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Time passed quickly whenever Hamuko fell asleep in the Great Seal. It was not much of a risk to do that, she always awoke when Erebus decided to attack and was always able to beat him off for another day. This time around, something else awoke here slumber.
The sounds of multiple explosions and deathly screams.
It was then she knew that her vision and thus World War III had begun.
The screams rang loudly in her ears, every death wish nearly destroyed her mind with the worst migraine possible, and the gunshots and explosions wracked immeasurable pain in her whole body. She even felt like the radiation from the nuclear warheads permeated her entire body.
Regardless, Hamuko stood her ground with her naginata held firmly against a much larger Erebus than she and even SEES have ever faced, looming over her. She cringed at the devilish smiles on both faces of the two-headed gigantic wolf-like Shadow, but then steeled herself for the battle to come.
One of those faces spoke, "Puny human. Why protect a world that wills itself to doom? Why not embrace the darkness and sleep eternally?"
She responded with much venom, "Because for every million people who wish for death, there will always be one whose little ray of hope will shine brighter than the strongest death wishes. My friends proved this to you once before, other Persona users proved this to another goddess, and I will prove this to you once again!"
Readying the Vel Vel Muruga, the auburn haired girl leapt into battle…
A sickly green glow disturbed Hamuko's slumber.
She was recuperating after successfully warding off Erebus in their latest, longest and most painful skirmish yet. Theo and Ryoji had to help her back onto the Seal; she could not do so on her own with the numerous injuries she sustained. As it was, her body ached as she did a visual search.
The glow had disturbed her deeply; her first thoughts were that the Seal broke, Nyx escaped and that the Dark Hour reappeared. It did not help that she could still feel the pain and suffering leftover from the war. Then she found the source, a black sphere smaller than the moon with girders jutting out and a ghastly green light emitting from within. While not omnipresent as the Seal, Hamuko realized that the sphere was really a spaceship when she could hear two sets of voices from inside: many souls whose pain and anguish could not be heard, and a female voice that overpowered them to obedience. They all had a robotic feel, much like Aigis when she first met the anti-Shadow weapon.
The one female voice changed to a malevolent tone and the ship started firing energy blasts at Earth. They had come to destroy humanity!
"No!" thought Hamuko as she desperately though helplessly wanted to stop them. Then, in a flash, another spaceship appeared, one with silver sheen and an ovoid saucer-like configuration with two blue and red appendages. It attacked with what appeared to be space torpedoes and destroyed the spherical ship.
Initially relieved at the ship's destruction, she was taken aback when she still heard those robotic voices. She looked around the emptiness of space to see if there are more green glowing ships in the area. Seeing none, she looked back at the silver ship and her heart sank, realizing that was from where the voices were emanating. Somehow, those robots teleported to the silver ship and were wreaking havoc inside. She could feel that the human voices were dwindling while the robotic ones increased. Were they brainwashing the humans?
Hamuko fervently wished she could just summon one of her Personae and stop them. A light bulb went on inside her head and called out to the one person who could help.
"Ryoji!" she cried. "Ryoji, I need your help!"
The young dark haired teen with a yellow scarf appeared before her, but she did not like the look on his face. "I wish I could help you, but not without destroying the ship and killing everyone inside." She felt downtrodden at his answer.
He then queried, "Remember your visions though. Did I ever appear in them?" She thought for a moment and then shook her head.
"And you do remember that a suzaku appeared right?" Again, she nodded, though she had to wince at a small explosion that occurred away from the ship.
"I have a feeling we should wait and see."
"You know I'm not that patient a person, especially when humanity is on the line here."
"I know, but good things come to those who wait," he said as many Lego-like blocks popped out of the silver ship.
Hamuko sighed. She hoped he was right.
They did not have to wait long. A bright fiery flash came from the Earth and a rocket burst out of the cloudy skies. She felt three voices in there, ones full of hope. She also heard a distinct word from them, Phoenix. Her suzaku had risen!
However, the robotic voices chimed in again and the silver ship that they took over headed in the rocket's direction. Are they trying to destroy the rocket?
Her answer came in the form of space torpedoes firing at the rocket. Her eyes widened and then she called for Ryoji, "Stop those torpedoes before they hit the rocket!"
