Chapter Text
Ironically, it's the Ruin Hunter that ends up being their undoing.
Despite their numbers, Jean and Kaeya are handling the Ruin Graders. The first they find alone, near the entrance to Brightcrown Canyon, clear evidence that the tale that brought them here is likely true. They take it together, one to each side to disable it at the ankles before wearing it down from behind. Jean doesn't even have to signal Kaeya--he moves at the same time she does, feeding Cryo into her Swirl to bring the ancient machine down.
Their strategy set, they move on into the ruins at the heart of the canyon and are promptly ambushed by three more. Two of the three go down easily to the same maneuver; the third is harder, launching into one spinning attack after another and making it impossible to get at its legs. At last, though, Jean draws its attention for a laser attack, then uses her Gale Blade to launch Kaeya high. He sends a spike of ice through the core in its eye, disabling it long enough for them to wreathe it in blowing frost until it breaks down like the others.
"Your source was right," Jean tells Kaeya, pausing a moment to catch her breath as she looks around at the shattered automatons. "Not that I expected otherwise. But I hadn't expected there to be so many."
"Neither did I. You probably were right to come yourself after all. If I'd waited for Amber to get back from Dadaupa Gorge before I investigated, more might have crawled up from Old Mondstadt by now."
"If that is where they're coming from." Jean looks towards Old Mondstadt, the far side of its great bowl visible through the cliffs arching to either side of the canyon's end. "We have to consider that they may have been placed here by other causes. It's difficult to imagine even those creatures climbing Old Mondstadt's cliffs."
"This could be a diversion," Kaeya agrees. "It's the kind of strategy I could see the Abyss Order come up with. Wait until we've left Mondstadt nearly undefended, then sneak in... they've tried it once already, after all. And they have been unusually active lately."
"Mondstadt wasn't undefended during the Stormterror incident. I left you and Lisa there for a reason."
"Haha, that's flattering. But that aside, I only meant that Mondstadt's defenses will be even weaker if we send as many knights as we'd need to scour to Old Mondstadt."
Since Jean's thoughts had already been drifting in the same direction, she can't disagree. She lets herself sigh as she contemplates the forces she has on hand, the mere one-fifth of the Knights' full muster left to her for duties such as these. Formidable as some of those knights may be.
"The Reconnaissance Company is supposed to be back from Dornman Port tomorrow, aren't they?" Kaeya asks, following her thoughts this time. "And this is exactly the kind of mission they excel at. It's a shame to delay their time off, but it means we don't have to weaken any of the city's usual defenses."
Kaeya isn't wrong about the tactical end, but it will eat into their time off. The Reconnaissance Company has been patrolling the area around the Port for over a month, systematically suppressing that very Abyss Order activity that has Jean concerned about feints. She can't delay the start of their next patrol, either, when there are merchants already scheduled to depart with them at the end of the week. Eula will do it, and without complaint, but it doesn't seem fair.
"We'll scout all the way to the end of the canyon," Jean says decisively. "If this was meant as a diversion, there may be clues ahead, and if they are coming from Old Monstadt, we can determine how they're surmounting the cliffs. It may be something we can handle on our own, without troubling Eula and her company."
"Not that I'm doubting your competence, or mine," Kaeya says, giving her a sideways look, "but that's outside the parameters of our particular mission, isn't it? We were only supposed to determine if there were really Ruin Graders here in the first place, then regroup to make a plan of attack. Besides, we're already running late for your lunch with Barbara. If we go all that way, it may be even later."
Jean sighs. "Barbara will understand. Mondstadt's safety takes precedence."
Her regret is mingled with relief. Maybe Barbara won't just understand; maybe she'll be relieved, too, to have the afternoon to herself after all. Jean has heard the sisters at the Church talk of how busy she is. And Barbara herself, when they speak together, is always talking about her dreams of becoming a better healer, or her aspirations as an idol. Neither are things that Jean can aid her with. Every time Jean invites her to spend time together, she wonders if Barbara truly wants to be there, or if she sees it as just a necessary obligation.
She's tried to ease off on those invitations, but Lisa and Kaeya, meddlers that they are, keep stepping in to issue them on her behalf. Kaeya had made this one, writing it into her schedule without a by-your-leave; it's no wonder that he's invested in getting her back for it. She doesn't know, though, if he'd left Barbara room to refuse the invitation, or if he'd simply informed her of it with the same high-handed good intentions.
Even if Barbara does want to have lunch with Jean this time, Jean is certain she'd rather that Jean take the extra precautions around a threat of this magnitude. She's seen how devoted Barbara is to helping others. She may not bear the Gunnhildr name any longer, but she seems sometimes to understand even better than Jean does what it means. What Jean wants--her own private yearning for that time together, the ache in her breast as duty snatches another such chance away--is irrelevant.
"Should this be a threat outside our own capabilities, we'll pull back and wait for Eula's company," Jean concedes. "But this situation cannot be left to grow out of control, and the numbers we've seen so far suggest that it could do so quickly."
"That's true enough." Kaeya falls in at her heel as they leave the piles of ancient wood and rusted metal behind.
She regrets having to leave the ancient machines in this state. They have no other choice. The safety of those who might be threatened by them comes first. But they are historical artifacts--if not of Mondstadt's own history, then of someone else's. Kaeya doesn't show any dismay when he helps her bring them down, but she knows how much he's hiding behind that smile. Maybe his own regret is hidden there, too.
Or maybe not. He's carefully avoided telling her the source of this particular warning.
Keeping those questions, as always, to herself, she leads Kaeya down that crumbling road. Ahead of them, the cliffs rise high to either side, nearly shadowing the sky, and the ground drops away beyond. She scans the terrain carefully for signs of movement. As they pass beneath the almost-arch of the leaning cliffs, her vigilance is rewarded: something to her left, in the corner of her eye, the gleam of light on metal. A hole in the cliff, and another Ruin Grader clambering out of it.
