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Minatodai Dormitory, 1st Floor Lounge

Morning

With the issue of 'trust' being decided by Aigis' fiat, everyone started to work at making headway into how to deal with the Abyss that had entrapped them. Well, for the most part. Midori made her excuses and went to get herself something to eat. She didn't feel like going down into the Abyss on an empty stomach.

She was surprised when Aigis followed her, along with Metis. "Um," she said as she reached the fridge. "Do you want anything, Metis? I mean, Aigis doesn't eat really, so I mean, I don't know if you're different from her in that regard?"

"No, I don't. I share power production capacities with my sister." Metis responded factually. "I'm staying with her for now as it seems to put everyone else at ease."

Midori ran this through her head and accepted the explanation. She turned back to the fridge. "Then what did you need, Aigis?"

"I talked with Igor while I was... asleep." Aigis stated flatly. "He said that I can talk to you about certain things."

Midori paused with her hand on the handle to the fridge. She wanted to open it up and find something to eat, but the mention of Igor made her stop. "Oh? And who was his assistant?"

"Elizabeth," Aigis answered. "I wanted to talk to you because only you and Minato had met with him before, and he suggested I talk to you about things he couldn't explain about my new power."

"I'm not a wild card," Midori replied. "It's not like I had experience with Persona Fusion or things like that."

"I understand."

Then Midori realized what logic Aigis was talking about. "Wait! You have Minato's power now?" She sun around, hunger forgotten as she confronted Aigis. "But you...! I mean...!

"Yes. I can no longer access my Orgia Mode in exchange for the ability to switch Personas."

"..." Midori tried to figure out how that worked. A couple theories ran into her head, then ran out just as fast, never giving her a chance to think more than blink on it. "How does that work?"

"I do not know." She turned to look at Metis, who was poking at one of the kitchen appliances with a curious finger. "I suspect our situation demanded it."

"Then what did you want to talk about? I mean, I don't know what to talk about." Midori started to trip over herself by being put on the spot like that. Realizing that she shouldn't be standing for this, she found a stool and sat down.

"..." Aigis opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it right away. "I'm not sure myself. Igor-san told me that I could talk to you, and now I find myself not knowing where to begin."

"Maybe you can start with the why?" Metis offered as she flicked the switches of the mixer, even though it wasn't plugged in. "Also, Sister told everyone else about about her new powers, so you're not keeping any secrets."

"That's.. nice." Midori still didn't know how to treat Metis. She agreed with Mitsuru that there were too many things off about her, but she had to trust Aigis in this regard. Besides, if things turned bad, there was everyone else with their Evokers to help out now.

An uncomfortable silence fell across the room. "So, how it Igor?" Midori finally said.

"Quite mysterious." Aigis said. "I can understand now why you and Minato were so elusive in talking about him."

"And Elizabeth?"

"I cannot tell. She was very businesslike."

"Did they mention Theodore?"

Aigis paused. "No. Who is he?"

"He's an other assistant to Igor, like Elizabeth." Midori explained. "So, what did he tell you?"

"He said I was an interesting guest, and that he would be able to fuse Personas for me." Aigis quickly moved to express her confusion. "When I look in myself, I see Orpheus, not Pallas Athena. How do I develop more of these Personas? How did Minato do it?"

Midori bought new Demons from the Auction house. She knew it wasn't the same with Minato, nor it seems, with Aigis. "I don't know. I mean, he usually found news ones, or displayed them after a fight with Shadows. Sometimes he'd talk to Igor. I remember him mentioning something about a book with all sorts of Personas in it. A...compendium of sorts?"

Aigis nodded. "I have observed similarly. You suggest that when we enter the Abyss, I can use combat to attain more Personas?"

Midori honestly had no clue. "Probably? Only one way to find out. Unless you have some insight, Metis?"

"No. I don't know much about my Sister's new power" Metis admitted. "Although she did loose access to her Orgia Mode in the process, so perhaps the two are exclusive?"

"Maybe." Aigis and Midori both agreed in principle. "Although there is no proof of that. You did damage me."

"I'm so sorry Sister! I didn't mean to!" Metis bowed very deeply in apology, causing Midori a pang of jealousy that she wished she could bend like that. It would make playing tennis so much easier.

