Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The day started with an adventure with the traveller to the desert, and of course, Kaveh’s whining.

“It’s so hot! Couldn’t you hire a wagon or something, Aether?” Kaveh’s whines echoed throughout the bleak sand dunes surrounding them.

“Unless you are willing to reimburse the traveller for the funds to hire one, please stop your screeching. You are hurting my ears.” Al Haitham glared at the architect, who glared right back.

“Then put those oh-so-amazing headphones of yours to good use- oh no, oh no, that was NOT a cue for you to put them o- HEY! I’m still talking to you! Haitham!”

Aether chuckled lightly upon seeing the argument between the Acting Grand Sage and the Light of Kshahrewar. Despite the heat, the two still remained as… harmonious as ever.

(But a small part of the traveller’s brain wished that they would keep it down. Maybe he will ask for the former scribe’s headphones later. The heat of the blazing sun and their arguments - which have occurred more that he can count during their journey, - was really doing a number on his sanity.)

The Adventurer’s Guild had recently posted a commission, claiming about a new, unexplored ruin that recently revealed itself far into the desert. Not many could solve the runes, nor be willing to make the trek that far, but Paimon was willing to sign the traveller up upon seeing the big stack of zeros that were a part of the commission rewards.

(“Paimon, are you even coming at all? Don’t you hate the desert?” Aether asked in annoyance.

“Yeeeaaahhh… Paimon isn’t joining, but Paimon enjoys good food even more, and you can surely treat Paimon to a grand feast after the commission!” and with that Paimon twinkled away to whatever place a Paimon twinkles away to.)

Although Aether was well-versed in desert exploration, he enquired the help of the former scribe and the architect with his journey. Although Al Haitham wanted nothing more than to spend his day lazing around and indulging in a good book, Kaveh’s immediate agreement resulted in both of them joining the traveller to the far side of the desert.

“Soooo…. Aether, where’s this mysterious ruin?” Kaveh looked over the traveller’s shoulder, raising an eyebrow at the map the short man held.

Aether squinted; his face contorted in confusion as his eyes followed the messy red line that showed their path. “Hmm, nearly there, we just need to take a right at this rock pillar, and then there should be an underground entrance to get there.”

At last, after Kaveh complained about the sand in his shoes, and Al Haitham pausing randomly to study ancient runes in the scattered ruins, the three managed to make it to the entrance of the ruin. The structure was tucked away behind large rocks and stalactite-like pillars hanging from the roof. The entrance was adorned with ancient symbols and patterns, all covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs.

Aether dusted away some dirt that covered the runes. “Well, here we are! Al Haitham, do you think that you can help me figure out how to open the ruin?”

The Acting Grand Sage showed nothing but a nod to signal his agreement. He walked over to the symbols, eyeing them in silent curiosity.

Kaveh, on the other hand, paced around the large door of the structure, admiring the architecture and the patterns before him. He was itching to sketch something in the presence of such a magnificent place, but he came on this trip to escape the stresses of that life, even if for a little while. He sighed, before once again eyeing the ruin with sparkles in his eyes. His eyes glossed over the entire place, trying to see if there was anything that could give them a clue on how to open the ruin.

“Ah…, I think I recognize this language. It seems a bit different from the old language of the desert, but similar nonetheless.” Al Haitham placed his hand on his chin, his head slightly down in thought. “The language here is where the symbol represents a sounds, whereas the old desert language had each character represent an idea of sorts, which-when combined- created more articulate and complicated ideas. The characters were utilized for the past people’s lack of knowledge, which was only reserved for those of higher standin-”

“Okay Haitham, we get it, you nerd. Can you pleeaassee tell us what the runes mean instead?!” Kaveh huffed.

Al Haitham sighed in annoyance. “I was just about to mention that, be patient.”

(Kaveh and Aether looked at each other, clearly disagreeing with that statement.)

“The runes mention two sounds… Hou and Kai. So together its… ‘Houkai’ or ‘Honkai’”.

Aether rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “‘Houkai’…‘Honkai’… why do they sound familiar?”.

“Beats me. Besides, we still haven’t discovered the way to get inside the ruin.” Kaveh looked around, his eyes scanning for miniscule details that just may help them. “Oh, look! A dendro monument!”

