2 days remaining, midnight

"Tell me," Atropos said, reclining and kicking her feet up on the mahogany desk. "Why is it you find such interest in these mortal's strings? Just like this-" she snapped her fingers- "they will be gone. What is so interesting about that?"

The little girl watched them. Her golden eyes reflected the Velvet Room's various cushioned seats and beds. The hospital ward was otherwise devoid of living beings.

"Their lives are written out the moment they enter this world, and the strings are cut the moment they leave," Clotho agreed. She tilted her head at the little girl, who stared blankly beyond her. Only Lachesis knew she was watching the world's strings twine and diverge from one second to the next.

Her sisters waited for her answer, so Lachesis smiled. "Clotho said it herself, did she not? Their lives are written out until they leave this world. Please do not forget, we had a special guest here just yesterday, who changed his fate with his own hands. I certainly remember how smitten you were with him, Atropos."

The faintest tinge of color flushed the iron-clad woman's cheeks. "Arsene was... contradictary. We declared that he would be behind bars forever, and yet he..."

"Escaped in two month's time?" Clotho suggested.

"He was interesting," Atropos said defensively.

Lachesis giggled. "But there are more like him, the ones whose fates bend and shift with their own will. And they are the ones who we call Personas, and they prove that I am right and you are wrong." She stuck her tongue out at Atropos, who rolled her eyes.

"You're such a child, Lachesis," said Clotho. Her golden eyes closed in a half-smile. "But consider this; how few manage to break thy chains of fate? Out of every million, nay, billions, only one has the strength to do so. That bravery you see is far and few between."

Lachesis and the girl smiled in at the same time.

"Why not look at our current example... or foe, as our master may call him?"

"She is not our master," Atropos hissed. "We have no master!"

"My apologies," said Lachesis, smiling. "However, in this storyline-" Her sisters rolled their eyes at her words, but Lachesis thought it was a rather fitting use. Storyline. After all, Lachesis was the Alloter- Clotho might spin the fates of mortals on her loom, but Lachesis decided when to cut it short. "In this storyline, Kronos wishes to take Shibuya and use that as a springboard to take the world, correct?"

"That is nothing new," Atropos said dismissively. She tapped her gauntleted fingers against the wood. "And yet I do see what you are saying. You call him the driving force behind everything in this arc?"

Clotho sighed. Her sisters all but ignored her.

"We might look at Goro Akechi first, as he is intertwined with this plotline so." Lachesis snapped her fingers and threads glowed brightly in front of her, weaving themselves into a shivering screen, but a screen nonetheless. It flickered to life, showing the child coiling his psychotic power around him. He paused, thinking for but a moment, then dispelled it. "He woke up here... ah, what is the word in this language?"

Her master glanced up and offered a half smile. "I am a stranger to this language, too," she giggled softly. "I was taught the western languages. But I believe the word you are looking for is... broken?"

"Yes, broken," Lachesis agreed while her sisters laughed openly. She pouted at them, but continued all the same. "Goro Akechi awoke and learned his Persona was dead. However, Arsene Lupin's string-"

"You pronounce his name incorrectly," Atropos said with just a hint of snappishness.

"My apologies," Lachesis said again. "However, his string has split again from its path. He was to die at Kronos's hands, and yet he has not yet. If his new future is to be believed, he will awaken in a cell with Loki.

"Lachesis," her older sister huffed. "His name is pronounced-"

"Stop interrupting, I beg of you! Please allow me to continue!"

Atropos laughed uproariously at her outburst and Lachesis willed the blush out of her cheeks and continued.

"He was scared. He wanted to run, so we decided between us to change the fate of the Wildcard ourselves. We sent him to Jamestown, forcing Kronos to alter his plans to accommodate it, which he's done quite poorly. Goro Akechi meets Morgana, he infiltrates the Palace, and he starts to speak to Ren, signifying some sort of change in him, correct? Now he fights Ren in his own Palace. He could have just left him, he could have killed him. And yet he fights to save him."

"An odd way to save someone, cutting them up," Clotho put in. She laughed at Lachesis's look of pure exasperation. "But you are correct. This choice was his own to make. Had he killed Ren or ran, Kronos would have won. If he has not, he quite possibly fell in love with Ren."

"Correct. Since you yourself wrote their fates, perhaps it would be best if you explained."

"Aww, thank you, Little Sister!" Clotho gave her a fanged smile before turning back to the screen. Goro Akechi stood on the roof with Ren, speaking slowly and sadly. Lachesis was no human herself, but his soft tones led her to believe he spoke true. "You favor the Shapeshifter, but the Trickster's-"

Their master lifted her head. One of her golden eyes was shadowed by hair, the other glaring out. Power emanated from her.