A thought came to Midori as she forced her self to go over everything that Minato had told her about the Velvet Room and its residents. "Do you have a key? A Velvet Key?"

Aigis seemed taken aback. "I... I know I have one. But I cannot say where it is. That is confusing..."

Midori sighed in relief. "Don't worry about that. It's not an actual key. It's like a permission to enter the Velvet Room." Then the logic of the situation hit her, and her relief fled. "But the only two places I know to get in there are in the Lobby of Tartarus and the back hall of Paulowina, you know the one headed to the washrooms?"

Aigis nodded, piecing together the information in her own mind. "But I do not have access to either of those locations."

"Maybe there's an entrance to this Velvet Room in the Abyss then?" Metis offered without fully understanding what her sister and her friend were talking about. "If you can't access Tartarus, then it would be logical to presume that there is a replacement downstairs?"

The others silently considered this. "There is a logic to that." Aigis finally had to admit. "What does this entrance look like?" she asked Midroi.

"I don't know!" came the admission. "Minato said it was like a purple door, but only those with a Key could actually see and interact with it. When I talked to Igor both times, he had to lead me to it and let me in."

"Then we should look in the Abyss." Aigis said as she stood up. "Will you come with me?"

Midori's stomach growled. "Let me get some food first."

"Of course." Aigis, now with a clear purpose, made her way back towards the lounge. "Don't worry, I won't go without you."

A couple minutes later, Midori came out of the kitchen with a worried look on her face. "We're out of food!"

The Abyss of Time

Daytime

Midori wasn't happy, but there was nothing to be done. With very little food left in storage, Mitsuru had instituted rationing. At Aigis' suggestion, and with Metis' support, they had organized one more exploration party into the Abyss.

"It is connected to my Sister," Metis had tried to explain. "It binds her here. She can explore it to remove those bindings."

"That sounds very convenient," Chidori complained, with Yukari echoing that sentiment. "So, this entrapped her, and the rest of us are collateral? That's almost insulting."

"Be that as it may, we now have a line of advance to resolve this situation." Mitsuru had looked at the assembled group. Aigis, I want you to take at least Midori and Metis into the Abyss, I'm placing you in charge of the exploration of the Abyss. Your altered powers should give you an advantage in dealing with whatever we find down there. Metis goes with you as I don't want her out of your sight, while Midori can support you."

Midori felt like Mitsuru hadn't finished her explanation while Aigis asked for Fuuka and Akihiko's support. They had readily agreed, and Mitsuru had made sure everyone else was on standby, or doing other work around the dorm.

They made their way down the stairs, this time Aigis in the lead. When they reached the bottom, a couple changes were apparent.

First, one of the doorways was surrounded by a slight glow, almost as if saying 'come to me'. Second was the humanoid shadow that stood in the epicentre of the ring of doors. Before anyone could challenge it, it ran off, through the lit doorway.

"I think we have our first objective," Akihiko snarked slightly. "Fuuka, did you happen to get a scan of that thing?"

"No! It was gone to fast." The petite girl apologized. "I couldn't activate Lucia.. er Juno, or... in time."

"It's alright." Akihiko said. "It was gone pretty fast. Are you going to stay here, or follow us?"

In response, Fuuka pulled out her Evoker and found a spot on the ground to summon Lucia. "I think we should behave like this was Tartarus, and this is the Lobby. Allow me to attempt to scan ahead."

As Fuuka and her Persona did their thing, Akihiko examined his own evoker. "I suppose I should check out Ceaser too," he commented as he readied the weapon against himself, "just in case it's fallen behind like Juno did into Lucia."

He pulled the trigger, and the familiar Persona came into view before vanishing just as quickly. "Well?" Midori asked hopefully.

"Feels rusty," Akihiko admitted, no shame in his voice. "I suppose not using ones Persona for a couple months can do that to a person." He looked at Midori. "That you've been able to practice with Black Frost in that time is a huge advantage."

Midori shook her head, not certain about how much of one she really had. "I don't know. I mean, I didn't actually, you know, do anything with him, and I've been practising better power control in summoning him. When I fought Metis, he didn't have all his full-power abilities." Her own confession brought a thoughtful look to Akihiko's face.

