Hey guys, it's been awhile (by my standards). Why the long pause? I had to prepare for the SATs/PSATs, so… that was a thing. I was supposed to get the PSAT again, but those fuckers gave me the actual SAT WITHOUT notice! Whatever, I'm back, bitches!

RAX: …. *points to the disclaimer on chapter 18*

Nightlyy: Here's a little challenge for all of you. How much of last chapter was me, and how much was my co-author?

Oh, it's *censored* … fuck!

IAmSoCleverWithMyNameLol: Happy end—Dude, have you PLAYED P3? P3 and happy ending are incompatible with one another!

W-Wait, you mean…

Hehe, you're mine bitch!

Raze Olympus: Pf, he's just a fanboy!

Fuck you, he's mine!

Whatever, yandere.

I'll kill you! We have something you will never have!

And I made sweet, sweet and tender love with him while you watched… like a bitch.

….

Damn~…

#Burn!

Clevernameeh: He wrote me punching the wall and bloodying my hand and crying… DAMN YOU, UNNAMED CO-AUTHOR!


Streets

Everyone stood frozen at the new figure's sudden appearance as it stretched out its wings and looked down upon them all. They could only stare transfixed, their focus only broken from the involuntary shivering caused by the sudden cold air. It was as if chains had been wrapped completely around their bodies so that they could only focus on Makoto and his per―

No, that thing was not a persona. A persona was both the strength and the mirror into one's own heart. But what this was... it was a monster beyond anything that could be born from one person's heart alone. It was as if Death itself had taken physical form and was now glaring at all of them as its avatar continued to stare beneath it, his features hidden by his hood and mask that now had two glowing white orbs in the center of the eyes.

"I-I..." Aigis for the first time truly felt what fear was like. Fear, regret, guilt, so many emotions were flooding into her at once as she gazed into the eyes of that monster and the boy whose life was ruined because of what she had done. She did not remember what this thing had spoken of but at the same time, she also knew that there was no way it could be a lie. What she was facing now was both the monster she once faced and the one both she and it made.

"Oh my god..." Mitsuru muttered as everything sunk in. Her grandfather woke this thing and then it was sealed inside him? The aura of this thing alone that was cold enough to even freeze the liquid that poured from the walls was beyond anything any ordinary shadow could do. The wings of the entity along with the shape of the main body made it seem like some sort of dark angel. There was no way this thing was a shadow, but it was definitely was not a persona. The only comparison that could be made was that this thing was a god.

Kotone clutched onto the Evoker in her hands as she witnessed the appearance of the god's true form. For ten years, that thing resided inside Makoto. It was because of that thing that he was an orphan and it was safe to say it was because of what it caused that Minato's personality split. Everything that has happened and that is happening to Makoto/Minato right now was all because of it.

"So tell me," Death spoke as it surveyed his surroundings. The only ones capable of fighting right now were Aigis, Kotone, and Mitsuru, while Fuuka was off to the side as shocked as the rest of them. This was good, now he could focus purely on the three; the two that caused all of this, and the one who dared to not only ruin his friend but also nearly erase him from existence. "Are you ready to die?"

With a single flap of his wings, Death propelled and quickly closed the short distance between it and Aigis. In almost the literal blink of an eye, Death loomed over her and its slammed his blade down. The android was barely able to register the act and move before the ground around her was shattered to pieces causing dirt and dust to kick up into the air.

From the cloud of dust, Makoto leaped high into the air again with his sights set on the android. With his sword in hand, he used the same magic that launched him to accelerate his descent towards the ground. Aigis was barely able to move in time to avoid being skewered by the boy whose life she played in destroying.

While she was able to avoid any critical blows, she could not land a single blow on Makoto no matter what she tried. Despite by all means being human, she was only able to occasionally graze him before Death intervened.

After another failed attempt to incapacitate him, Aigis was then hit with one of the monster's wings which easily sent her flying until she crashed into the ground next to Mitsuru and Kotone. No matter how hard they try, it just seemed impossible to inflict any sort of injury on him.

