Persona - Mask of Origins

Toji helped Zain up.

"Glad it worked."

 

Grinning, Zain nodded, "Me too. Where's Yuki, and Callen?"

Callen stared up at the lab before jumping the fence and heading back inside, with a young girl at his side. The ones he'd killed were gone but so was Zero. "Dammit....Ari...find him." The young girl nodded, baring her fanged teeth and sniffed the air, moving through the halls. "Don't worry...Ari will find him."

 

"Yuki's probably upstairs, and I'd assume Callen went to the lab."

 

Zain sighed, "Again...? I suppose I should make another cure for Daieko, huh?" Though the idea sickened him, he knew it was the right thing to do. He sat on the couch, "You should go tell Yuki the good news."

Callen and Ari stopped by a lab, flipping though the written notes. They seemed to be in Shiv's handwriting. "Hmmm..." "Something wrong, Sensei?" Never lifting his eyes from the paper he shook his head, "No, it's fine. Zain can manage that."

 

"It'd probably be better if you told her."

 

"Ah...o-okay. I guess it wouldn't hurt. After I come back, I have to go somewhere so...order in if you're not so hot in the kitchen." He laughed, though it turned into a cough once he was out of sight. "Yuki!"

Callen spotted increased security around a room. His eyes flicked from Ari to the men and she disappeared without a word. Soon the guards had fallen to the floor, dead. Ari lamely licked the blood from her hands and proceeded to rip the door from it's hinges. Another alarm went off.

 

Yuki turned around.

"Zain? The cure must have worked!"

 

He smiled, "Sure did. I guess it's back to the normal life for me, huh?" he hugged her, without the urge to drink her blood, it was nicer.

Callen and Ari were surrounded within minutes. Holding Ari back, "I take it you boys aren't here to help me retrive something that belongs to me?" "Stay where you are. Humans are not allowed in this laboratory without authorized permission." "Sensei..." "Then it's a good thing we're not human." A silent to human ears noise split through the air, forcing the guards' vessels in their heads to burst.

 

Yuki smiled.

"I'm so glad you're back to normal, at least."

 

His face grew serious, "Yeah...at least. Listen, Yuki, I have to go check on Daieko. If he isn't human, he'll need my cure."

The guards dropped dead and Callen and Ari stepped into the room. Strapped to a table was a boy no older than seventeen. "Zero...Ari free him." Ari bowed her head and ripped the chains and manacles away. Picking the boy up in her slim arms.

 

"If you feel that you have to." Yuki said.

 

"I do." Zain let go of her and returned downstairs, "Take care of her while I'm gone Toji." The door slammed behind him as he took off running toward Daieko's, lance in hand.

Callen and Ari carried Zero to Toji's house, just missing Zain before he ran off. Callen pounded on the door with his fist, keeping a hand on Zero's pale cheek.

 

Toji opened the door.

"I see you brought friends."

 

Callen narrowed his rust colored eyes and ran a hand through his hair, "Can we come in and treat our 'friend' or not?" He impatienly shoved Toji aside, "With no where else to go, you have no choice. Ari, bring him in and set him on the couch." Ari, a short red headed girl carrying the pale blonde boy in her arms slid her pale gray eyes over Toji and licked her lips, "Sensei, Zero is growing colder. If we're going to save him, we'll need human blood. Is he our donor?"

Zain beat on Daieko's door frantically and Shemhazi pulled it open. The surprise on her temporary human face was worth the trip alone. "I'm here for Daieko."

 

"Whoa, hold on there. I don't even know what's going on here."

 

Ari set Zero down on the couch and Callen stood closer to Toji, a desperate look on his face, "I need some of your blood. I'm sorry and I normally wouldn't ask before taking, but this is my son. Zero. I took him from your father's lab. Zero's....not well. He wasn't well in the lab because they kept a steady line of shadow blood flowing to him. He needs human blood in his system. So please, Toji." Ari looked up from Zero, "Sensei...Zero isn't-" "Ari, don't tell me. Toji, please, as a man I'm begging you. I promise you will not change or die."

 

"Fine, just make it quick."

 

Callen nodded and pulled him over to Zero. Biting Toji's wrist, he let the blood drip into Zero mouth, held open by Ari. Callen let Toji go and watched Ari make Zero swallow. "Ari, watch over him." "Yes Sensei." she stood, "Sensei....will you tell the human everything?" Callen stared at her for a while before dragging Toji into the kitchen. "You want to know something don't you."

 

"Who wouldn't?" Toji said.

 

Leaning against the table, Callen sighed, rubbing his temples, "What is it you want to know?"

Shemhazi led Zain to Daieko in his lab. He was bent over his desk with a series of books open around him. Daieko was covered in sweat, panting hard with the defective cure on his lips. "Why doesn't it work? What's wrong with my design?" "So, that's what I looked like when I was changing....disgusting."