Chapter 17: Secret of the Dark
|Aeternus HQ - Meeting Room|9:24 am|
The tension in the room was unbearable. Another meeting had been called to discuss the Holy Cross' recent failures, and it was rather likely that the Commander would be asked to pass on the Ater Vox's messages. Sitting at the large white table, Alastair looked around, wary that their chief could appear at any second.
"No sign of them yesterday. They must be keeping a low profile." Kazuya said, the first words anyone had said after entering the room. "If the Ornatu Legion can patrol the entire city and still not find them, then they truly are something else."
"Yeah, but you saw how furious the Commander was on Tuesday. He won't be all "Let's give up, at least you tried", he won't stop punishing us until we capture them!" Richard said. "Damn, this sucks. What are we supposed to do?"
"I've no clue. Why can't someone else be the Commander? Someone who doesn't threaten to 'fucking kill' us every five seconds?" Kazuya said, exhausted. None of them had slept very well the previous night, and Richard's fatique was slowly creeping up on him. He was almost ready to doze off, fear being the only thing keeping him awake.
"He doesn't talk like that all the time!" Bianca said, yawning. "Please, let's just get this meeting over with!" Alastair nodded, and the four of them sat there in silence, but no one came. Richard started whistling a tune, but one glare from Kazuya and he stopped.
"Did something happen?" Alastair asked. "If he can't make it, then shouldn't he tell us?"
"I hardly think keeping you ineffectual losers waiting is at the top of his priorities, Mr Clark."
The four of them gasped, and soon, a hologram of a human head appeared in the middle of the desk. A young male, with jet black spiky hair that covered part of his left eye. His eyes had a strange orange hue, and there was something inhuman about them.
"Nihane Kronos." Alastair said. This was only the second time they had ever met the leader of the Ater Vox. Nihane, alongside the others, never made public appearances. Few even knew his name. Yet…he was the one in charge of the entire organisation.
"Correct. Notice that instead of sending forth your Commander, I have deigned to speak to you all. I assure you, the pleasure is not all mine." Nihane said, with a sense of superiority.
"Are we in trouble?" Bianca asked, afraid to stare into Nihane's eyes.
"Pitiful Bianca, away with the fairies in her imaginary flower garden!" Nihane said, with a disturbingly fake laugh. "Let's see. Neither one of you can capture the new Persona users that have appeared, and after the first encounter, the details you provide are vague. So to answer your question…you four are in serious trouble." he said, with a sadistic smile.
"We are truly sorry, Nihane. We will succeed next time, I promise!" Alastair begged. Nihane shook his head, and let out a snide laugh.
"You should know better than to make promises you can't keep. Know your limitations. The Holy Cross's chances to impress us have passed long ago. But, I'm feeling generous. You now have one last chance to impress me, you simpletons. One." Nihane said, his smile turning to an eerie stoic look.
"What would you have us do, Sir?" Kazuya asked.
"Now there's a pointless question. Did you seriously expect me not to give you the mission details? You four and the Commander shall work together on a little scheme. Yes, the time has come to play a King, not four lackluster pawns." Nihane said. "Listen carefully. If I have to repeat myself, you will learn a new meaning for the word punishment."
|Solar Ray Mall, Bar Seoul|18:00 pm|
"Here we are again..." Nathan said, sitting down. "At least we get a discount from coming here, thanks to Blaine."
"Yeah. 10% off. That's what I get for working my ass off all day here." Blaine said, looking through the menu.
"But you only work here part time." Serena said.
"Whatever! It's harder work than it looks. And Korean food is so weird." Blaine said.
"It's already been one week since we started this thing. Scary how fast the time goes." Amara said.
"They say time flies when you're having fun..." Serena said. "I guess the same applies when you're fighting a totalitarian regime in another dimension."
Blaine laughed slightly. "Come on, Serena, you play tons of games. You've probably toppled thousands of corrupt dictators. Tonight, though, let's just stick to training."
"Yeah, that'd be good!" Amara said, smiling. "After all the craziness, beating up Shadows is a great way to unwind. And more fun than a stress ball."
"Have you ever used one of those?" Nathan asked.
