Disclaimer: I do not own Persona 3—or any version of the Persona series, really. I just own this rather shameless piece of work.

Other Notes: Okay, this took longer than I meant it to. One part of the reason is that this chapter didn't want to cooperate with me. Another is that I guess I was a little more tired from writing than I thought last month. It all just sort of caught up with me once I figured the month was over, haha! Hopefully I didn't spoil you guys too much with the chapter spam. I'll try to be timely, but I can't guarantee scheduled updates anymore because I unfortunately have a life and those things can be pretty unpredictable at times.

For those of you who might be reading my Fire Emblem: Awakening fic, I swear I'm writing the next chapter. I just… hit an even bigger snag than the one I faced here. orz

(Also, fair warning and reminder that all that Tamamo knows is based on what I knew about the game and its lore when I started writing this. I have notes and everything for what "facts" I knew and looked up before and what I looked up after. In case any of you read this and call BS, haha. That's the downfall of writing a fanfic, I suppose. Always contending between what you know and what others know.)

Symbiosis

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Summer school was a drag, but Minato had been expecting it to be so it came as no surprise.

The first day was almost mind-numbingly boring. Minato was inclined to agree with Junpei's vehement complaints earlier that morning as the lectures wore on. Though the extra studying would probably help in the long run, just sitting in the classroom as the summer day went on outside was outright torturous. The others seemed similarly drained, and when Minato returned to the dorm after classes ended he found most of them sitting around the lounge with a befuddled Ken, who looked vaguely worried for his elders.

It was the second day's main lecture that made things mildly interesting, however, if only for the content.

Mr. Edogawa, the school nurse, appeared to have his own class slot and made an appearance in the classroom, shuffling in lazily. His sloppy appearance was a big change from the usual immaculate suits the other teachers wore, and the thick lenses of his glasses reflected light easily, making it hard to discern where his gaze fell at any given moment. It made sitting in front of him almost disconcerting, and Minato felt himself shift more than once, feeling like he was under intense scrutiny.

But outside of that discomfort, the teacher had a decidedly odd lesson to teach—one that was surely outside of their standard curriculum.

"Today's subject is Tarot," Mr. Edogawa announced, rubbing the back of his neck as he seemed to glance down at the papers he'd carried in and set down on the teacher's desk before him. He nodded absently. "That's right, those cards often used in fortune-telling. Originating in 15th century Europe as normal playing cards, tarot cards evolved into tools of divination."

At that point, Minato straightened subconsciously, latching onto the words with keen interest. Although he'd taken Tamamo's hints to heart and took the time to look into the major arcana depicted in tarot cards, what information he found on the Internet always seemed disjointed or padded with flowery descriptions. Mr. Edogawa was certainly an odd man, but the way he presented information was often very direct.

"The Major Arcana feature a variety of illustrations on their faces. Beginning with 'The Fool' and ending with 'The World', they tell a story in numerical order that is a metaphor of an individual's journey through life," Mr. Edogawa continued his lecture. "Each Major Arcana represents a stage on that journey… an experience that the individual must incorporate to realize his oneness. They are all important, so let's take a look at each of the twenty-two cards, one by one."

Tamamo gave a low humming sound as Minato flipped his notebook to the back pages, scrawling out the descriptions of each card as the nurse elucidated upon them. The Fool, the Magician, the Priestess… As he wrote, the image of the card was projected in his mind—a stylistic but modern take he'd not seen in online pictures.

"It's how they were drawn for your story in my world," Tamamo told him.

Mr. Edogawa droned on. "The Lovers card represents choice. Here, the individual's consciousness has finally surfaced…"

As each card's meaning was given to him, Minato couldn't help but wonder what it all meant for SEES, to be so tied into things like Personas and Shadows, governed by the Major Arcana used to divine fate and illustrate one's life journey. It had all been so very mysterious before, but now that their descriptions were being laid bare before him, so very straightforwardly, it seemed as though they had been following a similar pathway that he had never noticed until now.

