5 days remaining, nighttime

The Hope Palace was shining and beautiful. The houses were made of gold, the sky stuck at dawn with pink, blue and purple rippling past silver clouds. As Arsene had told him, everything was highlighted with a kaleidoscope light, washing everything in red and gold and blue. Enormous evergreens- definitely not native to Japan- sprouted everywhere except the beach. The office building at the edge was nonexistent. The riot of color made Goro's eyes hurt.

Absolutely disgusting.

"So bright!" Morgana yowled. The monster-cat buried his head in the dirt, which was shifting from a pale gold to a dark brown.

Takamaki yelped, looking down at herself. "My Thief clothes are back!" she wailed. "Carmen, you traitor!"

The other Thieves were adjusting to their obnoxiously bright surroundings, but Goro was already moving. Trae had to be around here somewhere, and the first thing to do was force a Shadow to reveal her location. And by force, he meant hold them at gunpoint and let Python eat them afterwards.

He didn't have to look for too long, because one idiot-shaped Shadow marched up to the Thieves and started mindlessly jabbering. "Welcome to utopia!" it said. Arsene and Goro looked at each other in disgust, having both been in enough Palaces to see where this was going.

Can I kill him?

Shut it, snake.

"I'm glad you decided to join us from that dreary world." It just kept going, didn't it? "We promise shelter from reality. Now, if you'll just follow me, I'll bring you to your new accommodations-"

"What the hell?" Sakamoto- Skull- yelped. "This ain't some sort of utopia! You kidnapped a girl!"

The Shadow blinked. "Kidnapped? Of course not. All arrive here voluntarily." It gestured again. "This is the perfect utopia, where everyone is happy."

"What if killing makes a person happy?" Queen asked. Goro frowned. She'd beaten him to it by seconds.

"Then they would not have found this utopia in the first place." Right. The requirements of needing to have hope and all of that. Goro decided to test it.

"I don't like that look," Arsene said warily, looking ready to tear the Shadow to ribbons if it made a wrong move. He guessed that the Persona was just as unnerved by the world as him. Something so shiny and perfect had to have a trap waiting, because nothing would be this nice without a punishment. The world couldn't be sunshine and rainbows, could it?

Could it?

"I take offense to that," Goro said back in mock horror. Besides, this might make the Palaces just a little easier to deal with. He turned back to the Shadow, who was being bombarded with questions. "You may provide me with a bike. Preferably a good quality mountain bike."

Arsene huffed. "You have no imagination. Why not a motorcycle?"

Goro ignored him. He actually knew the basics for motorcylces, but he'd always wanted a mountain bike. One with tires that actually had traction, and twenty-one gears. His rust bucket of a bike, the one he'd pushed into the water, only had seven gears, and switching between them knocked the chain off. Hell, even a rust bucket with a kickstand would be an improvement.

"Nothing else?" The Shadow sounded surprised. "Trae speaks about you often, and I believe something different would make you happy."

"I lost my old one. I have good memories of..." Of stealing anything with wheels off the streets of Shinjuku. Skateboards, motorcycles- he'd crashed twice, snapped his wrist and hadn't been able to see straight for hours- hell, even unicycles.

WIth a disgustingly rainbow-colored flash, the Shadow reappeared with probably the nicest bicycle he'd ever seen. It was all black, twenty one gear on the handlebars, and the brakes were in perfect condition. The seat actually looked like a seat and not the end of a metal pole he'd had to use for years. The wheels were wider than he was used to and the bike was smaller. A trick bike. How useful.

Arsene hummed in appreciation, but Goro batted him away. His palms went through the Persona, but he got the point. "Hands off."

"Why not a motorcycle?" Fox asked. "Would that not be easier to get around the Metaverse with?"

Even without the mask, Goro could almost taste the smugness rolling off Arsene.

"Speaking of Trae," Goro said, ignoring both of them and tried to swat Arsene's hands off the bike. "Perhaps you know where she is?"