"Stress balls suck. That's why I have video games." Serena said. "After one stressful day of school, I spent eight hours on Skyrim...but I died, and
"In other words, it proved counter-intuitive." Nathan said. "But enough of that. Let's go to the base as soon as we're done."
"Correction: Go to the bathroom first, then go to the base." Blaine said, with a slightly sinister air to his voice. "Korean food is spicy, you know."
|Secret Base|18:43 pm|
The base was the same as ever, and the three rebels were at the computer. Kyle was occupied with a phone conversation, while Aimee and Seraphina were watching camera footage. It appeared to be Takanawa, the city's Asian district. Amara didn't see anything massively different, but she suspected that eventually, she would be plunged into battle there.
"Okay, okay! I'll see you later. Oh rather, when you feel like it. Bye." Kyle said, hanging up, He sighed in disdain, shaking his head. "Of all the nights to go to the pub..."
"Have you been stood up, Kyle?" Nathan asked.
"Ah!" Kyle said, surprised. "Oh, it's only you all. I never heard you arrive." He turned to Seraphina, adjusting his glasses. "You knew they were there, didn't you?"
"Sir Kyle, one knows when not to interrupt you." Seraphina said. "Lady Priscilla and Sir Daniel are currently at The Mole, in Farawell." The Mole was an underground pub that had shut years ago, due to an unfortunate situation involving kidnapping.
"The Mole, huh? I'm guessing they don't do karaoke in this world." Amara said, trying to imagine a pub in a city like this. What sort of customers would risk Shadows for a drink?
"Lady Priscilla, you say?" Nathan said. "Do you mean - Priscilla Lancaster?!"
"Yes, that's her." Aimee said, anxiously. "I know I kept saying she was busy, but the truth is, she wasn't ready to face you. After all, you are Nathan, but not the Nathan of this world. Another Priscilla's Nathan. I finally talked her round today...but it seems like she's still a little scared."
"You've known Priscilla for quite a while, right?" Serena asked.
"We first met when we were children. Long before the advent of Shadows." Nathan said, fondly. "I wouldn't call it love at first sight, but after we were in our teens..." Blaine rolled his eyes, quiet. Amara had the impression that he had been less lucky in love than Nathan.
"I'm so sorry, Nathan. I should have said something sooner." Aimee said. "I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping quiet."
"It's alright. I'm glad she's here, and if she's part of this group, she won't be caught by Aeternus." Nathan said, relieved. "I need to tell the other Nathan, though!"
"Don't worry, she knows about him already. That's what made her ready to show herself. Please understand, though. It's hard for her, having to imagine two Nathans around." Aimee said, sitting down. "Oh, and there's Daniel. He's tried to avoid meeting you all too, but he won't tell me why..."
"How come? This Daniel's not shy, is he?" Blaine said, now engaged in the conversation.
"Well, he keeps to himself a lot. If he's not fighting Shadows or on a mission, he'll be in The Mole drinking." Aimee said. "He's scary if he's mad, but he's sweet if you get on his good side!"
"Okay, enough talk! We're going to The Mole to meet them, huh?" Amara said, excited. "I wonder what their Personas are like?"
"I could just show you." Kyle said, pouting. "I do keep extensive records on this for a reason. I've even been keeping data on yours."
"You and your research, Kyle." Serena said - but she gasped. "Woops, I keep forgetting, you and I aren't friends here -"
"I wouldn't say that. Actually, I really think we can count on you guys now. Now go. I'll activate the NDD. I'll warn you, The Mole isn't a family friendly place." Kyle said, taking out some kind of identification card. "Show this to Kaman, the barman. He knows who I am. Without it, Serena will just get thrown out."
"Got it. Thanks!" Serena said, taking the card, and without thinking, she ruffled his hair. "Hehe!"
"Please don't ever do that again. My hair's untidy enough as it is." Kyle said, trying to neaten his hair.
|Farawell - The Mole|18:50 pm|
"God, it reeks in here!" Nathan said, trying to waft the smell away from his nose. The room the four were in was dank and dusty, and across from them were rather dirty lavatories.
"They don't clean the bathroom much, do they?" Serena said, pinching her nose. "This is what they mean by 'evil smell'."
"Can we just get out of here and into the fucking bar?" Blaine shouted.
