Good Day Readers! Obviously, I do not own anything connected to the Persona series in general or Persona 5 specifically, I DO own Chiba Natsumi and Anais Ouvrard, along with Natsumi's immediate family members.

I would appreciate any responses that you have, please enjoy.

Chapter 3: - Personas, Palaces and the Velvet Room

I ran. I ran as fast as I could whilst looking around the opera house that I'd ended up trapped in somehow, I tried to avoid as many of the strange creatures as possible. Phantom drifted in front of me before bursting into flames and shrinking down, down and changing shape until it became something else entirely which fit easily within the palm of my hand and I stumbled to a halt in surprise.

The object that Phantom had become was a mask, like one worn at a masquerade, it was a solid minty green shade with darker green edging around the ends of the mask and the eyeholes; at the sides were white flower petals but I couldn't identify the type, then again I wasn't a botanist. Clattering echoed behind me; I turned around to see the menagerie of creepy creatures charging towards me. Quickly slapping the mask onto my face, I pivoted and proceeded to start running once more, ignoring how it perfectly fitted to the contours of my face.

I darted through the rooms and down hallways, desperate to avoid being caught by those things as my mind spun with where I needed to go, but at the moment I had no clue. Being forcibly dragged at high speed had disorientated me quite a bit and I had no mental map of this place to consult and aid in my escape. As I sprinted around a corner, I saw a door stamped into the wall at the other end, but it was so out of place that it was surprising to suddenly see it there.

Hearing more footsteps approaching me, I decided to take a chance and legged it towards the out of place door. Something flew too close to my head and I pivoted around to face it, but at the moment I saw the creatures approaching me, I slammed back into the door which unexpectedly swung itself open and I lurched backwards over my own feet.

"Owww!" I complained. A blunt pain stung across my entire back as I lay on it for several moments, staring up at the ceiling which I noted seemed rather different to the creepy theatre and my home, namely that it was a warmer wooden colour instead and they appeared to be draped with blue fabric in voluminous layers.

"Well, that was quite the entrance," A voice commented. It was male and given everything I'd been through recently I instantly leapt to my feet and twisted around to point my naginata at the person; what I found was, as expected, a man. But this man was old with a long nose, pointed ears and bulging, bloodshot eyes with a ring of white hair around the back of his head and only the back of his head, he wore a black suit, white gloves, white socks and black shoes.

"Who are you? Where am I? What the heck is going on?!" I demanded. I kept myself centred as I'd been trained, my right hand was tightly gripping the naginata's shaft whilst my left was loosely wrapped around it so that I could easily reach for my mask and summon Phantom if things got really messy within this new strangeness that I'd fallen into.

"I am Igor. Welcome to the Velvet Room my dear," The man spoke. I looked around the room, seeing it was a wide open space covered in that same blue fabric but there were no windows, the man was sat at a table on top of tatami mats, creepily enough chains dangled from other places. Yet as I looked, the door I'd fallen through didn't appear to be present at all which caused my eyebrows to furrow together as I turned my attention back to the man. Strangely enough, there was a song echoing, it sounds… primordial. So old the words were long lost, but the sensation, or comfort and safety remained strong and deeply rooted to the echoing vibration, yet there was a hint of something else beneath the pulsating tones.

"Velvet Room, seems appropriate," I admitted. The man grinned at my words, suddenly a young girl appeared; she had long platinum hair and golden eyes with lips that were a noticeably pink colour, she was dressed as if she was a maid, the dress was blue with a rather stylish matching headband that had white butterfly ornaments and yellow roses, a book that seemed strangely large and entitled Le Grimoire was held under her left arm. In the right hand was a small tray holding two cups of steaming liquid which she set on the table.

