Fandom:: Persona 3
Pair:: Takaya/Jin
It was daylight by the time I finally woke. Takaya was sitting next to me, Chidori on his other side. The man's eyes were closed in thought, sunlight did very little to make him seem more alive. Actually he seemed even weaker in the lively shine. I glanced around the new environment, heavy machinery shrouded in dusty shadows. A factory. I willed myself upright snapping Takaya from his daydream. He scrutinized my battered body and frowned. I must have looked horrible by the expression on his face. Rising he stole into the darkness leaving me alone with the still sleeping Chidori.
The voices I'd heard the night before were silent. Disconcerting. Though it did not speak it was there, waiting, watching me. Haunting the back of my mind waiting for the perfect oppurtunity to strike. It was there... Always there... Why...? It wasn't always there... so why was it there now? Better yet.. what the hell is it?
Takaya came back in carrying a water basin. He knelt and dipped a cloth in the water, sponging my face gently. I winced but he continued, turning the water rosy pink with each dip back into the basin. It was hard to believe myself more frail than the skeleton tending to my wounds. Malnourishment, stress. His body spoke of horrendous torment.
"T-Takaya...?"
"Yes, Jin?"
"What.. happened to us...?" I recalled the beast that stood before me. Fuzzy as it was I remember with vivid detail the fear that monster struck into my heart. Some.. machine... I can only assume it was what spoke to me. Takaya shook his head and pulled off what remained of my shirt. He didn't speak while he worked, apparently he didn't know either.
"I'm.. not sure myself." he confirmed my suspicions. "I woke up, same as you, completely oblivious to everything around me. I was too tired to venture.. but when that thing came out of you something awoke within me as well. I remember the scientists talking about these," at this he picked up a bottle, "and that they were supposed to control whatever it was they did to us."
I nodded slowly, letting it all sink in. At the mention of the mysterious medication the force inside me squirmed. Apparently it wasn't too pleased about this but that was good to know. I could contain this thing. That was assurance enough. There were still so many questions to be answered...
"Last night..."
"We were lucky. We almost didn't make it."
I blinked. "Whaddaya mean?"
"It was just before midnight we made it outside Gekkoukan. Any later and we would have been killed in seconds." Takaya's voice was grim. That.. thing.. that was the school last night.. wasn't it?
"I couldn't see very well..."
Takaya nodded. "I'll get you suitable glasses, can't have you wandering around half blind."
"T-Thank you..." I blushed. No one ever cared for my eyesight before. I was a 'defect' to my parents by the age of ten because I was functionally blind. Without glasses I couldn't see or operate like a normal person. The world around me is a mass of darkness and shapless forms. Takaya... he didn't seem to care. He brought me out of that world of torture and took care of me. Now he was telling me he would get me glasses and not judge me for them. Judge me for being defective.
If there truly was a Jesus Christ, it was the unholy depiction beside me.
"Jin...? Is that you?" Chidori sat up, regarding Takaya curiously. "Who is this?"
"Takaya Sakaki. I brought the two of you from the labs last night." he took the wash basin and handed it to Chidori. She carefully accepted it, eyes never leaving him. Not too friendly around men, it seemed. We were all she had so would just have to accept us.
Gently I willed myself upright stretching the knots out of tired muscle. Physically drained I was mentally rejuvenated, already calculations and schemes to survive were blurring through my head. Takaya noticed the busy look and he grinned in approval. It was from that moment I knew my place in this broken family. I was the brains of the operation.
"Once Chidori is cleaned up we'll wait for midnight." Takaya said.
"Why midnight?" Chidori questioned.
"The Dark Hour." he replied simply, "Don't you remember? That was the whole reason they tortured us."
The Dark Hour.
We stared at Takaya in fear of the memories. The lies and deceptions Kirirjo had fed us in order to get their guinea pigs. It was nothing but a scam, innocent homeless children turned into martyrs for scientific research. Humans playing God trespassing in territory where they should never tred. They weren't, of course, the ones who paid the price for their stupidity. We were. We paid the ultimate sacrifice for Kirijo to get whatever answers about the mysterious Dark Hour they sought.
"During the Dark Hour," Takaya continued, "Normal people are asleep in coffins to keep them blissfully ignorant. Think of it as suspended animation. All electronics no longer function."
I saw where he was going with this. "So we can break into stores and things during that time and there will be no security mechanisms to worry of?"
"Precisely." he was impressed. "We'll get the necessities tonight: clothes, food, and for Jin, a pair of glasses. We will do whatever we must to survive. They stole our lives and sanities right out from under our noses. Well.. now we're going to get them back."
It wasn't much to hope for.
But it was the only hope we had.
The time has come to change this
To stretch the thought a mile
We lost the kind of spirit
We want it back today
--Three Days Grace, "Born Like This"