Shin Megami Tensei
Persona 3: ParaPol
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Persona 3, SMT, or any characters within. They belong to Atlus.
Chapter XIII: The Sisters of Fate
Minato awoke finding himself lying on Yukari's lap, her head drifting off to the side as sleep slowly took hold of her. Behind her, Minato could see the faint glow of a fire and the low hushed whispers of his comrades...
"...are you?"
"My identity is not of importance to you. However-"
"I don't think you understand the gravity of this situation, miss."
"I perfectly understand what is transpiring here and that is why I acted. Don't mistake my intentions, however, I was forced to do what I did based upon the circumstances I saw at the time..."
It seemed as if Akihiko was questioning a woman...a woman whom he had never heard before, but from what he heard, they were a little more than annoyed at her, completely justifiable, of course, based around what had happened just before Minato had passed out.
He rolled off of Yukari, trying his best not to wake her from her sleep, before placing his hands on her shoulders and guiding her body down to the cold floor. This was something he had done countless times before, when her spiritual energy ran too low after a battle and he had to carry her back to headquarters, but for some reason, the ambient light from the fire and the low tone of his friends added a romantic nature to this entire situation that was oddly appropriate for the moment and, in his mind, quite disturbing. He shook his head to clear himself of these thoughts before resting her down on the ground and turning towards the fire...
"Your answers still don't explain-"
"Her answers don't explain a damn thing!" Shinjiro said darkly, his face turned away from the rest of them.
"Hey, she came to our aid, why are we-" Junpei was cut off by Akihiko, raising his hand to Junpei's face and looking at the blond woman once more. She had long, curly hair and was dressed in a deep blue business suit.
"You know...we used to know a woman that dressed oftly like you..."
"I do not see how this is relev – ah! The boy with the blue hair has awakened!" the woman said, standing up from the floor and instantly walking over to Minato. She stretched her arms out before embracing a surprised Minato with a sense of relief.
"I see you have made it through your tumultuous journey back to the state of consciousness..." the woman said, ending her embrace but still holding on to Minato's shoulders. In his eyes, his sense of astonishment shone brightly.
"Um...who exactly are you?" he asked, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment and confusion.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I haven't properly introduced myself, have I? I am Margaret, it is a pleasure to meet you, uh..." Margaret closed her mouth, obviously confused, before it occurred to Minato that she didn't even know his name!
"Just call me Minato," he said, before she clapped her hands together and hugged him again.
"Yes, I apologize. My sister only briefly mentioned your name before I was enthralled by your story! I set out to find the 'boy with blue hair', and who would have thought that I would find him, fighting evil nevertheless, in the Transylvanian Wastes!"
"E – excuse me? Your sister? Who might she be?" Minato asked. Personally he had no idea who this woman was or how she knew him, all he knew right now was that the attention of everyone in S.E.E.S. was on him right now. He was the center of attention in a small, dark cavern illuminated by a single agi fire...
"Elizabeth, I assume you know her?" Margaret said, a slight gleam in her eyes as she said this. Although most of S.E.E.S. had forgotten about the woman from six years ago, Akihiko and Junpei's memories hadn't failed them. Minato's jawed simply dropped.
"Elizabeth!? As in 'ass-kicking, persona wielding, inter-dimensional warrior hotness Elizabeth!?' That Elizabeth!?" Junpei shouted.
Yukari's eyes fluttered a little from the noise, before mumbling something incomprehensible and turning on her side.
"I wouldn't say my sister was any of those things, but she does wield personas...more than one actually, can you believe it!?" Margaret said with such enthusiasm that she almost didn't notice Minato slowly shaking his head, his hand on his forehead.
"I don't believe this...you're Elizabeth's sister?" Minato asked.
"Yes, does this come as a surprise to you?"
"I want to say yes, but knowing Elizabeth..." Minato said. She said she would be watching over the world until it needed him next. When the hell was that going to be!? And how come she never told him she had a sister!?