"I'm afraid I'm not authorized to-"

"Let me rephrase." Goro shot forward, Loki's Black Mask mask clamping over his face as he palmed a knife. He wrapped an arm behind the Shadow, pinning his arms bringing his masked face an inch from his. He lifted the knife, admiring the reddish light glinting off it. "I'd love if you led us there. Else... Persona!"

Python roared behind him and Oracle screamed.

"What the hell?" Skull yelled. The others seemed to agree, but Goro couldn't care less.

"Do we slaughter him?"

"Not yet," he said, not looking away from the Shadow's terrified black eyes. "But if you won't talk, I'm afraid I'll have no choice."

"F-fine! She's at Wonder's house!" The Shadow trembled against Goro's arm and looked like it might faint. "Just leave me be!"

"Why, of course," he hummed. The traitor let go and shoved the Shadow to the ground. "However..."

Arsene floated down from the sky, looking more like a demon than a thief. "Akechi, if you'd allow me."

"My friend here needs a sacrifice." He grinned at Ren's Persona, who seemed to grin back. There were plenty of weakling Shadows around here, meaning that Arsene had plenty of SP batteries. "And I've got a prime candidate here, don't I?"

"Can I eat him afterwards?" Python asked.

"Have fun." Goro turned to the Thieves, who were still gaping at the sheer size of Python. The snake noticed them and bared his fangs in a smile. Only Noir had the guts to smile back. "I assume one of you knows who Wonder is?"

"Of course," Morgana purred. "I'm not some ameteur, you know. Not like Skull, here."

"Dumb cat, you wanna say that again?"

"Wonder's Ren," the feline said before Skull picked him up by the ear. "Gaah! Put me down!"

Of course it was Ren. He was everywhere in Shibuya from the flower shop to the aquarium, even certain bars. Why wouldn't it be the same here? And of course he was calling himself Wonder, that damn Thief.

"I've located Ren's house on the map," Futaba said. "Crow, get your overweight Persona away from Necronomicon!"

"Overweight?" Python sounded offended. "I'll have you know I require food to breathe 2000 degree fire!"

Only orange fire? Unimpressed, Goro folded his arms. "Loki could get to 2,900 degrees, and he wasn't fat." White fire. Not hot enough to cremate someone, not by a long shot, but definitely a deterrent if his giant broadsword wasn't enough.

Futaba shrieked as his Persona reared at Necronomicon again. "I'll debuff you!"

The last thing he needed was to be hit with despair or be brainwashed. "That's enough, Python."

"Aww..." The enormous head glanced back at the Shadow, who Arsene had pinned under his knee and was steadily draining of color. "Can I eat it?"

The other Persona's wings twitched, chains clanking as he stood. "All yours."

"Yaay!"

-

Trae was waiting in front of Wonder's house, which had been reconstructed into a red, white, and black garden. Something like a garden. The ruby leaves formed strange archways that seemed to mark edges of the house, while the ash trees created something that resembled walls. For a nine year old, it was pretty impressive. Trae wasn't wearing anything significant to the Palace's utopia theme, just the same green dress she'd worn before.

"I've been waiting for you," she said.

The Thieves let him step forward. He was, after all, the only one who knew her. "Little dryad girl."

She tilted her head. "You're the real one."

She'd seen his Shadow. Which meant that she'd been to the Wish Palace, and Shadow him was probably around Ren a lot. So she'd seen Ren for long enough to tell the difference between him and the Shadow.

He scoffed. "To be mistaken for that walking sack of shit would warrant your death."

"Crow!" Panther whisper-yelled. "That's not how we do things!"

"And that's a bad word," Trae supplied.

What a foolish girl. Didn't she know that by showing the cracks in their alliance to Trae, she was making them seem weaker? Of course not. Panther wasn't the one who lied about their whole life.

He ignored her and kept going. "We're on a time limit; let's go."

Trae slowly shook her head. "No," she said. "Wonder gave me this place. He told me to keep my key safe. While I'm here, it's safe." She smiled a little. "This place is safe, stranger. The outside world hates me, but if you just pretend, you're safe."

