8 AM. Bright and early. In front of the station, Naoto Shirogane and the rest of the team were meeting the Osaka police commissioner right before the raid.

"Is everything ready?"

"Ready as we'll ever be," the commissioner said reluctantly. "Still not entirely sure about this if we're bein' honest, ma'am. All that stuff yer people dredged up came clear outta nowhere. And even if Kirijo's payin' for it, why've they gotta be dealt with so quick? They've been doin' research, tryin'a make better weapons for fightin' Shadows."

Naoto's eyes narrowed. "That research also entails kidnapping established Persona-users, Commissioner. They've made multiple confirmed attempts and at least one confirmed success, and even one Persona-user taken out of action gives the Shadows a chance to deal even more damage than they have already. And if this research of theirs goes awry, they could even end up making the problem even worse."

"Whoa, you're goin' that far? They got qualified scientists workin' on that stuff, what's to worry about?"

"Because the Metaverse is based around the human heart."

The two looked over at Ren, who was suddenly there, leaning against a police car with his face concealed by a hoodie. There was a flash of blue fire and Joker was standing in his place. The police commissioner swallowed in terror. Joker gave him a grim look and began to slowly pace in his direction.

"The Shadows that threaten our lives are constructs that are literally born from the human heart. Hate, anger, greed, pride, gluttony, insanity, fear, all of them can give rise to Shadows. And people who are sufficiently distorted can give rise to even stronger monsters: Corporeal Shadows. I'm sure you've heard of those, particularly after at least one Diet member from your district turned into one."

Joker stopped only centimeters away from the poor Commissioner, who was now nodding frantically. "Yessir, I definitely heard about that one. Yup. We sure did."

Joker nodded sagely, though his expression was no less grim. "Of course you did. And based on the actions of Sandā Arsenal's CEO, as well as the testimony of his granddaughter, he has almost certainly become distorted enough that entrusting him with experiments on the properties of the Metaverse could very well end up making the Shadows in this area even stronger. Worse, he could even become a Corporeal Shadow himself, right here in the middle of a crowded city, where he has free access to a business that sells weapons. Now, are you done dithering, or shall we go on ahead without you?"

"Joker!" Naoto said sharply.

Joker growled. "Sorry. Antsy. I know we've planned everything out, but these things almost never go entirely to plan. There's any number of things that could go wrong."

Naoto leveled her gaze on the black-clad heart-thief. "That is true, but we've made sufficient preparations, and we have more than enough people to handle any Shadow problems we encounter."

"And hey, what's the worst that could happen?" the Commissioner asked.

Joker's side-eyed glance was no less grim than before. "Something I really hope is impossible."

Sho was cold, stiff, and very, very tired. But then again, anyone would be after being restrained so thoroughly they couldn't even move for sixteen hours. So how was he even still defiant, let alone awake?

Spite mostly.

The guards' boss was standing in front of him with her hands on her hips, doing her best to exude an aura of control and stoicism even in the face of Sho's glare, which, while not as severe now that he'd run out of energy to use his Devil's Aura, was still the blazing crimson of a pissed-off Persona-user. "Are you ready to shut up and cooperate for a minute yet?"

Sho worked his jaw around the thick gag, just barely managing to slip his upper teeth around the top of it so he could snarl at the woman through it. Now the woman just looked frustrated. "Look, I don't like this situation either. And I never would have agreed to bringing you in if you weren't a danger to everyone around you. But I can't give you any food or water if you're just going to attack every time someone takes the gag off."

That sounds like a you problem, don't it? Sho thought savagely. But his stomach betrayed him, growling at the thought of food. Sho grumbled a little as he let the fire in his eyes fade a little and stopped straining so much against the cocoon of chains and duct tape.

Without another word, the woman ripped the gag off his face, withdrawing her hand quickly just in case he tried breathing curse magic out of his mouth again. Sho was quiet. Moving slowly, the woman reached for the bowl of stew and proffered a spoonful towards the young man. After a moment's hesitation, he leaned forward and accepted the meager mouthful without any fuss.

