Chapter Text
Question number one: Where the fuck was he?
Ajax’ field of view from where he laid face-down on the grass was poor, but he could see enough to distinguish one, this wasn’t his bedroom, and two, he didn’t know this place. The terrain did not at all look like the countryside of his city, and there were no houses nor roads in sight for him to even begin guessing where he was.
It looked vaguely like… actually, he didn’t know what. That is to say, it was tugging at his memory, but he couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what he was reminded of by the sight.
Question number two, then, was: How the fuck did he get here?
The last he recalled was… going to bed? Possibly? It hurt his head to think about what he was doing prior to… this, but he was fairly certain he’d gone to bed. Like any normal day. He’d returned from his routine shift at the Fatui headquarters and gone back to his studio apartment to sleep.
But the problem with that was the fact that one, he felt like a truck had run him over, and two, he wasn’t in his pajamas. More confusing, he was in his Vanguard uniform, for heists, not for sleeping.
As he sat up with much effort, he looked around and concluded he was in the middle of nowhere. There was no logical explanation for him to go from having gone to sleep, to waking up all battered and bruised here in… wherever this was.
There was no clear connection. The first thing his slightly dumbfound mind managed to conjure up was that he’d been isekai’d, but it was thought with a mental laugh and a ‘yeah, sure’ following right after.
Meaning the only feasible conclusion was that he was still asleep, and this was all a dream.
Ajax’ mind supplied that dreams weren’t supposed to hurt this much. Of course, then he remembered the kind of dreams the Abyss can induce you into, and so he grumbled quietly as he tried to will his sore body to stand up.
The question became, then, who had thrown him back into the Abyss during his sleep? Was this a kidnapping? Scaramouche’s fault? Had Dottore finally gone mad?
It felt… a tad too real to be an Abyss dream, however. But that didn’t make any sense.
Ajax looked around again.
If this was an Abyss dream, which it seemed to be (there was no other explanation), then he was essentially stuck. Trying to wake up wouldn’t work, and if he knew how Abyss dreams worked then they wouldn’t let you die to get out, either. The only way would be to find the Abyss within the dream and enter it.
But that was usually impossible.
Ajax’ eyes trailed up the mountains flanking his position. He was in some sort of… pass, between two-
He looked behind him and up. The mountains met almost in the middle, and a boulder rested precariously between them with nothing but a gigantic tree and its sturdy roots keeping it trapped between the peaks. It was impressive, but it also looked… familiar. There it was again, that sensation at the back of his mind that he knew this place from somewhere, but…
Something was missing. Something didn’t feel right. Wasn’t there supposed to be…
...a road? And houses? And a Statue of the...?
Wait-
Ajax buried his masked face in his hands, pressing the cool metal to his forehead in the process.
That settled it. This was absolutely an Abyss dream.
He was standing someplace far too reminiscent of a location from Genshin Impact. The game. The game he had been playing for the past couple of years extensively, spending hours upon hours on it even after the story concluded.
This… mountain pass, it looked exactly like the road to Liyue Harbor from Guili Plains. Except here, there was no actual road, and no houses. Like it wasn’t somewhere people lived.
Anymore? Or yet?
But what did it matter? This was a dream, a creation of Ajax’ mind. Of course it would create for him something that looked like Liyue, even if it wasn’t quite there. Ajax had been doing nothing but playing Genshin Impact in his free time for the past… five years. Good god, it really had been that long.
Still, for an Abyss dream, at least it seemed to be pleasant.
If his mind was as good as he hoped, then Liyue Harbor should be not too far down the non-existent path. If he was to be stuck here until Dottore deemed it appropriate to wake him up when his subordinates eventually found him, then he might as well enjoy his time here.
Ajax patted himself down, wincing in some places, checking what he’d been brought to this dream with. He felt his Vision at his hip, mask on his face. He was wearing the Vanguard Heist uniform, so he quickly shimmied out of the black, fur-trim jacket and tied it at his waist – it was rather hot in there, which was unsurprising considering it was supposed to be Liyue.
