Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 3—or any version of the Persona series, really. I just own this rather shameless piece of work.

Other Notes: So. My soundboard's come back and one of the first things he told me after reading the last few chapters is that his new theme for "MinatoandTamamo" is Martin Garrix's collab with Bebe Rexha, "In the Name of Love". I think he's trying to hint something, but I don't know if he meant it in general or in the shipping manner…

Also, he brought up an important question that I thought I'd share the answer for. He asked for clarification on Chidori/Medea's ability—about why she wouldn't know it blocked communication (from one person to another behind her shield, specifically) and so on. The thought process behind that was the fact that Strega has been around a while, but they haven't really dealt with other Persona users before. Yes, there were experiments on other children, but, remember, those experiments ultimately failed. Even Sho Minazuki of the Persona 4: Arena part of the series, while still alive, was considered a failure. Thus, this operates on the idea that Strega has been wandering as the sole Persona users for a while (which, on a side note, kind of explains Takaya's god complex-thing). (Strega was probably peripherally aware of SEES when it was first established, but were largely uninterested since they probably didn't see SEES as a threat. Given that SEES then had no clear objective and couldn't touch Tartarus as they were understaffed, they weren't exactly wrong.)

But anyway, basically, neither Jin nor Takaya have Personas with similar abilities as Chidori's, so she's never had the chance to see how Medea's power matched up or clashed against them. And, seeing as how she can communicate using Medea just fine (such as when she basically hijacked Fuuka later on in the storyline), it's entirely possible that she never considered that others would be hindered while Medea's ability was active.

…If that still doesn't make sense to you, I apologize and must simply asketh thee to suspend thy disbelief and fall back upon the old adage, "a wizard did it", and cease thy plotting to murder me with logic… please.

Symbiosis

Chapter Thirty-Four

Fighting against another Persona user was… interesting.

And by "interesting", Minato honestly just meant "frustrating as all get out". Especially as he had to avoid both Medea and Chidori (with her ax on a chain where did she even keep that thing) in the limited space that was the dorm's rooftop. All with his arms literally tied behind his back, throwing off his sense of balance.

Orpheus swung his harp, smacking Medea quite soundly in the face, knocking her away from her latest pursuit. There was a crackle of black static as the Persona staggered back in sync with Chidori, who made a small sound as the pain echoed back to her.

"Medea doesn't have much of an exploitable weakness per se, if I recall correctly," Tamamo informed him a moment later. "Her specialty is Agi, but she also has a special self-healing ability known as the Spring of Life."

Like the legend, Minato thought, eyes drawn back to the ram skull mask that covered the Persona's head.

"Indeed. Unfortunately, this means that Orpheus doesn't have much of an advantage here. He's strong enough to defend you since he's grown with you, but his skill repertoire is limited."

Medea swung out at the Master of Strings, who lifted his harp to catch the attack. The effort earned him a knife in his mechanical, gloved arm that had Minato flinching and ordering Orpheus to move away. Orpheus obeyed, lashing out with his leg to get the other Persona out of range.

When Tamamo continued, her voice was noticeably strained, "Chidori's not built for a long fight. Strike hard, strike fast, strike true."

Minato's mind filtered through the Personas he'd had ready for the operation as quickly as he could, searching for one that wouldn't be vulnerable to Agi with enough power to keep Medea at bay. Succubus, then.

"On it!"

The next instant, Orpheus turned his head to make eye contact with Minato. After a silent, second-long exchange that Minato didn't fully understand, his Persona turned back. Then, with a ruthlessness Minato didn't expect, Orpheus bashed Medea away once more with his harp, then again seemingly for good measure, before leaping back, his form dissipating into light before he could land.

Then, with a surge of power, the demon Succubus entered the fray with a wicked laugh. Her wings flared with a Bufula spell that had Medea's lithe form jumping away.

Chidori clicked her tongue, and the small downturn tick of her eyebrows belied her annoyance.

Tamamo watched the battle with a critical eye, trying not to be too tense as she held Minato's Social Link to Fuuka, ready for the instant Medea's power faltered enough to get a message through. Orpheus floated somewhere behind her shoulder, having taken up the spot the moment he was recalled, either watching with her or as some form of moral support that she greatly appreciated.

