had begun to slow their movements and slacken their faces could only be properly cured by a good night's sleep. This felt more like what she imagined a big shot of caffeine was like, a temporary boost to let them ignore the side effects of fighting so many enemies for hours on end without rest.

Whatever it is, we need every edge we can get with this guy.

Even with the boost, it felt like a mighty effort to become Saber again, to put on the show of confidence in her decisions and the audacity to issue commands to the others.

"Mender, right? You stay back and heal. Gunslinger, light him up. He'll probably go after you and Mender, so Guardian needs to focus his protective skills and Mender and Gunslinger should stay far apart. Dancer, up your speed and chase after him. Don't give him a chance to focus his ice skills."

Surprised at how quickly she'd been able to put together a battle plan in her condition, Mira gaped. "And what will you be doing, captain?"

"Beating him", she replied without looking back. "I hope."

"But your Personas... are they working properly now?"

Aiko locked that idea out of her consideration, could not permit it to enter and begin to fill her with further doubts. "Time to find out."

Walking forward slowly, she reached up to the large brim of her hat, finally restored to her after hours of physical and emotional torture.

And thankfully, so was the power of the wild card.

Sensing the reckless thrill in Taurus' heart without needing to look at him directly, she reached deeply inwards for a similar mentality within her own soul, the source of a Persona she had expended a great deal of time and energy on fusion to create for situations like this.

"I challenge thee to a duel... Matador!"

The surge of the Persona's power rippled through the air for a moment, heralding the appearance of a living skeleton in dignified green matador's garb and cornered hat, a wickedly sharp rapier clasped in one hand and a flapping red capote in the other. Far more imposing however was the sensation she was getting from the gaze of its empty eye sockets... a canny veteran fighter's carefully controlled desire for spilled blood.

Aiko didn't try to fight this strange impulse, flowing with it instead. Matador... fitting opponent for a Taurus. And your sword style is nearly identical to mine... Let's take him down!

There was the infinitesimal, barely-perceptible nod of acknowledgment from the skull head, and then she was charging, blade at the ready.

Taurus charged as well, ignoring the sickly light gathering about him as Noel opened with the power-reducing Tarunda, as well as the blast of fire dogging his rapid steps down the highway towards his challengers, his motions so quick they seemed blurred even though they saw no sign of any speed-boosting skill effecting him.

Mira's own power in that category took effect at exactly the right time, allowing Aiko to open up with a spinning cutlass slash. Easily blocked by the hammer, but doing that stopped his charge and it couldn't stop her follow-up; a medium-level wind skill complementing the equal-strength lightning fork Mira called down from farther away.

The cloven hoof-shaped head of the hammer descended, breaking the lock and nearly breaking her arms had she not pulled away from it in time. The weapon shifted around to catch Mira mid-pounce, extending out to blast her back and away, crying out and nearly falling off the highway but for the guardrails catching her.

More riotous flame bathed Taurus and Mithras, but it seemed like more of an annoyance than anything that might damage them. "What's with that stupid look, girly?", he asked Aiko. "What, you thought just because I use ice skills, I'd be weak to fire? Come on now."

"The thought did cross my mind", she admitted, standing back up. "It's worked before."

"On Shadow scum", he reminded her in disgust. "I'm a bit above them, in case you haven't noticed. Or... maybe it's because you haven't overcome that problem yourself yet?"

He made another gesture, Mithras' power generating a spiked ice ball nearly the size of the one that had taken down the zeppelin, swinging the hammer around to send it rolling towards Julian at top speed.

Pelagio was there, slamming his shield down to block its path, but the instant the sphere hit, it shattered into countless ice spikes shooting out in every direction and hitting Noel and Jiachi several times anyway. As predicted, Jiachi appeared to suffer the most from the frozen impact, nearly falling over before Noel's healing light covered him, erasing most of the damage.

Aiko could only barely take in that sight, all her efforts put into hacking the enemy's guard down with the enhanced speed of Matador, only to find his weapon moving to block just as quickly. Making a surprise move to bring one hand onto the long handle of the hammer, she quickly withdrew it with a pained hiss, finding the metal so intensely cold to the touch as to be physically painful, Taurus taking that opening to cast her away again and send her cutlass clattering along the pavement.

Two darts struck his back shoulder, announcing Mira's return. Instead of a flying leap, she simply sprinted forward, a long stream of green wind boosting her speed even further before blowing past her and crashing into him, disrupting his guard just enough to strike with her silver daggers, but the lighter weapons couldn't stand up to his counter strike as well as Aiko's sword did, one quickly knocked aside and the other encased in ice when Mira tried to slice upwards into the man's hip.

"Guardian, go!", Aiko called without hesitation once she'd dodged through a field of ice spikes to pick up her weapon. "We need heavier weapons to match his!"

Pelagio didn't balk at the change in plans either, lunging out to smash into the enemy's guard and release a crushing nuclear blast as soon as they were close. Soaking up the damage, Taurus blasted him back into a car's wreckage.

"Yeah", he commented. "This thing's damn heavy alright. Without Mithras' strength, I would never be able to lift it, or even wear this armor. But when Mithras came to me, I knew that I'd been chosen for somethin' special. Somethin' that'll change the whole world, forever. What else could this wonderful power be for?"

"Idunno", Jiachi remarked, ditching his fire skills to resume the quicker barrage of revolver shots directed at arms and legs, designed to disrupt his movements and attacks. "Maybe not being a psychotic fucker?"

"Maybe for you", Taurus replied. Though he spoke to Jiachi, his next massive ice blast was directed at Noel, and barely dodged as their healer rolled out of the way. "Me though? I was born for war. It's in my bones."

"And what about Koto-chan's bones?", Aiko snarled, taking a shot with her flintlock pistol that spanged harmlessly off the hammer's pommel. "You're seriously going to leave your own sister's life to chance on this, on the off percentage that she might have a Persona in her too?!"

For the first time, Taurus looked genuinely furious at her words, distracted enough to stop attacking Noel and Julian and focus more on her. "What kind of damned hypocrite would I be if I didn't subject her to the same standards as everyone else? If she's strong enough, she'll live. If not... we won't be doing that for another few years at least."

One small weakness, she observed, even if it's not one we can exploit right now.

There was no time to consider it further. Samesaji swung his weapon, upwards seemingly at empty air, but generating an undulating wave of spikes eviscerating the concrete of the road, too wide to dodge. "Jack Frost!", she called out, bringing in the tiny fairy and his resistance to ice along with it, still wincing from the damage as she charged but a mere pinprick compared to what could have happened without it.

"Wild card, huh...?", his intrigue overcome his earlier rage. "Just like Scorpio warned me about. Man, it really is a shame that you won't be joining us. If I could train you up for a year? You'd be freakin' unstoppable."

"Matador", Aiko replied sternly, instantly reverting back to the stronger Persona once she'd cleared the ice spikes. The edge of her sword blurred in the air for moment, as if it had been smeared by defective film reel, before ending up as an indistinct blot, nothing but the faint sensation of thought-quick motion. The slashes that began to cut into Taurus' armor were no less quick, no less difficult to see properly, pelleting him just as relentlessly as Julian's barrage of shots but cutting deeper.

"Andalucia", she announced the technique's name, more for the benefit of her momentarily confused allies than the enemy. "You've got incredible power with that Persona... but we've still got the edge over you in speed."

"At least you do", Samesaji admitted, finally shrugging off the barrage to release a brutal arctic wind all around him, forcing Pelagio and Mira to fall back and resort to their long range attacks. "Still, using your ultimate attack so soon? No sense of style at all."

"Sorry", Jiachi's voice chimed in from a much closer distance than he expected. A triple barrage of bullets slammed into the man's hammer hand, knocking it loose. "We are just naive kids, yeah? Maybe if we were 'born for war' like you are, then we'd know better."

Smiling at the joke despite their dire situation, Aiko darted at the hand, slicing into it with everything she had to jar the hammer free and leave him temporarily weaponless. "Also, who said that was our best shot? I prefer this kind of trick myself... Zanma!"

