Disclaimer: Persona 3 doesn't belong to me. ATLUS just has a cooler sandbox than mine.
Pairing: Takaya/MShe; could be seen as Takaya/Thanatos.
Warnings: Non-con, and Takaya's messed-up views on death.
Children of Nyx
"She feels familiar," Chidori whispers from where she's crouched on the dirty floor. "Like you, and Jin. There's... something..."
There is something about Arisato's mind that has caused Chidori no end of confusion. Her weaknesses, her strengths, even her Arcana - the basis of her very being - are fluid, changing from one encounter to the next instead of being etched in stone.
But, Chidori says, there is always something. Some stability; some order in a frightfully chaotic mind. And now, as Chidori stares into space with blank, lifeless eyes, that other sight she possesses finally catches a glimpse of what.
"It doesn't belong with her. But it wasn't forced out like ours, it was forced in..."
Chidori - or perhaps it is Medea who rules at times like these - cannot be rushed or reasoned with when she is so deep within someone else's mind. Jin grumbles under his breath, impatient, until Takaya catches his eyes and shakes his head in silent disapproval. Chidori, too, has a strange and chaotic mind, and to push her too quickly might just shatter her fragile ties to sanity.
Patience always has its rewards.
"Thanatos."
Jin frowns, struggling to remember why that name seems so familiar... and Takaya tips back his head and laughs at the bitter irony of it all.
Of course the leader of those who would prevent Nyx's arrival carries one of Her children within her. Does she know - do any of them know what powers they play host to, or are the foreign names no more than pretty strings of sounds on their ignorant tongues?
In the back of Takaya's mind, Hypnos blinks open bleary eyes and reaches towards his twin's presence -
- and on the other side of the heavy steel doors, ten meters below the ground, Arisato Minako falls to her knees as Thanatos screams out for his brother.
Death can be merciful, and kind - but Death defied is a terrifying force indeed, and the proof of this is overwhelming. Through Jin and the Internet, Strega learns that Arisato's friends think she has changed; through Chidori and Medea they find that her mind has become ruled by Thanatos' will. What was what a constant background presence has been pulled to the surface, and it could not be more clear that Arisato was never meant to play host to a power so great.
Two weeks after their first encounter, Takaya sees proof of all this with his own eyes.
No longer is Arisato the bright, carefree child he had caught glimpses of around town. Thanatos' longing for his twin has robbed her of the sweet relief that is Hypnos' domain; it has stolen away her smile and painted dark shadows under her eyes. Her shoulders droop from the weight of a scythe that is not rightly hers to carry.
When Takaya comes across her in the silent, bloodstained streets she doesn't notice him until he touches her arm - but lack of sleep seems not to have dulled her reflexes, for her Evoker is in her hand as quickly as though by magic. "I - I don't want to fight you," she lies, even though her entire body screams the opposite.
"Then don't." He takes her shaking hand in both of his, redirects the Evoker towards the ground instead of her head, and smiles at how easily she lets herself be swayed. Exhausted as she is, she's in no condition to fight. How fortunate for them both that she realizes that. "I have no intention of harming you, child. I only wish to help."
Because there is still distrust in her eyes - even if she does not try to pull away - Takaya does not argue his point further. Instead he calls upon the presence that does not belong in the back of his mind, ripping Hypnos out of sleep and into being behind him. The Evoker falls from Arisato's hand and she stumbles back, falls to her knees, and he can see the anger-pain-fear vanish and leave her all but boneless from relief.
"Brother," she whispers, in a voice that is not quite her own, and when Takaya reaches for her hands again she clings to them as though she never intends to let go.
"You belong with your family," he tells her.
She offers no resistance as he leads her through the coffins and the bloodstains to a very different home than the one she's known here - a home that, however temporary it may be, holds people with whom she truly belongs.
Takaya does not claim to know everything, but he knows Personas cannot be assigned at random to their human hosts; there is a reason for the existence of each one, and to deny that, to turn from those whom Fate would place you with, is nothing short of idiotic. Thanatos belongs with his brothers, Hypnos and Moros, and their great Mother Nyx who will awaken before they die. No one belongs with that Kirijo girl and those loyal to her, but Arisato belongs there even less.
She is loyal to her friends, and likely loyal enough to turn from the safe haven Takaya is so selflessly offering. But if he plays his cards right that will take time. And with his remaining life as short as it is destined to be, Takaya will fight for every precious moment he can.
