Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hello dear readers… Seeing as no one seems to be wanting to take this reading off Timeless's hands I figured I may as well just do it myself.

I'm gonna be posting this on Ao3 and FF so everyone on the FF site could you guys do me a favor? Keep an eye on a certain group and check to see if this ends up on their watch list. And warn me if it is.

Now normally I'd take this moment to ask you to join my Amity Arena Academy… But I just can't bring myself to defend this game anymore.

Ever since their latest update I've found my usually even win/loss ratio of (Roughly) 4/4 devolve into in a Win/Loss ratio of 1/7.

It ain't me I can tell you that. I've been pit against people who pay to win and people with far better skill than me… Forget unit balancing Hangame should have been focusing more on Player Balancing. Especially because this latest update seems to benefit people who spend real money on the game while casual players like myself are getting punished for being casual

I have tried, emphasis of tried, to enjoy this game, but if my single win comes after an hour of struggle and my only reward is a Scrap Crate I can't bring myself to enjoy this game anymore until the next update.

Now before you people start saying that I'm whining about the game cause I'm a sucky player I want you to know something. I can accept a loss… PROVIDED I actually managed to put up a struggle- When my loss comes either in the last minute or during the 1 minute Overtime, I can accept that, it was either my fault or the luck of the draw just didn't come through for me in the end.

But I draw the line when I've lost a turret within 20 second cause they pulled out things that just crushed me… Seriously have you met Nolan? Given his Stun on every attack and his high attack rate and even a Level 2 Nolan can kill a Level 2 Pyrrha if he gets the first draw. And at a cost of 1 Aura to Summon? I'm sorry but he needs the nerfs more than others.

Of course the top tier players that sandbagged just to take advantage of the Black Friday sale didn't help… So writing this right now is really hard because to cheer myself up I've got comedy going on in the background.

Anyway I've ranted enough, enjoy folks.

[[]]

"I still think Phoenix is insane." A young nekomata woman wearing a leopard print leotard said as she sat an unconscious Ruby down on a velvet blue couch next to her sister, a similarly unconscious Yang.

"Marie." A red haired and more voluptuous version of Cinder said, "With all the crap that Phoenix has been dealing with on Amity Arena, plus the wait for the actual show to let it's episodes air to those who don't want to pay, it's no wonder he's lost his mind."

"Flarea." Marie deadpanned, "He brought her into this… You know, her."

Flarea sighed, "Phoenix feels sorry for her." Flarea said, "She was a human who had just had her lover caught in a tug-of-war between life and death before getting cursed with immortality. Even the most mentally tough of individuals aren't meant for immortality. A mortal brain isn't hardwired for immortality like a god's mind is."

Marie opened her mouth, "Good point." Marie said, "Most immortals I've seen in media have either lost their sanity or have damn near shut down… Or are just really drunk."

[]

"Gah… Death has a hell of a Poker face." Phoenix muttered as he stood up, much to the shock of the one who had killed him moment's before.

"You're alive again? How?" Curiously asked the white skinned woman that had just impaled him with a nearby sword, as she couldn't call upon her usual powers.

"Blood of the Phoenix." Phoenix muttered, "Doesn't give me immortality, just revives me from an unnatural death. Now can we talk about this like civilized former human begins or do we need to carve each other into Jack 'O Lanterns first?"

The woman glared at Phoenix before relenting, "Fine, we'll talk." She said, "Where did you bring me?"

"Think of my home like a gap between dimensions." Phoenix said, "I brought you, and a few others, here to view an alternate world, one where even you might learn something Salem."

Salem simply scoffed at the notion, "As if you could teach me anything." Salem said.

"Maybe I can, maybe I can't." Phoenix said with a shrug, "But I consider myself something of a mad scientist. And one of the things I've learned that anyone who believes immortality is a blessing is a damned fool."

Salem raised an eyebrow, "Oh? I thought humans strove for immortality." Salem taunted.

"HA!" Phoenix laughed, "Please, immortality was never something a mortal mind was hardwired for… Any mortal that's become immortal will find themselves broken, whether it be mentally or emotionally… Like you."

Salem narrowed her eyes at Phoenix, "What?" She demanded.

"Come on, Ozma was the rope in a game of tug-o-war between life and death, then you got cursed with immortality, then hell knows how long you spent all alone with nothing but the animals and Grimm for company." Phoenix said, "If you came out with a similar mindset to what you went in with then you were meant to be immortal."

Salem closed her eyes and nodded, "I can accept that." She admitted.

"Plus accidentally murdering your own children…" Phoenix said, causing Salem to glare at Phoenix once again, "That snap… With that snap alone even you could find that you were no longer the woman you once were."

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you here and now until your mind breaks?" Salem seethed as she gripped the sword tighter.

"I'll give you two." Phoenix said, "For one, I've died enough that I'm having poker games with Death. And two… I may just be able to heal you." With that he gestured for Salem to follow him as he left the room.

"Heal me?" Salem asked as the stone wall just on the other side of the door shifted into another doorway. "How?"

"Your immortality is magic based… Divine class specifically." Phoenix said as he walked through what appeared to be a science lab, "You simply need Divine power to counter it, I've already got a counter to your appearance, though illusion generators are simply a temporary measure until I've got a more permanent solution." As he finished Phoenix stopped in front of a series of human sized pods, "As for your past… Take a look for yourself."

Salem eyed Phoenix closely as she stepped past him before looking into the glass window of the first pod and froze, one of her hands instinctively grasping the edge of the window. "Y-You… I... " Salem closed her eyes and looked to Phoenix, "Why is my eldest daughter in there? What are you-"

"Reviving her." Phoenix said, "Her body may be cloned, but her soul had to be retrieved manually, thankfully I've more than my fair share of favors Death owes me."

Salem raised her eyebrow, "How can Death owe you favors?" Salem asked genuinely curious.

"Well we gotta bet something during those poker games." Phoenix said with a shrug, "Anyway all four of your little girls are in those pods. And if you want them to come out and only remember you killing them as just a nightmare then you're gonna go in with the people I've brought and not mutilate them, understand!?" Phoenix shouted as the feathers on his armor caught ablaze.

Salem was surprised at the ferocity of the man before her, but she found herself more surprised at her own reaction. She found herself afraid.

Not at the man, but her fear was that of a mothers. The last thing she wanted was her own children to fear her, she didn't intend to kill them, but she didn't expect the sheer ferocity of her rage toward Ozma to fuel her power so much.

She wanted her daughters back more than anything, but she didn't want them back if them fearing her was the price… Just the thought of it terrified her, something she hadn't thought she would feel again.

"Fine." Salem said, "But I withhold the right to punish anyone who annoys me."

"You can slug the adults, but ease up on the kids." Phoenix said shrugging, "Now let's get going, I'm gonna slap the illusion generator on your back and then lead you to the room you'll be spending a lot of time in, then while I'm here I'm gonna have my wife research Divine Powers that could break that curse on you."

[]

Ruby stretched her arms as she woke up, not bothering to open her eyes as they have a bad habit of leaving the curtains open and she didn't want to be blinded.

She froze and slowly opened her eyes as she felt she was waking up on a couch… A velvet blue couch.

"Guys…" Ruby said slowly as she shook her sister looking around the room, taking note that their weapons were displayed proudly on a wall.

"Five more minutes sis." Yang muttered as her arm swing out and pulled Ruby into a cuddle.

"Yang…" Ruby groaned, a womans light chuckle hitting her ears, though she ignored it for the moment, then Ruby grinned with an idea. She and Yang had ways to wake up each other should one of them not want to get up in the morning, "Yang… Someone's trying to cut your hair."

Throwing Ruby off her, Yang shot off the couch, her eyes filled with fury as her hair caught ablaze, "WHOEVER'S TRYING IT I'M GONNA KILL THEM!" Yang roared, causing the other occupants of the room to awaken.

Blake shot off the couch and found herself perching atop a velvet blue bookshelf.

Weiss jumped out of bed and immediately patted her nightgown down, combed her hair with her fingers and took a weak fighting stance.

"Pancakes!" Nora shouted as she sat up, causing Ren to be thrown off of her.

"Oh god." Jaune cried out as he shot up and flipped over the couch, dragging Pyrrha with him.

"Wasn't me!" Qrow shouted as he righted himself on his seat, though the beer bottle that fell of him as he did would prompt questions.

Ozpin jolted up and began looking around, he froze when he saw Salem, her skin a now human shade and lacking the dark veins on her face that were growing, and her eyes were back to their normal color.

He didn't dare move when Salem leaned in, "I'm not going to attack, so relax." Salem whispered.

Next to Qrow, Glynda shot up and quickly adjusted her glasses as she looked around the room.

Ozpin looked at Salem and narrowed his eyes, "If you dare-" Ozpin started.

"Don't bother." Salem whispered, "The owner of this place has his own immortality, if I attack anyone here with lethal intent I gain nothing and lose a lot."

"Where the hell are we?" Qrow muttered as he kick his beer under his seat.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby cheered as she zipped up to him and latched onto his arm, just before she pulled out a jar, a few coins shaking in it.

"Really Ruby?" Qrow asked surprised.

"Hey Uncle Qrow." Yang said, "What did you do?"

"Me?" Qrow asked as he rummaged through his pocket with his free arm looking for a coin.

"Calm down everyone." Glynda said as she stood up, "Qrow isn't the one at fault here… At least not this time."

"Told ya I didn't do it." Qrow said.

"So… Who did this?" Jaune asked as he stood up, holding Pyrrha bridal style, causing the red head to blush fiercely... As well as hold tighter to Jaune.

Salem, knowing who was behind it, stood silently, only looking toward Jaune as he failed to notice how Pyrrha was reacting, 'What an oblivious idiot.' Salem thought.

"That would be me." Phoenix said as he stepped into the room, now donning a blue version of his normal armor, "It's a pleasure to meet you all, my name is Phoenix."

Weiss was the first to react, pushing her way past Qrow to jab a finger at Phoenix, "You kidnapped us and brought us here? What do you want? Whatever it is you're not getting it."

"Well there are several things I want out of you all." Phoenix said, a smirk hidden under his helmet, "First I'd like for Blake to come down from the bookshelf. You're a Faunus miss, not a real cat."

Every head turned to Blake to see she was still sitting atop the bookshelf, the hidden Faunus blushed as she climbed down from the shelf.

"Second… I brought you here to read the events of an alternate version of Remnant." Phoenix said pushing past Weiss and to the bookshelf Blake had climbed down from.

"An alternate Remnant?" Salem asked raising an eyebrow, this was something she was not expecting.

"Correct." Phoenix said as he pulled a book from the shelf, a remote sat atop it, "One that concerns a bit of the past, a similar future, and perhaps… One that can change hearts... Specifically yours Miss Branwen."

This caused everyone to look in confusion, only for a voice to clear her throat, causing everyone to look at the doorway to see Raven Branwen standing there, though a blue field of light surrounded her.

"What the hell is this?" Raven asked.

"I put you in a different room Raven because of two reasons." Phoenix said pushing a button on his remote, causing a T.V. to slide down in the back of the room. "One was so your daughter wouldn't attempt to kill you on sight."

"The fact I can't seem to move my legs isn't making the idea come to life." Yang growled as she looked to see her legs encased in blue light.

"And the second was more for the benefit of the males in the room." Phoenix continued, "After all it's rather surprising to learn you choose to sleep in the nude."

Everyone save for Qrow blinked in surprise at the statement and turned to Raven.

"Seriously?" Yang asked genuinely surprised, "How did that work at Beacon?"

"I had to deal with a lot of uncomfortable nights." Raven admitted blushing slightly, "Tai was the reason it was hard."

"And Uncle Qrow wasn't?" Ruby asked as she finally let go of Qrow.

Raven looked down at Ruby, "Well Qrow was used to it, we used to sleep in the same tent." Raven.

"Doesn't mean I liked seeing my sister climb into bed in her birthday suit." Qrow grumbled and he reached for his flask.

Phoenix just chuckled as he took a seat, "Now then, aside from you Miss Branwen, you people need to eat breakfast and shower. Then we will begin."

"Wait, who's she?" Pyrrha asked as Jaune put her down, much to her ire, hiking a thumb to Salem.

"My name is Salem." Salem said crossing her arms, "That's all you need to know."

Qrow, Glynda, and Raven froze as Salem said that, nervous as to why the woman was there.

[[]]

Well that took two days to write… I blame the stress caused by Amity Arena.

I'd like to thank Timeless Dreamer Neo for beta-ing and editing this chapter and all my normal chapters of Phantom Thieves.

Now then, gonna go give Amity Arena another shot, most likely rage, then go blow shit up on Fallout.

Chapter Text

Alright folks, now's the time I need that lookout party. Seriously I will need some eye out while I write this cause there are more than one reason they can bear down on this story, even if it is my own.

Anyway I might as well say that on Amity Arena my Academy is named Terminal, and it's Invite Only so remember to send me either a review or a PM if you want to join... Or I will not accept your in-game request to join... I've denied well over 20 people by now.

Of course I don't quite recommend playing Amity Arena at the moment due to the imbalance... Seriously I'm only getting a winning streak cause I'm spamming the Alpha Beowolf... And that's not gonna last through the next update to the game.

Plus those Event missions are pure evil- I'm on a losing streak and you're telling me to Fight for Fame when just one loss can knock me down an Arena? The things I'll do for SPD in that game really don't make this payout worth it sometimes.

Also Novice, I know the Deathstalkers are good, even with their recent nerf, but seriously can you stop asking for them so often? A lot of us are having a hard enough time getting them ourselves- Hell I need 200 of the suckers and I've only got 15 left due to my bleeding heart.

Anyway I hope you all enjoy the Reading proper... Well, if you can count the Teaser as 'Proper'.

[[]]

Soon enough everyone had returned to the room, though Ozpin had glared at Phoenix due to the seating arrangement that was apparently set up.

There were 2 four seated couches that were occupied by Team's RWBY and JNPR.

Qrow and Raven had taken a seat on one of the two seaters, and Glynda had claimed ownership of the single chair that was between the pair of two seaters.

That left him forced to share a seat with Salem or stand... And even he wouldn't want to stand for who knows how long.

Hesitantly, Ozpin took a seat next to his widowed(?) Ex-Wife, looking over he could clearly tell Salem was enjoying his nervousness.

"So is everyone comfortable?" Phoenix asked as he took a seat on a chair that appeared in a burst of flames.

Everyone save for Ozpin nodded.

"Good." Phoenix said as he leaned back, "Now we begin a tale of Thieves."

"WHAT!?" Weiss shouted, "Thieves? What is this some alternate reality where our team is a bunch of thieves?"

Phoenix just chuckled, "No... Nothing like that." Phoenix said, "Though now I feel it may be out there or coming to fruition soon. No these Thieves happen to be a group of people who rebelled against the labels that were slapped on them. The story will explain so can I read?"

Weiss just huffed and nodded.

"Thank you." Phoenix said, "Sheesh normally they wait for the story to start before reacting."

[Atlas: Goldan family mansion]

Weiss raised an eyebrow, "Never heard of them before." She muttered.

"Like you know everyone in Atlas." Qrow muttered rolling his eyes.

"With how many suitors my Father tries to find for me I've learned the names of more than three quarters of Atlas's aristocrats." Weiss said.

Salem raised an eyebrow at that, 'Well her fathers better than mine was, he didn't even acknowledge my existence.' Salem thought, 'Though if he did start pairing me up with some random suitor I'm not quite sure what I would have done back then... Probably just fall for him instead of Ozma.'

"Your dad is jerk." Ruby said, "Seriously how many suitors have you said no to?"

"Lost count after forty." Weiss waved off.

[Time: 11:32 P.M.]

[No P.O.V.]

Two men wearing thick black coats with fur edges with hoods drawn over their heads are standing guard at the front door of a large Atlesian mansion, they were holding Altas Standard issue Assault Rifles and were wearing goggles to keeps the currently falling snow out of their eyes.

"Man I gotta get onto the day shift soon." One of them said all of a sudden, "I mean I haven't spent much time with my wife and daughter since I took this job"

"I'm amazed you're still married." Raven said rolling her eyes.

"You still are." Qrow said smirking, "You never signed any divorce papers when you ditched Tai."

Raven blinked as she took a look back in her memories, "Shit... Knew I forgot something."

The other guard looked at his partner, "You might be in luck. I heard that that Mister Goldan has started to change out all his night shift guards for Atlesian Knights. I even hear he's gotten himself a few of the newer models for the more important locations." The other said.

Ozpin just sighed, "James's AK's can be useful, but the fact he's using so many is becoming an issue."

"Seriously." Phoenix said, "Idiot can't even keep the 'Human Element' in his piloted mechs outside an announcement."

Team RWBY looked at Phoenix with surprise, "You mean that those robots can act like any other AK?" Yang asked.

"Yep." Phoenix said, "Betcha General Metalboner figured he'd announce that the Paladin's are only capable of being piloted by people, then used the thick glass to hide the fact it's A.I. driven."

Qrow immediately double over laughing, "Metalboner!" Qrow laughed while Glynda pinched the bridge of her nose.

"That man is going to be a bigger threat to the Kingdoms than the Grimm." Glynda sighed shaking her head.

"More than you'd know." Salem said.

"You think that's a good idea?" The first guard asked, "I mean, yeah he doesn't really have to pay a robot a salary, but truth be told I never really trusted machines. They could get hacked or broken or glitched or all sorts of things. As much as I'd like day shift I think Mr. Goldan's getting a little careless in his defenses by having a bunch of robots handle more and more of them."

Salem's smirked faltered for a moment. Apparently some humans weren't brain dead.

"This makes me wonder if Jimmy ever did put up firewalls." Qrow muttered.

"I can send you guys a simple hacking program." Phoenix said, "I don't use it much outside of hacking keypads, but hey, simple can go a long way."

'SHIT!' Salem swore in her head, this.. Whatever Phoenix classifies as now, may have just put her plan in the trash.

"Think we could get that?" Jaune asked.

"Sure... Everyone but Ruby and Nora." Phoenix said.

"Hey!" The two mentioned shouted.

"I don't want you two going around and hacking the vending machines." Phoenix deadpanned.

"Personally, while I don't care about working the night shift, I wouldn't mind a Knight taking over this post. I haven't had feeling in my toes for a week now." The other guard said.

"You should probably get that checked out." The first guard pointed out.

"That isn't healthy." Pyrrha pointed out.

"Don't you guys in Atlas have thermal socks or something?" Yang asked.

"We do, but most people don't seem to buy them." Weiss said with a shrug.

What the guards were unaware of was that there was a figure running across the arches in front of the building.

Everyone re-focused on the screen at that.

"We really are reading about thieves." Weiss sighed.

[OST: P5: Life Will Change]

The figure was that of a young man with shaggy black hair, he wore an open chested black trench coat with a tail that was cut into three parts over gray collared shirt, black trousers, brown cuban heeled boots, and a pair of red gloves. Over his face the man wore a white bird shaped mask with black interior that covered only his eyes.

Everyone focused on Joker, though they did not know his name yet.

"Well he's got the standards covered." Blake noted, "A mask to cover his identity and gloves to cover his fingerprints."

"Though I don't think that mask could really protect his identity much." Weiss pointed out.

"Never underestimate human stupidity." Phoenix said with a snort.

"Too true." Salem said chuckling.

"I like the coat he has." Jaune said, "Gives him that mysterious, but professional looking flair."

The man then ran across the arch and jumped onto a balcony of the building and easily pushed the glass doors open.

"Glad to see Goldan didn't realize he should check to make sure everything was locked when he left for his little vacation." A young girls voice said within the man's head. "Alright Joker, you remember when the target was right?"

Like Timeless and Swift before him, Phoenix had decided to add the text boxes and character portraits. Granted Oracle's was named as '?' and her portrait was shadowed.

"Aw man." Nora said, "I don't know her."

"Why is that like that anyway?" Ren asked.

"Simple." Phoenix said, "You don't know her name or mask yet. Can't have spoilers coming at you guys too fast."

"Still at least we know his name now." Weiss said, "Or at least his alias."

"Joker." Blake said, "Why is his name Joker?"

"You'll see." Phoenix said.

The now named Joker smirked, "I remember Oracle." Joker said quietly as he slipped into what appeared to be the master bedroom.

Unlike Oracles, Joker portrait was named and in full color.

"Well, we've got a better view of his eyes with that." Ruby said.

"Are those silver?" Salem asked in surprise.

"Nah... Those are a cloudy grey." Qrow said, "Shame too." He said under his breath.

"Good, Queen and Mona will be waiting by the garage for the escape, while Fox, Panther, Skull and Noir will meet up with you after you've gotten the target and will cover you on your escape." the now named Oracle said.

"Well I think we've got the aliases of their whole team now." Raven said.

"Don't speak too soon." Salem said, causing everyone to look at her, "There may be some members of that team that aren't on that mission."

"She's got a point." Ren said, "Some of them may have been injured before this."

"No way." Yang said, "If they're bringing this many people out they would have waited for the whole team to be ready."

Joker nodded and quietly pushed open the door out of the bedroom, before peeking out the the side.

On his left was an Atlesian Knight Model #130, it's back turned to him.

Joker smirked as he quickly leapt onto the Knight's shoulders and pulled out his weapon, a small single edged dagger, and quickly stabbed the AK in the underside of the head before tearing upward, disabling the droids vocal systems before disabling the droid altogether.

Ruby took a close look at the dagger Joker used, "It... Looks kinda plain."

"A plain dagger was more than enough to take out the AK-130 though." Blake said, "They always seemed pretty fragile despite their bulky frame."

"I take it you fought some?" Raven asked.

"More like watched them get torn apart." Blake said, half lying.

Joker jumped off the falling AK dashed to the corner of the hall, peeking over he saw another Knight, this one not looking in his direction, and several tables between him and it.

Smirking Joker dashed into the shadows of one of the tables, becoming coated in the shadows of the table. Joker then dashed from table to table in a black blur, soon enough reaching the AK, which had turned around to check the other side of the hall, completely moving past Joker without noticing him.

"How did he do that so quietly?" Glynda thought aloud.

"Maybe it's his Semblance?" Jaune asked, "He's a thief so it has to be a stealth oriented Semblance he has."

"Actually." Phoenix said speaking up, "That was the work of magic."

The room was silent for a moment, "WHAT!?" Everyone shouted, save for Ozpin and Salem, who were silent in their surprise.

"Indeed." Phoenix said, "I'll explain more later but the outfits they are wearing were never made by any hand or machine, and that sneaking ability was granted to Joker by that outfit."

Salem was in deep thought, wondering how she could get her hands on an outfit like that.

Dashing out of his hiding spot Joker ran down the hall before turning into the library, shutting the door behind him and running toward a small bust of a young woman's head and chest. Joker grabbed the lower jaw of the woman and pulled it down, which actually revealed it to be a hidden switch as one of the nearby bookshelves pushed forward at an angle slightly.

"Why do big mansions like these always have secret rooms in the library?" Oracle asked rhetorically, "Well, at least the guy didn't move the thing."

"Mansion cliches." Yang said with a shrug, "Hey Weiss any secret passageways in your place?"

"Dozen's." Weiss said smiling, "When mother realized I was rebelling against father in my own way she told me about the secret passageways in the family mansion, same with Winter and Klein."

"Who's Klein?" Ruby asked.

"A Butler." Weiss said, "And more of a father figure than my actual father."

'Wish I could have had someone like that.' Salem thought, shuddering at the memory of her isolation in her fathers tower.

Joker stepped into the hidden room and walked over to a small wooden box in the middle of the room, which was surrounded by a case of glass, "I don't see a switch or anything." Joker mused.

"Then that means the glass isn't locked down." Oracle said, "No... He's installed a DNA scanner on the glass, there's no way we're taking that without triggering an alarm."

"Well a good plan to keep your stuff locked down." Qrow said, "Or at least force someone to set off an alarm."

"Where are Skull, Panther, Fox, and Noir?" Joker asked quietly.

"Close enough." Oracle said, "Ready to run?"