His continued silence was unsettling. The woman tried talking to him. "I read about the lab where you were experimented on before. Rest assured nothing like that will be happening here. All we need to do is run some scans and take a few basic tissue and fluid samples, that's all. No torturous surgeries or anything of that variety."

Sho glared. Clearly he didn't trust her in the slightest.

"Look, we wouldn't have to confine you like this if you weren't a danger to everyone around you! Otherwise, we would just let you walk right out and go back to doing whatever it is you do. We're not like those people who did all those things to you twenty years ago!"

Sho only gave her one last glare before accepting another spoonful of stew.

The guard boss continued to spoon-feed the cocooned captive, her anxiety growing with every mouthful. Every instinct in her body was screaming that this man was a ticking time bomb, one mistake away from cursing her to within an inch of her life. And yet he was just sitting there, letting her feed him. Was he just that tired of fighting, or was he-

CRASH!

…waiting for something?

Sho's eyes snapped open and flashed with crimson and azure light, sending out a sudden wave of pressure that caused the guards' boss to react instantly, leaping back to the door of the cell. An instant later, she realized her mistake, as azure fire began to boil around Sho, burning at his bonds and causing them to snap one by one. The woman reached for the gun at her hip, but an instant later, she was frozen by Sho's Zero Skill, paralyzed with fear as he redoubled his efforts to burn away the cocoon of chains.

Sho cackled as he slowly rose to his feet. "Can't keep me chained forever, bitch! I'm a Wild Card now! I am chaos! I am freedom! I decide my own fate! And it doesn't matter what you do to me, because I am never letting anyone experiment on me! Ever! Again!"

"So you would renew our contract?"

The chain around Sho's legs snapped in a burst of blue fire, and the red rogue stepped forward. Tsukiyomi pulsed within his mind, lending him strength greater than anything he'd felt since Hi-no-Kagutsuchi was defeated. One by one, the chains snapped as a thundering power filled Sho's entire being.

"I am thou, thou art I. If you would seek freedom denied to you by the gods, then call my name, the bringer of chaos!"

"AMATSU-MIKABOSHI!"

Sho's chains shattered, and the air around him exploded. The guard boss was blown back through the door of the cell and crashed against the wall, a pair of cracks as the impact broke ribs. Even so, in her terror, the woman could not take her eyes off the scarfaced rogue. Flames boiled around him, his eyes and scar flashing an eerie blue, and behind him stood a being of darkness, more terrifying than any Shadow she'd ever seen.

Its black trench coat fluttered, even in the absence of wind, and on the insides of the coattails, she could see entire galaxies swirling in the vastness of space, as though the inside of the Persona's coat was a portal rather than the image being a part of the ethereal cloth. The rest of the Persona's coat and its legs were a black that was iridescent in the glow of the azure flames, and its chestpiece peeking out from the coat shone with stars. In its hand was a naked nodachi sword that also shone with stars. And the Persona's face was covered by a mask, a mask that contained a swirling void, at the center of which was an ominous orb, so black that it seemed that not even light would be able escape its gravity.

Sho's posture relaxed significantly as the guard boss gaped at him, rolling his neck and cracking his joints to get rid of the stiffness. A drop of something blue and metallic seemed to fall out of his scar onto the floor. "Haaah, that's loads better," he sighed, right before his eyes lit up with their usual exuberance again. "Ha, and would you look at that! The door's open! Oh, wait…"

Sho stooped for a moment and picked up the bowl of stew, which had miraculously survived the blast intact, even though it had also been mostly emptied of its contents. Nevertheless, Sho snatched up the bowl and hungrily gulped down its remaining contents before tossing it carelessly behind him to shatter against the wall of his cell. He stooped to collect whatever had fallen out of his scar with a satisfied nod and a clenched fist.

Shouting came from down the hall, and a sound of rushing feet. "Ha, sounds like there's a party going on out there!" Sho laughed, looking down the hall. "I don't care if I'm invited or not, I'm crashing it anyway!"

Sho swaggered away, leaving the guards' boss to succumb to unconsciousness on the floor.