Al Haitham and Aether made their way over, and saw that it was in fact a dendro monument. Aether smiled at its presence, but shook that feeling away upon seeing Kaveh’s distressed face.

“Kaveh? What’s up?”

“Umm… its just that, I observed this room earlier, and… I didn’t see this dendro monument before.” The architect gulped.

“Perhaps train your eye to notice important details immediately, Kaveh,” the former scribe scoffed, summoning a small amount of dendro to activate the monument.

“Oi! I’ll have you know I have the most perfect eye for detail and- WOAH!” Kaveh stumbled, nearly falling flat if it wasn’t for Al Haitham catching him.

The whole cavern shook as the door for the ruin rumbled open, vibrating the room and forcing the three to hold onto something steady (that something for Kaveh being Al Haitham).

At last, when the shuddering finished, and the large door fully open, the three stumbled their way into the ruin.

“Well, that was easy!” Aether grinned, brushing off the dust from his shoulder.

“Almost… too easy, right? Isn’t there usually some sort of clearance or puzzle or something? It’s almost suspicious.” Kaveh observed, looking towards the gate they just went through.

“Hmm… there’s certainly some truth to that.” The former scribe agreed.

“Haha! At last, the Grand Sage notices my very obvious intellect!”

“Acting Grand Sage, Kaveh,” the Grand Sage grumbled.

“Hey, look!” Aether pointed further down the corridor, showing more runes and symbols. “There’s some more stuff over there, maybe we have to figure those out to progress.”

“Well, then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” The architect took his partner’s hand and speed-walked towards the other end of the passage.

“Ugh great, if I’m gonna be a third wheel at least don’t leave me behind!” Aether yelled after them.

Kaveh eyed the paintings that covered the wall, all deteriorating from the force of time. They showed a mysterious pink energy that seemed to corrupt the very earth and everything in it. At the same time, it also showed humans who used it for their benefit to help defeat that very same energy. It was an interesting study, to say the least. Though, the architect had no idea what this energy was. He only assumed it had to be that cataclysm that occurred a couple centuries ago, but the depictions didn’t match the history that they were taught.

“Ah, Haitham, how’s things going so far with the runes?” Kaveh walked slowly towards his boyfriend, watching and laughing silently at how curious and deep in thought the man was.

“I found another word. ‘Herrscher’. And from what I can see, it means a human being who has harnessed and mastered ‘Honkai’ powers that are a manifestation of their destructive emotions.” Al Haitham eyed the symbols, as if staring at the runes will somehow answer the million questions that are buzzing around in his head.

“Yeeaah… I totally know what you're talking about…oh!” Kaveh pointed to a rune that seemed to be covered in more dust that the rest in the room. “What about this one?”

The architect brushed the debris away from the symbol, and immediately regretted it, for the rune suddenly lit up.

Suddenly, the floor collapsed underneath them, with Kaveh and Al Haitham falling with it. The former scribe tried to summon a vine to catch him and the architect, but to no avail. The vine had nowhere to latch onto. Meanwhile, Kaveh tried to summon Mehrak to create a shield, but the suitcase did not answer his summons. The two fell into a pitch-black void.

“Guys!” Aether could be seen huffing and panting at the edge of where they fell, slowly getting smaller as the pair kept plummeting to the darkness. “I’ll get help, I promise!” and with that, the traveller ran off.

At some point, Kaveh and Al Haitham had blacked out. Perhaps the darkness surrounding them fused into their sleeping conscious, unaware that they were not awake. However, the two were forced into the waking world by the force of them thudding onto the ground.

“Oof!” Kaveh fell right on his back. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt at all. Meanwhile, Al Haitham seemed like he had broken every bone in his spine, judging by the silent grimace that he held on to his face. To Kaveh, he knew that it meant that his boyfriend was in pain.

“Haitham, are you okay?” Kaveh scrambled towards the Acting Grand Sage, checking his back for any injuries. Once again, however, there seemed to be nothing broken, and the only pain the grey-haired man experienced was the pain of the landing.

“I’m fine, we should get up and check our surroundings.” He got up slowly, brushing of dust from his knees. Kaveh did the same, trying to summon his suitcase, but once again, it did not answer him.

“Ugh… Mehrak, where are you?” Kaveh glanced around the area they landed in, and gasped. “Where are WE?!”