"Yeah." Amara said, and she opened the door.
The bar was not a pleasant place. With stains all over the worn wooden floors and walls, and flickering bare light bulbs, it looked like it was designed to be as off-putting as possible. A few unruly men were drinking their beer, and leering at a tall young madam with blue hair playing the piano. Her music was definitely the most pleasant sound of the place, considering the perverted jeers and one customer on the floor, passed out.
She's cool...if only we had the time to speak to her. But we have our own problems.
"I suspect this is pretty common for a night out with Blaine..." Nathan said, staring at a dartboard broken in half on the floor.
"You want me to snap you in half like that dart board?" Blaine said, walking up to the barman - a man with greasy black hair, thick stubble and green eyes. He didn't seem to be quite as vulgar as the clientele hassling the woman at the piano, who seemed to be unfazed by the repeated demands to take her clothes off.
"Howdy. What can I do you for?" he said, polishing a glass.
"Are you Mr. Kaman? We're here to see some friends of ours." Nathan said, as Serena showed Kaman the ID card. "They are still here, right?"
"Course. They're in the back. Usually, Dan's at the bar knocking the booze back. Priscilla only comes here if she's been sent to drag him home." Kaman said, cleaning glasses. "Sorry about this place, by the way. Haven't had much luck with cleaning it up. No one seems to care in these times, though."
"Please don't worry about that. You're doing a good job as it is, running a bar in these tough times." Nathan said, but there was something insincere about the way he said it.
"Wow, been a while since someone said something good about here. Thanks, I guess. Anyway, they're in that room. Better not keep 'em waiting." Kaman said, and the four of them went through the room. "And be safe, you guys."
|The Mole's Back Room|18:53 pm|
"Priscilla!" Nathan cried, and the lady sitting at the lone table gasped, standing up. Her fair blonde hair, her blue eyes…they were an exact match to the lady Amara had seen with Nathan one week ago. This was Priscilla Lancaster, Nathan's long-term girlfriend. Instead of the posh outfits Amara imagined her wearing, she was dressed in a blue t-shirt and skirt, with knee-high boots and gloves, and a stylish blue tabard.
"Nathan! I mean, the other Nathan. It's nice to finally meet you." she said. She stared at him, and after a few seconds of staring, hugged him tight. "You may not be the same Nathan of this world, but I'm glad I finally get to see you again! I've missed you so much!" she said, eyes watering.
"Hot damn. Nathan got really lucky with his true love." Blaine said. Nathan glared at him, and Blaine just shrugged.
"Relax. He's only teasing you. You always dismiss the idea of Kanaloa folk being gentlemen." Priscilla said, cheerfully.
"See? Why can't you be more like her, Nate?" Blaine said, with a wide grin.
"Don't call him that. It's not a nickname he's ever taken too." Priscilla said. Amara couldn't help but smile - Priscilla looked so overjoyed. She had finally found her boyfriend after ten years apart, even if it wasn't the one who had spent the same decade without her.
"I still can't believe it...you, a member of the same group!" Nathan said, tearful. "
"I should have shown myself sooner, I know. Oh, these must be the others. Amara, Serena and Blaine, correct?" Priscilla said, and she shook everyone's hand. "Good to finally meet you!"
"Same to you, doll." Blaine said, smirking. Priscilla laughed, while Nathan fumed silently.
"...Quit it."
"Oh, gimme a break - huh?! Is that Dan?!" he shouted, staring at the man sitting down. The man had been staring at the table the whole time, and there were quite a number of empty beer glasses in front of him, in stark contrast to the single wine glass at Priscilla's side of the table. He had a blue cap on, covering his short black hair, but he still had a goatee. Despite it being June, he had a blue scarf around his neck, with a matching blue and black coat.
"Got it in one." Dan said, looking up. Blaine looked pretty pleased, but Dan's face soured at the sight of him. "Guess you three dunno me. It's Dan Kingsley. So, this is what the Blaine of the other world looks like."
"How have you been, buddy?" Blaine said, ignoring the fact Dan seemed annoyed.
"What do ya fucking think?" Dan said, exasperated. Suddenly agitating, he hitting a glass to the floor. Serena yelped with fright, grabbing Amara's arm.
