Travelling through town with our Personas is actually really easy. The downside of shedding our military clothes is that we’re now being targeted by random townspeople on both sides. That said, the massive advantage having Persona powers gives us more than makes up for it. My lack of a ranged attack would normally be an issue, but my armor seems to actually protect me pretty well against gunfire. I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t be the case in real life, but I’ve long since learned to not even bother trying to apply regular logic to anything that happens in the Metaverse.

After breezing through the town, we arrive at our destination. What we see in the area where our church would normally be is quite a sight to behold. Instead of the church, we see what appears to be a huge military complex. It’s as tall as a skyscraper, and made of a slick, black stone that looks impossible to scale.

“Well, I think that Ted’s theory is most likely correct,” I comment, as we observe the building from the cover of some nearby trees.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Anja remarks. “Looks tougher than Fort Knox.”

“I expected it to be something like this,” Nova says. “It totally fits with the whole ‘war’ theme.”

“Oh yeah, speaking of which… I totally called it earlier!” Anja says, grinning at me. “Remember what I said in the library?”

“Yeah, yeah, I remember,” I say, rolling my eyes at her. “Don’t get too proud of yourself. Now we need to figure out how to get in.”

We’re all silent for a while, and we privately survey the area. There are a ton of soldiers swarming the area. Some of them are simply patrolling, while others are escorting prisoners into the building, their heads covered with bags. It being broad daylight, I figure that there’s probably no way that we are going to sneak into the building.

Ted breaks the silence. “Well, perhaps if we can’t get in as thieves, we can get in as prisoners,” he suggests.

“You mean we should… turn ourselves in?” Anja questions.

“We got someone with us still in his military uniform, don’t we?” Ted points out.

We all turn towards Cedric, who’s just sort of awkwardly leaning against a tree.

“Well, I don’t have any better ideas,” I say. “‘Take us prisoner’, then.”

The others nod and start getting themselves into position… except for Zoe. The whole conversation, she’s been silent, and her gaze has been fixated on the fortress in the distance. Her face is pale, and she has a faint expression of revulsion. I think it’s fair to say this whole experience has been a rude awakening for her.

The ruse is working so far; we’re able to get inside the base with no issue. Bringing Cedric with us ended up being a master stroke. Since he’s actually a denizen of this palace, the others in the base recognize him and refer to him as “Private.” In hindsight, I suppose it is rather odd that a cognition puppet version of someone would straight up defect to help us. Perhaps it goes to show that the community’s hold over everyone’s hearts isn’t as secure as they’d maybe hope for.

Inside, the sanctuary has been converted into a war room. The pews are gone. There are now soldiers buzzing from place to place, or else standing around near the walls and chatting. The five of us “prisoners” are presented to Mr. Stephenson, a bearded man who teaches one of the Sunday school classes (and also just so happens to be one of the people currently at my doorstep.)

“Excellent work, Private,” he says to Cedric. “Looks you found two of our runaways!” he continues, glancing across Zoe and I. “Take them to the re-education chamber. Zoe’s family is on duty there at the moment, and they will be happy to see that she’s returned.”

“Re-education chamber?” Nova mutters disdainfully.

Stephenson ignores him and continues. “Let’s see here… looks like you also got a couple of unclean children and… what on earth is that thing?”

“My name’s Ted,” Ted introduces himself. “Nice to meet you.”

Stephenson frowns at him. “Ted? That sounds like something you’d name a bear. Not an armadillo.”

“It’s short for Theodore,” Ted explains. “I was named after the first President Roosevelt.”

Stephenson waves him off dismissively. “I don’t care. Just take all of them to the re-education chamber, then.”

“Roger, Sir!” Cedric replies enthusiastically. “Come with me, you unclean lot!”

“You’re having way too much fun with this, man,” Anja mumbles.

He leads us out of the sanctuary and into the hallway. As soon as we exit the room, Cedric asks, “Umm… so, where’s the re-education chamber?”

“I don’t know, maybe Sunday School?” I suggest. “Go up the stairs, and I’ll direct us from there.”

“I can’t believe they let us through with our weapons!” Zoe marvels. “They really must not be very smart.”

“Well, that’s probably because they can’t actually see them,” Anja points out. “Our weapons only appear for us when we need them for battle. Haven’t you noticed?”