"First floor is secured, begin moving to secure the upper floors," the police commissioner was saying. "A small team and I will be heading to scout out the basement. You two, with me."

"Yes sir!" the two officers, one male and one female, answered with aplomb.

Naoto stepped over, Labrys at her side. "Ken and Koromaru are in position patrolling the outside, and I've just received word that Isobe's residence has been secured. He's not home, and it looks like he hasn't been for a while. If he's not here, we'll have to do some searching to find him."

"Rest assured Shirogane-dono, when this is over, he will be in custody," the commissioner answered. "We'll find him. But for now, shall we head down?"

"One moment," Minako cut in. "Aigis, Noir, you're with me and Tani-chan. We're going to be heading up with the main force just in case. Plus, there's a higher chance of running into Tani-chan's grandpa up there."

"No," Ayaka insisted. "I'll go down with Shirogane-san and the others first. I want to see what Grandfather is hiding down there with my own eyes."

"Alright," Joker told her. "In that case, then let's-"

The sound of an explosion emanated out from downstairs.

Joker and Minako looked at each other. "Sho?" Joker asked.

Minako sighed. "F*** it. Screw it all. I'm coming down there with you."

"In that case, you won't mind if I join you then?" Ayaka asked. "I'd like to see my new boyfriend again."

Labrys looked confused. "But you only just met the guy. How do you know he's not an annoyin' prick?"

"Oh, I don't doubt he can be," Ayaka laughed. "Particularly after everything you've told me. But if the poor boy needs some friends, who am I to deny him? Besides, he's interesting and he's even crazier than I am. I have a feeling we'll get along like beauty and the beast, you know?"

"A fairly appropriate analogy," Joker noted. "But for now, let's move."

The entire group rushed down the stairs, finding a brightly lit hallway lined with a series of doors, labeled as either storage rooms or labs. At the end of the hall was a locked door, but Labrys, sprinting ahead, drove a foot into it and threw it off its hinges. A panting Sho was indeed standing at the other end of the room, but the way he stood over a pair of guards bleeding on the floor wasn't even the most horrifying thing about what the assault team saw there.

Cages. Dozens of cages, lined up and stacked against the walls, many of them containing creatures from all across the animal kingdom, from dogs and cats to primates, snakes, birds, and even a few glass tanks that contained various fish or large scorpions or beetles. Most of them were in some state of mutilation, with limbs or tails cut off or hideous, half-healed lacerations across their bodies, most of these wounds stained black as though whoever had treated them had tried using crude oil instead of ointment.

The Persona-users and the officers that followed them were horrified by the sight. "What… what is this place?"

Naoto strode over to a cage containing a whimpering dog whose right front leg had been severed and partially replaced with a mechanical construct covered in black ooze. "If I had to guess… these animals have been subjected to experiments intended to turn them into Anti-Shadow Weapons."

Sho, catching his breath, finally spat out, "No 'nice to see you, Sho?' Not even a 'glad we found you, d***head?' Didn't you come down here to rescue me?"

Sophie wandered over to Sho. "Are you unhurt, Sho?"

Sho hissed out a breath through his teeth. "Well, at least I'm all in one piece, pipsqueak."

Sophie bounced at his response. "That is good! I will heal your injuries now!" Sophie summoned Pandora to cast a Diarama on him.

Sho gave a grunt of thanks before looking over at Naoto. "Okay, if they had all these animals to experiment on, what the hell did they need me for anyway?"

Naoto stood up. "Most likely they wanted to do tests on your body to see if they could use information from it to artificially induce a Persona in another being. Personas are the most effective way to fight Shadows after all."

"That does not explain how they've gotten as far as they have in only three months," Aigis objected. She was kneeling down in front of a glass tank containing a Mamushi snake, the Japanese Moccasin. She peered at it quizzically, and the serpent seemed to stare back at her with equal curiosity, cocking its head to one side. "This one is giving off some strange readings."

"Ya think they might have picked up an old Kirijo scientist?" Labrys asked. "I know we never tracked all of 'em down, but still…"

"Think it might be one of those bastards who experimented on me?" Sho asked, striding over to the two Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons.