No phone nor wallet though, which was a first.
He figured it was fitting, that this Abyss dream let him keep his Vision. Unlike in the game, Visions in real life sadly didn’t do much of anything. It was a topic of continuous research in the Fatui, but even then they themselves didn’t know why Visions were given to people or why they glowed and gave the bearer some sort of… like Spiderman sense. That was the extent of their powers.
Except, of course, when one was in the Abyss.
The general public was not aware of this, but the Fatui was. Ajax, also, was aware of this, as someone who’d had the misfortune of falling into this accursed legendary land when he was younger. There were some among the Fatui who had been in contact with it, too, but none for as long as Ajax had. Inside the Abyss, his Vision (which was where he got it in the first place) could do magic. Could- fucking, water bend. There was no other way to put it. His Hydro vision allowed him to basically control water, so long as he had the mastery over the element to manage it. It was incredible, and the thing he missed the most once he got out of there. Only in his dreams was he able to revisit the sensation of having the power of the ocean at his fingertips.
This knowledge that Visions had other powers they could grant the user but for whatever reason didn’t unless one was in the Abyss – it was what led the Fatui to develop Delusions. Delusions were injections of raw power; leftover godly energy remains from private excavation and research projects funded by the Fatui, and a bit of distilled, purified Abyssal energy. With Delusions, one could do what Visions would normally allow in the Abyss, but up in the normal world. There were restrictions, of course, and Ajax had always imagined Delusions could potentially be even more powerful than Visions if one were to try them in the Abyss – but alas, nobody had stumbled into that godforsaken land since their invention, and thus they had no way to test this theory.
The reason why it was fitting for him to have both his Vision and Delusion in this Abyss dream was that the entire gameplay premise of Genshin Impact was “what if Visions actually gave you magic?”
The game was set in a fictional land called Teyvat, with nations inspired by real-life countries. In it, Visions were gifts from the gods, which allowed the users to resonate with their respective element and control it to an extent. When Ajax had first heard about the game, he’d been surprised – that was how Visions worked in the Abyss, after all.
Of course, after playing it for a bit, it was clear this imaginary version of Visions was very limited. Characters only had a couple of elemental tricks up their sleeves, and that was the extent of their elemental abilities. Ajax figured it was a bit of a shame, but oh well. Gameplay development restrictions and all that.
(He still played it religiously for the five years it took for the story to come to a conclusion. It was too good not to, and it reminded him of how good it felt to control Hydro in the Abyss.)
So it was fitting, that in this Abyss dream based on the fictional world of the game, Ajax had been allowed to keep both his Vision and Delusion.
Because it was and Abyss dream.
It was.
Anyway,
He stretched, counted the amount of pops in his bones and joints and the places where it hurt the most. He felt something dry and crusty on his head, and felt around with his hand until he found dry blood. It was pouring down his forehead and behind the mask, between his eyes. It had mostly dried by now, leaving a red trail down his face.
Oh well. Outside of that , most of his soreness came from what he figured were bruises and hits. No other exposed wounds that he could find.
With a final roll of his shoulders, Ajax looked around for the last time and began his trek under the mountain pass and towards Liyue Harbor.
It didn’t take him long to crest the cliff, and was surprised to find… well, nothing.
There at the base of Mt. Tianheng, where the bustling city was supposed to stand, was nothing. Nothing but jagged peaks of rock that looked a lot like one would think the area used to look like prior to Rex Lapis terraforming the land for his people to settle there.
…
Prior…?
Considering the lack of a path through the pass, the lack of the Rex Lapis statue, and the lack of houses around the area he woke up in, it did seem like his dream had tossed him into an imagination of the distant past of Liyue.
And given Liyue Harbor itself was… not there, he was at least 3700 years in the past in relation to when the game’s events take place. That, or his brain simply hadn’t wanted to reconstruct the city, but it seemed unlikely.
So that was a bummer. Why would his dream take place in the past? It looked a bit… too realistic to be a product of his imagination, though. He didn’t know what Liyue’s past looked like, so how had his mind been able to conjure it up for him to traverse?