He sat there, thinking of how he was going to revise his relationship with Elizabeth with this new revelation, before Mitsuru clapped her hands once, signaling for them all to pay attention to her.
"Regardless of what your motives are," she said, pointing to the S.E.E.S. armband that adorned her left arm, "by my authority in the Valley of the Queens, I demand to know how you brought us to this safe haven of yours."
"Oh...actually...I really shouldn't," Margaret said, rubbing the back of her neck, before Mitsuru walked up to her and looked deep into her amber eyes.
"Listen...Margaret. I appreciate you getting us to safety after that...incident...but our prime objective was to rescue my men that were lost in a helicopter crash in the region we were searching. I don't know what their condition is, or even where they are. What I do know is that every second we waste here, the higher the chance for those..."
"They're not demons," Ryoji said, standing up and blinking his eyes to reveal his red irises again. "Trust me."
"You too? You know of their true nature?" Margaret asked, tilting her head in amazement. How could another spirit as herself be-
"I know they're not demons because I am one myself...and I also know they're of the same spiritual resonance as yourself..."
"Ryoji, what are you talking about?" Minato asked, raising his hands towards his friend, trying to defend Margaret from what he thought of as a hostile tone in Ryoji's voice.
"Minato...observe..." Ryoji said, clapping his hands together and disappearing into the air. There was silence in the cave after that, so much so that not even a molecule could move, before Thanatos appeared from a dark vacuum behind Minato and drew his sword.
It was then, his blade pointed at Margaret's throat, that Ryoji began to speak as a demon once again.
"Observe..." he said. The air ripped with the sound of his voice and the various members of S.E.E.S. thought they had to shield their ears from the experience before the sword began to glow. Almost instantly, a black glow began to engulf Ryoji. This glow, however, was offset by the fact that almost everyone else in the cave – with the exception of Margaret and the one surviving S.E.E.S. pilot – began to glow blue. Thanatos never released his eyes from her, before Minato opened his mouth, never taking his eyes away from the woman.
"Ryoji, what exactly are we looking for?"
"That woman doesn't give off spiritual emissions, and yet she's capable of using spiritual energy for skills that even some members of S.E.E.S. can't pull off..."
"As I explained-"
"Ryoji's right. What's going on here!?" Akihiko said, raising his voice.
"If-"
Margaret's attempts to explain herself were met with hostility as S.E.E.S cut her off at every opportunity. Cornered and frightened, she looked towards the 'blue-haired boy' to help her. Her amber eyes met his, and for a brief moment there was a sense of connection between the two of them in which all the noise around them was cut off. Minato raised his hand and his voice as if on instinct to defend her.
"Quiet!" he shouted. It was the loudest he had spoken outside of battle ever since his childhood. "I have no idea where the hell I am or what happened to me, but it's sure better than getting eaten and killed by vampires! She says she Elizabeth's sister, so-"
"Minato...who the hell is Elizabeth?" Junpei asked, interrupting Minato with a voice as equally loud as his own.
"We be watching over the world until it needs you again, so don't worry!"
Elizabeth's final words to him reverberated throughout his brain, just as fresh to him now as they were when she whispered them into his ear six years ago. Minato savored the memory before turning to Junpei, lowering his voice back down to normal decibel levels.
"You'll find out soon enough...right now, the world is in need of a few heroes..."
"Nay. The world is in need of a Messiah..." Ryoji said, turning his head towards the ground and transforming back into his human self. His yellow scarf, indeed all of his clothing, was now perfect and free of the blood and grime that had plagued it earlier. Minato looked over at his demonic friend, nodding his head.
"She said she would watch over the world until it needed such a Messiah again...but with Takaya and the vampires...do you think..."
"I have no doubt in my mind that Takaya is somehow related to the Dracula Clan breaking its truce with the Human Nation...but how?"
"Once again: impossible...we saw Takaya die when he fell from the hotel in Tokyo...he can't be immortal..." Mitsuru said. She felt a hand on her shoulder and, upon looking around, saw her father nodding his head.
