Author's Note: Regarding the characterisations of Chase, Dylan and Stephen, they each have their own good points and flaws plus I am not interested in making them perfect people because there'd be no point. Mainly because nobody's perfect. Anyway…
Disclaimer: I don't own the Persona series, Atlus and whatever its parent company now does.
Prologue Part 2: Dream or Vision
December 7, 2011 (?)
?
A man wearing a suit complete with a blood red tie held a gun to Dylan and a teenager his age with silver hair and grey eyes.
Dylan had, or rather still had, blonde hair that went down to his mid-back and blue eyes. He was wearing ripped jeans, black running shoes and a Deftones t-shirt along with a leather jacket.
The boy, or, Yu had silver hair and grey eyes. He was currently wearing black trousers, a white long-sleeved shirt and a black jacket.
"Are you guys trying to bring me in? Because, I'M the one calling the shots here. Not you." The man in the suit said, still pointing the gun.
"Who said anything about you calling the shots?" Dylan replied.
"He did. Look, I just want to know why you did all of this." Yu sounded a lot calmer than he'd had any reason to be.
"Just take the letter. And I wonder if you're going to give this to the authorities. Or just keep its contents between us." The man in the suit reached for an envelope and handed it over to Yu.
"Why should we? You're a murderer and if we covered up everything you did then we'd be no better than you." Dylan replied, looking between Yu and the man in the suit.
"Dylan's right. Besides, you'll have plenty of time to think about what you've done. You bastard." Yu growled. If he wasn't angry before, he was angry now. Particularly at the suggestion that his silence could be bought.
"Your funeral Narukami. It's such a shame when an upstanding young man such as yourself dies like this. Oh well." The man smiled and pulled the trigger of the gun.
Immediately, Dylan tackled Yu out of the path of the bullet. Unfortunately, the bullet had travelled through his body and lodged itself in his heart. Before he collapsed, Dylan looked down and saw the blood from the bullet wound blossoming outward like some kind of beautiful flower.
As soon as Dylan hit the ground, Yu almost immediately knelt down and attempted to put pressure on the wound. Despite his best efforts, Dylan's blood was still pumping out, staining the floor of the room red along with Yu's clothing.
"Hey, whatever happens to me, promise me that you won't let Adachi get away with this. Why is it so cold?" Dylan gasped.
"Don't worry. I'm not going to let him. And you can trust me. C'mon…" Yu's voice trailed off.
"It's too late. I'm sorry. Will you tell her that I… I love…" Dylan tried to say something, but it was too much of a struggle to speak.
And then everything faded to black.
April 8, 2011
Blake Residence
Dylan had woken up on the sofa in the living room in his house and he was still wearing the same clothes that he was wearing last night. These were ripped blue jeans, a studded belt and a Machine Head t-shirt. He'd managed to take off his leather jacket without any complications or embarrassment including but not limited to falling over or getting sick everywhere.
That was the good news. The bad news was that he'd foreseen his early death in a dream and he had a raging hangover. Dylan had no idea why he'd even have such a dream if it wasn't going to tell him anything. Then again, he had been having similar dreams to that one for the last few months. In these dreams he either foresaw his own death or saw a strange room or a girl or he just happened to see something else.
Dylan stood up slowly and ambled over to the kitchen. He found bacon and a carton of eggs in the fridge and proceeded to cook the bacon and scramble the eggs before looking for pancake mix and chocolate chips. This took about thirty or forty minutes or so and he put the bacon and eggs and pancakes on separate plates.
With this done, he balanced both plates as he walked back into the living room and sat down. Just as soon as he'd sat down, however, he heard someone knocking loudly on the door and went to go and investigate who or what it was.
He was surprised to find a man wearing a black three-piece suit and a white mask with a butterfly on its right side standing on his doorstep. The man in the suit also had blue butterflies that were either resting upon his shoulders or fluttering about him.
"I am sorry to trouble you, but are you Dylan Blake by any chance? I'm here to tell you something important." The man said. He observed Dylan with an expression of idle interest.
"I am. Who the fuck are you? You're not a cop are you? Because you need a fucking warrant to search the house." Dylan responded.
"Maybe I should have been clearer. My name is Philemon and believe me when I say that there is more to this world than what you might think. Correct me if I am wrong, but you are looking for something more?" Philemon was addressing Dylan directly, wondering what he'd say next.
"I am, but this had better not turn into something weird alright." Dylan gave Philemon a worried look. He was also being deadly serious.