“What… oh!” Zoe exclaims, apparently having just noticed that her shotgun isn’t in her hands. “I hadn’t noticed that.”

“It’s okay. It’s something which the rest of us probably should’ve established already,” I say. “It makes sense, considering our Personas only appear behind us during battle.”

“Well, at least we get to keep our sick outfits!” Anja comments, smoothing out the front of her dress.

We walk up the staircase, and past the choir room. Inside, they are singing a very Celtic-sounding song:

“My heart shall sing of the day you bring.

Let the fires of your justice burn.

Wipe away all tears for the dawn draws near

And the world is about to turn.”

“Yeah, it’s about to turn alright,” I comment lowly. “Just not in the way they think…”

“Quiet down!” Cedric whispers. “I hear someone coming.”

From around the corner, I can hear a couple of male voices talking.

“This is sooo boring,” says one of them, who sounds like a boy in middle school. “I just wanna go home.”

“Just stick it out for a little while longer, bro,” the other one says, sounding slightly older than the first one.

“You’ve been saying that for… wait, how long have we been here?” the first voice replies. “It feels like it’s been an eternity…”

Zoe gasps. “Those are my brothers!” She tells us softly.

She dashes to the edge of the hallway and peaks her head around the corner. I follow her, just to be on the safe side.

Sure enough, Derrick and Collin were the voices we had been hearing. Derrick walks through a glass door part way down the next hallway, but before Collin can follow him, Zoe is able to catch his attention by waving.

“Wh… Zoe?” Collin asks, sticking his foot in the door to keep it open. “What are you doing here?

“We came back to change everyone’s hearts!” Zoe explains. “Collin, do you know where the pastor is?”

Collin briefly glances left and right, and then starts to say, “Uh, yeah. I know where he is. He’s…”

Before he can finish, the glass door reopens, and Derrick’s voices says “C’mon, Collin! Quit lollygagging!” Collin gets dragged inside.

“Well, shit. He was about to tell us something very helpful,” I say.

“Hmm… we probably won’t meet too many other friendly people with that information,” Anja reasons. “Let’s see if we can follow him.”

We walk up to the door. Though the door is made of glass, we can’t see anything from the other side but a dark hallway. The sign overhead says “Re-education,” but this isn’t the Sunday school like where I thought this would be; it’s some room that is usually used for storage. It also won’t open; there’s little red light on a widget to the side, suggesting that it’s unlocked by some sort of key card.

“Do you have clearance to get us through here?” I ask Cedric.

“Uh, no,” he says. “I’m just a private.”

“Well, we’re supposed to be in there anyway, aren’t we?” Anja reasons. “We’re ‘prisoners,’ remember? Let’s just get some other random guard to let us in.”

“Actually… hold on,” Nova says. “I don’t think we all need to go in there. That beard guy said that Zoe’s parents are in there, and if they see either Ashley or Zoe, it’ll end up being a big drama.”

“Ooohhh, I see what you’re saying,” Anja says, comprehension dawning on her. “It’d be easier if just one of us went in there. I’ll just ‘get caught,’ get thrown inside, ask Collin for the info, and then sneak out.”

“That should work,” I agree. “However, the rest of us should get somewhere where we can survey the situation, just in case.” I gesture towards the room to our right, which is labelled “Observation Room”.

Nova grabs the doorknob and yanks the door open. Inside is a desk with a row of chairs next to what is most likely a one-way mirror. However, there is currently only one person inside; our current youth pastor, Garrett, who is draped across his chair lazily as if he had just been nodding off.

“Uhh… what are you guys doing?” He asks, looking at us with surprise.

Before he can do anything else, I punch my sword right through his chest. For a moment, he simply sits there, utterly stunned, and then his body dissolves into a shadowy substance.

“Ooh… you didn’t tell me you were about to do that,” Zoe says, cringing at the unexpected violence.

“Yeah, well, I always found him annoying,” I admit. “I wanted to savor the moment.”

Zoe gives me a look which I have seldom seen on her face before; disgust. I feel rather ashamed of myself all of a sudden.

“Well… if the room is secure, I’ll go do my part,” Anja says awkwardly. She backs out of the room and into the hallway.