"That, I can do," he said as he morphed into the deathly gray coloured, sword-wielding Persona, Thanatos, and flew towards the fired weapons.
"Come on, come on," said Hamuko in a panic. She hoped he could get there in time.
As Ryoji readied his sword to either slash at the torpedoes or fire off a Brave Blade attack, the torpedoes veered off course, very far away from the rocket. Then the rocket disappeared in a flash.
Both of them looked at each other in confusion until Hamuko winced in pain. Ryoji rushed back and asked, "What's going on?"
"The robotic voices, they're screaming in pain, as if they were being killed," she answered before focusing on the silver ship once more. "Yeah, they are being killed. Only the human voices remain so the ship is safe."
"So is humanity," added the human looking Shadow as another flash signalled the return of the rocket to Earth.
Hamuko yawned and groaned as she ached and felt fatigued from overseeing these events. Then another ship in the shape of the letter Y appeared, making her groan even more. "Not more trouble, I hope," she whined.
"I don't think so. This one is red in colour as opposed to the ugly green sphere." Ryoji said. "Hear their voices and feel them out."
She did as told and felt benevolence and curiosity radiating from the new ship as it also headed towards Earth. She nodded at Ryoji
"Then I don't think you need to worry about anything for now. Go back to the Seal and sleep. I'll stand watch and wake you up if anything comes up."
Hamuko yawned once more before nodding and doing as told. Before she fell asleep, she could have sworn her Shadow friend was talking to someone. She heard him say, "You know she's right, father. Humans are very resilient creatures. Take that drunkard who invented that rocket. He now realizes the hope he will bring to the world. Why not give up this pointless pursuit?"
She only heard two growling voices responding as her eyes closed.
As far as Hamuko could tell, many decades had passed since her vision occurred. There were many ships flying around Earth nowadays, both made by humans and by the aliens known as Vulcans; at least that was she heard them being called. She was elated at how prosperous the Earth had become by overcoming major issues like poverty and how quickly it had survived and revived after World War III. Thus, she had not seen Erebus since that last time they fought.
The crowning achievement of this prosperity was a gray coloured ship in a similar, though circular design to the silver ovoid one she saw those decades ago. She heard that its name was 'Enterprise' and a few years ago, it had flown off on its maiden voyage 'to boldly go where no man had gone before.'
Despite all of this, she felt a constant negative emotion from the blue planet, even from the aliens who rarely emit any type of emotion at all. It was a mix of anger and hatred but could not quite place the name.
"I believe it is called resentment," an elderly female voice said from behind.
Surprised by the new voice, Hamuko turned around only to see a large golden egg with what looked like spider webs surrounding it. She recognized it immediately as the being she sealed away to protect humankind in the first place, Nyx. Though she was on guard, she did not feel any malice and thus was receptive towards the harbinger of the Fall.
"Resentment?" Hamuko queried.
The golden egg glowed as it answered. "The humans resent, as you would call, 'being babied' by their alien benefactors. Why they feel this instead of being grateful towards these Vulcans, I would like to know."
"Simple. When children reach a stage where they feel they can go out on their own, they would resent parents who still try to control their lives."
A youngish male voice chimed in, "Inversely, the parents would resent children who resist such control because they feel their offspring is not ready to leave yet." Ryoji appeared right beside Hamuko as he made that point.
"What are you getting at, Thanatos?" Nyx angrily asked.
"That we are no different from humans. I resent being used to destroy humanity, and you resent that I resist your commands."
"And I resent the notion that I have anything in common with those puny beings!"
"Thanks for proving my point, mother," Ryoji said, leaving Nyx speechless and Hamuko giggling at their argument.
Then, there was a bright flash, startling everyone. As Hamuko took a closer look, her eyes widened as a small sphere had fired a huge laser at the Earth. The ship exploded afterward but the damage was done. She saw a large black line of destruction straight from the whole state of Florida in the United States straight down to Venezuela.
A flood of negative emotions emerged from humanity; Hamuko could feel they were mainly shock, fear, anger, and revenge. She also felt Erebus rousing from his sleep and groaned at the thought of yet another fight. Before she could unsheathe her naginata though, two flashes of light interrupted her: one from Enterprise returning to Earth, presumably to assess the damage, and the other coming from Nyx.