"Of course not. That being said, the next eleven months or so will have their own challenges and you will need to be ready to meet them. And I hope that you are ready. Farewell until we meet again." Philemon said as he disappeared, taking the butterflies with him.
Dylan closed the door almost as soon as Philemon disappeared, relieved that the conversation had ended and also curious as to what was waiting for him in Inaba. While he didn't know what would be waiting for him there, he did know that his breakfast was still in the living room where he left it.
There was also the small matter of the going-away party for himself and Stephen that was going to be held in the house later that evening. Dylan had managed to pay for catering and gotten the numerous guests to bring their own alcohol because he didn't think there'd be enough. And that was despite the trips to a few liquor stores and the use of his fake ID.
First, Dylan quickly ate the bacon strips and scrambled eggs that he'd cooked and then went back into the kitchen to look for maple syrup for the chocolate chip pancakes. Along with a beer or a bottle of something stronger to go along with the meal. Preferably vodka. He'd found a still full bottle of vodka in the fridge along with a few cans of Red Bull and the maple syrup was somewhere in the pantry.
"Found it!" Dylan exclaimed while holding the container of maple syrup in triumph. He placed everything on the kitchen countertop so he could look for a glass. After remembering that there were clean glasses in the dishwasher, he found one of them and placed it on the countertop.
Balancing the container, the vodka bottle, the cans of Red Bull and the glass in each hand, he walked back into the living room and sat down. After placing everything on the table and subsequently finishing breakfast, he turned on the TV to one of the news channels.
"It has been a few weeks since several bodies were found in the D.C. metropolitan area. The bodies were heavily mutilated and had exhibited signs of torture and possible sexual violence. These murders are purported to be linked to the theft of secret documents that took place slightly before the murders took place. We will update you on developments as we get them." The news anchor said, looking intently at the camera.
Dylan opened the bottle of vodka and poured about a quarter of it into the glass before opening one of the cans of Red Bull and pouring it in. He didn't know if that news story was related to Philemon's visit but there was a part of him that assumed that it was a possibility.
…
It was approximately eleven or twelve o'clock at night, and the party had been going for a few hours. Not only that but the house was almost completely full to the point where the party was carrying on outside the house as well much to the consternation of the neighbours.
"This party is fucking insane. Hey, is that body glitter?" Stephen asked.
Stephen had neck length black hair and brown eyes. He was currently wearing black boots, camouflage pants and a black t-shirt with a white skull on the front. Stephen was also one of Dylan's closest friends and had remained so even after the death of Dylan's girlfriend Roz.
"It is! There were these two chicks in my room, and let's just say we had a really good time." Dylan grinned, swaying unsteadily.
"So, where are Travis, Eddie and Zack?" Stephen had seen them earlier but he wasn't sure.
"They're around. Well, speaking of which, I think that's Travis!" Dylan shouted, pointing at a teenager their age with strawberry-blonde hair and green-grey eyes.
Travis noticed Dylan and Stephen and made a drunken beeline towards them.
"'You've really outdone yourself this time." Travis was about to say something else but he thought better of it.
"No kidding. Let's just say that my dad's going to be in for a few shocks when he gets back on Sunday. And I'll be gone so he can't do anything about it." Dylan chuckled at the thought of his dad coming home and finding out that he'd used the hose as the venue for his going-away party.
"Well yeah. It's going to be weird without you guys you know?" Travis sighed.
"I know. But you guys would be able to visit during the summer I'm sure." Stephen responded.
"Yeah. It's just, I'm used to it being the five of us. Us against the world, that kind of thing. And I'm glad that you guys didn't throw me under the bus after Roz died." Dylan wasn't sure if there was anything else that needed to be said about that.
The trio could hear somebody knocking and ringing the doorbell. Dylan, naturally, went to open the door in order to see who it could be. He opened the door and was shocked to find Chase standing there with a red-haired girl or, more accurately, young woman.
"Chase? What the hell? I thought you disappeared?!" Dylan yelled, clearly not sounding thrilled about Chase's sudden return.
"It's a long story. And I'd really prefer not to explain it now. There's too many people." Chase turned and began to walk away, followed by the red-head.
"So when do you want to explain it then?" Dylan questioned as he ran after them.
"Tomorrow. You're leaving in two days right? Or wouldn't it be one day? Shit, I almost forgot, this is my girlfriend Mina." Chase decided to just let Mina and Dylan shake hands.
"Well, this has been fun. And I'm a little bit jetlagged so I'd better just get going. See you tomorrow." Mina said, waving as she walked back to the car that was parked near the front lawn of the house.
