Chapter Text
Ever since Azar had returned from the meeting with the other nation leaders of Teyvat, things at the Akademiya had been tense. Teachers no longer spoke their opinions, researchers found themselves strained for funding and students kept their heads down. After half the staff who were notably against Azar got fired, no one dared step even a toe out of line.
Initially, Alhaitham paid it no mind, perfectly fine with keeping to himself. That was until strange reports began appearing on his desk. They detailed budgets of materials for projects Alhaitham knew he had not approved, with students that didn’t have any research assigned to them. He didn’t report them, as the sages had not cared to investigate the discrepancies when confirming the documents, but curiosity began to prickle in the back of his mind. He found records of large sums of money leaving the Akademiya banks, withdrawn by the Grand Sage himself. There had been no effort to hide this obvious corruption, but Alhaitham could read the message loud and clear. No questions asked. So Alhaitham kept his mouth shut.
However, that didn’t slow his investigations. So, he began to investigate. Little bits and pieces at first, tracing monetary leads that jumped through so many points that they ended up lost. The sudden increase in biological experiments, while other fields were left to collect dust. Student schedules shifting around, as if to fit something off schedule. Nothing incriminating but it was certainly…off.
Alhaitham had meant to stop there, to leave it and continue his peaceful life, but his curiosity was never one to just lay off after finding a lead. It hungered, begging him to find the answers he knew where within his reach. His curiosity came to a head when he found a name with the datafiles.
Dr. Rukkhadevata.
A famous researcher and one of the Archons of Teyvat, who had died ten years ago during the purge. Alhaitham knew that she was once a major player within the Akademiya, but why had her file been reopened rather recently? Like most scholars, Alhaitham knew the impacts she had made on society, leading research in human development and curing human illnesses. But her research files hadn’t been touched since she died. Why was the Akademiya accessing her research files now, and so frequently?
It all seemed a little too…sudden.
Alhaitham dug a little deeper, using his limited coding knowledge to de-encrypt some of files and fix the more corrupted ones. It was…fascinating. The experiments detailed within weren’t ones in the public domain – experiments in advancing human DNA and combining genes, using genetic transplants to remove normally incurable illnesses. Revolutionary, but extremely dangerous. As the dates grew closer and closer to the purge however, they seemed to grow worse. The risk outgrew the reward as more and more fatalities were recorded. Rukkhadevata had been getting more desperate. For what and why, Alhaitham didn’t have enough clues to answer just yet. Unfortunately, the last few experiments where completely inaccessible. There was no way to find an answer yet.
That’s when he began to hear the static. It was quiet, back in the corner of his mind and easy to miss. But Alhaitham had always kept his senses sharp, keenly aware of both his body and surroundings. He focused on the static, noticing it would get stronger the further he got into the Akademiya archives and the more tired he was. How peculiar. So, one night he hid away in the archives, and focused on the static. Mentally grasping at it, he pulled, and the static grew louder and louder, until he could hear something faintly within.
“….can…..hear…”
If this was his self from a few weeks ago, Alhaitham would have stopped right then and there. But now he’d seen too much on Rukkahdevata’s research to dismiss it completely. So, he tugged, determined to find out what was going on.
“Hello? Can you hear me? I am Buer. I need your help.”
---
“You didn’t tell him?” Alhaitham looked at Nahida with a brow raised. After Wanderer’s little outburst, the boy had secluded himself to a corner, perusing through one of the conjured books to mask the fact he was sulking. It was a little amusing, though it caused Alhaitham to think about how these two were still kids. While he certainly didn’t feel as passionate about it as Kaveh – the man would have no doubt declared that he was going to save them on the spot without even thinking about the circumstances they were in – he could certainly feel a little sympathy for them.
Nahida was tapping at the terminal, perusing through the constantly updating information the Akasha was absorbing and organising into its systems. It was interesting to watch, with the system working so fast. It was as if it was reacting to Nahida’s thoughts. She was silent for a moment while pondering Alhaitham’s question. “When I first contacted you, I was taking quite a risk. As you did not have an established connection to the Akasha yet, there was a chance that I could have been detected by the sages when trying to reach you. My gamble paid off. However, Wanderer would have never allowed me to try in the first place if he knew,” she smiled once again, the signs of relief and hopefulness evident in her relaxed shoulders.
“And yet you did it anyway,” Wanderer called out dryly, abandoning his book to sit back in his chair and cross his arms.
Nahida chuckled sheepishly, before returning to her search through the database, “Here are the files you were looking for, Alhaitham.” On the green screen, the many experimental reports for victims of the Divine Serum appeared. While some matched the corrupted version Alhaitham had been able to dig up before his capture, he was a little unsettled to find his own name among the files now.
