Chapter Seven

Ryuji stepped into the tower of the elevator, guided by Akechi and the blonde woman, who was called Aigis, taking his hood off as he stepped in. The ride was not long, but there was enough time for one question.

"How did you survive?" Ryuji asked, the recipient knowing exactly who they were.

"I don't entirely know." Akechi admitted. "Someone told me my time wasn't up yet, and that I still had to ensure someone would complete their role, and that I couldn't die until then. Then there was a brilliant flash of light. I woke up in a landfill with a patch over my eye, barely holding onto my life. I gathered my bearings, took a coat I found at the landfill, and began wandering. I eventually met Nikolai in an abandoned Gulag in Siberia, he picked me up, and I eventually met the woman you're about to meet." The elevator opened, revealing a training room. Inside was an older woman with red hair, and a dominating presence. She carried a briefcase in one hand, a sword in the other, seeming to expect Ryuji.

"Mitsuru-San, he's here." Aigis stated.

"You must be Ryuji Sakamoto, we've been hoping to speak with you." Mitsuru stated. "I'll cut right to the chase, we need your help."

"And what is it you need my help with?" Ryuji asked, a demanding tone to his voice.

"I'll need to explain a few things first." She stated. "You already know about Persona, but what you don't know is how you can use it in the real world. Anyone with a Persona can use it at any time, but it's easier with a medium in another world. In the real world, it is so much harder. My organization, The Shadow Operatives, was dedicated to ensuring threats from Shadows would be contained, as with that of other Persona Users. However, we're now all too old to continue, leaving only Akechi, who cannot use his anyomer, and Aigis, who isn't built for combat against humans. We monitored you to make sure you had humanity's best interests in mind, but with the threat of Shadow Company's Persona User, and Minako Arisato, we had to contact you."

"So what do you want me to do?" Ryuji asked. "Answer the question."

"We need you to kill Shadow company's Persona User, and deal with Arisato." Akechi stated.

"If possible, when you do confront Arisato, please bring her home alive." Mitsuru stated. "I couldn't bear her death, even after all she has done."

"I can't make any promises, but fine, I'll do what I can." Ryuji answered. Aigis nodded.

"That is all we ask." Aigis stated.

"Now then, you'll want to know how to use a Persona in the real world." Mitsuru began, pulling a silver handgun out of her briefcase. "This is an Evoker, it'll allow you to summon a Persona. However, it's not as simple as pointing it at your head and pulling the trigger, it requires a tremendous, tiring amount of energy to do. You can probably only summon it a few times before you pass out, but it can be done. Please, try to do this." Mitsuru handed the Evoker to Ryuji. He examined the strange pistol, slowly doing as Mitsuru said, aiming it at his head. Ryuji cleared his mind, focusing only on his old Persona, Captain Kidd, and pulled the trigger. Glass shattered and Ryuji felt blue flames erupt around him.

"It's been far too long, Ryuji." Captain Kidd said to Ryuji. "I was beginning to think you forgot about me. You've come a long way from the kid with an attitude problem you once were, I think we're gonna do great things together. Now then, ready to hoist your flag once more?"

"Yeah, let's go Captain." Ryuji murmured before his persona returned to him. Mitsuru gave Ryuji a look of confidence.

"Normally, we'd train you to use him more effectively, but you seem to take your persona well. That, and we don't have much time." Mitsuru stated. "Now then, I think you and your team need a briefing."

Lev "Velikan" Takao took a look at his stained hand. Blood covered his palm, not unusual at the moment. Velikan checked his watch, 03:30:59, it read. He only had three hours and thirty minutes until the medicines stopped working and he finally kicked the bucket. He knew that his goals would be met, he knew what was to come. Velkian pulled his pills out of his medicine cabinet, one dose left. Velikan took a deep breath and took it. He put his helmet on, the all too familiar grin of an Oni smiled back at him as he allowed the polymer and kevlar mask to slip over his face. Today it all ended, he would be able to die peacefully. No more killing, no more fearful looks in the eyes of those who could not fight back. Velikan stepped out of his quarters and walked straight to the war room. Men and women stepped aside out of fear, knowing he never talks with his helmet on, and that if he does, it results in someone dying. Waiting in the war room was Roze, Lerch, a few foot soldiers, and, of course, General Shepherd.

"Velikan, glad to see you. How's the cough, still bloody?" Shepherd asked. Velikan responded by showing off the time on his watch. Shepherd nodded.

