Ren raised his hand as the group approached him.
'Arsene, what happened?'
"Joker are you alright?!" Ann asked in worry, as Shiho approached and began to pat down Ren's body.
Ryuji turned away and stood guard while keeping his ears perked.
"I think I'm fine….Arsene hasn't said anything, and I feel fine. Better than fine actually. I feel very ener-"
"Incoming!" Ryuji interrupted as a shadow burst through the door into the room they were standing in.
Ryuji met the charging shadow with a swing of his mace, knocking the guard back causing it to explode into a black mist before reforming into a new group of kelpies.
"Looks like they're here to avenge their friend!" Morgana called out.
The group took their combat stances, Ann falling behind the group, her eyes following Ren in worry.
Shiho stepped in front of Ann, spear lowering into a guard position, Scáthach materializing behind her in a flicker of blue flame. The Witch of Dún Scáith gave a bloodthirsty grin — she moved with simplicity, her spear sweeping in a low arc that mirrored Shiho's own. To Ann however, that simple slash appeared incomprehensible. The lead kelpie's foreleg buckled where the spectral edge passed through it, and Shiho's spear punched up through its chest a heartbeat later, the kelpie bursting into mist.
"You good Joker?" Ryuji called out as Captain Kidd appeared behind him, before swooping down, body slamming the approaching shadow.
"Yeah, I think I'm fine!" Ren called out before he heard a new voice appear in his mind.
'Trickster! Call me out! I can help!' the excited voice squeaked.
'Huh?! Arsene what's going on?!' Ren exclaimed mentally. Arsene didn't appear when Ren reached out to him! He was already running towards the group of kelpies and couldn't slow his momentum!
'Call out to her mon ami!' Arsene's voice echoed with great bravado.
His mind clearing instantly Ren understood what needed to be done.
"Come! Pixie!"
Ren reached up, dodging back as a kelpie lunged, and tore the mask from his face.
Blue flame erupted around him, but it wasn't Arsene's familiar shape. A small figure tumbled out of the flames with a graceful pirouette, even smaller than Morgana, showing a mischievous grin. She hovered at Ren's shoulder with her hands on her hips, looking entirely too pleased with herself.
"Finally!" Pixie's voice rang out, "I was beginning to think you were ignoring me Trickster!"
"Neither you nor Arsene told me what just happened!" Ren growled, ducking under a kelpie's lunge.
"You should have felt it! I am thou!" She thrust her hand upward and cutely declared, "Zio!"
A crackling streak of lightning descended from the sky, directly onto the oncoming shadows.
"Joker! What the..? How?!" Morgana shouted in confusion, barely avoiding the kelpie's Garu. "Ugh! I hate these things! Zorro has a wind affinity! I can't do much! Dia!"
"Talk later! Fight now!"
The smell of disinfectant, and herbs drifted forth, as light formed around Ryuji who was on the ground after being hit with the Garu spell that Morgana had dodged.
"Shit that hurt!" Ryuji groaned as he hopped up from the ground.
"Sukukaja!!" one of the remaining Kelpies roared.
A glow surrounded the shadow and it was suddenly moving much quicker, snorting loudly and rapidly like it had just been injected with adrenaline.
"A buff?!" Shiho drove her spear towards the shadow, who deftly dodged the blow.
However -
"Zio!!!" Ren and Ryuji yelled in unison, causing two streaks of lightning to combine, smashing into the remaining shadows and dispersing them into mist.
With the fight over, everyone caught their breath. Before glancing over at Ren, who was staring at the floating girl next to him.
"Joker did you take the shadow as a persona somehow?!" Morgana asked in shock
"I am here to support the Trickster!" Pixie declared as she sat on Ren's shoulder crossing her legs. "We, The Lovers, are always in his corner!"
She stared at the group beaming, before winking at Ann and blowing a raspberry at Shiho.
"Thanks?" Ryuji asked in confusion.
"Hehehe, don't thank a fae Mr. Skull!" Pixie giggled before vanishing.
"One person should only have one persona! What's going on?!" Morgana groaned in frustration.
'Mi otro yo, He may be one of the unique individuals known as a wildcard! I've learned of their existence when floating in the sea of souls, but there are only 3 confirmed to have existed!'
'A wildcard?' Morgana asked in worry
'The one with the potential to change the world.' Zorro said mysteriously before falling silent.
Morgana stared in shock.
Meanwhile the group was interrogating Ren. They eventually relented when Ren explained that Pixie had somehow become his Persona. But not before worrying about the state of Arsene, which caused him to materialize alongside Pixie, who was pouting. Arsene gave a flourish of his cape and thanked the group for their worry behind excessive tears and pomp.
'It can't be good for him to have more than one voice in his head..' The group thought
Ren was lost in thought and didn't notice he had whispered, "Maybe Igor would know.."
'Igor? Uh, uh, Lavender? No that's not right. Who?' Morgana wondered as he felt like his missing memories had been prodded. Before shaking his head. 'Not the time. It's dangerous here.'
Yet his mind kept heading back to it. Igor. This name was important, he was positive.
"Should we head back?" Ann asked.
The group turned to Ren, who had cleared his mind.
"No, let's keep going for now. We're still learning and with the addition of Pixie, I can also cast Dia. We won't have to ask Mona to drain his energy keeping us healthy. He has more freedom in battle now."
"Whew, it's stressful being the only healer!! I guess I was right about you being our trump card, huh?" Morgana proudly stated, as if he had known all along.