Jiachi saw the move coming and synchronized with it, mixing his best fire skill in to create the burning winds that had been so effective against the scythe-bearing Shadow from city hall. Mira and Pelagio's combination followed directly after, a chain of blue spheres tethered by bonds of lightning which wrapped around their target before detonating.

The four of them wound up in corner positions around him, gratefully accepting heals from Noel and readying their weapons for more action. "He's not down!", Aiko warned them. "There's no way he's that easy."

"I'm not sure if I'd call that easy", Mira replied earnestly. "But I see what you mean. He's leagues ahead of any Shadow we've seen."

"Aw, I like you too", the voice of Taurus billowed out of the crater in the road to reach their ears. While it was clear from the various gashes and rips in the armor that he'd taken serious damage, his body now glowed with the same luminous healing energy he'd originally gifted them with.

"What?", he asked in mock indignation. "You think I only had ice skills? That's just my bread and butter. Time to up the ante, I think."

"Guardian", Aiko called over. "You heard him. Time for us to step it up a notch."

The beaked helmet nodded. "As you wish, captain." Lowering his weapon for a moment that might have been an opening if she and Mira hadn't had their guns ready, he raised his shield up against the tattered trails of smoke now rising from the ruined highway, Galahad's power extending its protection to all of them. "Mapraesi!"

Flashing back to how their previous fight had gone, Mira stared at Pelagio in alarm, but it was too late. Not that any words from her would have stopped him from overtaxing himself using such a skill. While he did tumble down to one knee, he brought himself back up after a few seconds, and now the transparent, damage-absorbing barrier had been granted to all of them.

And for the first time, Aiko felt like they might possibly win this battle. "Take him!", she commanded, beginning their renewed offensive with a pistol shot before charging with the others. "Now! Don't let up for a moment!"

Prince Taurus laughed.

Not in amusement, but genuine, heartfelt excitement. No matter how he tried to guard against one or two attacks, the other Voyagers would be there to strike at the openings, continuing the onslaught until his armor was battered beyond the point of repair and he was cast back on a roaring current of a water skill to smash into a truck.

"Nice", he remarked as the team prepared to strike again. "You're good as a team, if not as individuals. I'm curious though... If you actually managed to beat me, what would you do then? Kill me?"

The piercing question slowed Aiko down, just enough to throw off the rhythm of their coordinated attack and give Samesaji his own opening, unleashing a wide spray of meter-length icicles that forced the others to back off.

...Damn. He's right. What could we do? Can't kill him. We're not murderers. Take him captive? Kidnapping's not much better, and we have no place to store him. Leave him here for the Shadows? Maroon him on an island here? Same as murder. Turn him in to the police? What crime could he be charged with that they'd believe?

Hell, if we hurt him too much here, he could even sue us for assault once we got back to the real world. While a Persona's power made it take much more than usual to seriously injure someone in this world, it was possible, and it had already become clear that they weren't going to be able to stop him with anything less than lethal damage.

"Hey", his disarming voice pulled her out of her troubled thoughts. "No need to worry your pretty head too much about it. 'Cause that's not gonna happen."

"Focus please, Saber", Noel called to her from behind. "This demands our full attention!"

Ignoring the mauve light of the power-draining skill covering him once more, Taurus ducked out of the way of another blast from Pelagio and Galahad, nearly backed up to his own ice wall now. His hammer began to glow with a strange blue aura, but it was his other hand which struck back, forming into a focusing gesture as he smiled pure malevolence.

"MEGIDOLA!"

She was five feet away from slicing into his guard when something that felt like an abnormally wide bullet punched through her chest and out the other side, stopping her momentum and wracking her with unbearable agony.

Then the other lasers followed at various other angles. Collapsing to the ground, she caught and heard enough to know that the same thing was happening to the others, ending their charge and leaving them flat on the concrete. Even Pelagio could barely move.

"What...", he gasped out, not understanding how anything could hurt this much. "But... the barrier...?"

Raising his hammer, its aura covering him and undoing the power reduction Noel had afflicted him with, Taurus shrugged. "Sorry. That skill ignores all barriers and resistances. Doesn't matter what you do, you can't protect your buddies from it. And as you can see, it packs quite the punch."

Groaning, straining as she stood, Aiko realized in shock that she was the only one doing that. Everyone else was showing signs of life, but unable to stand, Julian only able to weakly mutter: "cheap bastard".

"Have to admit, this is new", the man remarked, shedding his ruined armor as he walked forwards. She realized that he was speaking to Pelagio, not her. "You're not even human, are you? You can't be a cognition either. I'd say you're Shadow scum, yet you have a Persona. Interesting. Very interesting. Care to share with the class, feathers?"

"Not... with you", the bird-knight managed to whisper.

Taurus looked disappointed. "Too bad. You seem like you've got a level head on your shoulders instead of being just another hormonal teenager. Guess this means you're not interested in joining-"

He cut off. Had to cut off, to devote his full concentration to fending off a wild, blindingly fast sally from Aiko, desperate to take him down or at least buy time for the others to recover. When he tried to blow her away as before, she timed a parry to redirect the blast skyward from the hammer's head, unleashing more wind skills into the opening.

It couldn't last. It felt much longer but might have been ten or fifteen seconds before the hammer flashed bright blue and the spiked sphere of ice carried her off into the wall, crushed and depleted of anything but the energy needed to continue breathing.

And watching. Watching as Samesaji propped the hammer back up on his sole intact shoulder guard, rightly convinced that they were beaten, finishing his slow walk towards Pelagio.

"But Scorpio said that you were the real prize here, Aiko Tsuruga", he admitted. "The power of the wild card, given to you by this 'Servant' guy that she hates so much, and you're the strongest of this bunch."

Taking the hammer into both hands for the first time, he raised it, ready to slam down with twice the force he'd been using. "So I'll give you one last chance. Come with me. Join us. Or your bird-friend gets a thinner head."

"You...", she rasped, competing emotions flooding her until she couldn't see anything except the horrified look in Pelagio's enormous orb-shaped eyes. "I can't answer that."

"Sure you can", he insisted. "You can say yes, or you can say no. It's easy. I'll give you ten seconds before I assume it's a no."

"Don't!", Pelagio howled in despair. "Please... don't. It is an honor, to die in your service-"

Taurus brought the hammer down on his chest plate instead of the head, and he could speak no more. Still alive, she observed in muted horror, seeing the smashed armor plate still rising and falling slightly. But that can change with just one more swing, if I don't do as he says.

Stupid. So stupid to stick around and fight him. We should've just run. Should never have come to this place to begin with. Now, Pelagio...!

"Sorry I missed. Next time will be his head", Taurus promised. "Even if you have revival skills", he noted with one lazy eye rolled towards Noel in suspicion, who already knew where he was going, "there's no coming back from that. Five, four, three, two-AH!"

The sharp cry brought Aiko's head back up out of its misery to see a black hexagon embedded in the hand holding the hammer, its owner reeling backwards in shock. A barrage of darts followed, slamming into his chest and sticking in the ruined plate.

Finally, the black-masked figure crashed into Taurus head on, a kick taking him in the waist before transitioning into an elbow strike at his neck. He'd regained his senses by then though. He rolled with the strike, spinning around into a back swing forcing Hex to leap back. Even then, the frost nearly caught her legs.

"Who's this?", Taurus asked in piqued curiosity. "Another member of your merry band?"

"No", the artificial electronic growl answered. "Just a defender of justice, who can't stand to see people threatened."

"You?", Aiko wondered aloud. "You're helping us?"

The black visor turned to her, imperceptible as ever but the normally threatening voice remarkably less so. "I guess they didn't tell you. That's fine. Just sit back, and let me take care of this bastard. I owe you that much at least."

Shaking off the attacks, Taurus went still. "Wait... Oh. Oh. You're the real Hex? Didn't you learn your lesson after last time you messed with us?"

"Last time?" Hex seemed equally disarmed by his words before refocusing and preparing another fistful of the hexagonal black disks. "You? You're the one who... No. Doesn't matter! Just one more reason to bring you to justice here, even if I can't do it in the other world!"

