31 January 2010

Tartarus, 254th Floor

The Dark Hour

Midori walked backwards in her position as team rearguard for this floor. "So, um, Fuuka? How is your first trip upstairs?"

"It's not." Fuuka countered. "This is my second time outside the Lobby. I was trapped in the Gym when I first entered Tartarus..." She paused. "Wait. This was all in the reports I gave you when you joined. Don't you remember them?"

"Nope!" Midori spun around to face forward again. "I figured I'd learn everything I needed to know through experience. I pretty much ignored all the stuffy and boring details."

"I spent eleven hours in Tartarus, the same in days in the real world!" Fuuka felt offended that her ordeal was made so little of. Then she remembered that Midori had spent five days out of the seven of the Lockdown with a constantly active Persona, and in retrospect, a mere eleven hours must not have seemed like a lot. "We can talk about that later."

"That's a horrible study method, although that would explain your marks." Mitsuru commented back from the head of the line, Minato right behind her.

"Hey! It was my idea to drag Fuuka up with us!" Midori shot back. "I made that suggestion months ago! I'm doing something right!" They approached the next set of stairs, eager to distract Mitsuru away from the subject of studying and marks and reading of reports and what not. She hated writing those out.

"..." Mitsuru couldn't argue with that idea. "These are extraordinary circumstances, Komaki. Otherwise she would still be downstairs in the Lobby." There was a hint that she didn't want to admit to Midori's contribution in her voice, or that it strained her to admit to it.

Fuuka decided to distract the impending stress by looking above them with Juno's senses.

"Strega," she said firmly, "is above us. But only one. The lesser of the two. Takaya is higher up still." She looked down. "And all the Shadows are below us. They're still coming up." She hoped they would stay ahead of them mindless drones as they too ascended to meet Nyx.

Everyone paused at the foot of the stairs, Strega, not the Shadows on their mind. "Do we try to talk them down?" Yukari asked, feeling the apprehension go through her stomach.

"Or do we fight?" Ken finished.

Minato took the first step. "We try diplomacy first, but we must be ready to treat them as enemies."

258th Floor

Jin heard them long before he saw them. SEES made no attempt to hide their presence.

As they ascended the staircase, he named them off in his head, reminding himself of their strengths and weaknesses. They were a diverse bunch, with no aspect left unchecked. Any battle against them would be a tough one, not to mention strength in numbers. He wished Takaya was here with him, or he with his leader, but such was not the doom he had to face.

"I didn't want to believe Takaya when he said you had turned your back on us, Traitor." Despite everything else, he only had eyes for the red haired woman, wearing that fool's coat and hat. "What, did they threaten to take away your pills unless you helped them?" It was a natural assumption.

"No" Chidori said softly. "They never threatened me. Helios is stable and won't kill me." She shifted her grip on her fireman's axe. "I am here of my own free choice."

"Yea!" Midori cheered, only to receive several sharp glances telling her to kindly shut up. "sorry".

"So? What? You think now you can fight Nyx?" Jin dropped the subject of Chidori; he had no more wish to talk to or about her. "Our deaths are inevitable! Why prolong it?"

"What do you know about Nyx?" Fuuka asked from behind Chidori. "How do you know what it does?"

"Oh, you can thank that idiot Ikutsuki. Takaya got a hold of some of his personal files before we left. A real piece of work, that madman. What with him being your boss and making us into Persona users." He gave a beat to enforce the impact of his taunt. "Oh wait! I'll bet your sweet little princess didn't tell you?"

Mitsuru shuddered at the implication. "Projects to artificially induce Personas." She couldn't help it, she turned to look at Midori and Chidori, the two victims of Ikutsuki's madness that she knew best. They humanized the failings she had to make amends for. "I know of those crimes. They are mine to shoulder, not for anyone else."

Jin was eager to keep the conversation flowing. The longer they stood here yapping, the longer Takaya would have to get ahead of them, and the less time they had to enact whatever plan they had to delay Nyx's arrival. "Some crimes can't be atoned for. How many kids do you think were killed because of your family?"

"Every last one was one too many!" Mitsuru spat back. "Look at you! Crying here about all those who couldn't make it. You, who would betray them by letting Takaya have his way? Do you think that all their sacrifices would mean anything if the world Falls?"

"HOW DARE YOU!" Jin roared as he pulled a grenade out from his own jacket. "What do you know of such things?"

"I know better than you! I value those around me! I don't cast them aside!" Mitsuru was full of livid anger, echoing the emotions from Jin. "What about you? Haven't you been cast aside by Takaya as well? Why isn't he with you? Or does he not care about you so long as he gets to meet his god?"

"You can't fool me! You're just like the rest of them! You don't know what we've gone through!"

Midori wanted to jump in, wanted to say that she knew, but couldn't. For once her words failed her, even though she would justify it later as letting Mitsuru fight her own battles. No, the truth of the matter was that she wanted a fight to happen. Wanted to prove the worth of her cause through battle as nothing else would matter.

