A Dialogue of Two Messiahs
"Something isn't right." He looked around. "I'm not supposed to be here.." He reached down and felt for the holster at his waist he always used. He grunted. "No Evoker.." He held his hand up, touching his face.
"Makoto!" A happy female voice said, knocking on the door. His eyes widened as the door opened. He didn't recognize the room, but the voice.. He could never forget.
"Aigis…" He said in a low tone as she entered the room in a pair of everyday clothes. Her body had clearly been updated to look more like an adult.
"Updated.. Why would I think that? She just grew.." He rambled in his head.
"Hello my love." Her smile dropped a bit. "You seem distressed, what's wrong?"
"I.." He looked down. "Sorry." He smiled weakly. "I'm just.. Happy to see you." He walked over, pulling the woman into his arms. "It.. Feels like it's been an eternity." He kissed her forehead.
"It's only been a few hours, dear." Aigis looked at her boyfriend. "But.. I suppose it does feel like it's been a while." She hugged back. She felt that same nagging issue in her head.
Holding her felt wrong. It felt too soft.. Aigis had some firmness to her, a metallic feeling.. But why? Because she was supposed to be a..
"Robot.. Yeah.." He felt warm but also cold. It felt so real, yet it couldn't be. He could never feel the touch of Aigis, or anyone for that matter, ever again. It was finally settling in his head. Aigis gave him a concerned look when he said the word 'robot.'
"I'm supposed to be dead." He thought to himself, looking down at Aigis.
"Correct and Incorrect at the same time." The world froze around him. He pulled away from Aigis, turning to face the voice who addressed him.
Before Makoto stood a well groomed man. He had slicked back, brown hair, a pristine white coat and a pair of square glasses. "You are?" Makoto asked.
"Dr. Maruki.. I'm a psychologist." He smiled warmly. "And the one responsible for the miracle of your rebirth." He chuckled. "I suppose your Messiah status just got more real. You've returned from the dead."
"Why?" Makoto asked.
"Because you and your friends deserve to be happy." Maruki smiled.
"They are happy." Makoto responded. "I was too."
"But your happiness.. All of you. It's marred by a longing. For you, it's a longing for life, and the longing to love the woman, or rather, machine, you came to care deeply for."
Makoto stared back, an eternally neutral look on his face. "She's human, the same as us.." He sighed. "Aragaki too?" He asked.
"Akihiko wouldn't be the same without him." Maruki smiled.
"Yukari's father?" Makoto asked.
"Kirijo's too." Maruki smiled.
"Junpei and-"
"Chidori and Junpei should be off on a date now as we speak." Maruki walked up, standing beside Makoto. "She never forgot him this time."
"She remembers the Dark Hour?"
"Of course not. None of them remember that pointless suffering." He turned. "Well.. None except.. Aigis." He said. "Her memories are hard to tamper with, even when using my power to alter reality." He looked over. "If you already regained your memories, she likely has too." He said.
"Yet the others won't. What makes us special?" Makoto asked.
"Aside from Aigis being mostly a machine.. You.." He looked at Makoto. "Wild Cards. You're resilient."
"Wild Cards?" Makoto turned. "There's more of us?"
"Three that I know of other than you two." He said. "That's why I've come to you. You and Aigis are sort of my last resort." He explained.
"In what way?" Makoto asked.
"Well you see.. I'm using my power to change reality.. But it's for the better of the world itself. But no one sees that.. My patient… He wishes to override my world, and return to the old one.. And the Seeker of Truth, he refused my offer, because a reality where people can't face himself wasn't worth it to him." Maruki sighed. "They can't see the bigger picture, and it breaks my heart. I need you to convince the student who's a wild card like you to give up."
"And stop fighting the false reality?" Makoto asked.
"It's not false." Maruki smiled. "Reality now is as real as the old one.. You just have to accept it as such." He explained.
Makoto nodded. "I see your point I suppose.. But there's something wrong with it." He said.
"What's that?" Maruki asked.
Makoto walked up to Aigis, looking at her face. "It's too clean.. Sanitized.." He held her face gently, tilting her frozen face up to look at him. He ran a hand along her jawline. "She's human.. Biologically through and through." He looked at Maruki. "It's not the same as the Aigis I love."
"What's different, then?" Maruki asked. "What about making her biologically human makes her different?" He said. "She's just happier."
Makoto shook his head. "Maybe.. But she's not free. Her robot body has given her more advantages in combat than she could ever have hoped for."
"Combat advantages are pointless now." Maruki said. "Don't you get that? The Dark Hour, it never happened. That's why you're here."
"Then that's a problem." Makoto said, turning directly to face Maruki. "They're happy, but they're different." Makoto said. "A world like this defeats the purpose of us being Persona users. If our true selves are lies cooked up by you, then I'd rather my fate reside at the door to Nyx." He said.
