-The Curse of Darkness-

The group was steadily advancing the cursed halls of the Dark Tower, easily finishing off the Shadows that stood in their way. The now pale-skinned, silverette Minato Arisato headed the group in its relentless charge. Undeterred by fatigue or hopelessness, the small team was stopped by an unexpected obstacle.

"Is this them, Medea?" said a redheaded girl that blocked the teams advance.

"...GwOoaAh..." the apparition behind the girl violently shook

"You're one of Ikutsuki's pawns aren't you!?" Minato yelled.

"She is, been wondering where those punks were getting their supply," Shinjiro scowled.

"Supply?" Ken Amada gazed at his sworn enemy.

"The drug that stops Personae from going wild," Kurosawa explained, "that's why the Kirijo resorted to sending you kids to Tartarus."

"Shinjiro Aragaki," the girl mumbled, "Takaya extends his invitation for you to join Strega, it's still open if you choose to come now."

"Tch, tell that hippie Jesus wannabe that he can take that invitation and shove it straight up his ass!" the gruff teen yelled aloud, clutching his face as he winced in pain, "Dammit."

"You haven't had any medication since we last met, have you?" a sickening grin formed on Chidori's face.

"Aragaki-san!" Souji rushed to Shinji's aid, "He's bleeding out of his mouth!"

"What!?" the young boy screamed, not out of concern, but of frustration.

"Amada, there are many people with the potential to use Persona," the officer began, "but only few of them are able to do so without the side-effects."

"Shit..." the high school senior cursed, "I'm going to kill you."

"Really?" the redhead said questioningly, "the Shadows here understand me, they won't let me fade away."

With that cryptic statement, the Shadows quickly rushed to Chidori's side and began forming a protective wall of darkness.

"What the hell are they doing!?" the leader didn't allow himself to blink, something was very off.

"The Shadows..." Ken Amada stepped back, "they're protecting her?"

"It looks that way," Souji said, drawing a tarot card that shone with a brilliant blue light, "go Takehaya Susano-o!"

Invoking the name of the Storm God, a green clad figure materialized behind the silverette, floating with the aid of two shuriken, and protected by a large sawblade floating around it, crowned with a magnificent sphere of flame that shone brilliantly in the room.

"So, you can summon many Personae as well," the voice of Chidori erupted from the mound of darkness, "then hiding on here just won't do."

Taking the summoning of Susano-o as a challenge, the wall of Shadows reformed into a form reminiscent to that of Medea. A form which could vaguely be called human, the mass of Shadows now formed into a single being with the expressionless form of Chidori Yoshino chained to the creature's face, wreathed in flames as its gown and a demonic blade held by a sinister hand, the creature roared before speaking in a chilling voice.

"I am a Shadow, the True Self!" the amalgam of Chidori Yoshino and the countless Shadows spoke, "Only by sacrifice can the true path be opened!"

"My God!" Kurosawa winced before drawing two tubes from his coat, "I can feel its power, it rivals our combined might!"

"So?" the former bluenette said flippantly.

"Including yours," the cop stated before dodging a pillar of flame the monster conjured.

"With your sacrifice, The Fall shall come to save humanity!" the monstrosity continued speaking.

"How can the end of the world save us!?" Ken blocked the giant's blade with his spear, "I don't understand you!"

"She's just a messed up bitch kid," Minato said as he struck at the monster's spear, "and we've gotta put her down now."

"Youthful Wind!" Souji yelled out and the form of Susano-o dashed around the battlefield, closing his allies' wounds and sharpening their reflexes.

"We can move fast enough," Shinjiro thought aloud, "go for the legs!"

Nodding in silent approval, a reluctant Ken Amada and a calm Kurosawa evaded the pillars of flame and struck the creature's legs with their weapons as well as their magic, forcing the girl chained above to screem.

"Aggggghhhhhhhh!" Chidori broke her stoic expression, "Medea, don't...not yet, we can...still fight."

"Children of man, why do you fight your wishes?" the entity questioned, "Why do you struggle against your chosen fate!?"

"Chosen fate?" Kurosawa pondered as he threw his prepared tubes at the ground, "How is this for fate...Cu Chulainn! Odin!"

In the blink of an eye, two great warriors appeared to aid the heroes.

"Strike now, both of you!" the Devil Summoner ordered as he parried one of the creatures claws and shot at one of the numerous tendrils that indicated the weakening state of the hybrid Shadow/Persona.

"Gungnir!"

"Gae Bolg!"

Both Demons cried out at the same time, throwing their legendary weapons at the enemy, making impact at its chest, the velocity of the blows enough to force the creature into the defensive.

"Keep moving," Souji stated, his eyes affixed on the tendrils that were beginning to increase in number, "Takeji Zaiten!"

