SUMMARY - PERSONA 3, 4, 5 ENDGAME SPOILERS

Shortly after an uneventful Change of Heart was thrust upon Kunikazu Okumura, a mysterious new student joined Yusuke Kitagawa's class at Kosei High. This student was named Minato Arisato, and he was acting very strangely indeed: passive to a fault, following any instructions given but failing to do anything under his own free will. Questioning Minato's social worker, Souji Seta, yielded no answers for Yusuke as to the truth behind Minato's condition - and the Meta-Nav claimed that Seta's shadow was somehow neither in Mementos nor in a Palace, making abuse at his hands unlikely. However, when Futaba Sakura found evidence that Arisato had somehow been transplanted to the current day from the year 2009, the Phantom Thieves decided it was worth investigating. And furthermore... it seemed while Seta's Shadow was untraceable, Minato's had a Palace.

A brief scouting expedition into this Palace yielded only another mystery: a cheerful boy named Ryoji Mochizuki, who claimed to have been whisked from the high school straight into the Palace, but who was not wearing a uniform - and of whom Yusuke had no memory. After returning with Ryoji to the real world, the Phantom Thieves were able to persuade him to tell the truth. In 2009, something had happened which had trapped himself and Minato in another dimension; when they were freed, Ryoji awoke inside of Minato's Palace. However, he was unable to shake Minato's Shadow from his slumber; effectively, he was trapped until the Phantom Thieves arrived.

Curiously, on their second expedition into Minato's Palace, a cognition appeared which seemed capable of aiding them: Minato's cognitive version of Ryoji. Helpful and affable, especially towards the girls in the party, he guided them through the maze-like train station which had grown up around the slumbering Stationmaster. However, as they went deeper, the cognition began to behave strangely. By the time they reached the corridor outside the Stationmaster's office, it turned on them. It transformed into a terrifying creature made of black feathers and a grinning mask - calling herself Nyx, she claimed that the Stationmaster should be hers and hers alone to treasure, and that the party would advance no further.

They were able to defeat her, but it was a hard-won battle, and the real Ryoji was shaken by the form that his friend's cognition had taken. For Joker and Oracle, awakening Minato's Shadow was easy - and as the Palace collapsed around them, they felt certain they'd done the right thing.

As it turned out, Minato Arisato had chosen to sacrifice himself back in 2009 in order to create a barrier between the embodiment of human desires and the embodiment of human suffering - averting the end of the world as he slumbered on the threshold. Yet recently, he had somehow been freed from this duty: his body had awoken, but his Shadow had not, a Palace growing from his heart as it languished. He had been picked up by the government shortly after his reappearance, and a special detective had been assigned to his case; one Naoto Shirogane, who had fallen into a position as as consultant on potentially paranormal cases. Recognising the hallmarks of an Otherworld-related case, Shirogane insisted on assigning a social worker to Minato who was certain to understand the issues involved: Souji Seta.

Now that Minato's Shadow was awake once more, he was able to reclaim his personality. He and Souji began to work together in earnest on integrating Minato, and the apparently-now-human Ryoji, back into normal student lives. But if Minato was awake, then who was guarding the boundary...?

While the Phantom Thieves went on to infiltrate the palace of Masayoshi Shido, an unexpected ally presented himself. Goro Akechi arrived late one night at Sae Niijima's apartment, frantic and ragged, rambling desperately but incoherently about some sort of impending danger. After calming him with tea and snacks, he was able to sensibly relay the problem: he had double-crossed Shido, for whom he had been working, and required protection in order to live beyond the end of the week. Sae was able to help... but Makoto overheard the conversation, and relayed it to the other Phantom Thieves.

Although Akechi was initially reticent towards the Phantom Thieves, it didn't take long for him to open up, being as he was essentially between a rock and a hard place. He had been acting as Shido's assassin ever since he caused the initially accidental death of Wakaba Isshiki in 2014. However, of late, he had been having increasingly heart-wrenching visions every time he was assigned a job - initially he had written them off as nightmares, until he realised that every one of them had come true not long after he'd had them. His most recent had arrived after Shido had ordered that Akechi eliminate Kunikazu Okumura. It had shown a grieving Haru being snapped up by a terrible, humongous creature... and when faced with his target, Akechi simply couldn't pull the trigger.

He made arrangements and, as best as he could, extricated himself from Shido's employment - though not without almost losing his life more than once on his way to Sae's apartment, Shido having resorted to sending more traditional assassins after his former star. He only approached the Niijima residence once he was certain that he was not being followed... which brought them to now. He wanted to help the Phantom Thieves take Shido down; but, he said, he understood if the Thieves did not want him, especially considering that Futaba Sakura was on their team.

To his surprise, they agreed to bring him on board. After all, even Futaba agreed that Goro was as much a victim of Shido as any of the rest of them. And as it transpired, Goro Akechi had the same power as Akira in the Metaverse: the power of the Wildcard, that allowed him to use two Personas. With the power of Robin Hood and Loki on their side, in the hands of his spurned son, they were able to make quick work of Shido's palace.