Instead of replying Joker pulled out his dagger again, however in less than a second a casing shot up over the edge of the dagger as if folded down to the back, then the blade extended forward a fair bit, this had caused the dagger to look like nothing more than a simple handgun.

Ruby took a double take a the weapon, "H-how? How did I not noticed all those mechanisms? I couldn't even tell it could transform." Ruby cried out.

"He must know a good weaponsmith." Glynda said.

Joker then smashed the glass with the gun, which caused an alarm to sound throughout the mansion, and quickly grabbed the small box and tucked it under his arm just as two AK130's burst into the library and saw him in the hidden room.

"Intruder, identify yourself and put down the property in your hands." One of the said.

"Idiot programmer." Glynda growled shaking her head.

Joker's answer came in the form of a sudden bullet being fired from his gun, which wasn't silenced apparently. The bullet tore through the head of one of the AK's disabling it.

"Intruder, you have committed a hostile action, prepare for-" The other started, but was cut off by a shotgun blast that tore off half it's back, more than enough to disable it.

"An unsilenced pistol and a shotgun?" Raven asked, "Are they trying to be stealthy or gain attention?"

"They use their weapons in melee form when in stealth as you can easily get in melee range at that time." Blake figured, "When they can't do that anymore they probably switch to ranged to hold the guards back."

"Think you can give us some stealth pointers after all this?" Jaune asked, "Ren is stealthy, but you've clearly studied the art."

"Sure." Blake said smiling.

"You're not slacking are you? You could have totally taken both down without my help." Said the newcomer.

Like Joker this was a young man, however he hand short, spiky, blonde hair and was wearing a black leather jacket and black pants that had knee pads, a red ascot, combat boots, a pair of yellow gloves, on his face was a dark grey mask shaped like a skull, minus a lower jaw.

"Hello..." Yang said smirking, "He's clearly a frontline fighter, wonder what he looks like under the mask."

"Ugh." Ruby groaned.

In his hands was a pump action shotgun, however with a quick flick of his arm the barrel closed off and the pump of the shotgun split into four segments that shifted to the end of the barrel and ended up the same distance around the barrel from each other, the former pump of the shotgun then segmented further and flipped around to reveal ridges that reconnected to form a club that would certainly hurt to be hit by. This change took less than a second to happen.

"He's definitely a close combatant." Jaune said, "His weapon in melee form is a hard hitting weapon and in its gun form it's most effective close up."

"Pretty good weapon." Ruby said, "But he completely lacks and decent range."

'So you may think.' Phoenix thought.

"Figured you'd like a shot at them Skull." Joker said smirking.

"Well that's an obvious name." Weiss said rolling her eyes.

"Whatever. You got it?" The now named Skull asked, and was given the answer by Joker lifting the box he had taken, "Nice, now let's go before more trouble gets here."

With that Joker and Skull ran out of the room, soon finding two more destroyed AK130's, one that was cut clean in half, the other had several dozen bullet holes in it, and two more people standing over them.

"A clean cut and what is most likely an automatic weapon." Raven figured, not noticing Blake's shudder at the clean cut.

The first was yet another young man, this one with dark blue hair. He wore a black jumpsuit that had a high upturned collar on it and baggy forearms, white motorcycle boots that reached his knees, blue gloves on his hands, a blue and white striped waist sash, and clipped to the back of that sash was a a long white fox tail that had a red ribbon wrapped around it on his face was a white fox mask that covered his whole face.

Blake's eye twitched slightly at the fox tail he had, but took a close look at his attire.

In his hands was a katana that was sheathed, said sheath had a trigger just near the hilt, which so long as the sword was sheathed, could have the weapon spun around to double as an assault rifle given that part of the sheath can be removed to change out the weapons magazine, that part of the sheath is wider than the rest of it.

"Almost the exact same weapon type." Blake whispered.

"Now we know who made the slash." Ruby said, "He seems to be an agile fighter from what that weapon shows."

The other figure was a woman with long pale blonde hair that was tied up in wavy ponytails. Her outfit was a skin tight red leather catsuit worn with a matching red panther mask that cover her upper face, it had a cleavage cutout, several zippers on the front and with it she wore pink gloves that almost reached her elbows and dark red thigh-high boots clipped to her lower back, just under her tail bone, was a panther's tail the same color as her suit.

The boys in the group turned red at the attire worn by Panther, except for Ozpin. Though Blake's eye was twitching once more.

"Relax Blake, they didn't pick these outfits themselves." Phoenix said, "Their... Bound by their mentality I suppose you could say."

"So... These are like manifestations of their mind?" Nora asked.

"In a sense." Phoenix said, "More like a manifestation of the will and personality."

In her hand was an SMG, but with a quick flick of her hand it segmented into a long whip, leaving the trigger and ammo magazine with it's grip.

Qrow smirked and looked over at Glynda, "Looks like you've got competition Glyn." Qrow chuckled.

Glynda's eyes narrowed at Qrow, and with a flick of her hand, used her Semblance to hit Qrow in the face with a small burst of telekinetic energy.

"You deserved that." Ozpin said chuckling.

"I suppose there wasn't a way to get the box without triggering an alarm?" The one with the fox tail asked.

"Fox, if he could have avoided the alarm he wouldn't have triggered it." The cat suited woman said.

"I suppose you're right, Panther." Fox admitted. "But we had better clear out before the police arrive."

"Fox and Panther." Weiss sighed, "Still not very original."

"Hey it fits." Yang said shrugging, "And they make it work I'm betting."

"Noir's on her way to the garage right now." Oracle announced to the group, "You guys had better get there too."

The group nodded to each other before sprinting down the hall, no longer caring just how much noise they made, and any AK130 that did come in front of them was shot down.

The group then arrived at the doors that were no doubt the garage, in front of it they saw a young woman cut one last AK130 in half with a battle axe.

"Let's see..." Jaune said, "That Oracle lady said that Skull, Panther, Fox, and Noir were in the building with him."

"So that must be Noir." Ruby said.

The woman had curly chin length hair that a light auburn color, which was hidden under a mauve cavalier hat with a plumed feather, she had on a long sleeved light pink blouse with a cravat, black corset vest, puffy mauve shorts, black pantyhose with identically colored shoes, a holster belt carrying ammo, more specifically grenade launcher rounds, with her hands covered in purple gloves, on her face was a black bandits mask that covered her eyes.

"She looks more refined than the others." Weiss said.

"That outfit kind of reminds me of old Vale Highwaymen." Ozpin noted, "Back when aristocrats would rob others on the road for the sake of entertainment."

"The things h- people would do for their enjoyment." Salem mused chuckling, she could easily state that Highwaymen caused a lot more Grimm attacks back then.

Her battle axe had only one blade, but a long handle and where the second blade would have been was a chamber for grenades, as she rested it on her shoulder it easily collapsed down to a grenade launcher.

"Oh boy." Ren said with gulp, "I hope she isn't as trigger happy as Nora."

"Puh-lease." Nora said wrapping an arm around Ren, "No one is as Trigger happy as me."

"Nice one Noir." Skull cheered out.

"These things are easy compared to Shadows." The now name Noir said with a grin on her face, "Even the Grimm are tougher than these guys."

'Well that's one less ally for me that's for sure.' Salem thought.

"That's for sure." Oracle said, "Wait... I'm getting a reading from the other side of that door."

"An actual human guard?" Noir asked aloud, as all the group could hear Oracle.

"No, I'm sensing a strong Aura, I'm thinking a Huntsman." Oracle said.

This caused everyone to perk up.

"Maybe the Huntsman would be able to take these guys down." Weiss said proudly.

"Doubt it." Yang said, "I mean what kind of movie or book or game starring a thief would start with the protagonist getting captured?"

Phoenix couldn't help but chuckle at that before returning to his reading.

"What? You mean Goldan's had a Huntsman in his back pocket this whole time?" A new female voice said from Oracles side, "Mona, get the van ready, we're coming for a pick up."

"Oh no." Oracle moaned.

The group within the building nodded to each other as Joker kicked the door to the garage open.

Inside were two of the new model AK200's, much sleeker and brighter than the 130's, however standing between them was a woman with white hair that was tied up in an off center bun, uniformed in a white coat with a red brooch covering her neck, her coat left part of her upper arms exposed and she had black gloves covering her hands, garter belts being incorporated into her pants. In this woman's hands was a white sabre that had dust chambers built into it.

Weiss turned wide eyed and stared at the screen, "Winter?" She asked, "They're fighting my Sister?"

"Yep." Phoenix said.

Weiss shock turned to pride, "Then they've lost." She said proudly.

"Don't speak too soon Ice Princess." Qrow said.

"Hey!" Weiss shouted.

"The hell?" Skull asked, "She's an Atlesian Specialist! The hells she doing playing security guard?"

"Who might you be?" Joker asked as he put his hands in his pockets, keeping his voice level.

Weiss's eyes narrowed, "Is... Is he brushing my sister off an not a threat?" Weiss demanded.

"No." Phoenix said, "It's just how he always holds a conversation in that outfit."

The woman narrowed her eyes, "Atlesian Specialist Winter Schnee. I'm here to bring you in for your breaking and entering, as well as robbery."

"Is it just me or did that sound a bit more personal than that?" Glynda asked narrowing her own eyes.

"Schnee?" Joker asked, "How's your father been doing?"

Weiss's eyes went wide, "What? What did they do to my father!?" Weiss cried out.

"You'll see." Phoenix said, "Soon enough."

Winter narrowed her eyes, "I'm not the one who's going to be answering questions here." Winter said, "But I'm going to be bringing you in, get them."

One of the AK200's lifted it's rifle to begin firing, however Skull was faster as he rushed in to kick the 200 in the face, knocking it back and messing up it's aim before caving it's head in with his club.

The other aimed at Joker, only for its gun to be ripped from its hands by Panther's whip, and was soon destroyed as well by gunfire coming from Fox's weapon.

"Sleeker, but just as fragile." Ozpin sighed.

"If James hopes to defeat the Grimm with numbers alone he's a bigger idiot than I thought he was." Glynda sighed.

'If that is his new model then I think he needs to look into something other than appearance.' Salem thought, 'Not that I mind the way they are now.'

Winter glared at the offending group before rushing in to attack Joker, who jumped to the side to dodge her initial stab and quickly switched his weapon to dagger mode to block a slash from her.

Winter pressed her weapon against Joker's until she was knocked slightly to the side by a shotgun blast from Skull, allowing Joker to back flip away and shift his weapon into a pistol to fire at her.

Winter pulled a second, smaller blade from the first one and used both of them to block the bullet's until Joker's clip ran dry.

Winter then created a Glyph that summoned an Alpha Beowolf that charged at the group while she got back up.

"She's doing pretty good." Weiss said with family pride.

"He's holding back, I can see clear as day." Salem said, narrowing her eyes.

"What!?" Weiss shouted.

Noir smirked and pulled her grenade launcher off her back and fired once, blasting away the Summoned Grimm.

"Why don't you take off your mask?" Winter growled, "Stop hiding behind those things like the criminals you are and turn yourselves in!"

Joker smirked, "Fine, I'll take off the mask." Joker said reaching up to his mask, "Just remember you asked for it."

Everyone raised an eyebrow at that.

"He's... He's taking it off?" Glynda asked confused, "Just like that?"

"Why would he wear it if he's that okay with taking it off?" Weiss asked.

"Oh!" Nora said raising her hand, "Maybe he's got a horribly scarred face under it!"

"Or perhaps he knows her outside of being a thief and revealing himself will cause her to slip up." Ren said.

Winter raised an eyebrow at this and braced herself for anything Joker could pull.

"Come forth, Arsene!" Joker shouted as he tore off his mask, the mask shattering and burning away in blue flames, Jokers face was also still covered in blue flames, obscuring his identity.

"What the...?" Salem mused leaning forward.

Winter jumped back at the sudden appearance of the flames, but soon enough that didn't matter as a chill ran down her spine at a sinister laughter filled the garage.

Blue flames emerged from behind Joker, which formed a rather intimidating figure, it was larger that Joker, it had a black torso like an vest with a white cravat on it's neck, its arms were covered in a long sleeves red vest that reached it's clawed hands, it's legs had on leggings that covered the entirety of its legs, but not the waist and had boots with blades posing as long heels, two large black feathered wings on it's back, a ridiculously tall top hat on it's head. Said head was completely covered by a sinister black mask with red eyes and mouth and had two long horns curling to the front of its face.

"W-w-w-w-what is that?" Ruby stammered.

"A Grimm?" Weiss asked.

"No." Ozpin said glancing at Salem, who was shocked as well, "It lacks the typical armor plating of Grimm, plus Grimm only have red in their eyes and on their plates, not their hides."

"So what the heck is that thing!?" Nora shouted

"Arsene! Eiha!" Joker commanded as he grabbed hold of the chain and swung it forward, which caused Winter to focus once again on the fight, only for a red and black mass of energy to burst up from below her, tearing out a chunk of her Aura and knocking her back down to the ground.

"It's name is Arsene and Joker seems to have command over it." Blake said, "Though... I think that thing just used magic."

"A dark looking magic." Raven said.

The being Joker referred to as Arsene faded as Joker's mask reformed on his face, and while Winter was on the ground the five thieves shifted their weapons into their respective gun forms and pointed them at Winter's head, surrounding her and keeping a decent distance to prevent her from disarming them should she retaliate.

"Please don't shoot." Weiss pleaded as she closed her eyes, Yang pulling her into a hug to comfort her.

"What's the Atlas Military doing here?" Joker demanded, "Last I checked they don't exactly do mercenary work."

Winter scoffed and looked around, noticing her predicament as her Aura wouldn't exactly be able to hold up if they started to open fire, "We aren't, but when Goldan came up to us saying that is was the Phantom Thieves that were targeting him we decided to make an exception just this once." Winter admitted.

"So the reason you're playing security guard is because it's us?" Noir asked, "Don't know know what Goldan did less than half a month ago?"

"I don't care about that!" Winter snapped, "I volunteered the moment I heard it was you all."

"Really? You're still on about that?" Skull asked, "Sheesh that was almost half a year ago, lay off it already, besides shouldn't you be thanking us for what happened afterwards?"

"You Schnee's can hold one hell of a grudge sometimes." Qrow said.

"Shut up." Weiss said.

"Thanking you!?" Winter shouted, "You-"

"Goldan recently robbed the Chieftain of Kou Kuana just a few weeks ago." Fox said suddenly, "While he can't do anything now that Goldan has returned to Atlas, because Atlas favor's it's rich and human over the poor and the Faunus, we can."

Now it was Blake's turn to become livid, "WHAT!?" She roared standing up.

"Whoa kitty!" Yang said jumping up and pushing Blake back into her seat, "Whats up?"

"Kou Kuana's chief is Ghira Belladonna." Blake said, "My father."

"Ooooooh." Yang said leaning back, "Wait does that mean you're rich?"

"Yang!" Blake cried out.

"Just asking." Yang said innocently.

"So, you were hired to steal it back then?" Winter asked.

"No, we came of our own choice." Joker said, "In fact, Oracle should have sent General Ironwood incriminating evidence about Goldan by now."

"Whatever it is..." Blake said, "I want it back."

"Next time I'm in Atlas I'll look into it for ya." Qrow said.

"Thanks." Blake said repressing a hiss.

"What?" Winter asked surprise.

At that moment the garage door to the outside is busted down by a black van backing up into it, the black van has a yellow stripe going down the middle, it also curiously had a cat tail and cat ears poking out of it.

Everyone had to rub their eyes at that.

"The hell?" Raven asked tilting her head.

"A cat themed van?" Yang asked, "I guess that makes them Cat Burglars."

The whole room groaned at Yang's pun, save for Salem.

'Better than Tyrian's morbid jokes.' Salem thought.

The back door of the van burst open to reveal a woman with long orange hair wearing a mask that looked like large black goggles with orange lenses, she wore a skintight black bodysuit with fluorescent neon green glowing strips and matching black boots with neon green soles.

"Get in!" The woman shouted, her voice revealing that she was Oracle.

"She looks pretty high tech." Weiss said, "She's probably the teams information analyst."

"Well she could have any level of skill." Ruby said, "I mean if Ironwood-"

"Metalboner." Qrow interjected.

"-Doesn't put up any security on his machines then she wouldn't need to be a good hacker, just a decent one." Ruby said, there her eyes went wide at the thought of Penny. Ruby hoped her friend had some system protection against hackers.

"Don't need to tell me twice." Skull shouted, blasting the ground near Winter to keep her off balance and allowed the group to jump into the van.

"Who's driving?" Panther asked.

"Queen." Oracle said.

The groups head than swiveled to the woman at the steering wheel, she had short brown hair in a bob cut, she wore a skintight black leather suit that is worn with a long black scarf, shoulder and knee pads with spikes with white gloves on he hands, on her face was an iron mask that covered her upper face with cut outs to reveal her reddish brown eyes.

"Okay." Yang said pointing to Queen, "She's someone that even I'd want to get out of the way of out in the streets."

"No kidding." Jaune said with a gulp.

"Oh crap." Skull said.

Everyone raised an eyebrow at Skulls comment.

"She has road rage." Phoenix said.

"Like Yang?" Ruby asked.

"Hey!" Yang cried out.

"Guys you better hold on!" A boyish voice called from within the front of the van, "We all know about Queen's road rage when driving out."

Once more everyone froze as Mona's voice came from... The Dashboard.

"Wha-" Glynda stammered, "How?"

"It's gotta be some kind of A.I." Weiss said, "There's no way a person can transform into a Van, there is no Semblance that can transform a person into an inanimate object."

"I..." Ozpin said at a loss for words, "I don't even know..."

"Quit complaining Mona, we don't have time for safe driving." Queen retorted as she hit the gas pedal, sending the Van that was apparently Mona driving ahead at full speed, the tracks were soon covered by the falling snow, making tracking them impossible.

"That's the teaser done." Phoenix said closing the book.

"I'm gonna need booze for this." Qrow said standing up.

[[]]

Well folks, that's the chapter.

And again I'd like to thank Timeless for beta-ing these chapters and hopefully this won't be out too late.

Now, I'm gonna go play Fallout 3, cause I don't have an X-Box One or a gaming PC (Hell this laptop is falling apart.) So I can't play Fallout 4 even if I had it... Plus I like 3 better than New Vegas, even though I'd only played it after borrowing from a friend.

Dart Gun boys... That tiny thing is a monsterous weapon.

Chapter Text

So folks, it's time for another chapter of the Reading.

Now if you've been rejected from joining my Amity Arena Academy known as Terminal... You didn't send me a message on this site... I warned you all didn't I?

If I didn't I'm sorry, anyway enjoy the chapter.

[[]]

"Now then." Phoenix said standing up as Qrow returned to the room, walking over to Ruby he held the book out to her, "I'm not gonna sit on my rear and read to you all day, my voice isn't for that much talking."

"So now I'm reading?" Ruby asked taking the book.

"Just this chapter." Phoenix said, "Then you pass it to Weiss, who'll pass it to Blake, then Yang, then Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, Ren, Glynda, Qrow, Raven, Ozpin, then Salem, then I'll take the book back and the cycle starts again."

Ruby nodded and opened the book to where there was a bookmark reminding her of where to read.

[OST: Persona 5: Aria of the Soul]

Weiss blinked and put a hand on Ruby's mouth to stop her from reading.

"What's up?" Yang asked.

"This music is so..." Weiss said as the vocals kicked in, "Peaceful."

"Trust me this music has not gotten old." Phoenix said, "In fact the series that the Phantom Thieves came from has had 6 games, counting the second game that had two versions, and throughout those games this song has hardly been edited, just simply remastered with better recording technology. I've actually got the sheet music somewhere and a CD with an extended cut."

"May I have it?" Weiss pleaded.

"Sure... During the next break." Phoenix said motioning to Ruby to continue.

Akira Kurusu, a young man with shaggy black hair woke up and noticed he was definitely not in his bed, nor was he wearing what he went to sleep in. He was wearing what he knew to be his winter casual wear, a black jacket over a white v-neck shirt, with blue jeans and grey pants.

"Who the heck is this kid?" Qrow asked confused.

"He looks completely average." Raven yawned.

Ruby however looked closer at Akira, "Wait... Is that? Is that Joker?" Ruby asked.

Everyone blinked and took another look at Akira.

"It is." Weiss said shocked, "How can a thief like look so... plain?"

"I actually find it to be an amusing metaphor." Phoenix said, "Even the most average looking person could be hiding a great secret when you pass by them."

"That's actually a pretty terrifying thought." Pyrrha said.

'Oh you already know someone like that.' Salem thought, hiding her malicious smirk.

Looking around the room he noticed that it was almost entirely a shade of velvet blue, there were no windows in the room, but several beds, each one having someone he recognized on it.

On the first be he saw his friend Ryuji Sakamoto, a man his age with short, but spiky hair that was dyed blonde, wearing his usual winter wear, an open purple coat that had red stripes on the arms over a black shirt that had a yellow face emote face on it, he also had on black pants with a white stripe on the sides, and finished with yellow and white sneakers.

Yang whistled in appreciation at Ryuji's looks, "Not bad." Yang said grinning, "Wonder what he's like."

"Probably a brute like you." Weiss dismissed.

"Hey!" Yang growled.

"Hang on." Jaune muttered doing a head count in his head, "The only blonde guy with the Phantom Thieves was Skull."

"And if that's Joker, then Ryuji must be Skull." Ren concluded.

Weiss simply smirked at Yang, "See?" Weiss said victoriously.

"Hey their leader kicked your sisters ass." Yang said, "Makes you wonder what he's capable of."

On the next bed was Ann Takamaki, a woman his age with long blonde hair that was tied into two ponytails, she was wearing a red jacket with a 'S' on the chest, it also had long pale beige sleeves on it, she was also wearing a white skirt over black leggings, and red sneakers.

Jaune blushed slightly as he looked at her, "Whoa..." He said jaw dropped, "She looks like she could be a model." As he said this Pyrrha glared at him for a brief moment.

"Actually, she was a model for a magazine as a part time job." Phoenix said, "She did have some issues at her high school though due to a perverted gym teacher... Whom actually forced himself on her best friend cause she wasn't there."

"What!?" Qrow, Raven, and Glynda shouted in anger, even Salem and Ozpin were having trouble concealing their rage. Even Salem doesn't condone her subordinates to rape people... And when she finds out one of her subordinates raped someone she does NOT let it stand.

"Hang on..." Blake said looking closer, "She's Panther, she's the only one with hair like that."

"Well now we know what kind of relationship she wants." Qrow chuckled, only to get smacked in the head by Glynda.

On the next was Yusuke Kitagawa, a man his age with deep blue hair at a mid length, wearing a brown suit like shirt with thin black lines on it over a pink tinged shirt, he wore black pants and black shoes, dangling from his waist was a collection of keys, one's Akira never really figured out what the meaning of them were.

"Well he looks..." Weiss said, pausing a moment to find the right word, "Interesting?"

"Oh how much you'll learn about him." Phoenix said with a chuckle.

"He's the only one with blue hair." Pyrrha pointed out, "That's gotta be Fox then."

On the next was Makoto Nijima, a woman a year older than him with brown hair in a bob cut, she was wearing a light blue coat that had two sets of buttons on it over a black turtleneck, and and black pants thigh high brown boots on her feet.

"She looks nice." Ruby said smiling.

"I think she might be Queen." Ozpin pointed out.

"Oh boy." Ruby said gulping.

On the next bed was Futaba Sakura, a woman a year younger than him with long orange hair, she was wearing a blue-green coat with a furred collar, however it was slipped partially down her arms, revealing she was wearing a black tank top under her white shirt, which also had it sleeves down her arms, she also had on black shorts that had a belt dangling from her right side, with black stockings over black boots. On a table next to her were her large round glasses.

"She kinda reminds me of one of my sisters." Jaune said.

"One of them?" Qrow asked, "How many do you have?"

"Seven." Jaune said simply, causing the Branwen's and Salem to look to Jaune in surprise.