It was a testament to how focused she was that she didn't even jump when Pharos unexpectedly stepped up beside her. A quick glance told her that his eyes were similarly riveted to Minato's view of the outside world.

They stood in silent solidarity for a while, but eventually Pharos tugged on her sleeve.

"Yes, Pharos?" she asked, if a bit distractedly.

"I can help."

She froze. Reluctantly, she pulled her gaze away from the fight, watching as he mirrored her, expression earnest. Then, hoping she hadn't heard him correctly, she asked, "What?"

Pharos tilted his head. "I can help, if you'd like."

Tamamo's mind flashed back to the Arcana Magician fight, and the terror that followed as Death's power surged and filled Minato's head with the sound of rattling chains. The feeling of being completely overwhelmed, consumed, by the crazed bloodlust of the incomplete Death. The desperation to get away as she was dragged back to Death's door—

Small, cool hands touched hers and she blinked.

"Not like that," Pharos said gently. "That would hurt him, too, right now… But I… we can still help him."

She remained still as he slowly turned her hand palm up. Then, he hovered one of his hands over hers. A tiny spark of lightning ignited between their fingertips. Apparently satisfied with the reaction, Pharos looked up at her with a small, expectant smile.

The appearance of that smile reminded her, strangely, of their first official meeting, right after Minato arrived to the dorm and signed that fateful contract. Pharos had looked at her and said, in that cryptic manner of his, that they were different and yet the same. Back then and all the way up to now, she had thought that he was referring to the fact that they were both bound to Minato, stuck in his head or his sea of souls, but that they were completely different types of beings.

Now, with his memories steadily returning—just four more Arcana Shadows, including the Arcana Hermit that night—and his power as Death growing, she wondered if she had been wrong.

"Hang in there, Amada!" Mitsuru called as she dashed in front of the younger boy, taking up a defensive stance before him as Akihiko and Shinjiro rushed in to cover them. Amada's Persona, Nemesis, hovered nearby, body struggling to move as electric shocks skittered over it from the Shadow's attack. "Penthesilea!"

"T—Thanks, Mitsuru-senpai," Amada murmured as the healing light of Diarama was bathed over himself and his Persona. He shook out each hand as if to rid them of any lingering effects, trading his spear between them.

"Can you keep going?" she asked him over her shoulder. She knew by the slight furrowing of his brow that he believed her to be coddling him for his younger age, and perhaps in some way she was, but she also knew she would have asked the same of any of her teammates. Amada had taken heavy damage from the charged-up attack, unable to guard in time before the Shadow set it off.

Still, he seemed to bite back his token protest of being treated as a child and only nodded in reply, brandishing the spear that was twice his height with purpose. When Mitsuru moved away, he went back into battle with Nemesis in tow.

Sentient cables slithered after him, rearing up like a serpent primed to strike, and Penthesilea flew forward to intercept.

"How does it look, Yamagishi?" Mitsuru asked over the Shadow's wounded shriek.

"You're nearly there," was the navigator's answer, though she sounded distracted.

Had it been any other time, any other battle, Mitsuru would have disapproved, but she understood that there were certainly extenuating circumstances. Arisato was still missing, and Yamagishi was his friend. She was right to be worried, especially if her concerns about Strega being involved were correct. It was the reason why Mitsuru had left both Takeba and Iori out of the fight as well, as both had shown signs of being distracted on the way.

Still, it was to their advantage that the fight against this Shadow was relatively straightforward. Predictable. With less time needed to monitor them and the Shadow, Yamagishi had more time to spend searching for their field leader.

It was admirable, Mitsuru could admit. The way that the newer members of SEES cared for one another.

Oh, she knew she and Akihiko and even Shinjiro, for all that he tried to stay away until recently, shared a similar bond forged by fires of the Dark Hour. She cared for them. Cared for SEES. But Mitsuru was nothing if not practical. Pragmatic. She knew that she could not allow their mission to waver, regardless of her own feelings and worries. When her power first awakened and Penthesilea took form, she had resolved to do whatever it took to right the wrongs her grandfather and his ambitions caused. For the company's sake.

For her father's sake.

She had steeled her heart, but she could never lock it away completely. She still felt. And she admired her underclassmen for adapting to their induction into SEES by not being afraid to look to one another for support. They were more than colleagues. More than fellow soldiers fighting the same war. They were friends.