No, but, it had to be it. It had to be his imagination within this Abyss dream. This was Liyue, for fuck’s sake, a fictional place.
If it wasn’t a dream, what the fuck else was it? An actual isekai? No. Shit like that doesn’t happen in real life.
So yeah, pretty weird for a dream, but he’d seen stranger things, so maybe his brain was just mixing different elements to create an idea of what Liyue used to be like. Brains could do that, right? Yeah.
Shaking off the unease (and wincing at how the movement pulled on a bruise on his shoulder), Ajax continued the trek down to the area where the Harbor was supposed to stand.
It was much higher up when compared to the sea level – clearly his brain had decided Rex Lapis had just leveled a whole-ass part of Mt. Tianheng for his people to have direct access to the water. And now that he thought about it, Mt. Tianheng itself didn’t… look as tall as it should. At the very least, that was in-line with the game’s lore saying Rex Lapis rose the mountain to protect and cradle the Harbor from the west.
Coming to stand by the edge of the pre-Harbor plateau, Ajax looked out at the Sea of Clouds, noticing a distinct lack of Guyun Stone Forest in the distance. Well, without Liyue Harbor there, it also meant the Archon War had yet to take place in this made-up version of Liyue of his’. Maybe. He couldn't be bothered to remember the timeline right now, but the lack of Guyun Stone forest would imply Osial was out there somewhere, along with… plenty of other gods of that time.
If it came to it, Ajax supposed he wouldn’t be bored at all here. After all, Abyss dreams wouldn’t let you die in them. He could-
He could fight gods.
Oh.
Now that was a thought. That would be an excellent way to pass time.
Excited, Ajax rubbed his gloved palms in preparation. First, he had to make sure he could use his Vision and Delusion in this Abyss dream (the Foul Legacy would always work no matter what, but he had experienced dreams where he had no control over the other two).
He reached for the Delusion Dottore had injected into his veins, and felt with a pleased hum how the electricity trickled through his body, stinging his bruises.
Delusion: check.
Next he reached for the Vision on his belt, feeling the call of the ocean. He gathered the moisture in the air and made small Hydro bubbles appear and disappear around him.
Vision: check. It felt great to use it like that again. Abyss dreams always felt eerily realistic, almost like lucid dreams. It was a win in Ajax' book.
The sun had reached a comfortable four in the afternoon position. Ajax noted with some interest the fact that the day-night cycle seemed to exist as normal in this dream, as opposed to the sometimes unusual or nonexistent cycle in these dreams.
Nonetheless, the heat had gone down from overbearing to pleasant, and Ajax felt quite tired. He didn’t know exactly why, and his bruises weren’t making any of this any better.
Figuring it wasn’t like he could actually do anything else, he found a nice patch of grass under the shade of a small tree and laid down to take a nap.
It was a good thing Abyss dreams loved to fuck with your brain by letting you sleep within your dream, sometimes even letting you dream again like an Inception situation.
Ajax wasn’t entirely sure how long it had been when he awoke from his dreamless slumber due to the sound of something big disturbing the air.
He opened his eyes and stayed still, knowing whoever (or whatever) was around wouldn’t be able to notice he was awake with his mask on.
The sky had darkened, but not by much, and it couldn’t be later than six in the evening if the remaining sunlight was anything to go by.
As he was looking at the sky to gauge the time of day, something brown and huge crossed his field of vision, flying out of it just as quickly.
Ajax blinked, and sat up.
Coiling around in the sky not too far from him, apparently circling his position to study him, was none other than Zhongl- Mor- Rex Lapis-
It was the Exuvia, that’s what it was. The same dragon that crashed the Rite of Descension in-game, but much, much bigger. At least ten times bigger, if not more. If Liyue Harbor actually existed around him, Ajax had the passing thought that this version of the Exuvia would dwarf the city in size.
Ajax liked very much what his brain thought Zhongli would look like during the Archon War days, if there was even a war to be found in this made-up dream of his’.
