Chapter 11: The Unearthing Of Shadows
Alone.
Mitsuru was alone.
No trace of Takeba. Of Yamagishi. None of her fellow SEES-
'And no sign of Akihiko-'
Her heart gave a sickening lurch at that final name. Impact rocked through her body as she finished falling, and her hands cracked against the ground. Red seemed to splash out around them. There were more threads of blood running on whatever counted for the floor… Though it clearly wasn't from her.
All her hurts seemed to radiate from her heart, rather than her skin. And there was too much red on the floor to belong to her. The droplets seemed drawn to her, and almost burned at her hands. Mitsuru pulled her fingers out of the red, tried to scrub her hands clean on her sleeves. Instead the stains coated her arms and her palms.
'And whose blood is that? Your father's? He shed enough of it for you. And you couldn't even uphold his name or his legacy.'
The blood was going oddly cold on her limbs. And that same cold was clinging to her fingers and biting into her skin.
'Or is this blood from someone else close to your heart- too close to it? Because you made the mistake of bringing him in too close to you. And look what happened to Akihiko because of it-'
"…I did this to him." She muttered to herself. "I pushed him into this… And kept pushing him into trouble."
She could feel the floor bite at her, hard and unyielding… And smelling of a familiar disinfectant and sterile labs.
'Back where you belong.'
Ice gathered along her limbs, following the cold. It was all slowing her thoughts and leaving Mitsuru mired in that regret.
'You deserve this place.' The words hissed through her head. 'It's all you're good for.'
Maybe she should have argued against that. Fought against the weight seeping into her, and those dark thoughts biting at her brain. But the cold was sapping her strength, just like the red was filling her vision.
-o-o-o-
Akihiko dropped and spun through the shadows. He clawed for balance… Or for Mitsuru. He was useless at finding either of them. The world was churning around him, moving too fast-
'But then again it's always too fast for you, isn't it? You can't keep up, no matter how much you try-'
His body shook from the thought, like he wanted to prove it wrong… And he tasted sparks at the back of his tongue. Something about this place was pulling all the thoughts he tried to ignore out of his brain. He swore that Caeser was answering... And the Persona hurt Akihiko, somehow.
The sparks were making his teeth ache, and his breath was coming harder. Something was squeezing his heart, as he kept trying to grasp for Mitsuru's hand… Even if he could only find dark haze.
"Mitsuru-"
Why did she shrink from him? They couldn't face this alone-
'You can't be good enough for her. You'll NEVER be enough.'
The thought was like a punch to the gut. And then a real impact shuddered through his entire body; he was hitting either a wall or a floor. It was hard to tell with how he fell.
The black he crashed into swept over his limbs. Entwining them like tar, washing over him like ink.
Sparks spat along his vision, Caeser trying to fight back-
But there was something wrong with all of this. Something that made summoning hurt… And like Caeser was trying to burst out of his head, and break his skull in the process.
'This isn't like the last time you summoned without an Evoker. What's wrong with you-?'
Through the black and the sparks, he thought he could catch the faint flicker of lights. And over the pounding of his heart, a familiar mind grinding, machine hum pressed down on his ears. He knew that pattern of machinery; he'd only experienced it once, but that had been enough.
And a part of him had been praying that he'd never have to face it again.
'DEVA.'
Akihiko mouthed the word out, feeling like he was spitting poison and lightning alike. Both were threatening to kill him.
"You figured it out. Much faster than your master." A voice slid into his hearing, smug and gloating. "Not that it will help you much. The DEVA system has a read on you both. After Miss Kirijo's little outburst at the ceremony, we were able to zero in on her temper… And all the other things she tries to keep suppressed. Easy enough to reach out and ensnare her once more. We just managed to snare you in the process, when we activated the DEVA system again."
"Saeki…" The attitude and the words were all a dead giveaway.
"I'm surprised you remembered my name. I might even be flattered, if you were worth anything." He couldn't find Saeki; the voice seemed to bite at Akihiko from all corners.
"Why are you doing this-?" Akihiko managed to growl out. He wondered if Saeki would even grace him with a reply, or go back to grinding Akihiko under the weight of the DEVA program. But the businessman seemed amused by him, going by that sharp laugh. And the words that followed.
"Why? To teach your mistress a lesson. She's too proud, and needs some humbling. It might as well be at the hands of SEBEC. Considering how much her family has tried to steal from us." His voice turned into a snarl. "Koetsu and Takaheru plundered the Nanjo files before breaking from them… And the Nanjo Group in turn stole records from us. Harvested it off the corpse of our failures. You would think the Kirijos would come back to us, in recognition of what we'd done for them…"
Saeki's voice was growing sharper. Colder.
It was at odds with the heat slowly growing around them and burning at Akihiko's throat.
"But no. They grew fat off our efforts. We'd hoped to fix that insult with the marriage… But instead Miss Kirijo decided to spurn us again, and chose you. Akihiko. Sanada. A no one with no pedigree, no lineage… I hope you can see what an insult that is."
Akihiko couldn't answer; something was starting to light up the shadows in flickers of orange and red. And that heat still pressed down on him.
