[Note - This isn't part of the fic, it's just a little something to help people who haven't played the games, or haven't played them with obsessive attention to detail. This summary of the Persona 2 plot and characters is strictly to aid understanding of this fanfiction - to outline the main characters, clarify what choices I made and what aspects of their personalities are relevant to the story. It is not in any way supposed to be comprehensive or 'canon', and much of it is in fact subjective. Also, major spoilers ahead for both Persona 2 games. Thank you, and you may now return to your regularly scheduled fanfiction!]

--------------- Tsumi to Batsu: The Story So Far ---------------

Oof, where to start? Okay, firstly, there are two Persona 2 games, Tsumi (Innocent Sin) and Batsu (Eternal Punishment). In Tsumi, the player character is Tatsuya Suou, a senior at Seven Sisters High School. To understand the Tsumi storyline, you have to understand his past.

When he was eight, he met two other boys and a girl at Araya Shrine, and they played a game together involving masks, which gave them their name for their little crew - the Masquerade. They often returned to the shrine to play their game, and one day they met an older girl there named Maya Amano. She started playing with them, too, and she taught them how to play a very special game called 'Persona-sama' that would allow them to see their futures. It was this game that awakened the persona power in them.

One day Maya came to play and told them that her family was moving away. Since they all looked up to her and didn't want her to leave, they locked her into the shrine so that she wouldn't be able to go. Tatsuya gave them trouble about it, so they locked him in with her. Maya did her best to comfort Tatsuya, but that night a pyromaniac, Tatsuya Sudou, came to the shrine and set it on fire. Maya helped Tatsuya get out, but then she was trapped, and he wouldn't leave despite her yelling for him to run away. He tried to stop Sudou, who then stabbed him. This prompted young Tatsuya to call on Vulcanus, his persona, who appeared and kicked the living crap out of the bad guy, completely disfiguring his face. Fight fire with fire, they say...

Well, Maya did get out of the shrine, but since Tatsuya was unconscious he didn't see her. The Masquerade crew was so traumatized by the event - for they thought they'd killed Maya - that they hid their masks and went their separate ways, forcing themselves to forget about the incident.

At the beginning of Tsumi, the Masquerade kids are all in high school, and Maya is sent to Seven Sisters to investigate a rumor that you can make your dreams come true by calling your own cell phone number. There, she runs into the Masquerade (minus one person...) and they are fatefully reunited. Of course, none of them remember what happened.

Begin the adventure. I'm not going to relate the whoooole thing, because that would take forever, and frankly not much of it is relevant. They do a lot of ass-kicking and shadow-confronting and deadbeat dad killing. It's all very satisfying.

In the Persona 2 universe, there are two major gods, one representing order, or the goodness in humanity, and the other representing chaos, or the badness in humanity. The former is Philemon, and the latter is Nyarlathotep. Though Philemon is 'good' and Nyarly is 'evil', they are really two sides of the same coin, and at the end of the game you discover that they were conspiring to test the persona users. They wanted to observe them and see if humanity was capable of achieving a higher level. Both were involved in the ruse, but Nyarly's intentions were never good. He summons one of their teachers from Sevens, who picks up Longinus, the spear that pierced the side of Christ, and stabs Maya through the chest with it. Because of the legend of the spear, they can't heal the wound and Maya dies. Then, as if that weren't enough, the planets align and everything on Earth is destroyed, except for Sumaru City, which is on top of a big floating ship thing.

Philemon, because he's just that nice of a guy, tells the party that they can fix what happened by giving up their memories of what happened, and rewriting time such that they never meet in the shrine. Doing so would create a new world that would be safe from Nyarly, and none of the destruction would ever happen. Of course, they agree, and everything is reset just like he said.

In the new world, everything is as it should be, except for one thing: Tatsuya. He was unable to give up his memories, because he loved his friends too much, and he didn't want to be alone again. At the end of Tsumi, he bumps into Maya at a train station, and all his memories come flooding back.

This is also the beginning of Batsu. Things begin very similarly in this game; Maya is sent to Seven Sisters again, but this time she is with Ulala, and she is investigating the Joker curse, not the Joker charm. At the school, they run into Katsuya, who is investigating a series of serial murders that he believes are linked to the Joker. Soon after, they come face to face with him, and he's none other than good old Tatsuya Sudou. They all summon their personae to fight him - apparently even in this world the persona-sama game got around.

