Second Chances (Persona 3 x Tales of Berseria)

1

I woke up to the sounds of complete chaos as my back was stiff from sitting upright so long. My eyelids felt heavy as I forced them to open to catch even a glimpse of the world around me for some sort of explanation of what was happening. Dim lights barely reached my eyes as figured either shrouded in black or in white darted around in the light. Their yelling and screaming felt like it was all much quieter than it should be like it was all under a pillow. My back was stiff from the slumped position I was in against the wall while my feet rested on the ground. I tried to will myself to move, but my body refused to work just like it did on that last day...

Aigis...

She was safe, I knew they all were safe, but I wasn't safe. I needed to find out where I was, I needed to find out what happened to Nyx and if she was sealed away. I had too... Had to what? My thoughts suddenly fell away again just like they had on the school rooftop and my eyes started to droop in exhaustion again. I couldn't fathom staying awake any longer and I just felt like falling back asleep. I was so tired and the fog in my head started to get thicker the longer I remained here. Maybe if I did I could see them again? That would be nice. It would also be nice if all the yelling and screaming would stop as well. If everything could just stop for a little while that... Would be...

"Leader! You better come back or I won't forgive you!"

"Yu-kari...?"

An image of the brown-haired girl cut through the fog as her voice rang in my ears clearer than any noise so far, but that shouldn't be possible. The fog started to get clearer as my worry for one of my dearest friends rose up in the back of my throat making it hard to breathe. It was irrational that she'd be here, but I had to be sure. Slowly, I planted my hands on the firm surface of the hard surface I was sitting on to push myself up off the wall so I could look for her, make sure she was safe, that they all were. The surface under my hands protested the action as I pushed myself into a standing position despite the shaking in my limbs. I stood upright for only a moment before my legs buckled under my weight and I hit the cold floor with a muffled thud. It hurt, my knees and palms hit the scratchy floor littered with chips of something and grime from lack of proper cleaning. I was out of breath from that slight action and my throat begged for water as my limbs shook with exhaustion. This wasn't right, it was only an hour or so ago that we had lunch back at Gekko High. I stared at the floor a moment longer to catch my breath and think about my current state before once more attempting to stand up to look for my friend. Without the bench that I had been sleeping on, I had to push my hands against the floor and attempt to stand up on my own. I got nearly halfway to my feet before my legs began to shake and my body threatened to once again fall to the floor. I had no time to try and push myself up again, so I tried my best to stumble towards the wall, though it was more like falling. My shoulder roughly hit the wall and absorbed most of the impact while I once again had to catch my breath. What was wrong with me?

This wasn't a good situation, but I had to move. With the fog in my head clearing up I was slowly beginning to hear the sounds of battle outside the room I was in and my vision was starting to clear up to some minor degree. An open iron door had been what was keeping me in, but somebody had come along and opened it. I don't know who or why, but I wasn't about to complain. Glancing at the floor around me I saw those chips that had dug into my knees and palms glinting in the faint light outside this room, they were small and white and reminded me of a skeleton from a movie I went to see with Junpei. My eyes went out of focus for a moment as my head ached a bit from whatever it was that happened to me. Planting my free hand against the wall I slowly began to make my way out of the dark room I had been in. Shaky steps brought me closer to the door where I leaned against the frame to look at the hallway around my room. Bodies littered the ground as a red substance flickered and shined in the dim torchlight. Some were of men in white uniforms now stained red from grievous wounds on their person or deep dents in their helmets while others were of monsters that I had only seen in movies. It was a massacre, but I couldn't stop.