He already knew what it was.
'Fire… The DEVA system has to be pulling it out of your head again.'
"And now… It's time to solve that insult. And get a measure of research in as well. Leave Kirijo to her Shadows. Those are what the DEVA drew out of her… And unfortunately drew you as well. You must have some stupid, insipid bond with her."
A heavy weight crashed down on his hand, heavy as a foot stomping him. Akihiko gave a choked shout, and the heel ground into his fingers. His body sparked, and in the flicker of lightning, he could almost see a figure standing over him. Leering down at him.
"Maybe I should cut that ring off your fingers-" His hand balled into a fist to protect that ring. Something about Saeki's threat made his temper spark.
And with his temper, the lightning answered in turn. His heart stuttered as lightning raced through his blood, stalled out for a moment… But on the next breath, it beat again. And the lightning arced off Akihiko's arm, slammed into the thing pressing down on him. It lurched away from him with a pained shout.
"…So you can call that Persona of yours. Not bad. But it won't be enough to save you. And I'm ready to see you drown in your own shadows."
And yet, the shadows were a little less enveloping. And as Akihiko stared at his hand, he felt a little stronger. He let the lightning bite over him, and collect in his hands. Even as it threatened to stop his heart.
Akihiko fought his way to his feet, still staring at his hand, flexing his fingers. The gold on his hand burned against the shadows, made them crumble away just a little… Just enough to see Mitsuru on the end of them.
-o-o-o-
'Your fault.'
Mitsuru didn't know where the voices were coming from. Echoing from all corners of the shadows, ringing off the half-formed medical equipment. They were little more than murmurs in her ears, and she could only pick out a handful of words.
'Too proud… Your fault SEBEC is after the both of you… Can never admit defeat, or bow to them-'
There was some truth to that, she reflected. That's why she was paying for this now… Likely why Akihiko was paying that same price. It would be the easiest thing to just stay here. Closed off and growing colder.
"MITSURU! Where are you!?" Akihiko's voice pierced the gloom and the freeze alike. The ice crackled where Mitsuru yanked her head up, looking for him. She didn't have to spend very long on that.
"Mitsuru-"
Akihiko was staggering towards her. A network of lightning ran up his arms and enveloped his hands, giving a bright pulse with each breath. His steps were almost drunk with how he staggered forward, and how his feet dragged through a darkened floor. But for all that, the atmosphere of this place couldn't drag him down.
"You… You always were a fighter." Mitsuru found herself murmuring around an oddly numb tongue. For his part, Akihiko stretched a hand out to her…
And this time Mitsuru found herself reaching out to take it, before she could even think.
'Because you're glad to see him alive.'
His hand was warm to the touch. In a way that the ice still clinging to her body certainly was not. His hand was almost white hot as it enveloped her, pushed heat through her skin… And yet it didn't hurt. It was far from painful when he squeezed at her hand, and that heat pushed all the way through to her heart. The last of the ice cracked off her, almost flew off her body as Akihiko pulled Mitsuru to her feet.
He smiled at her. And for a moment, Mitsuru dared to think they might yet be alright-
A moment was all she received.
Because there was something in her that flinched from that warm sensation, from that sudden need to hold onto him. The ice was still falling off her body… But when it hit the floor, it turned black. A fire was sweeping into the room, melting the lab equipment, and it all burned too bright, too hot.
Akihiko felt the heat from those flames, with how his grip tightened on Mitsuru. How he tried to pull her up and away from all of this. He locked eyes with her, and there was something desperate in his gaze.
"Come on, we have to find a way out of here." He told her. "Before…"
He broke eye contact with her, looking around the flames again, and his hand trembled against her.
"Before I lose you again." The smoke was growing thick around them, the fire trying to box them in. Akihiko glared against the flames, almost showing his teeth in a snarl. "I can't lose another person I lo-"
His eyes went wide as he heard himself speak… And that's when the lightning arced off his hands and turned black. It joined the ice, mingling on the floor, turning to a sickening black ichor. Akihiko wrenched away from it, pulling Mitsuru along.
The stuff on the floor seemed to be boiling. And something else was drifting in from the smoke and flowing into it, making it grow larger at the edges. Something that was tipped with syringes. Scarred from lightning.
Something that SHOULD have been dead.
"I thought we crippled that thing!" Akihiko growled.
Mitsuru could only shake her head… And pull apart from Akihiko. They weren't much of a fighting pair at the moment; him with just his fists, her with even less than that. And no Evoker between them-
'But… Can you do what he did?'
"Akihiko, if you can summon without an Evoker, now would be a good time to show just how you did that. Because my attempts have failed miserably." The Shadow was still marshalling its forces, drawing in the ice, the ink, and even the left over sparks. But that meant it was open to attack.
Akihiko had to know that… So Mitsuru couldn't explain why he kept looking at her instead.
"You… need to summon more than anything else." He whispered. "And you need to summon because… Because there's something you must- That you'd risk dying for. Because living without them is unthinkable."