Samesaji smirked, putting an empty hand up to touch his earring for luck. "Right. I guess this Land makes sense now, if you're its ruler. I suppose that means I shouldn't kill you."

"Don't let that stop you from trying", Hex dared him. "Nothing else is going to stop me anyway!"

Under a sneaking suspicion that she already knew how this battle would end, Ai pried her eyes away from it to focus on her friends. She could see them struggling to stand, free to try now that the enemy wasn't looming over them with a deadly weapon. Pelagio wasn't moving, but she could see signs of a resurgence in Mira, Noel and Jiachi.

Have to stand... focus. Get back up. Have to fight. Help Hex. No matter who he is, he's helping us now. Anything to get out of this mess we're in. So...

"H-High Pixie", she whispered, calling back the smaller winged Persona for its healing powers in Dellingr's absence. Depleted as she was, she could only manage a partial restore, but it was enough to let her stand, no matter how much it hurt.

That was the difference, she realized in numb surprise. Whatever Kaneshiro had done to her, whatever warped satisfaction she had gotten out of it, there was at least one good thing to come out of it.

Compared to the hell she'd gone through in that cushioned room, anything that Prince Taurus could dish out was a hard summer rain, even if in truth it was far more damaging. And that was worth a moment of her own satisfaction. I almost want to go confront Kujou again, just so she can see how little anything she does to me means any more.

That can wait. Assuming that we survive this.

Forcing her head back up, she saw the fight wasn't going well. Hex had taken the man by surprise at first, but putting aside the various darts, bombs, boomerangs and other gadgets he was actually weaker than any Persona user. Any landed strike was blunted by the combination of Mithras' power and the remnants of his armor and inevitably resulted in his gauntlet-clad arms becoming covered in numbing frost.

He was momentarily surprised when Shadows oozed out from the concrete to take him from behind, but the ones summoned were so weak that he was able to destroy them with a single swing each. "Shadow scum", he chuckled at his opponent's desperation. "Don't worry everyone. I've got them, as promised."

She took advantage of the opening the final Shadow created, dashing in with a blasting water skill. As hoped for, his instinctual attempt to block it with ice merely resulted in the water freezing over his arm, the sight of which was distraction enough to get a slash past the hammer and nearly into his cheek. When he moved the hammer to force her back her other hand was there to catch it, ignoring the biting chill and holding it with all her remaining strength.

His knee shot up then, sharp armor plates digging into her gut until she saw stars. The light of those stars became the light of the destructive lasers, bombarding both her and Hex until both lay flat on the ground, one not moving and the other just barely.

She rolled, trying to stand. The pain could be ignored- Kaneshiro's lessons in it were still fresh- but the sheer amount of physical damage would have been more than enough to overwhelm and kill without her Persona blocking so much of it out. If she lost focus, if Matador dissipated because of a lapse in concentration...!

Kicking Hex's crumpled form aside contemptuously, Taurus strode towards her, clearly savoring his final victory. "Well done. You kept it up longer than I thought. Crushing that confidence was good entertainment..."

He paused brandishing his weapon, letting them wait for the other shoe to drop. "...But my previous statement stands. You're still just a bunch of prissy magical girls playing hero, ignorant of the brutal realities of life. You're not worthy of Valhalla."

"Fight me."

Everyone searched for the source of that request, not just Samesaji, until they realized that Julian was the one who had spoken. Battered, bruised, bloody, unable to stand, and covered in frost to the point that his lips were turning an unhealthy shade of blue.

Yet he was forcing those lips to open and curse and scream defiance, focusing his eyes on their enemy. "Yeah, you heard me, ya d-bag! Fight me! Drop that OP BS Persona of yours, ditch that hammer, and I'll drop Wild Bill and all my weapons! We'll fight like men should- hand-to-hand! I'll kick your candy ass!"

Taurus stopped for a moment, regarding Julian cautiously, as if seriously considering his offer to fight. But it was obvious to everyone what this really was; a last-ditch attempt at turning the fight around, perhaps distracting their opponent long enough for everyone else to escape safely.

Just as Aiko herself had done earlier today.

"You've got a lot of spirit", Samesaji observed Julian admiringly. "Full marks for that. I almost want to take you up on that offer. But Lady Scorpio was very clear on this; any Persona user who opposes our Salvation has to die here. Sorry about that. Really, I am."

"Do it then! If you're got the balls!"

"Gunslinger", Aiko whispered in anguish, wishing that he would stop. It was over. Everything was over. The only mercy she could hope for now was not to have to watch Taurus kill her friends, crushing them one by one. Still vacant.

"I think I can oblige you on that", Samesaji nodded, preparing his weapon as he paced towards Julian's defeated form. "I always say spirit like that should-"

He froze up, not speaking, not moving.

After several interminable seconds where no one seemed to understand what had happened, Aiko spotted the mottled mass of darkness crouched at his side, which had pounced from nowhere with enough speed that it was only now recognizable as a human figure.

From the other side, all that Julian could make out was the blade of the dagger protruding from Samesaji's side.

"Don't let me interrupt you", Akira Kurusu said, the darkness covering him shedding away to reveal his eye mask and black coat. "You were saying something about spirit?"

For several more seconds no one moved, or even breathed. Then the arctic winds returned, if anything fiercer than before, forcing an instant dodge away.

Samesaji had gone down on one knee after the knife left his gut, but only for a moment. Standing back up, he smiled the same creepy smile, regarding Akira as another welcome intrusion.

"Ah... Joker. You're here. I didn't think you would be, after what you said to me earlier."

Standing tall, Akira took in each of the fallen Voyagers before determining there wouldn't be a window to switch Personas and heal them in. "That's still the truth. This still isn't the real me. My name is still Akira Kurusu, and no matter how you want to deny it, your name is still Ryuken Samesaji. Brother of Kotone Samesaji."

The healing light descended, condensing around the knife wound as their enemy continued to speak. "Have you talked to these kids about it? They even invented code names for their superior selves, just as you did. Saber, and Gunslinger, and... erm, Dancer, was it?"

"Masks", Akira emphasized hotly. "To hide our true names in places where they're inconvenient. But you've let that mask take you over, Samesaji."

"Prince Taurus, please", he replied forcefully, unconsciously reaching up to jingle his earring in superstition. "And whether you admit to it or not, you're much more Joker than Kurusu. Or does Akira Kurusu really think it's okay to ambush someone and stick a knife in their guts in reality too? 'Cause if that's the case, maybe he's worth getting to know after all."

"Enough!", he barked. "We both know why I'm here. To stop you from killing these kids, from taking advantage of them when they've already been exhausted from fighting Shadows here for way too long already."

"Come on", he spread his arms in protest. "I tried my best to heal 'em up before we got started, didn't I?"

Seeing the brief confused look on Akira's face, Aiko struggled back to her feet and gave a humbled nod. "Actually, he did do that. Said it wouldn't be fair otherwise."

"Wow. Guess that makes me the bad guy for not doing the same for him" , Akira pretended to consider. "But as many Shadows might tell you... I'm okay with being the villain."

Reaching up to grip his eye mask, he let a familiar smirk creep back onto his face, the one which had put the fear into countless distorted cognitive enemies before now. This one, though, didn't seem scared.

Yet.

With all his might, he wrenched the mask free, conjuring a Persona from the resulting blue conflagration. An animalistic-seeming biped, a red skin-like substance covering the black at the legs and arms before ending in vest-like openings, a white plaited cravat thrusting out from the black of the chest above two rows of dinner jacket buttons and a chain. Above it, a pair of horns gave away to a tall black cylinder covering the face, while black feathered wings even greater than those on Mercurius' feet expanded, still licking with azure flames.

Then those dark red claws reached out, chains crawling along them to seek prey.

"ARSENE!", Joker howled into the austere night sky of the city for the first time in six years. "RAVAGE HIM!"

And Taurus, clearly able to sense the power swelling up around him just as well as any Persona-user, answered with a smile of pure joy. "Ooh, is it my birthday? Giving me exactly what I wanted? You shouldn't have... You really shouldn't have! Mighty Mithras! TOGETHER, WE SHALL CONQUER!"

