Chapter 4 - Red Light Green Light
Most of the time, when Adler maintained Bell's conditioning, he and Park understood what it was the monitors showed them. Today it was different. Whenever they began a conditioning session for Bell, monitors around her would spontaneously activate and display her memories, both real and implanted. This memory, however, they had no idea what to think. All they knew was that it was from high school, before the death of Bell's brother. Bell was standing alongside her brother on top of a roof, with her brother by her side. Both wielded a small silver handgun, with the brother carrying a sword alongside it, and Bell carrying a long, thin pole arm, a naginata, likely. Directly ahead of the two was a massive figure, a beast more accurately. It bore the figure of a woman, with an intricately decorated black dress with four black wings, a cape of what looked to be elongated coffins, and a headdress of some type. They had no idea what it was, but the memory mentioned something called Nyx. Bell's heart rate started ticking up as the figure assumed a combative stance and made a single statement.
"The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed." it stated. Adler made a slight hum.
"What's it talking about? The Arcana?" Adler asked, rhetorically. He didn't think it was pertinent, but he asked regardless.
"I think it might be Tarot cards." Lazar mused. "Don't know much about them."
"I can take it from here." Park stated as she set a folder down. "We got a dossier from an anonymous source, claiming they knew Bell before she defected to the USSR. It has some rather frightening details, so I'll only brief you if you really want to know."
"Do it." Adler stated. "We need to know if this will affect the conditioning."
"Don't say I didn't warn you." Park murmured before opening the file. "To the CIA Black Ops team in possession of Minako Arisato. There is much your records, Soviet records, and Japanese records do not mention about the woman you have taken control over. It starts at the beginning, with the death of her parents. The pair were investigators for the government, running an investigation of the Kirijo Group and accusations of immoral research practices. When they went to investigate the labs, they took their children, Minato and Minako Arisato. Unfortunately, a lab accident occurred resulting in specimens running loose, the specimens killed the children's parents. One specimen, 13 Death, had to be sealed within two people to prevent further tragedy, and the twins were right there."
"Hang on, you're saying Bell is the harbinger of death?" Lazar asked, a fearful expression across his face.
"It continues." Park answered. "This allowed the pair to awaken to a power called Persona. Using this power, they prevented an apocalyptic event that would have killed every man, woman and child on earth. There was a cost, however, Minato sacrificed his life to seal away Death. The Kirijo Group could not help him. Minako believed these deaths were caused by the Kirijo Group, and all corporations, to an extent. Thus, she defected to the Soviet Union. We believe she may still have the power of Persona, and we know she's among the most powerful ones to wield it. We do not ask you to stop using her, but beg of you to return her to Iwatodai Japan when you are done, this is for the sake of all of humankind. From, The Shadow Operatives."
"This is big…." Sims grumbled. "She has a power we can't control, and now we have these Shadow guys mixed in."
"This changes nothing." Adler stated. "I'll contact Hudson, explain the situation to him. In the meantime, let's prepare her some new memories."
"Are you sure?" Lazar asked. "What if this Persona thing starts creeping up, then what?"
"We'll deal with that if it comes." Adler stated before grabbing a new dosage of the hallucinogens they used. "Bell, remember high school? You had a job to do."
Minako's dreams were not the best before the mission, and they were only getting worse. Before, it was just nightmares about Perseus, what would happen if she were captured, but also sometimes they were of her being Perseus, but now, they were worse. Now they were of her years in highschool, her fighting beasts, controlling them, witnessing death and rebirth. The worst part was that they didn't feel like nightmares, but almost like memories, like she was forgetting something, or someone. She jolted awake when the helicopter came to a stop. Woods loaded a magazine into his SKS and took a look at Minako.
"You good Bell? You look you just say the Grim Fucking Reaper." Woods asked, concern on his face.
"I'm fine, bad dream is all." Minako stated as she picked up her AK-74. "Ready to go?"
"Yep, time to kick ass and take names." Woods chuckled as the door to the chopper opened. The two fast roped out and rucked through the woods below. They had an objective, a job to do. Intel obtained from Volkov pointed them in the direction of a facility in the Ukraine, and a data storage device in Yamantau. They had no clue what it was, only that it was big, and that a ton of soldiers guarded it. So two teams were made, Minako and Woods going to the facility, and Mason and Lazar going to the mountains. Approaching the ridge leading to the facility, Minako got an eye for just how big it really was. It was massive, almost filling the valley it was safely tucked away in. Minako took a picture of it, Langley definitely would want to see that. She did also sneak a picture with Woods, just to mess with the poor intern in charge of filing the photos.
