Disclaimer: I do not own the Persona series. Atlus owns that, lol.
Author notes:
1. I've designed this story to incorporate a lot of stuff from the entire Persona series (1-4), as well as some tidbits from the Shin Megami Tensei universe.
2. Starting next chapter, I plan on including a glossary where I can place tidbits regarding characters, terms, or whatever that might not be too familiar to readers. So, if any of you readers see a term or a character that you haven't seen before, or would like to know a bit more of, please feel free to tell me in the reviews.
3. This story is designed to start right after Souji returns to the city. However, the prologue (this chapter), is the only exception. The events happening here are still part of the timeline of this story, but it'll gradually be revealed.
4. Hopefully my writing style isn't too jarring; be advised that words that are italicized are the character POV's thoughts, or a voice in the POV's head. The horizontal line denotes either a change in scenario, or a change in POV.
5. Enjoy!
PROLOGUE
"Light and Darkness"
White. Everything was white. He did not why, or how, or even what had happened to produce this pure white light, but somehow he knew that he was the cause. He felt that this should have been a momentous event, an epic event, but somehow he could not remember why. His memory was riddled with holes much like a sieve used in cooking, with only hints of recollection here and there. He could not even remember who he was!
"A dream… this has to be dream," he mumbled. Things like this happened in a dream. He just knew for certain, for that was one of the things he could remember. He remembered dreaming a thousand times over, never waking, living different lives during different times in different worlds.
The light subsided, and after closing his eyes to give them a few seconds to adjust, he opened them to survey his surroundings.
"I was so worried! I though you were dead!" cried a strangely familiar female voice.
He was looking straight at a woman's crying face, tears dripping down her cheeks onto his forehead. He was actually lying on the ground with his head on the woman's lap, though he was unsure how he got there and why he felt so weak that he needed to be resting on her lap in the first place. However, something inside himself told him that he should be comforting her.
"Yeah… I'm back…" he said weakly.
"FOOLISH."
He froze. The word… the voice reverberated inside his head like a peal of a church bell, but that was not the reason why he felt stunned. That voice… that voice could not have existed. Should not have existed.
"ACCURSED."
He started to panic. He could not fight in this state! "I defeated you! I killed you!", he thought.
"KILLED ME? YOU DO NOT SEEM TO COMPREHEND THE IDIOCY IN YOUR CLAIM."
He pushed the crying girl away, and stood up. He intuitively grabbed the strange machine right next to him, and started preparing it for battle. Pain shot through every muscle of his body, and he could not stand properly, but he didn't care. This wasn't right. This couldn't be right! He had won!
"Come out then! So I can kill you again!" he roared.
"ACCURSED ONE, YOU WHO HAVE COMMITTED THE ULTIMATE SIN. YOUR PUNISHMENT WILL BE GREAT AND EVERLASTING."
His mind… exploded. All the pain he had caused others and all the pain that he had thought forgotten in his memories suddenly rebounded and hit him all at the same time. All the beings he had killed, all the beings who had died indirectly because of his choices and his actions, all those he had left to die… their painful experiences before death and at the moment of death rushed into him. He finally remembered this life, but in remembering wanted to forget. A million hurts and pains. A million deaths. All experienced in a blink of an eye.
"ACCURSED ONE, YOU WHO HAVE COMMITTED THE ULTIMATE SIN. YOUR SOUL WILL BE GRANTED A FUTURE THAT WILL HAVE NO FUTURE, FOR ALL OF ETERNITY."
He screamed, as he was suddenly pulled back into the darkness.
Black. The color of darkness. Oh, Wondrous darkness. He reveled in it, he loved it, he felt safe in its embrace. He had never understood why so many beings could not stand the pure darkness. To him, it was a place where he could plot and be at peace, without anyone else seeing.
'He'. He chuckled to himself. He was neither 'he' nor 'she', but it had been a lot of fun seeing himself as 'he'. He instinctively thought about his self as male, but that may have been because he still remembered how much fun life had been during his last incarnation. Existence was always fun when he had to go against such a worthy player as Philemon. He had bent many rules during their little game, and yet Philemon had still managed to win. Somehow.
In his mind's eye, he pictured a gigantic board, much like the so-called game 'chess'.
"Where, oh where did I go wrong?" he asked himself idly.
It was a question that he had asked himself a million times during his sleep here in the rift between consciousness and unconsciousness. He had played this most recent scenario perfectly. The Joker. Masquerade. The Last Battalion. The Amano girl dying, giving him enough to completely win. He pictured the playing piece 'Maya Amano' as in a situation on the board where his victory was assured on the next turn.
"And yet…"
Philemon's wild card, Tatsuya Suo, did something completely unexpected, which allowed them all to survive, even the Amano girl. And so he focused on the existence known as Tatsuya Suo. Despite his efforts, his new scenario, the creation of the New World Order, was also defeated, this time by old alliances, by the playing piece Maya Amano, and by yet another unexpected move by the Suo boy. Their victory had cost them, yes, but it had also cost him his freedom.
He pictured all the playing pieces that he had used during his last stint at freedom. He had always been curious by these pieces called humans. Throughout the Amala Universe they were the most gullible, malleable, and controllable beings that existed. It was easy to manipulate them once you knew the right strings to pull.
However, they were also the most interesting, unpredictable, and random existence he had ever known.
He was constantly intrigued at how these beings were fully capable of thwarting his machinations, despite him knowing and using the darkness within their hearts, twisting them into their Shadow selves, a state where he was most in control. Truly random and unpredictable. It had never been this hard when dealing with demons, or manikins, or even higher existences such as he. Manipulation, when done in the shadows, was extremely effective.
As he continued his idle speculation bathed in the darkness of his prison, a tiny speck of light suddenly appeared in the the rift.
"Hmm? What's this?"
The speck of light was moving towards him, growing larger by the second. As it approached, he noticed a red door in the middle of the light. As it drew closer, he realized that the door was massive, with engravings on it of the sort that he recognized, but was surprised to see. It stopped a close distance away, and slowly started opening its doors.
From the door came a being that he recognized, but was not pleased to see.
"Hmph… Come to taunt me now, have we?" he said irritably.
The being smiled. "No."
"If you don't have any business here, then just leave. My precious void is being spoiled by your light."
The being laughed softly. "Imprisoned One, surely you wish to be freed? Is this how you treat your prospective rescuer?"
He remembered what happened to all those beings that freed him in the past. They automatically assumed that liberating him immediately gave them a privilege to be on an even level or higher with him, or even control him. Preferential treatment for beings such as them? Such fools. He saw them as unworthy pawns in the grand game, and treated them as such.
However, he could not say the same for this one.
"So I'm expecting that you would want some sort of favour for this, yes?" he asked cautiously.
The figure turned around and beckoned him to follow, and so he did. As they walked side by side towards the door, the being answered.
"I do not wish for anything from you… except maybe to become an additional piece of chaos in this reality that we are about to enter."
As they approached the door, he got a glimpse of the so-called reality that he was about to be freed into.
"I assume that you have some unfinished business here?" the being asked thoughtfully.
He laughed, a laugh of pure ecstasy. His body was shaking with excitement. "Excellent! You could not have chosen a more perfect world to free me in. From this moment on, it shall be time for my New Game to begin. And this time, I'll make sure that nothing will stop me from winning."
In the rift, he was a part of the darkness. In this world in the Amala Universe, however, he was the Crawling Chaos.
He stepped into the light and smiled. "Nyarlathotep has returned."