“No idea.”

“Wow, thanks, Haitham, I am so enlightened after everything you’ve calculated about this place.”

The two were stuck in a small lane-way, with white fences adorning either side (though those weren’t in best shape), and grass bushes underneath them. Large white buildings could be seen in the distance, much like the architecture in Fontaine. However, everything in this place screamed of foreign-make, not anything like the stuff in Teyvat.

“Hmm… I’m not sensing any leylines in this place.” Al Haitham looked at the ground below him, scrutinizing it intently.

“Yeah, and how does a Harvatat student know how to search for leylines?” Kaveh looked Al Haitham up and down in mockery.

“Unlike someone, I do not limit myself to the abilities of one Darshan.”

“Hey! You take that back! I-”

The architect was cut off by an ear-deafening roar that echoed towards them. They whipped their heads towards the source, only to be faced with multiple white looking monsters, with glowing pink lines adorning them.

“Um… I don’t think they are very friendly!” Kaveh whispered.

Al Haitham, meanwhile, tried to summon his weapon, or dendro power, but to no avail. “I can’t bring out anything to defend us. I think our best order of business is to-”

“RUN!” the architect grabbed the former scribe’s wrist roughly, before running as fast as he can in the opposite direction of the monsters.

However, after a little while, there was no other way to go. The lane finished at a dead end.

“Shit! What do we do now?” Kaveh turned around, facing the monsters that were slowly but surely approaching them.

Al Haitham did not reply, his breathing heavy and sweat dripping from his forehead. He glanced around nervously, and Kaveh knew what this meant; the former scribe was out of ideas as well.

One of the faster beasts started to approach them, its echoing screeches causing the pair to wince.

The two closed their eyes, bracing for the impact, the pulsing power of the monster seemingly inches away from their face-

Only to be met with a deafening screech of pain and then silence.

Al Haitham opened his eyes, but Kaveh still shut his eyelids tight, afraid of what is to come.

“Blondie, you can open your eyes now!”

The architect hesitantly opened his eyes, which then widened at what he saw. A man dressed in white clothing, with red hair, stood in front of them, with two guns held in his hands. He looked much like the captains that rode the boats in Fontaine, but this man here seemed much younger and… fierce. Any remnants of the monsters were erased, which meant that the man had gotten rid of the beasts.

“You seem pretty shocked there, Kaveh, you doing alright?” The man turned towards them, smiling as he stowed his guns away and patted his shoulder.

He then looked at the former scribe and smiled as well. “And then, you must be Al Haitham right? Hmm… you really do look like them...”

Al Haitham pursed his lips into a tight line. “How do you know our names?”

“Well…let’s just say it’s a long story.”

Chapter Text

“So… what is this place?” Kaveh looked around in wonder, amazed by the astounding architecture of this… ‘battleship’ as the red-haired man called it.

“Well, currently, you are on Hyperion, the battleship I’m in charge of. But the actual world you’re in… well, we call it Earth. But… it’s definitely not…uh… normal, to say the least.” The man shrugged, as if his words had explained everything Al Haitham and Kaveh needed to know.

“Oh! I forgot to introduce myself! Well… there’s nothing much to me, but you can call me Captain. And, as I said before, I’m the captain of this wonderful battleship, Hyperion!” The red-haired man, or rather, the Captain, turned around to face the two as all of them entered a door to a lounge.

“Well, Captain, care to explain how you know our names despite being in a different world?” Al Haitham scowled.

The captain beckoned them to take a seat on one of the couches, and then plopped into a seat that was directly opposite to them.

The captain stared directly at the architect and former scribe. “Well… there’s a lot to info-dump on you guys here… so, please, prepare yourselves.”

Al Haitham nodded silently, while Kaveh audibly gulped in nervousness.

“So… I’m sure that in your world, there must be some small records of other worlds, right? Don’t answer that, I’m pretty sure I know the answer. Well…” the captain leaned back in his seat, “sometimes these worlds are… uh… connected, to say the least.”

“Connected? How?” Kaveh asked, then immediately shut his mouth in embarrassment at the Captain’s amused face.

“Just about to get to that, don’t worry. Well, the way they are connected – and here’s where it gets a bit hypothetical here – is if the higher beings of two worlds make… uh… a trade of sorts. A contract, if you will.”