He was confronted with how much more haggard he looked now compared to the image in the file. He’d lost any fat that remained on his face, with prominent cheekbones, stubble growing along his jawline, and longer and shaggier hair. On top of that, Nahida had been able to show him the grey veins that creeped across his face towards his eyes, and how his eyes seemed brighter. He’d barely recognised himself in his reflection.
Other than his own file, the experiments had occurred about ten years ago using a prototype serum the Akademiya had developed in effort to mimic Dr. Rukkahdevata’s Divine Serum. The “Arcane Wisdom”, Alhaitham remembered it being referred to.
All the people within the files matched the disappearances Alhaitham had been researching before his capture. Some had succumbed to insanity, while others had been able to assimilate but had either completely lost rationality and attacked any scientist on sight, or their body simply shut down from stress. As Alhaitham read through them, he became acutely aware that he himself was not in the clear yet and could still potentially lose himself to the serum.
He tried not to think about that.
Instead, he perused the files, noting occupations, ages, positions and family connections. Some of the subjects had high level jobs while some worked for minimum wage. Some had been labelled genius’s while some had been nothing but mediocre. There did seem to be a common factor among them all, however. Young, with the oldest subject being 29, and alone. People with few friends or living family. While none of the subjects had been children, the youngest had been an 18-year-old orphan, forgotten by the rest of the world except for a single missing report from their aunt who had died not too long after.
Curiously, there was a single file where the subject hadn’t been terminated. No known blood relations, unknown age, and no profile. Simply a short series of written statements stating the experiment was successful, but the subject had to be put into solitary confinement due to continued aggression and hostility. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much help for Alhaitham, who had no way of knowing how this subject survived, or if it would even be the same for him. He turned to Nahida, who’d been quietly waiting for him to finish reading. “Arcane Wisdom is not the serum type used on me, is it?”
Nahida pursed her lips, shaking her head.
Wanderer scoffed, “Those idiots didn’t have any sense of reservation. They stupidly used all of it years ago and now don’t have the resources to make new batches of it. Dumbasses.”
Right. There were too many differences between his case and theirs. The grey veins, the burning, the quick assimilation. What would this mean for him though? Did this mean his chances of survival and retaining his sanity even lower?
His chest throbbed strangely, as an emotion he hadn’t felt in years rise. Uncertainty.
He felt a hand on his arm, making him flinch slightly as he turned to the concerned face of Nahida who had quickly retracted her hand at his startle. It was rather unlike him to be so on edge.
“They used the last of it in their final test 10 years ago.” Nahida continued, “There was another series of tests about 5 years ago with a new serum, but those are somehow obscured from the Akasha. I…I am unable to retrieve much data from those tests but that’s when a third party begun to be involved with the Akademiya.”
“You mean the Fatui,” Alhaitham replied bluntly, his mind sorting through the information. If the Fatui had been involved for so long already, it meant they likely already had a vast amount of influence over the sages. But who exactly was running things behind the scenes? Alhaitham knew Azar, the Grand Sage, was too prideful to allow another to order him around, but what if the Fatui had provided him with something he couldn’t refuse? Something that could satisfy his own greed. But if that was the case, then it meant someone else was calling the shots.
Alhaitham recalled the weeks leading to his capture. The constant feeling that someone was watching him. The sudden exposing of one of the Akademiya resistance group safe houses. The disappearances among Deyha’s people. People and places that Alhaitham had recently spoken to or been in. Coincidental moments that in hindsight, could lead some to the conclusion that he had been leaking information.
The actions were too small, too calculating for Azar who, while smart enough to be the Grand Sage, was not one for subtleness and trickery. Alhaitham recalled the paranoia that had begun to creep up on him, the uncharacteristic emotional outbursts that had led to him pushing away not just Dehya, who still believed him not to be a traitor, but Kaveh as well. It dawned on him. The puppet-master had waited for months, until Alhaitham had made himself completely alone.
He'd played right into the puppet-master’s hands.
Nahida bit her lip, nodding at Alhaitham’s previous conclusion, unaware of Alhaitham’s own spiralling thoughts.
“Those new tests stopped after a time, though I’m unsure as to why. I do know that there were some survivors from the tests.” Nahida’s brows furrowed as she gripped the panel. “However, all those survivors were children, the oldest being around 11 at the time I connected to her mind. But I have no idea of what her fate was and have not been able to pursue the case further.”
Alhaitham sighed. There was too much going on and too little information to work with. They needed to figure out what was going on, quickly.
