Persona 4 FYL

"You have all done quite well to get this far," said the entity known as Fear to the investigation team as it floated above them near the Rift, its hollow sockets staring right through them. "However, you must have realized by now that your meddling has brought you into a situation from which you cannot escape."

"Naoto's involvement caused that already," replied Souji calmly, stepping forward and standing his ground against the powerful creature. "But we already know why things have happened. Now we've chosen to put an end to it."

"Such foolishness..." hissed Fear, its sightless face moving to peer at the others in the group. Teddie shivered, but growled softly. Chie glared upward towards her foe as sweat began to bead on her forehead. "Yet humans are inherently fools. They seek power for their own ends. They seek to evade pain through isolation. They blame others for their own distress, and take none for the consequences of their own choices. It stands to reason that the end will come thanks to their own fallacies... their own ignorance... their own selfishness."

"Humans can overcome their own failures!" yelled Yosuke, moving forward to stand beside his old friend. "We're all living proof of that!"

"...With aid from an anomaly."

Everyone except Souji seemed to shift uncomfortably at this.

"Don't listen to it," said the silverette as he turned to face his friends. "You used your own power, your own strength. You don't need me!"

"They are quite dependent on you. They will not survive without your aid. They would have remained ignorant of their downward spirals if you had not shown up when you did... unaware of the power which fed upon their despair."

"But we WERE aware of it..." said Rise, her expression conflicted. "We just... needed an extra push..."

"And now we just beat you back into the hole you crawled out of!" yelled Kanji, hefting his plate over his shoulder. "Then no more worries!"

Fear continued to float above the growing Rift, its cloak billowing wider.

"If you believe such a thing to be so simple... then follow me."

The apparition rose quickly into the air and dived straight down into the broken chasm. Lightning crackled as Souji moved toward the edge of the Rift to see where Fear had gone.

"Why didn't it change?" asked Yukiko, yelling above the thunder cracks. "It looked different for each of us, didn't it?!"

"This is probably its true form," replied Yosuke. "I don't think it needs to change..."

"Its obscurity is a part of it, then." Naoto moved next to Souji, shivering slightly as she acknowledged her thoughts vocally. "It is my fear given form... and it seems I've no choice but to face it."

"Let's do it, then!" yelled Chie as she and the rest of the team moved to the edge of the Rift.

"Time to end this," murmured Souji before leaping headlong into the chasm. He heard the others cry out as they leapt after him. The thunder echoed feverishly in their ears. Bright flashes of light surged in their eyes, and then they were all surrounded by a deep, penetrating nothingness.

---

Naoto opened her eyes.

She felt something solid beneath her, and she realized she was lying down. She beheld her hands, and looked down at her body. She could see them as though the darkness around her gave off some sort of light. Yet she could not see beyond the darkness which surrounded her even as she stood on the solid surface which she could not see.

"Hello?"

Her voice echoed all around her as she called out. She began to feel frightened.

"Yosuke-san? Chie-san?"

She began to walk, and found that there were no walls. She began to run, calling out to her other friends.

"Souji?! Where are you?! I--"

Naoto halted as she heard soft weeping behind her. Turning around, her heart almost stopped as she noticed a bleeding body on the ground.

The body of Souji Seta.

What she had not expected was that body to be held by none other than herself.

"Don't go... Please don't go... I need you..."

Naoto closed her eyes tightly, and then opened them once again.

The vision vanished.

Rubbing her forehead, she turned around, and was immediately met by something cold and heavy pressing against her. Struggling against it, she tried to get a better look at the object. She screamed in shock as she recognized it as a person.

A dead person.

A dead Rise.

She fell to what had to be the floor and backed away in horror. The body of her friend was pale, her eyes half rolled into the back of her head. Blood oozed from a gaping hole in her stomach.

Naoto shut her eyes again. The body had vanished when she reopened them.

"This... this isn't..."

The sleuth gulped heavily, and noticed her heartbeat had increased in pace. She slowed her breathing and attempted to calm herself down.

"No... This isn't real. This is an illusion. A test. I--"

She turned again and saw her grandfather running toward a surging power. She saw his body consumed in fire, a bright flash emanating from a violent explosion.

"No! NO!!"

She couldn't watch. Not again.

She began to flee from the terrible images.

A hand grabbed her shoulder and whirled her around.

Another hand smacked her in the face.

"Ow! What the--"

She blinked again. Standing before her was herself again.

She was staring right at herself.

Yet she was so... familiar to her.

That lab coat...

"What..? Why are you--"

"I'm you, remember? I'm facing these fears with you, because they're ours. Our fears."