"Well, I think the only thing we can do is practice." He smiled at her. "And if you were able to keep up your work like that, I have no doubt as to your abilities."

Unable to suppress the blush that crawled up her face, Midori spun around hard to hide herself. "I'm not one of your fangirls, Sensei," she proclaimed. "You don't have to compliment me like that!" She may not like Akihiko-sensei like that, but even she still reacted when he turned on the charm.

He laughed a polite little laugh. "Sorry. Didn't meant to do that."

Fuuka groaned in annoyance as she dismissed her Persona. "I can't tell what's behind the other doors, but the one that the black thing went through – there are Shadows behind it." She shook her head to clear her thoughts. "It's like, I don't know, something's wrong. It's a twisty path that I lose track of, but it seems so straight. It's not like Tartarus at all."

"The only way to advance is to go forward." Metis announced solidly.

"I did catch a name though," Fuuka said. "The place behind that door is called Malebolge."

"Ma-re-bohr-ge?" Midori tripped over the pronunciation hard.

"Malebolge," Aigis clarified, "Is the eight circle of the Christian Hell as defined by the author Dante."

"Oh, that's just cheery." Midori replied. Then remembering that Black Frost was from 'Hell', she realized that it couldn't be that bad of a place after all. "Shall we?"

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Malebolge, The Abyss of Time

Daytime

Aigis approached the door that the shadow had gone through a few moments earlier, hand outstretched. She touched the gilded ivory door and it swung open at the connection. "Great. I beat the thing all day and nothing happens. You push it open with a finger. Where's the justice in that?"

Metis raised one eyebrow. "You act as though you're important. Sister is the one for whom this place exists."

"That's quite insulting, considering I'm Aigis's friend."

"Enough, both of you." Aigis shut the impending argument down before it could interfere with possible combat.

"Yes, Aigis." "Yes, Sister."

They stepped through the door, and found themselves in a strange corridor. The red-hued floor was covered by a grey carpet, while the white walls seemed to be perpetually on the edge of falling off. "Fuuka, can you hear me?" Aigis asked into the air, hoping for a positive response.

"Yes, I can." The response echoed in the air around them. "I can definitely sense the shadows ahead of you, but other than that... I'm sorry."

"And just like that, we're back in Tartarus. Only way we can go is forward. Not backwards." Akihiko said from the back. "There's no doorway back to the Abyss."

As one, the rest of the group spun around to confirm that yes, they were trapped. "Then we shall proceed forward," Aigis said, the slightest annoyance in her voice. She wasn't annoyed with the banter around her, but with the lack of a safe retreat in case things went sour.

She recognized that when Mitsuru forced Midori into the first team to enter the Abyss proper, it was because Midori was the only one to have absolute command over her Persona. No matter how esoteric it may be, it was the only logical precaution. Akihiko had reported some problems with Ceaser while Fuuka had a downgrade in her strengths. Metis was still an unknown, despite all protestations from her to the contrary and her own wildly divergent power set made her unwilling to put her absolute faith in it.

No, it was best, Aigis considered, that this was the team she had to work with.

As they advanced further into Malebolge, Fuuka warned them from the Abyss of the nearby presence of shadows. "Midori, you and Frosty on point" Aigis said carefully, putting their currently strongest member in the position of most danger.

Persona out, Midori carefully turned the corner into one of the rooms that pock-marked the current floor before jumping back. "Gold Hand!" she announced with a whisper, causing Aigis and Akihiko to bristle with anticipation. "Aigis, you got those gun hands. You start the fight."

Nodding, Aigis made sure everyone had their weapons at the ready, then jumped around the corner while firing.

Midori let loose a sigh of joy. They had completely ambushed the valuable and rare hand, and had just as quickly put it down thanks to a lucky critical hit from Metis. "A nice start," she said, "I just hope the rest of them go as easy."

"Don't expect it, Midori." Akihiko warned as he reset his gloves. "And what's that buzzing?"

Suddenly aware of the source of the noise, Midori pulled her COMP out of her uniform jacket. Flipping it open, she found she had an e-mail waiting for her. "It's from Atsuro-san," she said at the unspoken questions. "He's had a look at the Babel server, and it seems like there's nothing wrong with it on the outside." She looked up. "Should I tell him I'm caught in a time loop and therefore going to be doing weird things today?"

