Shin Megami Tensei
Persona 3: RES
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Persona 3, SMT, or any characters within. They belong to Atlus and…it's almost the end of the story. Stay tuned.
Chapter XXXVI: The Fates
The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed…alongside time exists fate, the bearer of cruelty
Orpheus and the Messiah were fusing their powers for the final attack on the Reaper. And attack of this power and nature would ensure the Reaper's defeat…at least, that was what Nyx hoped to believe, now that he was sure the Fates were on his side. The combined powers of the two personae sent a blast of energy hurling towards the Reaper, who had been weakened by "The Fates". In less than a second, the Reaper was hit by the energy beam emitted from the two personae and was sent to fall ungracefully down towards the ground, where the rest of S.E.E.S. was waiting.
Not having enough time to react, the Reaper slammed into the pavement below with enough force to leave an impact crater and send several cracks emanating from it. It was not clear if the Reaper was truly dead, as the force of the crash had kicked up too much dust and debris for S.E.E.S. to immediately tell. What could be known, however, was that the various members of S.E.E.S., with the notable exception of the three psychics, had surrounded the impact crater and had drawn their evokers and brought them to their heads. If the Reaper was alive, it would be decimated by the combined firepower of dyne level attacks of every element, on all sides.
The dust began to settle after several minutes, and through the faint haze of the debris, S.E.E.S. could finally see the Reaper in its true form…
It was Akihiko who saw through the smoke first, ready to pull the trigger of his evoker and send the Reaper back to Hell once and for all, before Mitsuru called out to him.
"Akihiko! No! Don't do it!" she shouted through the haze. Akihiko looked around to find her…she was over by the base of Tokyo Tower, huddled together with Fuuka and Chidori…but now they were all gone. What was the meaning of this!
"Hey, what's going…" he tried to ask, before Mitsuru came out from the haze clothed in nothing but the swimsuit she had worn to Yakushima so long ago.
"Akihiko…you don't have to fight any longer…it's over…your fight is over, and it's only us now…" she said, coming close enough to Akihiko that he tingled when her hair touched him. "What's wrong, Aki? You don't…like me?" she said, coming even closer to Akihiko, putting her arms on his chest.
"No, it's not that! It's…it's…"
Junpei's eyes adjusted next. He was staring deep into the smoke and was bearing his teeth in a mean expression on his face when Chidori walked out from the haze to look him directly in his eyes.
"Junpei, why are you so angry? It's over…we won…" Chidori said with a hushed voice as she collapsed to the ground, visibly weak and pale. Junpei ran over to her side without even thinking, in the process dropping his evoker on the ground.
"Chidori! Chidori, what's wrong!" Junpei looked over his shoulder to the spot where Chidori and the other girls were supposed to be, but it was empty. This had to be Chidori. Chidori was in pain, and Junpei only knew one thing to do. Help.
"Junpei, I…I feel weak…can I have your jacket?"
"Of course!" he shouted, instantly taking off his jacket and wrapping it around Chidori, her body was getting colder by the second as Junpei held her in his arms.
"I guess…holding the Reaper off took too much of my life energy after all…huh? Why do you look so sad, Junpei…you act as if…"
"Chidori…but…why? What's…what's going on…why…" Junpei asked himself as he embraced Chidori even tighter. Her dying breathe was warm and tickled his ears…
Aigis's cameras adjusted fairly easily to the smoke, and although she was ready to draw her persona out to fight the Reaper in his final form, she was surprised when Minato emerged from the smoke, the Messiah and Orpheus by his side.
"Hello Aigis…it's been a while since we last talked, hasn't it?"
"Minato!" Aigis shouted, grasping her mouth and pointing at a patch of blood just below Minato's left elbow.
"Oh…this? It's nothing. Nothing but an old war wound now. Heh. Say…do you remember that day when I collapsed on the floor at Hagekure?"
Aigis ran up to Minato and ripped off a piece of his sleeve so that she could begin to treat the wound, but she still talked to him while she was addressing his wounds.
