quick warning: this chapters a little shorter than normal;;
more on why at the end


December 2nd, 2009.
Dark Hour.

Palladion speeds forward, and almost on instinct, Ryoji's arm shifts and curves, it's form changing from that of a human male to an Eldritch Monster's, moving at speeds beyond the sound barrier to block the robotic girl's attack. They clash together with a powerful clang, one eerily resembling that of what happened on this exact day ten years ago, and sparks fly.

"..Don't be foolish, Aigis." He murmurs, his arm– the non-human one, clutching tighter and tighter into the girl's Persona. "I'm different than before. There's no way you can win.. I'm sorry.."

She fires bullets in response, jumping and dodging potential attack paths as her bullets rain down on Death itself. As her feet slide back onto the concrete, the ground begins to glow an off white, though instead of the gentle and even holy feelings people might get from this shimmering light, all Aigis can feel is that it's dangerous. She's right, as everything begins to collect around her, and the colours begin to become an ominous black and purple. They explode all around her, sending her flying backwards without any of her attacks landing on her adversary.

Her body slams to the ground with such force that it creates a large crater in the bridge's road, and sparks begin to alight from her body. She doesn't need to see her body to know what's going on–– severe damage to her chassis. Her joints make crackling and whirring noises as she attempts to pull herself up, but she only crumples back up onto the ground.

She can't see. "..I'm.. sorry.. This mission.. appears impossible.."

Each part of her metallic body clatters as she resolves to giving up, her mind only on the fact that she'll never be able to win this battle. She knows what she is now, and it's something that she's been thinking for a long time. What she is, she's nothing but a machine that cannot fulfil it's purpose. That fact means that she has no worth. What use is a weapon that cannot do it's job? What use is a weapon that cannot fight the battles it was made for?

"..I'm.. sorry, everyone.." The emotions that overflow in her pretend heart are overwhelming. Each one is something she's never felt before in her entire life; thanks to it's relative shortness and her status as nothing but a living weapon. "Minato-san.."

She thinks back to that little boy– to the man he's grown up into. She thinks about what will happen to him now that she's out of commission, unable to function properly as what she is. She thinks to what will happen to the rest of her group, her mind only able to create images of the worst possible outcome.

"..I'm scared.."


Aigis hadn't returned home that evening. She never used to return back so late in the past, but recently, she wouldn't come back until the sun had well descended in the winter night sky, and she would always look lost–– confused, yet deep in thought. They had all expected it to be the same today, yet the Dark Hour had fallen upon them all, and she was yet to be seen.

Considering it was a full moon, everyone was worried.

Yamagishi stands by the window inside the dormitory's command room, her body guarded by the protective bubble of Juno. Compared to most of their other missions, not only does their usual support member do her job, but Kirijo works on the equipment nearby to help out. Tonight was serious, no matter what anyone else thought.

"Juno!?" Yukari cries as she enters the room, still clad in her pyjamas. "Wait, did something happen!?"

Her brown eyes trail from the two busy working girls, to her leader and his sister, as well as Sanada, all sitting in patient silence, eyebrows furrowed in worry. Her worried gaze moves from them back to her redheaded senior, worry filling her up to the brim.

"Yukari, is something wrong?" Mitsuru asks, leaning away from the equipment she was manning to ask the question in an almost uncharacteristically gentle tone.

"Well, it's a full moon tonight.." She murmured, her arms tightly crossing over her chest as she brings up why she'd come up to the command room in the first place. "You noticed it too, didn't you, Senpai? Geez, I'm starting to feel like a workaholic!"

Mitsuru sighs.

"Oh no.. did something..?"

"We don't know anything for sure.." The senior turns back to the numerous electronic devices at her disposal. "However, we can't find Aigis."

"Huh? Where would she have gone?"

Her body twitches slightly, and there's the gentle sway of watery music that fills the air, causing everyone to turn towards the only possible candidate for making it, who's teal hair swishes as her power swirls in a control around her.

Soft lips part. "I sensed a Persona, but it quickly disappeared. And soon after that, I couldn't detect Aigis' presence."

Hands shaking tight together, Takeba's eyebrows knit together as she comes to the only possible conclusion. "Could it have been Strega..?"

"Well, she hasn't sensed any of their members, but we can't be positive."

"..I've confirmed Aigis' location.." Fuuka cuts in, her words like a brief beacon of light to the overly concerned SEES. "She's on the Moonlight Bridge!"

The twins freeze up in a mixture of fear and disbelief, the idea of returning to that bridge on tonight of all nights a terror-bringing prospect. Everything that tonight was wasn't a good thing for either of them, the full moon ominously looming overhead, and the anniversary of a day that changed their lives forever. Neither one looked excited or willing to get up and join them, but they forced themselves to stand and get ready to see what was going on.

They weren't going to let this control them anymore.
They were going to dictate their own paths from now on, instead of letting a single night control their lives.
This was just the first step.

"Alright," Commanding air only strengthening, Kirijo turns to Yukari. "Call the others. Let's see what's going on there."


