Fool, Void, Judgement

Chapter 1

-The top of Tartarus-

The members of SEES stood up against the Avatar of Nyx, once their friend Ryoji. As they kept attacking the Avatar, their informant Fuuka Yamagishi, using her Persona Juno, was able to inform them that it was changing its affinities and even its Arcana. Finally, it's Arcana was shifted to Death, it's true form. As it used the skill Arcana Shift, it spoke.

"The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate... Entrusting his future to the cards, man clings to a dim hope. Yet, the Arcana is the means by which all is revealed... Beyond the beaten path lies the absolute end. It matters not who you are... Death awaits you."

The SEES members knew they needed to end this quickly. Especially the two twins, Minato and Minako Arisato. They were the leaders of the team. "Let's finish this!" Minako called. "Give it your best shot!" From behind her, she heard cries from the other members as they summoned their Personae.

"Isis! Garudyne!"

"Trismesigus! Blade of Fury!"

"Artemesia! Bufudyne!"

"Caesar! Ziodyne!"

"Athena! Akasha Arts!"

"Kala-Nemi! Primal Force!"

The other team members all cast their most powerful attacks at Nyx's Avatar, but it wasn't enough. Minato and Minako then attacked, summoning their Personas as well.

"Helel!"

"Satan!"

The twins stared at each other. "Armageddon!" They cried, firing their Evokers, and having the two Personas unleash a massive blast of pure, Almighty power. They collapsed, exhausted. "D-did we do it?" Minato asked, as Yukari ran to him and Akihiko helped Minako onto her feet.

To their shock and disbelief, The moon was opened and Nyx came out anyways, shooting waves of energy which reduced every one of the, to their knees. Aigis was even knocked down after activating her Orgia Mode, removing her limiters. Even still, Nyx's raw power bowled her over, and the Arisato twins drifted into unconsciousness.

Or they would have, but they were transported off to the Velvet Room, where they faced the long-nosed hunchback Igor, and his two assistants Theodore and Elizabeth. Before the twins could panic, Igor spoke.

"There's no need to worry. This isn't the afterlife. You're still alive. Do you remember what I once told you?"

Minato raised his hand. "The strength of our Social Links will determine our potential?"

Igor nodded and continued. "Can you hear them reaching out to you? Each one is faint, yet surely you hear them."

The twins closed their eyes and focoused. They felt the emotions of hope flowing into them from their friends who they had helped overcome their problems with. It seemed everyone was giving it their all for them, from President Tanaka, to Maiko, the little girl they used to play with. The power of their friends formed a ball of energy that nearly filled the entire Velvet Room, and it condensed into one tarot card.

"I never dreamed of seeing this card with my own eyes!" Igor said in amazement, "Behold the last power you and I shall unveil. It is the power to bring about a new beginning, or the ultimate end. With this newfound power, you may be able to defeat the one who cannot be defeated! What you have is the power of the Universe! Nothing is outside the realm of possibility for you now!"

Elizabeth stopped him to say, "We will soon be reaching your destination."

Igor nodded and continued. "In addition to Death, fate has also dealt you the Wild Card. Now our contract has been fulfilled. You must fulfill your destinies. You were truly remarkable guess." The elevator the Velvet Room had taken the form of slowly stopped, and for the first time, the door opened. The Arisato twins both walked out together, the Universe in their hands.

In the ethereal void they were floating in, a green portal opened and began pulling on them. They began to draw on the Universe to return them to reality and resist the green portal, but it was like a black hole. They were moving away, but the rate was so slow that Nyx would have brought about the Fall before they got there. Minako embraced her brother before letting go of the Universe card.

As they were pulled further apart, both remembered the contract they had signed. The only thing they had agreed to was to take responsibility for their actions. Minako gave her brother a bittersweet smile as she was sucked away. Minato watched her go, and once the portal closed, he turned back around. "She chose her destiny, now it's time to fulfill mine."