"Daniel! Get a hold of yourself! You're scaring Serena!" Priscilla shouted.
"Shut it!" Dan yelled back. Priscilla looked away, in fright.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Amara demanded, now angry.
"Dammit. Sorry. I have to remember, you dunno anything about this world. I thought everyone was on crack when they were talking about this other dimension shit."
"It is rather bizarre, but it's definitely true. I've encountered my other self, as has Amara here. Clearly, the Aeternus takeover has turned us into very different people..." Nathan said, wary of Dan's temper.
"I still haven't seen my other self yet. Alastair said she was dead, but the other Amara said she wasn't. What's up with that?" Serena said.
"Well, she said that only she and the Commander knew -" Amara began saying, but then Dan suddenly looked berserk. "What is it now?"
"That fucking bastard. He probably killed her himself. Wouldn't be the first time." Dan said, as he drank more ale.
"We keep hearin' about this guy. But we know zip about him. The Holy Cross think he's the best thing since sliced bread, but he killed Amara and Nathan's dad." Blaine said, thinking back. "You don't know anything about him, do you guys?"
"No, I...I didn't know that Reginald was..." Priscilla said, shocked. "Aeternus don't tend to reveal personal details of their soldiers, but their Commander is a total unknown. Even Kyle's hacking won't reveal anything about his history. Only that he's killed a great many Shadows."
"Actually, I've seen him." Dan said. He stared straight ahead, and he had a look of pure hatred in his eyes.
"Dan, is he someone we know?" Blaine asked, worried. He looked a lot more concerned than he usually did, which alarmed Amara.
"Oh, he sure is. You know what he did, as soon as he became Commander? He blew up Kanaloa so Aeternus could build their headquarters!" Dan yelled, slamming his fist.
"No!" Blaine said, stunned. "That can't be...no one else said -"
"Dan, you never told us any of this before! If you've had personal dealings with the Commander before, you should have told us!" Priscilla said sternly, but Dan looked away.
"Kanaloa is my business. It was a shithole, sure, but it was my home! It was where me and Matthew grew up. And I thought it was his home, too." Dan said, bitterly. "So I'm gonna be the one who puts a bullet through his head."
"He destroyed all of Kanaloa?!" Amara said. So Kanaloa was completely wiped out in this world. And apart from Dan, no one survived. Did that mean Blaine was dead in this world? One whole sector of the city, wiped out as if it had never been built. On top of it, the enemy fortress.
"I wasn't there at the time. When I came back, I saw him there, and he was acting all guilty, like he didn't know what he was doing. " Dan said. "Matthew was still home when it happened. He didn't stand a chance." Blaine's eyes widened in horror. Serena seemed to know what this meant, but Amara and Nathan just looked at each other.
"Your younger brother?" Priscilla said. "Daniel, I'm sorry-"
"Forget about it. Now that I have my Persona, there's no way he's getting away with it. He sold himself to Aeternus, and I'm left behind. But now I'm gonna gun him down, soon as I find him." Dan said, still angry.
"What's his name?" Nathan asked, sneakily shoving shards of broken glass under a chair. "If you and Blaine know this person, he must be from Kanaloa to."
"You'll find out soon enough. After all, if we're serious about fighting the Ornatu Legion, sooner or later, they're gonna dispatch their prize fighter." Dan said, finishing his beer. "Damn, I'm exhausted. Time to go back to base, Priscilla." he said, leaving the room.
"Not exactly a happy bunny..." Serena said, nervously.
"He can be rather abrasive, I can't deny that. Although he's usually not this foul-temptered." Priscilla said, as she followed. "We should get going. Aimee will get worried if we're late. She can be such a slave-driver for someone so young..."
"Yeah, let's get out of here. This place is horrible, and all the men kept staring at me!" Amara said. "They don't even have one of the criteria on my checklist."
"You have a checklist for eligible men?" Nathan said, laughing.
"Hypothetical checklist." Amara replied.
|Secret Base|19:00 pm|
"You're back sooner than I thought. Normally, Dan drinks half his body weight before he bothers to come back." Kyle said, smirking.