"Hold, Erebus," the gold egg commanded. "I want to see where these events will lead us. Maybe the aliens who attacked will pass judgment on the human race for us."
The gigantic two-headed Shadow double scoffed at this but nonetheless returned to his slumber.
As Enterprise left Earth's vicinity, Ryoji shouted, "As I told father before, humans are resilient creatures and will survive this attack!"
"And the crew of the Enterprise will end this crisis. I believe in them!" added Hamuko.
"We shall see, we shall see," said Nyx as she faded away.
Hamuko was trying her hardest to contain her anger and fear; she did not want to add any more fuel to both Nyx and Erebus. Still, she had hope in the Enterprise completing its mission. Another thing was nagging her though.
"Ryoji, how the heck is Erebus your father?" she asked.
Scratching the back of his head, he responded sheepishly, "Believe me, I was also surprised when I found out. I initially only had a confusing feeling of familiarity with him. I asked Theodore for a little help on the subject by researching a bit of Greek myth for me. Kinda makes sense that Death would be a product of the goddess of the night and the god of darkness and shadow since all four are usually connected."
"As well as malice and other negative emotions. Wouldn't that mean the Fall happened before though?"
"I believe Metis mentioned something like that when your friends were trapped in the Abyss of Time. I'm not too sure though."
Like most of their conversations these days, a big flash interrupted them.
Followed by a giant sphere and a few smaller ships, including a very battered and bruised Enterprise.
"Ryoji!" Hamuko shouted, realizing that the sphere was a giant version of the one that attacked Earth.
"I'm on it!" replied the shadow as he transformed into Thanatos and flew into battle.
"Damage the engines and weapons only. I sense humans in that vessel trying to destroy it from the inside," warned the auburn haired girl.
"Gotcha!" he quickly replied while firing as many Brave Blades as he could.
The damage he caused with the smaller ships attacking slowed the sphere considerably, but it was still able to reach Earth's orbit. Hamuko panicked as it started to power up its main weapon. Just as it was about to fire, it started to explode from the inside. The humans inside were able to destroy the sphere!
Finally, the battered and bruised Enterprise had reached Earth, being welcome by several smaller ships orbiting the blue planet.
"I'd say that's a job well done," Ryoji said, transformed back into his human form.
"I'd agree, but my job is never done," Hamuko replied.
"What's wrong now?"
"I feel elation and relief from humankind but I also feel that resentment growing. Now it's not just about the Vulcans. It's about all aliens on Earth. I'm not liking this."
"Should we be surprised though? They felt being held down by the Vulcans and now they were almost destroyed by another alien race. Despite all the improvements they've made, they are still human after all, feeling both the negative and the positive. It may take time overcome this feeling of racism, but it will happen. Like you told my father…"
"The strongest light from one person will overcome the darkness of one million. You're right, of course. I guess being the Seal is getting to me again."
"Also not surprising," Ryoji soothed. "It is a huge burden for one person to handle, especially with feeling every emotion from humanity as well. You should go and sleep. I'll keep watch."
Hamuko yawned and added, "Alright, and Ryoji, thanks for being here for me."
"You're welcome, milady," joked the young man, earning both a snort and a giggle.
As she fell asleep, she heard him talking to someone. "Humanity has survived once again and will keep surviving regardless of what others do to them or what they do to themselves. They are also learning from each experience and outgrowing their darker sides. Is it really fair to doom them anymore?"
There was no response, not even a flash or growl.
"Well you are an interesting one," a snarky male voice said.
Startled awake, Hamuko stared at the dark haired man with sickly blue lips wearing a black and red robe. "Interesting in what way?"
"In that you, at such an age so young where only materialism and ego mattered, decided to sacrifice your life for eternity to protect the barbarism that is humankind."
"Thanks, I think."
"I shall have to test your race further." Hamuko's eyes widened. "No, not on you, my dear. I have another subject in mind." He pointed at a new circular silver coloured ship orbiting Earth connected to a space dock; a familiar name was etched on it, Enterprise, this time with designation NCC-1701-D. More specifically, he pointed at an elderly bald male moving about like he was in his 30's. Since the man was giving orders to people younger than he was, she thought he was the captain. "He will be an interesting test, don't you think?"