SEES rushes to Moonlight Bridge as fast as they can, their worry driving them to run as fast as they can. The bridge gets closer and closer in the green horizon, and they'd probably feel more secure if they could see signs of a battle raging on. At least then, they'd know that Aigis was alright. But right now, with the silence deafening the air, all they were able to come up with was that there was positively nothing. And that was the worst thing that there could be.

They climb the asphalt roads with mixed steps, coming to a stop at a positively horrifying sight.

The main portion of Aigis' body lies on the ground, the damage done beyond critical, and the rest of her was strewn about everywhere. Her one of her joints, where her arm was supposed to be, sparked and jolted dangerously, but there was no other sign that she was still functioning like normal.

Koromaru barks threateningly as he's the first to approach, his small paws sliding to a stop by the robot's destroyed body. As the sight reaches the eyes of those lagging behind, everyone screams out her name in desperation, begging for a response.

To their surprise, they receive one. "..I'm.. sorry.. I.. I.. remember everything.."

She attempts to move her head, and quickly do the girls meet her body in order to support her.

"..Who I am.. Who 'he' is.." Her only attached arm, worn to shreds and barely able to move, reaches desperately for Minato. He takes it in his own hand, grasping it tightly, but with a certain gentleness. "..Minato-san.. I know why I wanted to be by your side.. I'm.. sorry... I failed.."

"Save your energy.." He murmurs, clutching her hand with both his own, engulfing her destroyed hand in his own.

"I'm.. sorry.." Her voice is a distorted whisper, her systems threatening to shut down with each tick of the seconds on a clock.

"There's no need for you to apologise.."

A familiar voice resounds in the air, thin and friendly, yet with a certain sadness and even a bit of pride, the sort that comes from looking down on someone. Yes, it was familiar to the point of being scary, and they all knew only two people with such a voice. One stood next to them, blue eyes watching Aigis with nothing else but concern, and the other.. stepped closer and closer towards them, his brightly coloured scarf like a sign.

Junpei clenches his teeth. "You!?"

Ryoji digs his face into his scarf as the accusatory tone is directed towards him, and as each person resounds their surprise, his eyes only lower, gaze never meeting anyone else's. As they all scream questions at him, voices mixing together to make distinguishing exact questions impossible. During that small moment of time, Aigis begins to cease functioning, her movements stopping and her eyes flashing off.

Sanada is the first person to step forward, grey eyes narrowed dangerously at the newcomer. "What's going on..?"

"..It's all my fault.." The dark haired 'boy' whispers, his hands clutching his upper arms tight.

"Wha.."Disbelief fills the senior's voice, and he steps forward once more, raising one of his fists in preparation to fight. "You did this!?"

Raising a hand to stop him, Kirijo steps forward. "Akihiko, wait. He's not showing any signs of aggression."

At first, the white haired man doesn't step back from his fighting position, yet soon, he returns to a slightly less on guard posture, though it was clear he was still completely ready to bounce into a fight if, and when, he needed to. He takes calculated moves back into the group, his path one that gave him a way to return to that southpaw stance if he needed to.

He doesn't get the chance to, as Mitsuru turns her powerful gaze onto Ryoji. "Tell us.. Who are you? ..What are you?"

Never making an attempt for eye contact, Mochizuki's voice cracks a little as he begins to tell them the truth, and nothing but that. His voice is soft and weak, little more than a depressed whisper as the words leave his parted lips. "..I'm the same as the beings you call Shadows."

Disbelief fills the air as Iori screams out, "You're a Shadow!?"

"I'm the embodiment of all Shadows.. The Appriser, born from the union of the Twelve Arcana." He explains, though everyone was still trying to wrap their head's around the fact that he's apparently one of the Shadows, their enemies.

"I remember everything now.. The frightening truth about myself.. and Shadows.. It's all so hard to believe."

Baffled beyond belief, Mitsuru speaks slowly, trying to let the words sink into her own mind, proper. Everything sounded so impossible, the facts and truth being provided to them right here, right now were simply just so impossible to believe. "..You know the 'truth' about Shadows?"

"I do.."

"What!?" Neither of the seniors could believe it. They had spent so long trying to figure it all out, and now it was all coming to place, but with a horrible feeling descending down upon them all.

"The Shadows are here to facilitate the rebirth of the maternal being. The maternal being will begin to awaken as she is drawn to me.. The Appriser."

"You? You're.. this 'Appriser'?"

The black haired Shadow nods his head. "That's right.."

"What is this 'maternal being'..?" Fuuka asks, her steps closer to the boy careful.

"She is a great entity.. There is no comparable word in your language for her. Ten years ago, a man collected a great number of Shadows and contained them in a laboratory.. That's where I was born." As the things he said form into realisations in everyone's individual consciousness', they begin to feel the pieces place themselves. Every single one of those accidents' that occurred ten years ago were all connected. "..But the unification was interrupted, and I awoke in an incomplete state. Not long after, I fell to Aigis.. as she did to me."