"I do." Mitsuru said quietly. "I know loss."

Jin replied by flicking the pin on the grenade. It clattered to the floor. "Don't lie to me! Nothing you say is going to matter when the Fall occurs! All your petty words mean nothing!"

"Midori! Koro! Chidori! With me!" Minato yelled, drawing in the team members who could ignore all the fire Jin would use. For a moment he was worried that Chidori wouldn't raise her weapon against him, but a flash of an axe being thrown past him to hit the grenade in the air before being pulled back on its chain absolved him of his worries.

The battle was very short as the rest of SEES pulled back to avoid getting in the crossfire. Jin was hard pressed, even more so when he realized that half his abilities and attacks did nothing to those arrayed against him. He fell to Minato as he placed his sword against Jin's throat. "Talk" he commanded. "Why? Why all the hate?"

"Kirijo! That bastard and Ikutsuki! When they found out about Tartarus they rounded up kids who were living on the streets! They forced Personas out of them! So they could explore Tartarus for them, the sick bastards." He spat at Mitsuru's feet. "But the Persona's were wild! We needed special medications to keep them in check! Of all of us, only three made it out!"

Minato sheathed his sword, then walked past Jin towards the staircase leading higher up. It was an unspoken signal for the rest of them, though Chidori hung back, watching as the rest waited for her to join them.

She knelt beside Jin as though to say something when he roughly grabbed her by the shoulder and threw her towards the stairs behind him. His eyes were locked on the endless wave of Shadows emerging from the depths of Tartarus to greet Nyx and destroy the intruders. "Go! You have something to prove? Prove it!" He regained his feet not facing those who had bested him. "Takaya saved me with his words. Maybe he'll do the same for you."

Akihiko swore at the oncoming horde. "Dammit! We wasted too much time here. We have to go! Now!"

"Jin!" Chidori yelled as Midori pulled her up the stairs. "Come on! I want you to see the sunrise tomorrow!"

Jin's response was to reach into his briefcase of explosives, and pull the last string. A wave of pins emerged, and he charged into the mass of Shadows.

Chidori screamed as he died, the pain at loosing another ally, another friend from a different life slicing to her core. Yukari helped Midori pull her up as the stairs began to crumble under them.

Then they were safe. For now. Takaya and Ryoji still stood between them and Nyx, even as Chidori sobbed, unable to let go of the last words she tried to tell him, the love she tried to give to him to make him see that there was more to life than what they saw.

259th Floor

After a moment's silence in respect, or to simply catch their breaths, they started to climb again. Even Chidori, once she had managed to regain her feet, was eager to put as much distance between her and the delayed horde of Shadows that chased them. She spared no further time to grieve for Jin, for as she ran with the others, she found that there was nothing left in her heart to ask her to mourn.

It was like he wasn't a friend, even at the end. There was nothing connecting them any more. She just... didn't miss him.

Looking around, she realized that the only ones she would miss from around her were Koromaru – the dog being a loyal companion while she stayed at the Dorm, and Midori – the impossible girl just refusing to stop until she had pried her way into everyone's life one way or the other, and had been the first to get into Chidori's shell after Junpei had gone away.

Jin's words got to her though. It was true that she hadn't taken her medication in two months, her Persona, her Helios a stable and normal persona that didn't want to try and kill her at any moment. Junpei had sacrificed himself to save her, to give her not only a chance at life, but life itself by creating in her a new existence that did not want to destroy her. Such a precious thing, that.

And they couldn't do that for Jin, or for Takaya. Who would sacrifice themselves for them? One for the other? No, that was no longer possible, and both thought that life without Persona was a life not worth living. It was a horrid thing. Perhaps the mysterious Igor who helped Minato and Midori?

She knew nothing of that, but as Jin's actions ran through her head, she realized that in the end, they [i]didn't[/i] want to be saved. Strega had chosen death, and to take the world with them rather than fight for that one more precious day. You could not save those who didn't want to be saved.

But in the end, even a single solitary connection, was that not enough to desire to keep on living? She had it, and they didn't. And that was difference between them and her. She had something worth fighting for, worth living for.

She barely noticed as they ascended another floor.

262nd Floor

Takaya lounged against a random protrusion in the room. The mass of footfalls below him told him that Jin had failed to slow them down, the pitiful fools who thought to delay or prevent the end of the world.

He had no doubt that they would kill him too. No matter how many times he played the options over in his head, he knew that there were simply too many of them to do it. He couldn't even be sure he could kill even one, with his revolver only having one bullet left.

Although he was certain there was one person he could kill when it came down to it. Although that was a resort best saved for last.

They arrived, and he nodded in greeting, not blocking their path towards the top of the tower. Not in any physical sense. They would still have to deal with him before they could ascend.