The Exuvia landed at the edge of the cliff, a good twenty feet away from Ajax, and regarded him with calculating golden eyes and all the poise of a dragon of such massive size.
No wonder it was able to go up against a thing as enormous as Osial back in the day.
Ajax stood up without taking his eyes off the dragon, and so he watched as a soft golden light enveloped it before the beast disappeared and a man was left in its place.
It was none other than Rex Lapis in his human form, in that white hooded getup of his’ that Ajax was a little disappointed to discover his brain didn’t think would leave most of his abs exposed like the statues in-game indicated it might.
Still, Rex Lapis looked good in anything, and this human form was strikingly similar to Zhongli, just like the game also suggested it was. You’d think the Geo Archon would’ve picked a more inconspicuous disguise, especially considering he was known to be able to take all kinds of forms, but oh well. Ajax wasn’t complaining.
“Rex Lapis,” he began, doing an extravagant but respectful bow at the waist, his tone as excited as he felt. This was starting to shape up into one of his best Abyss dreams. Suck on that , Dottore! “It’s an honor to finally meet you.”
He looked up to find the man giving him a confused, furrowed brow look, those eyes remaining as calculating as always.
Ajax continued on before the other could say anything, knowing full well Abyss dreams tended to suck at portraying other living beings with use of rationale.
“Would you honor this lowly one with a spar? Or better yet, a fight?” he asked, joyful. Rex Lapis quirked a brow, and it had no right looking that hot.
“You… wish to fight me?” the god asked, to which Ajax nodded, elated to know his brain had kept the man’s perfect voice.
“I mustn’t let an opportunity like this go to waste,” he hummed, more to himself than anything else. After all, Abyss dreams were rarer to come by now that he, well, was no longer in the Abyss.
Zhongli- Rex Lapis regarded him for a moment, scrutinizing, dead serious. It was a unique look on the man, one Ajax had no idea how his brain had conjured up given it was never seen in-game, but one that he liked nonetheless. He balanced on the balls of his feet as the god seemed to think things over, looking at Ajax from top to bottom, appraising.
Ajax ignored how that felt in his stomach. He kind of wanted the dream to take such a direction, but he knew it would show on his slumbering body, wherever it was. And if he had been kidnapped by someone he didn’t know or, even worse, a fellow Harbinger; then he absolutely didn’t want them to see something like that. They would never let him live it down.
The only warning Ajax got that Rex Lapis had accepted his request for a fight was a bright glint in the man’s eyes and an oppressive force of Geo rising from the air.
In the blink of an eye, Ajax shot himself up with a jet of hydro, watching as he flipped in the air how the ground he’d previously occupied collapsed with a burst of Geo energy.
Ajax smiled behind his mask, big bright and unbound, and maybe all the more feral for it.
Ajax wanted to pat his brain on the back for staying so faithful yet so creative and accurate about Rex Lapis’ fighting prowess. The god was clearly not using all of his power, aiming not to kill but to incapacitate if needed, but Ajax knew he had to take what he got. Besides, it felt… right. Of course Rex Lapis would fight like that! It made so much sense- his mind sure liked to be bright on the worst (best?) of occasions.
Ajax swept around the precipice that would become Liyue Harbor in the future. He weaved and dodged through Rex Lapis’ attacks, letting his body flow with the Hydro surrounding him. He arched his back to dodge stone spears, relishing with a smile the feeling of rock just barely grazing the back of his shirt, the air buckle created after each attack. Ajax would take the vacuum and swoop in, letting Hydro guide him.
Rex Lapis had hardly moved from where he stood by the edge of the cliff, but that was fine in Ajax’ book. Weaving and dodging and drinking the adrenaline of dancing with death were as much part of a battle for him as were attacking and staggering your opponent. Besides, here, he had plenty of time to fight to his heart’s content. There were no dangers, no restrictions. The only thing he would hesitate to use was the Foul Legacy transformation, since it only worsened the effects of Abyss dreams, oftentimes trapping him in them for even longer periods of time. He would know, he’d been forced to use it in dreams where he didn’t have access to his Vision or Delusion.