Aigis rose from her crouch. "I would say that it is more likely that if a former Kirijo scientist is involved, that they did in fact participate in the human experimentation that Sho was put through, rather than the creation of the Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons. After all, this laboratory is based around the effects of Shadows on living creatures, rather than machines and AI."

"How awful…" Noir said in a horrified tone. She had found a small corgi in one of the cages, its ears and back having been experimented on with black substance. It was still alive, and stared up at her with massive eyes. Ayaka laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Sho growled at the memory, his grip tightening on the saber at his hip. His gaze fell on the snake that Aigis had been observing. "You're just like me, ain't you, little guy? Didn't do nothing to deserve this, and yet here you are, with a buncha d***heads doing whatever they want to you for their own gain."

The snake stared impassively at Sho. He gave a little smirk and laid a hand on the lid of the snake's glass container.

"Sho's pocket is glowing." Sophie's sudden comment cut through the mood.

Now everyone's attention was on him. Minako said slowly, "Sho? What do you have in your pocket?"

Sho, confused, reacted defensively like usual. "None of your business! I don't ask all of you what you keep in your pockets!"

Ayaka fearlessly walked over and draped an arm around Sho's shoulders. "Now now, you crimson rogue, these people came all this way to help you out and take down the guys who ruined our date. Don't you mind humoring them just this once?"

Evidently, Sho had no defense against Ayaka, because Sho grumbled a little before sticking his hand in his pocket. When he brought it out, clenched in his fist were two small objects. The first looked like a ghostly metallic chip, glowing with an ethereal blue light. The second shone yellow in stark contrast to the first, having the shape of a golden feather.

Aigis was stunned. "A Plume of Dusk?"

Morgana drew in a breath. "And a Vane of Order?"

Minako demanded, "Where did you get those!?"

Sho just shrugged nonchalantly. "The gold feather I picked up from that Shadow I killed saving that couple back in Tokyo. Y'know, before that big boss fight? And the Plume thing fell out of my face when Tsukiyomi turned into Amatsu-Mikaboshi when I broke out of my cell just now."

After a moment of silence at this explanation, Naoto ventured, "Well, that certainly makes sense."

"Does this mean he's a proper Wild Card now?" Morgana asked. "I mean, now that his Persona's evolved, surely that means he can recruit new ones now, right? Start using his contract with the Velvet Room?"

Sho shrugged. "Eh, whatever. I'm still keeping thes- GAH!"

Throughout the discussion, no one had noticed that the snake had also been paying attention to the glowing objects in Sho's hand. It didn't know why, but it was drawn to them and the power they shone with. Just a taste would be enough. And not only was Sho's hand still resting on the lid of the glass tank, but during the discussion, he had absently found a small hole with his finger and dipped it inside. So, taking great care to keep its long, venomous fangs retracted, the snake coiled its body and reached up to grasp Sho's finger in its mouth.

In response, Sho let out a startled yell and snatched his hand back, pulling the tank with it, which shattered right before it hit the floor with a miniature explosion as a bolt of power coursed through Sho's body down one arm and out the other, straight into the snake. The snake arched its head back, its coils clenching and writhing at the sudden onset of power coursing through its body. Crackling energy rippled around it as it thrashed, trying to shake off all the new sensations bombarding it from all sides. Its dull copper eyes flashed with red, blue, and finally gold as the crackle of multicolored energy coalesced into a spiral of blue fire.

The fire died down and the snake relaxed into a scaly pile on the floor. The fire died down. And everything was silent. Except for a pissed-off redhead.

"What the hell did you do that for!?" Sho yelled at the snake, making everyone jump. "Do you think my finger is your chew toy!? Or food!? I f***ing dare you to try it again you little shit!"

The snake dazedly raised its head out of its coils and shook itself vigorously, as though to shake off its daze. It focused on Sho's furious expression and cocked its head.

