Chapter Text
Aether is tired playing nice, and his patience is wearing very thin. He's this close to punching Teucer in front of his Harbinger friends, and Paimon is terrified, her face slightly pale at the sight of a seething Aether.
He never thought he'd be so angry at everything thrown in his life, especially at his supposedly dear sister, Lumine.
Truthfully, he was already doubtful when he reached The Chasm. What the hell is he doing there, honestly? He was supposed to go straight to Snezhnaya after Liyue forty years ago, actually, if it wasn't for Paimon telling him to take it slow and the archons asking him for help. He almost snapped at a poor old woman earlier for asking him to help get her kitty from the tree.
Well, now he's in the snowy region, he supposed. He could only sigh at how time flies so fast. Before, it was Childe who was the Harbinger. Now, it's his little brother, Teucer. Childe has retired few years ago by now.
Back then, he wouldn't even lay a hand on the used-to-be cute boy in front of him. Now, Teucer is just as obnoxious as his older brother, if not more. It's giving him a headache, and frankly, he's exhausted.
Teucer, or more known as Hamlet, is almost the same as his brother when he grows up. Aether has no idea if that's a good thing or bad thing.
Aether glances at Teucer who is cleaning his blade. Teucer noticed him staring, and sent him a wink, making the golden boy shudder.
Maybe it's bad, but hey, at least he's one step closer to finding Lumine. He just hopes once he meets Tsaritsa, she won't hold him back from achieving his very, very simple quest; finding his insanely stupid sister.
Aether taps his finger on the table impatiently, eyes twitching slightly once he meets with some of the Harbingers' eyes. By far, Polonius is the scariest out of everyone. Ophelia is also scary too. He only made short talks with Teucer so far, since he actually know the boy.
He could feel Teucer shifting closer to him, but he kept his face neutral. "What is it?"
Teucer shrugs, his signature grin forms. "You've been here since big brother was the harbinger, right? Aren't you going to leave? Or... are you going to stay?"
Somehow, it felt like Teucer's flirting with him. It almost makes him gag, because it's so weird! First, it was Ajax Tartaglia who kept asking him out, and now it's his brother who's a decade younger saying the exact same thing to him.
"Why are you asking? You know I'm not staying for any longer here." Aether asks again, carefully this time and his eyes narrowed.
Apparently, it was the wrong question, because Teucer dives into the topic of how he'll marry Aether if he eventually decides to stay for him (false, he is not interested at all) and how he's thankful that Aether rejected his brother a few years ago (Aether almost felt bad rejecting the man, but he's a man that can't be bound into one place).
Anyways, being immortal is not as fun as people describe in storybooks.
The actual meeting between him, the Harbingers, and Tsaritsa starts approximately an hour later.
Aether absentmindedly circles patterns on the sleek, metal table as the Cryo Archon delves into the subject of war.
"—and Traveler, you'll help us capture the Abyss Princess. You can do whatever you want once you get her, but I do hope you won't interrupt the war."
Aether nods. "I wish all the best for you."
Not exactly, but just to be friendly. Tsaritsa had a blind draped over her face, but he can see the lift of her lips slightly.
"Marvelous. We shall begin the war, time waits for no one."
He shouldn't be surprised, but he is.
The blood spilt all over the snow, making the once white snow, red.
Every visionless human of Teyvat is being forced to fight. He also could see a few Abyss Mages and Heralds being forcefully slaughtered. He could see his friends who are probably innocent limping, blood trailing from their foreheads.
He winces at the painful sight. Nonetheless, his focus is still only one; Lumine.
His eyes shift between the thousands of people, ones with visions and most with none, archons, monsters, everyone. His grip on his sword grew tighter, a drop of sweat rolls down even in the eternal winter of Snezhnaya.
There. Not far, Aether found gold hair flowing, escorted quickly by a herald.
This was his only chance. His first and last, and he absolutely cannot afford to screw this up. He jumps through the battlefield, he swings his now golden blade, uncaring.
His sister is in front of him.
Noticing someone is running towards her, Lumine looks back, and her eyes widened as wide as saucers.
"Aether? What are you doin—"
"Shut the hell up Lumine, we're getting out of here!" Aether hisses, and his mood is souring when the herald still tries to hold their princess's hand.