His own Persona reformed itself with equal energy, the voracious red-maned head of a lion topped by savage curved horns, two metal coil staffs clutched in its razor claws. The lower claws dangled in the air, almost whimsically suspended above and behind its summoner's shoulder, but the sudden upswing in the power it gave him was unmistakable, taking the form of an unstably shaking azure aura to oppose Arsene's crimson.

"A God of war", Akira observed, sounding more wary of Mithras than impressed. "No wonder you're so eager to fight if that's really your true inner self."

"Oh you have no idea", Taurus emphasized, his eyes wide with hunger. "But even these ones weren't enough in the end. Too weak. You, though... you'll do."

"Maybe", he pretended to consider. "No complaining when you learn you didn't want this fight after all, got it?"

"Wouldn't dream of it!"

Arsene's curse power gathered. Mithras' coated the concrete in frost.

And Joker lunged.

Something like an explosion quaked the bridge, knocking Aiko back off her feet, and then they were both gone, leaving behind a gaping hole in one of the rails. Running to it, she could see the twin spheres of terrifying power, one of red and one of blue, falling further down into the steel glass canyons.

Looking back, she saw the others, her team. Battered, injured, and exhausted more than they'd ever been... But the look in Mira's eyes was unmistakable.

It was acceptance. "Go", she implored, knowing without needing to ask what their leader needed to do. "Help Kurusu-kun. We'll catch up."

Taking a deep breath, she gathered her Persona's power once more and stepped through the gap, falling down.

Into the darkness...

---

Returning to the cognitive world, whatever its current form, had naturally caused many old memories to resurface within Akira Kurusu.

The one that he couldn't help dwelling on now was one of the fight with Goro Akechi, the so-called 'second coming of the detective prince' who had entered a partnership with the Phantom Thieves only to betray them and murder Akira personally. Or so he'd thought at the time.

Still, being tricked and eventually defeated did nothing to diminish the impact of the Personas he'd wielded, the justice-oriented facade of Robin Hood giving way to the malevolent psychosis of Loki when he was backed into a corner during their fight. All of the combined talents and abilities and teamwork of the Phantom Thieves had been just barely enough to defeat him then.

Ryuken Samesaji, by comparison, lacked the power of the wild card, being limited to a single Persona. Yet even in the first minute it immediately became clear that he didn't need the wild card in order to be nearly as dangerous as Goro Akechi had ever been. Together, he was confident that the Phantom Thieves of old definitely could have taken him down without too much trouble.

Except that the Phantom Thieves of old weren't here, or anywhere. It was just him, alone.

Arsene's dark power thrummed within his heart, no doubt just as eager to lash out as his target after being pent up for six years and change.

Challenge accepted.

"Heads up!", his opponent cried out gleefully, channeling blue energy through his hammer to launch a near copy composed entirely of solid ice, which grew to three times the original size as it blasted towards him.

With a gesture from Arsene's limber claws, a pillar of smoke black flame flared up in front of the colossal weapon, leaving it as a cloud of harmless vapor coming out the other side. With a second move the same cursed fire covered Taurus, but the crazed Persona-user simply charged straight through it, ignoring the damage to catch Akira off guard with an offhand punch. Akira rode the impact, letting its force blow him back, bracing off a tarnished brick wall to rebound up and over before coming down with a precise dagger strike.

"Thought you were better than that!", Samesaji snorted, deflecting it with another frigid barrier before bringing his knee up into a glob of oily curse power, dissipating the skill before it could become dangerous to him. "Those kids tried the same thing too. Fact is, I've got no weaknesses at all!"

"But you did once", Joker guessed, idly dodging the man's follow up. "When you were starting out, right? Let me guess... fire?"

"Maaaybe." Instinct warned him about the mass of cold air near his legs beginning to crystallize, leaping away while firing his pistol back. "What's it matter? Lady Scorpio helped us to erase our weaknesses! And I'm not just talking elementals either! She could do the same for you, if you just agreed to help us instead of getting in our way like those dumb kids!"

The Third Eye of the Phantom Thief saved him once again, tipping him off that one of the buildings, its surface now encrusted with ice, was about to collapse from the stress, moments before it did, avoiding the avalanche of masonry. "Refer to my previous answers", he replied briskly. "You have to know I'd never say yes to that."

Stopping to block the Maeigaon skill with the block of his hammer, Samesaji chuckled back as if they were old friends sharing a joke. "Yeah, I didn't think so. I always figured the high and mighty Phantom Thieves considered themselves too righteous to actually address the roots of the problems plaguing the world. You're proof of that."

"Yeah, sorry to disappoint your high standards, mister violence-obsessed maniac." Carefully dodging around another ice hammer, he sought cover behind a car to focus. "You love war? Here's another war god for you to enjoy- KALI!"

Taurus did indeed stop to take notice of the new Persona that had replaced Arsene when Akira touched his mask, swapping it out; a tall red-skinned female figure with pale hair braids, multiple arms clutching an arsenal of bloodstained swords, a wicked grin on her fanged face radiating a lifelong enthusiasm for carnage.

To test it out, he risked trading blows with his opponent, his dagger striking past the hammer's slower swing. Sure enough, the hit's impact was markedly reduced and he had time to strike again before Taurus pulled away, returning to his ice skills instead.

Akira let him, focusing instead on one of Kali's skills- the most powerful buffing skill he'd ever managed to acquire in what he would hesitate to call his 'career', and the best one outside of Futaba's cognitive magic. Three beams of red, blue and green covered him, enhancing not only power, but speed and durability as well.

Still, it sure would be nice to have Futaba and Prometheus backing me up right about now. It would be entirely worth whatever jokes she felt like making about this guy's aesthetics.

"Neat trick", Taurus called to him, readying his weapon but not charging. Instead, the horns of his helmet had begun to glow blue. "Guess I should pull out my big guns too... MEGIDOLA!"

Instinct made him brace anyway, but he knew from memory that there was no point- skills like that bypassed any form of defense or resistance, lasers so bright the shade of violet was nearly indiscernible bombarding him from every direction. Luckily it wasn't strong enough to cripple him, but it was still much more than anything the ice had done so far.

Instead of following up with more of the frosty skills he'd normally gotten used to Yusuke using, Taurus had somehow directed the power back on himself, blots of hard ice sealing shut the countless cracks and breaches in his armor that the Dream Voyagers had created earlier, damage which healing skills couldn't deal with.

"Neat, huh?", Samesaji caught him staring. "Ice armor."

"I haven't seen that trick before", he admitted. "But aren't you a bit cold under- oh." He slapped the forehead above his mask. "Right, Mithras protects you from ice. Duh."

Samesaji shrugged. "You said, it not me. Losing your edge there, Joker? What a shame. I'm not even getting hard right now."

"No questioning that", he sighed. "If I'd been at my peak, I'd have wrecked you already. Sorry, still shaking the rust off. Maybe this'll do... METATRON!"

The new Persona he'd called to replace Kali glided down on vast wings, flexible yet shining in a way suggesting metallic content. The figure beneath them no less majestic, a polished, pristine giant of alien metals, with glowing green eyes and an opulent golden loincloth.

Taurus stared up at the enormous machine angel in approval. "Oh yeah. Now we're talkin'!"

Joker's frown was nearly as deep and disapproving as his new Persona's scowl. "You really are nuts. I call down the most powerful angel in mythology to kick your ass, and all you do is admire it? You are aware that these so-called 'angels' almost took over the world six years ago?"

"Power- real power- is beautiful", Samesaji said firmly. "Even when it's pointed at me, I can appreciate the beauty of it. And yeah, Scorpio did mention something like that happening."

Feeling a deep stab of fear in his heart like it was his own dagger turned on him, Akira stopped dodging to stare back at his opponent. "And she told you who I was? What about the others?"

"The others don't matter", Taurus scoffed lightly. "We know that you're the real deal. The fabled Trickster of the Phantom Thieves, who escaped death and led their failed effort to redeem human society."