"Don't call him that."

"Uh-oh!" Lachesis singsonged. "You made her mad!"

Clotho gulped. "Ah, my apologies, Lavenza."

Lavenza shook her hair out of her eyes and stared into space again.

She hastily continued. "Ren's first interaction with the god was in Jamestown. Later, Kronos offered him a deal to start his plan. He would bait the Thieves here and exterminate them. He had to account for Goro when he realized the Shapeshifter would be investigating. Luckily, Kronos was already planning on blackmailing him, so abducting Loki worked in his favor."

"What was he planning to blackmail Goro into?"

Atropos spoke up. "Simply staying out of his business. You know how nosy children are."

"Ah- yes," she sighed. "Now, after threatening the Shapeshifter, Kronos waited in Jamestown, where he told the Thieves mostly useless things about the three Palaces- after all, Ren had created a way to move between them and left some crucial hints, just in case the god decided to betray him. He had no idea he was a pawn to the god of time, but Arsene found the clues and understood them before anyone else."

"What," Lachesis said, feeling quite offended. "Atropos, are you not going to tell Clotho-"

"She pronounced his name correctly."

"She said it the exact same way!"

Lavenza pinched the bridge of her nose, a gesture too old for someone as delicate-looking as she.

"Around the time Arsene confronted Kronos, both Ren and the Shapeshifter learned the truth. Kronos faces him and shows him proof, and between him and his newly-formed Shadow, he goes psychotic. Meanwhile, he gives the Shapseshifter a new Meta-Nav to enter this Palace and he kills Ren on sight. And it would have happened like that had Atropos not interfered."

"I intervened?" Atropos sat up straight, her golden eyes narrowing into pinkpricks. "Do explain."

Clotho gulped. "Ah... w-"

"You told Lavenza to be at Despair, creating a safe spot- a hole, if you will- in the fabric of its reality," Lachesis cut in. "In doing so, you effectively revoked Ren's status as the Trickster, brought Goro and Arsene to the Velvet Room, and gave them both another reason to find the truth behind the Palaces, and what lies beneath the layers-"

"Lachesis!" Lavenza hissed furiously. Her ringed eyes glowed. "You are not to speak of the future! Kronos is a powerful enemy, and yet you seem determined to give him more power!"

She lowered her ruby-red head in apology. "I... yes, you are correct."

A hint of mischief entered Lavenza golden eyes. "All the same," she mused. "I sense that the ghosts do not understand... do they, Lachesis?"

Lachesis flushed with pride at being recognized. She was, after all, Lavenza's Persona, not a split form. Lachesis the Alloter was truly the most powerful of the three. She understood her master's words. "I can sense their confusion. Arsene has already spoken of a second mystery and my dear sister has let another hint slip... so why not give the silent ghosts a few words? They must be confused."

"Silent ghosts?"

"They listen as we speak now." Lachesis giggled and brushed the auburn hair out of her eyes. "I shall give you a hint, my dear phantoms. On his way to Jamestown, Ren Amamiya saw stretching fields of rice-- and yet, Goro Akechi saw-"

"That's enough," Lavenza said, and her words were final. "No word of the furture. No hints."

Atopos shook her dark mane. "All the same, we cannot launch an attack on Kronos without planning. In that case," suddenly her face split into a smile to rival the greatest dragon's. "There may be a way."

On the screen, Goro pushed past Ren's guard and wrapped his arms around him. His lips brushed his, just briefly, but Ren froze as if he'd been turned to stone.

Lavenza cheered. She launched herself to her feet, pumping her fists like a child who saw their favorite team win. "Yes!" she cried. "Yes!"

"You're quite the..." Clotho paused. "Ah, but what do they call them now..."

"We have a chance at victory!" Lavenza laughed delightedly, spinning around in circles. "Yaldabaoth was felled by a single wildcard, imagine the power of two! Soulmates, no less!"

"Shipper!" Lachesis's sister snapped her fingers. "That is the word: shipper!"

She couldn't help it; she broke out into laughter. Lachesis heard her older sister slam her fist against the door and her own, rougher laughs.

"Oh, stop it!" their master yelled. She put her hands on her tiny hips. "Clotho, you stand by me, right? Surely you were only-"

Clotho was on the floor.

"You're all terrible."

The Moirai looked at her with their brilliant eyes. "We know."