"I don't understand—" Lumine tries to speak up, but her mouth is kept shut when Aether pointedly glares at her, utterly and completely pissed.
"No, I'm sick of your bullshit, we could've got out of this hellhole if you didn't keep running away from me. Look what have you done, what have we done for even stepping in this world."
He points at the sight around them. At the same time, he sees a familiar adeptus stabbing an Abyss Mage, but the black karmic debt is piling up and a pyro herald took that chance to kill him off for good.
Another sight, the Anemo Archon and Geo Archon on each other's back, trying to fend off the Tsaritsa's warriors and agents, but are slowly failing.
Lumine gulped, looking at the hell in front of her and back to her brother, exasperated.
"If you don't want to clean this mess, we better go. Preferably now, or do you want to stall again?"
The girl looked like she was on the verge of collapsing and crying, but her determination was stronger than her emotions. "Did you forget? This is our home."
Aether could see a brief flash of pain in his sister's eyes, and everything made sense now, the puzzles slotting together.
Lumine may be the Abyss Princess, but she is the puppet of the Abyss Order. They brainwashed her sister, and rage filled his blood.
He took Lumine into his arms, all while he put a blade up on the herald that was accompanying her. He hisses, "Fuck you, and fuck your whole order. Honestly, you don't deserve anything in the world."
Aether is so glad his original power had returned. It first appeared when he activated the last of the element Teyvat offers at him, Cryo. Since then, he completely neglected the elemental powers, training himself to use his power of Light to his benefit.
A white light surrounds him and Lumine, and they're back to 550 years ago. When they tried to escape the Cataclysm, and got blocked by the unknown god.
Right now, they're face-to-face with her once again.
Lumine also seems to still have her memories, a look of déjà vu on her face.
"Outlanders, your journey ends here."
Ends there his ass. If anything, it got even more complicated, for the love of god.
Aether scowls, all the grace, patience, and poise he had fifty years ago? It fades away like ashes in the wind.
"No. We're going to leave, and you're going to let us go."
Aether grabbed Lumine's hands, and motioned her to follow him, feeling slightly happier when a shine she used to have is now back. A rush of adrenaline pumped in both the siblings' blood, and they defended each other better than before.
But now, instead of fighting back, they slipped through the gate to officially get away from this world, and they're free.
A pair of stars shines on the celestial bodies of universe, traversing through the space and time.
"You owe me an explanation, you shit!"
"I will, I will—geez, no need to nag."
“Oh, be prepared for a very, very long nag.”
See, Aether has heard many girls from many worlds and their rants and all.
Men sucks .
While Aether would agree, he knows one thing that sucks more than men, who are supposedly infuriating to the women.
Fate.
Honestly, fate hates him, and to be fair, he hates fate too. It's a mutual feeling.
Instead of landing in the same place with his sister, he only felt the pressure of water in his throat, and the slight burning in his lungs. Is he drowning?
His sight is blurry, but he could make brown tufts in his vision. So suddenly, the water pressure released, and he could feel the fresh air once again.
…And a white-haired teenager, huffing and wide-eyed.
He certainly looks exotic (in a good way, of course), with that asymmetrical haircut and unruly outfit. He looked terrified out of his mind, and that was the time Aether registered there were someone else.
A brunette, and fair-looking. Aether would’ve flinched if he was slightly the lesser person because the man made a loud grunting noise as he opened his eyes.
He sat up straight almost ominously, and Aether shivered slightly.
“A-Are you two okay?” The boy asked hastily, eyes flickering between him and the man besides him with worry.
The brunette’s face twists funnily. “Are you the one who saved me and this girl?” He actually looks disappointed, and that adds to the ridiculousness. Aether even misses the fact that he accidentally misgendered him.
“...Huh?”
Aether snorts loudly at the ridiculousness, making both men stare at him. “Oh, sorry about that. Continue, please.” However, he chuckles slightly when the brunette’s jaws drop after hearing his voice.
“Jesus, you’re a guy?”
Aether nods in amusement, the man looks like he’s having some sort of existential crisis. On the other hand, the snow-haired boy looks concerned. “What in the world…”
Yeah, what in the world indeed. Apparently he’s now in another world now, and…
“Did anyone see my sister?”
Please, please, not again!