"Your parent's need a new hobby." Raven deadpanned.

"How the hell are you still sane?" Qrow asked.

'And I thought four little girls were going to be tough.' Salem thought in shock, 'He must have a will of steel.'

"Well..." Nora sang, "He did go to the dance in a dress."

"I commend your bravery." Qrow said.

"Didn't dad convince you to wear a skirt?" Yang teased.

Qrow just grumbled as he took a sip of his drink.

"With that hair... She's gotta be Oracle." Jaune added, since she was the only one with orange hair.

"So she's their support." Raven said.

Looking around Akira was getting a bit worried until he noticed that on his bed there was a second person, Haru Okumura, his girlfriend that was one year older than him, with curly chin length auburn hair, she was wearing a slightly puffed gray coat with a wool collar and a pink skirt, as well as white leggings and red shoes on her feet.

"Nice to know he's dating someone." Ozpin said, "Though she looks to have lived a pampered life."

"Yep." Phoenix said, "Her father was the owner of a wealthy corporation and attempted to put her in an arranged marriage to boost his standing."

"How did she get out of it?" Weiss asked, eager to know how she could avoid this herself.

"Apparently her father never sent out paperwork to make it official." Phoenix said with a chuckle.

"Always get agreements in writing." Qrow said with a chuckle, "Then get about twenty copies."

"I hope my father overlooks something so simple." Weiss muttered.

"Seeing as she's not a van." Yang said, "I'm guessing she's Noir."

"She fits the theme." Jaune said shrugging.

Noticing there was someone missing from the group Akira looked around before he noticed a familiar schoolbag sitting next to his glasses, he unzipped it to reveal Morgana the cat/escape vehicle, Morgana was a black cat with a white mouth and white paws with a white tail tip. He wore nothing but a yellow collar.

"E-Escape vehicle?" Pyrrha asked, "Wait... That's..."

"That's Mona!?" Blake shouted, "H-how can a cat turn into a bus?"

"That is not a normal cat." Weiss deduced, "But he's so cute~" Weiss said as her eyes turned into hearts.

"You have a weakness to house pets don't you?" Yang asked, "First Zwei now Morgana?"

"Quiet you." Weiss snapped.

After seeing the rest of the group known as the Phantom Thieves of Heart in the same room, with a calming tinge of velvet blue in the area, Akira knew where he was.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room." Said the nasally and high pitched voice of the real Igor.

Turning to the source Akira saw Igor, a man with thin arms and legs wearing a black suit and white gloves, with a balding head and a mid length white hair near the back, the more noticeable features on his face was... well, the man's nose was almost as long as the man's whole hand. He was sitting at a square table in the middle of a small room ahead of me.

"Wah!" Ruby cried out lurching back, "Creepy old man!"

"Wha-ho-ho look at that nose." Yang said with a grin, "It's huge!"

"The guy looks old enough to fall over any minute." Raven said.

'Well he can't be as old as us.' Salem thought.

"It has been a while has it not Akira." Came the voice of a woman beside Igor, a woman with long platinum blonde hair and glowing yellow eyes, she was a little short, and wore a velvet blue dress with a blue frilled head band like one worn by french maids, and it had to half butterfly clips on each side of the band, in her hands was a massively thick tome.

"Big book." Blake thought aloud, "Wonder what's inside it?"

"She looks pretty young to be his caretaker." Glynda noted.

"She's less of a caretaker and more of an assistant." Phoenix said.

"Igor, Lavenza." Akira said nodding to the two.

"It is good to see you again Akira." Igor said, "Granted we have not really met too often considering the circumstances of your journey."

"I wonder what kind of journey that would be?" Salem mused silently.

"A crazy one I'll bet." Yang said chuckling.

"Before we continue, I believe it would be best if we woke your friends." Lavenza said as she lifted her book, 'Le Grimoire' before abruptly dropping it on the table with a loud slam.

Everyone, even Salem, jumped at the sound of the slamming book, though Blake winced in pain afterwards.

"Shit, sorry about that Blake." Phoenix said.

"Jeez that book must be heavy." Ruby said, "It could probably be considered a weapon."

"Her siblings actually used similar tome's AS weapons." Phoenix said, "Beat their opponent's half to death with them too."

"I don't know if I want to meet those siblings or not." Nora said.

"Gwah!" Ryuji cried out before the sound of a thud was heard, him falling out of the bed.

"Wha-!?" Ann cried out as she jerked upward.

Makoto and Yusuke woke up with nothing more than a gasp.

"I'm awake!" Futaba shouted as she lurched up.

"Akira!?" Haru cried out, clearly we know who she was dreaming about.

"MRRREEEOOWW!" Morgana cried out as he shot out of the bag.

The sound even made Akira jump, and he knew it was coming, Igor on the other hand gave no reaction, save for grabbing he table with his free hand to keep it from shaking too much.

"Well that Igor guy can certainly keep his cool." Qrow admitted.

"What the- Where are we?" Ryuji asked as he got up.

"You are in the Velvet Room, Phantom Thieves." Lavenza said as several chairs appeared in front to the table Igor sat at.

"Knew it." Ruby said grinning.

"I think we all figured that out." Jaune pointed out, only to get a raspberry from Ruby.

"Could what Akira summoned be related to this... Velvet Room?" Salem mused.

"Kinda." Phoenix said, "Only a Wild Card is usually permitted to enter the Velvet Room."

"Wait... is that the real Igor sitting there?" Ann asked as she took a seat.

"I can assure you I am the real Igor." Igor assured, "I have called you here as my master has asked for a favor."

"Your master?" Yusuke asked, "So you are not the master of this place then?"

"No, I am merely its caretaker." Igor said, "My master however has chosen to step back from the affairs of the Velvet Room for a time, not directly helping unless it is absolutely necessary."

"I wonder why that is?" Ozpin mused.

"Perhaps he feels he's done enough?" Ren asked.

"Not too sure really." Phoenix said shrugging.

"So why are we here then?" Akira asked.

"As I have said, my master has asked for a favor." Igor said as Lavenza set a map on the table, "Take a look at this map."

The group leaned into the map and looked at it closely.

"That's a map of Remnant." Weiss realized as she looked at the map.

"This ain't a map of Earth." Ryuji said flatly.

"Why would they ask if it's a map of dirt?" Jaune asked.

Nora's eyes widened as she jumped up, "OH!" Nora shouted, "They must be from a different world, one called Earth."

Raven rolled her eyes, "Please, that is completely-"

"True." Phoenix said interrupting Raven.

"What?" Everyone asked surprised.

"Yep." Phoenix said pulling a bag out from behind his seat, "There are a few differences between Earth and Remnant. For starters, there are no Faunus."

"There aren't?" Blake asked.

"Nope." Phoenix said, "Though I think that evolutionary trait came from the fact there are Grimm in Remnant and not Earth."

"Then Earth must be at peace." Salem scoffed.

This however got Phoenix to burst out laughing for a moment, "Oh far from it, without a common enemy Earth Humans turned their racist intent on skin color and half the world is constantly attacking the other half."

Ozpin sighed, the Grimm did Remnant as much good as harm it seemed... Only slightly though.

"Also, there is no Dust on Earth." Phoenix asked.

"That's impossible!" Weiss shouted standing up, "How have people on Earth survived without Dust?"

"We found alternative fuel." Phoenix said reaching into his bag, first pulling out a chunk of black rock, "Coal, which was burned in a firebox with water above it to produce steam power." Next he pulled out a small glass canister filled with a thick black liquid, "Oil, which was refined into Kerosene and Gasoline all of which are burned to produce power." Next he pulled out a small windmill, "We have also harnessed the forces of nature to power us, the wind." He pulled out a small solar pane, "The sun." Then he pulled out small model of the Hoover Dam, "Even the raging waters have become a source of our power."

"Humans sure are ingenious." Salem said surprised.

"According to a show on Earth known as Doctor Who." Phoenix said, "Humans are like galactic cockroaches... It's a pain in the ass to really get rid of us. We can't do something? Screw that we'll figure out how to do it. I mean with oil and science we've managed to reach our own moon. Which isn't broken by the way."

"What was the moon like?" Weiss asked intrigued.

"Well it had no air, so our astronaut's had to bring their own." Phoenix said, "And their suits had to be warm because there is no atmosphere to help contain the sun's heat. And no wind so if I were to go to the moon I could literally take a picture on Neil Armstrong's footprints, the first man to step on the moon and a fellow American."

"As much as I like this lesson on another world, may we return to the story?" Ozpin asked.

"These continents... two of them look similar to dragons" Yusuke said.

"I can see that actually." Ann said.

"This map." Igor said, "Is of a world known as Remnant, and humanity of that world is at risk of extinction."

"Oh no." Ozpin said under his breath.

"That's bad." Ruby said gulping.

"What?" Makoto asked, "What's going on there?"

Igor waved his hand over the map, changing it to form shadowy figures with glowing red eyes, "The Creatures of Grimm," Igor said, "Dark beings that are attracted to negative emotions, they've existed in Remnant for centuries and humanity has adapted to combat them, however that is not the case for too much longer."

"What do you mean?" Haru asked.

Igor closed his eyes, "The Grimm have a leader." He said waving his hand over the paper once again, changing it to the vague shape of a woman with pure red and black eyes, "She's become active, gathered enough pawns you could say, leading the Grimm as though they were an army. However that is only the tip of the problem, and why I have asked you instead of other groups of Persona users." Igor said waving his hand over the paper once again.

"Persona?" Ozpin whispered.

"So the Grimm have a queen?" Ruby asked.

"Well..." Phoenix said, "It is the best way to describe her at the moment really, people on Earth recently learned that she used to be human."

"What happened to turn her into the Grimm Queen?" Raven asked glancing at Salem ever so briefly.

"The Brothers, yes the ones from your creation myth, cursed her with immortality while she was in a moment of mental instability." Phoenix said, "The mortal mind was never meant for immortality so she went nuts looking for a way to die so she could return to her deceased loved one."

Salem held back the face of utter rage at the mention of the Brothers.

"Wow..." Ruby said, "I... I kind of feel sorry for her."

Salem blinked and turned to Ruby, 'She feels sorry for me?' Salem thought surprised.

"Yeah..." Jaune admitted, "I think they went too far with that curse."

'And they gave it to me with good intention.' Ozpin thought, 'The phases I went through...'

"Personally I've studied the stories of the Gods of different cultures and worlds..." Phoenix said, "A lot of gods come up with curses that turn around and bite them in the ass."

"The people of Remnant are divided into two distinct races." Lavenza said, "Humans and Faunus."

"Faunus?" Morgana asked hopping onto the table.

"Th-the cat..." Weiss stammered.

"I'm not drunk enough for this." Qrow said chugging his whole flask.

"Yes, beings that look human in every way, but with the addition of having a single animal trait on their bodies." Lavenza said, "I myself have not fully determined what classifications of animals are not among faunus, as there are so many variations."

"Is that how it is on Earth?" Blake asked.

"Kinda." Phoenix said, "With so many types of creatures on Earth we're still unsure about a few types of animals."

"Like which to be specific?" Weiss asked.

"Well." Phoenix said putting a hand to his chin, "We've got confirmation on Mammalians, Reptilians, Fish, Birds, and Arachnids. We can assume insects are out there so really the only thing we are missing are the more unique sea life such as Octopi and Clams, for example."

"Let's just continue before you make my brain hurt." Yang said.

Akira was the first to put the pieces together, "Faunus are treated poorly aren't they?" Akira asked.

"He's pretty smart." Pyrrha said.

"Top of his class." Phoenix said.

"Indeed." Igor said chuckling, "Rather astute of you to come to that conclusion, but yes, this internal strife has resulted in negativity that has truly rallied the Grimm faster than a single leader."

"This racism among the two races has not only attracted the Grimm," Lavenza continued, "But in turn it has also caused internal strife that has boiled into blatant terrorism."

"What!?" Ann shouted, "Terrorism!?"

"Are they really fighting each other rather than a common enemy?" Futaba asked incredulously.

"Pretty dumb on your account." Phoenix said.

"Yes." Ozpin sighed pinching the bridge of his nose, "It's something I've brought up several times but no one seems to care."

"Well that's just dumb." Ruby said pouting.

"Dumb, harsh, and true." Blake sighed slumping.

"We'll do what we can to help." Ren promised to Blake.

"We all will." Weiss said putting a hand on Blake's shoulder, "Once the White Fang are no longer violent extremists."

"Thanks." Blake said, knowing help from Weiss would be a great help on behalf of the faunus.

"Unfortunately yes." Igor said grimly, "And because of this the Grimm have grown even stronger." Igor sighed as Lavenza removed the paper, flicking it back into a map.

"There are figures in the Four Kingdoms of Remnant that have most of the blame for the rampant racisme pinned upon them." Lavenza said.

"So... you want us to change their hearts?" Akira asked.

"Say what?" Ruby asked.

"How can a bunch of thieves change someone's heart just like that?" Weiss asked, "Blackmail?"

"No." Phoenix said, "They weed out the twisted desires from your heart."

'I wonder how they do that.' Salem thought, believing this to be a powerful trait for one of her allies to have.

"Correct." Igor said, "Both sides of humanity can benefit much from a sudden stop in aggression from one or both sides. Furthermore by changing the hearts of one of the Grimm Queen's pawns you could sway the hand of fate further to the side of humanity."

"Wait, what about our lives here!?" Ryuji cried out.

"Do not worry." Igor said, "My master has already prepared for this. Should you choose to assist Remnant doppelgangers of yourselves shall be sent back to your home to live your lives as if this meeting never happened. They will be, on all accounts, no different than the real ones."

"Can we have a moment to think about this?" Yusuke asked.

"Of course you can." Igor said leaning back, "Take all the time you need."

The group of 8 pulled each other into a close huddle, a serious discussion flowing between them. On one hand, agreeing to this basically meant they'd be walking away from their lives here, and judging by how...well made...their doppelgangers will be, likely forever. But on the other hand...could they really leave an entire world to a fate of ruin by doing nothing?

"It's an issue of morals it seems." Raven said, "Enjoy the life you knew, or protect those of a world you don't know."

"It may sound like a simple thing." Ozpin said, "But it becomes much bigger when you are presented with it."

The discussion became more serious, but after a few moments they broke apart, looks of determination now on their faces.

"We'll help." Akira said, "But without the Metaverse we won't be able to do much about changing people's hearts."

Igor smiled, a mix of his usual expression and a hint of pride at their answer. "My master is already working on reforming the Metaverse for your use." Igor said, "And do not worry about being undefended in Remnant. Once you arrive you'll find that my master has already prepared several gifts for you."

"The Metaverse?" Salem mused in interest.

"Don't bother, your ass would likely never manage to step into it." Phoenix said.

"Why is that?" Ruby asked.

"You need a Persona." Phoenix said, "And lord knows it's hard to get one of those."

"What is a Persona?" Pyrrha asked.

"Next chapter." Phoenix said smirking under his helmet.

"Also, your Yen will be of no use to you in Remnant." Lavenza said holding out your hands, "May I see your credit cards?"

Everyone but Morgana quickly reached into their pockets and pulled out their wallets before pulling out several cards and handing them to Lavenza.

"Thank you." Lavenza said putting the cards into her tome and closing it, "You'll be transported to outside city walls, a fair distance away in fact. Once you arrive at the nearest city I will return these to use with currency that would be useful in Remnant."

"Wait, outside city walls?" Ryuji asked, "Are you just throwing us to the wolves here!?"

"Think about it for a moment you numbskull." Morgana snapped in annoyance. Even if things had gotten better between them over the years...Morgana still had a bit of a sharp tongue regarding Ryuji's moments of talking before thinking. "If we showed up in the middle of a city, how are we supposed to explain ourselves for showing up out of nowhere?!"

"Those two don't get along too well do they?" Ren asked.

"It's more of a Yang and Weiss relationship." Phoenix said.

"HEY!" The two in question asked.

Ryuji sat down at that, "Oh yeah, hadn't thought about that." He admitted.

"We may need to think of cover stories for when we get to the nearest city." Yusuke pointed out.

"Where will we arrive?" Haru asked.

"You'll be arriving in the frozen kingdom of Atlas." Igor said, "Furthermore among those gifts my master will have for you are heavier coats for the weather."

"Are you ready to go?" Lavenza asked.

Akira nodded, before the room faded into a blue light.

"That's it." Ruby said closing the book, the bookmark flashing into place moments before the book was closed and passed the book to Weiss.

"Why the hell am I still sober?" Qrow muttered as he refilled his flask.

[[]]

Well folks, that's the chapter.

I plan to release this chapter at the same time as the Chapter 2 Reading so you might want to check back in about an hour or so... Give some people time to read this first chapter.

Anyway I'll see you then.

Chapter Text

Hey guys, just a warning if you haven't checked within one hour.

I am posting 2 chapters of this today seeing as you guys have been waiting far too long for this, so if you haven't go and read the last chapter... I really am expecting to point people backwards though...

Anyway I hope you all really enjoy this chapter. I know I will.

[[]]

Opening the book from where Ruby left off, Weiss began to read.

[Remnant: Atlas snowfields]

Weiss groaned, "Ugh that could be anywhere..."

Yang looked over to Weiss with a raised eyebrow, "Why is that?"

Weiss took up a proud stance, "The Atlas snowfields is known to be eighty mile across when measuring shortest length between two of its sides." Weiss said.

"Yikes." Yang said looking away, "I would not want to be caught out there."

'And out there is where I learned immortality does not prevent me from getting sick.' Salem thought.

As their vision returned, Akira and his friends noticed several things.

One, there was a lot of snow around the area, as well as some trees to their left.

"No shit." Qrow said.

Two, Akira noticed they were in their Phantom Thieves attire. Akira was now more recognizable as Joker, Ryuji as Skull, Ann as Panther, Yusuke as Fox, Makoto as Queen, Futaba as Oracle, and Haru as Noir.

"Hey we guessed them all right!" Nora cheered.

"It wasn't that hard really." Ruby said, "I mean they all have traits we could find for each thief."

"Who cares? We were right." Nora said stubbornly.

Three, Morgana the cat slash Mona the mascot like cat was missing, instead there was someone else standing where Morgana once was.

The person was boy at the age of 16, three years younger than Akira. He had rather pale skin, with the entire upper half of his head being covered by a black mask that left his blue eyes revealed, as well as a couple of holes on top of his head for little black cat ears to poke out of. Around his neck was a yellow scarf, he also wore a black long sleeves shirt that was complemented by white gloves on his hands, separating his black pants from his legs was a black utility belt that had a pouch on both sides of his hips buttoned up front by two yellow buttons, on his feet he wore knee high white boots.

"Looks like Morgana's got a Faunus form." Blake said, "Though I would like to see more than half his face."

"Actually before this Morgana didn't have a human form." Phoenix said.

"He didn't?" Ozpin asked curiously.

"Nope, just a cute mascot form." Phoenix said, "You'll see it eventually."

"What the..." The boy asked in Morgana's high pitched voice.

"Morgana?" Ann asked in surprise.

"I'm... I'm HUMAN!" Morgana cheered throwing his fist up in the air and jumping into the air as well.

"Someone's excited." Yang joked.

"Hey you spend most of your existence thinking you're human and wanting to return to that form when you weren't." Phoenix said, "You're still gonna want to be human."

"He's got a point." Blake said.

"Perhaps this is one of the gifts Igor was talking about." Yusuke said putting a hand on his chin.

"I wouldn't exactly say you're human Morgana." Ryuji muttered.

"Huh?" Morgana asked suddenly stopping his cheering.

"That looks so cute." Futaba said as she walked up behind Morgan and began to scratch him just behind his cat ears.

"How come you don't let us do that Blake?" Yang asked pouting.

"I never explained it?" Blake asked.

"Not really." Ruby said.

"I never asked." Jaune said.

"I just stopped Nora from doing that." Ren said.

"Oh..." Blake said, her bow drooping from her ears bending it, "Sorry... Anyway with Faunus with ear traits scratching behind them like that is considered... Intimate."

The two teams took a minute to absorb that information except Ruby.

"Uh... What's intimate mean?" Ruby asked.

"When-" Yang started, only for Phoenix to cut her off.

"In love." Phoenix said, "Like, husband and wife in love... Or Wife and Wife, or Husband and Husband. I don't judge."

"Ooooooooh." Ruby said nodding, "Thanks."

"No problem." Phoenix said with a grin under his helmet.

"YAAaaaaa!" Morgana shouted in surprise to the sudden, though somewhat familiar feeling.

"So Morgana's a Faunus now." Haru said, remembering what Lavenza said. "I wonder if he can still turn into a cat," she mused.

"Guys, our outfits." Akira said suddenly.

"Huh?" Ryuji said looking at Akira, only to notice his Thieves attire, "Oh crap, codenames everyone!"

"Took them a moment to realize that didn't it?" Glynda asked.

"Well they are in the middle of the snow." Qrow said.

"And a new world." Pyrrha reminded.

"Fair point." Glynda conceded.

"Wha- Whoa what are we doing in these?" Panther asked looking at herself.

"Another of those gifts I'll bet." Mona said smiling, "This mean we can pull off heists in the real world now too."

"At least we have our weapons in case those Grimm show up." Queen said as she held up her fist, which were gripping a set of Tekko and threw a test punch to readjust herself to the weight of the weapon.

"Well." Yang said blinking, "She's a fist fighter too."

"Tekko aren't the same as Ember Celica Yang." Ruby pointed out.

"So?" Yang asked, "It's still punching."

Ruby just groaned, wanting to get into the specific differences between tekko and gauntlets, but not wanting to hold the story up.

"Where'd you find that?" Skull asked.

"In the snow." Queen said, hooking her tekko to her waist and reaching into the snow pile at her feet to pull out a long barreled revolver.

"That's got to have some kick to it." Ruby said looking at the revolver.

"Oh I know a revolver with a hell of a lot more kick." Phoenix said grinning, "I'll show you later though, when the time is appropriate."

Noir reached into the snow by her feet and pulled out a single bladed battle axe and a single shot grenade launcher from the snow before hooking the both of them to her back.

Panther dug through the snow unto she pulled up an SMG and a chain whip, giving the whip a crack before smirking at the fact she could still swing it.

Skull dug around through the snow until he pulled out a wooden bat that had barbed wire wrapped around it and nails running through it as well as a pump-action shotgun.

Fox reached into the snow and pulled out a sheathed katana as well as an assault rifle, strapping the latter to his back and holding the former by it's sheath.

Mona reached into the snow and dug around for a moment before pulling out a scimitar and a slingshot. Pulling a perfectly round stone from one of his pouches he took aim at a tree with the slingshot. A loud snap later and a small hole appeared in the tree, going three fourths of the way into the tree.

"That is one deadly slingshot." Jaune said gulping.

"That rubber must be pretty strong to launch a pellet that deep into a tree." Ruby noted.

"I'm pretty sure more than one person underestimated that thing and paid the price." Blake said, "Or at least more than one creature."

Joker didn't have to worry about searching for his weapons, he could feel them in his coat, just to make sure he pulled out a single edge knife of considerable size and a simple handgun.

"Hang on." Ruby said stopping Weiss, "Where are the cool Mecha-Shift weapons?"

"They haven't been built yet." Phoenix said, "Simple as that."

"Oh." Ruby said slouching, "Oh well."

"Well." Oracle said, "At least you guys are armed if we run across some Grimm."

"Yeah, and you can just zip out of the way so we don't have to worry about you." Skull said.

"So in other words Oracle has no offensive capabilities." Weiss determined, "So she must be pretty fast if they don't have to worry about her."

"Yep." Oracle said smirking, then she adjusted her mask before taking another look at Skull.

"Umm... You're creeping me out here Oracle." Skull said backing up a step.

"Why are you looking at Skull so intensely?" Noir asked.

"I can sense your ultimate Persona." Oracle said, "But I'm also sensing your original one."

"Huh?" Everyone asked.