"The top? Is it up there?" Yukari asked as she watched Takaya carefully.

"Indeed." He answered. "I'm not stopping you. I don't think I'd need to, either." He saw Chidori was with them, and sighed in despair. "Hello again, Chidori. I wish it could have been under better circumstances, but the frivolous bonds of fate seem to have had something else in mind. Tell me, what is it that you seek? You know well the futility of your cause."

Chidori refused to answer him, perhaps because she felt she had no answer worth giving. Instead, it was Akihiko who stepped up to respond. "It is because fighting is the only thing we can do."

"Such ignorance. You can no more turn back the Fall than you can turn back the tides." Takaya gestured wildly with his revolver. "The world will end, and yet you force yourself to go against the dictates of the people? You waste your energy! Why?"

"When the world ends, will it be because we asked for it?" Minato questioned firmly. "No. We never asked for this. We never asked for the Dark Hour, Personas, Nyx or even yourself. But here we are, because we are being given over to things that are not of our own creation. We must challenge them. We must dissent."

Takaya was very dismissive. "Words. Just words. You yourselves acted to bring all this about, and now you seek to undo your greatest deeds? Answer me that, if you can!"

"Because of life." Chidori finally said, knowing deep down that Takaya would not be satisfied until she spoke. "Nyx is nothing but a dream, a passing of faint desire for sleep. I learned otherwise. What you want, Takaya, is selfish, petty and cruel. You refuse to accept your fate and like a child, you seek to destroy everything that you can't control."

As she made her accusations, the confidence in her voice grew. Takaya stood straighter, as though the heat of her words gave him strength. "When you killed Junpei, I was ready to die for him, but he took that choice out of my hands. You want Nyx because you want to die, you want the Fall because you can't stand being alone in your self-hatred. I can't do that any more. I can't hate, I'm all out of it. I just want to live. My life. Not yours."

Takaya let any further words he would say drop from his mind. "Fool." He raised his pistol and watched as the children scattered for cover, save those who were either tasked with fighting him, or were unafraid of his weapon.

Minato, Aigis, Akihiko and Mitsuru encircled Takaya, Midori and Chidori standing farther back. "Give it up Takaya," Minato said, his weapon undrawn, but still at hand. "Put down your Evoker and gun, and we can pass in peace."

"Peace? Fools! Ignorant plebes!" Takaya ranted as he spun to face those around him. "You can have your peace when Nyx gives it to you!"

It was the betrayal that hurt him the most. Not the swords and punches and powers they wielded, but the force of Chidori's rejection of the truth of the world. He couldn't make her see even as she stood behind the circle of combat, the depths of their contamination far too much for him to overcome in the scant time they had left.

Their victory here was assured, and all that was left was to push his body to it's limit before its time came.

And it came when he dropped to one knee, avoiding a vicious punch from the pale-haired boxer. His Evoker clattering to the ground, Takaya finally letting the ravages of his body take him as he fell to the floor, defeated.

"Go on. Life is but a delusion. What you so desire is unattainable." Ken kicked the gun away for good measure, leaving Aigis to pick it up. "All you do is struggle in vain."

"No, we do not." Minato said as he watched Aigis reduce Takaya's weapons to scrap metal.

"Yes!" He tried to laugh, but the dying man could only cough. "Everything you have ever done has been to call forth Nyx! Her coming is the will of the people!"

Midori wanted to kick him in the side, but refrained, as that is not what Heroes do. "You're the idiot. People want to live. And they do everything in their power to stay alive. Only those who have given up, or can't think for themselves would want what you want."

"And yet you agree with me! How delightful!" Midori turned her back on him, her body language saying she had nothing more to say as she felt she had made her point. "People don't think! They are plebes, out to do only what others tell them, those with power! Well, Nyx is their cry for salvation!"

"I do not believe you." Aigis stated, "Your worldview is the result of a mistake, a result of the way you were taken advantage of by the Kirijo group and Ikutsuki." Mitsuru glared at Aigis, not pleased with the accusations made against her company, but unwilling to argue against it here and now.

"... What do you know of this world?"

"That those who live only for themselves cannot call themselves people." Aigis looked upwards with finality. "We are done here. Ryoji-san awaits above."

Nodding their agreement, the Team left the beaten Takaya behind. As they walked away, he shouted at them impotently. "There is nothing you can do! Nyx is almighty! It is the will of humanity!"

The silence of death was the only reply he got.

263rd floor

"We've only got thirty minutes left in the hour." Midori flipped close her COMP, notifying everyone of the time left. "Next stop, top of the tower, things man were not meant to know, HEROISM and GLORY!"

"Thanks, Midori." Ken said as he pulled himself to his feet. They had rested for a little bit, the fights against Jin and Takaya being so close together meant they had all agreed to wait five minutes for a breather.

And now they had no more time to waste.