"Heh, at least you got my goodside." Woods chuckled. "Alright, I count four guards posted out front, on your mark." Woods raised his SKS and flicked the safety off, Minako doing the same. Two seconds passed, then three. Then came four soft gunshots, barely audible ones at that. Woods nodded as Minako slid down the ridge and into the facility grounds. Slipping past the guards was fairly easy, even when the BTR showed up. Whoever was in charge here had some serious explaining to do. Getting inside, however. As Minako worked the lock to the shockingly small door leading in, she vaguely heard Russian chatter, and the door being flung open. The Soviet Trooped inside saw her, grabbed her collar and shoved her inside.
"Sound the alarm!" He yelled to the other one there. The second soldier barely made it two steps before being shot in the head. Woods made his entrance with some style, kicking the door down and shooting the one about to sound the alarm with his 1911 one handed. Minako decided to one-up him. Pushing off the ground, Minako pulled her hatchet off her rig and swept the Achilles Tendon of the trooper standing over her, she then plunged the blade into her spine and neck as he fell.
"Fuckin nice." Woods chuckled. "Let's keep at it." Minako was pulled up by Woods, and the two kept going. As the two crept through the halls of the sterile facility, they began to hear gunfire, alarms, and shouting, but no security.
"What is this place?" Minako asked as the two approached a large red door.
"Don't know, but there could be a thousand reds on the other side of this door, be ready." Woods stated as he stood in a defensive stance. He slowly opened the door, crept up on a soldier, and slammed it to the ground. He was about to strike it's face with his rifle, but stopped, it was a mannequin. Woods still slammed his rifle down, until the mannequin's face caved in.
"Hehe, I got him." Woods chuckled. "But not a goddamn word, Bell. Alright? Now then, let's keep quiet."
"Yeah sure, Mason really thinks that you and quite are a good mix." Minako chuckled.
"I'm a goddamn onion, bell. You'll learn that." Woods stated with a chuckle. The two moved forward, confusion rising like a fire as they pushed on. They were in an arcade, full of helmet clad mannequins playing games or wielding rifles. Eventually, they found a window pointing outside, finally getting a grasp on what was happening.
"Jesus christ, they're prepping Spetsnaz for an invasion. It's made to look like anytown USA!" Woods spat as Minako photographed the mock-town. Spetsnaz were fast roping out of mock helicopters, setting up sniper positions, all to get a feel for Middle America.
"Looks like they're doing live fire, want to up the immersion?" Minako asked with a smirk. Woods twisted the suppressor off his rifle.
"Thought you'd never ask." Woods answered, a wild grin across his face. The two crep into the back of the arcade and up a set of stairs, leading to an observation deck. Up there, an officer observed the troops moving through and shooting targets. Woods dropped a grenade into the arcade. Just as it detonated, Minako shot a single 5.45 into the head of the officer, starting the alarms.
"THEY ARE NOT PART OF THE EXERCISE, ELIMINATE THEM!" an officer spat over the loudspeakers. Bullets whizzed past the pair, kicking off a fight for their lives. Minako hung back behind concealed cover, taking shots at the Spetsnaz, only moving when it was safe. Woods however, was far more bold than her, running straight into the line of fire and letting loose with his rifle, slip firing the weapon as fast humanly possible. There was almost a grace to his fighting, one that was chaotic and probably going to get him killed, but it was there. This continued for some time, fire, move, halt, fire, move, halt. On and on until they reached the exit to the training area, leading an elevator that should take them to a control room. The pair would have boarded the elevator, but another Spetsnaz force stood in the way. This one was smaller, but with a lot more force. One of the men on their team wore heavy body armor, covering all but the smallest of areas of his body. The heavy sent an absolute hose of bullets in Woods and Minako's way, keeping them pinned to the ground.
"Bell, I got an idea." Woods stated. "That armor can take a bullet, but not a stab or an explosion. I'll keep you covered, you circle around and find a way to do either of those."
"Gotcha." Minako snapped. Woods sent a flurry of what limited shots he could, distracting the heavy long enough for Minako to slip past. Minako snuck around the force, grabbing a knife and a stick and forcing the two together. Minako then wrapped a grenade around the stick and took a deep breath. She lobbed the spear towards the heavy, the blade impaling itself in the back of it's armor. The heavy recoiled, then came the explosion, no more heavy, no more Spetsnaz either. Woods and Minako pressed on, boarding the elevator, being met with a call from Park.