Those that had passed: Magician, Priestess, Empress and Emperor, Hierophant and Lovers, Chariot and Justice. Difficult battles, each in their own way, but with their own lessons that came with them.

Those that lay ahead: The Hermit, Fortune, Strength, and The Hanged Man. They were the terrible unknown that he almost dreaded to have to face, but it seemed inevitable. What obstacles they would set before him and the others were yet to be seen.

And after…

"Spiritual death awaits the individual with the thirteenth card, which is aptly named Death," Mr. Edogawa said, bringing Minato's mind back to the lecture. The man seemed strangely animated as he added further description, "Death is considered a transitional card: the old ends, and the new begins. Now, let us continue along the path, following the transition…"

A transition. But for good or for ill?

Distantly, Minato recalled Tamamo's words, shortly before the Arcana Priestess battle. She knew the path that he was meant to live through, albeit with alterations of what his life would have been like without her presence. She knew certain information of past and future events that neither he nor his teammates knew about their situation, like the truth behind the Full Moon Operations.

"Give me several of these ordeals," he had said to her when she asked if he wished to learn what she knew, "and I'll ask later if I still want to know."

And she had promised to tell him if he did, no matter what.

But did he want to?

Was her information still valid, even with the changes she'd hinted at having occurred with her there in his mind?

Information was power. He knew that. And while there were certainly many secrets that were still yet to be unveiled that Tamamo's future knowledge could possibly disrupt, they were more than halfway through the list of remaining powerful Shadows. If he waited any longer, if anything else came up preventing him from having the time to ask and take in whatever the answer turned out to be… well, what good would that do?

Will you tell me? he asked, staring in the general direction of the board but seeing nothing. His pencil hovered over his notebook, completely still in his hand.

"I will," she replied with only a moment's hesitation. "But I think the real question is if you want to know."

"Judgement awaits the individual at the end of his journey, as he looks back on the path he has traveled," Mr. Edogawa continued on. "The final card is The World, which represents the individual's full awareness of his place in the world." The nurse nodded with finality that would have seemed silly if Minato had not been juxtaposing the lecture with such a somber line of thought. "That is the growth of an individual as explained by the tarot cards."

It was an important decision to make.

Idly, Minato stared at his notes as he tried to think, as if looking at some reference to the cards could help him divine a response out of thin air. Where was he in his "journey", and where would Tamamo's answer lead him after?

Yes, he thought. But when he realized his admission, his eyes widened and he backtracked. No. I mean, I do want to know, but…

But what?

He'd already waited this long to get the answers. Only four of the Full Moon Shadows were left, and if he waited any longer then wouldn't that make it too late to act on whatever he learned? If hearing Tamamo's answer helped give him an idea as to what to do, helped him know how to protect his friends and everyone else from the Dark Hour and the Shadows, then shouldn't he take that chance?

He should.

He absolutely should. His fear of the unknown, his doubt, his paranoia—all of that would have to take a backseat to accomplish the greater good.

Right?

Taking a quiet, deep breath to steel his nerves, Minato thought firmly, Yes. I want to know.

And Tamamo sighed, world weary. "Then I'll tell you. Tonight."

Tonight, he agreed, hoping he made the right decision.

After the classes for the day ended, Minato returned straight to the dorm, though he stuck around the lounge to prevent himself from going stir-crazy in his room waiting for evening to roll around. The others checked back in at differing times, greeting him as they passed to head up or go to the kitchen or do some other activity. He replied somewhat distractedly and, after the customary small talk, they mostly left him alone.

"Are you all right, Minato-san?" Ken asked in the middle of a commercial.

Minato blinked, tearing his eyes away from the screen. He hadn't been paying much attention to the program—though a quick glance told him that they weren't watching the news or any children's show. It seemed like a documentary channel. "Huh?"

"…Are you all right?" Ken repeated hesitantly.