"Minato, I know you're in there somewhere,"Kotone declared as she held her Evoker tightly and brought it to her head, her heart pounding at the same rate at the day she first awakened her persona. It was the first day he saved her, and now she had to try to save him. She knew one simple truth; she was not fighting Makoto or Minato, she was fighting Pharos.

"Please, hold on a little longer for me," she whispered before pulling the trigger.

Cu Chulainn appeared behind his master before descending upon Death itself and its avatar, meeting the former spear to sword.

"Finally fighting back, I see," Death chuckled in amusement to see the redhead's resistance. Even so, she was not going to be able to win this fight either all by herself or with the few numbers she does have.

Letting out another small chuckle, Death put all of its weight forward and pushed Cu Chulainn back from their clinch. Stunned by the sudden movement, the persona was helpless as the monster effortlessly cleaved it in half.

Death continued to hover in the air while looking down at the grunting persona-user. "Please tell me that wasn't the best you could do."

"Grr..." Kotone brought her Evoker back to her head as she continued to glare at the god-like monstrosity that continued to glare at her, "Not even close."

Replacing Cu Chulainn, The Thunder God, Thor appeared which seemed to amuse Death more than anything else. Despite its large size (especially compared to typical personas), Death seemed to effortlessly evade the god's blows but he was not doing much damage either.

Thor continued to keep Death on a the defensive as he continued to swing his hammer with the intent of killing the so-called god, but not a single blow could land.

Finally, Kotone saw an opening and Thor motioned his arm to slam his hammer down, only to have his arm grabbed by Death. The entity let out a sigh as it saw the remaining members of SEES move from the corner of its eye, trying to see if they can help turn the tide with their leader. "Minato, keep them from interrupting, would you?"

Immediately after the exchange Makoto leapt into the air and landed right in front of the two people responsible for everything that had happened to him. Kirijo's father was one of the ones who helped wake Death, and just like Makoto; he was going to know what it was like to lose everything you cherish. Meanwhile, there was Aigis who sealed Death inside him and caused the fight that led to his sister dying.

With the mask still on his face and two glowing orbs in the sockets, Makoto glared at them as he spoke in a soft whisper which seemed to cause the cold air to become even colder, "Are you ready to die?"

"Hehe, now, where were―Gah!" Death was caught by surprise when Thor's form suddenly changed into Chernobog whose sword cut through the entity's hand and slashed across its chest before fading away as its user ran in the other direction.

"Minato!" Makoto growled and hissed in pain and anger as he looked behind him to spot a familiar redhead running towards him. Of course he was going to have to deal with her as well. She was the only one who could make him forget what he had set out to do... The only one that threatened to destroy what/who he really was—the only one that could bring back something that should have died long ago.

Makoto was about to take off in a full-blown sprint to cut off her head, but was suddenly stopped when he felt well placed bullets pierce through his left leg. Even now, none of them could bring themselves to inflict any wounds that would normally be fatal.

Death faded away from view, but that did not mean that his presence was gone. Minato, do not stop until they are slaughtered like the pigs they are.

Curling his free hand into a fist, Makoto slowly stood back up as the girl continued to run to him and the robot was ready to fire again if he tried anything.

Beneath the mask, Makoto's lips curled into an unsettling grin as he attacked again, "Scarlet Havoc."

Upon uttering those words, two personas appeared above him at once, leaving all of them stunned. It was reasonable to thing that his persona was Orpheus while Thanatos was the shadow, but he could actually use multiple personas like Kotone could? No not just that, he could use two at once?

Not even giving them time to let it all sink in, circular saw blades began to surround the entire area. Everyone could only look at Makoto who could only hear the inhuman laughter that was echoing within his head. After so many years, it was finally coming to an end.

Without any warning, the saws began to move, slicing everything that they came into contact with as they made their way towards the remaining members of SEES. Whenever they moved to avoid one, two more just appeared to make them move again without any time to catch their breath.