Al Haitham’s head turned slightly to the side in thought. “I’m assuming that the higher beings you are referring to in Teyvat are the Celestial Gods?”

“Mhm, that’s correct. And the higher being in this world is what we call the ‘Will of Honkai’. I’ll explain that part later. Anyways, for some reason, those two beings made a trade. I’m not sure why they did it, or what benefit they did it for. Sometimes gods work in weird ways.” The captain shrugged, then cleared his throat to continue.

“Well, they made a trade. I can think of some of the changes and stuff, but not all of them. Erm… for example, many of the people here had their looks and sometimes personality transported into your world.”

“What?” Kaveh and Al Haitham exclaimed in confusion.

“Uh… well, an example is that the Electro Archon in your world is based off on one of the Valkyries here. Sorry, new terms and all, but, I’ll explain them later. And… the Sumeru Archon is based off the principal of a school here. There’s more examples and stuff, but those are the ones that I can think of right now.” The captain scratched his neck sheepishly.

Kaveh nodded in understanding. “Okay… so Lesser Lord Kusanali is based off someone here… cool, cool. Wait, but the archon has been alive for multiple centuries. How… is she based off someone who’s probably less than a century old?”

“Well, there is a time difference between the two worlds… and I mean… a really big time difference. And sometimes, a contract between gods is more powerful than time.”

“Uh… okay… erm… well so far, you’ve listed benefits for Teyvat, what’s the trade for…um… Earth?”

“Well, surprisingly, it was just one thing. A while back, there was a little part of this world that looked really similar to yours, and it turns out there was a small…story, to say the least, where three people from your world came over to ours. One of them was from…Liyue, and two of them were from…Mondstat, I think the places were called. Oh! And a monster from your world came to ours as well. I think it was called the ‘Wolf of the North’. Hm…beats me.”

“Wait,” the Acting Grand Sage quipped. “So what does this have to do with us, or our presence here?”

“Yeah… so- oop, hold on for a minute.” The captain got up and headed over to the corner of the lounge, grabbing a plastic bottle of water and downing the liquid in about 3 seconds. He heaved back onto his seat and cleared his throat.

“Alright, so, the reason you two are here because of an… anomaly that occurred during this trade. The anomaly isn’t necessarily your presence here but rather,” the captain turned to face the Acting Grand Sage, “your existence itself, Al Haitham.”

“What?” The grey-haired man widened his eyes slightly at the captain’s words.

“You’re not actually from Teyvat, Al Haitham.” The captain sighed.

Kaveh clenched his teeth in confusion. “What? But… Haitham has been on Teyvat his entire life, he was born there!”

“Well, not from day one.”

“What do you mean, ‘not from day one’?” Al Haitham asked quietly.

“I’m saying that, you, Mr Acting Grand Sage, Mr. Former Scribe, were born here. On this Earth. You don’t understand, Al Haitham, that your existence is much more complex than you think it is.”

The former scribe gritted his teeth. “So help me understand, Captain.”

The captain sighed again. “Well, after the trade, I guess you could say that the doors between the two worlds didn’t quite…close. I guess you could say the doors were ajar. So, there was something that occurred during that period that I call a ‘data leak’.”

The captain continued. “So, the leak was kinda bizarre. Basically, two people’s data got combined and then copied, and then this copied data went to the other world, forming a presence. This occurred in both Teyvat and Earth.”

“Erm, so… is Al Haitham one of the copied data?” Kaveh asked tentatively.

The captain nodded silently. “Indeed, he is.”

This whole time, Al Haitham stayed quiet, contemplating and turning over the captain’s words in his head. The red-haired man called his presence a ‘data leak’, so that means that-

“I’m an anomaly, right? I shouldn’t exist.” the grey-haired man questioned quietly.

“No, that’s actually not true. You see, if you were truly an anomaly, you would’ve been rejected by Teyvat a long time ago. But, no, you’ve grown up and created a life. Although you were born here, Sumeru is your home, not Earth.”

“So why am I here?” Kaveh piped up.