On the screen, Goro glared at Ren's limp form. "Idiot," he muttered, then grimaced. He brought a hand to his shoulder and it came away bloody. His forearms looked burnt. He glanced up at the Shadow who perched on the roof. Joker shook his head with a grim smile.

"I cannot heal. Do I look like a Persona to you?"

Goro summoned fire. His teeth clenched.

"But," and here the Shadow smiled a genuine smile. "I think he has begun to recognize the part of himself he does not want to see. A Persona is more than the rebellious spirit- they are also called heart's armor, true selves-" All of this Lachesis already knew. She yawned.

"Clotho, this script is so very-"

"Joker is merely a different form of Ren, and Ren broke his own chains. I can predict little about him."

That was... unnerving. Lachesis could only hope she could predict Kronos's loss, or at the very least, their victory.

"You should leave while you still can," Joker suggested with the merest suggestion of teeth. "Else something may come after y-"

His eyes widened sharply and all the breath huffed out of him. Her sisters gasped and lurched at the screen as if they themselves were bound by strings, but Lachesis and Lavenza found themselves rooted to the spot.

Goro dove and caught the Shadow before he hit the ground. The screen gave them a close-up of Joker's wounds, a long slash gushing blood. The blade seems to have gone through his chest. Lachesis could nearly taste the copper they used to dye threads with.

"If you die, Ren will probably die," he hissed at the red-soaked boy. "Keep that on your mind for your final seconds. Would you like to die remembering that?"

"No," he whispered. His head lolled.

"You are a Shadow. Is this not your own world? Then stop acting like the whiny attic trash you are!"

Clotho jumped up. Her eyes landed on the ward's door. "We must help him!" she cried.

Atropos took a flying leap and tackled her around the waist. They hit the ground with a thud that made the screen tremble and nearly shatter. "Enough! We are of the Velvet Room! We can merely assist! We are not to intervene, Clotho!"

"Let go!"

"Not until you promise!"

"Lachesis," Lavenza whispered. The little girl tugged on her wrist, catching a few strands of auburn hair, too. She winced and glanced down. "Look!"

Lachesis glanced back at the screen and her golden eyes very nearly burst out of her head. A dark-eyed, golden-haired man, cloaked and burning with enough bloodlust Lachesis could taste it through the wall between dimensions. He held Ren's limp form in one hand and the red-drenched Shadow in the other.

"Kronos," Goro hissed through his teeth. Red wisped from his fingers and tasted the air around him like a thousand flickering tongues. It rose into the air, moving faster and faster and round him. In one move Goro could have Kronos surrounded. In another, he might rip the flesh from the god's bones.

Goro made a sort of snarling noise, angling his wicked-looking sword at his chest and clenching a long, thin needle between his teeth. Thread trailed from it, the bound ends glowing red in the whirlwind.

The hovering god considered it. Then he tossed the Shadow to the ground, almost lazily. Goro rushed forward, but the god wasn't done. Against her will, Lachesis reached out, her and Lavenza's fingers brushing the screen. "No," she whispered. Then louder: "Lavenza, restore Ren's status!"

Lavenza eyes widened.

And Kronos slammed the butt of his scythe straight through the Shadow's head. 

----

You thought you get a chapter without Ren's life being in danger?

LOL WHATS THAT I CANT HEAR YOUR SCREAMS OF INCOHERENT RAGE YET SCREAM LOUDER!!!!!!!

uhhhhhhhh i mean: This week's chapter was a catch-up round, and I had no other way to transition after that crappy ending on the last chapter. After all, how can i toss Ren and Akechi into another life threatening situation with the same two perspectives? The only other thing I could've done is Shadow's Interlude and that would've been BOOORING.

This was from the moirai's perspective: Caroline's persona is Atropos (future/death) the Unturnable. Justine's persona is Clotho (past/weaves lives ish) the Spinner. And Lavenza's is Lachesis, or Present, who's naturally the Allotter. Lavenza was the butterfly that visited Ren sometimes. It was never explaind well ingame so i decided on my own version, cuz what kinda all-powerful wildcards would deign to use a Jack Frost on steroids?

Please dont hate me for that, Jack Frosts are adorable and i love them hee ho.

Anyways, thank you all so much for reading! Were approaching the final chapters ten- fifteeen, depending on how long i can dangle everything over your heads. You're all amazing for making it so far through my boring bullshitting while i franticaly try to come up with a storyline.

Enjoy the fourth-wall braeking chapter and the hint!!!

Robin out!

(new banner time??? yee/no vote?)