Philemon shows his pretty face and explains the persona thing to them, as well as enlists them to fight evil and all that jazz. Philemon is represented by a golden butterfly, by the way.

Anyway, Maya, Ulala, and Katsuya join forces with Baofu, a rumormonger they meet over the internet. Together, they go to find Tatsuya Sudou and start piecing together the whole story. Much political intrigue and demon bashing is had by all, until at last Tatsuya Suou joins the party, and reveals the truth of his situation to them. It turns out that he is actually the consciousness of the other world's Tatsuya residing in this world's Tatsuya's body. This is all a result of his refusal to forget his memories.

Much more adventuring commences, until we find ourselves at the end of Batsu. Here, you get to fight Nyarly and actually kill him this time! Of course, he's not really dead, since he is the evil that lurks in people's hearts, but it still feels good. Tatsuya, unsurprisingly, reveals that he cannot stay in this world because it would close the rift between the two and cause its eventual destruction. So, his consciousness leaves this world's Tatsuya's body, and things pretty much go back to normal again.

That's when Dragon Cross begins.

--------------- Dramatis Personae ---------------

- Ulala Serizawa - Age: 24 -

Ulala is most easily described as your 'average woman'. Though she is young, attractive, and pays close attention to personal style, she is also horribly insecure and unsure about what to do with her life. I get the sense that she expected to meet a husband in school, and when her life didn't go that way she found herself in the real world without much of a plan.

As a result of her tendency to dabble in many different hobbies, she is versatile and multitalented. Still, she's a jack-of-all-trades, master of none, as she never devotes herself to mastering any one thing. Like many young women looking for husbands, she finds odd jobs as an office lady (a kind of secretary) or in sales, but doesn't commit to a career.

Despite being a good, nurturing person (or perhaps because of it), she has terrible luck with men. She wants to find her special someone and get married more than anything, but unfortunately her boyfriends seem to take advantage of that weakness. Her desperation has made it really hard for her to stay in relationships, even with good guys. I guess she ends up scaring them away, or maybe they decide she is better company as a friend, when she isn't pressuring them to commit.

After the Batsu story, she started a mansearching business with Baofu. Basically, they are like private detectives that look for long lost relatives/friends/whatever. They also handle missing persons cases that don't have a criminal element, like finding runaway kids. Right now their business is still fairly new, but they have been getting lots of clients as a result of the strange aftereffects of Nyar's manipulations.

She's been best friends with Maya since high school, and they have been roommates since they graduated. They've had their share of problems, and one of the things Ulala had to work through when she confronted her shadow- self was her jealousy of Maya. Since Maya is so dedicated to her dream, she is much more stable than Ulala, and she of course has better luck with men. The events of Batsu led them to work through their problems, though, and their friendship at the end of the story was whole and genuine. They will probably be good friends for their whole lives.

Her closest male friend is her co-worker Baofu, an ex-wire tapper that she became close to over the course of Batsu. He accepts her more than other men because he sees her for what she is, instead of the carefully constructed front she puts up for most people. I think this is probably because she didn't see him as a romantic prospect at first (he is, after all, eight years her senior and was involved in illegal things when they met - not really husband material), and so she didn't try to impress him. Once she found that he accepted her this way, she started to try to be closer to him, and eventually they become very good friends.

Is she in love with him? I think the feelings she has for him are closer to love than anything she's experienced before. But since she doesn't know how he feels about her, she's careful not to devote her heart to him (she is very insecure, after all). She's very happy with what they have, and she definitely hopes that it'll someday turn into more, but I don't think she would try to force it on Baofu because his friendship is so valuable to her.

About Ulala's main persona, Asteria: Asteria was a goddess (and a titan) who didn't want anything to do with Zeus's 'love', and to escape him she turned into a quail and dove into the sea, where she transformed into the island of Delos. Later, her sister Leto fled to this island to give birth to the twins Apollo and Artemis (Tatsuya and Maya's main personae, respectively). Her name means Starry One or Flaming One (as in a meteor or comet), and she's sometimes considered the goddess of fire.