"Okay, might as well explain this." Phoenix said, "Persona is the mask you wear to face hardships. However a Persona user can summon a manifestation of their Personality as a Persona to combat their foes, whatever they may be. Persona's typically have two stages. The Initial Persona is what a Persona user first summons, a reflections of their true selves really. Eventually when the Persona User has strengthened their resolves and heart it will evolve into an Ultimate Persona, which still represents their personality and is far stronger than their initial one."

"It's like a Semblance with their personality." Glynda said, "But unlike a Semblance its powered by their hearts."

"True." Phoenix said slightly nodding his head, "However a Persona doesn't need an Aura, you just have to accept who you really are."

"Wait, what?" Skull asked.

"It seems that we have access to both stages of our Persona's now." Fox said, "Another of those gifts I believe... This could actually prove beneficial."

"What do you mean?" Panther asked.

"Easy." Joker said, "If we have to fight in this world, you guys can fight using your initial Personas, making anyone who's out to get us think we're weaker than we really are."

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Weiss cried out, "Are you telling me that Arsene was just an Initial Persona!?"

"Yep." Phoenix said, "Although to be fair Akira, or Joker as I'll refer to him when he's got his mask on, is a cut above the average Persona User."

"How so?" Ozpin asked intrigued.

Phoenix just smiled and pulled out a deck of cards, "The Persona are all centered around the Tarot Cards, specifically the Major Arcana, from Zero to twenty two, from the Fool to the Aeon, though that last one if omitted every so often." Phoenix said, muttering that last on to himself, "A Persona's ability can be roughly determined by its Arcana."

"How so?" Ruby asked.

"Well a Persona of the Magician Arcana commonly excel at magic based attacks while a Persona of the Priestess Arcana excel's in healing based magic." Phoenix said, "But Joker is of the Fool Arcana, zero in the Tarot. And the number zero is perhaps one of the most powerful numbers."

"Why do you say that?" Salem asked.

"As Igor explained to previous Fools." Phoenix stated, "Zero is empty, but full of infinite possibility. In every great journey the hero starts out as a fool to the world, but as they explore and meet people they become something more, something beyond a fool."

"Every hero starts a fool..." Jaune said to himself.

"Joker's position as a fool grants him a unique power. The Wild Card." Phoenix said, "Joker can comfortably shift his personality to match his situation, and like his personality he can use more than just his Initial and Ultimate Persona, he can use hundreds of Persona."

"Hundreds!?" Salem shouted shocked, if she could figure out how much power one Persona held, she was sure to win if she got her own Persona user on her side.

"Now then, let's continue." Phoenix said glaring at Salem, a silent warning to stand down, to which the woman complied with.

"And then when we get into a fight with a tough opponent we can use their lack of information against them." Queen said, "Making them panic at the fact it's a new Persona we're using."

"And in turn they try to come up with a new battle plan thinking that the weaknesses of our original Persona's don't apply to the new ones." Mona said, "Then again, Joker can just change up the whole fight to swing into his favor anytime he wants."

"Persona's have weaknesses?" Ozpin asked in curiosity.

"Yeah." Phoenix said, "A Persona and their user share elemental weaknesses and resistances. And since Joker can change Persona's whenever he wants he can change his resistances and weaknesses whenever he so pleases."

"Is it even possible to beat him?" Raven asked.

"It is." Phoenix said, "Just because he can change his immunities doesn't make him invulnerable. Sometimes he'll have to change to a Persona not immune to something because the immune Persona can't deal enough damage."

"Interesting..." Raven mused, taking mental note should she run into a Persona user.

"Actually, we may need to get into a Palace or Mementos when Igor tells us we can go back into them." Oracle said, "I'm only sensing two persona's with Joker instead of the usual ten or twelve he keeps close on him."

"That just leaves me with Arsene for now then." Joker said.

"Not like that'll be much of a  hindrance ." Skull chuckle, "I mean we beat the crap out of a god. A fake god, but still."

"Say what?" Salem said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"They beat down a god?" Ozpin asked in shock.

"A fake god, which they killed." Phoenix reminded, "Granted he had the power OF a god, one who sought to subjugate the people of the world due to their suppressed desire to be subjugated."

"Hey I do NOT want to be subjugated thank you very much." Yang called out.

"But there are many civilians who, deep down, want it to be that way." Phoenix said, "Let others make all the decisions for them while they just go about their lives however they wish."

"Are there people really like that?" Ruby asked.

"There are." Phoenix said, "There are many who wish to hide in a fog of lies if it means living comfortably, and many who wonder what it would be like to simply die."

The room was stunned into silence, even Salem was silenced.

'Humans fight so hard to survive... But so many want to just lie down and die?' Salem thought.

"In fact, Persona Users have fought and slain gods who have manifested over these thoughts." Phoenix said.

Now more than ever Salem wanted one of these Persona Users on her side, if only to get revenge on the Brothers.

"Technically it was Joker who defeated Yaldabaoth." Fox said.

"Don't kill the mood." Skull deadpanned.

"Guys... I'm hearing something from those bushes." Mona said setting his sword on his shoulder and crouching into his combat stance.

"I'm getting readings." Oracle said taking position behind the rest of the Phantom Thieves, "They're dark, animalistic, and bloodthirsty. I think those are the Grimm."

From the tree line red eyes flashed into view, stepping from the tree's was a human sized werewolf shaped creature with thick black fur and bone-like plates on its body.

"Alright, those things are called 'Beowolves' and there are a lot of them." Oracle said gripping her mask, "Necronomicon!" Oracle shouted tearing off the mask, causing blue flames to cover her face.

"Now we get to see ALL the thieves in combat." Glynda noted.

"Oracle pulled her mask off right off the bat." Qrow noted, "That must be how they all summon their Persona's. Tearing off the masks that they use as their public image to reveal their true self."

"Now you're catching on." Phoenix said with a grin.

[Persona 5 OST: Will Power]

Appearing directly above Oracle in a flash of blue flames was Necronomicon, a green tinted UFO that had a gargoyle on top of it. A hatch directly under the Persona opened up, causing five tentacles to slid out and wrap around Oracles arms, legs, and waist before lifting her up inside of it, Oracles not struggling in the slightest and instead shifted into a more comfortable position.

"ALIEN ABDUCTION!" Nora and Yang shouted standing up and pointing at the screen.

Blake just blushed at the sight of the tentacles, as a proud reader of art (Smut) she's read some things.

"Her Persona is an alien ship?" Weiss asked in surprise at the form the Persona took.

"I get the feeling this is gonna be weird." Qrow said with a sigh, taking another drink.

"That still manages to unsettle me." Skull admitted before he turned to the Beowolves, which had now grown to a group of seven, "Let's go, Captain Kidd!" Skull shouted ripping his mask off.

Appearing in a burst of blue flames behind skull Captain Kidd, a Persona with a light blue shirt that showed it to be rather thin, on its chest were a pair of crossing swords with chains hanging from the guards of the cutlasses and anchors charms at the end of each chain, on its shoulders were black shoulder guards that attached to a black twin tailed coat that was tattered with a red interior, it's left hand was golden and clawed with a black cuff on the wrist, it's right hand had a similar cuff but instead of a hand there was a golden cannon. On its legs were a pair of thin black pants and similar boots, however what it stood on took was a pirates ship the same size at it, looking almost authentic save for the angry eyes and sharp toothed mouth painted on the bow of the ship.

"Pirate Persona!" Yang shouted, "That is awesome."

"Wonder what it specializes in." Qrow mused.

"Let 'em have it Captain!" Skull shouted pointing at the middle Grimm, "Assault Drive!"

Captain Kidd swung his ship around and toward the Beowolf that he pointed at, which was too shocked at the sight of the Persona, and was soon killed when Captain Kidd's cannon smashed into its face.

"Whoa, I forgot having a Persona use those moves takes a drain on my stamina." Skull said as his mask reformed from Captain Kidd vanishing.

"Huh?" Jaune said, "It looked like using his Persona hurt him."

"It kind of did." Phoenix said, "When a Persona uses a physical attack it drains your vitality, when it uses magic it's drains your spirit, basically you'll be either physically or mentally exhausted if you use your Persona too often when you aren't ready."

"So moderation is key when you've got a Persona." Weiss said with an understanding nod.

"More like training." Phoenix said, "The stronger you are to more you can use your Persona without getting too tired."

"Like a muscle." Yang said.

"Kind of." Phoenix said.

"Suck it up Skull." Mona said gripping his mask, "Come, Zorro!"

After Mona tore his mask off Zorro appeared, A towering figure with a massive chest covered by a black suit that also covered his massively muscular arms and black gloves, separating this massive upper body from it's lower was a belt marked by a buckle with a large silver 'Z', going lower it's legs were remarkably thin and covered by black pants and spur heeled black boots. In it's right hand was a normal sized rapier that looked to be too small for his hands, but was still held with ease. On his rather small head was a helmet that covered all but his large yellow eyes. On its back was a black cape.

"Talk about a barrel chest." Yang joked.

"A build like that is way too impractical for a weapon like that." Weiss said.

"Remember Weiss a Persona is based on one's mentality as well as personality." Phoenix said, "Two different people could have a Persona of the same name, but their mentalities could cause them to look different and have different skill sets."

"Got it." Weiss said nodding, pulling out her scroll to take notes.

"Heal him up Zorro, Diarama!" Mona commanded.

Zorro turned to Skull before swinging his rapier in a 'Z' shape, causing green energy to form around the thief and healed up what damage he self inflicted to attack.

"So Diarama is a healing spell." Weiss noted.

"Actually 'Dia' is the base of the healing spell, Dia heals light wounds, Diarama heals moderate wounds, both only affect one person at a time though." Phoenix said.

"So what if multiple people need healing?" Glynda asked.

"That is where the spell Media comes in, it will heal all allies." Phoenix said.

"Interesting." Ozpin mused.

"Thanks." Skull said.

"My turn." Fox said grabbing his mask, "Come, Goemon!"

With the mask torn off, Goemon appeared, a tall male figure wearing a blue robe with blue and white ropes on his shoulders tying off behind his back on his waist was a red sash held in place by red and white rope acting as a belt with two bells on it, on its feet were white tabi that were wearing a pair of geta with tall stilts on them. It's face was white and outlined light blue, with a black pompadour style of hair on it's head. In one of it's white hands was a japanese pipe large and long enough to be considered a sword, and yet was held like a in his hands, resting on a finger as if her were about to take a smoke.

"Well, that's eccentric." Weiss said, not sure what else to say, and honestly... Nobody else had anything better.

"Goemon, freeze them, Bufula!" Fox commanded.

Goemon held a hand forth as he raised his pipe, causing a burst of ice to freeze a Beowolf before shattering, killing the Grimm in an instant.

"That was just cold though." Yang said grinning, causing everyone to groan, even Salem.

'I can already tell I'm going to loathe that woman's puns.' Salem thought.

'Of all the quirks she could have gotten from Tai.' Raven groaned in thought.

"Let's go Johanna!" Queen shouted tearing her iron mask off while spinning and lifting a leg into the air.

With good reason too, as Johanna wasn't a humanoid figure floating above Makoto, but instead sat under her as a silver plated motorcycle that had a plate on the front wheel, and in front of the handles was what appeared to be a woman's face with her eyes closed and covered by a blue dome. When Makoto revved Johanna the standard revving sound could be heard, but it was also overlayed by a sound similar to vibrating glass.

"It's a motorcycle Persona!?" Yang shouted in shock.

"First of its kind." Phoenix said, "Imagine my surprise seeing the very first Persona created specifically to ride."

"She's got a ride whenever she wants." Nora said pouting, "No fair, I gotta find a bus and she just summons a motorcycle."

"Marakukaja!" Makato shouted as she revved Johanna once more and spun the Persona, this in turn caused a flash of purple energy to shoot up beneath her and the rest of the Phantom Thieves still on the ground, buffing the teams defense.

"Phoenix?" Salem asked.

"Okay so there are buffing spells and debuffing spells." Phoenix said, "Rakukaja boosts defense, Sukukaja boost agility, and Tarukaja boost attack power. But replace -Kaja with -Unda and those spells become debuffs on the enemy, lowering those stats."

"They can heal, they use magic, now they can manipulate their bodies and ours?" Pyrrha asked, "These Persona users are scary in a fight."

"Allow me." Noir said stepping forward and grabbing her mask, "Come Milady!" Noir commanded tearing off her mask.

Appearing behind the thief was Milady, a feminine figure wearing a black and pink Victorian style dress, with red and pink vertical striped puffs on the sleeves of the dress that extends to its elbows and was wearing pink gloves. The bottom of the dress was a pink color with golden trim around the dress, which had a golden lip on the center of the dress that made it vaguely resemble a smiling face. There were black and red curtain drapes around the dress underneath, a pink heart shaped frill around her waist with a red bow tied on the drapes and a knife next to on the center of the heart shaped frill. Milady also had no head, instead her face was represented by a pink mask inset with yellow eyes that was on a stick held by her right hand, she held a yellow and pink colored fan with black fur in her left hand.

"Even her Persona retains a hint of refinement." Weiss said smiling softly.

"Alright, Triple Down Milady!" Noir announced.

Milady's dress opened up down the middle, which revealed frightening metal contraption that looked like a jack-o-lanterns face, which the jaw of opened up and extended from it a missile, bazooka, and two gatling guns, before the gatling guns opened fire on the Grimm, shredding them in bullets as they tried to figure out just what was going on.

"HOLY-!" Weiss cried out as she slammed her back to the back of the couch.

"I think I found my favorite Persona..." Ruby said drooling.

"I know sometimes noble women keep weapons under their dress and all." Qrow said, "But that is just insane."

"Guys!" Oracle called to the the thieves from within the pocket dimension within Necronomicon, which had her floating in the middle of several holographic screen surrounding her in blackness, "These things are wolves right? Mammals? Lots of fur to keep warm. Burn them see if you get a reaction."

"I got it!" Panther shouted grabbing her mask, "Lets go Carmen!"

Tearing her mask off conjured her Persona, Carmen. A beautiful feminine figure with violet skin, and wearing a black corset decorated with deep red hearts running down the black sleeves, said corset however was left open at the top to reveal her featureless breasts that were only covered at the edges by black fishnet shoulder clothing, at her neck was a black choker. Her face was covered by a black panther mask with several spots the same color as her skin and was cigarette was seen in the Persona's mouth, she also had long black hair tied in two long tails. The lower part of her body was wearing a mostly red dress that was frilled with black and gold edges at the end of each layer, with a ring of roses at her waist acting like a belt, the Persona also wore a pair of high heeled black boots going to her calves that were decorated with dark red hearts and had pink toe tips with a line of red-orange going up the front of each legs. However under her right foot was a male shaped doll figure in a black suit with it's head locked in a pink heart shaped box with pink eyes and a circular barred opening at the mouth, the figure was on its hands and knee's as Carmen dug her foot into its upper back. At the neck of this figure was a long rose vine that was attached to another, identical figure that was being dangled in the air as Carmen held the vine that suspended it in the air.

"Good lord even her Persona is sexualized." Weiss said looking away.

Pyrrha made sure Jaune looked away while Nora covered Ren's eyes.

Qrow just chuckled, "We sure this girls not a secret dominatrix?" Qrow asked, only get slugged by Raven, followed by Glynda hitting him with another telekinetic blast.

"Carmen, Maragion!" Panther ordered.

Carmen swung the dangling male figure she held, causing bursts of fire to blast on the remaining Beowolves like fireworks, causing them to disintegrate in an instant.

"Nice, you found their Weakness." Oracle shouted, "Though I did have to guide you through it a bit... Hold on, there's one more, looks like a big one."

From the woods came a larger, more armored version of the Beowolves, this one being an Alpha Beowolf.

Joker grinned as he grabbed his mask, "Arsene!" Joker shouted tearing his mask off.

Arsene appeared to the Alpha, which stepped back in surprise of the Persona appearing and spreading its wings, "Cleave!" Joker commanded.

Arsene obliged and slashed it claws at the Alpha, hitting it with more strength than usual and causing the Grimm to jump from the force of the attack before falling to its side like a wounded wolf.

"They knocked it down." Raven said, "Not too often that happens, most of the time you can just stumble a Grimm without having to cripple a leg or two."

"Now the Phantom Thieves will unleash their most devastating attack on the Grimm." Phoenix said with a grin.

"It's down! Let 'em have it!" Oracle shouted as Arsene faded.

"All-out attack." Joker ordered as he smirked.

The world turned to a dark red as the seven thieves were left unaffected before leaping into the air. The scene then shifted to the silhouette of the Alpha, which had managed to get back up, and was currently being bombarded by attacks coming from seven unidentifiable black blurs darting in and out to attack the Grimm.

A flash filled the scene before Joker landed with his back turned to the Grimm, tightening one of his gloves before he tightened the second with a confident smirk on his face as a grey star with two bullet holes in it appeared in the background, followed by the Grimm spurting black blood from it's neck as Joker's eyes seemed to glow red in the scene

-The Shows over-

The room was silent as the attack let loose.

"Whoa." Jaune said, "The speed and agility needed to pull off darting attacks like that is insane."

"The All-Out attack." Phoenix said, "Starting in the game known as Persona 3, this is pretty much all the Persona users charging the enemy while they are on their rears. Granted before the Phantom Thieves took a stand the All-Out attacks were pretty much a dog pile off an attack in a cartoonish smoke cloud. Still the single most deadly attack a group of Persona users can do."

"How deadly?" Raven asked.

"Nothing can resist it." Phoenix said.

"Oh boy." Ruby said with a gulp.

[OST End]

"Show off." Skull joked.

"Like you all don't do similar." Oracle said as Necronomicon lowered her back to the ground before vanishing.

"He rubbed off on us." Panther said hooking her whip to her belt.

"I'd totally do that if I could." Yang said.

"And knowing Ruby she'd have us all do it." Weiss sighed.

"A flashy pose after the enemy is defeated for certain?" Jaune mused, "I wouldn't mind doing it."

"Only when you've made sure the enemy is down." Ren reminded.

"Might I suggest we start moving before we are ambushed again?" Fox pointed out.

"Good idea." Queen said, "Mona, do you think you can still-"

"Of course I can!" Mona shouted, "Watch."

With that Mona jumped remarkably high into the air, before coming back down in the form of a cat themed van.

"That is never going to look sane." Blake said.

"Hop in." Mona called out.

"I got the wheel." Queen said opening the driver side door and stepping in, "Don't worry, I'll drive calmly."

"It's not your driving I'm actually worried about at the moment." Skull said.

"Mona I hope you can do heating better than air conditioning." Panther said taking the passenger seat.

"Was his air conditioning that bad?" Ruby asked.

"Well it certainly didn't help they were in a desert." Phoenix said.

"Why were they in a desert?" Weiss asked.

"You'll see later." Phoenix said, "Though the fact there was a sweaty sexy girl with three guys in the back seat didn't help... Two of which openly oogled her."

"Ugh." Weiss groaned.

Credit to Akira though, where Ryuji looked like a monkey Akira managed to keep a poker face on while staring down her shirt.

"Hey I was doing my best!" Mona shouted.

"We'll be bunched together, we can share body heat." Oracle said stepping in, "Just don't give us any funny looks, Skull."

"Hey!" Skull shouted.

Joker and Noir were the last to step into the van, Joker letting Noir go first, "Thank you." Noir said as she stepped in, Joker following soon after.

"He is such a gentleman." Weiss said.

"Well you gotta treat your girlfriends right or you'll regret it." Qrow said.

"Does anyone know which way to go?" Fox asked.

"I can see a sign over there." Queen said pointing out the window, "Following it should take us to a place called... Atlas."

"The chapter ends there." Weiss said closing the book and passing it to Blake.

What Salem wanted to know at the moment was just how powerful these Persona users were. This was only a brief look at what they could do, she wanted to know their limits.

[[]]

And that's the second chapter folks, I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you in whatever I update next.

Also I just want to say... Joker for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate... YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! (Wow, amazing how a word doesn't look like a word when you've written it several times.)

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Well didn't I just make a liar out of myself.

Okay, this time I PROMISE to work on something other than Phantom Thieves after this, I mean you all love Phantom Thieves but I've got other stories you all like.

Anyway enjoy folks.

[[]]

Ozpin stared at the four pods Salem had brought him to.

"They're..." Ozpin started

"Our daughters." Salem finished giving Ozpin a glare, "Phoenix felt sorry for us, and somehow managed to get samples of their DNA and used that to clone their bodies and managed to get Death to put their souls back into them."

"And when they wake up?" Ozpin asked putting his hand on the pod holding his youngest daughter.

"That depends." Salem started, "Are we going to keep fighting? Because if we are they are staying with me, where the Grimm are the least likely to attack them." Ozpin raised his cane, only for Salem to push it down, "No, I won't be raising them to be a weapon against you, I cost myself the chance to be a mother once, and I'm not going to waste this second chance by making them weapons against you."

"Thank you." Ozpin said looking back at the pods, "Well, until the end of this session we have with Phoenix I ask that we put aside this conflict of ours."

Salem smirked at Ozpin and placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned up to his ear, "I couldn't agree more." She whispered into Ozpin's ear.

Ozpin repressed a shudder as the intercom came on, Phoenix's voice blasting from it, "Alright people, I've explained everything to the children so you may all return for the reading. Qrow stop trying to break into the liquor cabinet! Raven and Glynda stop butting heads! And Salem and Ozpin, let out that tension of yours later dammit."

[]

Pretty soon everyone returned to the room, Yang glaring at Raven as she took her seat.

One thing to notice that had definitely changed was that Jaune was comforting Pyrrha, by him making out with her.

"Glynda." Ozpin said smirking, the deputy headmistress grumbled as she reached into her pocket and threw a Lien card at Ozpin whom caught it with ease.

"What was that?" Salem asked.

"Every year at Beacon the staff and I place bets on who would end up dating who by the end of the year." Ozpin said, "Of course we aren't heartless about it, if one of the student's dies before the bet can be settled it is cancelled."

"The hell?" Raven asked looking at Ozpin.

"With all the issues student's cause the teachers we like to find ways of relief." Ozpin said, "Speaking of which, thank you Raven, you made me fifty Lien richer the day you actually returned Tai's feelings."

Qrow burst out laughing as Raven steamed.

"Now then... Where were we?" Phoenix asked.

"It was my turn." Yang said picking the book up from the table, giving Raven one last glare.

When the ripples of distortion faded the group had been changed into their Phantom Thieves attire, with Mona taking his Faunus form yet again.

"Man... I can't believe it's been so long since we last entered a Palace." Skull said looking at the other Thieves. "So, let's see what we're dealing with here."

Using that as a cue the Phantom Thieves all turned to where the Schnee Mansion once stood, however the Schnee Mansion wasn't there.

Instead there was a massive marble white castle with a single spire in the middle of it, however there were massive crystals of varying colors growing across the castle, and in between the Phantom Thieves and the castle was a large garden filled with tall hedges and white flowers.

"Whoa." Ruby, Jaune, and Nora said staring at the structure.

"You think he's compensating for something with that in his heart?" Qrow asked sarcastically.

"No." Raven said, "I think he's just trying to compensate in general."

"Excuse me!" Weiss called out, "This is NOT something I want to hear!"

"I think it is excessive." Blake pointed out, "Still, this is how he sees his own house?"

"Wait until you see the inside." Phoenix said.

"I'm getting Kamoshida vibes already." Panther said.

"Please don't let it be filled with lust related shit." Skull begged into the heavens.

"Was Kamoshida's Palace that bad?" Weiss asked.

"Oh yeah." Phoenix said, "Peoples minds are truly terrifying things."

"I know that." Ozpin muttered as Salem smirked.

"Considering what we know about Jacques I doubt his Palace would involve anything related to lust." Fox said.

"Fox, we hardly know anything about Jacques." Oracle said, "We're lucky we managed to figure out the keywords to his Palace."

"Speaking of his Palace, we should probably see if we can find a way in." Queen said gesturing to the large metal fence in front of them, with the gate marked by the Schnee symbol.

"Something tells me that isn't going to open for them." Pyrrha pointed out.