Jin barely looks up from his laptop when Takaya brings their new guest home, though Chidori, ever the outcast, retreats to a corner and devotes her full attention to her sketchbook. Takaya pays her little mind as he takes Arisato into the small, cluttered bedroom. There will be time later to smooth over the little bird's ruffled feathers.
There's barely enough room for three people in the bedroom, let alone four, but Arisato is hardly in any condition to protest being made to share a futon. The poor child must be exhausted after having spent two weeks fighting something as strong as Death; now that her struggling has stopped, it seems to have left her barely clinging to consciousness.
A kind man would let her rest for as long as she needs - but Takaya saves his kindness for those who have truly earned it, and there is little chance of Arisato redeeming herself for all her sins. He will shelter her, yes, but she will have to make herself useful in return... and only by keeping her just on the near side of insanity can he use her in the ways he has planned.
"Are you tired? Would you like to rest?"
Such simple things to offer, but they leave her malleable as clay in his hands. Are her precious teammates that cruel to her, that she would cling to anyone who shows a hint of concern for her wellbeing? Or is she merely yearning for respite from the voice in her head? Such a pity that a Persona so powerful is tied to a girl unable to withstand that power - though Takaya's sympathy is only for Thanatos, Arisato's suffering being no more than what she deserves. Such a foolish, selfish child, fighting her own Mother tooth and nail just because she is afraid of the gifts She will bring.
Perhaps she will come to know better... but Takaya thinks not. Above all else, she is strong-willed and stubborn.
He gives her clothes more comfortable to sleep in than the fussy uniform of Gekkoukan High; a sweatshirt that was once Jin's, and pajama pants that Chidori rarely wears. She undresses in front of him, as slowly and without modesty as if locked in some sort of trance, and curiosity rather than lust compels him to watch.
This is what health looks like, is it not - the color of her skin, the curves of her body, the way the bones don't jut out at painful angles? Some small part of him wants to feed her suppressants, so that he might watch as the health and life are stolen from her the way they were stolen from him. But suppressing Thanatos would go against his plans.
When she's finished Takaya pulls her down beside him onto the futon, and she curls up on her side, forced to press close against him just to have enough space. "I don't know why I'm here," she whispers against his chest. "I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't..."
"You belong here," he reminds her. "Thanatos belongs here, and you with him. Your friends fear Death, yet Death lives within you - would you not rather live with people who embrace that part of you?"
"I don't know. I don't know..."
And yet she does not leave his side.
Takaya picks the many pins from her hair and brushes it out against her shoulders, and by the time he's finished she has already drifted off to sleep. "Good girl," he whispers, as he rises - carefully, so as not to disturb her - and ventures into the living room to seek out the other girl under his care.
Chidori pretends to be offended by Arisato's presence, but the ease with which she is pacified reveals that she is not so upset after all. Certainly not after Takaya whispers his plans into her ear; in fact, she's smiling by the end of it, and there's a light in her eyes that so rarely finds a home there.
Hypnos laid Arisato to sleep, but if all goes well Medea will do the true work tonight, weaving nightmares that will bring Thanatos' power and rage firmly to the surface. And if there is any task to which Chidori can fully apply herself, it is something as deliciously cruel as this.
The Dark Hour is the worst for Arisato, after Chidori has had her fun. She drifts in and out of sleep for much of the day, but her eyes open the moment time stops and she clutches her head, whimpers in pain - she is like them, controlled by a Persona that does not belong, and Takaya only wishes he could do the same to her teammates as well.
Perhaps then they would see, and understand, and learn not to take what they have for granted... or perhaps that is simply wistful thinking. There is no way to teach those who truly wish to remain ignorant, no way to open the eyes of those who would prefer to remain blind.
All that he can do is soothe Arisato's terror, and show her, if not her friends, that he is not a cruel man. All that he wants is what is best for all of mankind, even if most don't know it just yet...
"It hurts, does it not?" he whispers into her ear, and at the sound of his voice, the touch of his hand on her shoulder, she shudders. But she does not draw away. "To be torn apart by anger so strong? We are not meant to withstand such power. Such is our punishment for forcing it to awaken." Arisato doesn't have to know that speaking those words makes hypocrites out of him and Chidori; sometimes such things are justified.
Years ago, Takaya would not have wished his fate on even his worst enemy - but he is stronger now, and far more determined. No punishment is too great for those who would destroy humanity's salvation.