"Aigis..!?" The tallest of the juniors steps forward towards his friend, his dark eyes wide as he questions everything that has occurred over the past month. The closeness of their friendship, and everything that happened to them. "Is that true!? ..Ryoji!?"

"She knew she could not defeat me.. So in an act of desperation, she sealed me within a child who happened to be standing nearby. That child grew up, carrying me inside him. And by a twist of fate, he later returned here.. as a transfer student."

"You mean.."

Everyone's eyes turn onto Minato, who stands there listening to everything, unable to believe it all. The shocked gazes he felt, coming from not only his own friends, but his sister, all felt like daggers in his body. He stares at his hands, and that's when he figures it out. Why he wanted to return to Iwatodai after so many years, why he felt so comfortable in the Dark Hour despite being a small child who had lost his parents. Why that monster came out of Orpheus during the very first summoning, and why he never appeared again.

It all makes sense, yet now he feels less human than ever.

His blue eyes meet Ryoji's own. "Yes.. 'Minato'. I lived inside him."

"..Inside him..?" Yukari murmurs, repeating words to let them sink into her own mind. Maybe, just maybe, if she said them herself, they would sound more possible in her mind. Yet, despite that mindset, nothing felt real anymore. No, the only thing that made them know they were living in the real world was the overwhelming pressure of the Dark Hour crushing their spirits, both mental and physical.

This knowledge, combined with the Dark Hour, was a disgusting blow on their morale. Everything seemed to circle back to a single man, who played them all like an orchestra's conductor. Ikutsuki. If it were possible, were the mad ramblings he spewed on that night some part of the truth? Minato had blanked a lot of them out, that night was like something out of a horror movie for him, from the crucifixion to the cold blooded murder of Kirijo's father. And yet, the pieces all fit together like a neat little jigsaw puzzle.

The Shadow standing before them begins to speak once more, and it snaps the blue haired teen out of his wandering thoughts, thoughts that would destroy him if he continued to dig deeper into them. He needed to stop thinking.. and just listen to the awful truth.

"His special Persona awakened.. as did the Twelve Shadows, all in order to become one with me."

"Ryoji's the Appriser? A-And he was inside of his body..!?" Clicking his tongue tight to the roof of his mouth, Junpei's eyes narrow dangerously, speaking the words on everyone's mind. "None of this makes sense!"

"It's all my fault.. I'm sorry." The boy apologises over and over again, tears welling up in his ocean coloured eyes. "There's more I need.. to tell you.."

His voice lingers on the final vowel, until finally, his body tilts over and collapses into a heap on the ground in front of them. A quick observation shows dark circles underneath the boy's eyes, a clear sign of exhaustion. The decision as to what to do with them weighs heavy on their shoulders, but soon, they all decide to let him rest. They have to attend to Aigis as well, after all.

He doesn't want to believe anything he's heard here, but he has to.

It's the truth.
It's the ugly, ugly truth.

Collecting their thoughts– and bits and pieces of Aigis' utterly destroyed metal body, they make quick haste of deciding how to return to the dorm with two unconscious people; ultimately deciding to have Akihiko handle the one made of metal, and for Junpei and the rest to handle Ryoji. It was a shaky, shaky progress, no thanks to the shock that they were all going through. As they walk through the empty streets, he tries to piece everything together so it makes sense in his head.

Ryoji was inside of him for all those years.
Ryoji appeared when Pharos disappeared.
Ergo, the two were the one and the same.

No wonder he felt comfortable around Ryoji.
No wonder he and Ryoji shared a certain similarity, from their appearance down to their voices.
He hadn't thought about it too hard before, on purpose, for the sake of casting it off as a mere coincidence, but it was almost like he and Ryoji were more twin-like than he and Kotone were. But that was only because they had shared a body in the past. Perhaps one of their group would question the truth of the words, but without a single doubt in his mind, he knew it was all only what was truthful.

Yes, this new truth bought him brief relief in the form of answers, despite how much he despised the knowledge he discovered.
He really really felt sick thanks to this reveal, and for the first time in well over a week; what had to be a record for him, he felt like dying.

The world only gives him more reasons to hate the winter season.


I DONT HAVE ANYTHING SMART TO SAY OTHER THAN SORRY ITS SHORT!
i wanted to wrap up december 2nd in two clean chapters and leave the next day for the next chapter
also because i felt like if i wrote any more than this i'd want to die
also, winter makes my hands freeze up which is why i try to write during the day but its rlly cold where i live atm so,,

anhway!

grim- bruh tho u got me on the edge of my seat wanting to know more
enjoy ur portion of my crippling depression lmao.
writingsoul- I KNOW,, the closer i get to the end the more i want to stop writing lol,,
i dont want it to end either, i really do love writing this fic!
tho, i guess if it makes u feel any better,
i was thinkin about writing either a couple of one-shots or another fic to accompany this one?
i havent got it all down yet since.. i havent finished this yet but it's been rattling in my brain for a while now

ANYWAY

i hope y'all enjoyed despite how short it got!
i'll see y'all next chapter!