"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped." - Tony Robbins
Chapter 2: The Warrior
The young man woke up, but kept his eyes closed. A cold sweat dripped down from his forehead.
Was it all... a dream?
"Oh no it wasn't."
He jolted up from the bed. He looked around and saw that he was in a... hotel room? The hotel room was small, not unlike what one would see in a budget hotel. The difference was that it seemed to have a theme (Blue Velvet?) and there was onply a bed, a table, and a TV (which apparently did not work).
"Who's there?" the young man said apprehensively. He didn't know where he was, or what he was dealing with. A tap on his shoulder shook him from his thoughts. Warily, he looked behind him.
"Hello." "Hello."
The young man saw two persons, a man and a woman, smile with such intensity that the young man thought it suspicious. He asked them the three questions he asked himself when he woke up.
"...Who are you two, where am I and why am I here?"
"That's easy," the man answered. "We're you."
"As for where you are and why you are here," the woman said, "the better question is who you are, isn't it?"
The young man was confused. "Of course I know who I am, I'm-"
He was in shock. He didn't know his name. "Who am I?"
The woman frowned in thought, then smiled. "Well, this posits a unique experience for you, hm? Now you can choose to name yourself."
The man smiled. "Or we can name you. It's your choice, really."
The young man remained skeptical. "Can you at least tell me who you are? And what do you mean 'you're me?'"
"We're like that man who tried to kill you, only much, much nicer," the man said. "I am what you call the Animus."
"And I, the Anima," the woman said. "You may call us by those, if you wish."
The young man nodded. "Okay. So, Anima, you rescued me from... me?"
"Well, your shadow," Anima replied. "It's basically negative-you, the side which you keep locked away in that mind of yours."
"And we're also you, or rather a part of you," Animus said. "Sometimes we are, sometimes not. Currently, we're not, seeing as you've denied your Shadow."
"Therefore denying yourself as a whole-"
"-Which, as we have told you, we are part of-"
"-Making us independent of your actions-"
"-And causing this world to become that wasteland you landed in."
"I-I see," the young man answered, still reeling in from his amnesia. "So where am I?"
"Your head," Anima replied. "We're not saying more than that," Animus finished.
"Oh come on, why not?" the young man whined. He was already annoyed at the two for not being clear enough.
"Because you're in your head for a reason," Animus explained. "It's not like you're here because Phile-oops! I've said too much already," he said in a somewhat sing-song tone.
"Look," Anima explained, "All you need to know is that you're here for a reason. Your memories are gone because sometimes, you need to blank your mind to remember. And frankly, you need to accept your Shadow as soon as possible."
"And why's that?" the young man asked. "What's stopping me from jumping off a high place and waking up?"
"Because of that," Animus said with an opening of a window curtain. What the young man saw was shocking.
The world was covered in a yellowish fog. It was barely permeable, and it was covering a city the young man now understood was his mind. The city was deserted and crumbling, and evidence that it fell into disrepair because of a simple act of denial was written on the billboards and signs.
"Now do you see why?' Animus continued. "You can't just wake up just because you think that it's just in your head. This is your mind fractured, and you can't just wake up without consequences."
"So, in other words," the young man said, "I'm trapped here."
"Pretty much," Anima consoled him. "So, will you help yourself take back your mind?"
The young man nodded, "Of course. It's my mind after all." He stood up to look at the window. "I'm gonna need a name though."
Animus laughed. "What do you have in mind?"
"Well, I like the name 'Theo', don't you?" Anima suggested.
Animus agreed, "I like it as well, but your choice."
The young man thought for a while, then he decided. "Okay then, it's decided. Until I know my real name, my name is Theo."
"Theo... Sophia."
AN: Not gonna lie, I think this is the furthest any fanfic has gone from the Persona series. But screw it, I'll introduce the Personas soon, just not the way most people expect it. I'm also trying to incorporate different aspects of Jungian psychology, more specifically the archetypes.