"What are you looking at, you little shit?" Sho spat. He started to draw a sword with his free hand. "If you think you can make a meal out of me-"

Four metal arms grabbed Sho by the elbows. "I believe you've done enough," Aigis told him.

"And the little guy didn't even hurt you, now did it?" Labrys asked. She grabbed the bitten hand deftly spread apart the fingers, and inspected each for puncture holes, finding none. "See? You're fine."

"Dammit, let go of me ya scrap heaps!" Sho shouted, yanking his arms out of the two androids' grasp. He huffed. "Fine, I won't kill the dumb snake. Happy?"

Sophie and Morgana were looking at the snake curiously. It was staring right back at them. Morgana sniffed at it.

Sophie said, "It's not acting like a snake should."

Morgana took another sniff. "It doesn't smell very afraid either."

Ayaka stepped forward and the snake turned to look at her. She stood stock still. The snake also froze. Ayaka cocked her head to one side. The snake mirrored the motion. Ayaka raised a hand. The snake managed to look confused for a minute before it finally settled on raising its tail in the air. Ayaka was delighted by the snake's responsiveness and crouched down, holding out her hand. The snake touched her fingertips with the end of its tail.

"Wow, he's a smart little guy," Ayaka giggled. "I don't know what exactly those flashing lights did to him, but I'd say he's definitely a really smart snake. Maybe I should give you a name. What do you think of Monty?"

"Smart or not, we've found what we came down here for," Naoto pointed out. "Just leave him for now. We'll have some people come down here to collect the animals later. For now, we should get moving."

"Nice reference though," Joker smirked.

"Alright, I'll come," Ayaka relented, getting to her feet. "But before that…" Ayaka spun on one heel and launched herself at Sho, tackling the redhead to the ground. "Zuki! You're okaaaayyyy!"

Labrys and Joker smirked. Minato and Naoto exchanged bewildered looks. Noir giggled, Aigis gave a soft smile, Morgana averted his eyes, Sophie bounced up and down at seeing her friends so happy, the forgotten police officers felt really left out, and a two-foot Mamushi snake on the floor with newly-endowed intelligence felt very confused about what was going on.

Yasuo Isobe's office was on the highest floor of the building. As such, it was also the hardest place in the building to get to, and the officers moving in were thoroughly tired and irritated by the end. Many of the "workers" that Isobe had hired surrendered the moment they saw the police, but many more refused to, either setting upon their more submissive comrades or, more likely, engaging in brief firefights with the officers, resulting in multiple situations where the police officers were forced to take cover while bullets spattered the walls.

Even once the Persona-users returned from the basement, multiple pockets of Sandā Arsenal employees still refused to lay down their weapons at first, often forcing the strike team to fight for every inch. Things got even more irritating when a couple of holdout groups set off bombs on the staircases leading up to the fourth floor and cut the elevators entirely, leaving the last floor cut off entirely to anyone without either a grappling hook, rocket boosters, being carried by someone with one of the former, or by being an absolute madman and jumping the entire four-meter gap.

So it was that the Persona-users (plus Ayaka and the police commissioner) were the ones standing at the end of the hall before the door to Yasuo Isobe's office. Sho was still nursing his hands (where he'd been forced to grab onto the blasted edge of the remains of the staircase) and Aigis and Labrys were both scratched up a little from bullet impacts, but other than that, the entire team was unharmed.

"Are we all ready to do this?" Naoto asked.

Ayaka's face was set. "As I'll ever be."

"Then what the hell are we just standing here for?" Sho spat, marching forward. He slammed a foot into the door of the office, blowing it clean off its hinges.

The interior of the office was a mess, with ripped papers, books, writing utensils, and even the furniture scattered around the room and upended, signs of an unstable mind being driven to desperation and rage. Within the room were two men. One was black-haired and black-eyed, and calm like a stone. If his chest did not rise and fall with his breath, one might even consider him to be a well-painted statue. The other was an old, old man, with white hair and his face covered in wrinkles and stubble, his hands on his head and his eyes filled with madness, his no doubt ordinarily immaculate business suit rumpled and askew. As the group burst into the room, both men's gazes turned to them, the black-haired man merely looking on with condescension and the old man becoming even angrier.