"It seems the base is on lockdown, what did you two do?" Park asked, clearly annoyed.
"Uh, it was unavoidable, totally impossible not to have the alarm go off." Woods bluffed.
"Yeah, there were thousands of soviets in the training area, we couldn't slip past them." Minako added. Park did not take it well.
"For spies, you two are terrible liars." Park groaned. "Just get to the control room and secure that intel."
"Yeah yeah, copy that." Woods grumbled. "It's just up ahead, let's keep moving." Woods and Minako moved in silence, making their way to the control room. There was an elegance to how Woods moved, almost beauty his muscles certainly-
GAH STOP THINKING ABOUT THAT. Minako spat at herself, coming out as a hoarse cough.
"Christ, need a cough drop, Bell?" Woods asked with a slight chuckle.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Minako responded, her voice spiking in pitch as she did so. Ah shit, Sims and Adler were right. Minako ignored this massive revelation and entered the control room.
"Bell, get on the computer, I'll try and find a password." Woods ordered. Minako nodded and took a seat at one of the terminals. It was password protected, obviously, so minako tried a few things. The name of a child in a drawing, wrong, Gorbachev, wrong, the name of a vacation spot, wrong.
Think, Minako, what would you make your password if you were stuck in a secret base with little contact with the outside world? Minako mused before being hit with a revelation
Parol'chertvoz'mi, that one worked, surprisingly. Woods certainly seemed impressed.
"Nice, what was the password?" Woods asked. Minako let out a slight laugh.
"Password damnit." Minako laughed. Woods had a concerned look on his face.
"Might need to change mine then." He joked. "Now then, anything you can find will help, doesn't matter what." Minako searched through the database, it was mostly junk, until she finally found something worthwhile. Project greenlight. According to this document, nukes were hidden all over Eastern Europe. These nukes would then be detonated in the event of an invasion by the Soviets? What? That didn't make sense, this was a Soviet document. The further Minako dug, the worse it got. The nukes were placed with the approval of Jason Hudson, the handler for the operation against Perseus, and they went missing. Dear god, this wasn't to get rid of Perseus at all, Minako, Woods, Lazar, Park, Adler, Sims, all of them were just Hudson's cleanup team, taking the blame for his mistakes.
"Jesus Fucking Christ, I can't even look at this. Just print it out and let's get the hell out of here." Woods stated, no more joking fun in his voice. Minako hit print and snagged the document, fleeing the control room with Woods. Just up ahead was another mock city, clearly meant to be a capital of some kind. Fortunately, Woods and Minako were in an observation chamber, so they had no chance of being shot at, until the BTR arrived. It launched bullets at them, forcing them to run through as steel and wood exploded behind them from the force of the shots. Barely making it, Woods and Bell found themselves at a vehicle bay, with two heavies, a lot of Soviets, and an unoccupied BTR.
"Hey Woods, I call shotgun." Minako said with a smirk.
"You ready my fucking mind." Woods laughed, pulling a smoke grenade off his kit. Woods dropped the grenade, creating a cloud of smoke that kept them hidden just long enough to get to the BTR. Minako climbed into the gunner's seat, the MG loaded, surprisingly. Minako racked it, sending one of its massive 12.7 mm bullets into battery.
"OH BOYS!" Minako yelled, in Russian. The soldiers faced Minako, a wild grin forming on her face. "Let's rock." She smirked. Clearly, Woods knew what to do, because as she said this, the BTR's speakers blasted Guns N' Roses, the music complementing the rattle of Minako's heavy machine gun. She let out a war cry as the vehicle tore through the training grounds, and the gun tore through it's enemy. It was not long before the team left.
"Park, we're in a BTR, headed back to the safehouse, Hudson has some shit to answer for." Woods spat into the microphone. Something told Bell things were gonna be harder from here on out.
Perseus had an audience with Gorbachev, something he only had once before. Once, he stood before him to establish his network, and now, he was here to request permission for something big.
"Comrade, it's good to hear from you, we here at Lubyanka thought you forgot about us." Gorbachev stated. "I hear you have requests to make?"
"Correct, Leader." Perseus stated. "My first request is to lose the oversight from Soviet High Command that inhibits my operations."
"Granted, you now operate independently of our oversight. I assume there is more?" Gorbachev stated.