He breathed out again. Phew. Small mercies. They didn't know that Makoto was a Phantom Thief, or they would never have targeted her the way they did, knowing that hurting her would just attract our attention more. They've stayed hidden until now. They don't know anything about Morgana either. Just me.

Lucky me.

His bout of grateful silence seemed to have been taken as a cue to resume the battle, and Taurus' weapon flew out again, this time on a chain he'd attached to a small lock on his right arm. While a flail required much more skill to use effectively than a hammer, the way it seemed to be accurately chasing him around suggested a great amount of practice. Again and again Akira found himself being slammed, saved from serious injury only by the combined power of his defense skills and Metatron's sheer power.

The only way out was to turn that same power to offense. Channeling the lesser tetragrammaton's dominating God-given strength, Akira swung towards the next incoming hammer flail strike, a larger energy sword appearing to block the strike which his dagger couldn't have. More of the same swords appeared around Taurus, only prevented from plunging into his arms or even severing them by swift use of a skill generating a hail of equally large ice spikes to intercept them.

A slight interlude followed that fevered clash, as more Shadows appeared to threaten the 'criminals' with justice. They rarely had enough time to manage a single attack before Joker or Taurus or both instinctively cut them down.

"Shadow scum", Samesaji cackled victoriously when it was over. "So stupid, they don't even know when they're out of their league. Sorry for the interruption, Joker."

"Accepted", he grunted back, more than annoyed by the way Samesaji still seemed to be treating him as a comrade, a fellow Phantom Thief instead of a murderous enemy. Hopefully this will wake him up.

Another skill of Metatron's took effect, the most powerful healing of all covering him in an avalanche of radiant light, restoring most of the wounds he'd taken so far in the battle. Before Samesaji could protest about that, he had switched Personas back to Kali, re-applying the Heat Riser skill and ignoring- able to ignore- the devastating hammer strikes thanks to her physical toughness.

As soon as that was done, he switched Personas again. Another winged giant descended- one clearly of the exact opposite origin to Metatron. Sloping white horns not dissimilar to the ones on Taurus' helmet bracketed an array of six bat wings, dark blue muscle covering the rest and a strange, perpetually-moving white cloth sash covering that. A regal mane of golden hair covered a gruesome, unsmiling red-eyed face... not merely a devil from hell, but their ruling lord and master.

"Okay", Akira remarked, unavoidably bemused by the fact that Taurus was still gaping up at the sight of Lucifer, as if he still didn't quite grasp just how dangerous the power facing him really was. "Now we can fight."

"Yes." Nodding, Taurus raised his weapon. "Now we can fight." The blue aura surrounding him that had grown steadily more visible the more they fought flared yet again, generating a new kind of ice storm. This one was actually composed of the colossal hammers from before, raining down indiscriminately and unavoidably, shattering, crushing, destroying everything they struck.

Everything except for Akira. For him it was a light, cool rain, neatly melted away by Lucifer's power by the time it reached him. As he neared striking distance, Taurus moved on to the rapid blast of ice power that he'd used to clear away the Dream Voyagers when they got too close, only to find it deflected by a casual flick of Akira's wrist. Leaping back to get some distance from the disturbingly slow, untroubled walk his opponent was using to erase the gap between them, he let fly the hammer flail, this time with the cloven head itself glowing a dangerous blue.

Akira didn't try to dodge. The pain when the hammer struck his shoulder didn't stop him from reaching out to grab the chain with reflexes that still felt to him like they transcended humanity. As it had before the biting chill assaulted him, the winds of the coldest north magnified into something impossible to endure for long... but he hauled it back into the falling blade of the dagger, a clean slice through the links, sending the hammer flying across the alley to smash into and through a brick wall.

Taurus ran, catching the damaged weapon... and exposing his back to the nova-white blast of energy gathering in the palm of Akira's off hand, shattering the ice armor off and eliciting a cry of pain from him for the first time. Despite this, he rolled with the hit, transitioning into a sprint back into melee range before bringing his weapon down in a merciless chop.

The dagger was there to meet it, sawing half an inch into the handle before disengaging, both men unloading their best Almighty skills on each other even while locked into savage direct combat, putting their entire bodies into every strike until Taurus could take no more, and was blasted back into a wall hard enough to leave an imprint behind as he collapsed to his knees, the last of the ice armor flaking off his body like dead skin as he struggled not to faint.

Joker approached him slowly, his weapon at the ready, no trace of sympathy on his furrowed face.

Taurus looked up at him, sensing the danger approaching. He stared in awe into the high-grade steel of Akira's weapon, into the eyes of his infernal Persona. Into the mask of Joker.

Stared back down at his broken weapon. He seemed to suddenly remember that he had an urgent appointment somewhere else.

Anywhere else.

"So it's just like I thought", Joker said, surprised as anyone by the note of sadness in his voice. "You don't like fighting so much when you're losing, huh Samesaji? No. No, you only want to start fights that you're sure you can win. My bad. Here I was mentally comparing you to a good friend of mine, another one who prefers violent solutions to problems, which gets him into trouble sometimes."

Pausing he watched the hatred gather in the man's eyes but continued speaking. "...but I can see now that would be an insult to him. Even calling you a 'blood knight' is much too kind. You're nothing. You're nothing but a high-powered bully."

"S-shut up!", Samesaji growled. "This isn't over!" Anger had returned some of his blue aura to him, chilling the surrounding air but failing to harm Joker, who pointed the tip of his dagger straight at the man's heart.

"The truth hurts, right? Now I know why you're called Taurus- 'cause you're full of bull shit."

"Shut up! SHUT UUUUP!"

Akira sensed the man's power rising back up along with his feral screaming, but couldn't follow through on the threat his dagger's position implied. Phantom Thieves don't kill. Not back then, or ever.

Instead he watched as Mithras' power flowed heedless over them both, reforming newer, tougher-looking ice armor over Samesaji's body, the howling of the arctic winds building to an agonized crescendo until it sounded to Akira's trained ears like the anguish of some ancient beast returned to life... And the eyes that stared up at him as Samesaji's head jolted back to life held no hints of any such limitation.

"Insulting our goals", he smirked. "Doesn't change the fact that you failed, Joker. You failed! We wouldn't even be doing all this if you hadn't. You and your Phantom Thieves had the power to save humanity, and you threw it away! Why? WHY?! You didn't have the balls to do what needed to be done? So much for our glorious heroic Phantom Thieves!"

Resisting the urge to shout back, Akira merely braced himself, resummoning Metatron to prepare a barrier skill. Arguing with him's pointless now. He's clearly gone over the edge, just like Akechi did back then.

Like as then, the rising, screaming madness he sensed in the other man was also the key to unlocking his greatest power. Taurus' smirk grew into a psychotic grimace as Mithras' power continued to surge, icing over every window and brick without even thinking about it, the howling noise echoing through the city streets and frightening Shadows back into their hiding places.

"All of that power is wasted on a wuss like you!", he screeched, all pretense of his earlier good humor vanished. "It's better off with ME! COME, LEGEM NATURAE!"

With those words, all the chilling power Akira had felt rapidly expanding on the front of the arctic wind, threatening to cover the entire Land, refocused itself on them. Too late, both he and Metatron felt the force tugging at something beneath his skin, extracting raw power from there. Even so, it couldn't be avoided either. Dodging around seemed to only hasten the transition, the flow of power from one person to another.

After just a few seconds it was over. Metatron was still there, materialized beside him, but the tetragrammaton had felt the drain just as keenly as the one who had called it into being, actually cast down on one knee, its wings folded about it protectively.

And Taurus, newly radiating with more strength than he'd ever known before, cackled in triumph as Mithras bore its beastly fangs. "That's why", he gloated. "That's why you always save your best number for the final act in the show! It's the one that nobody expects! You should be honored- I only use this on the very strongest enemies, and I'm sure you can see why!"

Wincing, Akira began his retreat only to find himself against an ice wall blocking the way out. Damn, this is bad. Feels like he drained a huge portion of my strength... added it to his own!