To distract myself from the uncomfortable moment, I look and see what’s happening on the other side of the one-way mirror. I immediately wish that I hadn’t.

The scene that meets my eyes is a middle-eastern man who is tied to a steel table, suspended over a tank of water. The man is currently gasping for air and has water all over his face, suggesting to me that he’s already taken at least one plunge. The tank is in the middle of a dark room with no decorations. Zoe’s parents are standing by a few feet away, both very well-dressed and seemingly discussing something. Collin and Derrick are now skulking against the wall, looking as if they’d rather not be there.

“Wow, I know you guys are ‘Baptists’,” Nova comments, “But this is pretty hardcore!”

“This is less like baptism, and more like waterboarding,” Cedric comments, frowning.

I turn away from the window, and notice that Zoe has taken a seat and has started crying. I quickly sit next to her and put an arm around her.

“Look, Zoe. I’m sorry that I stabbed Garrett,” I tell her soothingly.

She shakes her head. “N-no… that’s not it…”

Oh. Right, it’s probably pretty shocking for her to see her own family violating the eighth amendment. Not knowing what to say, I sit there and hold her for a while.

Then, we hear Anja’s voice shouting from the hallway, most likely trying to catch the attention of a nearby guard. It’s immediately clear to me why she volunteered herself for this.

“Hey you!” she yells. “You won’t believe this! I just got a vision from God!”

“Huh? What?” says a soft male voice that I think might be someone in the choir. “What are you doing here?

“I told you, I just met God!” she shouts. “And guess what? She’s black! And God also showed me a vision that revealed that Jesus was gay! I saw him sneak into the bushes with John and have anal sex with him!”

I really hope that the one-way mirror is soundproof, because Nova falls onto the floor and starts laughing like a hyena. I’m personally unable to suppress a snicker. Even Zoe seems to be cheered up; she’s wiping away her tears, and now has an expression that’s a mix between amusement and horror.

“How could you say such blasphemous things?” The male voice said. “Are you unclean? Where are you supposed to be?”

“I bet she escaped from re-education,” a bossy female voice says. “Grab her other arm! We need to make sure she doesn’t get away.”

“I don’t wanna be ‘re-educated’!” Anja screams. “Come on, just admit it. Your stupid religion is nothing more than a glorified book club that you’ve been carrying on for millenia so you have an excuse to oppress women! Eve’s only sin was thinking for herself!”

“Okay, she’s gone to too far now,” I say, making a mental note to smack her next time that I get the chance. Nova, on the other hand, laughs even harder to the point of literally rolling on the floor. Cedric just sort of leans against the wall, clearly wanting to laugh too but trying really hard not to.

I continue to spout every religion-based insult that jumps into my head as the two boring adults drag me through the doorway.

“God is dead! Jesus was the descendant of a prostitute! Moses was a murderer! David was a rapist! Paul was a heretic! Joseph Smith was a pedophile!”

“We don’t even believe in Joseph Smith!” the man accosts me sternly.

“What? Oh, right, that’s Mormonism,” I concede. “Uh… okay I give up. Damn hell fuck slut shit ass bitch cunt piss bastard motherfucker shitface whore…”

The woman has clearly had enough of my shit, and punches me squarely in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me.

“You foulmouthed cretin!” The woman shouts at me. “You are not even fit to step foot into this sacred place!”

“Ooh… that’s so kinky, mommy,” I moan. “Please hit me again…”

I am roughly thrown on my face onto the floor. I flop onto my back and look at my captors. I’m amused to see that the lady is blushing furiously, while the man just looks utterly shocked.

“Boys… tie this one up so she doesn’t get loose again,” the man says to two boys nearby who I assume are Zoe’s brothers.

“But I want yoooou to tie me up, mommy,” I say in a sultry voice. “I’m soooo lesbo for you…”

“Let’s get out of here,” the woman says frantically. “I’m going to need to take a shower after touching that thing.” They both speedily walk back out through the door.

The shorter of the two boys, who must be Collin, kneels next to me with a coil of rope hanging on his right arm.

He cautiously looks left and right. “I’m not gonna lie… that whole bit was lowkey kind of hilarious,” he tells me. “I gotta give you some respect for that.” Suddenly, he gives me an inquisitive look. “Hey… do you really think that Jesus was gay?”