"Look, kid," Skull broke in. "Runnin' away ain't gonna solve anything. You gotta-"

"Face it head on?" she finished. Trae stared at her feet. "Yes, Papa used to say that. He also used to say that it depends if you're running away or running to something."

Skull was struck dumb- which didn't surprise him much. Trae was smart, smart enough that she'd already knocked him out of her list of enemies.

"I want you to stay here with me," she said. "The Shadows call this place a U... Utopia. People who come here are happy. They run to their utopia. Would you hate them for running from their scary lives?"

Panther winced.

"Out there, it's scary, but here, I made my prison a palace." She giggled and trailed her fingers through the air. Sparkles fluttered from her hands. "No more blood, no more bodies. Reug said that the world isn't rainbows and sunshine, but..." Trae looked around. "I guess he's wrong. This is a good reality," said the little dryad girl. "Can we stay here?"

The Thieves looked at each other uncertainly, and Goro knew their question: were these Trae's distorted desires? The Palaces were made by Ren, so he most likely kidnapped and manipulated her into helping him. He gave her some sort of key... which probably unlocked something in the Wish Palace. I made my prison a palace probably meant that she was the Ruler. Which meant that she couldn't leave unless they stole her Treasure or convinced her, or else the Palace would crumble around her.

For some reason, Goro couldn't let that happen.

He looked sideways at Arsene, who looked like he came to the same conclusion. The Persona nodded slightly.

"It's time to let go," Goro said.

Trae shook her head as the Thieves came to the same decision. "You don't know that."

"Believe us," Noir said. "We know Time, and we know what it does."

She was right in more ways than one.

"Face reality as it is," Queen said. "Don't make my mistake and look away. Believing something else doesn't work."

Trae sighed. "You're wrong." She turned and walked into Wonder's garden, closing her green-gold eyes. "I'll prove it to you," echoed out and fog clouded the garden.

Skull charged for the gate, but Panther yanked him back. "It could be a trap!"

"We're not leaving a nine year old on her own!" Queen declared.

Goro watched the debate, half amused, half annoyed. He was tempted to suggest putting a gun to his head and saying that he'd blow his brains out, but some of the Thieves might be for it.

Arsene met his eyes and tilted his head towards the gates.

"What," he said, keeping his voice low, "the great Phantom Thief wishes me to accompany him?"

"Go to hell."

"You Personas are so unoriginal," Goro sighed. "First my Shadow says that, then my other Shadow, now Ren's Shadow-"

"I am his Persona, not his Shadow, you uncultured swine!"

Goro pushed his bike forward, pedalling furiously. He heard shouts behind him, but ignored the Thieves and aimed for the gates. Arsene flew just behind him, flicking Eiha at the entrance and shattering it. He launched himself off the bike, not wanting to get hit by the shrapnel, and his new ride was immediately hit with a giant piece of metal.

"Arsene!"

"Yes?" he said innocently.

He sliced a finger across his throat.

Goro rolled and came up inside the garden. Immediately, fog swarmed around him until he couldn't see a foot in front of him. He immediately opened his other senses. There had to be some sort of trap, especially if there was fog. Half the Palaces he'd seen had some sort of paralyzing trap or something.

"Akechi, if this is your twisted idea of a joke-"

"Do you remember?" Trae's voice echoed through the fog.

Goro summoned fire, but the light only reflected off the fog. He cursed himself and was about to draw his sword before the heavy clouds began to change. They warped into something that looked like...

His old apartment in Shinjuku.

He knew where this was going, but couldn't tear his eyes away.

Eight year old Goro tiptoed through the room, almost-black hair plastered to his face. He peered around the curtains, looking for Ibuki. Squeaking noises came from behind the second door, and he knew he wasn't allowed to go in. That was Mama's workplace.

Goro heard a loud scraping sound and something in his mind locked onto it. He jumped up from where he'd been sitting and threw the door open.

