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It’s all white. The floors, the ceilings, the sparse furnishings, even the clothes he wears and the bland white rice slid beneath the door at erratic intervals. He could probably hear a pin drop in the silence if he had one, and the only escape he has from the starkness of everything is his midnight blue hair cascading over his shoulder. He twirls it around his fingers now, absently braiding it just for something to do. Something to break him free from the monotony of all of this.
The monotony is broken, eventually—just not in the way Kaeya had needed it to be. The screaming starts sharply and suddenly. The person confined in the neighboring room is screaming themselves raw, Kaeya can tell. And that knowledge is made all the worse by the additional knowledge of exactly who is being held in there.
Kaeya’s knees give out beneath him and, despite all of his instincts screaming at him to get up, to move, to do something , he can’t. He just sits there, numb. Shaking. His fingernails digging into his palms and drawing blood, bright red and hauntingly welcoming.
This is all his fault. The Abyss Order finding them, the reason they’re there—it’s all because of him. He should be the one they’re hurting. Not Diluc. Not his brother. Anyone but his brother.
Diluc wishes they hadn’t cleaned up the blood on the floor. Really. As painful as it had been, at least it meant that there would still be color. Not this all-white room with its all-white walls and his all-white clothes and all-white everything else. He forces his fingers through his hair, tangled and knotted and comfortingly red.
He needs to get out of here. He can’t take this much longer. The sensory deprivation, the knowledge that they could walk in any time to hurt him—or worse, walk in next door—it’s all too much. He can’t take much more of this, or else he’s afraid he might go insane.
The screaming doesn’t start right away. First comes the sound of the opening door to the neighboring cell, and then silence. Then, of course, come the screams.
Desperately, Diluc hurls himself against the opposite wall adjacent to where Kaeya is being held. Frantic sobs wrack his throat as he slams his fists against the wall and cries his brother’s name, pleading.
The door to his own cell swings open as a pair of Pyro Abyss Lectors step in and yank him away from the wall, pinning his arms behind his back. Diluc swears under his breath.
“Let go !” he snaps, and when the Abyss Lectors only tighten their grip he whips his head around to face them, his eyes wide.
“Please,” he whispers, barely restraining the fear in his voice. “It’s me you want. Don’t do this to him.”
“Not your call,” one of the Lectors says gruffly, his clawed fingers digging painfully into Diluc’s skin.
“I’ll do anything,” Diluc pleads desperately. “Anything you want, just please , let him go.”
The Abyss Lector pauses. “ Anything , you say?”
Diluc nods. “Anything. Just don’t hurt my brother.”
The Abyssal creatures in the room with Kaeya suddenly hesitate, and the action fills Kaeya’s entire being with dread.
“What are you doing?” he asks coolly, fighting to maintain his composure despite being evidently terrified.
“New orders,” a Cryo Abyss Mage answers in a clipped tone. “We’re headed next door.”
Kaeya’s blood runs cold. “No.”
“I’m sorry; did you say something?” the Mage challenges.
Kaeya straightens his posture and inhales sharply. “I said ‘no’ . As in, no , you will not be going next door.”
“And since when did you start giving out orders?”
Kaeya narrows his eye. “Do you even know who I am?”
The Abyss Mage nods, not missing a beat. “A traitor to the throne.”
“I am the throne,” Kaeya snaps back. “All Abyss is under my command.”
“All Abyss was under your command,” the Mage corrects. “The king regent—your father—declared that your word holds no authority. You have been stripped of your title and have been charged with high treason. As a matter of fact, the only reason you are still alive is that your father has ordered it so. Now, if you’ll excuse us.”
“No!”
“Didn’t I already tell you? Your word no longer holds any authority. You can’t tell us what to do.”
In one swift motion, Kaeya moves to stand in front of the door, blocking the Abyssal creatures’ exit. “You will not lay a fucking finger on him.”
An Electro Abyss Herald roughly grabs hold of Kaeya’s shoulders and hurls him to the floor. “That’s not your call to make anymore,” he hisses before slamming the door and leaving Kaeya all alone again in that too-white room.
"Alright, it seems like somebody needs to be taught a lesson.”
“Get away from him!”
The incessant sounds of screaming from the adjacent cell make Diluc wish for the previously-unbearable deathly silence to return.
And, strangely enough, it does.
Until suddenly his late father is standing in front of him, clear as crystal.
“Father?”
Crepus Ragnvindr narrows his eyes and Diluc coldly, sending shivers down the latter’s spine. “I am not your father.”
Diluc stiffens. “What?”
“After what you did to your brother, I must say that I am ashamed to call you my son.”
“Father—”
“He trusted you. And you tried to kill him.”
“Father, I—”
“You almost took his life just because he told the truth. How sick is that?”
“I know , and I—”
His father sighs heavily and turns away from Diluc, starting towards the door.
“Father, wait!”
Crepus does not answer.
“Please, don’t leave me here!”
And then, just as suddenly as he had appeared, Diluc’s father is gone all over again.
Blankly staring at the contrast between his vibrant blue hair and the stark white floor, Kaeya doesn’t even notice him there until he speaks.
“Kaeya.” Diluc’s brusque voice cuts through the suffocating silence like a knife through flesh—clean and yet still somehow so harsh.
“Diluc? I thought you were—”
Diluc clicks his tongue, and something about him throws Kaeya off-guard. This isn’t his Diluc.
“What’s going on? Where’s the real Diluc?”
“I am the real Diluc,” Fake Diluc says, kneeling next to Kaeya and smiling. “ You’re the one who’s fake.”
The words feel like being hit by a ton of bricks. “What?”
“You betrayed me. You lied to me. It seems like that’s all you’re good for.”
“I’m not—”
“Don’t try to argue with yourself. You know it’s true.”
“It’s not—”
“You’re a lying, filthy traitor. Say it.”
“Go away.”
“Say it.”
“Get away from me!”
“Kaeya!” Real Diluc’s voice comes loud and clear through the wall, causing Fake Diluc to vanish into thin air. Hesitantly, Kaeya crawls over to the wall adjacent to Diluc’s cell.
“Diluc? Is that you?”
“It’s me.”
“The real you?”
“The real me.”
Only then does Kaeya allow himself to break down. “You’re here,” he whimpers, his whole body wracked with desperate sobs.
“I’m here,” Diluc reassures him softly and, despite them both being on opposite sides of the wall, Kaeya can almost imagine the warm aura that Diluc emanates wrapping him in a warm embrace.
“Always?”
“Always.”