Ares and Siegfried faded away and the saws began to get fewer and fewer until Fuuka noticed him preparing another attack. "Watch out! He's about to—"

"Shadow Hound."

Mitsuru jumped to barely evade one of the last remaining saws, only to be caught off guard for the ground to seemingly combust in a concentrated mini-explosion that sent her flying into nearby rocks again.

"Kirijo…" Makoto whispered the heiress' name and he launched himself into the air again and landed on top of her, crackling her bones and making her scream in pain.

Makoto glared into the heiress' eyes and he wound up his blade, ready to make the kill he had desperately wanted to make for so many years —

"Off limits, asshole," was all Makoto heard before he felt something kick him off Mitsuru with extreme force, followed immediately by phantom blades that caused several lacerations throughout his entire body.

When he landed, Makoto faced the direction the attack came from and grinned at the persona user in front of him. He must have been so distracted with the fight that he could not even tell that he had caught wind of their scuffle. "We were waiting for you, puppet. We are so glad you could join us."

Sakuya scoffed, "Yeah, whatever. Can skip the monologue?"

Kotone and Aigis ran to meet the two persona users with the same question on their minds, "What are you doing here?!"

"You weren't exactly quiet," he pointed out, "Besides, I can't her die, not yet anyway," he said, gesturing Mitsuru. "So, I'm going to guess we're dealing with an evil mask?"

"Mask..? Oh, you mean this?" Makoto raised his hand and put his fingers on the smirking face that continued to stare at them. "Hehe, you like it? We made it from Ikutsuki's face."

"So it's true." Mitsuru grunted as she stood herself up and clutched onto her rapier. "You're the one that killed Ikutsuki!"

Makoto lowered his hand and the temperature suddenly felt as if it had dropped several degrees again. "You're a fool if you could not see that he was going to betray you. If you do not believe me, go ahead and ask the reject persona-user?"

"Let me get this straight," Kotone whispered, "If we knock off that mask, he'll go back to normal?"

Sakuya shrugged, "Maybe, I don't know. I was just taught to kill people," he said as he readied two blades. "Speaking of which, we don't have the numbers to take him on."

"We left out supply of revival items at the dorm," Aigis warned.

"Wait, what if you combined powers?!" Fuuka asked telepathically, keeping away from the actual battle as much as she could. "Makoto-kun was able to combine the power of multiple personas, so maybe you can try to do that to heal the others!"

"Good idea, but it might take a moment," Kotone said as she looked at the boy next to her, "we're in this together whether you like it or not. Think you can keep him busy?"

Sakuya took a deep breath as he eyed the hooded boy who was waiting patiently to see whatever scheme they might have hatched, "Just hurry the fuck up."

Sakuya ignored the trembling he felt in his hands and knees as SEES went to revive their teammates. He had seen powerful persona users before, but this thing was beyond all of them combined. To make it worse, he healed from practically everything. If his normal strategy of wearing him down was not going to cut it, then he was going to have to change it up a bit.

"All right," Sakuya muttered as he dashed forward weapons ready, "It's Sho-time!"

Grinning beneath his mask, Makoto dashed forward to meet the brunette in a clash. Sparks flew as their blades connected with one another, just like they had many times before.

"So tell me," Death whispered as Sakuya barely managed to avoid one violent flurry after the other while putting all of his strength into whatever attacks he could manage, "why are you helping her? Shouldn't you blame Kirijo for what's been done to you as well?"

Before he could respond, Makoto suddenly started to increase the speed and strength in his blows which was enough to cause Sakuya to stumble backwards. With his footing gone, Makoto took the chance to drill in free hand into his stomach before grabbing him by the collar and tossing him into the side of a nearby car.

Grunting and coughing up blood, Sakuya slowly stood himself back up while ignoring the pain that he felt throughout his entire body now. "What can I say," he chuckled, "unlike Minato, I'm not a complete bitch."