Naoto gulped again, trying to shake her head to clear her mind. "We... this... I need to get out of here."

"Of course you do," said her Shadow. "Who knows what's going on while we're doing this! But running away from your fears will do no good!"

"Then what am I supposed to do?!" cried Naoto, her temper beginning to mount.

"Acknowledge them, and overcome them! Just like you overcame me!"

Naoto blinked. Could it really be that simple?

"Fear is a part of the self you hold that you want so desperately to hide, to ignore. And yet it's so very different. Fear can debilitate you, cause you to stagnate and rot from within. You have to understand this, accept your fears, and overcome them! That's the basis of all courage!"

"Courage..." The word resounded with Naoto, gave her warmth. Souji had courage... And maybe she could...

She turned around. Souji lay dead at her feet. Rise's pale form faced her, motionless. The image of her grandfather's death played back once more behind the two cadavers.

She watched. Her breathing remained regular and steady.

"It could happen..."

The voice was a whisper, a splinter in her mind.

"True... It could."

"Do you not fear such possibilities? Even you could die...You could cause so much pain to those you leave behind..."

"I could, yes." Naoto was slightly surprised by how calm she sounded in the midst of the truths whispered to her from nowhere and everywhere at once.

"There's so much you do not know... So much you do not understand..."

Naoto smiled.

"What's the point of worrying about things which have not happened yet? Why give myself needless stress over that which doesn't honestly matter?"

The darkness began to become hazy around her, and her heart leapt with joy as she spoke her mind.

"Whatever happens... happens. But I will not become a slave to worry and possibility. Not when there's still so much more of life for me to live."

A sound of shattering glass. The black surroundings fell around her like the shards of a broken mirror.

The scene changed immediately. Naoto stood on the remnants of the Yasogami High School rooftop, but it seemed to be hurtling forward into a swirling vortex, much like the center of a tornado. She noticed the cone expanded around them and enveloped them, and she even seemed to recall the eye of a hurricane, though in this case it was horizontal, a tunnel composed of wind. Her clothes billowed around her from the violent winds, and she reached down to withdraw her revolver from its holster. Voices behind her informed the sleuth that her friends were there with them, and a calm hand upon her shoulder made her smile.

Souji was here.

Naoto looked up at the entity known as Fear, which seemed to radiate with power. Its appearance began to metamorphose into a more ghastly visage, the cloak becoming torn and ragged, and its eyeless sockets forming red pinpricks of light which expanded into vile, almond-shaped eyes.

"Impressive..." whispered the specter above them. "Even you have mastered your fears, separated from the Anomaly. I underestimated all of you..."

"Looks like that's changing pretty quick, huh?" growled Kanji, gritting his teeth as he gripped his plate tighter. Everyone else prepared themselves for the coming assault, retrieving weapons and entering defensive stances.

"Indeed. No more holding back... Your meddling ends now." The apparition slid easily through the walls of the vortex, the grey-colored, swirling mass instantly becoming a mixture of bright orange light and dark shadows.

Everyone yelped as they saw Inaba burning all around them, consuming itself in a violent cacophony of fire and smoke.

"No! It's trying to trick us!" cried out Naoto, raising her revolver in preparation. "Don't let it fool you!"

The wraith sped out of the swirling mass and hurtled toward Kanji, who attempted to counter with a strike from his plate. The shade swerved at the last second, the heavy metal connecting hard with the crumbling concrete beneath his feet.

"Damn, this thing's fast!" snarled Kanji as he summoned Rokuten Maoh, a surge of lightning crackling after the fleeing enemy. The energy struck the wall of the vortex as Fear vanished back inside.

"Geez, this isn't good!"

"Easy now," muttered Yosuke, tightening his grip on his daggers. "We have no clue what this thing's capa--"

Yosuke's voice faded in his throat as he stared helplessly into Saki Konichi's angry face.

A huge fist connected with Saki from above, plowing it into the floor, the remnants of a shredded cloak flowing into the cracks.

"That bastard!" Chie moved closer to Yosuke, but he held a hand up to stop her, smiling slightly.

"I'm alright, Chie. It just caught me off-guard, that's all."

"It's using the Rift to cloak itself," said Rise, peering through Himiko's visor at the surroundings. "I'm not really sure we can cut through all of these illusions."

"Look out!" yelled Teddie as he moved between Yukiko and Chie, who both gasped as the blonde boy's claws ripped through the face of Adachi, the illusion fading in wisps of black smoke.