Takeba may think of her as the unfeeling leader, the ice queen, but she understood. More than anyone, she felt she understood that desire to help and protect someone else. She channeled it differently, but she still knew.

And so, she carefully did not comment on Yamagishi's distraction, simply letting her work and trusting her to attend to her duties as she defined them.

"You're very annoying," Chidori said as Minato threw himself out of the way of another attack. She tugged the chain of her weapon, inspecting the ax's blade when it returned to her. There was a nick in it now—Minato could see it clearly even from the distance he stood at—where it had struck the corner of wall that enclosed the roof. "Why do you continue to resist? It's all futile in the end."

Minato didn't reply, instead concentrating on keeping his breathing even. The ropes binding his arms to his torso made it a significantly harder task, especially with the added exertion. When his vision went fuzzy at the edges, he tried not to make it obvious how hard he was blinking to get rid of it.

"If you're so annoying, she should just fuck off," Tamamo muttered.

It was probably a sign of how affected he was by his injuries that Minato found himself wondering in the middle of a serious battle about how easily his Other switched emotions. Earlier and when she first told him about Chidori Yoshino and her ill-fated love with Junpei, Tamamo had sounded as though she'd pitied the girl. Sympathized with her, even, when she relayed how Chidori had entrusted her life to Junpei so that they would never be apart. But now, she seemed all too ready to just bite the Strega girl's head off.

Succubus soared over his head to block the incoming Medea, knocking him from his thoughts. He dodged clumsily at the demon's dark and blurred form, nearly toppling over thanks to his shot sense of balance. Blearily, he watched as his Persona shoved one hand into Medea's face while the other kept her knife at bay, clawing at the red eyes embedded in the ram skull as she forced Medea's head back.

She nearly succeeded in completely inclining Medea's head when Chidori let out a strangled, pained gasp. "Medea!"

An instant later, Succubus was engulfed in flames. She shrieked as she scrambled away from Medea, who calmly righted the position of her head while the demon burned.

His current Persona may have resisted Agi-type spells, and Tamamo's shield may have helped block some of the damage, but the pain still echoed back to Minato with all the force of a tidal wave. Like thousands of shards of glass, it cut deep into his mind, burning white-hot by the power of the spell. Agidyne. He managed to keep from screaming aloud, but only just.

Instead, Tamamo screamed for him. "MINATO!"

"Aki," Shinjiro spoke. His voice was just barely above a murmur, but it was clear enough that even Mitsuru, who was the furthest away from him, could hear it.

Across from him, even with the Shadow's body between them, Mitsuru watched Akihiko straighten with realization. She looked on with no little consternation as he nodded, a familiar smirk curling his lips. "I'm with ya, Shinji!"

Shinjiro seemed to just barely resist rolling his eyes, hefting his ax so that it rested partially on his shoulder. Castor flew to his side just as Polydeuces rose to Akihiko's. When both Personas were in position, Shinjiro lifted his shoulder, nudging the ax off of it. He held onto it, but let gravity do the work for him as it swung back. He firmed his stance as Castor shot forward, black form streaking across the mass of wires and bulldozing into the Arcana Hermit's stationary form.

The Shadow let out a fearsome shriek as it was knocked back—right into the path of the waiting Polydeuces. Rearing one needle-arm back, the Persona sent the tethered Shadow careening right back the way it came. Only for it to be volleyed right back.

With a familiar sense of exasperation creeping up on her, Mitsuru watched a demented form of tennis occur, the two Personas knocking the Shadow back and forth like a toy, faster and faster until, finally, it slipped past Castor's range.

Shinjiro clicked his tongue, stepping to the side. He lifted his ax and swung, the heavy blade sinking into the Shadow's mask. The borderline delinquent barely batted an eye when the Shadow screamed in his face as it melted into the familiar red and black mist.

"Heh." Akihiko grinned, oblivious to the bewildered frown Amada was sending them in the background.

This time, Shinjiro did roll his eyes. "Shut up."

For all that they were older now, Mitsuru considered, the two boys she'd ended up first recruiting into SEES were still just that. Boys.

(If she hid a smile behind a curl of hair, then, well. No one had to know.)

"Yamagishi," she spoke up after a moment of silence. "Do you sense anything?"