Makoto stopped grinning and all of the anger he felt inside was now solely focused on the brunette. "Don't call me that."

"What the—" Suddenly, it hit him. A straight up fight was suicide, but if he could rile him up again just like the first time they fought, then he might be able to give Kotone and the others enough time.

"Aw, is little Minato sad?" Sakuya readied himself to run as fast as he could as he teased the boy. Without Umbra, he could not teleport and using it meant blinding everyone but himself, so he was going to have to hope Kotone and the other figured out something. "What's wrong, did you run out of sisters to let burn?"

"You bastard…!" Makoto screamed as he leapt into the air again and slammed his blade down, trying to cleave that insolent boy in half before ravaging his corpse.

Here we go… Sakuya said to himself mentally as he ran as quickly as he could, ignoring the sound of the car he was just next to being partially cut in half and partially crushed from the amount of force Makoto put into that swing.

All he had to do was survive this game of cat and mouse.

Kotone, Mitsuru, and Aigis ran as quickly as they could back to the others as they heard the sounds of Makoto screaming in rage, destroying everything around him. Whatever Pharos and that mask had done to him, it had left him nothing more than a violent animal. The only concern he had left in his mind was exacting revenge on everyone that he would have viewed as wronged him in any shape or form.

By the time they had finally reached where most of the team fell, Mitsuru and Kotone were breathless while Aigis remained with the thought that was on everyone's mind; she did this to him? What he was now was not just the result of Pharos, but over ten years of suffering in isolation. Kirijo were the ones that woke Death, Aigis sealed it inside him, and Kotone was the one that angered it. This was a monster that all of them made in some way.

"Do you think we can do it?" Mitsuru was the one to ask the question that no one knew how to answer. If what Makoto said was true, then he has had ten years of practice while Mitsuru did not start fighting seriously until shortly after Kotone's awakening a few months ago.

"I don't think we have much of a choice," Kotone said, grabbing her Evoker from her side, "we have to do this. I'm no genius, but I don't think Sakuya can buy us a lot of time on his own."

"How do we combine our powers," Aigis questioned, "we have not had any prior training or knowledge of this technique before. How can we hope to do it now? Furthermore, should we even trust Sakuya?"

Kotone let out a loud, frustrated grunt as she put her Evoker to her head. "We don't have time to ask questions! Just summon your persona and we can go from there, and if he kills Minato… " Kotone cut herself short, but the look in her eyes told everyone all that they needed to know.

"Persona!" All of them exclaimed in unison as Mitsuru and Aigis summoned their only personas and Kotone summoned Titania. Kotone made sure to review their healing abilities in her head; Mitsuru's was the weakest of the trio but it was better than nothing, Aigis' was the strongest but could only target one person at a time, and hers was strong and target multiple people but still was not nearly strong enough to get everyone back into fighting condition, never mind against something like Makoto right now.

"Try concentrating your power on me, that way I might be able to get Titania to heal everyone," she ordered her teammates. It was a long shot, but it was the only hope that they had.

Everyone closed their eyes as they directed all of their attention purely on their personas' actions. As the persona users bit their lips, a mass of energy began to surround them. It was not very strong at first, but continued to build more and more power as they poured everything they had to trying to save their friends.

Come on, come on… Kotone repeated in her head, praying that this would work. She could feel the energy continued to build more and more until…

Kotone's eyes shot open and a small gasp escaped her lips when she felt the energy finally burst into the equivalent of an entire cyclone of healing spells. The mass of energy that surrounded the three of them quickly began to spread to her fallen friends who began to slowly get back up.

"H-Holy shit…" Junpei whispered as he sat up, everything that had happened just a few moments ago replaying in his head over and over again on loop.

Yukari coughed as she held onto her throat. Never before had she ever been so afraid of something in her entire life. Even when Arcana Magician climbed the roof of the dorm, it paled in comparison to the terror she felt as she looked into the soulless eyes of her attacker as he attempted to slowly choke the life out of her.