"Thank you Lavenza," Igor spoke. The girl nodded and moved to hold the tray against her legs as she stepped back but hovered near the table. "Come, join me and I shall answer whatever questions you have to ask," Igor insisted. His hand waved me closer, but I just looked at him in confusion as I refused to drop my stance. "You have managed to enter this place, a place between thought and dream. That is not something ordinary people can achieve and I sense in you something I have seen before, a power I have experience with," Igor admitted.

"Alright," I decided. If this man did prove to be a danger, I'd attack him instantly, but at the moment I needed answers more than anything else; I walked over and proceeded to sit down at the table in the empty chair that had not been there moments before… or at least I don't think it was, but I kept my naginata upright with its' butt firmly against the floor; this was useful for one reason. "What do you think you're doing?" I asked. The moment I'd sat down, Igor had reached over and gripped my chin and leaned in close to my eyes, I responded by pointing my weapon's blade directly at his throat.

"Calm yourself, I'm merely looking," Igor insisted. I didn't sense any malice from him, or Lavenza for that matter, and he did just seem to be looking into my eyes, so I proceeded to pull my naginata away, but I kept it upright just to be safe. "I thought so, it would seem you're Betwixt," Igor commented. With thar he released my chin and proceeded to move back to properly sit across from me.

"Be-what?" I asked. I didn't fully understand the word he had spoken, it sounded like something old and almost archaic, it fit his appearance but it was rather strange sounding; Igor proceeded to drink from his cup, finding myself suddenly thirsty, I lifted up my own cup and took a sip, finding that the liquid inside was tea and it was rather delicious which caused a relaxed feeling to suffuse my tense muscles.

"Betwixt," Igor repeated. He lowered his mug and focused on me, so I proceeded to do the same thing. "Tell me have you ever taken the time to examine your eyes closely," Igor wondered. I shook my head in response to this, mentally wondering what my eyes had to do with this. "I thought not, most people overlook doing such a thing and this isn't something you'll spot by a cursory glance, one must look deep and long at your eyes. You see my dear, your eyes aren't completely green, instead right near the edge of the pupil, it become a different colour and it isn't gradual either, but quite instant. The rings are also two different colours, your right is sky blue whilst your left is sun yellow. Those rings are signs of a person being Betwixt," Igor explained.

"But what does that mean?" I asked. How could having rings of different colour mark me as something else and did that mean I somehow wasn't human; I don't think either of my parents nor Hikaru or Mirai had such a thing but then I'd never taken the time to look directly at their eyes for any length of time beyond simple glances and it wasn't like I could do that now.

"Betwixt are unique my dear, their physical forms are born of humans, but their souls are created from another being. A being I am subservient to, the one I call my master, Philemon. Because of this fact, they are collectively called the Children of Philemon. On occasion, it is necessary for a child to incarnate into a human in order to help protect humanity. Lavenza and I, our Master Philemon and his Children make up the Triad of Rulers of Power. He bestows, we cultivate and the Children as Betwixt protect. Your eyes symbolise your connection to this world and those eyes will allow you to perceive the other worlds that live alongside your own physical reality, places influenced by humanity's thoughts," Igor explained. That sounded confusing, especially the bit about my soul being some sort of esoteric entity from another being.

"So… you mean… I can see… things… created by a person's mind," I clarified. It sounded absolutely ludicrous no matter how I tried to turn it over in my mind but could that be behind my unusually accurate intuition or keen spatial awareness; a sudden thought came to my mind, because it would certainly explain something. "Is that how I ended up in that place?" I wondered. That world was so bizarre, creepy and out of place that it being a creation of the mind seemed the simplest explanation.

"Do you think she has one?" A soft female voice asked. It could only be Lavenza since there was no one else within the room, but that confused me and I looked at her, wondering what she could possibly mean by that vague question. "Do you think she has a Persona?" Lavenza asked. Her golden eyes were focused upon Igor who I turned to face, quietly expecting an answer as well.