Alhaitham looked at Nahida, eyes furrowed as he tried to connect the small pieces of information he had. “May I see the last few files from the initial experiments? The ones your mother conducted?” Alhaitham ignored the exhaustion seeping into his tone.
Nahida shook her head, mouth pursed, “Unfortunately, those files are highly encrypted within the Akasha. I do not have the authority to see them. I apologize.”
“So, then we have no way of know what occurred to suddenly produce all these negative results from the experiments,” Alhaitham sighed. Why would she go to such effort to hide it all? What had made Dr. Rukkhadevata become so distrustful of the Akademiya? What was worth even her daughter’s own life and freedom? Before he could search for an answer, a sudden chill went down his spine. The Akasha’s lights turned a slight red and Nahida grasped his arm, while Wanderer stood straight in alarm.
“I apologise, I wish we could discuss more but it seems the Akademiya isn’t going to leave you for much longer.” Nahida’s voice was laced with sadness, a deep pain in her eyes as she looked at him with guilt, “I cannot do anything to discourage them but please, do not hesitate to seek the Akasha if your mind requires it. Now that you have established a proper connection with it, the chance of you being intercepted by the sages is extremely unlikely.”
Alhaitham sighed but nodded, before closing his eyes. Letting his mind slip from the Akasha and back into his body was almost instinctive, even with his reluctance to return to whatever torture the sages had in store for him.
As he returned to his body, the pain returned to him once more overwhelming him briefly before it settled. In the haze, he missed the feeling of something clawing into his mind with him.
---
When he opened his eyes, there was a group waiting for him on the other side of the barrier. It was not the arrogant but cowardly scientist he had gotten used to.
They donned sleek vested uniforms, each with a different colour along the trims and undershirts. They stood sharp and attentive. The masks on their face betrayed their allegiance. The Fatui.
They started at him impassively, impossible to read under their masks. It made his gut twist and Alhaitham had to hold back a strange urge to lash out and tear out the throats of such arrogant prey. He shook his head, shifting slightly, watching them intently. They did not flinch as he studied them, but he could feel a sense of uncertainty coming from their stiff posture. They weren’t completely fearless then. But they would likely not fall for any attempts at intimidation like the Akademiya scientist did.
The door to his room opened again, revealing the cowering scientist from earlier. Unlike the Fatui, they could not meet his eyes at all, and Alhaitham noticed that the scientist who’s arm he had broken was nowhere to be seen. He ignored the faint sense of twisted glee that rose faintly in the back of his mind.
No one dared speak as the scientist quietly moved around the room, while the Fatui’s guns remained trained on him. They took down the shields.
Just as Alhaitham wrestled with the sudden need to strike down the weak, the door to his room opened once more and in stepped in a figure that completely threw Alhaitham off. Unlike the simple suits, this man wore what seemed to be a stylised lab suit, adorned with a crest of crow feathers on his shoulder and a mask that covered most of his face curved into a beak just before his mouth, which was curled in a wicked sharp grin.
The man turned towards him, sharp teeth flashing in the low light. Predator. Dangerous. Alarm bells began ringing in Alhaitham’s head as his body tensed, defensive.
“I have been looking forward to this, I must say. I knew you would not disappoint me, Scribe.” Alhaitham shivered slightly at the man’s cold voice, a cruel amusement lacing every word. Alhaitham shrunk back on instinct. This man’s presence…why was it…?
“You…It was you.” The sense of being watched. The paranoia. The taste of blood rising from his torn throat mixing with the slow growing terror.
The man’s grin seemed to grow impossibly wider, “Of course. I must say, I greatly enjoyed our game of cat and mouse.” He stepped forward, boots clinking on the white tiles, as he kneeled in front of Alhaitham, a gloved hand coming up to hold Alhaitham’s jaw up. “Your ability to slip past me was impressive. The damage you were able to do despite such large gaps of information. You stalled these operations by several months you know? Drove those sages up the wall. It was truly entertaining to watch.”
Alhaitham felt the sudden urge to lash out with his claws, to tear this man to pieces before this man decided to hunt him, but the grip on his jaw grew painfully tight, as if the man could sense his thoughts.
“After that stunt of yours, the sages finally realised they could not handle you, and gave you to me. I suggest you not go out of line and succumb to those new little instincts of yours unless you wish to meet the same fate of the many other subjects deemed too dangerous to be kept alive. We always have alternatives if you do not work as a subject. That Architect of yours perhaps?”
Alhaitham froze, realising too late he’d exposed a weak point when the man grinned wider knowingly.
“Struck a nerve, did we? I wonder, would you be able to supress your instincts if the two of you ended up being locked in a room together? Or would you eventually succumb to becoming a mindless beast and tear him apart. If you misbehave, I may just find myself curious enough to conduct an experiment to answer that question.” There was a joyful edge to the man’s voice, as if he really did want Alhaitham to act out so he could follow through with the threat.