"This is nuts..." whispered Yukiko, shaken by the shade of their former foe.

"Take a deep breath, all of you!" called out Naoto, trying to regain control of the situation. "We can conquer it!"

"It has so much fear to feed from, though," whimpered Teddie, his blue eyes overflowing with tears. "What if we can't stop it?!"

Souji closed his eyes and tried to think. There was no way to block the fears they felt, like he had blocked his anger. And he couldn't turn their fears against themselves like they had done against Ruin.

A chorus of shrieks forced Souji to turn, his blade raised. Yukiko, Chie, and Rise all clung to each other tightly as the face of Mitsuo Kubo leered down at them with unnaturally large eyes, his thick lips puckered as though waiting for a kiss. The image faded into mist as Teddie brought forth a surge of ice in its wake.

"Dude, did you just scream too?!" yelled Kanji to Yosuke, though he too seemed ready to pass out.

"N... N-no!!" replied Yosuke, a little too hesitantly.

"Who WOULDN'T be scared of HIM, though?!" cried Chie as the three girls broke their embrace.

"I'm sick of this..."

The others turned as Naoto muttered to herself, her silver-blue eyes gazing all around her. She grinned in triumph, and Souji followed her gaze to see the black form of the Fear apparition hurtling toward them from the walls of the surging vortex. As the Aspect emerged out into the open, the sleuth summoned Izanami, the black-robed Persona extending her arms and cut loose with a powerful surge of crimson lightning.

"No! This cannot be!" Fear howled as it was pummeled by the strong electrical current, which sent it spiraling forward deeper into the vortex and out of sight. The swirling barrier around them darkened into a deep, midnight blue, and whatever illumination was available to the group before vanished entirely.

"Get closer together," called Souji, taking command of the situation. "Don't get separated."

"We'll be sitting ducks in a cluster like this, though," said Naoto grimly, though she moved closer to the silverette anyway.

"We don't have much choice," admitted Yosuke, frowning to himself. "At least we can shield everyone at once this way."

Time passed slowly as the group pressed together, everyone holding their weapons ready in case of another surprise attack. Yet nothing came, and no sound existed except for each team member's nervous breathing and the motion of the horizontal vortex enclosing them.

"...Guys?" piped in Teddie, lowering his guard. "I think that's it. We won!"

"Yeah! Score another one for the good guys!" cheered Chie, leaping up in excitement.

"No, wait!" yelled Naoto, turning toward Chie. "This isn't-"

Time seemed to slow unexpectedly. Souji noticed a large, shadowy claw emerge from the center of the vortex, watched it reach out and close around Chie's waist while she was still suspended in the middle of her victory leap. Her excited face slowly changed into one of horror, her hands moving sluggishly to grasp at the long fingers which had enclosed around her body.

Souji turned toward the source of the clawed hand, and stared at a visage of absolute horror. The faceless Fear had taken on a face, yet it was not human at all. Monstrous and feral, the head was even more skull-like than before, with a mouth filled with razor-sharp, pointed teeth. Its eyes were almond-shaped balls of fire, glaring at Chie with intense hatred and loathing. Its body was robed in the torn, shredded cloak, the portion which existed beyond its torso existing only within the depths of the vortex. Its other arm had materialized, the long fingers reaching for another victim.

A gunshot forced the arm to withdraw before the talon-like fingers reached Rise, who had dropped Himiko's presence as the monster emerged. Naoto turned and fired more shots at the other arm, which connected with the wrist of the hand still holding Chie. The bullets passed through, wisps of black smoke the only evidence of the sleuth's unerring accuracy.

"Someone do something!!" screamed Chie, unable to break free of the fiend's grip. Her legs kicked uselessly beneath her, unable to hit anything with her sandals. Her captor breathed, and she was suddenly bathed in choking, black breath which made her gag and cough uncontrollably.

"Chie!" Yosuke rushed forward and jumped up toward the hand, his daggers biting into the shadowy fingers. With a roar, Chie was released, falling unceremoniously onto the roof as Yosuke landed next to her. Moving closer to her, the brunette became worried as he noticed her pale face gazing up at him, a weak smile crossing her lips as they turned slightly blue.

"I... think I messed up that time..." She sighed, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "I feel so... weak..."

"Don't you dare give up yet!" snarled Yosuke, pulling Chie out of Fear's reach. "I won't let you!"

"And neither will I," said Yukiko firmly as she summoned Amaterasu to heal her friend's affliction. Color returned to Chie's cheeks as the strange attack's affects were neutralized.

