One Last Call...

Ayane sat in front of her laptop, staring at the screen with a contemplative look on her face... Things had not been going so well over in Azores. She had heard of the strange weather, and all that had been going on over there as of late... It was only natural really. Sure, the news weren't exactly spreading like wildfire over in Japan, but the girl had been keeping an eye on what had been going on over there since she had left. And what she had been reading raised a lot of questions that she wanted answers on... A lot of this just didn't seem natural at all... And if her suspicions were correct, some of the people she had met over there were involved somehow...

"Ayane! Dad and I are going out for a while! We'll be back sometime around midnight, alright?" Her mother's voice echoed from downstairs... "Alright! Have fun!" She replied before she faced the screen again. "Mae..." Her friend was over there, in the middle of all this chaos... What had she been talking about that day with Blaez? It had been bugging her for a long time now, but back then, it wasn't really all that pressing... Now on the other hand, she wanted answers. She wanted Mae to come back, away from all that was going on over there...

-Hey... Mae?-
Her fingers zoomed over the keyboard rapidly, as she started chatting with her best friend, oceans away...

-Oh, hey Aya-chan! What's up?-

-Mind if I call you? There's something I need to know...-

-Hm? Sure, go right ahead. I'm alone over here today, as Charles is off working. At least, I think he is.-

Ayane hovered the cursor over the call button, hesitating for a second... Did she really want to know? Well, of course she did. But would Mae talk to her about it? After a couple of seconds spent gathering her thoughts, she eventually initiated the call, and put on her headset. One signal... Two Signals... Three...

"Oh, hey! It's been a while, hasn't it? What's on your mind...?" Mae asked, a slight hint of worry present in her voice. "With school and everything, I barely have time nowadays to talk to you... I'm sorry." She felt guilty for that, but it wasn't something she could really control. If she wanted a passing grade, she had to set things aside for the studies... Not much else to it, so every second that this call lasted was precious. "Mae... I've been reading the news over in Azores... What exactly is going on over there? And don't tell me it's global warming. That won't fly anymore. I want to know the truth." She could hear Mae sighing deeply on the other end of the call. Knowing her, she was probably not liking this situation in the slightest, but... She had to know.


"Where do I even begin...?" Mae said contemplatively... There was so much that needed explaining now... Her friend wanted to know what was going on. Desperately too. Obviously, Ayane was worried about her, and for good reason too... If you didn't know the things Mae did, anyone would be worried. "How about the very beginning? From top to bottom?" Mae looked at the screen... She wanted to know everything? "...Alright then... Get comfortable, because this is going to take a while..."


Mae took a deep breath before she started. "Well... I suppose it all started eons ago... But it really didn't start becoming relevant for us until recently. There are these deities called Angels, who hold an event that people with special powers, like myself, partake in to determine the future of humanity... With this event, gateways to other parallel universes began opening up, where the angels were hiding... Our quest was fairly simple: Find the angels, and ally yourself with the one angel who's wish fits your ideals the best... But of course, that's not all there is to it... There's a force opposing the angels, known as the Primordials... There were two of them, Thesis and Ananke... They want to end all life on earth by waking up an entity that is known as "The Father". So, at that point, we had both the event and the Primordials to deal with... The volcano of Malstu erupting like that was caused by a primordial, when they corrupted the corresponding angel of the island's counterpart..." Mae took a deep breath, letting her friend ask any questions she may have up to this point...


Gods? Angels? Sounded like something straight out of a manga... But she could tell from Mae's tone of voice that she was indeed serious about all this... "So... How do you tie into all this...?" The girl asked slowly... "I have awakened to a power sleeping within everyone, known as the power of Persona... It's your soul and psyche manifesting itself as a protective spirit of sorts which allows you to do a whole manner of different things... The special Power I mentioned earlier is that power... So, I was eventually dragged into this whole mess... I can only assume the strange weather and the odd occurances going on here... are the result of this conflict." Mae sighed again... "So... that second star over San Malarus... Is also something related to all this?" Ayane raised an eyebrow... So much information all at once. It was overwhelming really, but she would manage... She had brought this on herself, after all. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier...?"


"I... Didn't want you to become involved in all this... People are dying, Ayane... and this is a dangerous world. I didn't want to put your life at risk by telling you all this..." Her voice was very mellow. She really had no choice this time around... "B-But it's only isolated to Azores, right?" Ayane's voice sounded panicked, and Mae could honestly not blame her either... She was equally distraught by this whole ordeal... And her own inability to stop it. "I wish I knew... It seems to be at the moment, but if this escalates... " Other countries would get involved in this as well with time... "Y-You'll stop it... R-Right?" And that was the question which Mae honestly didn't want to answer... But she had to...



Ayane remained speechless for a good long while. All this had come as a shock to her... How had Mae been able to hide all of this from her for so long? "W-What about Blaez?! Is he...?" A sudden chill traveled down Ayane's spine, fearing the worst. She hadn't heard from him in a while. Had he...? "I wish I could tell you... I haven't heard from him since I met him a couple of days ago. I think he's fine though. Don't worry." As much as Mae tried to comfort her, Ayane couldn't shake the feeling that something had gone wrong... Even if it hadn't. The girl sat there, trembling in her seat... "I..."


Of course this would make her scared... "Ayane... I'm scared too... But you have to stay positive, remember? I'm sure he's just fine. Blaez is strong. He won't give up without a fight, that I can promise you." Ayane's shaky voice answered shortly after. "A-Alright..." How would this go...?