Something inside Alhaitham raged, twisting, and curling as nausea began to rise.
“It seems you are understanding your new position. Excellent. Ah but forgive me, it seems I have forgotten to introduce myself. You may call me ‘The Doctor’. I will be sure to take very good care of you,” There was a moment of silence, as the man stroked his cheek, watching, as Alhaitham’s eyes widened in horror.
A Harbinger.
What was a Harbinger doing here?
The Doctor turned to the other Fatui. “Take him to the examination room. I’ve waited long enough to finally see true results.” The agents nodded. They approached Alhaitham and grabbed him by the arms before dragging him out the door, forcing him to stumble, his legs shaky from disuse. There were no precautions in safety, no caution in how much information Alhaitham received as they walked. Alhaitham knew that did not mean he had an opening. The Harbinger walked confidently in front of him. In a mere few seconds, the man had chained Alhaitham better than the sages ever could have.
The sense of dread that filled Alhaitham, while not unfamiliar, was extremely unwelcome.
After minutes of twisting white hallways, they arrived at a set of large steel doors. The Harbinger took out a key card and swiped it on the adjacent panel and they opened to reveal a giant steel walled room, a sight so out of place in the white facility. Alhaitham was dropped within the room, the doors closing behind him while the Harbinger, along with his agents, went through another sealed door to a set of stairs, reappearing at the large observation window several metres from the floor Alhaitham struggled to get up from.
The speakers crackled to life and the Harbingers voice echoed through the room.
“I look forward to your results, Alhaitham.”
The room shuddered, another door on the other end of the room opening. A growl reverberated through the room and Alhaitham watched as a Rishboland Tiger prowled though with its eyes trained on him. It was the size of a car, fangs sharp and dripping as it stalked. Hungry.
Suddenly, it leaped through the air, claws extended and Alhaitham was forced to duck, rolling under the huge mass. He felt the wind of the beast strike cut along his back, as the giant claw crashed into the floor where he previously stood, cracking the concrete floor. Alhaitham’s heart thudded in his chest. If the beast struck him even once, it would be fatal.
The beast whipped its head around to stare at Alhaitham, lips curled into a snarl. There was no running or hiding from the beast. If Alhaitham wanted to get out alive, he had to do what the Harbinger wanted. Kill the beast before it killed him.
The beast roared, the air crackling around it and Alhaitham was forced to move, twisting out of the way of sharp teeth as the beast lunged towards him. He ducked under the oncoming tail as it attempted to knock him over, rolling under the beast to get out of its range. How was he supposed to kill a beast like this? He had no weapons, no means to defend himself and would likely tire much sooner. Did the Harbinger just want to watch him get torn apart by an animal? To watch as Alhaitham desperately tried to find a way out?
If Alhaitham died, was this where Kaveh would end up?
Alhaitham gritted his teeth, flinching as a piece of concrete cut through his leg as it was flung up by another of the beast’s strike’s. He couldn’t let that happen. He spent so much effort to keep Kaveh away from everything, he couldn’t let it all unravel now.
The constant burning and writhing under Alhaitham’s skin came back full force and he doubled over. His eyes burned, his back itched, his hands tingled. It hurt. It hurt so much. Why did he have to go through this? The peaceful life his grandmother wished for him was so out of reach. Alhaitham clawed at his eyes, feeling the strange green ooze that had been under his skin begin to leak out. His ear began to ring, and his tongue burned. His body began to tremble as the pain reached a peak that Alhaitham was unable to bear. A loud desperate screech left his lips as he felt the very bones of his body melt and shift.
He could hear laughter from somewhere, cruel and delighted but most importantly, he felt the shift in the air as the tiger lunged at his, maw wide.
Alhaitham acted in instinct, his claws tearing the Rishboland Tiger’s lower jaw clean off, before swinging over the beast’s neck, a loud crack as he snapped the beast’s neck. The beast fell to the floor, limp, blood pooling around the torn off jaw. Alhaitham stumbled off the beast’s back, breathing heavily, his head swirling from shock.
The burning, and the green veins he’d been slowly getting used to were gone. Instead, underneath the blood, his fingers had gone a pitch black, nails having turned to tapered green claws. Looking up, Alhaitham could see every individual fibre of hair on the Rishboland Tiger’s back, could see which ones twitched and which ones fell loose.
Alhaitham looked up in horror, as the Harbinger’s laughter rang throughout the room, the man staring down at him.
It made Alhaitham feel small, vulnerable.
Weak.