Chapter Text
You say this world is flawed, imperfect, and I couldn’t agree more. I, Hawkmoth, call upon you. I offer you this power, Dreamer, to make your dream a reality. In exchange, all I ask is for you to help me fulfill my dream in turn.
Get the Miraculous from Ladybug and Chat Noir, and both our dreams will come true.
The Dreamer opens her eyes. She looks around, then within. Yes, the world within her heart is the real world, the world where everything is as it should be.
She just has to make it real.
Akira Kurusu polishes his fake glasses on the hem of his shirt. He doesn’t really have any evidence that they “soften his face” like his mother said when she got them for him, but by now they carry memories of their own. They remind him of his friends here in Tokyo, that he’s going to see. He puts them back on and sets off.
They also remind him that he chooses the face he shows to the world. That the power of Persona sleeps within him. Arsène hasn't spoken or acted in almost a year, but the strength of heart he represents still burns bright in Akira’s soul.
The train arrives and Akira boards. His friends are waiting for him, and he can barely wait to see them.
“Oh Akira~” Looks like he won’t have to wait for one. “Trying to be sneaky?”
“Trying, it doesn’t seem to be working.” He turns to the girl and smiles.
The redhead has her hair pulled back into a high ponytail, tied with a red bow. It’s shorter than when Akira saw it last, but no less beautiful. “You’re an open book to me, Senpai. And Morgana texted me with your phone last night.”
“What? But I didn’t-”
A boyish voice chimes in, “I deleted the texts afterwards. A true phantom thief leaves no tracks!” Morgana, Akira’s black cat, pops his head out of the bag on the boy’s back.
“Well, congratulations. Does everyone know?”
“Of course not. But I did text everyone to meet me at Leblanc tonight, to plan your surprise party.” Sumire smiles, the picture of innocence, and Akira chuckles.
He offers a hand, and the girl takes it. He pulls her close, and wraps an arm around her. “It’s been too long, Sumire.”
“We called just this weekend, senpai.” she murmurs.
Akira sighs. “Yeah. But it’s still too long.” The two giggle and pull apart, but their hands stay linked for the rest of the train ride.
The Dreamer walks through the streets. She looks at the buildings, so pretty, so tall, so fake. At the people, so willing to play along and pretend they’re fine. At the careful mirage of cheer that the whole city participates in.
Yes, all the little people play along. They dance to the beat the city sets, they play the games they’re put in front of. They ooh and ahh at all the right places.
Soon it’ll be her beat they’re dancing to.
Akira peeks through the window on Leblanc's door. Sumire and Futaba (who catches his eyes and smiles, she must have seen the texts) sit facing him in the furthest booth, and the rest of the Phantom Thieves face them, that is to say, away from Akira.
A smirk rises on Akira’s face as he eases open the café’s door. He mastered opening it silently when he stayed there, and while his skills might be a year old, they’re still as sharp as ever.
“I’m just sayin’,” the bleach blond says, “Akira’s crafty, so you guys gotta actually keep this a secret.”
“Bold words coming from the resident loudmouth! If anyone’s gonna let it slip, I bet a thousand yen it'd be you.” The natural blonde crosses her arms.
“Does it really have to be a surprise party? It just seems like more work for little to no benefit.”
“I think a surprise party sounds great, Mako-chan, and I think you’d be outvoted anyway.”
“I eagerly await the moment when the surprise on our leader’s face transmutes to joy.”
“...Sure. Anyway, the point is, keep it hush-hush. It don’t work otherwise.”
Here it was, his opportunity. He chimes in, “It's not a surprise party without a surprise, after all.”
“Damn right it isn’t, Akira.” Akira smirks. Three, two, one… “Wait!”
“Surprise,” Akira says casually, as the Thieves turn to him as one. Silence reigns for just a moment before Futaba finally lets her laughter loose.
The assembled Thieves swarm Akira, and he lets himself enjoy the comfortable chaos of being surrounded by his energetic friends. He pulls Ryuji into a manly hug, Ann into a less manly one, shares a firm handshake with Yusuke and a fist bump with Haru. He locks eyes with Makoto, and after a long moment they nod in sync.
Akira slides into the booth next to Sumire and reaches around her to ruffle Futaba’s hair. At his girlfriend's pout he ruffles her hair too. He smiles. Even with his friends’ constant texts and calls, his year away from them had dragged on. Now he was back, and the world seemed to have regained its magic.
The Dreamer rises into the air. She can feel the world in her heart, and the wonderful power that will bring it into reality. She pulls on that world. Silly things like physics and logic aren’t important, not compared to her. What mattered was what she felt, what she saw, what she wanted.
She feels it, when the veil separating the worlds thins, then rips apart in her grasp. Oh, her world will be beautiful!
And once you get me the Miraculous, it will be everlasting.
Sojiro shooed them upstairs with his classic faux-grumpy half smile. Akira revealed the massive haul of snacks he’d got on the way, and they had the party they’d thought they’d be planning. Now, a lull has settled. They’re all sitting around the room relaxing and quietly chatting, or just enjoying the rightness of the completed Thieves.
Morgana’s ears perk up. “Mmm. Felt the air pressure spike. Might be a storm later.”
“I wouldn’t mind that.” Yusuke says. He brings up his hands to frame the window. “I’ve always found the way light shines through rain to be beautiful.”