"I'm fine," Minato replied. "Just lost in thought." He fell silent for a few moments before asking, "What time is it?"

Ken's head swiveled automatically to search for a clock, but, finding none, resorted to looking at his wrist where a plastic watch hung. "Nearing seven."

"Thanks." Was that long enough to wait? He could always just claim getting up early for lessons threw off his sleeping schedule… yes, that would be best. There was no telling how long Tamamo's explanation would be anyway, and he wanted to hear as much as he could. "I think I'm going to turn in."

"Ah." Ken blinked, watching him as he stood. "A—All right. Have a good night, Minato-san."

"You, too," he returned absently, ambling his way to the stairs. He took them up two at a time until he reached the second floor, heading straight to his room. He all but flew through his nightly routine before curling up on his bed.

And then he hesitated, staring blankly at the wall.

"You're hesitating," Tamamo pointed out needlessly.

"Maybe I'm gathering my courage," he suggested. Which wasn't quite a lie. The thought of being told the future that could have happened—that could still happen—was a scary one.

His Other didn't reply, allowing him to absorb the silence and prepare himself.

Then, with a shaky breath, he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was surrounded by the blue curtains of Tamamo's little corner in his mind. The woman herself sat before him at her usual seat, smiling wanly.

"Don't ask me if I still want to do this," he told her when she made to speak. Her mouth closed with a click. "I might change my mind if you do. Don't let me change my mind."

Slowly, she nodded. When she did speak, she said, "I'm going to fall asleep."

The statement sounded so odd, almost random, that he nearly took a step back. "What?"

"I won't tell you everything here, in your mind," she explained. "Only in mine. But you can only access it when I'm asleep, I think. You've done it before."

Minato thought about her inner world, and how he had not reentered it since she awakened. "…True. You know how to get there, then? You never appeared before…"

"My soul was asleep then," Tamamo said, though she acknowledged his point with a nod. "And I've been there. Briefly. After that first battle, during the week you were out but before you came to in the Velvet Room."

The first battle… ah. The Arcana Magician. His awakening. Orpheus. Thanatos.

He grimaced when he was reminded of the sight of her broken body, torn like a ragdoll. "I see…"

"So I'm going to force my consciousness to sleep," she continued. "Once I am, just enter the way you had before. Given our link, you should be accepted without any problems… but if anything feels strange, pull out immediately, okay?" Her eyes narrowed into a stern glare. "No matter what you think it may do to me."

Deciding not to give that a verbal answer, Minato only nodded.

She huffed, likely realizing that was the best response she would get out of him, before deliberately relaxing her stance. "…All right. Let's begin."

She didn't want to do this.

She gave her word, but holy hell Tamamo did not want to do this.

So many things could go wrong when she told him. And it wasn't like she could lie. Or, well, she could, but the truth would out eventually and then she'd lose all his trust, not to mention her own credibility. And she wouldn't do that to him. Life had already dealt him enough of a horrible hand without her toying around with him.

Closing her eyes, Tamamo willed her mind to shut itself down, bidding it to let go of the perpetual consciousness she acquired in her odd second life. The last time she lost consciousness had been to heal and escape pain. She had withdrawn into her very soul to try to recover, but had eventually been drawn back out when it proved to be too much. But that brief time allowed her to see her own inner world, and she'd kept the feeling of it close at heart.

Now, when they needed a space where Pharos could not overhear them, she hoped that her mind could give them sanctuary.

Vaguely, she felt as though the floor opened up beneath her, calling for her to fall.

Taking a moment to steel herself, she let herself fall.

Then, she opened her eyes to an endless sea and sat, waiting.

Hoping to whatever god that would listen that she was doing the right thing.

Minato had been prepared for anything, but it still startled him when his Other relaxed, her body going limp against her long chair. Her eyes slipped shut and, for the first time in what felt like forever, she fell asleep.

