24 March 2010
Minatodai Dorm, 3rd Floor
Evening
Aigis turned from the landing to head down towards her room, only to come face to face with an obvious angry and irate Midori. She knew this confrontation was going to happen, and had thought to prepare her arguments ahead of time, but in the face of the sheer look of betrayal, her explanations failed her. "EXPLAIN!" The demand was short, to the point, and completely hostile.
"I do not have to explain or justify my decision to you, Midori. They were made in the best interests of everyone, including you."
"No! That's bullshit and you know it! We promised we'd be friends!" Midori punched the wall, lashing out in frustration at the suddenness of it all. "Look, Aigis, I get that you really don't know anyone outside the Dorm, but that's no reason to just up and quit over us moving out!"
"I am sorry..."
"No! Sorry doesn't excuse you! Just tell me why you're doing this!"
Aigis tried to find the words, but she couldn't. "I just... I don't know. I don't want to be something I'm not, and this is the only way."
"You've got that wrong! How can you be yourself if you turn your back on everyone else?" Midori left her accusation drifting in the air for a moment as she launched into another assault. "And what about Rio-chan? Or Yukari? Or Fuuka? Or Chidori? Huh? Did you ever stop to think what you're doing to them as well?"
"Regardless, this is still my decision, Midori-san. You have your life ahead of you, let me live mine." Aigis brushed past Midori, leaving the bluenette alone in the hallway to fight down her emotions, and with no real answer.
31 March 2010
Minatodai Dorm, 4th Floor Command Centre
Afternoon
"Are we it?" Chidori asked Fuuka as she came back into the room, cellphone in hand.
"Yes." Fuuka shook her head sadly. "Yukari's not coming."
"And Akihiko-san said he was still busy with other commitments." Ken sighed hard. "I don't think he'll be here either."
Midori leaned back, rolling the back of her head over the top of the couch and kicked her feet up onto the table in defiance of Mitsuru's glare. "Oh come on! Last day of the Drom, and they both bail out on us? They should have more respect than that!"
Aigis chose that moment to enter the room, dressed for the last time in her public outside clothes. In her hands was an Evoker. "This is the last one," she announced before adding it to the neat and ordered row on the table. Once for each member - past and present - of SEES and the Nyx Annihilation Team.
Mitsuru took this time to address Midori. "I know full well asking you to turn in your Evoker was a purely symbolic gesture. I can't take your summoning focus from you as it was never property of the Kirijo Group to begin with." She gave an inward sigh of relief when Midori took her feet off the table to let her lead forward and examine the many devices. "Are you sure you won't reconsider my request?"
"No. As much as I would love to get poked and prodded by scientists hoping to learn more about Personas," only the dead would have missed the sarcasm in her voice and body language, "I still think it's best for me to move to Inaba." She raised her hand in solemn oath. "I promise not to use Frosty unless it's an emergency, and I'll call you the moment I can if I do." She recited the terms of her agreement with Mitsuru casually and drew the Black Frost card out from her jacket to place on the table.
"With Mitsuru-san's persuasion," Aigis changed the subject with little tact to let the others know the other end of that bargain, "you can all visit me in the Lab. I won't be placed on standby, but will stay active at a low level for the foreseeable future."
"You do remember that I'll be like, six or seven hours away, right?" Midori grumbled at the distance placed between her and the victory she fought for. "You better keep your phone charges, of I swear I'll find a way to make you."
Aigis put on a fake smile. "Of course. Don't worry about the long-distance charges. And I've set myself up with a proper e-mail account as well. I'll text it to you later."
Knowing that was the best she got, Midori looked at the clock. "Gods, why do I have to take the 1:30 AM train? Sitting around all day is going to kill me!"
"Well, if it'll make you feel any better, I've ordered in supper for us tonight. It will be the last meal we share together for quite some time, and I want it to be special." Mitsuru took to her duties as head of the Dorm seriously, even when there was little left to do.