"Yes…I remember…it was the day you died."
"Death can't be escaped…but it can be beaten…I wonder if that's why I failed?"
"Failed what, Minato?" Aigis asked as she tightened the make-shift tourniquet on his arm.
"Failed you, Aigis…" Minato said, putting his hand on Aigis's chin and forcing her to look up at his face.
"Minato…" Aigis said, before a stumbling Yukari regained her eyesight after getting smoke in her eyes and looked directly at Aigis and Minato.
"Aigis…Minato…hey, what's going on here?" Yukari asked, obviously startled at what Minato was doing.
"Yukari…you just joined the fun…why, the both of you love me, do you not?" Minato asked with a sort of schoolboy grin on his face, sending Yukari fuming.
"Minato, what the hell is this!?"
"Why, just a little game, my dear…everything here in just a game."
"What on Earth is that supposed to mean!?" Yukari shouted again, leaving Aigis to slowly back away from Minato. She could sense the spiritual pressure in the air building, probably as a direct result on Yukari's anger.
"All I want to know is who loves me more. That's all…"
"MI – NA – TO!" Yukari shouted each syllable of his name before bearing her bow on him. But as she released her grip from the arrow, he disappeared into the darkness harbored by the Dark Hour…
As Minato descended from the second observation deck of the tower with the aid of his two personae and Nyx, they heard slight shouts and screams on the ground.
"Geez…all that noise they're making…you think everyone is okay?"
"Minato, I am sure everyone is fine. Especially since…wait…wasn't that Yukari's voice just now?"
From the air, they could hear Yukari shouting Minato's name at the top of her lungs, before they heard a something cut through the air with such force that it sent spirit pressure whizzing by their heads a few hundred feet above the ground.
"She seems pissed."
"I'm in for hell when we land, aren't I?" Minato asked, forcing Orpheus and the Messiah to nod their heads to the affirmative. The dropped him once he was a few feet from the ground, into the center of the impact crater where the Reaper had landed. The Reaper's body, however, was gone and a small pillar of smoke was rising from the ground where his body was supposed to be.
"We love you, Minato. Just like a family…" he could hear from apparently nowhere in particular. Turning around, he could see Yukari and Aigis standing side by side, arms around each other.
"We love you, Minato…" the two girls said seductively, walking over to him slowly.
"Yes Minato, we love you very much…" said Mitsuru and Fuuka, coming out from above the rim of the crater. Mitsuru was carrying Fuuka in her arms and Fuuka had her arms wrapped around Mitsuru's neck.
"Come Minato…we want you…forever!"
"Chihiro! Yuko! W – what the?" Minato shouted when Chihiro and Yuko walked down into the crater from the street. The girls surrounded him, and through the gaps in the circle they made, Minato could see the familiar faces of people like Hidetoshi, Kazushi, and Kenji.
"That's right Minato…just sit back and follow Death's embrace…" the girls said simultaneously. Some of them were kissing and groping each other, while the rest were beginning to hug him.
"What in the…" Minato could feel his consciousness drifting away. Through his closing eyelids, he could see Nyx get thrown aback as a ball of fire hit him from the ring of the crater.
"Now…go to sleep…and never awake again…" Yukari whispered into his ear as he closed his eyes and as Orpheus and the Messiah vanished back into his soul…
??
Minato was floating through space and time, watching the centuries pass by in the void of space. Unlike his time in the Heavens, there were no stars. No magnificent supernovas or angels to entertain him. No, there was pure darkness in this expanse of space and in the blink of an eye Minato witnessed Man's creation and The Fall. Both were beautiful in their execution…their perfection…
Mankind would die someday. He would die beautifully and in a grandiose manner that would rival his creation. But man would not die today. And Minato would learn why soon enough as he could see other people in the distance. They were his fellow S.E.E.S. members, and they were all converging on one central location in space.
