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And with one swift strike of Aether's sword, Scaramouche fell to his knees with a gasp.
This is it, the defeated puppet thought, adrenaline coursing through him like electricity, and he let it go, feeling his electro sizzling out, his limbs sagging in tiredness. Scaramouche kept his gaze down, head hanging low as he awaited the Traveler's final blow.
I've tired of chasing grandeur. If the gods won't pity me, I'll leave it up to mortals. Put me to rest.
Metal clanked on the ground, the sound echoing in the small chamber, through the cracks in the concrete and the burnt patches on the walls. Scaramouche looked up, confusion in his violet eyes, to see that Aether had let go of his sword, instead of plunging it deep in Scaramouche's chest.
Scaramouche had to stop himself from grabbing the weapon and doing it himself, antagonism rising in his chest despite how he wanted to finally let go. The gods' cruel laugh still echoed in his ears - even now, when he'd resigned to his fate, they still wouldn't let him die.
"Do it. I don't need your pity," he spat out, venom he usually masterfully laced into his tone now violently spewing from every word, even while on his knees, limbs weak and useless, a ragdoll at the mercy of a mortal.
Kunikuzushi did not want mercy. He wanted to feel the blade at his throat, and then to feel nothing.
Oh how he wished to feel nothing. He despised this frustration and shame burning in him, because feeling them claw at his chest meant that it was not empty. He had decided to throw his life away for that lack of emptiness - like mother, like son.
"No."
The lone word echoed through the chamber, the determination in Aether's voice making a wave of icy shock wash through Scaramouche's body.
"You- you can't be serious," Scaramouche barely wheezed through clenched teeth and a heavy heart. "You've come all this way - been through this much - just to spare me? Is your consciousness that fragile? Are you that much of a coward?! How pathetic, to think that the mighty Traveler will have mercy for a broken doll to spare himself the guilt-!"
The more he spoke, the more he screamed and insulted out of pure habit while inwardly pleading for Aether to put an end to him, his sanity tethering at the edge, losing it piece by piece the longer the Traveler listened to his nearly unhinged ranting with a stern frown and nothing more. When Scaramouche saw his words had no effect, he desperately tried reaching out for the discarded sword on the floor, only to cut himself off with a borderline pitiful whimper when Aether yanked his arm away, movements sharp as his fingers took an iron grip on Scaramouche's wrist.
Aether looked down at Scaramouche's wide-eyed expression. The former harbinger quickly averted his eyes, fixing his gaze on the ruined concrete circling his limp body, trying to hold back tears - of rage, perhaps, or something much darker.
This isn't how it was supposed to go-! Kunikuzushi's thoughts screamed. I was supposed to be free.
Kunikuzushi was now, in fact, more confined by unwanted emotions and his cruel enemy than he had ever been. That anger, that fear , made bile rise in his throat, because he was not built to feel those things. And yet they flowed through him, like poison injected into him by his creator's faulty work. Eternity shattered before his eyes, again and again, and once more when the Traveler lifted his head by his chin, making indigo eyes meet golden ones.
"Scaramouche," Aether started, his voice almost soft as Scaramouche's eyes searched for answers - or redemption - in his, and he let him. "You are not a broken doll."
Scaramouche resisted the urge to laugh in the oblivious Traveler's face. He was tired of it all. Let Aether think what he wants. Scaramouche was not planning on either of them living long enough for it to matter.
"Kunikuzushi," Aether stressed, pulling Scaramouche out of his thoughts almost violently. It has been so long since he heard that name roll off someone else's tongue. He'd forsaken it when he joined the fatui, glad to be rid of the constant reminder of his mother's mistakes that he chose to call himself by. "I do not wish to kill you. Not because you are pitiful, but because you are human . There's more to you than other people's misjudgments, and it would pain me to take away from you the chance to find that out for yourself."
Kunikuzushi opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He felt static filling his thoughts, rushing over and drowning his plans and his pent-up feelings of anger and disappointment and despair, like the deafening roar of a flowing river. He was… He felt… If only he could just…
Kunikuzushi stayed silent as he felt his heart shattering inside his chest.
Then, he felt something else rising inside his ribcage. Something harsh and heavy, like the coursing rage of a tempest. Something light and nearly whimsical, like the breeze in a meadow. The feeling swirled inside his chest, rising with all the vigor of a thousand winds howling in his ears, and it broke his heart, the slivers falling down and weighing down on him, until all their weight gathered… straight into his clenched hand.
Scaramouche's eyes widened in horror. "No. No, no, no, no, no please no- " he whispered to himself, over and over, as he turned his eyes away from Aether to look at the object in his palm.
An Anemo Vision.
" No! " Kunikuzushi screamed, voice hoarse as tears started streaming freely down his face. "From every possible punishment, any imaginable torture, why this ?!" he cried out, curling into himself as much as he could with his aching, destroyed body, clutching the damned Vision to his chest, right above his silent heart.
"Aether… The cruelty of the gods knows no bounds…" he whispered, barely audible even to himself. "I ultimately defied them, so they finally recognized me. Just at my lowest point, seconds before death, they decided to give me their most prized gift. A Vision. Isn't it just hilarious? "
Aether looked from above, bewildered, as Kunikuzushi started laughing. It started quiet at first, an uncontrollable giggle rippling through the puppet's empty chest, but quickly became outright hysterical laughter, Kunikuzushi not being able to stop himself despite his aching bones and the painful movements it was causing him.
After a few uncomfortable seconds, Kunikuzushi finally calmed down, his breathing slowly evening out as he took deep breaths to calm himself.
He looked up to Aether, dried tears glistening on his cheeks, running tracks on his dirty and blood-covered face. There was a shine to his eyes that Aether had not seen before, hesitancy filling the golden-haired Traveler at Scaramouche's unexpected actions.
"The gods do really have a twisted sense of humor, don't they?" Kunikuzishi asked, a sickeningly empty smile spreading on his face.