"I don't think Lavenza, I know she does," Igor answered. His lips were pulled back into a grin which exposed a mouth full of rather pearly white teeth and they were focusing upon me; but everything about their little conversation confused me even more than the Betwixt one earlier, and I darted my green eyes between the two of them.

"A Persona? And please assume I'm going to need clarification for everything you speak so the conversation can go faster," I spoke. Igor simply continued to smile at me as Lavenza remained rather silent with her face being incredibly passive… it eerily reminded me of me when I was at school and I wondered if the uncomfortable feeling I had when I looked at her was what I caused to the others at school.

"A Persona is… I suppose one could call it a mask to help support you, armour to bolster you to fight against this world. There are things called Shadows, one version is them simply being embodiments of stories but the other, more dangerous version, is when the darkest aspects of a person are given life and form within the realm of the mind, something corruptive and polluting, a Persona can be considered a tamed version of these Shadows. You have awakened something in your heart, something that wished to rebel against the chains binding you down and that is why your appearance has changed," Igor explained. But that last comment had my eyes blinking in confusion.

"What?" I asked. Igor didn't answer me and instead pointed towards a mirror that was weirdly out of place in this room, I set my naginata down – determining that neither of these people were a threat to me – and quickly rose to my feet and moved over to look into the reflective surface. "Th-this is insane… this isn't me!" I exclaimed. The sight that lay in front of me was too shocking for me to believe.

Reflected in the silver surface was a beauty; her raven hair flowed down behind her and the fringe was pinned to the side by a white hair clip which allowed her to see unhindered, a bodice made of an emerald green material that felt like leather covered her form with a sheer wrapping of glossy pale brown material wrapped around her shoulders and collarbone area, but a sliver of skin could still be seen clearly. Full finger, mossy green coloured gloves rose to the middle of the forearms with gleaming steel plates running across the back of them, soft brown leggings covered what I could see of the legs although most of them were blocked by the emerald boots that were slid over them, thankfully having low heels, with the front of the boots also covered by steel plates; oddly enough there was an ankle length skirt… or rather half skirt since it only covered the sides and back leaving her front exposed, were it not for the leggings and boots, the skirt was made of a soft brown upper layer and minty green under layer with there being white thread woven on the brown portion that formed into the shape of nadeshiko blossoms. Honesty, if it wasn't for the waving arms and bobbing of my head, I wouldn't have believed it was me, no matter how much I thought about it.

"Are you certain? Who do you think you are?" Igor asked. I turned to look at the man who was staring at me with quite an intense look, even Lavenza seemed to be curious about my words; but it should have been obvious, I didn't dress like this, it was covering but accentuated my figure and more so than what I normally wore but it was the armour that threw me more than anything other aspect of the outfit, the very beautiful outfit.

"Someone weak… incapable, alone, dead inside, someone that isn't even a person, merely a ghost," I admitted. It was exactly how I thought of myself, I was too weak to stand up to my controlling uncle, only fighting back after being goaded into doing so by a voice in my head and that was only at a mockery of a real person; unable to express the sorrow I still felt over losing my family, no friends and walls between me and the rest of the world… I was basically a walking marionette.

"And what do you see in the mirror?" Igor prompted. I furrowed my hidden eyebrows at him and proceeded to turn back to look right at the reflection, I reached up to my mask and slightly lowered it from my face just to confirm it was me in the reflection; I focused on the figure that the mirror showed me as I replaced the mask onto the face.

"A warrior. Someone strong, bold, vibrant… someone alive… someone free," I admitted. That was exactly what this figure seemed to be, the opposite of everything I thought that I was, which was exactly why I couldn't believe that this person was me even though it was obviously apparent with everything I'd done to test that it was me coming up positive.

"Perhaps this outfit represents the you that you wish to be," Igor insisted. His words might very well have been accurate, I did want to be free, to be strong enough to stand up to my uncle, to be able to connect with others and discover what this world was truly made of over the swill my uncle tried to force feed me; swallowing thickly, I turned from the mirror to focus back on Igor and upon what he said.