Hesitantly, he crossed the space between them to sit beside her, wondering what would happen if he chickened out now. Would she stay asleep and then just wake up later? Or would he have to send her a message?

No. He shook his head. He was going to go through with this. Fear of the unknown be damned!

Minato reached out, placing his hand on top of hers—and with a rush of wind he found himself sitting on the beach, staring out at the water. Tamamo sat in the same place beside him, only she was curled up into herself, knees brought up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them.

"Where should I start?" she asked, voice clear and steady. If he couldn't see how her hands tightly gripped her elbows, he would have called her calm.

"The beginning's always good," he told her in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

She chuckled. "Right… A story must have a beginning…" Unfurling slightly, she gazed out at the ocean before them, the sound of the tide pushing and pulling against the shore filling in her silence. "You know the beginning, somewhat. What Mitsuru told you before is a good deal of what I know. But there are… pieces… that weren't said. Pieces that probably couldn't be learned even from the Kirijo database."

When she faltered, words failing her as she tried to continue, Minato gently prompted her, "Like?"

Tamamo breathed in. Her next statement fell out like a sigh. "Like Eiichiro Takeba."

He blinked. Yukari's father? The scientist from the video?

"A lot of what he said… isn't exactly wrong. The twelve Shadows are incredibly important and their defeat is necessary, but not in the way that you think." Again, his Other paused in explaining. But this time, before he could nudge her to continue, she made a frustrated noise, rising to her feet and pacing along the sand. "That's not the beginning. Or, at least, not the whole part of it. It's definitely a precursor, but the real beginning is…" She stopped, arms crossed tightly over her chest. Minato stood, watching her uncertainly as she sighed. "The real beginning is Nyx."

"The goddess of the night?" Minato asked, head tilting to the side. He thought back to what little of mythology his books told about her. The primordial goddess, mother of sleep and death amongst others, whose power even Zeus feared.

"Not exactly," Tamamo replied. "I don't know, or remember, the exact details of it, but Nyx… is some sort of 'other' being that exists outside of reality. I want to say alien, but I'm not sure if that's the correct term." She shook her head. "Regardless, Nyx came to Earth long ago and, if my memory is correct, ended up as our moon. Or, at least, that's where her body sleeps. Her mind is fragmented, separated from the body, split into the individual Shadows that exist here on Earth."

This time, when she fell silent he made no move to urge her to continue. Mostly because he was trying to grasp just that piece of information. So Shadows were… Nyx? Or pieces of one half of her—it?

When Tamamo turned, she gave a strained smile when she saw him.

"It's confusing, I know. But she apparently crashed into Earth or something before splitting off and becoming dormant in the moon so she could recover from the damage. She left pieces of herself behind, though, which I guess latched onto the living organisms of the time. But that's how Shadows, allegedly, came to be. And it also hints at their true purpose." She gestured for him to step forward and he did so, feeling much like a marionette on strings with his mind still reeling. They started walking along the endless beach, in the direction of the tree on the hill. "They want to be whole, Minato. To be a part of Nyx again. Their 'mother'. It's why, when the Kirijo Group's scientists managed to gather enough of them, they joined together as they did. Because if enough of them are fused together, they can become the Shadow known as 'Death'—"

Minato reached out to grab her wrist in a silent plea to give him time to absorb it all. Tamamo looked back at him, but obligingly fell silent.

Nyx. An ancient being, allegedly. Mother of Shadows. Apparently her body lay within, on, or was the moon while her consciousness was scattered on Earth—taking physical shape in the very Shadows he and the others fought almost nightly. And those Shadows, Nyx's shattered consciousness, wished to be one again. To reunite with the body?

He asked it aloud, to clarify.

Tamamo nodded. "I don't think it's possible for her to reawaken under the power of any individual Shadow. Their power is too weak alone. But when they gather in great numbers, they can join together. If enough of them do, they can form the Shadow generally classified as Death, which, in its complete form, has the power to act as Nyx's awakened consciousness."