"Well you're always on that thing, typing so fast I can't get any sleep! No wonder I stay out late!" Dan said. "And when I wake up, you're still there, asleep at your chair!" Amara noticed Dan had a less intense expression - perhaps this was the self Priscilla was more familiar with. Aimee and Seraphina came out of the kitchen, with some snacks.
"Yes, well, it's a comfy chair." Kyle said, embarrassed. "Anyway, I just found something interesting. A document on Lorean Tower. It's a building used to supply the Shadow power to various buildings, using an underground power network. On the Aeternus server, there's a database, as well as a full map that lists devices to shut down power at any facility!"
"Doesn't that mean they could cut all electricity to this building?" Serena asked. "If they did that -"
"Not an issue. We'd be fools if we were relying on our oppressors to power us. We've got our generator installed, and it's not like Shadows are in low supply." Kyle said, smugly. "It was quite difficult to get running. Moving on, if we can break into Lorean Tower, we can see about stopping power to specific Aeternus facilities. Which ought to stop them from producing more Shadows."
"Remember the mission at Lucille Valley, Kyle? We need to be more careful this time!" Aimee said. Amara looked away, remembering her screw-up. "Hold on. Kyle, check the news feed. There's something about Lorean Tower there."
In the article, published about twenty minutes beforehand, it mentioned that the Holy Cross would be deployed as guardians of the tower for a period of time, due to 'terrorist activity'. "Eh. Some babble about how Aeternus want to protect the citizens. Very few people know that the energy source is made from Shadows, so everything thinks they're heroes for providing them with safe fuel." Kyle said.
"How ignoble! A front to convince the petrified citizens that actions are being taken!" Seraphina said, disgusted. "Alas, the Holy Cross are there. All four."
"They've probably got tons of Ornatu Legion fuckers there too." Dan said, frowning. Nathan shook his head in disapproval, but Dan paid him no attention.
"Ignore him, Nathan, he's not got the most refined vocabulary." Priscilla said. "So what should we do?"
"Well, if we can pull this off, we could reduce the number of Shadows like Kyle said." Aimee said, contemplating. "Which ought to make it easier to move around the city. If we could do this without getting caught, we could even disable all the security systems in the Aeternus Headquarters!"
"The headquarters...where Kanaloa used to be." Blaine said, eyes to the floor. Dan simply sighed, too tired to get angry.
"We can't go in through the front door. The Holy Cross will be waiting for us, along with any number of Ornatu Legion members." Aimee said, still thinking. "But there must be an NDD somewhere, right?"
"Way ahead of you." Kyle said, showing a map of the tower's ground floor. There was a single red dot, in the hallway leading upstairs. "Already hacked into their camera feed, too. Looks like most of the Legion are on the ground floor, but you might have to fight some more upstairs. So your best bet is to find them and take them out quickly before they can call for backup."
"Right." Blaine said. Normally, he was enthusiastic, but now he didn't seem to care at all.
"Blaine?" Aimee asked, worried. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." he said, looking away.
What's with you, Blaine? You're usually fired up when it comes to fighting.
"So when are we going to this Loreal Tower?" Serena asked, getting excited.
"It's Lorean. And soon. Another word of warning. Shadows do lurk in the tower as well. You'll need to be extremely cautious in this tower. One wrong move, and we could be arrested, or even killed." Kyle said. "The security feed, however, I've already managed to hack into. Surprisingly easily, too. Perhaps Aeternus simply don't anticipate there'd be a master hacker outside of their organisation...hehe."
"Modest as always..." Serena said, rolling her eyes.
"How about we go now?" Amara said, getting her sword ready. "No point in waiting!" Nathan and Serena nodded, but Blaine wasn't even listening. "Blaine, I know you're still upset about Dan, but -"
"You don't know shit. I'm not going." Blaine snapped, without a flicker of emotion in his voice.
"Huh?!" Amara gasped. This wasn't like him at all. "Blaine, what's going on?"
"There's something I gotta do first." Blaine muttered, looking at Dan. "Just get going!"
"Um...in this case, Priscilla, you're free tonight. Could you go in his place?" Aimee said. "We'll just mark this down as Blaine's day off! Haha...ha..." Despite her attempt, she couldn't lighten the mood. Priscilla walked over, and entered the NDD code. "Good luck, everyone!"