The captain looked towards Kaveh, his expression serious. “Well, the anomaly did cause a bit of a stir in the… you know what, nevermind. Anyways, you and Al Haitham’s presence here is the repercussion of that anomaly. I’m not sure why you guys are here, but I do know that the reason both of you guys are here is because in each world jump, two people will be travelling.”

Al Haitham rubbed his hand on chin. “World jump?”

“Yes. I believe that if you guys are here, then the other people who were affected are probably going to visit the opposite world later.” The captain sighed wearily. “Is this going to be more work for me…?”

“Who are the other people?” Kaveh’s curiosity got the better of him.

“Well, the copied data…uh…person lives in the future here. And the other two live in Teyvat in… Liyue, I think.”

So not anyone Al Haitham and Kaveh knew, it seemed.

By now, the information that the two Teyvatians had received had well and truly sunk into their minds, buzzing around in their heads and making them slightly dizzy. All this news was quite shocking, but they still had a million questions.

“Ahah, yeah… I figured all this info would bound to give you guys a headache.” The captain stood up, reaching for a rectangular device in his pocket that seemed to light up upon touch. The red-haired man lifted it up to his ear and started to talk.

“Hey Rita…yeah… ok, ok, I’m sorry, it was an emergency…yeah ok, anyways, I have two guests, could you prepare a room for them…yeah, just one is fine…great, thank you Rita!” and with that, the captain pressed a button on the device and tucked it away.

“Alright you two, I’ll let you guys have some rest, it’s been a long day. Tomorrow, I’ll explain this world and how you guys are going to get back to Teyvat.” The captain motioned towards the exit of the lounge.

Al Haitham and Kaveh mindlessly walked and followed the captain through the multiple doors, turns and corridors they had to pass through before reaching a room. A lady with short light brown hair with a fringe to the side greeted them, respectfully bowing as they approached her.

“Greetings Captain and guests, this is your room that you will be residing in. Here is your key card to enter and lock your room. There is a button inside near your bed that, should you need assistance, will summon me when pressed.” The lady bowed once more before handing the card and walking away.

“Thank you, Rita!” the captain called after her. He turned around to face the pair. “Alright, rest as long as you need to, and tomorrow, we will get you prepared for your journey back.”

The Light of Kshahrewar and the Acting Grand Sage both nodded, slowly entering the room and plopping down on the bed together. The two cuddled together, both in desperate need of affection after their long day.

“Haitham… are you alright?” Kaveh whispered, holding his partner’s check tenderly.

“Mm.” was the only agreement Kaveh got before Al Haitham cuddled closer towards him.

Before long, both of them fell into a slumber.

Chapter Text

“GOOD MORNING MR AL HAITHAM AND MR KAVEH!”

“HOLY SHIT!” Kaveh shot up in his bed and fell off the side, the blanket tangled in a mess of limbs.

“What the…?” Al Haitham scowled, getting pulled and toppling right on top of the blond due to the panic.

Kaveh blushed at the closeness of the other, but was immediately broken out his daze at the high-pitched voice speaking once again.

“Time to wake up!”

“Who is that?! What are you doing in here?” Kaveh yelled, sitting up and hugging onto Al Haitham like a lifeline.

“Hmph! It’s not nice manners to talk to someone like that!”

Upon further inspection, Kaveh realized that the voice sounded very robotic, as if it was someone who was calling on the Akasha back in Teyvat.

…Back in… Teyvat…

The architect’s eyes widened with the reminder of all that had transpired; the fall in the ruins, the meeting with the captain and the revelation about Al Haitham…

The blond looked up at his partner, noticing the minor eyebags on the former scribe’s face.

Did he not sleep that well?

Kaveh’s thoughts were broken by a hand waving in his face.

“Hellooo? Earth to Mr Kaveh!” A short girl with two buns in her green hair and orange gloves stood in front of the two men on the floor.

“Who the fuck are you!?” Kaveh screamed, clutching on to Al Haitham’s bicep in panic.

Al Haitham groaned in pain at Kaveh’s strong grip on him, causing Kaveh to rapidly let go and rub his arm affectionately. “Sorry, does it hurt? I can get an ice pack if you need it.”

“Ahem, can you please flirt somewhere that isn’t in front of Ai-chan?” The girl crossed her arms and huffed.

“Why and how are you here in the first place?” Al Haitham asked lowly, his suspicion evident in his voice. He got up slowly, hugging Kaveh close in an effort to protect him.