"Still it's got to have a weakness." Ren said, "Something to take advantage of. A man as prideful as that has to have lax mental protections."

"Joker, you see a way past this?" Mona asked as he pulled his sword out of seemingly nowhere.

That was one of the more useful things about the outfits, once they have their weapons the outfits can store them away so they don't have to keep carrying them. In truth they actually forgot the suits could do thanks to the fact they haven't actually used them in so long.

Of course Joker's outfit seemed to have bottomless pockets considering the masses of treasure and items he always seemed to carry with him when they went into a Palace or Mementos.

Looking around Joker noticed a statue of Jacques a fair distance from the fence.

Joker took a close look at the statue, though it was colorless Joker would now at least be able to identify the man. He had mid length hair that was combed back, along with moderately thick eyebrows, and a large mustache, and was wearing a business suit.

"He looks like an ass." Yang said.

"Hey!" Weiss snapped, "I mean it is true but still."

"Language Yang!" Ruby cried out.

"Wow, I can tell he's an ass just by looking at this thing." Skull snorted.

"He must think very highly of himself in his cognition has created a statue of him this far from the Palace itself." Noir said with a small frown.

"A little too highly of himself in my opinion." Glynda scoffed.

Joker however was looking at the base of the statue, noticing it was on uneven ground.

"What are you thinking about Joker?" Mona asked.

Instead of answering Joker smirked and walked over to the side of the statue, the part on the higher ground.

"Uh... what are you doing?" Skull asked.

Joker's answer came from him suddenly and sharply kicking the statue, right in the part that was Jacques's shin. This caused the statue to tip from the strength of the hit while it was already leaning and soon crashed into the fence, tearing down a part of it.

"Despite only being a mental perception of his world it is still subject to the laws of physics." Ozpin noted pushing his glasses up, "Something he exploited to make himself an entrance."

"A little noisy don't you think?" Blake asked as he ears attempted to fold down through her bow.

"Anything to get them caught in the real world better." Weiss scoffed, "If this is their entrance plan then they're going to be caught."

"That's one way to do it." Panther said surprised.

"I'm pretty sure that's not what the statue was meant for." Fox sighed slightly, not one to condone damage to artwork, even if it WAS a cognition, "Still, it gives us a way in I suppose."

"Let's go." Joker said jumping onto the statue, then into the garden itself.

[Persona 5 OST: King, Queen, and Slave.]

"Whoa." Yang said listening to the music, "Nice music."

Once the Phantom Thieves were in the garden the quickly ducked behind one of the tall hedges and Joker peeked around the corner.

He saw nothing but a fountain tipped by a snowflake, though the water seemed to be frozen. It was actually only a shell of ice allowing water inside to flow freely.

"Now that's actually nice to look at." Salem mused looking at the fountain, "I ought to make myself one."

Joker rolled out of the shadows, followed by his comrades, and made his way to the other side of the fountain and to the hedge wall on that side of the fountain and peeked around a gap in the fence.

What they saw was a Shadow standing in front of the gate to another fence around the mansion, this one having a large lock on it.

The Shadow was almost twice as tall as the average human, this one was wearing white armor on it's chest as well as armor on its arms and shoulders, it's gut was covered in black fabric and had pants of the same color, divided by a belt, it's boots were armored as well, on its head was a helmet that covered the upper part of its face and it's chin, leaving it's featureless black mouth in view, in it's right hand it was holding a collapsible police baton. Said chest armor was marked by a white snowflake outlined in black.

"So that's a Shadow." Salem noted looking at the creature.

"Is... Is it wearing the Atlesian Military Armor?" Pyrrha asked looking at the Shadow.

"It is." Weiss said, "Why are the Shadows dressed like the Atlesian Military?"

"Shadows are just like the Cognition itself." Phoenix said, "Each king varies from person to person, and thus the Shadows guarding their Palace change too."

Weiss's eyes widened at what Phoenix said, "Is it because of my sister?" She said to herself.

As soon as the group saw it the Shadow walked off, followed by them running up to the fence.

Joker lifted the lock to look at it, his lockpicks would be useless in opening it due to the fact that there was a snowflake shaped indentation on the lock instead of a keyhole, "We're going to need to find the key if we're getting inside." Joker said.

"Of course he has lockpicks." Weiss scoffed.

"Any self respecting person not aligned with the law has them." Raven said smirking.

"I've got a few myself." Blake said, causing Team RW_Y to look at her, "What? You know what I used to be."

"Right, sorry." Ruby apologized as Yang continued.

"That's a pain." Skull sighed, but shrugged. Nothing new there.

"I suggest we follow the Shadow we saw earlier." Fox said, "Considering he was by the gate when we saw him it is likely he has the key, if not it will lead us closer to someone with the key."

"Let's go everyone." Joker said running in the direction the Shadow went.

Running along the hedge wall Joker paused in front of a large vase filled with white roses.

A normal thief would think of it as valuable, but for the Phantom Thieves, things like this were like mini-treasure chests.

Activating his Third Eye ability, Joker's vision turned the world into a dark shade of blue, but the vase was glowing golden.

"Whoa." Qrow said looking at the screen, "Now that's a neat trick."

"An ability to detect little treasures hidden in plain sight." Raven said, "Might need to find some new hiding places."

"You think he'd be able to find Ruby's cookie stash?" Nora asked.

"Never!" Ruby cried out.

"Their hidden in your toolbox." Yang deadpanned, causing Ruby to gasp.

"How did you find out!?" Ruby cried out in panic.

"Blake saw you and told us." Yang said.

"Traitor!" Ruby shouted looking at Blake who just looked away... With an amused expression.

Smirking Joker swung his hand, partially open, into the vase and shattered it, sending rose petals flying.

Once he was done, he looked at his hand. In Jokers grip was a red crystal, normally that would be it, however…

"Fire Dust?" Weiss said surprised, "Inside my father's mind?"

"And it's as effective in the real world as it is in the cognition." Phoenix said.

"Well that's just great." Weiss sighed. Now the Thieves had another means as to stock up on Dust.

"Whoa." Oracle said looking at the crystal through her mask, "Joker, that crystal is full of fire energy."

"Wait, what?" Panther asked in surprise.

"So... it's like an Agi spell in a crystal?" Haru asked.

"Yep." Oracle said, "However it seems too stable to just throw it to cause the blast... I wonder if it needs a catalyst."

"Uh, we're losing the Shadow!" Mona called out, reminding them of the target.

"Mona's right, we'll figure it out later." Joker said putting the crystal in his pocket.

Just a bit further ahead they found the Shadow, which was walking into what appeared to be a garden shed.

"Cornered." Glynda said, "Not somewhere you'd want to be."

As if on cue, Salem lifted one of her legs and laid it on Ozpin's lap and leaned to the side, causing Ozpin to warm slightly.

"We got 'em cornered." Skull said with a grin.

"Is everyone ready?" Queen asked pulling out her tekko.

The group nodded, more than enough of a signal for Joker to kick open the door.

"Is... that a mining lift?" Panther asked looking inside the shed.

Apparently instead of gardening tools the shed was filled by only a wooden lift that went downward.

"Really?" Nora asked, "You corner the Shadow and it just disappears?"

"Yeah." Phoenix said, "It's never easy."

"Not really much choice of direction is there?" Oracle said, "Well, time to head on down below."

With that everyone stepped onto the lift as Joker pulled the wooden lever next to the entrance, causing the lift to shudder and lower.

[]

After a couple of minutes the lift stopped, leaving the group in a small cavern lit by old lanterns and having a metal grate over a large hole in the wall.

"Seems like some kind of overview." Blake said.

"But why does it exist?" Weiss asked.

"Where did the Shadow go?" Fox asked as Queen took a look through the grate.

This was followed by Queen gasping and taking a step back, "You...might want to check this out." Queen said.

Taking Queen's advice the Phantom Thieves walked to the grates and looked through, and slightly downward. This caused Oracle and Panther to gasp, Skull to growl in anger, and for Fox's, Mona's, and Jokers faces to twist into a scowl.

Down below there were dozens of figures walking around and working, all of them had animal traits on their bodies, which were dangerously thin, some held hammers, others shovels, others pickaxes, but all of them were chained around the ankle to one another.

"Those Cognition's... They're all faunus." Mona said in alarm.

Blake was outright hissing as Weiss starred at the screen in horror.

"How accurate is this to my father?" Weiss asked slowly, almost fearing the answer.

"About ninety nine point ninety nine percent." Phoenix said.

"And what about the point zero one percent?" Ren asked with a quirked eyebrow despite the horrifying sight before them.

"Margin for error." Phoenix said, "Point is this is almost an exact replica of what your father is like Weiss."

Weiss just stared silently at the screen.

"And they're being treated like a bunch of damned slaves." Skull growled, memories of the last Castle-like Palace they'd been to about 3 years ago coming to the forefront of his mind.

Before anyone else could speak up another door opened on the same level as the slaves.

Two Shadows identical to the one they saw earlier walked out, followed by a third figure.

This figure was wearing a white robes fitting that of a king, as well as a golden crown with a single white crystal embedded in the center, in its hand was a white scepter tipped by a white orb with a snowflake imprinted on it, under the robe a suit of chainmail glinted.

The figure that wore this attire was Jacques Schnee, or rather due to it's golden irises, Jacques's Shadow.

"That's a Shadow too?" Ruby asked.

"Yep." Phoenix said, "A Shadow is nothing more than suppressed human thoughts given form. But a Person's Shadow is the repressed thoughts and personality of a single person, the true self to be precise."

"So this is who my father truly is." Weiss said to herself.

"How goes the mining operation?" Shadow Jacques demanded to the nearest faunus, his voice echoed and slightly distorted.

"Y-Your highness." The male Faunus said, "W-we're trying our best, but we can only work so hard in these conditions."

Shadow Jacques said nothing as one of the Shadow's brought him a clipboard, "Hmm... this is acceptable, for today at least." Shadow Jacques said, "Tomorrow I expect more than this however."

"S-sir, we can't-" The Faunus started, only to be cut off when Shadow Jacques knocked him aside with his scepter.

"No excuses." Shadow Jacques said flatly before he turned around and left the mines.

"Blake." Weiss said slowly, "I take back everything I ever said in defense of my father."

"Um... Okay." Blake said, "I don't blame you seeing this."

"That man is despicable." Oracle finally said.

"He really is treating them as nothing more than slaves." Queen said.

"Geez, this is just like it was with Kamoshida." Skull said, "Though with ruthless workouts over this."

"Hey, who are you?" A distorted voice shouted, causing the group to turn around and see the Shadow they were following was standing behind them.

"Where the heck did he come from?" Nora asked.

"Where'd that Shadow go?" Skull asked, "And how did he sneak up on us like that?"

"Does it really matter?" Oracle said, "Just take it down and get the key."

Joker smirked at this and quickly leapt into the air, higher than most people were capable of, and landed on the Shadow's shoulder, his off hand grabbing the edge of the Shadow's faceplate.

"Okay, that was impressive." Raven said, "I'll give him credit where credit is due.

"What the-!?" The Shadow cried out, that's all it could get out before Joker tore it's helmet off, revealing that it had two glowing yellow eyes.

Joker jumped off the Shadow to rejoin his allies as the Shadow began to bend over backwards unnaturally before it burst into a pile of red and black goop.

"Ew..." Ruby and Nora said leaning back at the mass of goo.

"Are they all going to do that?" Jaune asked.

"Only when Joker unmasks them." Phoenix said.

Said goop then burst into a new figure.

First off, it was large, it had a white rounded head with black eyes and a wide smiling black mouth, it wore a tall, thin crown in it's head with white hair coming down it's head with three curls on each side, it wore a massive gold plate on it's chest with a lock in the middle of it, and several bolted latches on the lines where the plate connected to other plates, two pure white arms stood poked through the armor, one of them was holding a large scepter.

"What the..?" Pyrrha asked confused, "How did it become that?"

"Even I have no clue as to how it works." Phoenix said shrugging, "What the Shadows become do depend on their environment to a degree I'll admit but other than that it can be somewhat random."

"It's a King Frost." Queen said, "Ice and Bless attacks are useless against it."

"Carmen!" Panther shouted tearing off her mask, "Agilao!"

Panther's Persona appeared, and quickly let out the bursts of flames on the Shadow, hurting it, but not hitting a weakness as King Frost did not have a weakness to fire like it's weaker counterpart, Jack Frost, did.

King Frost lifted its scepter and swung it, forming a crystal of ice around Skull, which shattered soon after, leaving Skull slightly injured.

"Ow!" Skull cried out, "Man I'm outta it."

"After three years he probably is a little rusty." Qrow said.

Skull quickly reached for his mask, "Let's go Captain, Zionga!" Skull shouted tearing his mask off.

The pirate Persona appeared and aimed it's cannon at the King, firing off a bolt of lightning at the Shadow, electrocuting it harshly.

"Come Milady!" Noir announced tearing her mask of, "Psio!"

Noir's Persona appeared, swinging her fan out, creating orbs of brightly colored energy that converged on the King, injuring it with a psychokinetic strike.

"Arsene!" Joker shouted tearing his mask off, "Eiga!"

The First Persona of Joker appeared with a chuckle, conjuring a burst of black and red energy as he did, knocking the Shadow back.

"That is still creepy." Ruby said.

"Trust me, there is a creepier Persona." Phoenix said.

"W-What is it?" Jaune asked.

"It'll appear eventually." Phoenix said, "Though it will change your perception of little girls."

"Let me handle this." Panther said running up to Joker.

Joker nodded and stepped aside, allowing Panther to walk past him.

Panther put a hand to her mouth and chuckled, "On your knees!" Panther demanded putting her foot forward and slamming it on a raised rock, she then proceeded to swing her whip several times at King Frost, eliminating the Shadow.

Everyone was silent at Panther's action.

"Glyn I think she's out dommed you now." Qrow said, only to get straight up punched by Glynda.

"Nice going Panther." Oracle said.

As the Shadow dissolved Joker noticed a metal object shaped like a snowflake. "That must be the key." Joker said picking up the object.

"Man, I forgot how scary Panther can be when she's got that whip." Skull said.

"I don't think you should say that when you're in range of said whip, Skull." Mona said as he noticed Panther's glare.

"I've suddenly developed a slight fear of whip users." Jaune said, Pyrrha making sure to keep close to him.

"Same." Nora said clutching Ren tightly.

"Let's head back to the gate." Queen said redirecting the attention of the team to Joker.

"Right, let's go." Joker said walking to the lift.

[]

The group had returned to the gate without incident and Joker calmly set the key into the slot, which flashed white, followed by the metal gate swinging open.

"Alright!" Skull cheered.

"Now we need a way into the castle itself." Queen said.

"How about that open window?" Oracle asked pointing through the bars at an open window just to the side of the castle doors.

"Robbed cause he left the window open." Qrow chuckled, "Easiest mistake ever."

"And probably the simplest way to get robbed." Raven said in amusement.

"I'm really getting Deja vu now." Panther said looking at the window.

Joker was the first to climb into the window, already ahead of the others.

"Hey! Wait for us!" Mona called out running toward Joker.

Inside they found themselves in a storage room, which really only had a few crates marked by a white snowflake symbol.

"Geez that mark is everywhere here." Skull said looking at a crate.

"Perhaps it's Jacques's logo." Fox said.

"No it's the Schnee family logo." Weiss said, "Not that my father deserves to be associated with that symbol."

"You're getting a little salty there Ice Queen." Yang teased.

"Not now brute." Weiss snapped.

"We'll find out when we get to the real world." Oracle said, "I can sense a Safe Room just a bit further ahead though."

"Let's mark down the location of that Safe Room, then we'll leave." Joker said opening the door, peeking around a bit to see if there were any Shadows.

There were none, so he motioned for Oracle to follow him out.

"This room." Oracle said opening the door on the other side of the thin hall, which had a white carpet on the floor and a few tables every so often.

Opening the door to the safe room, the Phantom Thieves looked around the room.

At first it appeared to be a guest room, occupied by a large white table with two white couches in the middle on a shiny floor that had a snowflake printed on it, along with a thin table lined with flower pots on the back wall.

However there was a ripple of distortion that flowed through the room, making the guest room fade for a moment to reveal a much less overly pristine room with a single bed, a wardrobe that was open to reveal a white shirt and black vest like that of a butlers, and a small table at the side of the room.

"That's Klein's room." Weiss said in realization.

"Who's Klein?" Nora asked.

"My butler." Weiss said, "He's been more of a father to me than my actual father."

"I wanna meet this guy." Yang said.

"I'm pretty sure you all would like to meet him." Weiss said with a smile, "There's aren't many people who can make Winter feel like a child."

"Now I really want to meet this guy." Yang said.

The distortion faded away soon after again to show the guest room once again.

"Alright, let's take a moment to rest, then we're leaving." Joker said, "We've got our entry route, now let's learn more about our situation on Remnant."

"You got it." Skull said with a firm nod.

[]

[OST- P5: Victory]

"Okay this is good too." Ruby said enjoying the music.

[[Infiltration Log]]

-New- [Infiltrated Castle Gardens]

-New- [Obtained Front Gate Key]

-New- [Infiltrated Castle]

-New- [Found a Safe Room]

[OST end]

"So this is something only we see?" Blake asked.

"Yep." Phoenix said, "A little progress bar to see how far the Thieves have come and how long the Palace is."

"Have you ever seen the whole thing filled out in one go?" Ruby asked.

"I have and it's a wonderful feeling." Phoenix said.

[]

"Alright so I'm gonna be here for a while looking up information." Futaba said as she sat on her bed with her Scroll in hand, "You guys got any ideas of what to do while you wait?"

"I'm going to see if I can find us the things we need so Akira can start making us some coffee." Haru said.

"I'm heading grocery shopping with Makoto and Ryuji." Ann said.

"Why am I coming?" Ryuji moaned.

"We'll need help carrying the bags." Makoto said simply.

"I hate that excuse." Jaune groaned as he rubbed his arms.

"I'll never use that excuse then unless I really need it okay?" Pyrrha said.

"Thanks." Jaune said giving Pyrrha a quick kiss.

"I'm going to look around Atlas for the time." Yusuke said, "Perhaps I'll feel inspired to paint something new by looking around at a new environment."

"Morgana and I are going to follow Yusuke." Akira said, "See if I can keep him from unsettling the locals."

"Even after all this time Yusuke is still socially awkward." Morgana sighed.

[]

"This is depressing." Yusuke said as he looked around the central of Atlas's shopping centers through his finger's which were positioned so it were as if he were looking through a frame.

The building were tall and mostly colorless, and the snow on top wasn't helping in the least, he noticed several buildings in the area that sold something called Dust.

"Jeez." Yang said looking around, "This isn't much of a sight seeing place is it?"

"It's got it's high points." Weiss said.

"That most of us can't really afford to reach." Qrow pointed out.

"True..." Weiss sighed.

Akira figured it was not the kind of Dust he found in Leblanc's attic when he first moved in.

On the tallest building Akira noticed there was a holographic T.V. showing an ad for a cereal called, 'Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes'.

"Oh wow." Jaune said, "What are the odds?"

"Oh I hated that ad." Pyrrha sighed, "I did only one ad for Pumpkin Pete's and I hated it, I couldn't find anyway to feel natural about it."

The few people that were around the area however irked Akira, and by extension, Yusuke and Morgana. They were all people who acted high and mighty, he even saw some people push down other's who didn't look all the much more than financially average.

"Ugh." Morgana grumbled, "A bunch of stuck up rich folks live in Atlas don't they? Wonder how they'll all react to Jacques getting 'robbed'."

"Yes, the people are a depressing sight." Yusuke said lowering his hands, "However I'd also have to say this place isn't all that inspiring to begin with. All I can see around here is brick and snow, not much of an inspiring scene to paint. Shame really, you would think with the type of people we've seen so far there would be a bit more variety..."

"He does have a point." Ozpin said.

"You're a painter?" A new voice asked, a young woman's voice to be precise.

"Hmm?" Yusuke hummed as he turned to face the newcomer.

The woman who spoke to them was a pale skinned woman with bright blue eyes and snow white hair tied in an off-center ponytail. She was wearing a thigh-length strapless dress with faint color gradation from white to pale blue at the hem, a small piece of black lace sat at the front of her neckline and the hem of the dress is scalloped and stitched to resemble snowflakes, with layers of white tulle under her combat skirt, over the dress was a bell sleeved bolero with the same color gradation as her dress from shoulder to wrist and reached down to just below her ribcage, the inside was lined in red and finished with a ruffled collar.

"Hey look Weiss it's you." Yang teased nudging Weiss.

"Yes Yang, I can see that." Weiss sighed.

"He is." Akira said, "Mind telling us who you are though?"

The woman looked at Akira as if he had grown an extra head, "I am Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust company." The woman introduced, "Now I believe I asked a question."

"Oh right, this you back when you had that stick up your-" Yang started.

"Don't start Yang." Weiss snapped, "Just read I don't like seeing myself this way."

"Man she's as stuck up as- Wait did she say her name was Schnee?" Morgana asked hiding in Akira's bag, barely looking through the closed zipper, "Yusuke, do what she says, we might be able to get something useful out of this."

"Forgive us miss Schnee." Yusuke said, "We've live rather solitary lives with our friends for a while, as for your question, yes, I do paint."

"How good are you?" Weiss asked crossing her arms.

"I... don't really have any of my work with me at the moment." Yusuke admitted, "If I had-"

"Here's a piece of his titled 'Desire and Hope'." Akira said holding out his Scroll, thankful that Lavenza had transferred his pictures to the Scroll from his Phone.

Weiss took the scroll and looked at the painting that it was a picture of, "You painted this?" Weiss asked.

The image appeared on screen and caused everyone to look at it.

"It's magnificent." Glynda said with a small gasp at the painting.

"I love it." Weiss said with a smile, "Can I get an image to hang on my wall?"

"Later." Phoenix said.

"I don't get art." Ruby deadpanned.

"Me neither." Jaune said, with everyone else agreeing with him.

"Indeed." Yusuke said, "An improvement over a previous painting simply entitle 'Desire', and far better than it as well."

Weiss handed the Scroll back to Akira as she put a hand to her chin, "Do you do portraits?" Weiss asked.

Yusuke blinked, "It has been some time since I last attempted a portrait." Yusuke mused, "What do you think Akira?"

Akira looked over to Yusuke and had only one thing to say. "No nudes." Akira said.

This caused Yang and Nora to burst out laughing at the comment.

"What!?" Weiss shrieked, "Why in the world would he say that!?"

"Akira doesn't let people live things down." Phoenix said, "And Yusuke here tried to convince Ann to pose for a nude painting."

"How did that go?" Qrow asked.

Phoenix just pressed the remote and an image of Ann appeared, dressed in so many clothes that she looked like a marshmallow.

"Oh my sides!" Yang cried out as she fell off her chair laughing, Ruby, Nora, and Qrow doing the same.

"She- She really didn't want that painting to happen." Raven said trying and failing not to laugh.

It took several minutes for everyone to stop laughing and once that had happened Yang picked back up where she left off.

"What!?" Weiss shouted.

"I've learned my lesson with Ann," Yusuke said, "I'd only do a nude portrait of her if she wishes."

Weiss simply stammered for a minute before finding her voice, "N-no! No nudes." Weiss said flatly.

"So you simply wish for me to paint you as you are." Yusuke said, then began to look at her from head to toe, "Your palette lacks a large variety of color... Yet that's more than I can say about Atlas. Very well, though I ask that my friend comes with me."

"And why should I?" Weiss asked, "Why would you need-"

"Yusuke grew up isolated from almost everyone." Akira said, "As such he's a little socially awkward, one of us normally sticks by him to clear up any misunderstanding he causes."

"I can believe that." Weiss said.

Weiss nodded at Akira's reasoning, "Very well, follow me." Weiss said, "And, Yusuke right? You'll only get paid when I see the finished work."

"Fair enough, you need to see that it truly was me that painted 'Desire and Hope'." Yusuke said, "There is no reason to spend money on a false painter."

