Clover comes to her rescue, attacking the guard that's after Joker from the side rather than the front. It shouldn't be too hard to kill it, right?

Clover manages a stab to its side, and it falls to the ground.

Skull clubs down the last one, and then the room is still, apart from the Fake Ann.

"You killed my guards! How could you?" She runs toward the door the teens entered through.

Clover tries to grab her duplicate. "Hey! Hold up!" 

Joker tries to grab the duplicate too, despite her own wound. If she escapes, she'll definitely raise the alarm.

She manages to get the door open before the teens tackle her, and shouts down the hall. "King Kamoshiiidaaaa! Heeellp!"

Shit.

Joker's already wounded and the group are running on fumes persona-wise. They've got to get out of here, fast. 

Joker pulls a prescription painkiller from her inside coat pocket and takes it, and then gestures to the rest of the team. "Run for it!"

"He's not your fucking friend!"

Clover's still grabbing her cognitive duplicate. She shakes the fake as if she'll wake up to what's right if Clover just convinces her. "Snap out of it!"

The painkiller goes down easy, and the cut to her side mostly heals right then and there. It starts closing gradually, too, gradually healing further with every moment.

The duplicate struggles to get away. "You just don't know what you want! It's so much easier to just give in!"

Skull finishes scooping a few bits of loot off the ground and tries to pull Clover away from the fake. "C'mon! She's like the students in the dungeon you told me about! You can't talk her out of it!"

Mona scoops some loot as well and dashes toward the door. "Come on!"

"Ugh. Fine!" 

Clover tosses the fake aside, and follows Joker back down the hall towards the stairs at a run.

The team makes it down the narrow stairwell, bursting back into the library, when they're suddenly cornered by sixteen guards.

And leading them is King Kamoshida.

"Look at you brats. You break into my castle, kill my guards, and now you're scaring my Princess."

He turns to Clover and scoffs. "How these fools could mistake my Ann for an insolent prude like you, I have no idea."

And then a smug grin crosses his face.

"But no matter. If you won't put out, I have other options."

"Bastard." Clover looks him in the eye. "You'll regret what you've done to all the students at Shujin."

"And how exactly do you plan to stop me? I'm even doing it right now. While my guards are keeping you brats busy in here, out there, I've sent my whipping boy to go fetch..."

He taps his chin in though. "What was her name? You know, the ugly one."

The duplicate walks in past the team and goes to Kamoshida's side. "Um... Shiho, your kingliness?"

"That's the one."

"Shiho won't fall for that." Clover's voice trembles. "She's smarter than you. Stronger than you. She'll beat you out."

"You really love to hear youself talk, don't you." Joker looks around for anything she could grapple to. If she can just get above them and rain persona and gunfire down on this crowd...

There doesn't seem to be a lot of options.

"She has to fall for it, you stupid little slut. She thinks that by putting up with my violence in practice, and giving into my demands, she's protecting you. Why don't you just give up and let my glory and your pathetic friend's sacrifice keep you safe? Just accept that you're a dumb, helpless, blonde bimbo, like your better counterpart here." He gestures indicatively at Cognitive Ann.

"Fuck no. You'll hurt her whatever I do. You're already doing it. I'm fucking done with kissing up to you."

Ann's hands tremble on her gun. She wants to put a bullet in between this bastard king's eyes, but if Kamoshida dies mysteriously in the other world it'll be hell to pay for all of them.