"NO!" Somehow even Fuuka's cry came at the same time as the others. "Why would you do that?"

"Because if we're repeating things and my COMP is our only connection outside, we may be able to use it to get supplies delivered, or someone else in the know to poke at the dorm from the outside?" Midori rattled off a quick justification for her actions, surprising herself in retrospect that they actually made some sort of sense.

"I say we wait until we get back to the Dorm and confer with Mitsuru. She should know who to contact." Akihiko offered firmly. "That we can send and receive messages from the outside, no matter how limited is a great help."

Midori brightened up. "Will do!" She threw a quick cute salute from one show or another, only to watch the gesture go completely over everyone elses' heads. "You really need to watch more TV. All of you."

"Can we get back to the exploration now?" Aigis asked as rhetorically as she could muster while behind her, Metis curiously duplicated Midori's salute, a fact she filed away for later. She would have to show the black-armoured robot how to do it properly.

Going down a couple levels further into Malebolge, Aigis began to worry. It wasn't worry per se, but every time she tried to analyze their situation, she found herself trying to compare it to Tartarus. Or trying to figure out where additional supplies could be acquired. Or keeping an eye out for an unfamiliar purple door.

She was, she finally concluded as they bashed their way through another group of Shadows, Akihiko taking time to heal Midori and himself, she was mostly worried about being distracted.

So many things had happened in such a short period of time. Not only had her decisions had an unexpectedly negative impact on her fellows, but the whole issue with the Abyss and Metis only prevented her from working towards a solution.

As much as it galled her, Aigis had to admit she was bad at that sort of multitasking. The others were all trying to help in their own way, but things were not going to be easy.

Another cause for her concern was that Mitsuru had made her leader based solely on the existence of the Wild Card. The logic was odd, if understandable at all. It would have been more appropriate if she had taken the lead directly, or perhaps Akihiko. But instead she had allocated those responsibilities to her.

It was confusing. Enough that she wished she could abandon her responsibilities. But she could not. It would be a betrayal of her core essence. She would have to trust in those around her to give her the right options, to support her in her role as leader.

Another fight, and she felt something change in her.

"Midori?"

"Yes?" The girl was busy checking kneeling and checking over her Persona for blemishes from the battle. The latest shadows were capable of exploiting her elemental weakness, so she had spent most of it on the defensive.

"I think I have an additional option over Orpheus now" Aigis announced calmly.

"Really? That's great, Sister!" Metis immediately congratulated Aigis without knowing the full extent of what it meant while Midori and Akihiko took a more serious response.

"Switch them." Midori commanded, a sudden barked word that seemed to take herself by surprise if the shocked expression in her eyes and the clamping of her mouth shut was any indication. "Sorry!" she managed to say through her fingers before taking a deep breath to steady herself. "I mean, please? If you can, then you'll be closer to understanding what happened to you."

It was a reasonable request, but Aigis had one simple counter. "How?"

This put Midori on the spot. Being the supposed 'expert' on the Wild Card, Aigis was looking to her for help and guidance. So she grasped at straws. "Well, Personas have a Tarot motif, right? Minato was the Fool, I'm the Moon, Akihiko is Emperor. So what if this is like shuffling a deck of cards and drawing one off the top, except you know what cards are where and can shuffle whatever one you want to the top?"

Aigis seemed to consider this for a moment before closing her eyes. "Sister?" Metis asked, worriedly as Aigis stood perfectly still. Then she opened her eyes with a slightly confused look in them.

"I think I have done it. Legion?"

Akihiko spoke up after keeping his own opinions quiet. "You mean that bulbous thing that's supposed to command several thousand demonic troops?"

Midori was very glad that every demonic Legion she had fought never had a force that big at their command. It would have been annoying beating them all up. Several times over. "This just means we have to get into a fight to see if it worked!" Cheering up at the thought, she skipped over to Aigis, grabbed her arm, and started to drag her off further into the dungeon. "And once we've proven that, we'll have you gaining and fusing Personas like a pro in no time!"