"Not in there, no," the younger girl replied.

"…And Arisato?"

The response was much slower. Reluctant. "No. Nothing. I—Wait!" Beside her, Mitsuru saw Akihiko and Amada tense while Shinjiro looked over his shoulder. Then, Yamagishi gasped. "It's faint, and flickering oddly, but I think… I might sense Minato-kun!"

Mitsuru straightened, readying for possible combat once more. With only a look at the others, she began leading them back up to central area of the mall. "Can you pinpoint a location?"

"Not yet. But he's nearby, I'm sure."

"Keep searching, then. We'll regroup with you and the others," Mitsuru said, though she knew that was a bit redundant given that Yamagishi would have already sensed that. "Be ready for anything."

Succubus had stopped burning, but the fire was replaced by the black static that announced the Persona's vulnerability. Her posture reflected that as well, drooping where she once was strong. Even her wings seemed limp. The expression on her face, though, told another story entirely.

Temptation incarnate, the Persona Succubus was generally very dainty and alluring. Attractive and knowing it. Flaunting it. She smiled prettily when she attacked, and laughed as though all the world was a game.

Now, though, her teeth were bared, lips pulled back into a vicious snarl. Her eyes tracked both Medea and Chidori with dark, almost hungry intensity. She looked like the demon she was.

And it was all fueled by Tamamo, Minato realized as his Persona floated protectively beside him. He was too tired to focus on anything but surviving, much less to feel angry. But in his head, he could feel his Other's fury burning like a star, as if she had taken the fire Chidori and Medea set upon them and now wielded it as her own.

Across from them, he noticed that neither Chidori nor Medea moved. Backed into a corner as he was, both literally and metaphorically, he couldn't help but wonder why. It was only when he looked to them to try and see what they could have been planning that he noticed the sparks of electricity filling the air. They swirled around, blinking in and out of existence, giving an almost shimmering effect to the space between him and Chidori, who watched it warily.

Minato hadn't fused Succubus with any Zio spells.

At that moment, Medea shifted.

Just barely a foot, as if trying to edge around the electric barrier. Find its limits.

An instant later, a bolt of lightning shot out at her, striking the Persona's tall, thin leg. Chidori crumpled together with her Persona, letting out a short scream as the pain ricocheted back to her. She struggled to regain her breath, only to stare in stunned bewilderment as her Persona tried and failed to stand back up.

Medea's leg, where it was struck, was encased in ice. And that ice was steadily growing, creeping up the Persona's side, down to the ground, down the rest of her leg to her foot. A slow petrification.

"M—Medea…" Chidori whimpered. She stared at the ice a moment longer before her gaze snapped back to Minato, brown eyes wild. "You! What have you done to Medea!?"

Another flash of lightning erupted, rushing passed Chidori's figure. She choked and Minato watched as Medea was shot down, ice forming on her chest. Black static ran over the surface as the Persona struggled to move before the ice froze her completely.

Chidori dragged herself closer, reaching out as if to try and help her Persona, only for another lightning bolt to whiz by her threateningly. It grazed Medea's head, freezing a lock of blonde hair.

"Stop!" Chidori screeched, whirling around to glare at him with such hatred that he flinched. "Stop hurting Medea!"

"As you wish," Tamamo murmured.

Minato's eyes widened. Tamamo—!

Heedless of his call, lightning struck again, this time not aiming for the Persona, but Chidori herself. Minato watched, horrified but unable to look away. But just before the attack struck, the lightning split, like a web, the now separate strokes arcing around her before flash-freezing into a crude cage. It left her barely any room to move.

Succubus left his side without his bidding, gliding over to the cage. Though she was moving slowly, gingerly, she still managed to deftly reach out through the jagged bars of ice to grab Chidori's ax where it had fallen. The demonic Persona tossed the weapon carelessly to the side before reaching in once more, to the space at Chidori's back where Minato had seen her pull her Evoker from.

"No!" Chidori cried out, slapping the Persona's hand away as best she could. But Succubus was relentless, and with barely a struggle she extracted the summoning tool from the Strega member's grasp. Chidori pressed herself against the icy bars, pale hand reaching feebly, but Succubus flew away, back to Minato's side. "No! You can't do this…!" She gasped, twisting around, only to make a wounded sound when her Persona dissipated in wisps of flame and light, too damaged to sustain her physical form. "Medea…!"