Minako stepped out of the portal and noticed she was surrounded by a cloud of smoke. She took this time to search herself, and realised both her naginata and her Evoker were on her. When the smoke finally cleared, she saw she was at some sort of gathering. Everyone was wearing cloaks and had strange creatures. There were dragons, lizards, and… was that a floating eyeball?

She saw in front of her a short girl with pink hair and an older man. They seemed to be arguing about her. Minako spoke, "Who are you?" The two looked at her, confused. She repeated herself in English, getting a similar response. As she listened, she figured these people were speaking a form of French. She was really disappointed French was only offered for seniors at school.

She retuned her thoughts to the problem at hand as the girl waved her wand and reached up to tap Minako on the forehead. The brunette got onto one knee so the pink-haired girl would be able to reach her. OF course, if she knew the kiss followed, she never would have. After the kiss, she gritted her teeth as marks began to burn into her hand. It felt as if she was hit with an Agidyne, right on her hand.

She knelt down so no one could see, and materialised a tarot card. She shattered it and switched to Surt, who absorbed fire. Of course, the burning in her hand continued, not softened at all. Thankfully, it faded soon enough, and she could understand the girl. "Come on Familiar." as Minako followed, the older man stopped her. "Could you please leave your naginata with us for now?"

Minako turned to him. "No. It was a gift from my brother." Not a lie, her brother did fuse her weapon, though he also named it the Peacock Lord, but she had grown to like the name. As he reached to take it away, she back flipped into an offensive stance. The pink-haired girl looked furious as the man lifted her into the air with his wand. He then used the same kind of spell to remove her naginata from her hands. "Thank you. We'll return it to you soon." She noticed that he was sketching something while looking at her hand. After about thirty seconds, he finished, and she fell to the ground while he walked off with her weapon. At least she had her Evoker.

She stood up, finding the pink-haired girl still there. "What was that?" She asked. "How dare you disobey orders, commoner! Furthermore, you're my familiar, and how you act is a reflection of me! So you better learn to behave yourself!" Minako rolled her eyes as she followed the girl back to her room. On the Minako thought, "I think I'd be happier at the top of Tartarus, dying with my friends than here. Damn Universe card, damn destiny. This really sucks!"

When they got to the girl's room, Minako leaned against the doorframe. "So, if I'm your Familiar, what's your name? I refuse to call a child Master or Mistress."

The pinkette looked deeply offended. "Excuse me? I'm sixteen years old, thank you very much! And my name is Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere."

The brunette nodded. "Cool. I'm Minako Arisato. Nice to meetcha!" When she tried to shake the girl's hand, she slapped it away. "Don't touch me commoner?"

Minako looked offended. "Commoner? What do you mean?" Louise let out a sigh.

"Commoners are people without magic, like you. Nobles are those with magic, like me." Minako mentally giggled "If only she knew about Persona". "I see. So what do I do as a Familiar?"

Louise seemed just as irritated. "I can use your senses to augment my own, you have to fetch me reagents for magic spells,-"

Minako cut her off. "None of that'll be happening. My senses are as good as yours, and I'm not doing some silly fetch quest for you." No, she did enough of those for Theodore back in her world.

Louise looked like she was about to boil over. "Heh, she's easier to rile up than anyone in SEES. Since I'm stuck here, may as well make the best of this."

Louise raised her wand and shot a spell at Minako. The brunette smiled and smashed the tarot card in front of her to change her Persona to Metatron. She had fused it to either nullify or reflect every kind of spell. To her surprise, the spell wasn't blocked, and blasted her into a pile of hay. Dizzy, she stood up. "Why is there a pile of hay in your room?"

Louise crossed her arms. "That's your bed. You're acting like a disobedient dog, so you'll sleep in a dog's bed. Minako thought about bringing up her former canine companion Koromaru, but decided against it. "Now undress me."

Minako decided not to press her luck since this girl could cast Almighty spells. It was about the level of a Megido spell, but still left a dent in Minako's pride. "Have these washed by morning." The girl said before climbing into bed.