Koromaru whimpered as he slowly got off Ken, the latter of which groaned. Ken knew what it was like to want vengeance, for it was the only thing that kept him going after Shinjiro killed his mother. Now, he was forced to see just what kind of monster vengeance could have made him become.

"We've beaten the odds before, but…" Akihiko shivered from the cold air, "how are we supposed to take that down?"

Kotone sighed. Of course everyone's morale was going to be down after that. They were right though, how were they supposed to win against him? Even if knocking off the mask works, how are they supposed to be able to pull that off without anyone getting killed?

"I don't know," Kotone answered honestly, "but we have to try. If we can get that mask off him, then we should be able to get him back to normal. This won't be easy, but if he's really been containing that thing inside him for all these years, then we owe it to him to try and save him from it."

"Another life ruined by Kirijo…" Mitsuru muttered with her head hanging, "it's only fitting that it's up to us, the one's determined to undo my family's atrocious actions to face the one whose life had been the most affected by them."

There was a brief moment of silence between all of them as everything sunk in. They knew it was up to them to stop Makoto and that monster inside him, but it sounded more like a fool's errand than anything. They were fighting something on the same level as gods and a persona-user with the same talents as Kotone.

"We should locate Makoto-san immediately," Aigis was the one who broke the silence, "I do not think that Sakuya-san can hold him off much longer."

"Hold on Minato," Kotone whispered as she and the rest of her team ran towards the sound of fighting. "I don't know how, but I'll save you."

"Hraagh!" Makoto swung his sword wildly at the brunette who continued to dodge his flurry of attacks. Sakuya kept his eyes on the prince's shoulders which—thanks to his lack of technique—gave away every attack that was going to make.

Dodging another attack and seeing a punch about to follow, Sakuya ducked and stabbed his blade straight into Makoto's left leg.

As Makoto grunted in pain, Sakuya used the sword in his left hand to slash outwards, slice open Makoto's stomach and injury his sword arm to avoid any immediate counter-attacks.

Seeing his opening, Sakuya jumped back, away from the dark prince. "Scotus!"

With his scythe already over his shoulder, the god of darkness swung his weapon and launched Makoto into the air. But even after that attack, the boy was not helpless.

Soon after the blow connected and he was sent flying, Makoto threw his sword towards Ikutsuki's failed project. The blade might have landed a few feet away from him, but Sakuya was still caught within the blast of dark energy that Makoto had prepared beforehand.

With no means of defence, Sakuya was forced to take the full power of the blast and became engulfed within smoke and dust.

At the same time, Makoto shifted his weight backwards and touched the ground with the palm of his hand just enough that he was able to regain enough control and land feet-first without any issues.

Makoto began to walk forward and stared at his injured arm that slowly began to heal. It was amusing that this was once the only boy who had been able to hurt him, but now he was as weak as all the rest of them were.

It was strange though. He was putting a lot more strength into his attacks and was being much more direct now. Come to think of it…

"So tell me," Death continued to echo through the mask, "Are you trying to emulate the OTHER failure's fighting style? Is he your reason for trying to save Kirijo?"

The dust and smoke began to clear and Sakuya was revealed to still be standing, but barely. Despite being winded and covered in his own blood, the boy chuckled.

"What can I say?" He continued to laugh despite the pain in his ribs from an earlier injury, "Unlike your best pal, I don't leave my family to die."

"Grrr…" Makoto growled again as he took off running. Too injured to run anymore, Sakuya just smiled and prepared himself for the hell that awaited him.

Before he knew it, Makoto drilled his fist straight into his stomach with as much force as he could muster.

His mind flooded with nothing but rage, Makoto threw the boy into the air just like he had with him. This time, however, Makoto summoned Thor who used his hammer to strike the helpless boy who crashed into another pile of rocks and debris.

Makoto walked to the brunette who was still wheezing and holding on with everything he had. "Funny thing is, if you had just stayed away, I might've been able to forgive you in time. Minato certainly didn't hold any grudges against you."