So instead, Ajax kept his Delusion aside for now and focused only on his favorite of his two elements. He danced around Rex Lapis’ attacks like a river flowing around a boulder in its path. There was no fear to be had, not when it was a dream, and not when he was having so much fun. So he sliced through stone spears with his Hydro blades, uncaring of how precariously he passed through the split debris, of how, if he were to have been inches to another side, he would’ve lost an ear or acquired a nasty injury.
With his Vanguard coat tied to his waist flapping around him, Ajax hadn’t felt so free in so long. Literally like a fish to water.
He could feel Rex Lapis’ eyes on him, boring holes in his figure as he weaved and dodged any and all attacks. He didn’t know how his brain had managed to replicate the sensation of being looked at like prey by a mighty predator, but by God had it managed spectacularly. He could feel the analyzing gaze following his every move, aiming at his pivoting spots, aiming at his trajectory, trying to read his moves.
But how can you read someone who’s willing to nearly not dodge? Someone who doesn't care for dodging as much as they do slipping out of harm’s way at the last second, like water through one’s fingertips?
If you throw a rock at a puddle, the water will simply splash to the sides.
After however long of dancing with Rex Lapis’ attacks, Ajax decided to go for the offensive. This Abyss dream seemed to take into account his levels of energy, and so he couldn’t just prolong the fight forever.
Which was a shame, but oh well.
He dove through a split spear and hit the last-second jade shield Hydro-daggers-first, relishing in the scrape of water against pure Geo and how useless mere blades were against it.
Rex Lapis shifted his stance, apparently preparing for Ajax to follow that up, and he couldn’t help but smile wider at the thought that the god wasn’t underestimating him. Either that, or he was smart enough not to relax against an unknown variable, which was just as well.
Guess having played Zhongli in Genshin Impact for so many months had made him quite good at extrapolating him into his dreams. Now why couldn’t this have happened any other normal night, where nobody would be looking at his sleeping body and he could do whatever he wanted?
Against Zhongli’s prediction, however, Ajax kicked off the shield, flicking his wrist, landing not too far on the grass. Hydro surrounded the shield as soon as his boots hit the ground, condensing into a single ring no wider than a finger.
Zh- Rex Lapis watched the ring with an impassive stare, waiting to react.
The ring spun around, tightening on the shield, spinning and spinning until one couldn’t see the speed at which it was going and the condensed, harsh Hydro began grating on the shield’s surface, like a high pressure water-jet cutting through the strongest of diamonds.
Rex Lapis’ eyes widened a fraction, and Ajax felt adrenaline at the sight overtake him as he pulled from the recess of his body to will the Hydro to go faster .
With an ear-splitting, horrible sound, the Hydro ring cut through the jade shield and the latter shattered into translucent Geo fractals.
The light refracting off them and against Rex Lapis’ momentarily stunned face in a myriad of colors made Ajax’ heart stop for a second.
It was gone as soon as it came, with the overexertion kicking in with the force of a truck at full speed, and Ajax let out a single silent haggard breath before bolting forward to engage in melee combat.
His energy was mildly invigorated with renewed excitement when he watched Rex Lapis’ hard stare fall decidedly on him and the Vortex Vanquisher (holy shit!) materialize from thin air.
Hydro blades and Hydro spears clashed against the Geo-imbued polearm, and Ajax could feel his heart sing with the joy of battle. He knew he was no match for Rex Lapis, his mind loved the character too much to make him anything less than overpowered in his dreams (that was half the appeal, after all!). He knew Rex Lapis wasn’t using his full strength, he knew those attacks he’d been throwing were nothing but child’s play, and he knew the jade shield hadn’t been as strong as it could’ve been, not to mention he likely only managed to break it due to pure element of surprise.
As he crossed weapons with the god, he was aware Rex Lapis was doing little more than skilfully deflecting his blows, moving slowly and methodically, without any hurry. If he ever made attacking motions, they were mostly to push Ajax back, or because he couldn’t help but exploit an opening (Ajax would recognize that look on anyone’s face).