"You always prepare good meals for us, Kirijo-san." Chidori was a bit more formal in her acceptance of the offer, although Midori thought it was just the result of being forced into the Gekkoukan High uniform this day in preparation for her official first day of classes in a week and a half.
1st Floor Lounge
Evening
"That was wonderful, senpai." Ken thanked Mitsuru as they all worked together to clear the last of the dishes from the table. Dumping them in the kitchen sink was the last mess they planned on making. Back in the lounge, Fuuka turned on the TV to the local news.
"...ber of Apathy Syndrome cases seems down from last month, reports the local hospital, spelling an official two month crash in the number of victims of this still analyzed condition. According to research carried out by the Ministry of Health and Welfare..."
Koromaru yawned, causing Ken and Midori to echo the gesture. "Oh man, it's almost midnight. I should take a nap before I leave." Midori stretched her arms and legs, making one last visual check that her final suitcase was still beside the door.
"Just curl up on the couch, it's not like you have a bed anymore." Fuuka offered her shawl as a makeshift blanket. "Is the alarm on your COMP set?"
Midori nodded, producing her portable device from a pocket and set it down on the table. "Right here. Set to 12:45. The taxi is scheduled to arrive 5 minutes later, and I'll be at the train station with 20 minutes to spare."
"I too should retire for the evening." Aigis said as Midori turned on the couch to face the ceiling.
There was little left to be said, and as the clock ticked towards the end of the month, the rest made their own excuses and went to their rooms for one last night.
Midori was asleep when the clock struck midnight, and she never noticed the world shift. The television still on, the Announcer said that it was now the 31st of March, and for all their viewers to enjoy the last day of the month.
?, ?, ?
Minatodai Dorm, 1st Floor Lounge
After Midnight
BOOM
Midori jolted awake, her glasses falling off in the sudden motion. Scrambling for them, she glanced at her COMP to see that the time was 12:31 AM.
Another loud boom came from the kitchen, and Midori was thankful that the lights were still on for her. She saw that the table had jumped into the air, then crashed back down. "KEN!" She yelled, hoping the boy on the floor above was still awake, "KORO! AIGIS!" Another crash, and she flinched as the table was knocked to one side. "EVERYONE GET DOWN HERE NOW!" Her yell became a scream of warning as she scrambled away from the kitchen and back to where her jacket – and more importantly – Frosty was waiting for her.
Above her, she heard Koromaru start barking, causing Ken to stir. Another crash and she hoped that even Mitsuru on the fourth floor could hear it, though it was painfully loud to her. Ken was first downstairs, sleep being rubbed from his eyes. "What's going on?"
The table bounced off the floor again, causing Ken to back away carefully, eyes glued to the floor underneath where Midori couldn't see. "Dori-chan, was there a hole to the basement here?"
She let his shortening of her name pass by without comment. "What are you talking about?" Another crash. "And are you hearing chains too? There's only the one way downstairs."
Chidori and Fuuka reached the bottom of the stairs. Both were dressed for the night, but were wide awake. "I'm going to get Aigis!" Fuuka quickly said as she climbed back up the stairs. "Aigis! Wakeup! We need you!"
Holding Frosty tight in her hand, Midori focused all her attention on the table. Now that her heart had slowed, she found that it seemed like the table was being bounced in a regular pattern. If she was right then...
CRASH! The table flipped over and a large doorway flipped open in the kitchen. "Right on time" she muttered to herself. "You guys! Stay back!" Warding off Ken and Chidori, she crushed the card in hand, releasing Frosty. "Check it out" she whispered to her Persona, who nodded and quietly walked forward towards the edge of the divider wall between the sitting area and the dining area.
She realized that the world was wrong. Frosty wasn't being the drain he was in the real world, and it was more like the Dark Hour. She didn't like the implication, but held herself ready as her hands found a lamp on the table beside her. With a yank, she ripped it out of the socket, leaving her with a weapon she hoped she wouldn't have to use.
A solitary black-hued figure emerged from the impossible hole in the ground.