"From what I've seen, anybody who decides to take on the captain of the Enterprise is in for one severe rude awakening," chided Hamuko.
"Sounds like fun. Goodbye, my dear. Enjoy whatever little sleep you will have left." The man disappeared in a bright light.
"What is it with people and things disappearing into light these days and what the heck was he talking about?" thought Hamuko. She also thought about the captain of the new Enterprise ship and felt she had seen him before long ago. A stifled yawn interrupted her and she let go of that thought.
As she went back to sleep, she reflected upon what she had seen and felt for the past centuries. The anti-alien resentment she felt the last time around had been completely abolished and converted into tolerance and peace in the form of the United Federation of Planets. There were still some negative aspects that remained, like corruption and greed. However, she realized that it is a part of life and that without one side of a coin, the other side of it would not have any comparable form.
There were other challenges towards humanity from other races, such as the Vulcans' more emotional 'cousins,' the Romulans, the warrior-like Klingons, an enormous dark cloud and weird cylindrical shaped ship searching for whales. As before, humanity survived every single challenge, usually with the help of another crew of another ship named Enterprise.
Then her thoughts turned towards her long gone friends. As tears seeped out of her closed eyes, she wondered about how their lives turned out. She hoped that none of them died an early and painful death during World War III. With all the battles with Erebus and the events on Earth, she had not found the time to observe them. Now, she reminisced about all of her friends.
Kenji and his immature infatuation with older women irked her and her brother, but he was a cheerful person nonetheless.
She was glad to help Rio to loosen up a bit and not take everything so seriously.
Maiko's crush on Minato made her laugh but she always thought of the little girl as a little sister.
Now that she was long gone, she could relate to the kindly old couple Bunkichi and Mitsuko, who lost their son in a car accident.
Hidetoshi seemed like a jerk when she first met him during the cigarette butt incident but he redeemed himself by realizing what he was doing was wrong. She actually blushed when he admitted his feelings for her.
President Tanaka seemed like a typical money loving, ethically amoral executive who wanted to exploit her and Minato for his purposes. It was until they made him realize where he came from that he decided to donate money from his own pocket to needy children and to be more ethical in his business practices.
She enjoyed helping Bebe make his kimono and wondered if he ever made it back to Japan again. As she recalled, Minato turned out to be good at sewing from his interaction with their French friend.
She hoped that the unusual drunkard monk Mutatsu was able to resolve his issues with his family. It did not help that he initially had such a gruff attitude towards her and her brother though.
She also hoped that Saori became more assertive in her new school and not let anyone talk her down.
Akinari's plight of being a terminally ill teenager helped her cope with being the Seal.
She did not interact with Kazushi or Yuko as much as Minato did but she knew them to be good friends and that he helped them resolve their issues.
She did talk with Chihiro that much either but she also knew that her brother helped her with her shyness issues. Hamuko could have sworn that the bespectacled younger student had a crush on her brother since she would always stare at him.
It was during these musings that Hamuko realized how much of her friends' lives she would be missing. There were so many things that she would never see:
Mitsuru deftly controlling the Kirijo Group.
Akihiko becoming a lawful police officer.
Fuuka being as technically sounds as ever.
Ken growing and maturing to be a fine adult.
Aigis and Yukari healing patients.
Koromaru exuding his strength onto others.
Junpei and Chidori caring for each other.
Souji and Yukiko managing the Amagi Inn.
Naoto solving cases.
Minato creating great feats of engineering.
She was especially worried about Shinjiro. She hoped that he was still cooking up a storm and living on without her in happiness, even if it would pain her to see him with another girl.
She would never see or spoil their children and grandchildren, her nieces and nephews. She would miss on all of their triumphs and the ability to comfort them in their losses. Missing all these things made it really hurt to be the Great Seal; she would not lie to herself in that regard. The hurt would cause anybody to fall into despair and depression, the things that would make the Seal null and void, and allow Nyx and Erebus to destroy humanity.