Meanwhile, Souji, Kanji, Teddie, and Naoto attempted to assault the apparition. Fear began to inhale for another breath attack, but Naoto fired her revolver at the specter's head, causing it to lose its attack.

"Nice shot, kid!" yelled Kanji as he knocked a claw aside before it could grab him.

"Weakness... There's gotta be a weakness." said Rise to herself as she summoned Himiko again, scanning the monster in front of them.

Suddenly, both claws slammed into the rooftop, causing it to shudder beneath their feet. The edge forced down into the wall of the vortex, the rest of the surface began to tilt at an angle, causing everyone to lose their footing and fall. Rise lost her concentration again, her Persona fading. Yosuke and Yukiko held onto Chie to prevent her from sliding, even though they too were beginning to move down the inclined rooftop. The others used the nearby vent shafts to steady themselves, the moving surface pushing them closer to their enemy.

"SOUJI-KUN!!" yelled Rise as she clung to the remnants of the vent shaft, her eyes shining with hope and inspiration. "Izanagi! Summon Izanagi! Hurry!!"

More out of desperation than Rise's shouted suggestion, Souji called upon Izanami-no-Okami. Its white coat billowed in the violent winds upon its arrival, and it held its spear toward Fear with an air of strength and authority. Light emerged from the tip of the sharp weapon as more surged behind the Persona, illuminating it in a bright and shining halo. A concentrated beam sliced through the wraith's skull between its glowing, fiery eyes which widened in abject shock.

What the...? Souji gasped, not expecting the attack from his Persona. Isn't that... Ten Thousand Truths?

Fear began to roar in pain as its face cracked along the incision made by the penetrating beam of light, which then spread down its arms and along its cloak as though it were made of something more solid than mere cloth. The clawed hands clutched at the specter's face as beams of light shot out of the widening cracks. With a howl of indignant fury, the monstrous form shattered violently, dark pieces of itself sent flying in all directions as light flooded the battleground.

"...fear..."

The word was whispered, a shadow of its former power as the bright light faded from view. The vortex slowed itself, the illusionary view of a burning Inaba extinguished, replaced by darkness. The winds died, and only stillness remained. The roof lowered back to its original position, and the investigation team rose to their feet.

"I don't want any more excitement..." whispered Chie, clinging to Yosuke and Yukiko. "I hope that was the end of it..."

"Me too," agreed Yosuke, running a shaking hand through his hair. "That was pushing it, even for us."

Kanji, Teddie, and Rise moved to the others, making sure Chie was okay. Souji and Naoto, on the other hand, moved to the other side of the rooftop, their eyes fixed on a specific point in the nothingness which surrounded them.

"You sense it too," said Naoto, looking at Souji intently.

The silverette nodded. "The only other time I felt a power like this..." ...was when we battled Izanami, he finished inside his head. But this... this isn't right. There's so much more power here. I've never--

"AGH!!"

Souji whirled around. Naoto clutched her forehead and collapsed to her knees. The pain was so excruciating to her that bright lights popped before her eyes.

"S-Souji! G-get away!!" The sleuth yelled as loud as she could, barely hearing her own voice above the pain. "It's... not something you can fight!! Get back!!"

Souji did not obey her. Standing his ground, he held his blade tightly as he noticed the darkness in front of them move and swirl slowly. Possessing form, yet remaining formless, the silverette could only classify the mass before him as true nothingness. It took up space, and yet it wasn't something which possessed any shred of existent matter.

From the depths of nonexistence from which it was composed, a voice echoed inside Souji's head, possessing neither tone nor pitch. Emotionless and genderless, the voice was possibly the coldest, most mechanical thing he had ever heard.

...this entity recognizes and greets the Anomaly and his associates, as well as the Crux...

"Wh-what the hell?!" Kanji yelled, completely surprised by the suddenness of the voice's intrusion within his mind. Everyone else looked around for the source of the voice, even though Souji continued to stare up into the gently swirling "void."

...introductions are unnecessary...this entity knows each of you...joys, sorrows, hatreds, fears...with the exception of the Anomaly...

"You may know most of us. But.. what do humans call you?" asked Souji calmly, and the hollow, chilling voice echoed once more into his mind.

...this entity has been provided many names by humans...those constrained by the concept of labeling...yet within your region of "Earth," a specific name was provided to classify this entity's nature...

Energy, tinged red as blood, began to crackle throughout the mass of nothingness, illuminating the broken rooftop as it spoke the name which the Japanese had provided for it. All were silent, except for one person's pained scream that Souji recognized as belonging to Yukiko.

..."Amatsu Mikaboshi"...