And with that, the Schnee heiress and three Phantom Thieves made their way to the Schnee mansion.

"That it." Yang said closing the book.

"So Akira and Yusuke are heading right into the lion's den to paint a picture of Weiss." Pyrrha said, "What do you think they'll dig up there?"

"No idea." Jaune said as he stood up to take the book from Yang.

Meanwhile, Ozpin failed to notice a mischievous glint in Salem's eyes.

[[]]

Well folks, that's the chapter.

I'll see you all another day for another story.

Chapter Text

I hate the CU. That is all.

Anyway that opening scene I created for this story will show up in the chapter it was supposed to show up in once I reach that point in the Reading, might even add the Full Phantom Thieves to this site soon if I feel like it, that way you can see the intro there too, seeing as ao3 is much more lax in it's rules that FF and is lacking some assholes.

Anyway enjoy.

[[]]

Ozpin shuffled slightly as Salem was seemingly closer to him that before.

"Ready?" Jaune asked everyone.

"Yes." Salem said smirking.

[Schnee family mansion]

"You can speak now miss Schnee, it shouldn't affect the painting too much now." Yusuke said after a while of painting on his easel.

The room Akira, Yusuke, and Morgana found themselves in was a rather empty, white marble room of the Schnee mansion, one obviously designed for portrait painting to have as little distractions as possible. The only things in the room were the chairs everyone sat on, the easel, and a table with paints on it.

"Should I be worried or impressed you've already reached that point?" Weiss asked.

"That makes me wonder how long they've been there." Weiss mused.

"It can't be too long? Can it?" Nora asked.

"Painting is a long process Miss Valkyrie." Ozpin said, remember one of hobbies he took up in one of his former lives, he actually has several of his own painting in his home.

"Impressed." Akira said, "Yusuke's a good artist."

"He is the one who replicates the Skill Cards for you to use after all, Akira." Morgana said.

"Skill Cards?" Ruby asked tilting her head.

Phoenix cleared his throat, "Item's Joker can add in when he fuses new Persona's, giving them abilities they wouldn't normally have." Phoenix said, "Often giving him a needed edge in a fight."

"Like giving a Persona that's immune to an element a way to combat enemies that are resistant to what said Persona focuses on right?" Jaune asked.

"Correct." Phoenix said nodding.

Weiss didn't hear Mogana speak, instead all she heard was a cat meowing, making her blink.

"Did a cat sneak in here?" Weiss asked, a slight hint of hope in her voice.

Yang looked to Weiss with a raised eyebrow.

"I wanted a pet when I was little okay?" Weiss relented, "But father didn't want anything to stink up the mansion."

"Prick." Qrow muttered, "Zwei was a handful at some point in his life, but it was worth it in the end."

"Yeah." Nora said grinning, "He's an Aura fueled fireball Corgi!"

Salem looked at Ruby and Yang in surprise, 'And I thought I had crazy idea's.' Salem thought, 'Not many beat Tyrian but that's close.'

Raven also looked at Yang with surprise, ‘I’m beginning to think leaving Yang with Tai wasn’t the best idea.’

"Do you like cats?" Akira asked as he reached into his bag, past Morgana, and pulled out a book titled 'The Gentleman Thief', a book he found in Shujin Academy's library and decided to buy a copy for himself. It was a book about Arsene Lupin, the literary man to which his Persona was based on.

"I like small pets of many kinds really." Weiss said, "Mostly cats and dogs though."

"Feel free to turn your head now." Yusuke said, "I'm past that point."

Weiss blinked in surprise at how fast Yusuke was painting, and in turn was getting a bit worried about his art skills.

"Don't worry." Akira said, "He's a bit socially awkward, but his painting skills aren't to be denied."

Weiss turned her head slightly to Akira, "I'll take your word for it." Weiss said coldly, then she noticed the title of the book he was reading, "Your reading about a thief?" she asked, a hint of distaste in her voice.

"Wow Weiss, you've really got a vendetta against thieves." Jaune noted.

"I will admit I've been a bit stiff on the subject." Weiss admitted, "The number of attempted break ins at the mansion doesn't help matters."

"Weiss, you need to keep an open mind about people's motives." Pyrrha said.

"I'm working on it." Weiss sighed.

"I've always preferred crime novels." Akira said, "Especially the ones where the protagonist is the thief, helps you understand their plight."

Weiss rolled her eyes, "It doesn't matter what their plight is, criminals should be persecuted nonetheless." Weiss sighed.

Akira and Yusuke winced ever so slightly at Weiss's words, though she didn't notice them as her eyes were closed.

"Still though..." Weiss sighed, "I can't deny that sometimes criminals that target other criminals get things done much more efficiently that the police, military, and most Huntsmen."

"I will at least admit that." Weiss said, "It may be by other criminals hands but it is the removal of criminals."

"Wonder if Torchwick ever had someone try that on him?" Ruby mused.

"He did." Qrow pointed out, "Didn't end well."

"It's because the only things that bind a thief are their own codes." Akira said flipping a page of his novel, "Not to mention that legal officials are regrettably easily bribed to look away."

Weiss seemed to look a bit more frustrated at that, "That's the most infuriating part." Weiss grumbled, "Every time a criminal has avoided being captured by a hair it feels more like they paid for an escape instead of actually escaping."

"And then there are the people with political power giving them even more sway over the police." Morgana grumbled.

"Like my father." Weiss grumbled.

This made Akira wonder, just how much power does Jacques Schnee have?

"Done." Yusuke said carefully turning the easel around, "What do you think?"

Weiss's eyes nearly bulged out in shock, with how fast Yusuke seemed to be painting she was expecting nothing much of a painting. Instead she was staring at a painting of herself that she could honestly mistake for the real person if she wasn't actually the real Weiss.

"That's incredible." Salem breathed looking at the painting, intentionally placing her hand atop Ozpin's, causing him to jump.

"Even I wasn't that good at that age." Ozpin muttered, causing Salem to look at him with a smirk.

"You used to paint?" Ren asked looking back at Ozpin.

"When I was younger." Ozpin said, "It was a hobby I took up to relax."

Salem leaned over to Ozpin and began to whisper directly into his ear, "Have you ever painted me?" Salem whispered.

"The you from before you took a dive in that pool." Ozpin admitted, to which Salem raised an eyebrow at, "Would have been a bit too suspicious if I painted a Grimm-like woman." This got Salem to nod in understanding.

"I..." Weiss said speechless, "I never should have doubted you."

It was then that Morgana poked his head out of Akira's bag, "I wanna see it!" He called out.

Once again Weiss heard a meow, and when she turned her head to the source she gasped and smiled, "Aww... it's such a cutie." Weiss cooed petting the cat, "What's his name?"

Yang just smirked at Weiss at this scene.

"Knock it off Yang." Ruby insisted, causing Yang to simply huff.

"His name's Morgana." Akira said as said cat shook his head around.

Weiss nodded before pulling herself away from the cat, "Well, the painting is beyond suitable, I'd say you've more than earned your payment, and a bonus." Weiss said pulling out her wallet and pulling out a few notes of Lien, then handing the money, as well as a small pass, "Eleven thousand Lien, as well as a pass to any of my next recitals that are open for you to bring as many guest as you wish."

"Wow." Jaune said, "That's pretty generous of you."

"It's fair payment for the quality of the work." Weiss said, "I wish I had that in my room back at the mansion though."

"I'll see about you getting a copy." Phoenix said.

"Thank you." Yusuke said, "I admit I haven't had much interest in the musical arts, but I do suppose it could be enjoyable nonetheless."

It was at that moment the door opened, revealing none other than Jacques Schnee who had decided to check in, with a face just like his Shadow, but wearing a white business suit instead of a king's outfit.

"I thought I heard others talking." Jacques said firmly, "Weiss, who are they?"

"Allow me to introduce myself, mister Schnee." Yusuke said, "My name is Yusuke Kitagawa, I'm an artist, one that your daughter hired to paint a portrait of herself."

"And that man?" Jacques asked.

"Akira Kurusu." Akira said standing up, putting his book away, "I'm Yusuke's friend, and Yusuke is known among our friends for his social awkwardness due to how he was raised a bit on the isolated side. As such, one of us tries to stick with him to defuse situations that could be misinterpreted."

Jacques nodded, "Understandable then." He said, "Now, what of this portrait of my daughter?"

"Still sounds like an ass." Qrow muttered.

"I really do not like that man." Ozpin sighed, "Admittedly I try my hardest not to purchase from the SDC, but he keeps putting the people I order from out of business."

Salem simply glared at the man, 'He produces so much negativity from humans and faunus... As much as I want to kill him he does more for me being alive. When it's time to kill him thought I will make it slow.' Salem thought.

"Right here father." Weiss said holding her hands out to the painting, "I've already paid him for his services."

Jacques walked past Yusuke and Weiss and took a close look at the painting, "If this is the work you are capable of mister Kitagawa I would like to see what else you are capable of painting in the future."

"Thank you sir." Yusuke said a little flatly, but he was careful enough not to let slip his personal feelings for the man. The last thing they needed was for him to get suspicious, however unlikely that would be. "However, I'm afraid I must be going now. Our friend agreed to meet up soon and I'd rather not be late."

"Very well." Jacques said turning to leave to room, "I myself have to prepare for my speech, SDC policies are going to have a change and I'd like to determine the words to use that would cause the least uproar."

"This didn't happen." Weiss mused, "Father never had a speech or changed SDC policy for five years now."

"You ought to consider yourselves lucky then." Phoenix said, "This was a pretty cruel change masked up to look like a good thing."

Weiss stared at her father's image, "You wouldn't happen to have copies of my father's company policy would you?" Weiss asked.

"I'll even set out the notebook and pens." Phoenix said.

Akira pounced on this chance to get information, "When is this speech?"

"On July fifteenth." Jacques said, "Fourteen days from now. The change in policies will affect all the workers in the SDC mines."

"Two weeks. Seems like a strict time limit to me." Qrow muttered.

"The Phantom Thieves have worked on tough time limits before." Phoenix said, "They've got time to plan."

"That's can't be good for the Faunus." Morgana said as Jacques left the room.

Akira nodded subtly at Yusuke while Weiss ended up taking a picture of the portrait to send to her sister.

[Hideout (Apartment)]

Once everyone had gathered back Futaba began to go through all the information she had collected about Remnant.

Aura being like a force field to protect their bodies, generated from their souls, Semblances born of Aura granting people a super-power of some kind, the infinitely useful resource known as Dust, capable of being ammo and fuel, Huntsmen and Huntresses that eliminate the Grimm, history of the four kingdoms, and of course as much public information of the SDC as Futaba could find.

"We need a computer expert." Yang muttered.

"I'm... Kinda good with computers." Jaune muttered.

"We're are lacking a tech specialist." Ren mused.

"Well usually when a Huntsman is going after criminals were aren't doing things the quiet way." Qrow muttered.

"Well we happen to have gained some information of our own today." Yusuke said, "Information pertaining to Jacques Schnee."

"What exactly are we talking about?" Ryuji asked as Morgana walked into the middle of the table they had all gathered around.

"A deadline." Morgana said, "On our walk we encountered Weiss Schnee, who commissioned Yusuke to paint a portrait of her."

"Did you get paid?" Ryuji asked.

"His priorities are a bit skewed at the moment." Glynda noted.

“I don’t think so.” Raven muttered, “I’m not doing something without getting paid for it outside of the clan.”

"Now is not the time for that." Ann snapped, "What about the deadline?"

"It turns out Jacques plans to announce new SDC policies on the fifteenth." Akira said leaning forward, "He said it would affect the workers of SDC mines."

"With what we saw in Jacques's Palace, I don't want to know what that would mean for the Faunus." Haru said glumly.

"Nothing good that's for sure." Makoto said with a frown.

"Then it's settled." Akira said, "We'll be sending Jacques a Calling card by the Thirteenth... However..."

"What's the issue?" Yang asked, "They got their target time, they've got the skills, what's the matter?"

"Politics." Qrow muttered, "Jacques has a lot of it because of the importance of the SDC and bribery."

"Ugh." Nora groaned, "Boooooring!"

"Politics." Salem huffed, "You would not believe how many times humanity nearly lost their lives because of political decisions. And now it's stopping some thieves from doing their jobs."

"On a small scale perhaps." Weiss said smirking, "But it depends on how large you go with it. Posters and the internet can only do so much, but if you can make enough noise people listen."

"Similar to the White Fang." Blake said with a sigh, "We made noise during protests, but when the White Fang turned to terrorism a lot more people listened, just not in the right way."

"What is it?" Ryuji asked.

"What we have is a bit of a similar case to Shido." Akira said, "Jacques Schnee has nearly monopolized the Dust Distribution market, giving him a lot of power, especially here in Atlas."

"No kidding." Futaba said with a sigh, "After all, the Kingdom of Atlas uses more Dust on a yearly rate than any other kingdom, especially in the military."

"About forty six percent if I recall." Ozpin said, mostly to himself, "And almost a third of that is just for heating."

"How do you know this stuff?" Qrow asked incredulously.

"I have a lot of spare time." Ozpin muttered.

"Plus... we're kinda unknown around Remnant at the moment." Ryuji said, nodding in understanding, "I mean if I was Jacques and someone delivered a calling card to me and I never heard of them before, I really wouldn't think much of it. Hell I'd probably just consider it a prank if nothing else."

"Which means we've got to make this calling card flashy enough to make us known across Remnant." Akira said, "And then when Jacques confesses on the day of his speech we'll be known enough that we can shake any other high standard political figures if we need to target them."

"You mean if we encounter another person like Shido." Ann said.

"I get it." Jaune said, "If they pull off their job with Jacques they won't need to pull off something that big anymore, the mere mention of their name will put people on their guard."

"Pretty smart I'll admit." Raven said, "But only if it works the first time, that is not a second chance tactic."

Akira nodded, "That's correct. But for now, I think we can call this meeting adjourned. There's still a lot we need to prepare first."

"Great, I'm starving." Ryuji said standing up and heading over to the food, along with the other Phantom Thieves, save for Akira and Futaba.

"Futaba, think you could help me with something?" Akira asked.

"Sure, what do you need?" Futaba asked with a nod.

"Think you can find a site that sells books on weapon construction?" Akira asked, "We're gonna need some new weapons. If we have to fight a Huntsman or Huntress we'll need to get on even ground with them before we start to use our Personas."

"So he's going to make their weapons!" Ruby shouted pointing at the screen, "Oh I can't wait to see them! I wonder how Morgana and Makoto's weapons will work."

"I actually would like to see how Akira makes Morgana's weapon." Blake mused, "He uses a sword and a slingshot, those two aren't conventional weapons to combine."

"Good idea." Futaba said in agreement, remembering some of the information she'd pulled up on the weapons of Remnant, specifically the 'mechashift' system that was very widely used. "If we have to keep switching weapons that'd buy some time for our opponent's to get some unwanted damage on us. I'll see what I can find."

"Good." Akira said, "Now all I'll need are some parts to build them and some other items as well, we're going to need some infiltration tools after all."

"That's that chapter." Jaune said passing the book toward Nora.

"Nora read!" Ruby shouted.

[[]]

My god that took too long to write.

Between my little sister acting spoiled, Amity Arena and the Cinder Costume (Never going for that 30 Fame wins again), and Fate Grand Order I've been pretty distracted from writing.

Anyway since my friend's list for Fate Grand Order is full I'll just stick with giving you my Amity Arena Academy, Terminal, to you all. It's a Mistrailian academy by the way so sorry if you can't join it.

Actually does anyone actually still play Amity Arena for longer than just grabbing the daily rewards anymore?

Anyway, I’m actually thinking about adding more people to this reading, what do you guys think, who would you like to see join this reading fic?

Until then, I'll see you with whatever I put up next.

Chapter Text

Sorry this took so long, but I have an important announcement to make after this chapter is over.

In not so important news I downloaded a game called Monster Super League onto my Phone a couple weeks ago and am unfortunately hooked, I've even gone and created my own Clan in the game named... Terminal.

Yeah I've re-used the last Clan name but Phoenix was taken.

anyway if you Wish to join Terminal, in either Amity Arena or Monster Super League then shoot me a PM and I'll do my best to add you. Fair warning, I've no idea how to run a clan so if anyone is willing to offer tips for me that would be great.

The only reason I actually bothered to make a clan was cause I was having issues joining a clan and then I just said F*ck it and just make one.

Anyway I hope you all enjoy this chapter of the reading.

[[]]

"Alright before we begin..." Phoenix said rubbing his hands together, "I say we introduce a couple more guests."

"Who?" Ruby asked tilting her head... Right before several puffs of smoke filled the room, dropping several people (And chairs) next to others.

"What the-?" Winter Schnee said as she looked around the room, "Where am I?"

"Winter!" Weiss cheered before abruptly hugging her sister.

"Weiss!?" Winter cried out.

"Oooooh... Right on my tail." Sun groaned as he stood up off the chair he had entered on.

"Sun?" Blake asked confused, then she looked on her lap and blinked, "Ilia?"

"Blake!?" Ilia cried out and threw herself off Blake

"Blake? Hey, where are we?" Sun asked confused.

"Penny!" Ruby cheered as she threw herself at her android companion.

"Ruby!" Penny cheered as she crushed Ruby in a hug, "It's sensational to see you again... Where are we?"

"Ruby? Yang?" Said a soft voice, causing both Ruby and Yang to turn their heads to the source.

"Mom?" Ruby asked as her silver eyes watered before breaking free of Penny's grasp and tackle hugging Summer Rose.

Ilia looked between Weiss and Blake and noticed the general lack of hostility between the two, "Blake." Ilia whispered, "Why are there two Schnee's here?"

"We were brought here together." Blake said, "Weiss is also my teammate and though she did start with some issues, she is generally not racist. Still a bit stuck up though."

"Hey!" Weiss cried out indignantly, then looked at Ilia, "You're a friend of Blake's?" Weiss asked, getting a nod from Ilia, "White Fang?" Ilia nodded again, "Whose ideals?"

That took Ilia for a loop, "Ghira's mostly..." Ilia said unsure.

"Then you're fine by me." Weiss said then pointed a finger at her, "However..."

'Here it comes.' Ilia thought as she cringed.

"When we have a moment I want to know if anyone in your family has been harmed due to SDC mining or... Branding." Weiss shuddered as she said that last word.

"Branding?" Winter asked horrified.

"Winter..." Weiss said as she hugged herself, "I've just recently found out just how much of a monster Father is."

"Umm... What's going on here?" Sun asked.

"Later." Weiss said coldly to Sun, "I'm not quite open to talking about it just yet."

"I thought you said she wasn't racist?" Ilia asked Blake noting the tone Weiss used.

"Weiss's world just shattered and Sun is constantly stealing things." Blake answered.

"Oh." Ilia muttered.

Summer hugged Ruby and Yang tightly, all three of them crying.

"You would not believe how much we all missed you Summer." Qrow said as he walked up, "Then again you probably would."

Summer's kind face narrowed in an instant and locked onto the Branwen twins, gently pushing Yang and Ruby away Summer walked up to Qrow and grabbed him by his shirt and pulled his face close... Then took a sniff of his breath.

"Qrow..." Summer asked softly, "Is that... 7 Year aged Vacuo Special I smell on your breath?"

"She's good." Salem whispered to Ozpin.

"Nnnnnoooooo-" Qrow said slowly.

"Probably." Yang said with a shrug.

Summer turned furious at Qrow, "Since when did you think it was a good idea to get drunk around my daughters!? Just because I got overwhelmed by Grimm doesn't mean you should be busting out the alcohol because of your depression, I don't care if your Semblance is Bad Luck! You do not do that!" Summer shouted.

"Yes ma'am." Qrow said stiffly, all while Raven was trying to sneak away.

"Hold it right there Raven!" Summer shouted as she seemingly teleported to Raven and grabbed her by the hair and pulled down.

"Ahhhh-ahhh-aahhhh!" Raven cried out in pain as Summer pulled gently enough not to rip her hair out, and Raven wouldn't fight too much and risk losing hair herself.

"I don't care WHAT obligations you have back in your little camp." Summer seethed, "You obligation as a MOTHER comes first and foremost! UNDERSTAND!?"

"Yes!" Raven shouted, "Completely!"

"Good." Summer said letting go of Raven's hair and returning to her sweet personality and turning back to Ruby and pulling her into a hug.

"Told you she was Super Mom." Yang said to Blake.

"You certainly did." Blake admitted, "I didn't quite expect that though."

Yang just shrugged, "Well dad did say that when Summer found out that Raven abandoned me she was a... Raven lunatic." Yang punned, "Eh? Eh?"

Summer's eye twitched slightly, "Tai isn't here is he?" Summer asked softly.

"Nope." Ruby said, "Dad got Yang addicted to bad puns though."

"I'm going to drive my foot where the sun doesn't shine next time I see him." Summer said, a menacing aura appearing around her despite the kindly smile on her face.

"She is terrifying." Jaune whispered to Pyrrha, who had to nod in agreement.

"Well now that we got the mushy good stuff out of the way..." Phoenix said rubbing his hands together, "Time to bring in the rage." He said as he snapped his fingers again.

This time two more figures appeared in a puff of smoke, Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan. With Roman landing on his face and Neo landing on Roman's back in a sitting position... Romans hat falling onto Neo's head a short while later.

"Ow!" Roman shouted, causing Neo to jump off his back, letting the master criminal stand up, "Where the hell am I?" He muttered before turning to see everyone in the reading group, "Oh... Hello." Roman said as Neo took a combat stance only to realize she didn't have her parasol.

"Good." Phoenix said, "Now I think I've got everyone I need."

"Why him though?" Weiss asked glaring at Roman.

"We're reading about thieves aren't we?" Phoenix asked raising an eyebrow under his helmet, "Why not get a great thief in for his opinion."

"Thank you." Roman said smirking, "But the term is 'Master Thief.' thank you very much."

"Sorry." Phoenix said, "You've yet to qualify for the Master Thief title."

"What?" Roman asked, "How come?"

"Later." Phoenix said, "Now, for you all to understand the basis of this story real quick... Who would like to explain?"

[Later]

Winter was horrified at what she had learned, Ilia was feeling sick at the thought of Jacques's Palace, Summer was infuriated at the elder Schnee, Penny was shocked as for Roman...

"Sheesh, and I thought bull boy was messed up." Roman muttered, then looked at Neo whom was trying to put Roman's hat back on his head, but couldn't quite reach as neither were sitting down, "Thank you Neo." Roman said bending down enough for her to put the hat on.

"Weiss, no offense but can I please pummel your father." Sun asked.

"Find a way to do it legally." Weiss said offhandedly, though Ilia now understood why Weiss would throw her own father under the bus so readily.

"Ready to continue?" Phoenix asked, getting nods from everyone.

[July 2nd- 13 days before Speech]

Akira had stayed up late into the night studying the information on Mecha-Shift weaponry Futaba had pulled up for him, as well as doing his best to sketch out the designs of the Phantom Thieves' new weaponry.

Akira couldn't help but think of his old Confidant, Iwai, while he was doing this. Akira had put together several model guns while working for the Ex-Yakuza back when the Phantom Thieves were mostly still in high-school.

"Ex-Yakuza?" Ruby asked tilting her head.

"The Yakuza are pretty much the Mistrailian version of the mafia Red." Roman said, "Still, I'm surprised the guy got out of the gig."

"Why model guns though?" Ruby asked, "Why not real guns?"

"Because Japan, the country in the world they came from that the lived in, is strict on their gun laws." Phoenix said, "So legally Iwai had to sell model guns."

Most of his friends still couldn't believe he held so many part-time jobs, from working at a beef bowl shop, to a flower shop, to a convenience store, to a bar, to Iwai's Airsoft shop, to even helping out around Leblanc's. And yet he held them all without issue, and got paid pretty well for it all too.

Everyone's jaw dropped at the number of jobs Akira had done alongside school and stealing hearts.

"Six jobs." Jaune said, "He really knows how to manage his time doesn't he?"