“Sorry Mr Al Haitham and Mr Kaveh for disturbing your sleep. I’ll make sure to have a new way of waking you up!” The girl beamed. “My name is Ai-chan! I am the artificial intelligence here on Hyperion, assisting with management and systems on the battleship! The captain has asked Ai to wake you up and let you know on how to start your day!” She waved towards two doors, which slid open to show two sets of clothes.

“The captain has requested that you change into these sets of clothes and then meet with Valkyrie Durandal outside. If you need help, don’t be scared to ask Ai!” and with that the hologram of the girl vanished.

Al Haitham and Kaveh stood there, blinking rapidly at what had just happened.

“Hey…” Kaveh spoke quietly, breaking the silence, “Don’t you think that girl sounded like… Madam Faruzan?”

Al Haitham blinked, before realizing that, indeed, that Ai-chan did sound like their century-old teacher.

Finally, Kaveh decided to break free from Al Haitham’s grip and stretch, yawning loudly.

“Well, we should at least get ready, right?”

They were finally ready, having changed into the clothes provided for them. Kaveh wore a white blouse similar to his usual outfit, though without the large v-cut, with a thin brown cardigan and black trousers. He retained his earrings and feather, and tidied his hair up with his multiple red clips. Meanwhile, Al Haitham was wearing a dark green turtleneck with a black overcoat and grey trousers.

Kaveh’s jaw dropped upon seeing the former scribe’s new outfit. “Um…” he stumbled, “uh.. you… look…um… hot…”

Al Haitham blinked once. Twice. Then smirked.

“Likewise.”

Kaveh blushed, his face a replica of a tomato. He turned around towards the exit, grabbing the keycard. He opened the door, only to be met with a lady with long blond hair.

“Ah, hello, I am Valkyrie Durandal, Leader of Honkai Valkyrie Unit the ‘Immortal Blades’. The captain has asked that I escort you towards the bridge.” The lady bowed.

The two men nodded, which the Valkyrie took as approval to start leading them towards where they needed to go.

“Ah, hello you two!” The captain turned to greet them, waving happily at their presence. “Did you manage to rest well?”

The two Sumeru men exchanged glances before looking at the captain, nodding slightly. The red-haired man assessed them quietly, before sighing and turning to one of the people in uniform.

“I have some tasks to attend to. You’re in charge, Rebecca.” A woman with a clipboard nodded, before turning away to bark orders at others.

The captain clapped, “So, let’s head over to our next destination, the lab!”

“We did not agree to be experiment subjects, Captain.” Al Haitham scowled.

“Huh? What? Oohhh… no, no, we just need to collect your gear there. I realized that you guys have no way to defend yourselves, so I got some custom-made battle suits just for you guys!”

“Huh… thanks.” Kaveh mumbled.

“My pleasure!” The captain beamed, before suddenly growing serious. “I think it’s time to tell you guys about this world, correct?”

The silence was answer enough for the captain. They were walking towards their destination, the red-haired man explaining as they go.

“Well, in this Earth, there is a mysterious energy called ‘Honkai’. I don’t know how long it’s been in our world, but all I know is that it’s been here for a long time. And I mean, really long.” The two Teyvatians nodded, signalling for the captain to continue.

“There are places that get destroyed by the ‘Honkai’ monsters that roam the lands, so eventually, we started to progress in our technological developments and understanding of our world and universe. But then, these beings called Hersschers also arrived-”

Al Haitham nodded, “Yes, I remember those. We read them about them at the ruins before we came to this world.”

“Really? Well, that makes my job easier. Anyways, they started to wreak havoc as well. So, humans have established organizations that help defend against ‘Honkai’. The one I’m working for is called Schicksal, where we have Valkyries, who are sort of like soldiers. They can withstand exposure to ‘Honkai’ for a long time, so they have been chosen. Rita and Durandal, the ones you saw, are Valkyries as well.”

“There are other organizations as well. There’s Anti-Entropy, that use mechas rather than people to fight the ‘Honkai’. And then there’s World Serpent, which, to be honest, I have no idea what they do, but they seem to have the goal of defeating ‘Honkai’ as well, no matter how…uh… unorthodox their methods are.”