Mama, her clothes half-on, was against the wall, shaking. A man slammed his fist an inch away from her and she screamed. Something shiny was clutched in his left hand. Something sharp. He growled something low, too low for Goro to pick up.

"G-Goro!" she gasped. The man's head snapped to him, and he felt scared. What was the mean man doing to Mama? "Run!"

Goro took a step toward her, shaking almost as much as Ibuki was. "Mama?" he whispered.

"Do what your mama says, little one," the man hissed. His breath stank and smelled like smoke. The smoke smell was all over Mama. He tossed aside the shiny thing and produced a gun. Goro knew exactly what a gun looked like because Mama carried one with her everywhere she went. "Damn brat," he muttered.

Present-day Goro backed away, cursing himself and his stupidity for walking into a trap. He had to get out, now. Goro turned his back to the illusion and started running, but slammed face first into a wall. Stunned, he fell to the ground and the fog closed in again.

Little Goro watched as the man so casually pointed the gun at his head. "Kiss me again," he purred.

Mama cast a terrified look at her son, then pressed her lips against his. The man's eyes slipped shut, so he didn't see Goro pick up the knife. And Goro's eyes were on the knife, so he didn't see his mother's hand dip into her purse.

Goro crept toward the man, who's eyes were still closed. He was making plenty of noise, enough so that his footsteps were silent. He kept his eyes on the gun, which was steadily lowered. He snuck behind the man and raised the blade.

"No," the real one whispered, eyes fixed on the illusion. "Look at Mama, you fool." He was begging at that point, but who was around to care? "Please!"

Goro plunged the blade- heavy thing, both his hands had trouble holding it- into the man's back. The man howled and spun around, staggering. Blood dripped from his mouth. "D-damn you-" he sputtered, and before he could do anything, the man raised his gun and fired. Goro screamed as pain ruptured up his right arm. He felt himself hit the ground and he couldn't breathe and he screamed for Mama. Mama screamed back, then he felt himself go still.

When he could get up again- his right arm hurt so badly- Goro looked for Mama. She was on the ground, her pistol half in her hand. At the door was the man, a similar pool of blood spreading under him. The eight year old whimpered and nudged Mama. She wasn't moving.

"Mama?" Goro whispered. The seventeen-year old mouthed the words with his tiny counterpart. He felt tears on his face.

Arsene screamed, the Persona's voice raw. "Sonia!" he begged over and over. There was an explosion, but Goro couldn't see anything other than the scene in front of him.

Mama was dead.

But...

But slowly, she lifted her head. Blood oozed out of her temple, along with some sort of grey goop and Ibuki Akechi gave an unhinged smile as she tottered towards him. This, Goro realized as he scrambled to his feet, was real. The smell alone-

"It's all your fault," she said, her voice sounding like three people. "I thought you were dead, so I-!" She put the gun to her head again. With a bang blood flew everywhere. Goro felt breathless. "And you lived without me! So unfair of you- thought you would save me-" Ibuki howled, beginning to run for him. Goro backed up, fire in his throat.

"You-you're just like he was!" she screamed. "You killed everyone! You killed him, you killed Masayoshi Shido, you killed-"

With every new name, another corpse rose out of shadows and fog and advanced toward him. Shido smiled wide and shit his throat open with one of Goro's daggers. The man stabbed himself over and over and over, and then hundreds of people turned red and black, then disintegrated.

"You are worthless."

"You have killed us all."

"What reason have you for freedom?" Ibuki demanded. "You took ours away!"

The traitor felt his knees drop from under him. "I..." He couldn't find the words. "I miss you, Mama."

She laughed bitterly. "What use are those words? We are dead!"

"And it's all your fault! We should put you back in chains-"

"-in chains-"

"-all your fault-"

"Worthless!"

He pressed his head against the ground. "You're not real!" Goro screamed. "Get out of my head!"

A hard slap sent him reeling. His mother drew back coldly. "We are very real. So tell your sins, your failures: why do you get to live?"