"Legem Naturae!", Taurus exclaimed, eyes wild with the prospect of impending victory. "The Law of Nature, and the law humanity buried rather than face! But we know better, don't we? All the good intentions in the world are useless without the power to carry them out! Without power, the Phantom Thieves are NOTHING!"

What had began as the coup de grace had swiftly transformed into a desperate attempt to preserve his own life. Every missed hit from the enemy demolished a building, and every one that connected used Akira's body as a wrecking ball to achieve a similar result. Repeatedly healing the wounds kept him on his feet, but he knew it wouldn't last. The only way out of this mess was to strike back.

So he did. Waiting to the last second, he changed Personas again. This one was a new sight, a grotesque figure covered in dark hair over the white eyes that failed to disguise the fact that it was little more than a floating upper torso, the exposed spine hanging down like a decoration alongside long razor claws. Various other strange charms from some strange branch of voodoo hung about the creature's fur, failing to tip Samesaji off about its true nature until his hammer struck, the clang resonating through the city.

The impact shattered every window nearby, but Akira felt none of it. Instead it was Samesaji who was blasted back, his armor cracked by the reversed impact.

"Rangda", Joker finished desperately, glad to have some breathing room at last. "The flaw of power, Samesaji, is arrogance. As we learned for ourselves back then, power can easily be reversed when we least expect it. The same one who gave us the power was also setting us up for a fall."

"My name", the other man snarled through gritted teeth, "is PRINCE TAURUS!"

He charged forward again, but even immolating in the white fire of his own hatred he wasn't foolish enough to try the same attack again after the first one had been completely deflected. Instead, ice spikes struck from every direction, sticking in his coat before exploding into tiny clouds of frigid air biting like rabid mosquito.

Forced to switch back to Lucifer to survive, Akira prepared himself for another giant hammer impact to follow, trapped and forced to bear each hit punctuated by more deafening screaming directly into his face, impossible noise that his brain took a moment to instinctively decipher it amid the sounds of everything else around them shattering from the impacts, even the grimy pavement beneath their feet cracking from the force of it.

Yet it had to be those same hate-filled screams that were keeping the Shadows far away from there, not the damage.

"YOU THINK I'M PLAYING?"

Slam.

"YOU THINK THIS IS A FUCKING GAME?!"

Slam.

"IT'S NOT! THIS IS OUR DUTY!"

Slam. Slam.

"THE DUTY YOU ABANDONED LIKE A GODDAMN COWARD!"

No slam.

He looked up. Taurus had raised his weapon, bringing it down in a savage crushing strike only to be slowed by a sudden rapid barrage of sword slashes cutting into his armor, a swarm of gnats inhibiting fast movement.

In the time it took for Akira to recognize the Andalucia skill, the Persona it was known for and the one who had called upon it fell from above, her cutlass positioned defensively between Akira and Taurus.

"Sorry", Aiko remarked, her eyes smoldering emerald fire and her cutlass shining. "Did I interrupt something?"

"Matador", Akira panted in grateful relief, recognizing both the Persona and the fact that the battle had swung back into his favor. Matador had served him well early in the Phantom Thieves' career. Even if it was hardly the most powerful, its agility was hard to match. "Saber. How are the others?"

"They're fine", Aiko promised without taking her eyes off their opponent. "Mender's patching them up now. All we have to do is focus on taking this guy down."

Taurus reacted like he'd heard a bad joke, swinging his hammer and sending a car flying at her, twirling end over end, falling apart from the force applied. "This is a fight for grown-ups, little girl. Stay out of it!"

Tilting her hat brim, she shook her head after dodging the spinning projectile. "I'm pretty sure all that ranting about power like some cheap cartoon villain I heard earlier disqualifies you from playing the 'I'm an adult' card. I don't hear Joker complaining about it, do you?"

"No ma'am", Akira followed up enthusiastically, readying himself to fight once more. Even if it was two against one, he knew that Aiko was putting on a show of bravado; she lacked his experience and power. He would need to be the aggressor of this pairing.

What did surprise him, however, was how quickly and easily their attacks seemed to synchronize with each other. Even though they'd never fought together before, even though he'd never even seen her Personas until now, and she had never seen his, he couldn't but notice how her attacks and skills complimented his in a way he hadn't seen since the disbandment of the Phantom Thieves.

His mind reached, but he couldn't name a particular one of his former companions that he could compare her to. The deft use of the sword showed some shades of Yusuke's style naturally, but the speed of the strikes and cunning use of elemental and support skills were much closer to Morgana or Makoto.

Whatever kind of style was, in the end it was enough. The overwhelming frigid blue aura was buffeted by the red and the newly-arrived green power, itself smaller than the other two but still powerful enough to make the difference. Their combined onslaught couldn't be stopped by any amount of ice or raw physical might. Every time Taurus tried to attack one, he exposed himself to the other. When one was injured, it only took a moment for the other wild card user to swap their Personas and invoke a healing skill. Though Aiko's were much weaker, they were still enough to keep Akira standing and fighting, or the blue aura from shrinking.

For a moment it looked like they were in trouble when the enemy gathered power for another use of the Megiola skill, but Akira moved to block it before it could strike Aiko down, his greater durability soaking up the damage without much issue. Any attempt to focus on eliminating the weaker of the two first only left Taurus wide open to a full onslaught from Akira's strongest Personas.

Samesaji got the message as well, eventually. Rolling away to dodge a blast of water from Saber, he made a wild lunge at Joker instead. Seeing Rangda appear, he substituted an ice hammer of equal size in his off hand, dual-wielding for the first time they'd seen, yet Akira didn't check his own run, cutting into the new weapon before sprinting past and around his target. The new hammer was naturally lighter, and fell back with the hit, the point of the thick icicle handle jutting out-

Straight into Akira's hip.

Aiko froze up when she heard and saw him cry out, but he didn't stop for long, breaking the spike off and continuing past. Scoffing lightly, Samesaji turned to give chase.

Only his legs weren't moving. Something had bound them tight, and looking around confirmed it when he saw the broken chain of his own weapon clutched in Akira's red-gloved off hand, following him around as he circled. In the same moment, Aiko leaped up and caught the free end before it could come loose, a wind skill boosting her speed the same way Mira's had until Samesaji had been double-wrapped.

The azure blue of ice power covered both ends of the chain, creating two misshapen lumps of ice to weigh it down, a loud clang ringing out as Akira stabbed his dagger into his end of the chain, embedding both in the wall.

Reaching the other end of the street, Aiko did the same with her cutlass, completing the trap.

"The Show's...", Akira grunted, fighting now not to pass out from the blinding pain coursing through him, "...Over."

Testing the bonds crushing his legs and arms and finding them unbreakable, Samesaji's furious grunts became more desperate screams, and then silence. "Cheaters!"

"Pirate", Aiko reminded him tersely, tapping one of the buttons on her captain's vest.

"And Thief", Akira seconded. "No such thing as cheating in a fight." Satisfied that their target couldn't escape, he turned to Aiko with a grateful smile. "Hey, nice save back there. You're getting better."

"Thanks", she nodded, carefully keeping her eyes on the chains in case Taurus tried to break free again. "S-sorry if I slowed you down."

"Never", he assured her. "Two's always better than one, even if you're not exactly Phantom Thief-grade power yet. Besides...", his gaze darkened. "It's fitting that you get to help take down this bully who decided to jump you when you were already depleted, to try and get lucky."

Thrashing around at the insults, Samesaji fell over on the ground, his hammer clattering emptily on the pavement. Pacing over to him, Akira knelt down, once again faced with a collection of impossible prospects.

"We should just leave you here", he said coldly. "You'd deserve whatever happens to you. I only wish that I could change your heart... but I can see that's not possible here."

"No", Aiko protested beside him, her face blank with horror. "We can't. I've met the Shadow who rules this Land- Kaneshiro. Leaving him to her is just too cruel, even for an enemy. Also, his sister is innocent. She doesn't know about his... 'night job'."

"Interesting way of putting it", Akira remarked with a more reserved expression. "Fine then. Guess we'll need to haul him back with- AGH!"