"That he does." Ren said.

Ryuji was still actually having a hard time wrapping his head around all the part-time jobs he had taken.

In the morning Akira had decided to go over his current plan for the day with the rest of the Phantom Thieves.

"Ryuji I'm going to need your help today." Akira said.

"Huh?" Ryuji asked before he could take a bite of his breakfast, "How come?"

"Today I'm going to be picking up several dozen parts for our new weapons." Akira said, "I'm going to need some help carrying them."

"What about everyone else though?" Morgana asked, "We've only got 13 days before Jacques's speech."

"Haru and I are going to go out and find someplace where we can pick up some medicines." Ann said, "We don't have Takemi-san to supply us with her special medicines anymore, so we'll need to find some ourselves, hopefully without them asking too many questions."

"Who is Takemi?" Weiss asked, "Some black market drug dealer?"

"No she's actually a licensed Doctor." Phoenix said surprising everyone, "She did however gain a bad reputation for becoming a scapegoat for a disastrous medical trial that she advised against, even being given the title of 'The Plague' because of it."

"Wow... She took the fall because other's just didn't want to take the blame." Ruby said.

"That's the world kiddo." Roman said, "It's a dog eat dog world out there."

"I will admit Akira did volunteer to trial some experimental medicine from her." Phoenix said.

"Of course." Weiss muttered.

"I'm going to see if I can pick up a driver's license." Makoto said, "I'd like for at least one of us to be able to drive legally."

"I'll stay here with Futaba then, as well as attempt to paint a portrait." Yusuke said, "Err... What are you planning to do today Futaba?"

"Hacking." Futaba said simply, "General Ironwood, current headmaster of Atlas Academy and General of the Atlesian army, has firewalls that are so weak it's a joke, it's like they've never dealt with hackers before. Well, easier time for me then, I wonder what the good general has on his personal systems."

"Okay she said that way to casually." Summer said, "I know you said she was a hacker but..."

"That is rather concerning at how easy she said that." Penny said, becoming worried about getting hacked herself.

"Try not to get caught, we wouldn't want to blow our chance to send Jacques the Calling Card before we can." Morgana said, "Remember it's gotta be really big for someone with a position like Jacques has."

"No kidding." Ann said, "Well, we better get started with the day."

[]

"Jeez this stuff is heavy." Ryuji groaned as he carried two cardboard boxes filled with parts across the thankfully snow-cleared sidewalk.

"Atlas does try to keep the street's clear when it snows." Winter said, "Still I think they may need more people next time."

"Do they have enough boxes though?" Ilia asked.

"Well Akira's trying to mechashift a knife and pistol, a katana and assault rifle, a club and shotgun, tekko and revolver, whip and submachine gun, and two handed axe and grenade launcher." Ruby said, "Plus they would need spare parts in case something went wrong with the initial designs and a part broke."

"Not to mention they might have some other materials for other tools." Roman added.

"It's not just heavy for you Ryuji." Morgana said from the bag on Akira's shoulder, "Akira's carrying two boxes as well."

"Jeez, were the model weapons you bought at Iwai's this heavy?" Ryuji groaned.

"No." Akira said, "Those were made of lightweight materials that were better for display. This stuff is all real."

"I should have figured." Ryuji grunted before he was stopped by his boxes and arms hitting someone in front of him.

"Watch where you're going!" A female voice rather familiar to Akira called out.

"Oh no..." Weiss groaned, causing Blake to pat her on the back.

"What?" Penny asked.

"I really don't like listening to my old self." Weiss groaned.

"Just be happy at the fact you understand you don't like what you were." Pyrrha said, "Be happy that you've grown as a person."

"I do but still..." Weiss sighed.

"Weiss?" Akira asked looking past his boxes, which he could barely see over.

Of course Weiss wasn't the only one standing there, next to her was another woman taller than her.

This woman had white hair that was tied up in an off center bun, and she was uniformed in a white coat with a red brooch covering her neck, her coat left part of her upper arms exposed and she had black gloves covering her hands, garter belts being incorporated into her pants.

"Looks like I've appeared in this story now." Winter said.

"Actually you appeared in the teaser fighting the Phantom Thieves." Weiss said.

"I assume I lost then?" Winter asked, noting Weiss's tone.

"Yes." Weiss admitted.

"It's kind of obvious." Roman said, "I mean what story starts with a thief getting captured?"

Once more Phoenix snickered at the line.

"Wait, Akira?" Weiss asked noticing the man who was with the artist the previous day, "What's with those boxes, and who is the dolt who bumped into my sister?"

"Who are you calling a dolt?" Ryuji snapped.

"Oh this isn't going to be a good friendship is it?" Weiss asked.

"Probably a friendship like mine." Yang said jumping up and pulling Weiss into a one armed hug, "Starts shaky but really grows on you."

"Let go of me you brute!" Weiss shouted trying to free herself from Yang.

"See?" Yang teased.

"That's my friend Ryuji Sakamoto." Akira said, "We've been good friends since high school. As for the boxes, they're Yusuke's supplies."

Weiss nodded at this logic, even though it was a white lie from Akira, one masterful enough that he gave no tells of said lie.

"Damn... Kids good." Roman said, "It takes a LOT of self control to lie without giving any tells."

"How much?" Penny asked.

"You've got to keep still and keep eye contact." Roman listed, "Plus you've got to keep control of your breathing and what you say. The hardest thing however is that lying actually quickens your heartbeat."

"Impressive." Salem mused as she laid an arm across Ozpin's back and shoulders, causing the man to panic slightly.

"Weiss, it's not mister Sakamoto's fault he bumped into me." The older looking woman, Weiss's sister according to her, said, "If you would look at him for a moment you'd notice he's having a hard time seeing over those boxes."

Weiss glared a Ryuji for a moment before noticing that issue, "Still, he should be more careful." Weiss scoffed.

"You try holding these boxes and looking over them!" Ryuji snapped, "Damn you're stuck up."

"What was that!?" Weiss snapped.

"Wow..." Blake said, "I don't Weiss and Yang ever got into a fight that fast."

"That's debatable." Ren said.

"Name once we got into a fight that fast." Weiss said.

"Saturday." Nora said smiling.

Weiss narrowed her eyes at Nora, "I'll give you that one." Weiss said lowly.

Akira and Weiss's sister quickly tuned out the brewing argument, "Sorry about Ryuji, our old home had quite a few people who abused their status and he, as well as I, aren't particularly fond of those that look down on others." Akira said.

Weiss's sister nodded, "Yes, unfortunately Weiss is a bit... self centered. I blame our father for that." She said, "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Atlesian Specialist Winter Schnee."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance." Akira said, "I would shake your hand, but mine are full at the moment."

"I can see." Winter said looking at her sister and Ryuji, who have begun to fully shout at each other, "Perhaps we can have a more civil chat at a later time, without our companions entering a shouting match."

"I'd like that." Akira said as Morgana poked his head out of Akira's bag.

"If we play our cards right we could definitely get some information about Jacques or even Atlas itself." Morgana said, then turned his head to Ryuji and Weiss, "But we'd better break those two up before a crowd starts to form."

"Am... Am I about to be used just for information?" Winter asked.

"I'm gonna say... Yes." Summer said.

"I feel betrayed." Winter admitted.

Akira looked over at the two bickering people and chose then to step in, "Ryuji, quit arguing with Weiss and let's get going, Yusuke wants these back while it's still daylight out."

Ryuji sighed, "Right, let's go." Ryuji admitted.

"We'll see each other later." Winter said, slipping a card into the top box Akira had, "Call me when you're ready to talk."

[]

"You sure you can build us these?" Haru asked as she and the rest of the Phantom Thieves, minus Akira, were studying the copies of the blueprint's Akira gave them, Morgana in his Faunus form studying the blueprint for his new weapon. He had yet to go get clothes for when he's disguised as a civilian so for the moment he was in his Phantom Thief attire.

"I can't see them!" Ruby cried out.

"We already know what the weapons look like sis." Yang said.

"Yeah... But not Morgana's or Makoto's!" Ruby cried out in sorrow.

"I don't get to see any of them yet!" Summer cried out in similar sorrow.

This caused Raven to sigh at the sight, "Like mother like daughter I suppose." She sighed.

"Oh like you don't get murderous whenever someone messes with your hair." Qrow muttered.

"I picked up manuals for building these while I was at the weapons shop." Akira said, "It'll take a while, but I can make them."

"Just make absolutely sure you all go over these every so often." Morgana said, "We can't afford for them to break so maintenance is important."

"I got it..." Ryuji groaned, "Still, I gotta admit these look pretty tough."

With that Akira took the last of the boxes to his room, where he had a worktable set up, to begin creating their weapons, and taking most of the thieves' previous weapons with him for extra parts if necessary.

"So Ann, did you ever find someplace for medicine?" Futaba asked.

Ann smiled, "Yep, they didn't even ask any questions, they just figured I was picking some up for a Huntsman." She said.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me..." Glynda groaned.

"Why must people assume these things?" Ozpin groaned.

"Speaking of Huntsmen." Yusuke said, "We really should find a way to unlock our Aura, as our armor and healing can only keep us alive for so long, even if our Persona's naturally give us a much higher level of durability and pain tolerance."

"Wait... A Persona boost's peoples durability and pain tolerance?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah." Phoenix said, "They don't have Aura in that world and they're being hit by fire, ice, lightning and all sorts of melee weapons. They gotta have some way to take a hit and keep going." 

"Man... If these guys weren't hard enough to take down." Jaune muttered.

"Well, I was looking that up actually." Futaba said, "The easiest way is for someone who already has an Aura unlocked to speak a chant and have them unlock it for us... But how are we going to convince someone to unlock our Aura."

Makoto hummed in thought before she blinked, "What if our Aura's already unlocked?" Makoto asked.

"Come again?" Ryuji asked.

"Well, when we were fighting we never got hit once remember?" Makoto said, "Our Aura might already be unlocked and we just don't know it yet."

"Is there anyway to check?" Ann asked.

"Hang on." Futaba said pulling out her Scroll, "Aha! There's an app you can download that measures someone's Aura levels, how much they have left before it shatters and leaves us vulnerable."

"Thank goodness that app is free." Jaune muttered.

"I wonder how it works actually." Ruby muttered pulling out her Scroll.

"Well what are you waiting for, download it." Ryuji said pulling out his Scroll, "Wait... if we do have Aura, would that mean our Persona's Physical attacks skip past our Aura to drain the stamina needed for the attack?"

"Possibly." Morgana said, "Remember, Physical attacks draw from our bodies themselves while magical ones draw from our spirit instead of our soul."

"This is going to get confusing if we try to figure this out." Haru said with a sigh, before another thought crossed her mind. "Who's hungry?"

The sound of several stomachs growling at that was her answer.

"Yeah... That would get confusing trying to figure that out." Ilia admitted.

"Alright, who is reading next?" Phoenix asked.

[[]]

Alright ladies and gentlemen that's the chapter.

Now I will admit two things. 

1) One reason this took so long was because I was constantly distracted by a game on my phone called Monster Super League, I've even created a Clan in the game by the name of Terminal

If you wish to join Terminal in either Monster Super League or Amity Arena (If you even play that game anymore, I really don't I just pop in to keep Headmaster Position.) then just send the invite in game and let me know either in the comments or in a Private Message on Fanfiction.

2) Persona 5 the Royal... While this may not stop me from writing the main Phantom Thieves of Remnant story it has slowed it down ever so slightly, so chapters in that will not focus as much on the Phantom Thieves, just warning you.

In any case, I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you all later.

Chapter Text

Well, I just realized I’m wasting precious document space in FanFiction by writing these chapters there instead of on Google Docs… What is wrong with me?

Anyway I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I’ll see you all then.

[[]]

Ready to begin the next chapter, Pyrrha took the book from Nora and began to read.

"Alright, I've got them basically built." Akira said walking down the stairs with several weapons in his arms, the previous weapons used by the Phantom Thieves, and their new Mecha-shift Weapons.

“Oooooh, I can’t wait to see them!” Ruby cheered as she started to bounce slightly in her seat.

“So do I.” Summer said rubbing her hands together.

“Oh great, now there’s two of them.” Weiss groaned as she shook her head, causing Winter to raise her eyebrow at her sister, to which Weiss began to explain, “Ruby is a weapons nut, she gets really excited seeing new weapons.”

“Ah.” Winter said in understanding.

"Nice." Ryuji said picking up his new shotgun club, setting it to its club form to give it a swing.

Yusuke took his new assault rifle katana and drew the blade, giving it a test swing for balance before smiling.

"Nice." Ann said as her new SMG unfolded into a whip before seamlessly pulling back together.

Summer grinned and turned to Glynda to speak, only for the woman to glare at Summer.

“No. Qrow has already made that joke.” Glynda scolded.

“Awwww…..” Summer groaned.

Haru lifted her grenade launcher and unfolded it into its battle axe form, "Heavier than my old axe, but nothing I won't adjust to."

“Not much of a stealth tool there.” Roman said, with Neo nodding, “Then again, it’s better than trying to remember to bring explosive charges when you gotta go to plan B.”

Morgana took his Phantom Thief form and grabbed his weapon, at first it looked like a normal scimitar with a slightly thicker than normal blade, but with the flick of a small switch the top half of the blade split into a 'Y' with a line of rubber connecting the two points. "Mwe heh heh heh." Morgana chuckled as he launched a pellet at the wall, causing the pellet to sink halfway into the brick.

Makoto picked up her weapons, at first appearing to be a pair of tekko with four mid length spikes, one on each knuckle, and had three chambers for bullets, each on in between the spikes. Makoto raised an eyebrow before noticing small joints on the grip, and in turn slammed to two grips together, causing the spikes and chambers to quickly shift upward, and reforming into a single revolver that had a slightly split grip. Makoto quickly pulled the grip apart once again and found herself holding a pair of tekko.

“Its beautiful…” Ruby and Summer said in synch as they drooled over the weapons.

Raven, Yang, and Qrow all sighed at the too familiar sight of the weapon nuts drooling over weaponry.

“Just like old times.” Qrow said nostalgically

"You did a really good job with these." Futaba said looking over Akira's new Knife pistol.

"Thanks." Akira said smiling, "Working with Iwai really helped me get some insight on how to build guns."

"Where's the ammo though?" Ryuji asked.

"That's the thing." Akira admitted sitting down, "The firing mechanisms haven't been finished yet. There's still some fine tuning I need to do for the weapons so they aren't ready to use just yet."

“Awww….” Ruby and Summer groaned.

“We’ll see them in action soon no doubt.” Pyrrha said consoling Ruby, and Summer as well.

"Rats." Morgana said placing his weapon back on the table, "So why did you bring them out here in the first place?"

"To get your opinion on them so far..." Akira said, "And so you all can give them names."

“Yes, names, I gotta hear them.” Summer said excitedly.

"Names?" Ann asked, a little surprised. Understandable since they never bothered doing such a thing with their previous weapons.

“Say what?” Ruby asked with a twitch in her eyes.

“They were constantly replacing their weapons when they were going through Palaces.” Phoenix explained, “Plus some weapons already had names so it wouldn’t do to rename them.”

“I’ll let it slide this time.” Ruby said narrowing her eyes in a glare.

"I see." Makoto said in understanding, "These are going to be our weapons for the foreseeable future, we aren't replacing them as we get better weapons now, just upgrading these with better parts."

"Putting it that way it makes sense to add our own personal touch to our weapons." Yusuke said, "I believe I shall name mine Ishikawa."

“Huh?” Sun asked, “That sounds like someone’s name from Mistral.”

"That's Goemon's last name right?" Futaba asked, getting a nod from Yusuke.

“Ah… Huh?” Sun asked.

“Persona are based on figures from legend and history.” Blake said remembering what Phoenix had explained about Persona’s, “Ergo they usually had last names when they were still people before they died.”

“Ah.” Sun said nodding.

"Well if that how we're gonna name them..." Morgana said, "I dub this sword La Vega, after the last name of Zorro's true identity."

"I think I'll call my weapon Gypsy." Ann said, "That's what Carmen was after all."

"I'm calling mine the Jolly Roger." Ryuji said, "Keeping with Captain Kidd's pirate motif after all."

"Milady appeared in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas." Haru said, "So I will call this weapon Dumas."

"Johanna was first documented by Jean De Mailly." Makoto said, "So I'll call these De Mailly."

"What your weapon going to be called Akira?" Futaba asked handing the knife back to Akira.

"Lupin." Akira said, "Arsene's last name."

“Each name with a reason…” Ruby mused thinking, “That really makes them more personal to the user.”

“We need to keep you from weapons for a while I think.” Yang said putting an arm around Ruby.

“Noooooooooooo!” Ruby cried out dramatically, “You’ll never separate me from Crescent Rose!”

"So now that the naming out of the way..." Ryuji said, "Anyone got any plans for today?"

No one said anything.

"In that case." Morgana said, returning to his cat form and hopping onto the middle of the table, "Perhaps we should start securing our Infiltration route."

Weiss cringed at the thought of seeing more of who her Father truly was on the inside.

“It can’t be that bad… Can it?” Roman asked.

“You haven’t seen what’s inside it.” Weiss said, “I’m afraid of how he would see our family.”

"All in favor?" Akira asked.

Everyone raised their hand, while Morgana raised a paw.

"Good, Ann where did you put the medicines?" Akira asked.

[Jacques's Palace: Safe Room 1]

[OST: King, Queen, and Slave]

"Alright." Mona said as everyone gathered around the table in the middle of the safe room, "Our main goal is to locate the Treasure and the fastest route to it."

“Well it’s never gonna be that easy I can promise you that.” Roman said as Neo made a silent sigh of agreement.

“You would definitely know.” Winter said glaring at Roman, “Must he be here with us?”

“What did you want me to bring Cinder?” Phoenix asked, quickly realizing she hadn’t had her true self revealed to the group just yet.

“Huh?” Ruby asked raising an eyebrow.

“No no.” Roman said waving his hands rapidly, “She can stay right where she is thank you.”

This caused Ruby to raise an eyebrow at Roman’s reaction to her friend, what did she do to Roman to make him react like that.

"If we can find a map that will make navigating much easier for us." Oracle said, "So which way should we head once we leave the room?"

"Our entrance is closer the the left side of the castle." Joker said, "We'll try to find ourselves some stairs to get to the second floor and go from there."

"If this is anything like Kamoshida's Palace the Treasure's gotta be in or at least near the throne room." Skull said.

“Why not a treasury?” Roman asked, genuinely confused, “Wouldn’t that be where a treasure is?”

“Maybe if it were a regular treasure.” Phoenix said, “But the Treasure of someone’s Palace is the symbol of what their Palace was formed by, the object that made them who they are. Thus it would be located where they would be hold the most power in their Palace.”

“Ah…” Roman said in understanding, “So since old man Schnee-”

“Gele.” Weiss said coldly, “I refuse to see him as a Schnee anymore.” This caused everyone to look at Weiss in shock at her announcement, especially Winter and Ilia.

“Okay…” Roman said rather confused, “Well since Gele sees himself as a king then most of his power would be on the throne.”

"What was Kamoshida's Palace like anyway?" Queen asked, having never really gotten the story behind the Palace that was the start of the Phantom Thieves.

"Let's not talk about that." Panther said with a shiver at the memories. "Ever."

“Was it that bad?” Jaune asked.

“It was pretty bad.” Phoenix said, “And quite… Impactful seeing as he was a school teacher and what he thought of the school.”

"We'll take your word for it." Fox said. If they were reacting this badly to just talking about it...it was probably for the best the rest of them didn’t know, "We'd better get moving now."

Joker nodded and opened the safe room door and stepped into the hallway, looking to the right the only doors there were to the main hall, in which experience told him would not be a good idea to go through just yet, and the door back to the storage room they first entered from.

“Not a lot of options huh?” Salem mused.

“Not many indeed.” Ozpin agreed as he noticed Salem was much closer than she was in the previous chapter.

On the left was only one door, however there was a Shadow standing guard with its back turned to them.

“And… He’s dead.” Roman said in a joking manner.

"Looks like we've got a Shadow in the way Joker." Oracle said, "And I don't think he's planning on moving."

"Then let's move him." Joker said with a smirk, before dashing silently into the shadows of the nearby table, then dashing behind the Shadow, springing onto its back and grabbing its mask.

"What the-!?" The Shadow exclaimed before Joker ripped its mask off, causing it to rear back and explode into black ooze as Joker jumped off.

[OST: Persona 5: Last Surprise]

“Man I love this song.” Yang said with a grin.

Joker, Queen, Skull, Panther, Fox, Mona, and Noir all surrounded the black mass as it burst out once again, revealing the Shadow's true forms.

Two of the three figures that burst forth were little white snowmen with short arms and legs, a blue cap and a black mouth in a smile with round black eyes. Jack Frost to be specific.

“Awww… They’re so cute.” Weiss gushed as she, Nora, Ruby, and Summer had hearts in their eyes looking at the Jack Frosts.

“I must warn you.” Phoenix said darkly, “When Jack Frost meet’s up with its brother, Pyro Jack, or as he is known in this game, Jack ‘O Lantern they become a very nightmarish thing.”

This caused the four females to lose their heart eyes and pale in fear, “What?” Ruby said scared.

“They become…” Phoenix said pausing for dramatic effect, “A Yang level comedy duo.”

This caused the four to pratfall off their seats while Yang cheered.

The third figure was larger one wearing red armor that had two horns on the helmet, it had on a yellow cape and held a lance, it lastly rode a deep violet horse. This was an Eligor.

“Okay he looks like something I’d see around a castle.” Qrow pointed out.

“He certainly does.” Salem mused leaning onto Ozpin slightly, who was starting to get very nervous.

"This shouldn't be too tough." Skull said reaching for his mask, "Let's go Captain! Zionga!" Skull shouted tearing his mask off.

Captain Kidd appeared with his clawed hand over his eyes as if measuring the distance between him and his target, before a bolt of lightning shot from his cannon arm, electrocuting Eligor and knocking the Shadow down.

"Nice one Skull!" Oracle called out, "Now pass the baton!"

"All yours Panther!" Skull called out walking past Panther, high fiving her as he did. In return Panther spun in a 360, stopping with her fist near the ground, just as a burst of energy arose from below her, Skull’s latent power from his previous attack empowering her next attack.

“They can power each other up?” Ruby moaned, “That’s not fair…” Ruby groaned.

“They’ve got strength in numbers it seems.” Ren noted, “This will make them difficult opponents to defeat.”

"Let's go Carmen!" Panther shouted tearing her mask off, "Maragion!"

Carmen appeared, throwing the body that was on the thorn leash to the side, sending out flames that harmed both the Jack Frosts and Eligor. While Eligor wasn't bothered by the flames too much, the Jack Frost were knocked down.

With all three Shadows down Joker ran forward pulling his gun out and aimed it at Eligor, just as the other Phantom Thieves jumped in to close escape routes with their guns aimed at the Shadows.

Once the Shadows were clearly subdued for the moment, Joker decided it was time to start bolstering his power again. "Eligor." Joker said, "Lend me your power."

“Huh?” Ruby asked confused.

“Joker is a Wildcard Persona user, capable of using multiple Persona’s remember?” Phoenix asked, getting nods from everyone, “Well since a Palace is formed within a human mind the Shadows that form there can also be potential Persona’s for a Wildcard to call upon.”

“Powerful indeed.” Winter said.

Eligor nodded as he stood back up, "I remember now, I am no Shadow, I am Eligor of the Emperor Arcana, I will aid you as your mask."

With that Eligor vanished in a flash of light, with the two Jack Frost being destroyed by the light, and was replaced by a mask exactly like the one Joker currently wore, which soon flew toward Joker.

Joker smirked and caught the mask, slamming it on top of his current mask in a blue flame.

[OST: Persona 5: Victory]

"Nice one, Joker." Mona said, "Now with more masks you've got more options again."

"Strange how I only had my own Personas back until now." Joker mused, he hadn't exactly discarded his other masks after defeating Yaldabaoth... That's a matter for another time though.

