A/N (8/23/15): And now, 25 months later...I have finished reworking the Prologue and Chapters 1-26 to match the formatting of 27 forward, and as I said Previously, I've added new things from the Golden Animation and a few other things, including Chapter Titles. I've also decided to correct Waldo Charles to Charles Waldo as in Japan Western Names always go Given Name, then Surname like here. I do want to say I have more yet to do polishing 27 onward...but that will be a much easier project to take on, I would think.

Disclaimer: I do not own Persona. I own Charles Waldo.

Prologue
December 18, 2011

Magatsu Inaba

It had all led to this. A gun to a person's head.

The person holding the gun was angry, angry as hell. Angrier than any person in their right mind should have been. But that was it. Who could say the individual holding the gun was in his right mind anymore?

The person on the receiving end was broken. Broken because he tried to end the world. Almost would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids. Now he was sitting there, with his gun, HIS GUN, in his face by some punk who didn't understand what the rules were.

To be sure, the punk's friends didn't agree with him. In fact, another gun was pointed at the punk. The person holding it had logically explained if the broken man had died, 2 seconds later the punk would be dead as well. They WOULD not miss.

The punk didn't care. He was angry, angry that the broken man broke his oath to serve and protect. Angry because the broken man had confessed he wanted to be a damned cowboy. Just have a badge and a gun. Angry because the broken man's "game" nearly cost the life some months back of some bitch who in the scheme of things, probably would have left the punk anyway. Girls and women always leave. When you need them most, they leave for what they think is better. Then rub your flaws in your face.

"Please don't do this." The bitch told the punk. Maybe she wasn't a bitch, not really, but she was of the betrayer type. Love 'em and when they're useless, leave 'em. That's what the broken man knew so well.

However, he really wasn't that broken. Oh sure he was a little in body, and a little more in spirit. But what really was broken about him was the fact that the world wasn't going to end. He was still gonna have to live in it. Until the punk picked up the gun.

"You want the end so bad, then I'll give it to you. It's no less than you deserve. You just shouldn't have tried to take the world down with us."

"DON'T!" his best friend had told him. "We've won. He can't harm us anymore. He can't harm HER anymore."

"Yu really believe that?" he told his friend. "He wanted to end the world as we know it and I'm not fine."

"Bro," another friend said. "You're gonna make a huge mistake."

The punk turned to his friend with the headphones and yelled, "NO! The mistake was letting this asshole run around with a badge and a gun." He turned back to the broken man. "You KNEW she was in here. You could have rescued her. But instead, while drunk on your 'power' you decided 'let's play a game'. Well, guess what, ADACHI-SAN you frickin' lose."

"Do it then, pull the trigger. You'll be dead anyway." Adachi said to the punk. "Just ask yourself one thing, Waldo. Was she worth it? Was she worth dying for?"

Charles Waldo's smile went wolfish, "it's kill or be killed, Tohru. The law of the Wild West."

Then as he pointed the gun at Adachi, Charles sadly said, "I'm sorry, Yuki."

…

And then Charles pulled the trigger.