Before they were able to send the calling card, however, Yusuke received a phonecall - from Souji. Ryoji had disappeared into thin air, and Minato was convinced that something bad had happened to him. Souji revealed that he was aware of the existence of other worlds, and that Yusuke and his friends were likely Persona-users. He implored them to go with Minato to find Ryoji. He feared that Minato, stripped of his ability to use Personas, would go in after Ryoji regardless... putting him in severe danger. Akira took the phone, reassured Souji that they would aid Minato, and lead the way into Mementos.

Finding Minato wasn't difficult, and thankfully, he had come to no harm in their absence - he was still used to avoiding Shadows, even if these were of a different nature than the ones he had known back in the Dark Hour. Their path was blocked by something not wholly inkeeping with Mementos' aesthetic... an angel, calling itself Saklas, bid them return back the way they came. It asked Minato why he was here if he had sacrificed himself for his friends... was his sacrifice for nothing, then? It was the angriest that any of the Phantom Thieves had ever seen Minato. He managed to awaken afresh to a Persona: Messiah once more answered his call, helping him in striking down the false angel, and clearing the path to Ryoji.

Ryoji, meanwhile, had followed voices that he'd heard whispering about Minato - all the way to Mementos. He had met something down there... something calling itself the Demiurge, wishing to make a deal with the Appraiser. The Demiurge wished, it had claimed, to take humanity under its wing; to protect them from themselves. But Ryoji was human now - and even if he hadn't been, he would have refused such a deal anyway. Awakening to his Persona, Thanatos, he banished the Demiurge's avatar.

They had to send the calling card to Shido quickly. But despite defeating Samael and forcing the Change of Heart, nothing much changed. Ryoji suspected the Demiurge had much to do with it, and he was right. The Phantom Thieves headed into Mementos on Christmas Eve, finding the Holy Grail... and faded out of existence, awakening in the Velvet Room. Akira and Goro both found themselves in the central room's prison cells, slated for execution. By uncovering the false Igor's true identity and freeing Lavenza from her strange imprisonment, the Wildcards were able to liberate their friends.

They were greeted in the corrupted Shibuya by Souji Seta. A Persona-user himself, he pledges his support to the party in their final battle against the unmasked Yaldabaoth. More angels appeared to block their path, but each fell to the Phantom Thieves' combined wrath. In the end, by the wishes of the people, Satanael was able to banish the God of Control...

...and Lavenza was able to explain.

As it transpired, it was her job to free Minato Arisato, but she was never given a chance. No sooner had she made a contract with the Velvet Room's current key holder - one Goro Akechi - than she was sundered, her memories torn from her. In the last moment before the Velvet Room was overtaken by the controlling presence of Yaldabaoth, Igor was able to create Morgana - and Lavenza was able to free a Butterfly with a message for the first potential Wildcard it came across, beseeching them for help. As it happened, that Wildcard was not Goro, but Akira.

But from whence had Yaldabaoth come? It turned out it was an accidental betrayal from within. The Velvet Room Attendant Elizabeth had been searching for a new way to contain Erebus for the longest time, and had created a being she believed capable of taking Minato's place at the threshold. However, in the end, it had developed a mind of its own.

She should have known that something was wrong when her Persona changed from Thanatos to a new being named Sophia. But there were no other immediate signs; only once she freed Minato was Yaldabaoth's attention drawn directly to Elizabeth, and after imprisoning her deep within the core of Mementos, he began to imprison the other Velvet Room Attendants as well. Souji had noticed that Margaret no longer visited him, but for a while he had thought perhaps she had simply grown out of wanting to see him. The fact that she had stopped at the same time that Minato had appeared back in Japan made him think that something more was going on, but as a salaried social worker who couldn't even enter the TV world any more, he was hardly equipped to investigate it himself. Only through the Phantom Thieves' actions was the truth finally uncovered for all to see.

With Yaldabaoth defeated, however, Erebus was dangerously close to making contact with Nyx. The Phantom Thieves' new mission became not to free mankind from Yaldabaoth's tyranny, but to contain the creature that had caused this all to begin with. Despite Goro offering repeatedly to simply take Minato's place, Lavenza insisted on doing it the way she had initially planned.

After another two years' or so of work, and with further assistance from both the Phantom Thieves, the two former Wildcards they'd befriended, and the former demigod whose other half they were working to save - they were finally able to pull it off. With this settled, Goro Akechi's Contract was finally fulfilled - and the Phantom Thieves were at last formally decommissioned by Igor. Their adventures finished, they were finally able to settle back into their normal lives...

TL;DR

Lavenza made a contract with Goro Akechi. The contract contained a plan to contain Erebus and free Minato Arisato. Not knowing this, Elizabeth created Yaldabaoth to do the same thing, freeing Minato. The Persona 5 cast fixed her mistake; Goro and Lavenza went on to fulfil the original plan.

CAST ON DREAMWIDTH

Akira Kurusu our_beginning 
Minato Arisato enervated_emanation 
Ryoji Mochizuki itsnotaleash 
Goro Akechi precocious_corvid