The Acting Grand Sage and Light of Kshahrewar looked at each other, clearly still confused despite how many of their questions was answered by the captain’s words.

“Okay… but there’s the big question: who are Al Haitham’s…um…what’s the right word… parents?”

Kaveh gulped as he realized the words that he just said. The grey-haired man just blinked in silent shock, and at this point, the captain couldn’t hold back his laughter.

“Ahahaha! That’s an interesting one! But hey, that’s actually a pretty convenient word. Well, Al Haitham’s data leak…parents… are actually not quite real, to say the least.”

Kaveh and Al Haitham did a double take. “Huh?”

“You see, our world has time split into what we call ‘eras’, each worth around 50,000 years. And in the previous era, there were these thirteen heroes that we call the ‘Flamechasers’. Um… most of them died trying to defeat ‘Honkai’, but before that they made copies of their memories in the form of a simulation.”

The grey-haired male raised an eyebrow, “A simulation?”

The captain nodded. “Yeah, a simulation. Basically, digital versions of themselves. But the technology was really advanced, so it sort of made them be considered as real people by the universe. And so, two people from this simulation – during the data leak – had their presences copied, combined and then moved to Teyvat…”

The red-haired man turned around to face Al Haitham, finger gunning in his direction, “…to form…you!”

Judging by the way Kaveh’s jaw was on the floor, and Al Haitham’s eyebrow was twitching in annoyance, the captain deduced that they did not like his little performance.

“Boohoo, you guys are no fun. Oh! Here we are!” the captain pointed towards an intimidating large door, with the words ‘THE LAB’ written across it.

The red-haired man scanned a card, probably an ID, across a reader. After a few short seconds, a lightbulb glowed green, and the doors snapped open. The three of them walked inside (Kaveh and Al Haitham a little bit cautiously) and were met with two people - one with short blue hair, and another with fiery red hair drawn up in two pigtails – arguing loudly.

“I’m telling you that the communication device should go on the left arm instead!” the red-haired lady waved her arm frantically, all while the other watched silently, their face undeterred by the actions in front of them.

“Is it not more practical to place it by shoulder? It allows for effective communication should they be engaging in combat or any other activity where they cannot talk directly to their wrist.” The blue-haired lady countered.

“But turning your head to a 90-degree angle to your left or right is seriously uncomfortable! The people in the battle suits need to not get a neck strain just by communicating, you mophead!” At this point, the red-haired lady’s pigtails seemed to be standing up straight in anger.

The captain leaned in close to Al Haitham and Kaveh, whispering quietly “You know, they kinda remind me of you guys.”

Unfortunately, the two scientists heard the captain, interrupting their own argument and turning their heads around to look in their direction.

“Ah! Captain! Just the person we need!” and with that, the red-haired lady took the captain by the wrist and pulled him towards one of the battle suits on display.

Kaveh and Al Haitham watched in silence as the captain was sweating in nervousness as he was subjected to numerous suggestions by both scientists on what they should improve on the battle suit. Suddenly, the blue-haired scientist looked towards the two Teyvatians, before dragging the other scientist towards them.

“Sorry about the first impressions. My name is Dr. Einstein, and this is my colleague, Dr. Tesla. We work for Anti-Entropy, but are helping out on Hyperion for a little while.” The blue-haired scientist, or rather, Dr. Einstein, smiled in greeting.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Kaveh, and this is my partner, Al Haitham.” Kaveh smiled warmly back, while the grey-haired man simply nodded.

The two doctors looked intently at Al Haitham, studying him as if he were a test subject.

“You’re right, Captain,” Dr. Tesla spoke. “He really does look like Su.”

“And the physique is similar to Kevin’s as well.” Dr. Einstein observed. “This must be because he is more so considered as a combination of two people, rather than a mix of genetic data, like a normal birth.”

The captain sighed, pulling the two scientists by the shoulder. “Come on, you guys, you’re creeping Al Haitham out.”

While the red-haired man was reprimanding the two doctors, Kaveh looked towards his partner, noticing the silent grimace and the dullness of his eyes. To the untrained eye, it would seem like Al Haitham was sporting his usual expression, but as his boyfriend, Kaveh was able to see that his partner was upset.

“Haitham, is everything okay?” Kaveh’s eyes looked towards Al Haitham with concern.