- Baofu (Kaoru Saga) - Age: 32 -

Baofu starts out as a pretty shady character, a wiretapper who runs a rumor site online. At first the other characters don't know much about him, but they eventually learn that he is actually Kaoru Saga, an ex-special agent who was reported to be dead. His past is complex, but basically he was assigned to investigate the Taiwanese mafia and their connection to the Big Bad Guy, Tatsuzou Sudou. He worked with a woman named Miki Asai, who he was presumably also involved with romantically. While they were on a mission in Taiwan, they were both attacked, and though he survived he was unable to save her. He was traumatized by the event, and he disappeared for several years before returning to Japan under the name of Baofu.

He basically lived to get revenge on Sudou, so his wiretapping and rumor page franchises also helped him collect information. However, in the course of Batsu he discovers the futility of revenge and atones for what happened, even finding a new partner, Ulala. This time, he decides to use his gift for investigation in a more helpful way, hence the mansearching business that they start up. He insists on being called 'Baofu', though, because he sees it as a fresh start and he wants to leave Kaoru Saga behind (as well as protect himself from any lingering grudges against the name).

Baofu is an extremely intelligent and talented individual, by far the most out of all the main characters. For this reason, he never really relates to any of them, though he does respect them and considers them as friends. For years after the incident with Miki, he lived a completely solitary life, so he isn't really the most socially adept person in the world. He sometimes clashes with Katsuya, because they work in similar fields but have very different methodologies, but they have learned to at least be civil to each other.

His natural intelligence also makes him uncomfortable with the use of personae. He is willing to use them because he knows they make him stronger, but it bothers him greatly to be dependant on them. This proves to be extremely problematic for him, because his main persona, Prometheus, is clairvoyant. So Baofu is always having premonitions and strong intuitions, and that really upsets him because he wants to think everything out logically. He was hoping that after the final confrontation with Nyarlathotep, he wouldn't have to use his persona anymore and it wouldn't be a problem. However, it seems like he hasn't been able to escape it, and he has even been suffering from nightmares from his persona.

As for how he feels about Ulala... well, he's accepted her as a business partner, and that's a big step for him. He definitely finds her attractive; however, he's not very good with emotions, and so I don't think he really knows what he feels for her or how to express it. Right now I think he's come to need her, and he sort of assumes she'll always be there. But until she confronts him, he won't make any moves because it's not in his nature to do so. If he's going to learn the ways of romance, someone is going to have to take his hand and lead him through it.

About Baofu's main persona, Prometheus: Prometheus was a titan who is lauded as one of the 'fathers' of mankind. He and his brother, Epimetheus, shaped all the Earth's creatures from clay and set out to give them each a gift from the gods. However, when they got to humanity, they had no more gifts left to give. Prometheus saw with his foresight that humans were to be the superior race, so he appealed to Athene to help him fly to the Sun, where he lit his torch. He returned to Earth and gave man the heavenly fire, which was so godly a gift that it offended Zeus. Zeus (what a great guy) had the ulterior motive of wanting to use Prometheus's foresight to predict which of his children would try to overthrow him, and the fire thing just gave him an excuse to go after the poor guy. When Prometheus resisted, Zeus ordered him chained to Mount Caucasus where a great eagle came every day to feast on his liver. His name means Forethought, appropriately enough.

- Maya Amano - Age: 23 -

Maya is a young journalist working for the teen magazine "Coolest" at Kismet Publications. It's always been a dream of hers to work as a reporter because that's what her father did, and she wants to continue his legacy. However, he spent a lot of time in the field and it eventually claimed his life, and so she probably won't throw herself into it like he did. Like Ulala, she's very outgoing, and despite losing her father at a young age she is very optimistic and positive. Staying happy and following your dreams, even in the face of adversity, are the two most important things to her.

Even though she has to work long hours, she really loves her job and it seems to get her involved in some interesting dilemmas. The event that started the Batsu storyline was her assignment to investigate the Joker Curse at Seven Sisters High School. Because they were supposed to go to a party that night, she ended up taking Ulala along. Of course, instead of being a cut-and-dry assignment, the principal was murdered and Maya was revealed as the next target of the serial killer. Hence, they both got wrapped up in more than they planned for.

At home, Maya is a complete slob. Her apartment with Ulala is always a mess, and it's completely her fault. It doesn't bother her, though - she doesn't feel the need to pretend to be a good homemaker. Her relationship with her roommate is still good, though. Maya thinks of Ulala as a sister and really looks out for her. Even though they don't see eye to eye on everything, what Maya wants most is for her to be happy. For this reason, she is really supportive of Ulala's relationship with Baofu, because she sees him as capable and responsible enough to take care of her. She doesn't look down on Ulala at all, but she is acutely aware of how flaky she can be and worries about her a lot.