Minako growled under her breath and made her way around the schools. Today was just awful. First, she almost died, then gained the power of the Universe itself simply to lose it, was forced into servitude by a pink-haired bitch, and she couldn't even block her magic.

She made her way downstairs where she saw a blonde boy flirting with a brown-haired girl wearing a different coloured cloak. She also looked younger. "Hmm, so the cloak must determine their grade." She ducked past then and saw a blue door. She pulled out her Velvet Key and opened it. Inside was Igor and Theo. Before she could utter a word, Igor made a contract appear.

"You did agree to take responsibility for your own actions, correct?" This silenced any protest on her lips. "You will need to rebuild your Social Links here, as only the Fool, Death and Judgement links are still at Rank 10. You can still access any Personas you have registered in the Compendium, but Minato's Compendium will not be accessible until Elizabeth returns. "

"So what happened to my brother?" She asked. To which Igor replied. "We do no know. Elizabeth will inform us once she returns to the Velvet Room."

"How is the Velvet Room even here? "

Igor seemed to have infinite patience. "The Velvet Room exists in a place between mind and matter, essentially its own little pocket dimension. So as our guest, you can access this room no matter what dimension you are in. But remember, time passes in your world, so you should leave. Feel free to visit anytime using your Velvet Key."

Minako sighed and began paying Theodore as he handed Persona cards to her, which she crushed and they vanished into the sea of her soul. Finished, she left and went to do the laundry, when she bumped into a rather large-chested maid. "O-oh! I'm sorry!" She quickly apologized and began to gather up the basket of clothes she dropped, before noticing that Minako wasn't a student, since she was in her Gekkoukan High uniform, with the SEES armband still on. "You're the unique familiar everyone's been talking about!" She saw the bundle of clothes in her hands. "I can take those!"

Minako shook her head. "No thanks. I'll even help you." She ignored any protest the maid put up and walked out with her to help her wash the clothes. Together, they washed the laundry of the nobles while Minako told the maid, whose name she found out was Siesta, and they exchanged small talk. Minako talked about her friends back home while Siesta told her about her siblings and how she took the job as a maid to help support her family.

While she seemed happy, Minako sensed that there was a lot more to this woman than she said, and her hunch proved correct as she saw a card in her mind's eye. The card was of a person hanging upside-down with the legs crossed as if to make the number four, with the roman numeral for twelve underneath it as a familiar voice rang in her head.

"I art thou… And thou art I.

Thou shall be blessed when fusing Personas of the Hanged Man Arcana."

She couldn't help but smile as the maid Social Link was formed. She knew how powerful Social Links were, after all, hers combined with Minato's gave them the power of the Universe itself. She parted ways with Siesta, and took Louise's folded clothes back to the girl's room. She was exhausted, but couldn't sleep yet.

She would not reduce herself to sleeping on a stack of hay, so she took off her jacket and rolled it up to use as a pillow. She curled into a ball in the corner, but not before seeing her naginata had been returned to the room, a note attached to it. She'd have to ask Louise to translate it in the morning.

Author's Note: Alright, six things:

1. I cancelled Thunder of Zero for this because Gemini Spark has an electric affinity. Louise does not, so I had to change it quite a bit.

2. I prefer Minako over Hamuko as the name for the female protagonist. Bite me.

3. I know in Persona 3 they need Evokers, but in Persona 4 they smash the tarot cards. However, I figure it made more sense for switching which Persona was equipped. She still needs her evoker to summon any of them.

4. I have all the other Familiars planned out, recommendations, if they are properly grounded, will be considered though.

5. I need some help with some Social Links. So Far I have:

Louise - Heirophant

Kirche - Empress

Tabitha - Priestess

Guiche - Lovers

Siesta - Hanged Man.

Any suggestions are welcome.

6. I did look it up, and apparently the weapon is called the Peacock Lord. And it was taken for examination because the Persona fused inside it is very powerful, therefore they can feel the magical energy it gives off.