Clutching his face, the boy from Inaba summoned a great warrior clad in white and the Persona took several swings at the enemies before him, knocking them back with little effort.

"This is..." the boy fixed his glasses as he turned his back on his enemies and sheathed his blade, "...The Man's Way."

"This has gone on for long enough!" the monster roared as it released a massive explosion that forced the group on the defensive.

"Dammit," Minato cursed under his breath, "it still has this kind of power!?"

"This means that the rest of them have stopped taking the pills too," the elder teen stated as he stood his ground, "her Persona is completely taking over."

"Then that means..." the group's lancer picked up on the implication, his face aghast.

"...She's going to die soon," Kurosawa finished as he fixed his cap, "if not by our hand, but by the strain of wielding that much power."

"Yes, Medea," the redhead moaned, "let's be together...forever."

Paying close attention to their enemy, the group was not expecting the mass of Shadows to compress to the size of the young woman that barred their path. Pulling herself together, Chidori Yoshino was now clothed in nothing more than darkness and flames, her axes growing to the size of her forearms.

"She's going to be faster now," Souji informed the group as he blocked an oversized ax aimed at his neck.

"Why?" the girl cried out, alternating her strikes between Souji and Ken, "Why won't you die?"

"How about this!?" the team leader asked his enemy as Skeith turned its right arm into a cannon and launched a massive energy blast.

"Waaaarrgghh!" the redhead thrashed as her right arm was blown off in a single attack.

"Seta, strike now!" the police officer ordered as he made two quick swipes at the fireballs that the woman had just set in his direction.

"Understood Kurosawa-san!" the silverette clutched his face once more, summoning a familiar blue to his hand, "Kamui-Moshiri!"

As quickly as its name was called, the abode of the god worshiped by the Ainu appeared to the young man's aid, in the shape of a rocket, there was little room to guess as to what it would do next.

"Attack!" Souji ordered his Persona, obeying immediately, Kamui charged at the enemy releasing multiple volleys of Ice Magic, "Kamui Miracle!"

Sadly, the randomness that governed Kamui's special attack forced both the team and their enemy to be knocked down to the ground.

"The hell!?" Aragaki cried out as he was forced down on the floor, "What kind of skill is that?"

"That isn't important right now," Kurosawa interrupted, "she's been knocked down, there's no better time to strike."

"Right!" the group yelled in unison as they charged the downed Chidori.

-Chidori's Mind-

"Is this the end Medea?" the redhead sobbed.

"..." the wild Persona nodded quietly.

"Do you think we can meet him again..." the goth mumbled, "...the boy from the station...The one we burned last night?"

"..." Medea remained silent.

"I hope we can meet again," Chidori said as she slowly closed her eyes, "under better circumstances..."

-Reality-

"Junpei..." the demented Persona user whispered her last words as she began to vanish.

Having exhausted much of their combat power, the team were forced to take a long overdue rest in the 50th Floor, nearly collapsing after their enemy had been done in.

"Haa," Minato strained, "think anyone else can do that?"

"Most likely," Kurosawa answered as he took out a bottle of drinking water to quench his thirst, "although from the looks of this girl, she was just an analysis type."

"Analysis type?" Shinji sat up with eyes nearly popping out, "Then again, Mitsuru was always the scariest one in the group."

"Yeah," Ken leaned on his spear for support, "I can't even imagine how strong the others are."

"Do any of you know how much further we have to go?" Souji wondered aloud, his sword sheathed beside him.

"Analyzing the Tower's structure," Margaret said over the intercomm, "sorry, the comm lines were down for a bit, so we could only repair them now."

"Margaret-san," the precocious lad spoke over the comm line, "do you know how many more floors we have left?"

"Two hundred thirty six," the Velvet Room's attendant said flatly, "to defeat of the enemy Persona user has retarded the effects of the distortion, so you may rest for an hour with around three hours extra for scaling the Tower."

"Damn," Gig yawned, "I missed all the action, and I need me some hotpods."

"You were asleep?" the former bluenette raised a barely visible eyebrow.

"You think harvesting parts of your soul without killing you is easy?" the Master of Death retorted, "By the way, Skeith should be down for a bit."

As if in accordance to the Psychopomp's will, the foreboding Persona retreated into the sea of the boy's consciousness, followed by the return of Minato's distinctive features.

"You mean all that was temporary?" the sleepy teen said with irritation.

"Nope," Gig answered, "it's more on the side of Skeith guzzling down so much power that he can't be maintained unless there's a fresh batch of Shadow on the menu."

"ZzzZzzz," the loud snoring of the transferee from Inaba interrupted the conversation.

"Sorry about that," Margaret apologized, "he isn't quite adapted to this environment, please take a rest, you have over a hundred floors to scale soon."

"That sounds like a good idea," Minato said as he collapsed on the floor, joining his kouhai in dreaming of more peaceful times

-End-