"Look, I'm sorry about not being there for you after Roz's death. But there were some things that I had to do. And I had to look after Mina because she was in a really bad place after everything. Maybe it's better if I just tell you tomorrow. Good night Dylan." Chase regretted not being there for Dylan, but there wasn't really anything that he could've done about that. He walked back the car and got in with Mina before driving away.
Dylan sighed before attempting to re-enter the already crowded house. He took extra care to avoid some of the people who were pretty much fucking on the front lawn. Safe to say, it was getting fertilised in an entirely different way.
He took a long look and could see a squad car pulling up almost as soon as Chase and Mina had left. A cop had gotten out of the car and was making purposeful strides towards the front door of the house. Said cop had even managed to cut off Dylan's re-entry.
"Listen, I've getting some complaints about this party so I'd like you to shut it down if at all possible." The cop made it sound like a reasonable request. Well, to anybody else.
"The fuck? Who ratted me out? Look man, I don't think it's too loud. Plus, you're in the wrong neighbourhood motherfucker. Don't you have actual criminals to arrest?" Dylan said, slamming the door in the officer's face.
"You might think that's smart, but if there's still complaints being raised about how loud the party is with me then you're going down. I don't want to have to come back." The cop growled, walking back to the car and slamming the door.
Waldorf Astoria, New York
"You can't blame yourself. Roz's death wasn't your fault right?" Mina sounded concerned.
"I know but I should've been there for him. Do you think we did the right thing by disappearing"? Chase asked. He was sure that he'd done the right thing a year or so ago, but he didn't feel so sure now.
"We had to. But I don't know anymore." Mina replied, looking as Chase had poured himself a glass of scotch from a bottle that he'd ordered about a few hours previously. Yeah, he didn't drink under normal circumstances, but these circumstances WEREN'T normal.
"So does that mean it was okay to let Dylan become WORSE than I'd remembered him being? He needed people to support him when he needed it most and I let him down." Chase said in as morose a tone of voice as possible.
"Blaming yourself isn't going to make it any better." Mina rested her head on Chase's shoulder.
"Maybe. I think we've got that meeting in about two days or so by the way." Chase had no idea why he agreed to meet Calloway. Maybe, just MAYBE, he missed the old days with SEES.
"So, he thinks that we can magically convince the team to come back right? I mean, we can't make them re-join SEES unless we decide to do it ourselves." Mina had gotten up to get a glass as well.
"I don't think we've got a choice." Chase responded before taking a long gulp of scotch.
"As someone told me once, there's always a choice." Mina answered.
"Maybe." Chase sighed, wondering what the next day was going to bring. If anything. Trying to explain to Dylan what he'd been doing since early February of last year would be incredibly difficult .
"Well, I believe there is. I chose to leave Port Island with you right? I could've just as easily said that I didn't want you to leave with me." Mina said, surveying the room.
"Yeah, but that's different. I just couldn't believe that he'd changed so much." Chase said, hoping that there'd be some way to reach Dylan.
Extra Note
Sorry about the chapter being so short, but the next chapter will be longer. Plus it's going to be when the story actually starts. Will most likely be going back and editing this at a later date too. Oh, and there's going to be a lot of new Personas.
Short (New) Persona List
Lionheart
Albion
King Arthur
Merlin
Guinevere
Lancelot
Bedevere
Ector
Bors
Gawain
Percival
The Green Knight
Dagda
Éiru
Ogma
Lugh
Balor
Diarmuid Ua Duibhne
Maedbh
Morrigan
Aengus
Macha
Gilgamesh
Enkidu
Ahura Mazda
Zurvan
Ahriman
Marduk
Cyrus
Hephaestus
Pandora
Daedalus
Icarus
Perseus
Theseus
Medusa
Nemean Lion
Heracles
Zeus
Hera
Typhon
Urd
Skuld
Verdandi
King Canute
Jormungandr
Beowulf
Grendel
Leif Erikson
Erik the Red
Yggdrassil
Hraesvelgr
Garm
Asmodeus
Azazel
Arioch
Morax
Moloch
Adrammalech
Adam Kadmon
Eve
Cain
Abel
Seth
Noah
Abraham
Isaac
Ishmael
Abihiko
Nagasunehiko
Komainu
Ame-No-Ohabari
Jikokuten
Koumokuten
Bishamonten
Zouchoten
Hachiman
Futotama
Kotoshironushi
There's going to be more additional Personas than just the ones listed. Admittedly, a lot of them would have appeared in other SMT titles but some of them wouldn't have.