A moment passes, then something flows through the room. Morgana’s initial assessment of air pressure wasn’t wrong, but it was woefully inadequate. Everyone in the room clearly feels it, because they all look up, and Makoto stands and starts making her way to the window.
Suddenly a new feeling rolls over the land, one uncomfortably familiar to the erstwhile Phantom Thieves. Akira feels leather on his arms where there was none before, the comfortable weight of weapons on his belt, and most damningly he feels the odd partitions in his mind that divide his consciousness from his Personas.
“What the hell?”
“What!? But how?? This shouldn’t be possible!” Morgana is in his monstrous form. “We destroyed Yaldabaoth and brought down Maruki, the Metaverse should be inaccessible!”
“Maruki. Senpai, call him. If anyone can bring back the Metaverse it’ll be him.” Sumire is clutching Akira’s shoulder. He pulls out his phone and finds the number. He puts it on speaker and holds it out.
The phone rings but once before it connects. “Kurusu! It wasn’t me! I know this looks bad, and I can only give my word, but I swear on my life, this is not my doing!” The panic in the doctor’s voice is obvious. Sumire’s death grip on his shoulder loosens.
“I believe you.” A sigh is audible. “But you know more about the inner workings of the Metaverse than we do. Any insights into the cause of this would be appreciated.”
“Ah, well.” Maruki takes a couple deep breaths, and when he speaks again his voice is much more collected. “This, for lack of a better word, feels just like when Yaldabaoth, and then I, merged the Metaverse into the real world. I expect, though I cannot confirm, that this is the outskirts of a Palace. Nothing around me seems to have changed, so I don’t believe the Palace is centered anywhere in Tokyo.”
“Any ideas on how to stop it?”
“Well, maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“Let me gather my thoughts. To do something of this magnitude, to merge a Palace onto the real world like this, it takes power. Lots of power. The power source that Yaldabaoth, and later I, used was the collective will of the people. Now, well, I can feel that power, and I can tell that it isn’t being used.”
“Then, where is the power coming from?”
“I’m not sure. That much power should shine like a beacon, but– oh! Kurusu, I think I might have a direction, at least.”
“Well?”
“Down.”
“Like Mementos down?
“No. For one it’s off-center, but mostly it’s… farther, much farther. I believe that the power causing this phenomenon is coming from somewhere on the other side of the planet.”
“For real?”
“Anything else?”
“No, I’m afraid I’m as in the dark as you are.”
“Well, you’ve given us a lead, at least. Thanks for your help.”
Akira hangs up. Tense silence fills the room. “So, fearless leader,” Ryuji, or maybe Skull, says, “what’s the plan?”
Akira takes a deep breath, and closes his eyes. Joker opens them, and cracks a smirk. “Some fool wandered into our backyard. I say we pay them a visit, and if necessary, show them the door.”
At his side, Violet chimes in. “The Metaverse isn’t a plaything. If someone found a way to bring it back, they need to be stopped, and we’re the only ones who can do it.”
“We’ll be going in blind, so don’t get cocky,” Queen, ever the strategist, advises. “We’re strong, but also a year rusty. If you get in over your head, just run. There’s no shame in staying alive.”
“Yes!” Panther pumps a fist. “The Phantom Thieves are back in action!”
“I concur,” Fox says. “It will be good to stretch my legs once more.”
Skull rolls his shoulder and grins. “All right! They won’t know what hit ‘em!”
“The Phantom Thieves will not let corruption fester, no matter where it rears its ugly head!” Mona’s oversized head bobs in a nod.
“We’ll find whoever’s doing this and crush them!” Noir says cheerfully.
“Looks like we’re unanimous. And I’ve got some good news: the Meta-Nav’s back too, and it’s already got our infiltration point as a warp spot.” Oracle shows her phone with a familiar black and red app and a button labeled “ticket booth” highlighted.
Joker narrows his eyes. “Convenient,” he mutters. The Meta-Nav had been originally created by Yaldabaoth, and while the god of control didn’t ever use it against them, Joker isn’t sure it can’t be weaponized. Still, if Maruki is right and the center of the Palace is all the way on the other side of the world, their options are distinctly limited. “Oracle, do you have any idea where that’d put us?”
“Ummm…” The hacker’s fingers fly over the phone. “The Nav’s always been weird as all hell, but it does for the most part act like a normal app… Here! Punch in the coordinates- Paris?!”
“Oh my god! Paris?!” Ann looks like she should have stars in her eyes. “I’ve always wanted to go back there someday.”
Queen puts a hand to her chin. “It’s certainly on the other side of the world… a little off-center…”
“The world’s foremost hub of beauty and the fine arts,” Yusuke says with a sweeping gesture. “If the opportunity arises, I would very much like to see the Louvre.”
“We’re not going as tourists, Fox . Stay focused on the mission,” Mona scolds.
“Let’s get our stuff and get ready,” Joker says, taking control. “We want to resolve this quickly, but if it has to take a couple days it’s not the end of the world. Oracle, is the cache still ready?”
“Yup! All our latest weapons and a full suite of healing items, plus some of the weirder metaverse stuff.”
“Good. We’ll take 15 to stretch and get equipped, then it’s mission start.”