Arsene screamed again, this time in a different language. "Oú es-tu?" His voice cracked, becoming hoarse and panicked. "Sonia! Ren!"

"I've heard this a million times before," Goro gasped out. "It's- It's nothing I haven't told myself."

"Tell that to him," Ibuki whispered, then drew back. Everything started to twist around him, the dark brown and moldy corners of the room becoming a red and black hellscape. Then he looked up as a blue train whizzed by. When it was gone, someone stood on the other side of the tracks and Goro froze.

"Loki," he breathed.

"Me." The Persona took a step towards him. "I'm astonished you remember."

No. No, please no. He could deal with his mother. He could deal with all his failures. Hell, he'd look Death in the eye if he had to. Just not this.

"After all..." Loki's body began to crumble in places, blue blood leaking out. The mask disintegrated, showing his rotted face and patchy gold hair. One of his blue eyes popped, blood splattering his face. "You throw everyone into fire. How am I any different?"

"NO!" he screamed. Please, he wished, some god or mercy kill him. He didn't want this.

"Akechi, run!" Arsene's voice sounded hoarse and shaky. "Run!"

"You left me for dead," Loki snarled, his beautiful face twisting into something cruel. "I died for you, and you just pushed me aside. What a traitor you are." He smiled, and it was terrifying. "Even I sided with my blood. What can you say?"

Goro ripped his jacket open, ignoring the zipper altogether, and blindly shot at the corpses. His mother staggered, but kept going.

"Now you try to kill me? Just like your father, you are."

"NO! IT'S NOT TRUE! GET OUT!"

He couldn't do this anymore. Goro stood up to run, but another corpse shoved him down, still chanting, "Murderer. Worthless-"

He drew his knife, desperately dragging it along his skin. The sharp pain brought him enough relief to clear his head, just a little. He jumped up again and sprinted for where he was sure he'd heard Arsene-

The traitor crashed into another solid wall and dropped. "Ow..." By some miracle, he hadn't broken his nose yet. But as the corpses closed in around him, he realized that he was trapped, cornered. This was how he'd die, wasn't it?

Or was he already in a special hell, just for him?

He brought his gun to his head, gasping for breath. Tears streaked his dirty cheeks and his hands refused to stay still. This was how the pathetic Black Mask was going to die.

No, he was living on borrowed time. He didn't deserve it. Loki himself was telling him.

"Worthless!" his mother screamed.

"Murderer!" Loki yelled.

"This is all your fault!"

His finger twitched on the trigger, and he sighed in relief. This was the end.

Something crashed through the wall, slamming him to the ground. His gun clattered away from him, lost somewhere in the fog, and the chanting of the corpses dimmed a little.

Goro winced and opened his eyes. "Trae?" he managed.

"Don't do it," she whispered. She threw her arms around him. The fog vanished, along with the corpses and the maze of walls. When it lifted, he saw the rest of the Thieves- idiots for following him in- on the ground. Oracle was the only one with her head up, and she looked furious.

"This is what you run from, isn't it?" she asked. "If you stay here, your fears can't hurt you."

Where was Arsene? "This place is a lie," Goro spat. He pushed her off him and stood up, realizing too late his arms were cut open. "You're lying to yourself, especially if you think that was helping me."

"I didn't mean to hurt you," she said guiltily.

"Then stop pretending and-"

"I'm not!" Trae screamed suddenly. "This is how the world should be, and you can't make me leave!" Her gold eyes blazed.

He frowned, feeling dizzy. Maybe the blood loss and the fear was finally getting to him. "You said it was for Wonder."

"I..." Trae paused. Her green eyes flickered. "Huh."

Goro shivered. He was freezing. "Have you noticed that your eyes are gold? It's the mark of most Rulers; the corrupted ones."

"I'm not corrupted!" she screamed. Fog began to descend from the sky, and fear spiked through him. Where the hell was Arsene right now? Backup would be great. "I just want to be safe! Papa is dead, Mama is always angry, and I am a nothing!" Her voice began to warp, echoing through the fog. "I will not become like them! I will not live and die the same way!"