"You said Shadows exist. I just ran from a place that stood where my home is, but it wasn't in any way like it. It was completely different and there were deformed monsters in there. But worst of all was something that looked like Ouvrard but wasn't anything like her… well it was if you take all her bad traits and crank them up to eleven then remove anything good, if there is any such thing, about her," I admitted. Moving over, I proceeded to sit back down at the table and took a long sip of the lovely tea which allowed me to relax. "Could that be a Shadow? A Shadow of Ouvrard?" I asked.

"Yes, it certainly was. That place you were, was likely in the realm of the mind, a place that exits parallel to your world that your Betwixt eyes allowed you to enter, we call it the Metaverse and it isn't not the first of its' kind. What you entered into was likely a newly developed phenomena called a Palace," Igor admitted.

"A Palace is formed when the twisted desires, other strong negative or corrupt thoughts that warp the perceptions of people into a hazard for themselves and others gather. This person likely has one such desire within her heart that has grown into that Palace," Lavenza stated. That was a little unnerving as it meant there could be dozens of Palaces out there with all kinds of twisted creatures residing within their walls.

"If a Palace has formed from twisted desires, does that mean I have one?" I asked. Twisted desires or negative emotions were a part of life, it was impossible to have positive things without some negativity; if what they said were true then everyone was likely to have a Palace and personally, I didn't want to see what a Shadow of myself looked like… it was a little too scary to contemplate, scarier than the Shadow Ouvrard I'd just met.

"No, you see most negative thoughts are small enough that they simply gather into Mementos, a sort of collective unconsciousness for humanity's ills and woes. Only extremely strong negativity can break off to form individual Palaces. As you have a clear grasp on your desires, evidenced by taming your Persona, it is unlikely you'll ever manifest an individual Shadow and therefore an individual Palace," Igor admitted. That was a relieving thing to hear, I was glad to know that I'd never run into a Shadow of myself.

"Is… is there anything I can do about that thing that looks like Ouvrard," I asked. Igor's eyes widened in surprise and I spotted Lavenza looking at me in surprise; Ouvrard might have been the kind of deranged person who formed a Palace from some – currently unknown – corrupted feeling, but she was still a person, a person that was likely suffering from the corrupting feeling twisting her up inside. "If I… remove it, would that help?" I asked.

"No. The Shadow is a part of the mind, to remove it would mean to destroy it which means that Ouvrard's mind would… stop working essentially," Igor admitted. My breath caught in my throat and I started to choke slightly, harshly coughing out to help clear my throat, I took a quick drink from the tea as horror was most likely plastered upon my face at the information had been given to me.

"Then… is there nothing that I can do for her," I spoke. I was despairing at the moment, the fact that I knew something was causing Ouvrard pain which was directly impacting her relationships with those around her, yet the first thing I thought of meant that it would be impossible for me to actually help him without some fairly major consequences.

"Perhaps there is. As Palaces are new, we have limited information, but I can tell you what me and Lavenza have learned," Igor stated. Even just a small amount of information could be useful in solving this insane conundrum of a mess I'd stumbled into. "First of all, a Palace will contain three entities; the Shadow, a dark reflection of the desires of the person whose Palace has been formed, cognitive imitations of people in their lives and the other type of Shadows, being created from human minds that take the form of entities from humanity's myths and legends. They drift into the Palace as its' distortion pulls them there and they are forced to take on a form that matches the way that the Palace's Ruler views the real world equivalent of their Palace. The real person is seemingly unaware of what happens in the Palace but something like Déjà vu might affect them and a change in the real person's mental perception will change the Palace as well," Igor explained.

"Wait a minute, you mean those things I fought were created from stories?" I questioned. Igor nodded his head to confirm this as my eyes widened at the possibility of what I might run into within that Palace. "That means Gods, demons, and all sort of creatures could be run into within that place," I clarified. Once more Igor nodded his head as a smile spread across his lips at my words, or my flabbergasted expression.