"Make it stop," Arisato begs him, curling into his open arms. Her nails dig into his shoulders as she clings, small and frightened and so very young. Too young to fight a battle with such high stakes. "Brother," she pleads, in that voice that isn't her own; the Persona (so different than anything Takaya has ever known - is it merely a Persona, or something more?) cares for his host, and is as terrified as she at the fury that threatens to destroy them both.
For just a moment, Arisato's eyes seem blue.
She doesn't resist when he cups her chin and tips up her face, doesn't pull away when he kisses her tear-stained cheek. "We're here," he murmurs against her skin - so warm, and how can it be that Death's host is spilling over with life? "I can dull the pain, and mute the screaming. You need only obey me. Will you -"
"Yes," she breathes, before he can even finish asking, so desperate is she for the relief he promises. She would do anything.
She offers up no protest when he slips his hands beneath the borrowed sweatshirt, tracing the healthy curves of a body not teetering on the edge of starvation. Her skin is impossibly soft and burning with heat, and he can feel more than bones under his hands, see more than ribs and shoulder blades when he pulls the sweatshirt over her head. "Can you even comprehend how fortunate you are?" he asks her, but she is too caught up in her misery to understand.
Sex is not something that Takaya has ever been overly interested in, but Arisato's health and beauty draw from him feelings he usually considers little more than an annoyance. Merely to touch her, hold her, kiss away her tears is pleasant, and that she doesn't pull away - even if it is because she is in no state to understand - is a thrill he could not have imagined.
It isn't the power that arouses him; if mere obedience were enough to evoke this kind of reaction, he would not be able to keep his hands off of Jin. No, it's the knowledge of who Arisato is, what power she holds over others, that makes the thought of screwing her so irresistible. She is everything he is not, and the leader of those who would destroy everything he has worked so hard to gain... and she is completely at his mercy.
And she is so lovely in her pain.
There is enough sanity left in her that she realizes what he means to do, and her cheeks go red as he lays her down on the futon and pulls off her pants and then his own. She closes her eyes and refuses to watch as he runs his hands along every inch of her body. There is no reaction to his touch, no sound, no sign that it arouses her as it does him - but that is hardly a surprise. She's in no state to desire anything but an end to the screaming in her head, as he knows full well.
He'll give that to her soon enough, for while he may not be an honest man he is no liar.
She is so warm when he pushes inside her, and it is a welcome burn against skin that never feels warm. There is no hurry, no rush, and he takes his time; savors an experience he is not likely to have again, for there is so little time left before the end. Each slow thrust draws a whimper or a gasp from Arisato, tiny little sounds that speak more of discomfort than pleasure. No doubt there is little room for anything pleasant in her mind, as full as it must be with Thanatos' fury and despair.
It doesn't last long. Takaya spills himself inside her without a sound of his own, and once his head has cleared he cleans them both up and pulls his jeans back on. He has to dress Arisato as well, for she is in no condition to do anything for herself - as helpless and dependent upon him as an infant, and far more tragic.
Suppressing Thanatos entirely would shatter his plans, so he breaks a single suppressant pill in two and places one half on her tongue. The bitterness makes her cough and gag as she swallows it dry, but at least she manages to keep it down (he was not so fortunate, all those years ago, when he first tasted the vile drug).
"He will be quiet soon," he promises her as he gets to his feet.
A soft, warm hand closes around his before he can leave. "Stay with me," and he cannot tell if it is Arisato talking, or Thanatos within her. But either way he does not disappoint her. There is no harm in resting a while, and waiting a little while longer to act.
The time does come to carry through with his plans, though, and the next night he leads her through the bloody streets to her waiting friends. There are no suppressants for her tonight, nothing to quiet Thanatos and give her a moment's peace. Tonight she needs that rage.
Her friends call out to her when they see her, speaking her name and begging her to come to her senses, to look and see who she is about to fight - but she does not listen. She is deaf to everything but Thanatos' screams, and blind to everything but his rage. Thoughtless and senseless. A perfect weapon to set on those she once called friends.
All Takaya need to is press her Evoker into her hands, and step back to watch.
Even as lost as she is she knows how to fight, and as her teammates' pleas fall on deaf ears she presses the cool steel to her temple. "Thanatos!" she yells, and fearsome Death tears himself from her mind and manifests before her, great and dark and dangerous. In his fury he does not understand that the children before him are his master's friends; he only knows that he is to fight, and kill, as he was made to do.
The destruction is beautiful.