Ajax knew. It didn’t make it any less exciting, however. The sole thought that Rex Lapis wasn’t doing this because he thought him worthless, but because he wouldn’t underestimate an unknown danger – it did things to his heart.
It did things to the heart of someone who had brought hell on earth for people to forcibly see him as anything other than worthless, even if his worth could only come in the way of paying for and killing things.
Sigh.
Waking up from this one was going to be very, very sad.
The sun set and the moon rose high in the sky as Ajax danced around Zhongli- around Rex Lapis. He struck with Hydro daggers, swords, polearms- sometimes kicking back from the Vortex Vanquisher and shooting Hydro arrows in the air. Rex Lapis pivoted around the same general space, aligning his body to always face Ajax, spear blinding fast and as immovable as a mountain.
Truly, this was a real fight between an unstoppable force and an immovable object, and Ajax was loving every second of it.
He was so focused on the fight, he almost didn’t notice Rex Lapis’ head snapping to the side in attention.
Confused at no longer having the god’s entire focus on him, Ajax kicked away from the spear once more and landed a few feet away on the wet grass. Rex Lapis stood motionless for a second, before turning to Ajax and giving him a considering look.
Ajax wasn’t sure what was happening.
Before he knew it, Rex Lapis’ arm shot up and extended towards him. Ajax readied his daggers almost on instinct, but the blow never came.
Instead, he was surrounded in less than an instant by a jade shield, essentially trapping him in place.
Ajax frowned at the shield around him, letting his Hydro daggers splash down onto the grass as he stood straight and confused inside the little prison.
He looked back up at the god to question him, but noticed a small cloud of dust rapidly approaching them through the grass, like an elemental sprinter.
Much like how he’d assumed, once the little dust cloud came near enough, the elemental sprinter sprung up from the ground with a twirl and landed some ten feet away from Rex Lapis, having come from the same direction Ajax had.
The god kept one arm outstretched to the captive Ajax and turned his head to look at the new arrival.
The elemental sprinter was a young woman of billowing sleeves, and Ajax had no clue who she was.
He tried to hold back a frown. Who was she? Who was she based on? Ajax knew his mind couldn’t make up people out of nowhere, it always had to base them off of others. But he could see no traits of anyone he knew on her – she was a completely unique person.
But that didn’t make any sense-
“Morax,” she called, a minute frown on her face as she walked all the way to the god’s side. She shot Ajax a quick glance before returning her eyes to the other man. “What is going on here?”
Rex Lapis looked between Ajax and the woman for a second before settling on her.
“He wished to fight me,” the man simply said, in lieu of explanation. The woman made a wince like she’d eaten a whole lime.
Her attention returned to him, and Ajax tried not to make any move under her cursory look. It changed from a wince to a furrowed brow of confusion and concentration, and she walked closer to him.
Ajax was very glad he had his mask on his face.
“Did you actually ask him for a fight?” the woman questioned, sounding more apologetic than she did accusing.
Ajax got himself to nod, unsure of what was going on anymore. “Yeah, I did.”
The woman blinked, face blank with some surprise, and turned to look at Rex Lapis over her shoulder before looking back at Ajax. Was she not expecting that? Ajax was confused.
“Huh,” she let out. “Well- You don’t look like someone from around here. What’s your name, friend?”
“...You can call me Childe,” Ajax got out, unsure. This was an Abyss dream, right? Yet, this woman’s presence… No- No, maybe his brain was just using people he hardly remembered to begin with. That had to be it.
“Childe,” the woman repeated with a nod. Her gaze turned slightly serious. “What brings you here? You don’t seem to bear any ill will towards us, yet there’s a curious seal on you.”
Ajax blinked behind his mask. “Seal?”
The woman looked at him for another second before turning to Rex Lapis, who still had his hand motionless towards Ajax to keep him in the jade shield.
At her look, however, the hand lowered, and the shield vanished.