"I assure you, I'm quite skilled. I'm looking forward to showing you what Uathach can do. Let's depart!" she said, leaving through the NDD. Amara, Serena and Nathan followed in her stead, ready for battle.
|Lorean Tower - Hallway|19:05 pm|
The hallway of the tower was almost alien with it's architecture. All sorts of neon patterns on the walls and floors, and large steel doors with complicated numbers on them. It certainly smelled better than The Mole, but it felt so artificial and lifeless.
"Ugh...disgusting." Priscilla said, screwing up her eyes at the interior of the tower. "Even brutalist structures aren't so unwholesome."
Amara soon got a text message from Kyle. It read:
Go to the room marked FW5. Enter the key code BF49PER0 to get in.
As the four of them went to find this new room, Amara thought back to Blaine, and why he didn't accompany them. Lorean Tower was located outside where Kanaloa would be, but was that all it was? Her contemplation was interrupted, however, as Shadows appeared. These were Musha, weaker than the ones she had faced previously, wearing maroon armour. The minute they saw the four humans, they attacked with their katanas, causing quite a bit of damage.
"You damn Samurai! Media!" Artemis healed the team as usual, upon Serena's orders.
"Maragi!" Hathor's fire spell didn't seem to do a thing. "Crap," Amara said, "This isn't good..."
"Garula!" Setanta's wind did a bit of damage, but not enough to seriously injure the Musha. It slashed Nathan quickly, and began to charge itself up with energy.
"Everyone, leave this one to me!" Priscilla demanded. "Oh Uathach, come forth!"
Emerging from Priscilla's body, with the same blue explosion as all true Personas, was quite the beauty, with long ethereal curls of white hair and scarlet red eyes. Wearing a dark purple outfit, that revealed plenty of light purple skin, she had a large ripped cape flapping behind her.
Uathach, with a graceful flourish, blasted all the Samurai with incredible ice power. This was chilling enough to send them to their knees, dropping their swords.
"Give them no quarter! ATTACK!" Priscilla roared, and the four of them slashed the Shadows until they were destroyed, their swords vanishing as well.
"Awesome!" Amara said.
"Uathach is beautiful, Priscilla." Serena said, cheerfully.
"And quite formidable." Nathan said, grinning. "It looks like we've still got a long way to go."
"It's really just practice." Priscilla said, somewhat melancholic, as she dismissed Uathach. "When I first summoned her, I didn't know what to do. I would never have entertained the notion of trusting Aeternus, but I didn't have a home to go back to either. In the chaos, my family were attacked by Shadows..." Priscilla said sadly, as she dismissed Uathach.
"Your parents...?!" Nathan said, aghast. "How awful..."
"It is...they couldn't escape in time. So many people have died because of those creatures..."
"Well, we're going to end it! Right, everybody?" Amara said.
"Precisely. We'll make this city normal again, no matter how long it takes!" Nathan said, holding Priscilla's hand. "I'll help you find the other me, I promise!"
"Thank you, Nathan." Priscilla said. "Anyway, let's take a look at the machines here. We should ask Kyle what to do next."
"So you think Blaine's going to be okay?" Serena asked. "Maybe he won't come back...?"
"That's up to him. I wish I knew what it was he had to take care of." Nathan said. "Dan didn't seem pleased at all to see his old friend, either. Doesn't that make you wonder?"
"Seems like something big went down between Dan and Blaine in this world." Amara said, curious.
But what could have happened to make them turn against each other? They're like brothers. Blaine says so all the time.
"We'll have to wait until we get back until we can ask about that. For now, let's focus on our task." Priscilla said. "Kyle should be in contact very soon."
|Secret Base|19:10 pm|
"Sir Blaine, what is lingering on your mind? You seem to have lost all your luster..." Seraphina tried staring into Blaine's eyes, but he looked away.
"I've been thinking. It's about what Dan was saying before." Blaine said, with a grave expression.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Aimee said. "Daniel, what did you tell him?"
"Simple. He and I both know who the boss of the Ornatu Legion really is." Dan said, bitterly. He looked over at Blaine. "Don't you?"
Kyle, confused, looked away from his computer. There was a moment of grave silence, as the others looked at both the irate Dan, and the anxious Blaine.
"...Yeah. I do."