However, Hamuko knew she was not most people. She had faced Death, Night and Malice in the eye and made them retreat in fear. She would never succumb to such despair and depression because she chose her fate of her own free will. She became the Great Seal to protect all she held dear and would never falter in this aspect. There was a Vulcan adage that she felt epitomized her and felt dear to her heart.
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few …or the one."
As she remembered all this, she felt more rejuvenated than she had in years and the Seal had become stronger as well. She would not forget why she made this sacrifice and that it would be her strength.
"Wake up, little one," a familiar elderly female voice said.
Hamuko woke to the sight of two unfamiliar faces standing beside to each other. The first was a gold blonde woman wearing a long black gown with a black feather boa wrapped about the neck, the second was a tall male with red eyes, two tiny horns and a toga-like robe that seemed to be made of black clouds. She wondered who they were at first until she realized something about the colour of the blond hair and styling of the toga's clouds. "Nyx, Erebus?" she exclaimed.
"Yes, that is us," Erebus answered.
"What's going on here? The Seal isn't broken," the auburn haired girl said in a panic.
"No, it is not. In fact, child, it is much stronger than I have ever seen," Nyx said.
"Then how are you both her side by side and humanity hasn't died yet?"
"What do you sense from both of us?" the red-eyed man asked.
Hamuko raised her eye brow at that, did as told and was a little surprised at that result. "I don't sense any malice, death or any other negative emotion from either of you. Why?"
"Over the centuries, we have also been observing humankind like you and Thanatos, as well as mulling over both of your words. You both were right; humankind has evolved for the better and has ridden themselves of their wish for death amongst other things. It took them a long time to mature but mature they did. Do you recall what you told me about the strongest light from one person?" Hamuko nodded.
"There has always been a very strong light that blighted the darkness and that was you, Hamuko," Nyx added. "Despite your despair and the trials wrought upon Earth, you never gave up hope and never left the Seal break. Once you knew the truth about the Fall, you sacrificed your life with no thought about rewards, save the one to protect your friends."
"And now it's time for you to be rewarded for conquering this test on humanity. It's time for you to return home," the red-eyed male stated.
Hamuko, reasonably shocked and in disbelief, had to ask,"How do I know that you two won't doom humans once I leave the Seal?"
"Aside from the fact that neither I nor Erebus are malevolent beings by our own nature and only be the nature of humans…" the blonde woman said.
"I will make sure that they stay true to their word," added a familiar younger male voice, as Ryoji appeared behind Hamuko. "It took a lot on convincing on my part, but they agree with us. You don't have to worry about humans anymore."
"And your ability to use the Great Seal will never wane. If you ever feel the need to return here, you can with a single thought," his mother said.
Hamuko was at a complete loss of words and was stunned at the recent turn of events. Before she could say or think of anything, a bright blue door appeared. Exiting the door were Igor, Margaret, Elizabeth and Theodore. Still speechless, she could only nod at their appearance.
Igor spoke, "I've said this to many guests before, but never had it meant as much as it did now. You truly are a remarkable guest to endure such trials for so long. Now, go, enter the door and be … REBORN!"
Theodore held his hand out to Hamuko, "Time to go, milady."
She took his hand and he escorted her to the door, now flanked by his sisters. She looked back at everybody to the wide smiles on all their faces. Once she entered the door, the realization finally hit her.
She was returning home!
Author notes:
Star Trek references (in order): First Contact (movie), Enterprise Seasons 3 and 4 (Xindi and Terra Prime arcs), Motion Picture, Voyage Home, a little pre-Next Generation
Why I glossed over the Original Series: Honestly, I have tried to watch TOS so many times but I couldn`t get over how dated it looked. The only episode I actually watched was The Trouble With Tribbles. Other than that, there weren`t any stories in TOS that revolved around attacks on Earth; only the first and fourth movies did. As you all read, this chapter stayed in the orbit of Earth.
On Nyx and Erebus` physical appearance: Nyx was easy; she appeared in a previous Megami Tensei game so I used that look. Erebus took a while because, unlike Nyx, there were no physical classical paintings of him whatsoever. Anything I googled Erebus for led to images of an MMO. Therefore, I made up his appearance.
Well, that`s all I can say for now. See you next chapter!