"Hehe," Even with his body screaming at him, Sakuya laughed again, "Don't bullshit me. You were gonna hunt my ass either way."

"Perhaps…" Makoto grabbed the boy's collar and the two glared into the other's eyes. In a way, they were both just victims of the Kirijo group; Makoto by Kirijo awakening Death, and Sakuya by everything Ikutsuki had done to him. The only difference is Sakuya was still fighting tooth and nail to save a brother who was not even related to him by blood. Meanwhile, Makoto had—

A splashing sound could be heard as Sakuya stabbed his knife into his enemy's throat, causing large amounts of blood to fall to the ground floor.

Makoto did not even say anything, merely tilted his head to the side questioningly.

"Had to try," Sakuya said as he pulled the blade out and accepted what came next, "Go on, hell's waitin' for the both of us. Don't keep the Devil waiting, sister-killer."

With his rage returning at the reminder of his greatest failure, Makoto stabbed his blade straight into the brunette's torso. "See you there…"

Makoto pulled out his blade and stabbed the boy again and again before channeling his and Death's dark magic into the blade that made it easy to the through the flesh and bone of the boy's legs, then his head, and the topped off by tearing the rest of his torso in half.

The familiar thrill that came after a death like this one was flooding his brain. Makoto left laughing in ecstasy as he claimed the life of the one that had nearly killed him months ago. There was hardly anything left in his mind anymore other than the faint whispers in his head telling him to move on. Surely the next one would be—

Interrupting his thoughts and fit of laughter, Makoto was caught off guard as a blast of fire struck him from the left which launched him several feet.

After landing and briefly rolling on the ground, Makoto sat up hissing in pain as he clutched his left arm that was now scorched. Of course, Death was still missing one of his pieces. Even if he was strong enough that he could not be destroyed, Makoto was still flesh and bone, which meant that there was still one thing that could pose a threat to them.

Makoto turned his head to glare at the group that had just arrived. "Tch, Wild Cards…"

Makoto narrowed his eyes beneath the mask as the persona-users looked in horror at what he had just done to the last one. His gaze, however, was focused on just one of them in particular.

"And here I thought you'd never let yourself hurt him." Death growled at her, his urge to tear her to pieces growing by the second.

Kotone's eyes widened as she spotted Makoto's still injured arm. Unless that was a fluke or part of some way for Death to mock her, that meant that she was the only one who could actually hurt him… and she was going to have to do it to the last person she would ever want to hurt.

Still, Kotone tightened the grip of her weapon as she glared at the mask. "Let him go now, that way he doesn't need to be hurt by either of us anymore."

"Everything I've ever done has always been FOR him." Death reappeared above Makoto with outstretched wings. "I didn't care what he did with you, at least until you threatened to take him away."

"I'm helping him become who he was before you," Kotone shot back, "I'm the one that caused him to reveal both of his sides, and I'm the one who brought the two together long enough to meet the real him."

"And I'm the one who's kept him safe. I'm the one that put him together over and over when he tore himself about because of the frustration YOU caused," Death's anger boiled and the air became colder and colder, causing everyone to shiver, "Have you even paid attention to the 'real' him? I have during the brief moments he's shown himself, and you're in for quite the surprise."

Kotone raised her weapon as her team readied beside her, "I'm not going to let you win."

"Hehe, come and stop me… if you can." With that, Makoto and Death prepared themselves to finish what they had set out to achieve once and for all.


Yeah, hey guys! No AN jokes this time, and don't worry, I'm not talking about canning this again.

Eh, just restating that a lot happened during the making of this chapter, so... I hope it came out alright in the end. OC is dead, and... Yeah, I regret adding him. Eh, hey, he's dead now... brutally too.

Welp, you know the drill by now, right? To quote a response to a review I gave the fic Cop and Robber, "Reviews are my flux capacitors, I am a Delorean time machine!"

... No, seriously. Top AN/s on chapter 17 of that fic. Hell, shout out to that whole fic for being awesome.