For all that she had harmed him, even tried to kill him, Minato felt a tendril of guilt twist over him as he watched her beg for her Persona to be returned to her. He knew he couldn't, but a part of him couldn't help but look over to Succubus anyway.

His Persona floated nearby, Chidori's Evoker in hand. She wasn't looking at him or even at Chidori, her gaze drawn, instead, to the side of the roof. Her head tilted in a considering way, fingers flicking over the Evoker, which she glanced at briefly before returning her gaze to the side.

Quickly catching on, Minato spoke up, "No. Don't even think about it."

Succubus looked at him then, eyebrows drawn up high on her forehead. Without the fearsome snarl and promised pain in her eyes, she looked innocent. When Minato only shook his head at her, she drooped, pouting prettily before dropping the Evoker and dismissing herself in a huff.

You've done enough, Minato thought firmly. Because while he knew that Succubus could be petty and cruel, none of his Personas ever acted without some inkling of genuine emotion from his side. It was in their name—though they manifested as beings of myth and legend, they were reflections of his soul, his personality, in some way. And being so tied to a certain Other in his head…

Well. He had no doubts about what had driven Succubus in the last moments of the battle.

Tamamo herself was quiet for a long moment, but she made no move to deny the truth of his assumptions. After a while, he thought she wouldn't reply.

But then, "She hurt you. I just wanted to return the favor." Unlike what the smoldering remains of her anger told him, her voice was positively tranquil. Before he could even think of a reply, she added, "I can feel Fuuka trying to contact us. Sit down and rest, Minato. I'll let her know what happened and where we are."

Unable to muster the energy to argue, Minato did as told, sinking down to his knees before rearranging himself into a more comfortable sitting position. He was careful to keep Chidori in sight, though the red-haired girl had quickly grown despondent after her Evoker was taken from her.

Until the rest of SEES showed up, there was little he could do but wait.

Belatedly, he found himself hoping, quite vainly, that Junpei wouldn't be the first to reach the roof when they arrived.

Waiting for SEES was a welcome respite, but Tamamo kept herself alert in case Jin and/or Takaya somehow decided to worm their way into the scene. Strega hadn't seemed to really care for one another—well, except for Jin's near-worship of Takaya—but then again she couldn't really remember their relationships. They hadn't had much screen time for all that they were secondary antagonists, and most of that time was spent on their attempts to sabotage SEES rather than their interactions with one another.

Speaking of antagonists…

Pharos was humming from where he was seated beside her, fiddling with a leaf from one of the mindscape's many trees. She recognized the song as one she sang sometimes to herself when she was bored, making her wonder briefly how often the boy Death checked in on her when he wasn't immediately visible.

Shaking her head, she called, "Pharos."

The boy blinked up at her.

"Thank you," she told him sincerely. She bowed her head for good measure. "For helping me protect Minato."

Pharos stared, gaze fathomless. Then, an indulgent smile tinged with amusement pulled at the corners of his lips.

"I didn't do much, to be honest," he confessed.

Her brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

After Medea's horrifying casting of Agidyne, Tamamo had thrown her caution to the proverbial wind and took up Pharos's offer to help. Together, the two had directed her power, giving it enough strength to reach outside Minato's mindscape to affect the real world. It had been thanks to Pharos that she'd had enough power to strike Medea so hard that it downed her, as well as enough precision to bind Chidori.

…Wasn't it?

Pharos tipped his head, as if to acknowledge all of the points Tamamo had just thought. "All you needed was a guide. A proper channel for your power to flow through."

One small, pale hand rose, holding a leaf. His fingers closed around it, crushing it. When he reopened his hand, a blue butterfly flickered into existence from the leaf's remains.

Tamamo watched it, transfixed.

It wasn't the butterfly that represented Philemon, she noted. That butterfly was plain and soundless. The one that fluttered before her now had wings that looked like stained glass, carrying within them a ghostly blue light. When it flew, its wingbeats were accompanied by what sounded like wind chimes, soft and comforting.

"I didn't do much to help you then," Pharos repeated. "If anything, I had to hold you back."

By the time the words registered and Tamamo had the presence of mind to question him, Pharos had already disappeared.