The fog twisted around her and expanded outward. Goro braced himself for another wave of corpses, but it washed over them harmessly. The Thieves were back on their feet, Noir in particular looking furious. Futaba was the only one that looked unaffected.

"This is my Palace, and I won't let you-"

Trae screamed. Her eyes widened and she backed away from them, mouth hanging open in shock. "Papa?" she whimpered. She was silent for a second before screaming again. "No! I didn't! No!"

She screamed again, but before Goro could decide whether to knock her out or leave her there, Arsene plowed into her from behind. They tumbled across the ground, but Arsene pinned her faster than she could get up. His grinning mask looked up at Goro. "Am I late?"

"You're right on time."

The traitor whipped around, trying to find the source of the voice. The Thieves unsheathed their weapons and eight Personas appeared in a flash.

Ren strode into the garden wearing his Phantom Thief clothes and a shit-eating grin. He looked a little taller than before, and there was this sort of... presence to him that unnerved Goro. He surveyed the scene, then smiled and said, "Arsene, that's enough. The poor girl's exhausted."

Arsene reluctantly let the poor girl stand. Goro couldn't blame him. It didn't sound like it'd been fun for Arsene, either.

Trae gasped and her face lit up. She ran over and hugged him. "Wonder!"

"In the flesh." He winked at the Thieves. "Did you miss me?"

"You bastard!" Skull yelled. "You kidnapped her-"

"Manipulated her, and gave her power she was in no way prepared to handle?" Ren finished. "Yes, I did."

"W-what?" Trae's voice trembled. She pushed herself away from him, green-gold eyes swimming with tears."We made a deal!"

"The deal was rather skewed, and chancy at that." Ren frowned. "All the same, I thought you would be safe here. Instead, I suppose you met your Shadow?"

Her Shadow? Oh, the thing about her eyes. Of course. It wasn't like she could turn into a Shadow. It was a general rule of the Metaverse that material from reality couldn't be manipulated, so it stood to reason that it was probably her Shadow. A very scared Shadow, apparently.

Then Ren met his eyes. Goro felt his face heat up. He wasn't entirely sure why, most likely because he looked like absolute shit from the corpses' attack, or that he was just pissed off. Goro realized that his eyes were a brilliant crimson, like roses and blood. Strange that he'd thought of those two things, he noted, while the gold-flecked red eyes had nothing to do with either.

"Of course, that never would've happened if my rogue Shadow here," he smiled at Goro, "hadn't intervened." His eyes- red or grey- were as beautiful as always, but the words slipping off his tongue were venomous.

This is all your fault, you damned worthless monster, the fog whispered. Just for a second, Ren's face looked out at him from every angle, grinning like a skull. It's all your fault.

Goro believed it.

---

It's finally getting interesting! I apologize that it took me four days to be motivated and focused enough to write the chapter. Seriously, I wrote the first four pages (on gdocs) three times.

Anyways, I kinda redid Ibuki Akechi's death. If I didn't make it obvious- which, let's be honest, is something I probably wouldn't make obvious- it was still a suicide, but for a different reason. I imagine Goro as the best part of her life, and when he got shot in the shoulder, the man blocked most of her view. She only saw him collapse and bleed. She thought it wasn't worth living without her son, so she shot herself. The man was Goro's first kill.

As for the fog, it was created to show their fears so they'd see why the utopia was better. It had the opposite effect on Akechi. Trae didn't expect it to affect him so much he'd rather kill himself than see it. In any other thing, Akechi would probably say that's a coward's way out, but I think without him being the Detective Prince, he has a lot of trouble controlling what he thinks.

Honestly, writing this guy is so freaking hard tho, especially swithcing from formal to informal.

As always, feel free to tell me waht can be done better! Next chapter is gonna be my first fight scene for the Thieves, which is- hopefully- something I can do. Thank you so much for reading!

Words: 4207

Thank you for reading!

Robin out!