Even as he spoke, his eyes took on a glassy quality. But they stayed locked on her, no matter how the Shadow pulsed and thrashed towards them. Akihiko's eyes slid shut, and a halo of blue sparked across his shoulders, settling over his head. It lit up the smoke and the shadows like lightning clawing the undersides of a storm.
When the Shadow lunged forward, its claws were once against tipped with needles. It was enough to make Mitsuru flinch… But it also attracted the lightning crackling off Akihiko. The Shadow gave an odd lurch at that, the lightning shooting up its limb and leaving it limp. It tried to form a new mouth, ready to close it over Akihiko.
His eyes snapped back open. He tried to shift into a fighting stance… But she saw how the cuts on his side slowed him. How forcing another summon without an Evoker wasn't doing him any favors. Those teeth were going to snap shut on him-
'You won't hurt him.'
The thought was vividly clear in her mind, drowning out the heat of the flames, the choking scent of smoke and sterile hospital. It left her mind focused on just one thing.
'You will not hurt him!'
Maybe it wasn't quite a command… But Artemisia answered it all the same. She felt the temperature drop around her, felt her vision shift blue for an instant. The next breath she took was frigid, and exhaled in a shower of icy shards. They sunk into the Shadow like daggers, driving it well away from Akihiko.
Giving him that moment to focus again. Akihiko spared Mitsuru just enough of a moment to grin at her… But it faded as he looked at the monster.
The shadow wasn't fading, wasn't disintegrating into motes like it was supposed to. Instead it had folded into itself, turning into a twisting and shuddering mass. Mitsuru narrowed her eyes on it, her hand going to a rapier that wasn't there-
Her hand went cold. And she felt something frigid settle into her fingers; something like ice, roughly shaped into a sword. Even as it chilled her hand, Mitsuru decided it would serve.
"I don't know what it's doing, but…" But she didn't want it to act again. Akihiko gave a brief nod; his hands were already balled into fists, and on her signal he darted ahead. Caeser followed in Akihiko's wake, a glowing after-image that lent an extra burst of speed and strength to his movements. It was all Mitsuru could do to keep up… But for all that, they still struck the Shadow at the same time, ice sword and electric fist strike both tearing into the monster. She was sure they'd hit whatever passed for the heart of the thing.
"Did we kill it-?" Akihiko managed… Right as Mitsuru felt something shift.
Something pulsed, leaving the air tense.
The hair on her neck stood on end, as she felt a pulse move through the air. She'd weathered charged spells before, knew the strange pressure that settled in her lungs and chest. This time, the weight of magic threatened to suffocate her.
'Megidola.' She found the name for the spell.
It took a wrenching effort to throw herself against Akihiko, desperately trying to knock him out of the way. Flashes of violet crashed into her vision, the light so intense it threatened to burn her eyes out. Her ribs screamed and threatened to break against the sudden force slamming into her body. Mitsuru flinched against the assault, shut her eyes, and felt her body slam into Akihiko.
The two crashed to the ground, rolling and tumbling across the floor. Each jolt pushed a fresh bruise into Mitsuru, and she heard Akihiko give a sharp cry.
She hadn't even shielded him from the magic all that well; Mitsuru saw that much was true when she forced her eyes open, and found him crumbled on the ground. A puddle of red was seeping out beneath him, cuts crossing all over his torso and shoulders. She tried to fight her way upright, but the myriad hurts her body had picked up conspired against her. She cursed her arms as they trembled and gave out, leaving her crumpled to the floor.
The Shadow wasn't through with them, either.
Left over motes of the spell drifted about, staining the air violet. They flickered bright and dim… Then a blazing crimson and a chilling blue. Her skin couldn't decide whether it froze or burned as the motes pulsed and settled into the ground.
"Aki-" She wheezed out. A flare of disgust passed through her, that she couldn't even manage his name. She tried to tell him to run. Though she already knew he wouldn't listen. That much was clear with how he lifted his head and stared at her… And how a strange, defiant light filled his eyes.
He managed to struggle to his hands and knees; he'd taken a few less bruised bones and wounds than she had. He slammed his hand to the ground, like he was hoping the pain would help him fight whatever they were facing-
'What… What are we dealing with?' At the thought, Mitsuru shifted her gaze back to the Shadow. Or what was left of it. The mass had broken apart into two pieces… And those two pieces were having far better luck at clawing their way upright. Settling onto two feet as their shapes sharpened, turned more humanoid-
Mitsuru's sides ached, as she drew in a sharp gasp of air. One moment she was staring at a writhing mass of Shadow… And the next moment, she was looking at her own face, as though gazing at it through a dark mirror. She'd never known she was capable of such a disdainful sneer, as her reflection looked back at her. Nearby, a doppelganger of Akihiko rose to its feet.
It carried the same disdainful look as her double. And their eyes blazed gold as they glared down at the two.
"What…? Is this-?" Mitsuru whispered.
"Disgraceful." Her own voice cut back at her, and left her ears stinging.
"I expected better from you, Mitsuru." Her doppelganger continued, bending to pick up the bit of ice rapier she'd dropped. And leveling it at Mitsuru's throat. "You should be capable of recognizing your true self."