[Resume: King, Queen and Slave.]

Continuing on, Joker and the rest of the Thieves went to the door on the left of where their safe room was and opened it quietly.

On the other side of the door was a short hallway that ended in a staircase going up, but there was something more important next to the staircase.

"Well, at least we've got a map." Oracles said opening the frame that was around the map and pulling it from its frame.

“Looks kinda small don’t you think?” Ilia asked looking at the map, “There’s no way that can be the whole castle.”

"And just like always the damn things not a complete map." Skull sighed.

“Well that’s annoying.” Roman muttered.

"Still it's better than nothing." Fox said as the group looked at the map.

Most of the rooms in the Palace were small ones, the next large room in their path seemed to be three doors down on the next floor.

"Let's get going." Joker said rolling up the map and putting it in his pocket as he led the group upstairs.

After taking down another Shadow, and taking a Jack Frost as his newest mask, the group arrived at the next door and opened it to reveal them on the first floor of a large, two story library.

"That's a lot of books." Queen said looking around the room as Noir picked up one of the books.

“Why would there be a library in Jacques’s Palace.” Weiss wondered, making Winter very worried about the fact Weiss is refusing to associate their father as hers at this point.

"It's a business ledger." Noir said replacing it with another, "So is this one."

“Well I suppose that would explain it.” Penny said, “It is natural that a businessman like Jacques would keep as much knowledge of his business as possible.”

This time Panther picked up a book, "This one's listing a bunch of names." Panther said, "Coal Dust miners, Gale's Dusters, Dust for Less..."

Weiss was quick to pull out a notebook and was writing down the information she could on the names that had popped up.

"Those are all Dust providers that tried to start up their own Dust Companies." Oracle said, "That book must contain the name of every company the SDC's bought out or intentionally crushed."

This time Joker pulled out a book and checked the cover.

Joker's eyes narrowed at the cover alone, "Looks like those rumors of shady business partners aren't rumors." He said.

"Hey, this one's full of names." Skull said opening a book, "Terra Foll-Lioness-Mining, Erik Shine- Basilisk Lizard- Disposed."

Weiss and Winter froze at those names, along with Ilia and Blake.

“I don’t like how it said, ‘Disposed’.” Blake said with a shudder.

"What!?" Mona shouted taking the book from Skull and flipping through it, "Mining, Disposed, made example... this is a list of all the Faununs workers Jacques has ever employed!"

"This man is psychotic!" Panther exclaimed in alarm as she read over Mona's shoulder, "According to this, one of the women workers was raped in front of the rest of her fellow workers as an example by one of the security forces, then they sent her to the deepest part of the mine she worked in to die... Under his orders!"

Everyone was frozen in shock at that, “I…” Winter started, “I can’t believe…”

“He’s a monster…” Ruby said.

“That is a line I would never dare to cross.” Salem said completely removing herself from Ozpin as she heard this.

"Seems like Jacques is seriously enforcing the subjugation of Faunus." Fox said, "I don't think I can even call this a second class citizens treatment at the most."

"Let's get going." Skull said taking the book, "The more we read, the more I want to punch this guy in the face."

"Agreed." Joker said looking around the library, "I'm willing to bet there are stairwells and ladders in this place so we could easily skip several floors in this place."

Sure enough the ground found a spiraling stairwell, which they used to skip past the third floor and reach the fourth floor, seeing as they couldn't reach the fifth floor from the library.

“Skipping over half the castle.” Roman noted, “Seems like Jacques is screwing himself over there.”

After reaching the fourth floor and taking down another Shadow they opened up the door to the hallway, and took down yet another Shadow before going through one of the two doors in the hallway.

The first led them to a safe room, where they took a breather before leaving and moving to the second door.

Which led them to a large room that appeared to have a halve played game of chess going on... except the chess pieces were giant sized, and the whites had the Schnee Snowflake on them, the black pieces were sorely losing.

“Figures the white side would be winning.” Weiss muttered, “I’m willing to be Jacques considers himself the white side while the faunus are the black pieces.”

“I don’t doubt that Weiss.” Winter said in horror.

"Any idea what this means?" Panther asked as they walked into the center of the room, which was void of pieces.

"I think I know." Joker said, "The white pieces represent the SDC, the King being Jacques, while the Blacks are all opposition to his 'rule'. I'm guessing the Bishops, Rooks, Queen, King, Knights, and Pawns all represent The Grimm, The White Fang, Other Dust companies, Kingdom Officials, Rioters, and anything else he finds annoying... Not respectively of course."

“Which do you think represent what?” Pyrrha asked.

“I’m not sure I really want to know.” Weiss admitted.

“Me neither.” Blake said, “I’m learning more about Jacques that I really want to know.”

"There's the smart man we all know who completely trounced us in the finals back in highschool." Skull sighed.

"Now what have we here?" A distorted voice asked from above, causing the Phantom Thieves to turn and face the source of the voice.

[OST: Persona 5: Blood of Villain]

Standing on a balcony above the White side of the Chess board was none other than Shadow Jacques, with a bored look on his face.

“And the thieves have been spotted.” Roman said, “I wonder how this will turn out.”

Even Neo had to agree this was getting interesting.

"It appears we have some uninvited guests in the castle." Shadow Jacques noted, "Come to bask in my glory have you? Or have you come to beg for Dust or a job?"

"Nothing like any of that asshole!" Skull shouted, raising his bat onto his shoulder.

"You're long overdue for your comeuppance after all you've done!" Queen sneered.

"So what does that make you all?" Shadow Jacques asked, "Faunus Rights Activists? Hmph, it doesn't matter in the slightest, once I find out who you are I can easily ruin your future. Perhaps I'll simply pay the police to create a false criminal record for you and have you arrested, just as I did to several Faunus families at the start of my career in the SDC."

Winter and Weiss had their eyes twitch in perfect synch at that, “Would he really go that far just to get rid of an issue?” Winter asked, “I’ll need to investigate in the future.”

"False records." Fox breathed.

"The cops are the same everywhere you go." Oracle growled.

“Ain’t that the truth.” Roman muttered, causing the Huntress and Huntsmen, in training and not, to groan at the statement.

"Now then..." Shadow Jacques said, "General!"

"General?" Joker mused.

From out behind the White Queen stepped Winter, or at least Jaques's cognition of Winter.

Winter straighten up at the mention of herself and looked at the screen, curious, yet terrified, as to how her father saw her.

The differences between the cognition and the real Winter were as followed. The Cognition Winter's hair had no bangs drifting down, the cognition wore a white overcoat, with a gray undercoat, black sweater, a red necktie, pants the same color as the overcoat, and silver boots. Her bust seemed more compressed than the actual Winter's.

And her body was wooden, ball joints for her shoulders, elbows, knees and other joints, her jaw having slits going from the edges of her lips to straight down, with several strings floating behind her. However, out of the six strings holding her, only three seemed to be held straight up, the strings connecting to her head, left leg, and left arm were drifting all over the area while the strings connected to her back, right leg, and right arm were straight up.

“A puppet?” Winter asked, shock and anger filling her voice, “My father… No, Jacques Gele only sees me as a PUPPET!?” Winter roared in fury.

Ozpin was furious as well, he refused to treat anyone as a puppet, especially his own family.

"Yes father?" The Cognitive Winter asked, her voice flat and emotionless.

"Destroy these nobodies." Shadow Jacques said as he walked away.

"Yes father." The Cognitive Winter said as it drew a sabre, "By order of King Jacques Schnee of Atlas, you are hereby ordered to execution. Have you any say in your defense?"

Joker looked the Cognitive Winter dead in her wooden eyes as he pulled out his pistol and aimed it at her, "Don't think we'll make this easy." Joker said.

“I’m already rooting for the Phantom Thieves.” Winter said glaring at her Cognitive self.

“Blow them away!” Yang cheered.

Streams of darkness started to float off of the Cognitive Winter as she raised her sabre, before exploding into darkness.

[OST: Persona 5: Keeper of Lust]

When the darkness dispersed the Cognitive Winter was replaced by a large metallic horse with snowflake eyes. On top of the horse was a large wooden feminine figure holding a saber in it's right hand, it's head and left arm dangling lifelessly. Its wooden body was covered in crystal armor that was missing only at the joints.

“Whoa.” Yang said surprised, “That’s one heck of a change.”

“It’s a monstrosity of my image.” Winter growled, “I want to see it destroyed.”

"Now then." The Cognitive Winter, who had transformed into the creature the Phantom Thieves now faced, said. "By order of the king. DIE!"

The air around the Cognitive Winter grew colder as ice shot out from around her, aiming at everyone.

"Move!" Fox shouted pushing Panther out of the way, taking the blow intended for her.

"Thanks!" Panther replied standing back up, "Carmen and I aren't too good with the cold."

“That’s right… A Persona has an elemental weakness.” Raven noted, “So Carmen isn’t good with the cold. A similar theme may run with everyone else’s Persona.”

"Jack Frost!" Joker shouted as his hand was coated in blue flames, which he smacked on his own mask, causing the flames to run over the mask before he quickly tore it off, "Ice Break!"

When the mask came off of Joker, Arsene did not appear, instead it was Jack Frost, who gave a quick twirl before a round circle with ice symbols appeared in front of the Cognitive Winter appeared and shattered.

"Wh-What was that?" The Cognitive Winter demanded.

“What was that?” Ruby asked.

“Well, when a Persona or Shadow uses an element it’s safe to say it is likely immune or resistant to that element. Jack Frost has the ability to remove someones resistance and immunity to Ice.”  Phoenix explained.

“Ah.” Ruby said nodding.

"Johanna!" Makoto shouted summoning her Persona, "Freila!"

The blast on Nuclear energy caused the Cognition to stumble to the side and growl, "Take this!" The Cognition growled, "Lunge!" It intoned as it leapt toward Joker, landing a slash on his side that caused him to stumble slightly.

"You okay Joker?" Oracle asked.

"Nothing to worry about." Joker said, "This Cognition is a weak one. Eligor!"

“Good.” Winter said, not at all feeling offended considering this was her father’s thought of her, a weak pawn fit only for getting a position of power for him to exploit.

Replacing and tearing his mask off, Eligor appeared instead of Jack Frost, "Double Fangs!"

Eligor nodded and stabbed at the Cognitive Winter, causing two stabs to appear on it, knocking it back.

"How is this possible!?" The Cognitive Winter demanded.

"Because we've beaten tougher enemies than you." Morgana said, "Zorro! Miracle Punch!"

Zorro appeared, making a stabbing motion with his sword, causing a golden boxing glove on a spring to appear and punch the Cognitive Winter in the face, sending it tumbling, but it quickly straightened back up.

“Okay, that is ridiculous looking.” Raven pointed out.

“And yet it is very useful for downing the enemy.” Phoenix said.

“Fair enough.” Raven relented, if knocking all the enemies down allowed the Phantom Thieves to use their All Out Attack then she doesn't mind it so much.

However it was drooping much more than usual.

"No, I can't lose like this!" The Cognitive Winter growled, "Desperation!"

Energy welled up under the Cognition as it traded defensive power for offensive power and then tried to slash at Skull, who easily jumped out of the way of the attack.

"Too slow!" Skull shouted as he took advantage to the Cognition's missed attack and swung his bat, nailing the Cognition in the head.

"Aaaaarrrrraaaagggghhhhh!" The Cognitive Winter cried out as the wooden body was separated from the horse and went flying. The two parts of the Cognition fading away into wisps of darkness.

“Thank you!” Winter cried out, she hated seeing how her cognitive self acted.

“It’s very weird hearing people talk like that when an alternate version of themselves is getting destroyed.” Jaune admitted.

[OST: Persona 5: Victory]

"Alright Skull!" Oracle shouted, "Nice swing."

"Thanks." Skull said, "Good to know I still have my swinging arm."

"We'd better clear out of the Palace for the moment though." Mona said, "The last thing we need is for the Shadows to find us after we just beat the Cognition. It might put them on high alert."

“Yeah that wouldn’t be a good thing.” Nora said, “Still that was awesome!”

"We'll give it a couple of days to calm down then." Joker said, "Let's disappear everyone."

[]

[[Infiltration Log]]

[Infiltrated Castle Gardens]

[Obtained Front Gate Key]

[Infiltrated Castle]

[Found a Safe Room]

-New- [Infiltrated Castle Library]

-New- [Found a Safe Room]

-New- [Defeated Cognitive Winter]

“It’s over.” Pyrrha said.

“What!?” Nora cried out, “Aww….”

“Still I want to see more of this.” Roman said grinning, “Those guys are pretty good.”

“You know they’ll likely target you in the future right?” Summer pointed out, causing Roman to blink.

“Crap… I’m gonna be losing some secrets in this aren’t I?”

Neo nodded as she bit her lip, not wanting anything bad to happen to Roman.

[[]]

Well folks, that’s the chapter and I’ve realized why I do this on FF on not on Google Docs.

Hope you all enjoyed and I’ll see you in the future with something else.

Chapter Text

Well this is long overdue, sorry I took so long to get to this, I’ve been far too distracted and working on things that may never appear on either this site or Fanfiction. Why? Cause I’ve got enough to work on over there as it is.

So for now just enjoy this chapter, I’ll see you at the end.

[[]]

“Your turn Ren.” Pyrrha said handing the book over, getting a nod from the young man, who took the book and began to read.

"Wait, you mean you're having lunch with that Winter chick?" Ryuji asked in surprise when Akira made the announcement some time after breakfast.

“What?” Winter and Weiss asked.

“Why is he having lunch with you Ice Queen?” Qrow asked

“I don’t know.” Winter snarked.

"I called her up last night." Akira said, "I want to see her view on her life... And I did ask Haru before I made the plan."

Haru smiled happily, the last thing Akira wanted was to make his girlfriend think he was cheating on her.

“A very good thing to remember.” Summer said.

“Agreed.” The other women of the group said.

"That would explain why Haru's going with him." Yusuke mused.

That was Haru's terms for Akira to have lunch with Winter, she wanted to make sure Akira didn't end up flirting with her.

Akira shuddered at the memory of why Haru was like that. The night before Valentines day he ended up having a nightmare of where he was dating all of his female Confidants back in Tokyo... He still occasionally flinched whenever Haru glared at him even in the slightest.

“Wow… How many was that actually?” Jaune asked

“Double digits.” Phoenix said, causing everyone to blink, “Including his teacher.”

“Kid’s good.” Qrow said.

Glynda just frowned.

"This is a good chance for us to see how Winter views her family." Morgana said, "Based on what we saw in Jacques's Palace, Winter is viewed as nothing more than a puppet and his in on the Atlas Military."

"Judging from the severed strings however..." Makoto said, "I don't think Jacques has as much control over her as he would like."

“And now it is officially none.” Winter growled.

"Jeez, I'm hating this guy more and more by the second." Ryuji groaned.

“We all do.” Raven muttered.

"Ann, see if you can find someone who is willing to buy this stuff." Akira said sliding Ann's old school back over to her, inside it was several silver plates and other similar expensive tableware.

“Shouldn’t be too hard.” Roman noted, “A lot of people buy stuff without asking questions.”

Neo nodded in agreement.

"It's amazing how we don't even notice you breaking things open anymore." Futaba noted, "Still I think you broke open more than what's in the bag."

"Most of them had those Dust Crystals in them." Akira said, "No real point in selling those."

While this conversation was going on, Futaba was scrolling through data on her Scroll, "Hmm..." She hummed with a raised eyebrow.

Ryuji moved to ask what Futaba was humming about when there was a knock on the door. "Wonder who that is?" Ryuji muttered standing up to get the door.

When Ryuji opened the door, he jumped back, "Whoa, Schnee!?" Ryuji shouted in surprise and a bit of alarm. 

“Dramatic much?” Ilia asked.

“Kind of reminds me of Sun.” Blake said.

“Hey!” Sun groaned.

"Hello against mister Sakamoto." Winter said politely, "May I come in?"

Ryuji blinked for a moment, before nodding. "Uhh, yeah sure." He said stepping aside.

Winter walked past Ryuji and entered the main room, taking a look at all of the assembled Phantom Thieves as she did, "Hello." She said, "May I ask who you all are?"

Ruby groaned, “Introductions again?” 

“Looks like it.” Salem sighed.

Ann was the first to respond. “Ann Takamaki." Ann said, introducing herself and standing up to shake Winter's hand.

"It's nice to meet you miss Takamaki." Winter said shaking her hand.

"Yusuke Kitagawa." Yusuke said standing up.

"You're the one who painted my sisters newest portrait correct?" Winter asked, "A well done likeness."

"Makoto Nijima ma'am." Makoto said.

Winter gave her a nod.

"My names Haru Okumura, I'm Akira's girlfriend." Haru said, "I recall Akira mentioning that I was joining you."

"Ah yes, and I understand." Winter said with a nod, "You don't really trust me to be around your boyfriend alone. Understandable I suppose."

“Sheesh, lighten up Ice Queen.” Qrow muttered, “You sounds like everything is business.”

“He has a point.” Summer called out.

Winter simply sighed.

"Actually it's more the other way around." Futaba said closing her scroll, "Akira's got a bit of a record for getting girls attracted to him."

"Not intentionally of course." Akira pointed out, "Anyway that's Futaba Sakura, she's practically a sister to me as her father is like a father to me."

"I see." Winter said with a nod as she looked over them one last time before turning to Akira and Haru. "Well then, I've arranged for a table for three at a Mistralian restaurant, shall we be going?"

“Man… Now I’m wanting some Mistralian food.” Sun groaned.

“Next break we have okay.” Phoenix said.

“And when will that be?” Sun whined, only to get a shrug from Phoenix.

The way to the place Winter has suggested was a fair distance from the apartment the group lived in.

About halfway through the second block after they had left, Akira and Haru stopped upon seeing a pair of Faunus huddled in the snow, Winter stopping herself a few feet after noticing they had stopped.

Sun, Ilia, and Blake all froze at the sight.

“Disgusting.” Ilia muttered, “Our people shouldn’t have to live like this.”

“Agreed.” Weiss said, “I’ll be working hard to help the Faunus Blake, I promise.”

"Akira? Haru?" Winter asked.

Akira didn’t respond, instead looking closely at the two Faunus. Two girls, presumably a mother and daughter, were in the lowest level of the snow wearing little more than thin shirts usually worn indoors, the only sensibly warm thing the had on were tattered scarves around their necks, but the rabbit ears that poked out from their blue hair had no such form of protection and were covered in a thin layer of snow.

“Shit that’s bad.” Sun muttered, “Faunus ears are extremely sensitive to everything, especially the rabbit Faunus.”

"W-what d-do you w-w-want from us." The mother said, stuttering from the cold.

Instead of directly answering, Akira pulled out roughly 3,000 Lien from his pocket and held it out to the mother and daughter, "Take it, find somewhere Faunus friendly and get you and you daughter some warm clothes and something to eat." Akira said warmly.

Everyone blinked at the amount Akira held out.

“He’s rather generous.” Salem mused.

“The kid has seen some of the worse the human heart has to show.” Roman noted, “That’s something that sticks with a person.” 

“Like you?” Pyrrha asked.

“Pray you’ve never seen people like I’ve seen them.” Roman said glancing at Neo.

The ten year old girl looked at the money Akira held out before looking at him, "You're just gonna take it back from us." She pouted clutching tighter to her mother.

Akira didn't remove his hand, instead he simply slid it into the mother's arm before standing up and walking off.

He barely caught the mother saying 'Thank you.'

"I'm surprised you'd do something like that." Winter said when he came back, "There aren't many people who'd help out the Faunus like that."

“Especially in Atlas.” Glynda sighed.

“Unfortunately true.” Weiss bemoaned.

"Me and my friends have always been the kind to stand up for those who are too scared or helpless to do so themselves." Akira said.

"How so?" Winter asked.

"Perhaps we should take our seats first." Haru said as the trio arrived at the Mistralian restaurant.

[With Futaba]

“Aww what!?” Nora cried out, “We got gypped!”

“Maybe next time.” Ren said.

"That's weird." Futaba mused looking at her scroll, more specifically the plans of Atlas academy.

“Did they download the plans to Atlas?” Penny asked shocked, “I did not realize our security software was so vulnerable.”

"What's up?" Morgana asked as everyone remaining, that being Ryuji, Makoto, and Yusuke, turned their attention to her.

"Well, I'm looking up the layout of Atlas and... Something doesn't seem right." Futaba said.

“Oh dear.” Ozpin muttered as Salem leaned forward, putting one of her hands on his knees.

Yusuke, Makoto and Ryuji all gathered around Futaba to look at what she was looking at.

"Uhh... What's the deal with the blueprints?" Ryuji asked.

"It looks like they've been doctored." Yusuke said, catching some details.

“Leave it to an artist to catch that kind of detail.” Roman said.

“Good eyes. Even I couldn’t tell they were doctored.” Raven noted.

"How can you tell?" Ryuji asked, not seeing how he’d know.

"Well, Futaba's brought up the whole blueprint, and the supposed lowest level of the Academy is still more than a fair distance from the bottom margin compared to the others." Yusuke said, "Plus the cut off on the elevator is off by a margin, as if it were recently added into it."

“Dammit.” Ozpin muttered, “I would have thought Ironwood would do this better.”

"What you think is down there?" Morgana asked, now very curious.

"Judging from the fact they cut it from the blueprints I'd say something valuable." Futaba said, "And not in the monetary sense."

"So... it's like a Treasure then?" Ryuji asked, starting to sound excited.

"That might be a good way of putting it actually." Makoto said, "It's not supposed to be on the blueprints so whatever is down there is as valuable to Atlas as a Treasure is to a Palace."

“A Relic would definitely count as valuable.” Salem mused.

“Why does this stuff have to be pulled up.” Qrow muttered.

“Your Semblance.” Raven said.

“I hate it when you use that line.” Qrow muttered.

"Should we think about stealing it?" Ryuji asked.

"Not anytime soon." Futaba said, "We'd need to find a way to infiltrate the academy as a staff member and gain the trust of the general to the point we'd be told about what's down there."

“Which simply put isn’t gonna happen anytime soon.” Jaune said.

“If it were that easy then things would be a lot worse.” Summer said.

"Rats." Ryuji muttered.

"However..." Futaba said, "I've noticed that more than half of the current Atleasian army is nothing more than machines. Seriously, has no one in Remnant heard of Terminator? Does it even have an equivalent here?"

“Terminator?” Ruby asked

“A series of movie, the main plot is that in the future humanity connected all their weapons into a single supercomputer with special programming to make the best choice depending on the situation. In no time at all the program, Skynet, decided to destroy humanity, even making use of time travel to make sure the job gets done when they started dealing with human resistance.” Phoenix said.

“I kinda want to see that.” Yang said, “Sounds like a good movie.”

“Definitely some memorable lines in it.” Phoenix said.

"So all we need to cripple Atlas is a virus." Makoto said with a frown.

"And with how much peace has reigned over Remnant, I doubt Atlas has done much to their firewalls." Futaba said.

"Atlas seems like the most dangerous of the kingdoms, but it's strength is also its weakness." Yusuke said, letting out an amused chuckle at how...poetic that almost sounded.

"Yep." Futaba said, "And it shouldn't be too hard to use the CCT Tower in Atlas to reveal ourselves to the world!" she grinned. It was time to make some preparations. 

“That’s the chapter.” Ren said.

“Awwww… Already?” Nora whined, “It was too short!”

“Don’t worry we’ll reach some longer chapters soon enough.” Phoenix said standing up, “Now, I gotta use the restroom real quick.”

“Well hurry up, I want to read more!” Summer shouted impatiently.

“Don’t worry.” Phoenix said, then attempted to do a vocal impression, “I’ll be back.” Phoenix said in his best Arnold Schwarzenegger Voice before leaving the room.

.

.

.

“Was that supposed to be some kind of inside joke?” Yang asked.

[[]]

Oh now how could I pass that up people? I’m talking about Terminator, I gotta make an Arnold reference… 

Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I’ll see you next time.