“I came here to investigate the elemental patterns,” Rex Lapis provided.
“I figured as much – I came as well, since you had yet to return,” she said, then looked back at Ajax with a serious, focused look. “Are you not aware of the seal on you?”
Ajax regarded them for a second before shaking his head no. “I… no. I don’t feel anything.”
The woman looked him up and down, and somehow Ajax didn’t feel threatened or uncomfortable under her scrutiny.
Her gaze stopped at his head, and she frowned.
“You’re injured,” she stated, and then turned that frown on Rex Lapis.
“He was already so when I found him,” the god stated, plain, unfazed.
“And yet you still fought him,” she… chided?
“I didn’t harm him further and he is perfectly capable in a fight,” Rex Lapis simply said, like it explained everything. Which it did to Ajax, but he could see how it wouldn’t to someone else. Normal people don’t agree to fight someone who’s already injured, after all.
The woman sighed, almost exasperated, and returned her gaze to him, focused. “Were you attacked by something else?”
Ajax let that question sit for a moment as he shifted his weight from one foot to another.
He… he didn’t know. The last thing he remembered before… before entering this Abyss dream was going to sleep like any other normal day. It hurt trying to recall anything else, like- like there was something else but he just- couldn’t-
None of this made any sense. He was just dreaming, that’s all that was happening. There was no need to think too much about it.
He shook his head no. “I actually don’t know,” he admitted.
“You don’t know?” Rex Lapis frowned slightly, and oh boy was that hot. Fuck.
“I- No,” he insisted. “The last thing I remember is…”
Going to sleep, which meant this was just a dream. But why did he feel so silly saying it out loud?
What if… What if this wasn’t a dream? That-
No, that couldn’t be possible. He was speaking to Rex fucking Lapis, this couldn’t be anything other than a dream.
Right? Right?
What was the last thing he remembered? He’d gone to bed, he’d slept through the night, he’d…
Woken up? Gone… to work? Had he…?
A piercing pain shot through his head, and he lifted one hand to it with a choked wince.
He remembered… the Tsaritsa? But that didn’t make any sense-
Why couldn’t he remember?! Had he not gone to bed last night? Had that even happened last night at all?
“You don’t remember…” the woman’s murmur brought him back to the present. To the dream , right, the Abyss dream. This had to be- “Tell me, do you know how you got here? Your presence appeared out of nowhere for us.”
Ajax shook his head no, trying to will the pain away. “I- No, I don’t know how I got here. I just- woke up.”
There was silence for a moment as the two people in front of him exchanged looks, and Ajax slowly but surely rubbed his temple to dissipate the pain.
“Well,” the woman began again, addressing him, and he returned his attention to her. “I can’t imagine you’re not tired or hungry after fighting with Morax. Why don’t you join us for a meal, and I can take a look at that seal of yours? It’s clearly causing you some distress.”
Ajax felt his stomach rumble, and frowned.
That was new. Exhaustion and pain weren’t strange in Abyss dreams, but hunger? That was a first. He’d never-
He’d never felt hunger in an Abyss dream.
But- well, there was a first for everything, right? Yeah.
“Sure,” he nodded, unsure what else to reply with.
The woman gave him a kind smile, a genuinely happy one at that, before a short gasp broke her expression into one of surprise.
“Oh my- I just realized I never introduced myself,” she chuckled, sheepish. “I am Guizhong, my friend. And this here is Morax.”
Ajax got himself to nod, and then to fall in step behind the pair as they began the trek back up the exact same path Ajax took to get there.
Guizhong? Like the-
The Guizhong? But- She never got an official design, did she? Sure, there was plenty of fanart, but- Ajax didn’t know what Guizhong looked like! How had his brain-
No. No, he had to be using aspects from other people, right? Because if not-
Ajax shook the thought away. That was ludicrous.
This entire situation was a mess. This was just an Abyss dream, nothing more. No need to overthink things, or get himself worked up over the smaller details. Stranger things had happened in these dreams before.
Yeah.
…
Yeah…