Maya's own romantic life is no less complicated than Ulala's, though. In the course of Batsu, she became involved with the young Tatsuya. She was very attracted to him on a physical level (after all, he is a very handsome boy), and because of the experiences they shared she began to see him as her knight in shining armor. However, their difference in age posed a problem in her mind, as well as the knowledge that the Tatsuya she knew would eventually have to go back to his own world. I think she was always thinking of these problems, and though she greatly desired him she was careful not to get too attached to him.

Since the whole experience of losing that Tatsuya proved to be very painful for her, she sort of threw herself into her work after it was all over. She hasn't wanted to think much about her romantic life because she isn't over him yet. Seeing the new Tatsuya is hard for her because she has to confront her physical attraction to him, something that shames her I think. Not only is he younger, but she also wants to believe that love is deeper than that, so her attraction to the new him makes her uncomfortable.

Her relationship with Katsuya is tenuous right now. She likes him a lot, but because she was involved with Tatsuya she never really looked at him romantically. Of course, the revelation that he was in love with her came as a big surprise. Ulala is good friends with him, but for Maya it's more complicated, so she hasn't seen him too much. Of course, she's been so busy with work that she hasn't seen much of anyone.

About Maya's main persona, Artemis: Artemis is Apollo's twin sister, and technically the older of the two (Apollo is Tatsuya's persona, so it's strangely appropriate if you consider their relationship from Tsumi). She's known for her resistance to love of any kind, and she remained a virgin her whole life. Like Apollo, she is both kind and cruel, and though she is the great protector of women, she is also responsible for those who die during childbirth. She bears a golden bow and arrows, like her brother, and together they are known as the 'twins of justice' for they were often sent together to punish mortals for incursions against the gods.

- Katsuya Suou - Age: 25 -

Katsuya's main priority in life is his little brother, Tatsuya. When they were younger, their father was involved in the investigation of an arsonist who turned out to be Tatsuzou Sudou's son Tatsuya. Because Sudou is the Big Bad and the Big Bad generally protects its own, their father was framed for an embezzlement scheme and forced to resign from his position. While Katsuya was old enough to understand his father's motivation to do so (protecting his family, for one), Tatsuya was not and was disappointed in his father. Katsuya reacted to the situation by growing up fast and taking control of the family, something that Tatsuya grew to resent. Katsuya rode his little brother a lot about his grades and his performance in school because he was trying to fill the role of their father. Of course, he was only doing it because he loved his brother so much and wanted him to be successful, but Tatsuya didn't see it that way, and they became estranged.

Katsuya was an excellent student, and even though he was really interested in being a patissier (a professional dessert chef), he ended up going to law school so that he could both continue his father's legacy and do something reliable. Even then, he felt that he had to take care of the family, his little brother especially, so he gave up on his dream. This is something that came up when he confronted his shadow-self in the Batsu storyline (the other thing was his love for Maya, but we'll get to that).

Now Katsuya works as a detective, and he seems to be very successful there despite his young age. Part of this is due to his tenacity, but the fact that his father used to work there probably helps too. He's good at his job because he is thorough, and though it wasn't his ideal he certainly doesn't hate it. He lived in a dormitory for single police officers for a long time, but after Batsu he arranged to take guardianship of his brother and they gave him a subsidized apartment.

Just like Maya, Katsuya's experiences with the other-side Tatsuya were painful. He wanted nothing more than to be reunited with his brother and for them to be close again. It was hard for both of them, but they eventually made amends - the only catch was that it wasn't his Tatsuya. Once he was gone, all the work they'd done towards fixing their relationship was erased and Katsuya had to start all over again. However, he retained what he'd learned about his little brother and that knowledge helped him to understand the new Tatsuya better.

Katsuya is popular with women because he's both handsome and nice (and a good cook to boot), but he's pretty oblivious to them. During Batsu he grew to love Maya, although that may be just because he was forced to spend a lot of time with her, and so she's the first woman he ever really felt he understood. Of course, he had to suppress his feelings for her because she was clearly involved with his brother; I get the sense that it really wasn't too much of a trial for him, because he is such a gentle person that he would easily make the sacrifice for their happiness.