"Oi! Minato! I think we're dreamin' or something!" Junpei shouted through the void as they began to drift closer to one another. Another voice, however, corrected Junpei's statement for him.
"You are wrong…all of you are currently deceased," a female voice said, prompting startled responses from them all.
"Dead, what do you mean dead!?" Yukari shouted into nowhere, before the various members of S.E.E.S. were close enough to touch each other and they all hit an invisible wall in space.
"Ow!" Fuuka yelped, before another voice broke through the void.
"We apologize, but let us introduce ourselves first…"
Suddenly, the "wall" in front of them lit up to reveal a clear glass box entrapping three beautiful women inside. They wore Roman stolas and were each examining three different spheres…the first sphere was a white ball and the third sphere was a black one…the middle sphere, however, was a perfect replica of the Earth, with such detail that it even had its own visible weather systems.
"Who are you?" Minato asked the women. The woman in the middle threw her long, brown hair back before answering him.
"We are known to you mortals as The Fates…and you still have a job to finish…"
"What do you mean?" asked Mitsuru, pushing Minato aside and taking over the conversation herself.
"You know...it really is a shame to be immortal…to a be deity of this universe…for an infinite numbers of eons we have been trying to delegate the responsibility of fate to other, mortal beings so that we may finally put ourselves to rest…"
The Fate of Life, the woman wielding the white ball, spoke up next, "But it was very hard to do this…sometimes we even considered it impossible, and so, in order to solve our dilemma, we delegated our powers into one almighty God…"
The Fate of Death took over the conversation from here, "But that bastard! It occurred to us that collectively, we know how to end our tragic fate of immortality, but alone, we cannot accomplish this…God created Mankind and all the evil beings in your universe to delegate the powers of Fate to you, so that he could end his life…but us…we cannot truly die until Humanity is able to control its own fate directly…"
The Fate of Eternity then took over her original role, she let the globe free for a moment and simply let it spin, before recapturing it and continuing the conversation, "Unless Mankind is able to defeat the Evil in this universe by itself…we cannot die. And if we cannot die, then Mankind can never truly control its fate. That is where you people come in."
"Us? What do-" Mitsuru was cut off by the Fate of Life, who spun her ball in the air as well.
"You people are able to transcend this universe and call upon the powers of another. You people are our best hope at death…our reprieve from eternal life. This is our request...no, our demand…in exchange for your lives, you all agree to terminate the Horseman of Death: the Reaper! Kill him and bring us one step closer to death!"
"The Horseman of…"
"All shall be explained in due time…the Harbinger is waiting for you back on Earth…now, do you want to be brought back to life, or not?"
"Hell yes I do! I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't plan on getting killed another God damn time!" Shinjiro yelled, before pressing his face to the glass and yelling at the women inside.
"Hey, immortal hags! Tell me how to get back down to Earth!"
"Why don't you see for yourself…after all, Earth is right here." The Fate of Eternity released Earth beyond the glass boundary and allowed them all to look in awe at their planet.
"Take a good look…it's the only home you'll ever have in this universe, I've already guaranteed that so you humans won't shirk on your responsibilities to us deities…now…just think of the location you'd like to visit and touch the globe…"
"Just think, huh?" Junpei asked. He touched the globe instantly. As soon as he did, he vanished from the sight of everyone around him.
"How can we trust you!?" Akihiko asked them roughly, before the Fates all pointed at the Earth.
"Because…once we die, that thing is your responsibility, and so far we've kept it pretty good condition…"
"Good point," Akihiko said, before Minato took command of S.E.E.S. once again.
"Great…okay, is everyone ready?" he asked. Stupid question, as everyone merely looked at him with a blank expression on their faces.
"Okay…on the count of three: one…two…"
And on the count of three, they all disappeared back to Earth, while the Fate of Eternity brought the globe back to her possession.
"You think they'll really set us free?" the Fate of Life asked, before the Fate of Death chuckled and spun her little black ball in the air.
"The Orbs do not lie…they will win…and we shall be set free."