"... I did, actually." It wasn't quite a happy statement, but it was an acknowledgement of simple fact. "I had help, but..."
There was another twisting of the world around them, fleeting images that lingered...
Riding with the Phantom Thieves, the atmosphere uncomfortable but tentatively welcoming.
A fight against Fafnir, his voice raw as he shouted, tackling Ren out of the way to eat a blow that would have killed him.
Meeting with the Thieves, looking up in surprise when he was served a bowl of curry, like everyone else.
Sneering, as a soft-spoken man in a white coat described his vision for a world without pain, without misery.
At the club, with Ren, smiling as for the briefest moment they forgot about the threat at hand and argued about the music, instead.
...
Another meeting, in a darkened coffee shop. Only himself and Ren, and that man, with the white coat, his voice always kind, his eyes always soft and sad as he promised- to erase everything you were, to remake you, free of flaws and sorrows and traumas and mistakes. Who'd implied what he'd already suspected, that he himself was only a cognition, someone brought back to make Ren happy because Ren's perfect life- was one where Goro Akechi lived. Where he'd had friends, had family, had the love and support that every child deserved but almost never got.
Arguing with Ren, shouting, his heart pounding as he demanded to be free, to be allowed to live without someone else pulling his strings just once while the other boy argued back that this wasn't trivial, that he wanted to win but not at any cost, that Akechi's life wasn't just trivial- And the release he'd felt, when Ren had spoken the words that had liberated and condemned him at once, sad and angry- "We're stopping Maruki."
The arctic calm that filled him, as Loki and what was left of Robin Hood died inside him, giving birth to Hereward, single-minded and bent on freedom and marching to his certain death. Freedom, at any cost.
Fighting Maruki, his white coat exchanged for a savior's robes, a golden mask upon his face as he summoned a Persona. Akechi had fit seamlessly into the Thieves' dynamic, now, cutting down the Persona's tentacles wherever they moved, Ren knocking the man flat on his ass so Hereward could move in, swinging a blade that shattered the man's Persona, sent it collapsing to the ground.
Standing resolute with the others, blocking a blow from a golden titan the size of a skyscraper, keeping the thing Maruki's Persona had become busy while Ren dealt the finishing blow...
And he was falling, as the Palace collapsed and Maruki's cognitive control of the world faded. Falling, and fading, at peace with what had happened...
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There was another twisting of the world around them, fleeting images that lingered...
Riding with the Phantom Thieves, the atmosphere uncomfortable but tentatively welcoming.
A fight against Fafnir, his voice raw as he shouted, tackling Ren out of the way to eat a blow that would have killed him.
Meeting with the Thieves, looking up in surprise when he was served a bowl of curry, like everyone else.
Sneering, as a soft-spoken man in a white coat described his vision for a world without pain, without misery.
At the club, with Ren, smiling as for the briefest moment they forgot about the threat at hand and argued about the music, instead.
...
Another meeting, in a darkened coffee shop. Only himself and Ren, and that man, with the white coat, his voice always kind, his eyes always soft and sad as he promised- to erase everything you were, to remake you, free of flaws and sorrows and traumas and mistakes. Who'd implied what he'd already suspected, that he himself was only a cognition, someone brought back to make Ren happy because Ren's perfect life- was one where Goro Akechi lived. Where he'd had friends, had family, had the love and support that every child deserved but almost never got.
Arguing with Ren, shouting, his heart pounding as he demanded to be free, to be allowed to live without someone else pulling his strings just once while the other boy argued back that this wasn't trivial, that he wanted to win but not at any cost, that Akechi's life wasn't just trivial-
And the release he'd felt, when Ren had spoken the words that had liberated and condemned him at once, sad and angry-
"We're stopping Maruki."
The arctic calm that filled him, as Loki and what was left of Robin Hood died inside him, giving birth to Hereward, single-minded and bent on freedom and marching to his certain death. Freedom, at any cost.
Fighting Maruki, his white coat exchanged for a savior's robes, a golden mask upon his face as he summoned a Persona. Akechi had fit seamlessly into the Thieves' dynamic, now, cutting down the Persona's tentacles wherever they moved, Ren knocking the man flat on his ass so Hereward could move in, swinging a blade that shattered the man's Persona, sent it collapsing to the ground.
Standing resolute with the others, blocking a blow from a golden titan the size of a skyscraper, keeping the thing Maruki's Persona had become busy while Ren dealt the finishing blow...
And he was falling, as the Palace collapsed and Maruki's cognitive control of the world faded. Falling, and fading, at peace with what had happened...