"How dare you break in here like common hooligans!" the old man, clearly Yasuo Isobe, shouted. "How dare you invade my private premises and assault my men!"

"No, Grandfather." Ayaka strode forward. "How dare you. How dare you sell weapons to the yakuza? How dare you kidnap people off the streets? How dare you sponsor the torture of so many innocent creatures? How dare you demand I let you control my life right after I just lost my mother!? Why? Why are you doing all of this!?"

Isobe looked shocked that Ayaka was there, his face further betraying a mixture of sadness and rage. "I don't expect a child to understand my reasoning. Look at the people behind you!" He directed a shaking finger at Joker. "The Phantom Thieves are here to take my heart, I knew they would be, I'm going to suffer a mental shutdown just like Okumura, and now my blood will be on your hands, Ayaka-!"

Isobe stopped short in terror as waves of pressure began emanating from Sho, his scar flashing blue and his eyes a mixture of piercing azure and furious crimson. Ayaka seized the opportunity to speak. "No, Grandfather. You're the one who has betrayed our family. You did nothing to protect mom and dad or me from any of these perceived "threats" you ranted on and on about all this time. And now look at what you have become. No. Enough. You will answer to your crimes, Grandfather. I will not run from this any longer."

As Isobe recoiled in horror, the black-eyed man spoke for the first time, "And so it comes to this. Are you prepared to let these people tear down everything that you have built? Destroy even the very foundations of your life's work? What would he say if he saw you now?"

Isobe froze at these words. Then his face was set with defiance. The slightest hint of a smirk crossed the black-eyed man's otherwise emotionless face as Isobe stood tall with clenched fists, a growl in his throat and the shadow at his feet already swirling with a dark aura.

"No. I will not permit these outsiders to take what is mine. This company is everything to me, my rock, my fortress. I WILL SURRENDER TO NO ONE!" he roared.

All at once, the entire building shook. Cracks appeared in the floor, walls and ceiling as the entire room buckled, the space within warping and twisting. Elements of the room faded and transformed, the walls turning to concrete and the windows to iron bars. Shadows erupted out of the floors, coalescing around the now-laughing Isobe until he was barely visible in the tornado of chaos.

"We need to move! NOW!" Mona yelled, turning tail and fleeing the room.

"We can take him!" Sho protested.

Minako yanked on the back of his collar. "Oh, no, dumbass! We have no idea how strong he's going to be when he's done! And this building is collapsing! Do you want to end up buried!?"

The entire group started running. "What the heck is happening!?" the police commissioner demanded.

Joker gave him a grim look. "This is that worst case scenario I mentioned, Commissioner."

The entire group barely had enough time to get down past the gap in the front stairwell to the officers on the third floor before the entire building began to warp. Space collapsed and stretched alternately in different areas, various rooms and hallways being slowly morphed by the Metaverse into a new form. Stone walls turned to dug-out trenches and fortifications. Rooms became supply tents and foxholes. And the four-story building itself became a hill of mud and bones, with a stone keep at the very top.

As the last of the team and their prisoners joined up with Ken and the growing crowd of anxious onlookers, the morphing slowly settled into its final form. The very space itself that Sandā Arsenal's headquarters used to occupy was now stretched, the fabric of reality warped to accommodate the size of the fortress of wood, stone, and iron. The muddy hill was ringed with three layers of barbed wire barriers, wooden palisades, trenches, and Shadow guards shaped like soldiers carrying katanas or ancient WWII firearms. A cave dug into the hill yawned like an open mouth in the center, with a concrete guard tower on either side, each guarding one of the twin stairwells leading further up the hill towards the concrete and iron keep at the very top.

"My god." Minako removed her mask and openly gaped up at the fortress.

"It's just like Tartarus…" Ken murmured.

Joker addressed the police commissioner, still looking up at the keep at the top of the hill. "Well, commissioner, you wanted to know what the worst that could happen was? This is it. This fortress is what Yasuo Isobe thinks his company's headquarters is."

"This is a Palace."