“Dude, I don’t fucking know,” I say. “Look, I’m friends with Zoe. I just came in here because you were about to tell us where that Palmer guy is.”

“Ooh, you must be Anja!” he says, recognition dawning on his face. “Wow, you really are short.”

“Oh, fuck off!” I jab at him. He laughs at me.

“Collin? What on earth are you doing over here?” a different voice says. I look up to see that it’s a blonde woman who must be Zoe’s mother, who has her hands on her hips and is glaring at Collin rather like a saber tooth tiger.

“Oh, uh, I’m tying up the prisoner,” he says, hastily starting to unravel the rope.

“Here, I’ll handle her,” she says. She puts her arms under and picks me up in a fireman’s carry with surprising strength.

I’m thinking about continuing the “lesbian BDSM” skit from earlier, but then I glance in the direction that she came from and such thoughts are wiped from my mind by the horrifying sight of a man being drowned by Zoe’s dad.

“Oh my god,” I say. “That’s inhumane.”

“Well, behave yourself, and maybe we’ll consider letting you off easy,” Zoe’s mom says. “I admit that I don’t really like the idea of interrogating someone as young as you.”

Zoe’s dad uses a handle to lift the man out of the water, and he quickly gasps air into his lungs for dear life, shivering from the cold.

“Now… pledge your allegiance to our God, and we’ll let you go!” Zoe’s dad commands.

“I do… I have always been pledged to God… I pray to Him every day!”

“LIES!” Zoe’s dad shouts. “You don’t pray to the real God. You pray to Allah, don’t you?”

“’Allah’ is just the Arabic word for ‘God’, dipshit!” I shout, not able to contain myself.

Zoe’s mom hisses in annoyance. “That was your one chance, little girl, and you just blew it,” she chides me. “In this family, we have no tolerance for children who sass their elders.”

“Oh, I know that already!” I say back. “I know what you did to your own daughter. You two are nothing but a couple of homophobic pieces of shit in my eyes.”

“Good news, Mr. Marangoz,” Zoe’s dad says while untying the other man. “We’re going to give you some time to… reflect by yourself.”

The man named "Marangoz" quickly gets to his feet and, still shivering, runs out of the room.

“Uh… wait a sec,” I say, realizing what’s going on too late. “I’m not into real torture… oh fuck.”

“Should’ve thought about that sooner,” Zoe’s mom says sadistically.

I glance at my reflection in the mirror on the other wall. “Uh… okay guys… a little help?”

Ashley hisses with annoyance. “Ah, leave it to Anja to take things a step too far and get in trouble,” she says, getting to her feet. “Alright, looks like it’s time for plan B.”

“What’s plan B?” Nova asks.

Ashley wildly swings her sword over her head and at the glass, causing it to shatter into pieces. Without further ado, she steps over the frame and into the re-education room. Nova and Cedric shrug and follow after her.

“Can you give me a lift, Jolene?” Ted asks at my feet.

“Um, it’s Zoe. But yes, I will.”

I grab him by the scruff of the neck and follow after the others, internally bracing myself to face my parents again.

I step over the windowsill to see Ashley brandishing her sword at my parents, Mom holding Anja in her arms.

“…So just put her down, and we’ll be on our merry way,” Ashley is saying as I set Ted back down on the floor.

“You were very foolish to come back here, Ashley,” Mom says, unceremoniously dropping Anja onto the floor. Something weird is changing in her eyes…

“Didn’t your parents relay the message to you?” Dad says, a shadow falling over his face. “You’re not welcome here…”

“Uh… what the fuck is happening?” Nova asks. “What’s wrong with them?”

Then, both of my parents are engulfed in shadows. They each emerge in completely different forms. Dad reappears as a tall man made of gold with a huge, angelic wingspan behind him. And Mom re-emerged as a strange, pale woman with straggly black hair and an enormous snake draped over her shoulders.

“Huh. Well, I wasn’t exactly expecting a warm reception, but I wasn’t expecting this either,” Ashley comments.

“What happened to them?” I ask her, in total awe of the transformation I just witnesses.

“We must have somehow awakened their shadow forms,” she explains. “Get prepared for a fight.”