"Come on, come on…"

Joker reached down into the ashes of the Reaper they had just defeated picked up the sparkling object it had dropped when it disappeared. It was a small charm, not unlike a phone keychain, shaped like a Roman column. "Yes! Alright."

He watched it glow faintly before nodding firmly to himself and stowing it in his jacket pocket.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

Queen looked over from where she was standing guard with Fox and walked over when he stood up and dusted himself off. "Yeah. Not too sure what it does yet, though."

"Shall we head back, then?"

"Yeah. Mona?"

"On it."

Within seconds, the Monamobile was ready to go, the engine audibly purring - though if that was intentional on Mona's part was anyone's guess. "Alright. Hop in."

"Right…"

[- Mementos -]

"Joker?"

"Mona?"

"What? Oh - can you not? Anyway, mind if I ask a quick question?"

"Sure, shoot. What's on your mind?"

"Why is Fox driving?!"

Joker looked up from his phone and passed the charm he had picked up over to Queen at her insistence. He smiled slightly at the look of wonder on her face as she carefully scanned the object. Oracle spoke over her shoulder, just loud enough for everyone in the van to hear. "I kinda wanna know that too. We'd be back at the entrance by now if you were driving, y'know?"

"I take offense to that. I'm simply following the rules of the road."

"You're driving on train tracks!"

"That's no excuse."

On the ride back, Joker and Queen had decided to sit in the backseat, while Fox was at the wheel and Oracle was riding shotgun. "Whatever. Joker?"

"We already took out the Reaper on this floor. Nothing to worry about, so why not enjoy the ride?"

"Uh-huh. And the real reason?"

Joker chuckled that it was becoming habitual for his friends to assume that he always had an ulterior motive. "You know that Metaverse app?"

Oracle turned to sit on her knees, peeking her head into the backseat with interest as to what Joker was talking about. "Yeah? What about it?"

"Turns out it can tell me a bit about all the weird little trinkets we find here. It's like scanning a QR code. Weird, right?"

Queen raised an eyebrow at that and fished out her phone, opening the Metaverse app and finding that, indeed, there was a function that opened her camera. She hovered it over the charm in her gloved hand and murmured a little 'oh' when her phone gave off a cheerful ping. Joker simply sat back and watched with amusement as Queen turned and angled her phone so Oracle could read it alongside her. "Divine Pillar…"

"The heck does it mean you can't dodge? Is it gonna put a ball and chain on your ankle or something?"

Joker shrugged and caught the item when Queen tossed it to him, tucking it back into his pocket with a single smooth motion. "Not sure. I was gonna make Skull try it on later, though."

That was enough to even get a laugh of Fox, his mind easily painting a picture of their comrade's face when he realized dodging was out of the question. The general consensus between the four was that he wouldn't care, by way of not being particularly good at it anyway.

Just as the conversation fell into a comfortable silence, Oracle asked for the charm again and sat back in her seat. The van quietly chugged along, at least aside from the quiet murmurs coming from the backseat. Oracle assumed the it was just Joker and Queen flirting again. At least it was less weird than when they did so while sparring...

The younger girl looked back at Queen again, who was trying to hold back a laugh at something silly Joker has said, and smiled. Before she knew it, what she was thinking had come out of her mouth. "You've been way more relaxed lately."

Joker and Queen exchanged a look and stared back at Oracle. Finally, after a long silence, Joker pointed at himself in question. Oracle gaped at him and slowly turned her gaze to Queen, who shrugged. "No! Dummy! I was talking about you!"

She pointed straight at Queen to push the point home. "You! Queen! The lady in the iron mask!"

Queen blinked at the increasingly baffled Oracle, and turned to Joker and whispered in a tone that was still just loud enough for everyone to hear. "...I think she's talking to you."

Joker reached up and felt the material of his mask to confirm whether or not it was made of iron. Oracle introduced her palm to her face - at least, as much as she could with her goggles in the way. "Ohhh, this is not happening right now."

Poor Oracle initially couldn't comprehend why Joker and Queen chose then to start laughing. Joker reached over and tousled her hair as Queen gently explained, "We're just messing with you, Oracle. I guess Joker really is rubbing off on me."

Oracle sighed loudly and flopped back into her seat. "And here I was saying the old Queen used to be so bloodthirsty."

"Me?" Queen looked to Joker to confirm. "Really?"

To her dismay, Joker hesitated, then nodded slowly. "Lot of pent-up aggression. You're definitely better now, though."

"...Fox?"

There was a palpable silence from the front of the car, aside from Oracle's snickering when she looked at Fox. Finally, he said, "...I was very impressed by your efforts to turn violence into an art form."

He took a hand off the wheel, only for a moment - for safety, to give her a thumbs-up. Try as she might, Oracle couldn't suppress another giggle from escaping. Queen looked thoughtful as she put her hand to her chin and pondered. "Hmm. I guess I did have some issues to work out…"

Joker smiled, glad that she wasn't upset about the news, and reached over to rub her shoulder. "I think you've found a good balance."

She returned the expression in thanks and reached up to touch his hand with hers briefly. Oracle scoffed and poorly hid a grin, clearly happy that her friends were happy. She sat back in her seat not long afterward, satisfied with the conversation and enraptured by the sparkling trinket in her hand.

Joker checked his phone again to see the route and guessed how long it would take - just long enough for him to rest a bit. He drew his jacket tighter around himself and exhaled slowly, his mask disappearing as he relaxed. Moments later, he felt Queen do the same, leaning comfortably against him but taking care to leave him room to move. She looked up at him in concern, the red in her eyes showing more than usual. Rather than say anything, he smiled lovingly, moved his arm around her shoulder, and pressed a light kiss to her hair.

[- Mementos_Entrance -]

"Aah, good nap. Great driving, Fox."

Joker shook out his legs and rolled his neck, lazily checking on his team before Mona reverted to cat form. Fox was glowing with happiness over the praise of his driving ability, hiding whatever smile he might've been wearing behind his mask. Queen was still half-asleep, stretching her arms above her head and stifling a yawn. That only left..."Oracle?"

"Jokerrr…"

Joker looked to the passenger seat, alarmed at how strained Oracle's voice was...only to raise an eyebrow at what sight greeted him. Oracle was struggling to get out of her seat in the van, and that was something, but what caught his eye was the sparkle coming from her goggles. "Did you try on that Divine Pillar thing?"

"I think I figured out the whole 'no dodging' part. Help, please."

Joker wasted no time in unlatching the accessory from Oracle's goggles. There was a noticeable difference as she hopped out and straightened her back with a groan. "Uggh, that was heavy. Don't let me near that thing again."

Joker didn't miss the way Queen looked at the charm, chuckling softly to himself as he pocketed it again. He could feel this wasn't the last he would be hearing of the whole ordeal. In any case, they could talk about it later.

I'll add a Part I to the title in case I decide to pursue the idea of Queen testing out the Divine Pillar for herself. That's a rare sentence, isn't it?