As to whether he's still interested in her, I'd say that he has put the thought on the back burner for now because he's so focused on fixing things up with his brother. I think that even once they are stable he would probably lay low for a while because the last thing he wants is to make her uncomfortable. But he definitely won't forget about her.

About Katsuya's main persona, Hyperion: Hyperion was a titan and the god of observation. He fathered Helios, and is sometimes represented as the original sun god, who was eventually succeeded by Helios (who was in turn eclipsed by Apollo, no pun intended). Attributed to him is the first understanding of astronomy and the movements of the celestial bodies; mainly because he was the only god who cared enough to sit there and watch them. His name means One Who Watches From Above.

- Tatsuya Suou - Age: 18 -

Tatsuya is difficult to write about, because the boy we get to know as Tatsuya in Batsu is actually Tatsuya from Tsumi occupying this one's body. At the end of Batsu, the other-side Tatsuya goes home, leaving a whole new person without the experiences of either of these adventures. This event impacts Maya and Katsuya dramatically, as now they both have to adjust to the new Tatsuya. This is the Tatsuya in my story.

Basically, Tatsuya's childhood experiences remain unchanged, except that he never met his friends from Tsumi (Jun, Eikichi, Lisa, and Maya). However, he still has his issues with his father, and he was still estranged from his brother as a result of that. He slacked his way through high school as his way of rebelling, and by his senior year he was cutting class a whole lot. He's naturally intelligent, and school bores him, so he pretty much hates being there, especially since he doesn't have many friends there.

After the Batsu adventure, Katsuya insisted on taking him in, which was fine with him because it allowed him even more freedom. He ended up staying at a local mechanic's garage in exchange for help on the weekends, an arrangement that suited his desire for independence and the chance to work. He feels very much like he wants to grow up and start having his own life.

He's getting to the point where he's starting to question what he'll do after high school. I don't think he wants to be a mechanic forever, and he's curious about police work because Katsuya does it and he assumes it's easy. As much as Katsuya bothers him, he does really respect his older brother. He always felt bad that Katsuya didn't approve of his life, and most of his resentment came from the fact that he hated feeling guilty. Really, what he wanted was for his older brother to accept him for who he was.

In many ways, this Tatsuya is just an average kid. He likes going to clubs to people-watch, working on his bike, and hanging out with his friends. Generally, he spends time with whoever can tolerate him, which tend to be the more mature, intelligent kids. He has a beautiful face, so he does get attention from girls, but many of them are intimidated by his brooding personality.

In terms of his abilities as a persona user, since the persona was already awakened in that body, he does have the ability to use them, even if it's latent. However, the moment he's put under any duress, the persona will surface and come to his aid, and then he'll have some issues to deal with. He'll be very confused by being thrust into the world of demons and personae and magic, because really he's encountering it for the first time. Also, he's naturally skeptical, so he'd probably worry that he was going crazy.

In terms of the rift between the two worlds, at the end of Batsu we learn that the more the Tsumi kids remember about the other world, the more weirdness happens in this one. That's why the other-side Tatsuya couldn't stay; his presence would have eventually torn apart the Batsu world. It's also for that reason that the Batsu characters try not to expose him to too much that might trigger his memory. He'll probably never fully remember what happened, but if he starts to have déjà vu experiences it could be a window to a world of trouble.

About Tatsuya's main persona, Apollo: Apollo (Artemis's twin brother, remember) is typically portrayed as a very beautiful young man, and is also a powerful god to boot. He uses a bow (sometimes depicted as silver, sometimes gold) and vicious arrows that are said to bring death and plague. But, like Artemis, he is both terrible and beautiful, for he carries a lyre as well as a weapon and uses its music to enact healing in the world. His first love was the result of a prank by Eros, who shot him with the golden arrow of love and shot the object of his affection, a nymph named Daphne, with the iron arrow of hatred. Daphne immediately became averse to love of any kind and rejected all her suitors, including Apollo. However, his infatuation was such that he chased her across the world until she fell in exhaustion. Just as he came upon her, she begged Zeus to help her escape his affection. Apollo could only watch as she changed into the beautiful, immobile laurel tree, which he then declared his sacred tree and used a branch from it as his crown.