"Yes, one of our operatives was captured by the CIA and was brainwashed to follow their orders." Perseus explained. "Her name is Minako Arisatio, she is one of my top agents, and the CIA stripped away her identity to come after me. I would like to request one of the artifacts she brought with her when she defected."
"You want a Plume of Dusk? When Omega is so close to a breakthrough in creating artificial intelligence with them? We only have so many, you better have an excellent reason for this."
"The plumes of dusk, Leader, have extraordinary healing abilities." Perseus explained. "They can heal even the most severe wounds, physical and mental. I believe that if we administer one to her, she will be cured of the CIA's brainwashing."
"Are you absolutely certain this will bring Comrade Arisato back to us? She is invaluable to us, her codes are unbreakable, if we lose her, you will take the blame." Gorbachev added.
"Absolutely, I would not request it if I wasn't one hundred percent certain." Perseus added.
"Granted." Gorbachev stated. "Now then, I know there is one last issue?"
"Of course, a change in mission directive, the new directive is to retrieve Minako." Perseus explained, handing a file to Gorbachev. "The mission is explained there." Gorbachev read the file, carefully looking over all of the details and intricacies.
"Your plan is to fail, to retrieve one woman?" Gorbachev asked. "What happens after?"
"As detailed in the file, one of my agents takes control of Perseus." Perseus explained. "He will act independently from Soviet High Command, possibly even against it, to collapse the US government from the inside. The methods are up to him."
"What will you do with Arisato?" Gorbachev asked.
"The mental exhaustion caused by her experience will be great, she will be granted leave, no restrictions." Perseus explained. "After that, I plan to harness an ability she recently made me aware of with the information she gave us."
"And what is that ability?" Gorbachev asked, intrigued. Perseus pulled a silver handgun out of his jacket. He placed it on the table. It resembled an American target pistol, one meant for hobby shooters, not combat. It was neatly engraved, with the word SEES written on the sides of it and the handle. A blue glow came from a compartment inside of the handgun's barrel.
"I think you already know, Leader." Perseus stated, placing the pistol back on his belt.
"Granted, you are dismissed." Gorbachev stated. "Don't let me down, comrade." Perseus left the office. Waiting for him was his third in command, a man who was, technically, a fugitive. He was called Vikhor Kuzimn, callsign Stitch.
"How did it go?" Stitch asked.
"We are good to go, get your plans in order now." Perseus stated.
"I'll call up some of our friends, the mercenary, the weapons dealer, as many as I can." Stitch stated. "Is Adler involved with our friend?"
"He's the one who planned it." Perseus stated.
"Excellent, I have been planning this for a long time." Stitch grinned. "What's next for you?"
"I'll have the enemy come here, they have a mole after all." Perseus stated. The show was falling into place, it was now time for the curtain call.
A/N: I think that's good for now. Happy to get this out, I'm really loving this so far. I realized I never really took advantage of Persona stuff in the past, really just made it why Ryuji was able to survive exposure to Nova 6 in the last title. I'm gonna take more advantage of it from now on, I promise. A few notes before I keep going, to keep this fic on the shorter side, I will not include the Operation or the Mission in Yamantau, sorry. But, I will be including small snapshots from Perseus' perspective, and an epilogue, yeah remember when I failed to deliver on that in the last one? There won't be much more in this fic, just Desperate Measures from Bell's perspective, End of The Line, Break on Through/Identity Crisis (can't wait for that one!), and [REDACTED FOR NOW]. Well then, that's it for now, until next time, hope you enjoyed and have a great day!
OMAKE: THE SHADOW OPERATIVE'S FILE ON MINAKO ARISATIO
Person of Interest File
Name: Minako Arisato
Age: 21
DOB: 4/25/63
Height: 160 cm
Weight: 81 kg
Appearance: Light Brown hair, red eyes, thin build
Nationality(s): Soviet, Japanese
Arcana: The Fool (0)
Persona: Orpheus, various others
Affiliatations: SEES (former leader), USSR, CIA (forced)
Background: A former member of SEES, Minako Arisato led the organization alongside her late brother, Minato Arisato. In 1979, she stole research information and three cases containing two Plumes of Dusk each and used them as collateral to defect to the Soviet Union. She worked with them as part of an unknown spy network, until being captured by the CIA and brainwashed. She is to be considered armed and dangerous, especially given her possession of The Wildcard. If she is found, she is to be captured and taken directly to Director Kirijo.