Given the prevalence of the tarot in the business of Shadows, Minato made the connections surprisingly quickly. "Twelve Shadows, stronger than any Shadow we usually face in Tartarus. Death is the thirteenth Arcana. Then those Shadows we fight every full moon… they want to fuse together to become Death? So they can be strong enough to call… Nyx's body?"

"Yes."

"In the moon."

Her lips quirked in slight amusement. "I don't understand that part much either, but yes. This process is called 'The Fall'. You're… probably already familiar with that term."

He was. Pharos mentioned it almost every time he appeared before he started joining him and Tamamo in conversation. And even then, it still popped up from time to time.

His Other sighed. "As you probably could've guessed, the Fall is… bad. Nyx's awakening is bad. If she were to completely awaken and become whole again, to reclaim all the Shadows that made up her psyche, everyone would lose themselves. Because everyone carries a Shadow inside them—their innate Persona, even if they don't have the potential to summon them like you and the others do. Should Nyx awaken, she'd reclaim all of those Shadows and everyone, everywhere, would essentially lose their minds. In essence, mass Apathy Syndrome."

Minato thought of the victims he saw lingering on the streets, veritable husks of people. To see that become the fate of everyone, including himself…

He shuddered.

"For a long time, people probably didn't have anything to fear," Tamamo mused. "Humans have Shadows thanks to Nyx's consciousness spreading to every living being during that impact. But they could contain them. A human's will to live is a remarkable thing. We evolved in order to tame our Shadows and protect ourselves from Nyx's influence. It was just when people started to try to play god that things went awry," Tamamo went on quietly. "Kouetsu Kirijo began the research in search of power, and he got it. He and his colleagues learned of Shadows and somehow deduced their purpose… and decided that with the power they acquired from them, they would initiate the Fall."

…What?

"They decided to…" Minato breathed, trying to repeat her but failing in his disbelief.

The Fall. From what Tamamo described to him, it was a quiet, but no less deadly, end of the world scenario.

And the Kirijo Group scientists had wanted to usher it in?

Tamamo nodded, face grim. "It started out as Mitsuru said, searching for a way to harness the Shadow's power, but once they learned of the Fall, they became… convinced that it must occur. And so they did what they could to complete the process. They gathered the Shadows so that they could join together to form the twelve Arcana Shadows, in hopes of forming Death. They didn't lose control over the Shadows. In reality, one scientist opposed their plans and did what he could to put a stop to it… but he lost his life in the process."

That was an easy enough dot to connect. "Yukari's father." Minato brows furrowed in confusion. "But then why did he say in that tape that he was the one to blame…?" But before his Other could reply, he answered it himself, shocked at the implications. "The recording was tampered with?"

"Indeed. And it was more than just making him take the blame. His instructions in that video, that the Shadows must be eliminated… In reality, he said the exact opposite."

He stared, uncertain. "But you said—"

"I know," she interrupted him, head bowed. "I know what I said."

Minato started when the sunlight around them began to dim. He looked up, fixated on the clouds that were quickly covering the bright blue sky.

It took him only a moment longer to realize that the sound of the waves had gone completely silent.

Before him, Tamamo took a breath. "When Ikutsuki told you that defeating the twelve Arcana Shadows would eliminate the Dark Hour, he lied. Defeating them only eliminates their physical form, allowing their power to be absorbed by the incomplete Death. When the last one, the Arcana Hanged Man, is defeated, a complete Death will reenter the world as the Appriser, as Nyx's avatar, and will venture to the top of Tartarus at the appointed time to begin Nyx's descent to the world."

"Then why…" Minato's body wasn't physical in this plane, but his voice still managed to crack as he tried to understand. "Then why did you say those Shadows have to be…? Why have you been letting us…?"

Her eyes met his and, for one stunning moment, it seemed as though the blue one glowed. She smiled, but all he noticed was how defeated she looked. "The ultimate gamble. For this, in order to stop the end of the world, we have to start it."