The pain in his hip struck hard, too much for even Metatron or Lucifer to block out, and he was down on one knee. Healing skills numbed the pain, but only for the brief period until the energy faded. Seeing the situation, Aiko knelt near him, switching her Persona again and raising one hand to the gash where the icicle had broken off.

"Rejesho... that skill should do better", she noted. "Consistent healing over time instead of all at once. Still, when we get out of this place, you need to go to the hospital right away."

"I'm sure that Nijima-san will be thrilled to see that", Akira jested weakly.

"Nijima", Samesaji grunted irritably. "Nijima, Nijima, Nijima. What's your deal with her anyway? That other gaijin girl was so concerned about her too. How is it that you all know a random cop?"

Akira made an exasperated face. "What, you still don't get it? No, of course not. I guess you really are like Ryuj- I mean, like Skull in one way at least. Nijima-san is one of us, you idiot. She's a Phantom Thief."

The trapped man's eyes widened in legitimate shock. "A Phantom Thief? And she's a cop too? Wow."

"Don't flatter yourself", Aiko told him, stern despite her earlier plea for mercy. "Even if you hadn't hurt Nijima-san, we'd still stand against you."

"Of course you would", Samesaji nodded, his expression drifting out searing hatred back to the creepy serenity he'd had at the start. "Heheh! We're opposing ideologies after all, so of course we'd have to end up fighting in the end, until one idea or the other gets eradicated. That's the real Legem Naturae, little magical girl. If you want your ideas, your dreams to survive, then you need the power to make 'em a reality, all the power you can get your hands on. And you have to be willing to bury other ideas that don't suit you, to make more room for yours. That's life."

"Maybe for you", she said disdainfully. "Me, I'm happy with 'live and let live', y'know?"

"I don't know as much about this 'Salvation' of yours as the others here", Akira remarked, standing again. "But from what I gather, you're forcing people to undergo a trial where either they awaken their Persona, or the Shadows kill them. That's all I need to know we can't let you be."

"Defending the status quo now?", Samesaji sighed dramatically, his chains rattling with his shrug. "The Phantom Thieves that I respected really are gone then. Too bad."

"So sorry for your loss", Akira quipped acidly. "Not our fault you didn't understand our goals."

Rumble...

Trailing off, he could hear it growing. Something huge, coming their way. "What-"

A nearby storefront exploded, making way for the enormous curving bow of the golden ship as it plowed through the structure, casting debris every which way, deafening the entire block with the screeching of metal against broken brick and glass.

When it, and the sound, had stopped, they stared back at the chuckling Prince Taurus. "Oh, that? It's just my ride."

"Your...?"

From the ship's prow, a cone of golden light descended, severing the chain at both ends and letting it drop. While the length wrapped around Samesaji remained unaffected, he began to rise up into the air as soon as the light reached him, helpless but safe.

"Heh. Guess that means they still need me", he observed, eerily serene as he looked down at the two of them, the hammer floating beside him now that he could no longer muster the strength to carry it herself.

"Hey... well done. The both of you. Seriously. That was great. I've never had so much fun. Never thought either of you'd be so damn strong. But, uh... spoiler alert? Lady Scorpio is more powerful than me. And King Leo? He's even worse. Either of them cross your path, and you'll be regretting the day you were born. Trust me."

For a moment Akira raised his pistol and Aiko her larger flintlock gun, but both quickly realized it was pointless. The golden behemoth wouldn't be stopped, and neither of them were in any shape to continue fighting much farther. Sensing their resignation, Samesaji held their gaze as his form receded into the dark gap beneath the prow.

"See ya later, Joker... Saber... I hope you both come to understand that those names are what's really worthy of surviving, not your weaker selves."

When he was out of sight, the massive shape began to pull itself back through the hole, leaving behind a building-sized gap, allowing them to see the ocean beyond, the ship drifting back out into the bay.

"That guy", Akira gritted out, at a loss for anything else to say, "is a serious pain in the ass."

---

Aiko didn't find it surprising that almost everything that followed the fight with Prince Taurus was a blur. Only a few things broke the haze for their distinctiveness, the rest merely being transition punctuated by the feeling of being bone-tired in a way she'd never known was possible.

The first was meeting Morgana. Or rather, meeting the large-eyed bobble-headed form he'd taken on in Faraway Lands, so different from the black cat they'd become used to that she couldn't be certain until he spoke. Though he wouldn't agree, she was grateful to him, and to the surge of energy the sight of such an undeniably cute form granted her to carry on.

The second was returning to the real world, seeing just how much worse Akira's hip injury was there- in case the way he'd immediately collapsed screaming on the beach wasn't sign enough- and finding that even after so much time had gone by, in reality it had been barely even half an hour. It was one more thing they could discuss when they had the energy to, but Noel still had enough to offer to help Akira get to the general hospital. "I was merely your healer", he explained, sounding embarrassed. "It makes sense that I'm not quite as depleted as the rest of you. Rest for now. Let me handle this."

The final one was waking up. Not in her dorm bed, but back in the dulcet blue tones of the Velvet room.

Sensing her hosts before they spoke, she breathed out mightily, unable to stand up or find a reason to exert. She knew this was a place that only existed in her head, but the exhaustion had followed her here too. Exhaustion, and more...

"I'm done", she announced to the wooden ceiling. "I'm done. I'm sorry. You chose the wrong person. I'm done."

Seated at his table, Igor made no verbal response, his cartoonishly large grin answer enough. Bartholomew wasn't so subtle, his footfalls heavy as he stalked over to her prone form so he could look down into her eyes, his blue naval outfit and cap crisp as ever but his yellow eyes narrowed in scorn.

"How fortuitous", he snarked. "Now you need only invent a time machine and travel back to the last time two weeks ago when you claimed that you were quitting."

"I mean it this time!", she insisted, tears welling up. "I didn't know! I didn't know it would be so horrible like this! I..."

Mirambela. Jiachi. Reiha. Pelagio. Noel.

The faces flashed before her eyes, and she groaned, actually feeling resentment towards her anchors for a moment. "I... Sor... I'm... I'm not done. Not yet. But... I really think you made a mistake, choosing me for this."

"I?", Igor asked in feigned surprise, his nose pointing up as he raised his bulging head. "I chose? You misunderstand, Dream Voyager. I did not choose you as the next bearer of the wild card."

That revelation was enough to get her moving again, Bartholomew reaching down to grab her arm and help her stagger to her feet. "Not you? Then, who...?"

"Circumstance", Bartholomew said as if it were obvious. "Though the Trickster's circumstances were a bit different from the others, it's undeniable that the wild card came to the right person regardless of the Demiurge's machinations. And so it has here as well."

"In its opinion", she protested. "It's just so..."

Igor chuckled in amusement, and she remembered all too well how the strange man's beady stare seemed to pierce her very soul, viewing her feelings before she even gave voice to them.

Annoyingly often, Igor found those hidden feelings in her heart amusing, fascinating, or both.

"You feel... inadequate, yes? That you will be unable to complete your journey? As though preventing your world's regression will prove to be an impossible task, even with the unwavering support of your confidants?"

"Y-yes. That's it. Absolutely. I feel..."

Her mother. The empty space where her father should have been. The friends that shied away from 'Crybaby Ai'. Lady Scorpio.

And then... pain. So much pain. The pain of the world, crushing her down.

"...Vacant. I don't have a driving force like the others do."

"The Trickster seemed impressed enough with you, Voyager", Bart pointed out, taking a seat beside his master. "What you have endured thus far on your journey... it would have shattered a weaker soul. You may have come close to breaking, yet you did not."

"It is exactly as my companion has said", Igor continued, clasping his gloved hands delicately. "You feel as though you are vacant? An empty vessel, waiting and wanting to be filled with a 'driving force'? Perhaps that is the Voyager which circumstance demands. A blank slate, as it were, able to decide without any exterior influences what humanity's fate should be."

"I thought you'd decided already", Bartholomew teased her. "Didn't you state earlier that you wanted your goal in life to be combating the despair and misery of others?"

