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They’d entered a damn TV and got separated, because of course they did. Shinji had woken up in some weird dreamlike place and was now staring down a familiar sight.
Castor.
His fucking Persona. Fan-fucking-tasic.
Only it wasn’t quite his Persona-- it was definitely Castor, but the colors were all wrong. Instead of grey and gold everything was white and silver. A black skull stared down at him with empty eye sockets.
He had tried to reach inside himself to summon Castor, but even with the Invoker to his skull he was coming up empty.
Shit.
So it probably was his actual Persona.
It was definitely going to kill him this time.
Fuck.
A voice echoed in his head, as Castor began to come closer, one plodding step at time, “Face yourself, Shinjiro Aragaki.”
What the fuck. Why the fuck was his Persona talking to him!?
Castor approached, raising his lance high, “Thou art I. I art thou.”
Castor’s sedate pace suddenly dissipated as he stabbed downwards in a flurry, aiming straight towards Shinji’s chest.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
Shinji tried to dodge– nevermind that agility had always been more Aki's thing.
But instead of horrific disembowelment, he felt the protection of a Tetrakarn spell wash over him.
Castor’s lance hit the barrier and threw him back, collapsing into a mess of horse and skeleton onto the floor.
Shinji caught a faint fleeting image of a figure in white out of the corner of his eye, but it was gone when he turned his head.
Logically, it was probably either a hallucination or this weird fucking school messing with his head.
But… he couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t either. Something, or someone had just saved his sorry hide.
Well, never look a gift horse in the ass or whatever– he got back to his feet, just as Castor struggled to get himself upright again.
“Face yourself!”
“Get fucked,” Shinji hissed, narrowing his eyes at his Persona. He’d beaten bigger shit than this before, hadn’t he? He sure as hell wasn’t going to let his own Persona be the one to take him out now.
He felt strength seep into his bones. The pale figure glimmered on the edge of vision again, but was gone as fast as it came. Heat Riser this time.
Shinji readied his axe. “Me or not, you’re going down!”
Okay, so, admittedly the situation was not great.
He had managed to get some more hits on Castor, and his mysterious ally was continuing to periodically buff him, but Castor had gotten enough hits in on him that the room was swimming and he was having trouble keeping himself upright. Strong as he was, he was only one person, and Personas just didn’t tire the same way that people did.
Fuck.
He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep doing this.
Another Tetrakarn spell shimmered to life, knocking Castor back. Shinji let out a morose little chuckle as he knees buckled and hit the floor.
He must look like total shit if they were wasting all that energy to cast another barrier spell.
Something whispered above him, and he looked up.
Floating in front of him was a pale figure. Head bowed, and two sets of arms clasped in prayer, as it murmured something intelligible.
Everything else but the figure in front of him promptly evacuated his brain. Oh.
“Mina?” he whispered.
A wave of healing magic flowed around him, as the figure looked up and smiled softly.
Same and not the same. Red eyes that felt as if they were staring into his soul.
Eyes that widened as she threw her head back in a silent scream. Castor’s black skull grinned at him from above, as his lance pierced through the figure’s chest.
No. No. NO!
Shinji was on his feet again, swinging wildly at his Persona. The blows landing hard, knocking Castor off his mount and onto the floor.
He drew his arm back and let fly a blow that cleaved the Persona’s skull clean in two. Castor’s body dissipated into smoke, leaving only the two pieces of the skull clattering to the floor.
“How’s that for facing yourself, motherfucker!” Shinji hissed, before turning back to where the pale figure had collapsed to the floor holding her chest in silent agony.
Messiah.
He may have still been in a coma when the other SEES members had fought Nyx. But he knew to the core of his soul, that this was Messiah. This was the last piece of Minako Arisato’s soul, and she had saved his life today just as she had done so many times before.
He knelt down, and drew Messiah closer placing his hand over the wound on her chest. There was no blood, but she was still clearly in pain, her mouth twisted into a painful grimace.
“Mina, Mina,” he whispered fervently, “You got hurt because I’m an idiot who can’t even handle my own Persona. There has to be something I can do. There has to be!”
He leaned down and pressed their foreheads together.
I can’t- I won’t let the last fragment of the person I love disappear!
Suddenly, it felt as though his skull had been cleaved in two instead of Castor’s.
So, this is how I die– from killing my own fucking Persona.
“Perhaps,” a warm voiced echoed in his mind, “or perhaps not. Shinjiro Aragaki, do you possess the strength to accept yourself at the fullest?”
“I’ll accept anything if it means I can do a damn thing for her right now!” he choked out through gritted teeth.
“Good. So shall it be!”
Shinjiro screamed as he felt a force rip its way from his mind. He gasped for breath and saw the pieces of Castor’s skull float up as magic began to swarm around it.
Fuck. There was no way he could handle round 2 right now.
“Fear not, Shinjiro Aragaki. Say my name and I shall be by your side forthwith!”
This was… an awakening?
It barely resembled Castor’s awakening. The fire in his soul looking for a form, a channel, but where Castor had been all rage and pain, this felt warm. Warm, gentle, but yet… the strength and power of steel coursed through his veins.
“Say my name. Surely you know it?” the voice chuckled, though not unkindly.
The realization that he did know rose within him and he grinned before shouting, “Chiron!”
Out of the vortex of magic around the remnants of Castor stepped a huge figure. One as tall as Castor and his mount combined. In his hands, the figure held a spear, but on his head set a crown of laurels.
The upper torso of a man, but the lower body of a horse. A massive one by the looks of it.
The figure nodded and smiled warmly at him before fading away. Filling Shinji’s flagging body with strength.
“Samarecarm,” Shinji whispered as he closed his eyes and took one of Messiah’s hands.
It was strange to feel the energy flow through him and into someone else. Castor had been mostly incapable of using magic, minus a small number of status and buff moves.
Never healing.
But now he could feel the magic on the edge of his mind. All healing spells, mixed in with remnants of Castor’s physical prowess. It felt good. It felt right.
(Akehiko was going to have a field day with this, the little shit.)
A weight left his arms, and when he looked up, Messiah was again floating in front of him. She offered a hand and pulled him up when he took it.
“Minako,” he said softly.
She smiled, her mannerisms so exactly like he remembered them it made his chest hurt.
He reached up with a hand and cupped one of her cheeks gently, “I miss you. So much.”
A familiar voice echoed softly in his mind, as she leaned her head into this hand and closed her eyes in what appeared to be bliss, “Be happy, Shinji. Please?"
“I try.”
“I know.”
“Thanks,” he added, “for saving my ass."
“You’re the one who faced yourself, silly.”
They heard footsteps in the distance.
Messiah smiled, and leaned forward giving him a ghost of a kiss on his lips before fading away entirely.
“I love you. I miss you. Be safe.”
When Akihiko finally burst in a few minutes later, he at least had the decency to not bring attention to the tear tracts running down Shinji’s cheeks before he wiped them off on one of his sleeves.