"Is that.. Aigis?" Mitsuru said from the top of the stairs, having just made her way down all the flights.
A mental command, and Frosty ran back to Midori. "No" she said. "It looks like her though. Did we have any spares in the basement we kept chained up?"
The unknown Aigis-lookalike surveyed the room through its butterfly mask. "Targets acquired" she said in a feminine voice, then dashed around the corner of the upturned table at Ken and Chidori. The two tried to get out of the way, but the robot was too fast, even as Midori opened her mouth to command Frosty to attack. Ken was knocked to one side, landing hard on his side, while Chidori took the worst with a solid punch to the gut.
"FREEZE!" Midori commanded Frosty to use the Bufula Dance, hoping the multiple hits would connect, as well as telling their attacker to stop in the same breath.
The dark-armoured assailant was only clipped by a single shard of weak ice as she danced around them to angle on Midori herself. Aghast that her attack was no where near as powerful as she wanted it to be, Midori barely had time to defend herself from the war-hammer as the silly thought crossed her mind.
Last time she fought Aigis, it was over in two blows. Would this be the same? In the background, Mitsuru was saying something, then Aigis was there.
Still holding her guard, Midori looked past her aching arms as Aigis reached the bottom floor, taking a protective position over the recovering Ken and Chidori. "Who are you? What are you? Identify yourself!"
"..." The dark counterpart to Aigis aborted her attack on Midori, although she refused to take a parting shot at the attacker's back. "You're... Aigis?" She was one of the good guys, even though it would be so easy to smash the lamp into the back of the other robot's head.
"Identify yourself intruder!" Aigis demanded again as she readied her inbuilt weapons and Evoker for battle. She was already calculating various options and realized the best chance of victory involved Midori's assistance.
"I am Metis. I am here to save you." The now identified robot said from behind her mask. "These people pose a threat and they must be eliminated."
Aigis raised her arms. "You will do no such thing! They are no threat to me, or to you! Stand down!"
"They must be eliminated!" Metis repeated her assertion, readying her own weapon. With her focus firmly on Aigis, Midori started to move to flank her more properly.
"Aigis!" Midori jutted her words in edgewise. "You can use Athena! It's like the Dark Hour now!"
Sparing no motion to indicate that she had heard Midori, Aigis shifted to a more aggressive stance.
"Why would you say that?"
"I must save you from them!" Metis raised her voice and charged Aigis. The blonde robot dodged the heavy blow with practised, but oout of practice ease. Her counter-attack with the wrist mounted weapons was similarly defeated. From behind the two, Midori added an Agi to the mix, glad that Metis was caught by surprise, and the fire damaged her armour.
"Psyche! FATAL END!" Midori had no room to avoid Metis' Persona, and was knocked down by the blow, the shock forcing Frosty to incorporealize and return to card form in her hand. "Do not resist!"
The distraction was enough for Aigis to close to pointblank and grab Metis' mask. With a massive wrench, she tore it off, leaving a trail of wires to reveal her opponents face. Red eyes and Black hair opposed Blue and White in a contest of wills. "ATHENA!" Aigis shouted, bringing her own Persona into play as Metis triggered her own advantage. "Orgia Mode, Active!"
Persona met anti-Shadow overpower, and for a moment, all seemed in balance. Then Athena began to crumble. The raw energy being put out was just too great for the immaterial persona, and with a gut twisting smash, was ripped apart by Metis' own attack.
For a moment all was still, the remaining shards of Athena hung in the air, glistening like diamonds in the sky. Aigis screamed without sound, her eyes fixed on something only she could see.
Then the diamonds collapsed. Not to the ground, but in that small moment of time, they collapsed inward, towards themselves, reforming the Persona.
But it wasn't Athena. It was one Midori hadn't seen before, but apparently the others had. "Orpheus..." Mitsuru whispered in shock.
The revitalized Persona whipped through the remaining energy of Metis' attack, a single punch delivered to the face of the robot, sending her rolling back down into the hole she came from.
Then Aigis collapsed.