"Don't tell me-"
"Don't be ridiculous, Mitsuru! Nothing in this world lasts forever...but we saw him attack us for the Holy Grail, which means he is after the Powers of God."
"So what the hell is the connection between the vampires and Takaya!?" Junpei asked, clearly annoyed at the pace of this little discussion. Had it not been for the fact that Shinjiro was soundly asleep right now, too tired to continue his tirade against S.E.E.S., Junpei was sure this discussion would have taken a far more fast-paced, critical course.
"We don't know! We don't even know if there is a connection!" Akihiko said, his voice raised. "Even if we did-"
"Then what do you know!?"
"I..." Akihiko struggled to find words, before shutting his mouth and walking over to where Ken and Fuuka were sitting, reviewing their notes on the region.
"Fuuka...you of all people should know the most about the vampires and Takaya..." he said, kneeling down and placing his hand on her shoulder. She looked away, towards the sleeping figure of Shinjiro a few meters away from them.
"All I know is that the vampires feed on spiritual energy and that Takaya, as a persona user, has an overabundance of it..."
"If that's the case, then they wouldn't be working together!" Junpei said loudly, before Ryoji cut in.
"We don't even know if they are working together. Our focus right now should pin down why Takaya is in the region in the first place..."
Had Margaret felt any less comfortable, she wouldn't have spoken up. Fortunately for her, the blue-haired boy...Minato? He was just as kind and noble as her sister had described him, at least from her first impressions of him. She would impart with them the knowledge that she held...
"They're like me," she said, prompting all of S.E.E.S. to stop talking and look at her.
"Who are like you? In what way?" Junpei asked, taking a few steps towards her, forcing Margaret to back up, before Minato held out his arm and stopped Junpei from going further, ushering her to continue.
"The vampires...they're like me: outside the influence of the Valley of the Kings."
"Outside the...what does that have to do with anything?" Junpei asked, before Takeharu and Ryoji looked at him in deep disgust.
"Everything, I'm afraid...especially since the artifacts that Takaya seeks would effectively give him a seat on the Valley of the Kings..."
"That would mean...what?" Junpei responded.
"He's probably trying to sidestep the power of his persona and bring about The Fall himself..."
"I still don't see how the vampires fit into this," Junpei said, forcing Takeharu to take a deep breath and sigh, before sitting down and looking up at Junpei's face with mild scorn and amazement.
"Think of the Valley of the Kings as a 'council' of sorts for how the universe should be governed...when God committed suicide, he left Heaven's seat in the Valley vacant...this, combined with the fact that we do not know who occupies Earth's seat in the Valley, makes it impossible for the Valley to make any fundamental changes to our universe..."
"Okay, but-"
"Let me finish, damn you!" Takeharu spat at Junpei, before motioning for Ryoji to continue for him.
"If Takaya gains the Powers of God and gets himself a seat on the Valley of the Kings, he still can't do anything without universal consent...and The Fates would never do such a thing..."
"Thank Goodness they're on our side."
"Yes...but if Takaya manages to discover how the vampires elude the Valley's influence...then he can act unilaterally from within..."
"Oh my God..." Mitsuru said, finally coming to the full realization of the situation.
"Akihiko...you may have stumbled across the biggest threat to our universe since its inception...this is no longer about The Fall..." Ryoji said.
Minato came to the full realization of what was occurring as well. His head fell and he sighed. "The End of Everything...Earth...Heaven...Hell...Everything..."
Junpei's mouth fell. And while Margaret had no idea who this 'Takaya' was, she knew that any anomaly in the Valley of the Kings could end the universe as they knew it...
"So...what do we do?" Junpei asked, taking his baseball cap from his jacket and putting it on for the first time in a few years. Minato needed a smoke and Fuuka was chewing on as many packs of gum as she could fit into her mouth.
A long silence filled the cave. The agi fire they had lit earlier flickered a bit before returning to full strength. Nobody dared speak, before Ryoji opened his mouth to formulate their plan. And even before he uttered the first word, they heard the dark shrill of a female voice cut through the darkness.
"You will die!"