Digital Persona Saga - Mask of Longing

Cara nodded, "For all of eternity until one of us is destroyed." She thumped her head back down on the table and Zalera stopped his eerie chuckle, "...Orphan can only be destroyed by it's counterpart...unfortunately, that counterpart is...Cara herself...Each time she is reborn, she chooses not to destroy Orphan...his words...have affected her...

 

"What words would that be?"

 

Zalera wouldn't speak them. He wrote on the ruined table in frost again. 'To destroy one is to destroy the other. Killing me means to sacrifice your soul. You'll never be reborn again as anything. The eternal essence of Cara will be erased from the world's lifestream.' Cara felt the need to makes sense of the partially confusing little riddle, "If I kill Orphan, I'm destroying my soul forever. I won't come back, Zalera will be mistressless and everyone else will forget who I am or ever was to them."

 

"So rather than ending the eternal cycle, you'd risk everything you know and love being destroyed by Orphan."

 

Cara hesitated, "I...I..." Zalera added in, "There has always been something she fights to keep...a memory...she doesn't rememeber for now, but her son is the reason she kept the cycle going last time. Orphan made sure she wanted to live...he's...not himself...Orphan holds my sister as a part of him...Eden, the seraph of life...I too, do not wish for her to die...I'm sorry Cara, I have influenced your decision...

 

"I see....." Hattori said before going deep into thought.

 

Zalera faded away, back into hiding within Cara and she sighed, "That's why I can't destroy Orphan or else I would've long ago. Each time I'm brought back, Zalera finds me...we bond...I find something I want to keep forever...I fight Orphan...and I die." She couldn't explain it any better than that. Orphan might destroy everything she cared about in that life, but he couldn't destroy her. It was a frustrating cycle but so far in this life, Lesa was the only thing she cared about.

 

"You and I are similar in a way. Me being half-persona, I have a much longer lifespan than Minato and my children combined. My life may not be in an eternal cycle, but I know I'll still have to watch them pass on, while I still live on. I've never told Minato any of this, and I really don't want to accept this awful truth, but I'll have to one day."

 

Cara mumbled, "At least you know what you are. What kind of human is left by gods with a persona bound to her soul? I can't forget those nights when it was lightning and raining and Orphan would be afraid. I could hear their cries of fright in my sleep." Zalera echoed out to them, "...it's always been a mystery to me why you have a twin every time you're reborn....Lesa was not there when you were created the first time..."

 

"I couldn't begin to understand everything you've been through."

 

Cara laughed, "I don't think anyone but the personas can. Once you've lived through a thousand lives and more...you start to forget the little details. It's always been a man or a child that's made me continue the cycle. Never, though, my sister. No, she always dies." She focused her brown eyes on Hattori, "If you find the courage to tell Minato the whole truth, maybe...I can find the courage to face Orphan and end this cycle of torment and misery."

 

Hattori sighed. He didn't want Minato to know the truth, but knew he had to tell her at some point.

 

Cara frowned at him, "She'll figure it out when she's on her death bed and you're fine. Even after then, your kids will ask questions. It's the same with Zalera, right?" She addressed him and he suddenly stood by her, "...No...I never had to watch a family die...oh.." he finally got what she meant and his entire motionless body seemed to droop, "..Yes...I never liked watching you die over and over again...it hurts me too when Orphan kills you...and...I miss you while you're being reborn..."

 

"Death seems to be the only constant in this world."

 

"You got that right." Ryoji walked up to them. "You remember the purpose for the Nyx Project, right, Hattori?"

 

"You'll have to remind me. I never read my father's notes."

 

"A project to create the world's ultimate killing machine. To archive this goal, the project's subject had to been injected with the essence of a shadow. Since Minato and I are pretty much bonded for life, when she dies, she will become the new angel of death."

 

Hattori sighed again.

"So she will become death, while I will continue living for god knows how long."

 

"She did do a lot of killing when she escaped that lab and lost her memory."

 

"Which will probably come rushing back to her when she dies."