"You would choose eternity of holding death at bay as opposed to living your ideal life?" Maruki asked, his voice getting frantic.
Makoto sat down. "That's what you don't get here.. This ideal life you've created.. You may think it's my ideal life. But my ideal life was the one where I chose for myself. I took responsibility for my own actions, and used my life to save my friends." He said. "And I know that's the ideal life for my friends too."
"You.." Maruki grit his teeth. "You've been through so much, all of you!" He said. "You don't deserve this suffering." He said. "Why can't you see I'm just here to help?"
"I think your heart is in the right place. But my mind was made up years ago. If I didn't want to sacrifice myself, the world would be gone." Makoto explained.
"You didn't have a choice." Maruki argued.
"I did, that's the thing. I was capable of deciding to spare their suffering, and let us all die together, willfully ignorant to the end approaching." Makoto said. "If all I cared about was relieving their suffering, I would have done that." He said. "But they didn't want that. I didn't want that." He said.
"You still played a rigged game." Maruki argued. "You sacrificed yourself in the end because it was between you and the world."
Makoto turned. "That's kind of what you're playing right now." He smiled at Maruki.
"What are you talking about?" Maruki asked.
Makoto patted the bed next to him, asking Maruki to sit. Maruki sat. "No one decides to do what you're doing without some stuff happening." He said.
Maruki sighed. "I lost a loved one.. Not to death, but she had a traumatic experience that I couldn't protect her from and it destroyed her.. It was around that time that my Persona awakened. I accidentally erased her memories of it, and her memories of me in the process."
"I see.. So that's your goal." Makoto asserted.
"What?" Maruki asked.
"You're gonna carry all the pain on yourself. Suffer alone so people can be happy." Makoto turned. "You want to be the next Messiah."
"I don't want to, I have to-" Maruki tried to argue.
"You think taking everyone's pain will somehow liberate you from the guilt and suffering of your past. You're a therapist, right?" Makoto inquired.
"I.. Yes." Maruki said.
"Does that sound like a good coping mechanism?" Makoto asked with a good natured smile.
"If you say it like that, then no." Maruki shook his head. "But it's different, I have the power to liberate the world." Maruki said. "It's beyond myself, it's a duty."
Makoto stood. "A duty you decided to take on yourself." He said. "And one that sees you making changes based on what you think is best, not what the people you're changing think is best. I simply can't agree with that, even if it lets me live in a happy fairytale."
"So you won't help me either?" Maruki asked. "You don't agree with me?"
"Apologies, Doctor, but no." Makoto walked over and embraced Aigis. "I don't recognize this reality as the truth." He said. He kissed Aigis on the head. "I wish you luck. And if you manage to win against this kid facing you, then you can give me and my friends whatever happy ending you see fit."
Maruki smiled weakly. "You Wild Cards really are something else." He said. "Even if we're against each other ideologically, I respect you greatly. I'm glad I got to speak to you."
Makoto nodded, he felt his body slowly fading. "It was nice to meet you too, Dr. Maruki. I really do hope that through this burden you've taken, there's a happy ending in there somewhere for you." He smiled. "Good souls never deserve to suffer." He said.
Maruki sighed sadly. "Thank you, Makoto Yuki." He said as he turned.
Makoto looked at Aigis. "Sorry I'm doing this to you again.." He smiled weakly at her frozen form. "I'm happy I got to hold you one more time."
Makoto fully faded, and Maruki disappeared as well.
Time resumed and Aigis stood there alone. Her body was back to its robotic state. Her eyes widened as her arms went through the person she had been hugging mere moments prior. She looked down. "Makoto..?" A single tear slowly made its way down her face. "I suppose it makes sense.. It wasn't real.." She smiled weakly. "He probably went back when he realized the truth." She walked over, sitting on the bed, sniffling to herself. "I just wish.. He could have stayed a little longer." Her face fell into her arms and she began bawling.
"At.. At least I got to touch him one final time.." He said.
Yukari walked in slowly. "Aigis, what's wrong?" She asked, approaching the robotic woman.
Aigis sniffled. "Sorry I.." She went to speak. "Yukari may have her memories altered too.." She looked at her friend. "I was just.. Thinking about Makoto is all."
"Makoto..?" Yukari tilted her head. "Who's Makoto..?"
Aigis' eyes widened. Tears began falling more. "They.. Forgot?" She seemed in a state of shock. All she could do was cry more.
Maruki sat in his office in his palace. He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry.. Aigis. Once I win, I'll set everything right again." He looked at the date. "February first already.." He sighed. "I should go talk to Ren.. One final time." He got up and stood. "Maybe I can get through to him."
The End
