Persona - Mask of Origins

"Where are we going?"

"No time to explain, Yuki." Toji said as he grabbed her hand and dragged her though.

 

Nicholi pushed the two of them into the purple circle and stepped into it with them. A blinding light obstructed their sight for a moment before clearing to reveal a large black area. They seemed to be floating in space, surrounded by the purple circle. "Yuki...I give this gift to you." he looked around and noticed a small light coming closer to them, "Please, do not be upset if he doesn't remember you. Here, it has been several years already, where as where we came from it's only been hours, if not a day."

 

"What are you even talking about?!"

 

Nicholi watched the little light expand and cover a good sized area in front of them, leaving behind a large pool. "Just watch. I'll explain after you see him...it, whatever." Ripples expanded from the pool and two heads began to emerge from the water. A large purple man's head along with Eden's head on the other side of a round sleeping face. One of Eden's hands caressed the sleeping face and the other head narrowed his red eye down on them, "Who are you? You are not the child of the Gods." Nicholi held out the shard to Yuki, "Does it look familiar?" The shard resembled the same color and texture as the purple side of the large creature before them.

 

"It couldn't be....Is that Zain?"

 

The large red eye narrowed at Yuki, "My name is Bartandalus. I know not who this...Zain is." Eden's head slightly dipped and she lightly stroked the little round face tucked between them, "Forgive my ever-companion, dears. He does not remember much from a time before we came here together." Nicholi nodded to Yuki, "He may not remember it, but he is indeed Zain Menlow. Hmm, listen closely to the song being sung to Orphan himself." Nicholi hadn't heard it before, but a light male voice was singing just a guitar part of a song to the sleeping round face. Yuki's song hummed throughout the area the more Nicholi focused on it.

 

Yuki listened and sighed.

"So many memories of this song."

 

The song abruptly cut off with the arrival of Cara behind Nicholi, Toji and Yuki. "What is this place? Orphan...you traitor!" Nicholi yawned, "And now we must leave. The time of a repeating destiny is about to begin again." Bartandalus growled and cast Flare at her. Nicholi quickly broke the purple circle, bringing them back to their world. "Happy?"

 

"Not really, just very confused now."

 

Nicholi frowned, this wasn't the response he'd wanted to elict, "Oh? And what makes you confused?"

 

"What did you mean by a repeating destiny?"

 

"Orphan and Cara fight once every few years. Each time she's reborn, Orphan waits until she remembers her destiny and summons her back there. Each time, Cara loses and dies, but her soul remains in tact and is reborn again a few years later." Nicholi thought his explanation served well enough.

 

"So that was always supposed to happen to Zain? I never would have imagined that my brother would be caught up in something like that."

 

"Yes...your brother's destiny has already been written for him, as have all of the shadow's you've met so far. We're all going to-" A car with tinted windows rolled up into Toji's driveway, cutting off Nicholi's words. Zero jumped out of the passenger seat and hurried over to the three, "Hey, where's Zain?! What're you guys doing standing out here?"

 

"Zain's gone. He's in another world now, fulfilling his pre-determined destiny."

 

Zero blinked at the sudden informations, "Excuse me? Gone as in dead? Wh-what the hell! I thought he'd be fine after that cure! We left him in your hands to make sure he'd be okay!" Nicholi glumly and emotionlessly put a hand on Zero's shoulder, "Gone as in dead. Zero, Zain was going to die one way or another. This was something that needed to happen." Zero fell silent.

 

"You think this was something I wanted to see happen?" Yuki asked with an angry look in her eyes.

 

Nicholi answered before Zero could open his mouth, "Of course not, Yuki. Zero only means that it's a shock that Zain is gone." Zero nodded frantically, "But...if he's gone...what's going to happen to Ari? And what about Daieko? Where's that filthy Deathchild?"

 

"Nicoli killed him, or so he claimed. Ari just seems to be moping."

 

Zero slowly turned to Nicholi, "You...killed...Deathchild? Nicholi...?" He gave him a look as if to warn everyone a disaster was coming. Nicholi gave him a blank look, "What? I'm completely in control of my actions. If you start thinking this is because of the DNA reconstruction, I'm going to slap you." Zero flicked his eyes to Nicholi's hands and back to his blank face. "Alright...if you say so." He turned to Yuki and Toji and shot them a look as if to say 'keep an eye on him'.