"Don't worry, I know they'll be here soon, Navi says she intercepted communications between the last of 141, Chimera, and an unknown third party." Shepherd explained. "You'll get your last fight." Velikan nodded, leaving before the briefing could begin. He knew what he was getting into, he didn't need Shepherd to tell him he was going to die.

Ryuji sat down for the briefing, Soap and Price right beside him. Akechi stood beside Mitsuru, standing at a perfect parade rest. Ryuji had just learned he could summon his persona in the real world, now he was going to have to use it. Mitsuru turned on a projector, generating an image of a series of caves sitting on the border of Urzikstan, Georgia, and Turkey. It was quite genius, actually. Were Shepherd to be caught, it would be difficult, nigh impossible, to coordinate an operation to attack his base of operations, giving him time to plan a defense.

"Soap, Price, you two are, as you know, going to assassinate Lieutenant General Hershel Von Shepherd. You already have your plan, for the most part, this is a formality for you two." Mitsuru opened. "The rest of this is for Sakamoto. Sakamoto, you're going after this man, First Lieutenant Lev 'Velikan' Takao. He awakened to his Persona in 1989, when he volunteered for Shepherd's Project Arcanum in return for an American citizenship. The project involved forcing Velikan to awaken to a Persona, a double edged sword in terms of use. While he has the Persona, it actively tries to kill him, only able to be suppressed with medication that prevents the Persona from doing so. However, this medication has quite an Ironic cost. After the first dose, it begins slowly damaging lung cells, heart cells, and nerve endings, slowly killing the user. This most likely won't affect your mission, but we felt it was pertinent to inform you of it. We have one last request for you. There's likely going to be a set of servers storing information about Personas, we would like you to burn these servers. The existence of artificial Personas must die with Velikan and Shepherd."

"You have my word." Ryuji stated. "Trust me."

"Thank you." Mitsuru stated. "As for Minako, that will come later, for now, only worry about Velikan."

"Right, let's do this." Price stated, standing up from his seat. Sakamoto followed suit, staring at his mask from Ghost. This was for him, for his people, for his family. Sakamoto put on the mask. A reckoning was coming, and it wore a Skull.

Torres was getting tired of sitting at front leaning rest, he honestly thought the guards were just messing with him at this point. Hell, he could have sworn that he overheard them talking about making him wear cat ears, probably thinking 141 or something was going to raid them, so they may as well act stupid.

"Torres, chow time, enjoy." one of the guards informed Torres, sliding a tray into his cell. As usual, it was moldy bread, cold oatmeal, and a cup of lukewarm water. As Torres picked up the bread and picked off the mold, he noticed a note on the tray.

'Torres, I doubled the dose today, this will be enough to show you your true power. Be careful, it may be hard to control yourself, but I know you have the will. Sakamoto will be here to rescue you, make sure Lerch and Roze can't kill him, and that Navi does not die. I will be waiting for you and Sakamoto, make sure he gives me a good fight. And remember, he should have no weapons whatsoever. - Velikan.' The note read. Torres sighed, biting into the bread. Almost instantly, his head began pounding, his vision fading into a purple hued mess. He began screaming, barely able to hear the guard unfurling his baton and yelling at him to stop screaming. The guard stepped into the cell, Torres barely able to acknowledge his presence as another overpowered him.

"Hmm, this may be interesting." the voice stated. "Let's see where this goes." The presence disappeared, leaving Torres able to attack the guard.

"Get on the floor now!" The guard demanded. Torres grabbed the guard, ripping his shoulder from it's socket, ramming it into the guard's face. Torres had a feeling this going to be fun.

"Who was that?" the young girl asked. "He looked familiar."

"I don't know." the young boy stated, sighing as he set his toy soldier on the floor. "But he kind of looked like you, if you were taller."

"He's gone now, probably another one of those ghost things my dad mentioned." the girl said. "Let's get back to our game. So then, our heroes stepped into the helicopter, ready to defeat the bad guy and rescue their friends."

A/N: Yeah, I know, shorter than usual, but it's gonna get good soon, the next chapter will be longer and feature the first Persona battle in the series. Now then, about Torres, sorry, but that's a spoiler, I don't want to spoil what will be coming. I figure I may as well mention this now, so that there's no confusion in the future, but here's some information about MW3: I'm only doing the perspective of TF141 for that, sorry. In exchange, Torres and Futaba are joining them. Until Next time, I hope you enjoy and have a great day!