"Within the Palace should lie something… let's call it a Treasure for now, that is the root of the twisted desires," Lavenza explained. She seemed to say only small bits of information; but at the same time, they carried enough weight to be influential to this conversation, honestly her words had interested me and an idea bloomed to live within my mind.

"Removing this Treasure, could that remove the twisted desires inside of Ouvrard?" I wondered. Igor and Lavenza proceeded to look at each other, a complicated mess of emotions boiled within their eyes as if they were silently conversing something that had apparently unsettled them; Igor drew his gaze from Lavenza and proceeded to fold his hand together, a clear presence of worry upon his face which had been rather blank throughout the conversation so far, except for those grins.

"We don't know, but if the Treasure is a mental representation of desire itself, there could be a danger to removing it," Igor spoke up. I couldn't understand what could be so dangerous about pulling out the cause of something evil. "To remove the Treasure runs the risk of not only removing the twisted desires but desire in of itself. The desire to breath, to eat, to walk… to live," Igor explained. Oh… that, that definitely wasn't good.

"Okay, so I can't remove the Treasure without risking Ouvrard dying," I admitted. I did not want to save Ouvrard if it only led to her death, which would also essentially make me as much a murderer as destroying the Shadow; I was desperately wracking my brain to come up with some idea to help Ouvrard, causing my head to be bent down as I tightly gripped my scalp. "Unless… what if I replaced the Treasure with a different Treasure," I wondered. I lifted my head up to look at Igor and Lavenza, the blonde girl looked confused whilst Igor raised a single eyebrow at my words. "I don't mean that literally, but instead what if I gave Ouvrard a new and positive desire to pursue to replace the Treasure I remove," I clarified.

"Ah, now that is an inspired idea. But it still carries the risk of that not filling this individual with enough desire to live. In short, she could still die," Igor admitted. There was a risk, but the same could be said of anything in this world, there was a risk with everything that anyone would do and if I didn't take that risk then I wouldn't be able to do anything; Ouvrard needed to change which meant that taking the Treasure was my best chance of causing that to happen.

"Still, not doing anything and allowing Ouvrard to drown in darkness as her desires eat away at her. That's not something I can do," I responded. Igor held my gaze as I stared into his bloodshot eyes, we waited in silence for a few moments before Igor's lips proceeded to pull back into a wide and toothy smile as he continued to stare at me.

"Very well, Lavenza and I shall assist you in stealing Ouvrard's Treasure. Recall what happened when you first entered this person's Palace and I shall have Lavenza there to help you," Igor stated. I smiled brightly at the offer of help which I was sorely in need of if I wanted to succeed in rescuing my mother. "The door to your world is right there," Igor stated. He flicked a hand over his shoulder and when I looked in that direction, I saw that a door was indeed there.

"Thank you, Igor. And you too Lavenza. For the information, the help… and the tea," I admitted. The cup of tea had been fully drunk without me being mostly aware of it, Lavenza softly smiled at me and Igor inclined his head; I proceeded to rise to my feet and moved around the table towards the door, I gripped the handle and pushed down on it in order to open it up and I saw the street outside the room, looking oddly dark as well.

"I do hope you don't disappoint me, Maiden," Igor spoke. However, as I turned around to ask what Igor could mean by that, I found I was outside of my home once more with no sign of the Velvet Room insight; sighing I shook my head but then a strange sensation hit me, an odd draining feeling that had me stumbling to the side and leaning against the wall that encircled my home feeling exhausted.

'What… what happened to me? I feel like I've been drained of energy, as if I'd just done a marathon of different weapon movements back-to-back with no time to rest in between them.' I thought. My body ached all over, and it was a struggle to keep my eyes open; with all the willpower I could manage I pulled myself off the wall and into the building not wanting to risk dropping asleep outside.