"There!"
She rushes forward, drawing her blade and starting to call the wind; Kaeya is right beside her, a gathering chill on her left side. Jean starts to peel away to the right, him to the left, and then the Ruin Hunter descends upon them from above.
It must have been hidden in the shadow of the cliffs, still enough that Jean didn't catch it. She curses herself for not more closely scanning the sky. She has only a split second to take it in as the Ruin Hunter bursts from its cover and positions itself over them, and then its lasers come raining down, making the ground shudder beneath their feet.
Which keeps shuddering even as the Ruin Hunter resumes its typical shape and starts to drop, because the Ruin Grader catches sight of them and comes rushing on heavy feet to join the fray. Jean, the edges of her jacket smoking from the sideswipe of a laser she hadn't quite dodged, glances over to catch Kaeya's eye and make sure he hasn't been hit. He doesn't seem injured, but he'd been in front of her already, and the Ruin Grader is nearly on top of him now.
That should be the first priority. Kaeya wouldn't have had a choice about engaging it anyway, and she doesn't want to split their strength. Jean ducks the Ruin Hunter's swipe at her and sprints towards their land-bound enemy. "Wind, hear me!"
The wind seems to be listening. She dives in just as the Ruin Grader brings its foot down and strikes the machine's ankle as it lands; the shockwave throws her back, but Kaeya has gone sideways to clip the other leg while it's exposed, and the Ruin Grader drops to its knees. Jean steps back, drawing a Gale Blade and holding it ready, and turns to Kaeya.
"Ready?"
He nods, frost limning his own blade, and braces himself. Jean starts to aim the point of her sword at his feet. It's the same maneuver that had let them hit the last Ruin Grader's eye, and this one, with its legs out, should be easier; knock it out, and they can focus on the Ruin Hunter before dispatching the Ruin Grader at their leisure.
The Ruin Hunter, though, isn't willing to wait its turn. Jean hears it shrieking towards them and spins about, unleashing the Gale Blade on it instead as it rises upward. She can see it bob in the air, but that doesn't keep its shape from changing, limbs spinning as they propel it upwards, the glow of its core going bright as it takes aim. Jean wishes briefly and uselessly for Amber.
"Behind the Grader!" she calls as the Ruin Hunter launches a barrage of missiles.
Following her own order, Jean dives behind the Ruin Grader's fallen bulk. Kaeya nearly knocks her over as he does the same. They both duck low, using it as a shield. Some of the missiles expend themselves against the Grader's ancient form; more shoot past it, unable to make the sharp turn required to hit them and exploding against the rock of the cliffside behind them instead. Jean raises an arm to shield both their faces from flying bits of broken stone.
"We could always stay here and let it blow up the Ruin Grader for us. It can't get directly over us with that cliff up there." Kaeya gestures upward, to where the overhang above blocks out the sun.
"No, but all it has to do is move sideways and its missiles will be able to home in. I would rather stay on the move than make myself a sitting target."
Jean starts to stand. She can hear the whine of the Ruin Hunter's ancient mechanics as it rearranges its limbs for some other sort of bombardment. Not being able to see what it's about to do makes her skin itch. She would rather know what's coming.
"I can't disagree," Kaeya says, rising as well. "Even if you weren't- shit!"
Though she manages to bite back her own exclamation, Jean is just as startled by the sudden, jerky movement of the Ruin Grader in front of them. Kneeling like this, it should only be able to fire in one direction. The missiles must have knocked something loose, though, because its head rotates until it's looking nearly over its shoulder, and the light of its core flaring up nearly blinds her as it fires its laser. Kaeya darts out of the way just in time.
Unable to swivel any further, the Ruin Grader fires blindly into the rock of the cliffside. Jean scrambles sideways, out from behind it, and sees the Ruin Hunter launching more missiles as they come into its sights. She keeps going, sprinting forward to outpace them.
Behind her, Kaeya grunts aloud in pain. Jean turns to see him staggering, his jacket scorched and dusted with black powder from the missile that must have hit him. He isn't moving quite fast enough to duck a second one, though at least he dodges the rest. They hit the stone above and around the Ruin Grader, whose laser is only just fizzling out, boring deep into the stone. The whole cliffside shudders with the impact.
Shudders, and starts to collapse.
"Kaeya!"
His eye wide, Kaeya struggles to regain his feet, stumbling forward as the rocks rain down around him. He's not going to make it out from under the cliff fast enough. Jean takes a deep breath, drawing in a great gout of Anemo at the same time, and flings herself forward. She catches his shoulder with her left hand as she raises the right high, as if trying to parry an enemy's blow, though all that crumbling stone overhead can hardly be turned aside by one sword. She's not trying to deflect it all. Just enough.
Wind swirls around them, a whirlwind that knocks the smaller stones and flakes aside as she drives Kaeya up against the solid base of the wall. The stone down here was spared the missiles; it's the tilted bulk overhead that's collapsing. The outward lean here at the base of the overhead might be enough, just enough, to shelter them, if she can blow enough stone away. Icicles start to spin around them, and rocks pings off ice as Kaeya adds the Glacial Waltz to the mix.
A buzzing whine is the only warning she gets before the Ruin Hunter swipes her in the back with its spinning limb. Jean screams as it bores through her jacket and then her flesh, and then again as it carries on past her, because there's a feeling when it goes like she's having a limb wrenched from the socket. For a moment she doesn't understand why it hurts so much, why it feels like a separation-
And then her wind dies.
The broken mass of the cliff rains down, and the world goes dark.