She sighed. The more she thought about it, the worse a headache it became. She would have preferred to fight Prince Taurus again rather than face it. "I was an idiot. Naive, like you said. The real pain of the world, of humans... it's too big, too much for me to help with. Nothing... nothing I do makes any bit of difference. Nothing any of us do. It's all pointless. Just playing hero, like Samesaji said."

"I see", the attendant considered, no longer sounding quite so scornful. "Why, then? Why did you state that earlier? If the natural state of the world is this cloying misery, then why go against it? Or, thinking even further back, why did you act to protect the Sorano girl?"

"I..."

For a time, she couldn't speak, thinking instead. Somehow, being here in this room made that easier... or maybe it was because she was finally free of the pain Kaneshiro had inflicted, as well as the fear for the future it had brought her.

"I... I...!"

How had she forgotten something so simple?

"Because", she managed at last, turning back to her hosts. "Because I know what it's like, to be all alone in the great big world. To feel that misery clawing at you, wondering why you exist, why you were even born, if all you can feel is pain and suffering and fear of worse to come the next day."

"Because you can conceive of that", Bartholomew nodded approvingly. "You've not only experienced it yourself, but can clearly imagine what others feel in their lives. Sometimes, that empathy may cripple you with the immovable weight of the world, yet you continue on, acting as a beacon of light for others."

"That", she sighed. "Yeah. That was the problem. When I realized that I can't be a beacon for the entire world, not even in Faraway Lands. For everyone we encourage to press on, there's others everywhere else who aren't so lucky."

"Perhaps", Igor suggested. "Yet, the circumstances of the wild card are oft a mystery, even to my sight. Perhaps your journey across the waves is in search of such a beacon?"

"A beacon", she repeated warmly, comforted by the prospect. "Yes, a beacon... a light of hope for everyone in need. Yes... If it's possible to find that, then I'll search every island, every Land for it."

The hunchback's hands spread out, laying themselves across the handles of his chair. "Then it appears that you have rediscovered your driving force, Voyager. I would advise you not to lose sight of it again, and risk becoming forever lost at sea."

Forever lost... yeah.

Ayano Furusato had become lost, she knew. Forever lost at sea, lost to the people who knew her, instead embracing the fabricated reality over them.

And Reiha... Her Shadow, if that really was her Shadow...

"Kaneshiro's solution to a painful world", she realized out loud, "was to learn to enjoy pain."

"She is not the only one to resort to that solution", Bartholomew said, sounding strangely regretful about it. "Other desperate humans utilize that method, causing pain to others to block out their own."

"Yeah", she agreed quietly. "I think I might know a few people like that. But... The key to saving her... That'll be understanding the nature of that pain, right? We won't be able to convince her to leave otherwise."

"Most likely", the attendant agreed, gazing towards the cards set up on Igor's table. "Just as you could not fully reach out to the Priestess or the Hanged Man without coming to understand them."

"Or the Strength", she continued, easily remembering all the things Pelagio had gone through for them- for her. "Or Death; Noel. Although it looks like he didn't need my help to Awaken to his Persona after all."

"The Death Arcana", Igor observed. "Another mystery to many. Yet, there lies promise in developing a bond with that one as well."

"Don't need to tell me that", she noted, happy for once at the prospect. "Another friend. I guess we'll see. Just as we'll see about-"

She was gone, a phantom blown away by the wind as she awakened in the real world. Only the attendant and the master remained.

"Lavenza wasn't wrong", Bartholomew remarked, dutifully moving over to carefully clean the machinery of the cages they had used for nearly a dozen fusions. "Playing host to our wild cards can indeed be quite aggravating. I've never known anyone to doubt themselves so infuriatingly often."

Igor hummed with amusement, unmoving from the ancient-seeming chair as he added a new card to the piles set before him. "Yet, it is the act of dealing with that doubt which allows her to remain on the path of her journey. As we have just discussed, a wild card is chosen for their natural qualities. An unwaveringly kind heart, balanced by a fury rarely seen in current humans... Two passionate sides of the same soul. Fate has determined that is what is needed to prevent the coming tide of regression."

"Or what is needed to lure you into a false sense of safety."

Whatever good humor remained in Bartholomew departed when he heard that honeyed voice. Though the room remained wide open without any hiding places, he still had to follow Igor's gaze to find the kimono-clad figure of Lady Scorpio.

Unperturbed as ever, the master of the Velvet room regarded her without any of the loathing his attendant held, reaching one hand out.

"Lost maiden. So you return here once more. Even when our main guest is due to awake in the real world, you still are able to use her dormant mind as a conduit to reach this place." He chuckled darkly. "How fascinating."

"Not for long", the master of the Karma club amended, the motionless mirrored mask revealing little in the way of expression. "I merely wished to observe her reaction to recent events. It would seem your chosen savior is wavering, Servant."

"If you were watching that", Bartholomew spat, knowing without needing to test that it would be impossible to expel this mental phantom from their ship, "then you should know my master doesn't choose the identity of the wild card. The world does. Or rather, humanity's needs."

"Of course he would say that", Scorpio scoffed. "As though he would ever take the blame for his own sins, allowing the torture of yet another innocent with the wild card's trials. But mere words will not save you forever. Soon enough, that girl will come to understand the truth of your twisted little games, just as I did. And when she does, do you believe that you will be able to keep your master safe from her wrath?"

Momentarily freezing up at the prospect, the handsome attendant scowled. "If necessary, I will."

To the astonishment of them both, Igor's smile shrunk slightly, his head turning down into his chair to obscure most of his face until his nose was touching the edge of the table.

"You persist in misunderstanding events", he observed, his high voice not exactly sad sounding in the traditional sense, but absent its usual morbid enthusiasm. "Clinging to the path of hatred, averting your eyes from the truth."

"Your truth", she sneered, spreading long-sleeved arms to encompass the empty Velvet ship. "And just look at where your truth has brought all those who believed in you. Cursing them with hope, when I have foreseen the reality myself. I've seen it in the minds of countless humans. This world is doomed. Humanity, in its current state, is doomed. The only way for humans to survive is to change what it means to be human."

"To regress", Igor corrected her politely, as if the masked women wasn't looking at him with pure revulsion. "You speak of discarding much of what makes humans so fascinating to me. It is what makes them worth shepherding away from self-destruction."

"By forcing juvenile humans to do your work", Scorpio pointed out. "No matter. I know better than to think I could convince you to end your cruel game at this point. But before this is over... the game will be ended for you, Servant, by your own chosen champion. I have foreseen it."

Easily able to sense the raw hostility from their uninvited guest, Bartholomew moved to a defensive position between the two, even though he knew the image before him was a mere phantom.

"You see what you wish to see", he claimed. "No harm will come to him while I live. As for the Dream Voyager? I think her resolve may just surprise you."

Equally agitated but unable to use any weapons save her own words, Scorpio began to fade away. "...We shall see."

"Yes", Igor murmured once she was completely vanished, and they were alone again, spidery fingers steepled tight above the cards of fate. "Indeed we shall."

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Persona Profile #11: Mithras

Arcana: Chariot

Strength: Ice (Absorb), Physical

Weakness: None

Abilities: Bufudyne, Mabufudyne, Frozen Reign (Severe ice damage to all targets, chance of inflicting freeze), Mediarama, Megidola, Tarunda, Midnight Sun, Legem Naturae (Absorb attack power from all targets and user gains an equal increase in attack power)

Background: Iranian God of justice, contract and warfare. Worshiped in the Roman Empire during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, this deity was honored as the patron of undying loyalty to the emperor. Followers of Mithraism would often slay animals in their rituals to emulate Mithras' storied killing of a bull depicted in his temples, an animal often seen as a symbol of strength and fertility. Other important elements of the religion were self-denial and a moral questioning of the true self.

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A/N: I hope that wasn't TOO long or over the top/'Dragon Ball' of a fight, even though that was partly the intent in conveying Ryuken's strength as well as Akira/Ren's. Sorry if it feels like there's been too much fighting in the last few chapters, but now everyone's safely back home for a break and it will be a while before I try any more extended fight scenes like that one (mops brow).

Props to my guest reviewer, glad to see you like Julian and Aiko.