“Everything’s fine. Let’s just get our stuff and go.” And with that, the Acting Grand Sage moved away, going towards the scientists who were organizing equipment.

Kaveh watched painfully as Al Haitham walked away, understanding that his partner’s attitude is due to the stress of everything that has occurred so far.

Perhaps there was something more, but the architect couldn’t quite figure it out. He sighed, before going to stand next to the grey-haired man as the scientists were explaining how to use their equipment.

“Alright, all geared up!” the captain clapped once the two Teyvatians had fully dressed into their battle suits. Their gear looked quite similar to their normal outfits, though a lot more clunky.

Abruptly, Dr. Einstein piped up. “Captain, are you sure that they are safe from ‘Honkai’ corruption?”

Al Haitham and Kaveh widened their eyes as soon as they heard those words. Now that they think about it, they haven’t been exposed to ‘Honkai’ energy before. Would they truly be immune from it?

Instead of worrying, the captain smiled. “It’s actually completely fine. You see, Al Haitham has the remnants of Kevin’s and Su’s ‘Honkai’ resistance, and Kaveh is considered a powerful person back in their home world, so this has translated to a ‘Honkai’ resistance here.”

Dr. Einstein and Dr. Tesla looked at each other, shrugging slightly before accepting the explanation the captain gave.

Al Haitham, Kaveh, and the captain had left Hyperion, going in a ‘vehicle’ - as the captain called it – called a ‘car’. It did make the architect feel a bit woozy, but somehow, they manage to find themselves in front large building in a matter of minutes. It was nothing like the buildings in Teyvat. It looked exactly like the ruins in the Sumeru desert, especially the biggest one that looked like a pyramid. Yet, the captain just called it a ‘skyscraper’. At this point, the two no longer had the energy nor the effort to ask for the meaning of every word they didn’t know.

“We actually are entering World Serpent territory, so be careful.” The captain explained, before walking towards the building.

The three of them approached what they assumed was the entrance, where they were met by a person in a full black fit – a black jacket with a coat and pants – with his head hidden by the (black) umbrella was holding.

A deep, robotic voice vibrated through their ears. “And to what do we owe the pleasure, Captain of Schicksal and guests?” The person lifted their umbrella slightly, revealing a mask (or face?) that had one glowing green eye.

“Your…sire is aware of my arrival, Gray Serpent. I will do what I need to do before leaving as quickly as possible.” The captain stood his ground, his eyes blazing with determination and fierceness.

The person (robot?) stood there for a few seconds before stepping to the side and bowing.

“Very well, please, come in, I will escort you.”

Al Haitham, Kaveh, Captain and Gray Serpent exited the elevator. The two Teyvatians had no idea how far down they went, but judging by the lack of people on this floor, it seemed to be very much underground.

“Well, this is where I leave you guys!” the captain smiled. “I hoped I helped you prepare for your journey.”

“Through those doors are the simulation that I was talking about, called Elysian Realm. Go interact with the people there, and I’m sure you will find your way back home!”

Kaveh sighed irritably. “So, you’re just going to chuck us to the deep end?”

“Well, it would be pretty controversial if a person of a high status stayed in the place of the enemy, right?” the captain shrugged.

“Goodbye you two! Have fun, and good luck!” The captain stepped back, waving.

Kaveh and Al Haitham waved goodbye to the captain, before stepping right in front of the doors.

“Ready, Haitham?” The Light of Kshahrewar asked teasingly.

“Ready.” Al Haitham smiled by a fraction.

The two pushed opened the doors, before stepping inside.

Extra:

The doors thudded shut.

“Well, that’s my job done, time to leave!” the captain turned around on his heel, ready to leave-

Only to be met with a tall white-haired male, with no Gray Serpent in sight.

The captain’s eye twitched in recognition. “Kevin?”

“Captain.” Nothing more to his words, no malice, annoyance, or greeting. Just a simple acknowledgement.

This is why the captain never liked Kevin. His cool-headedness, when translated into his tone, showed flatness and calm. As someone who liked to observe people’s behaviours and the subtle discrepancies in personalities, the 1st Flamechaser really ticked him off.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Why did that man…look like Su?” Kevin’s blue eyes were piercing cold, forcing the captain to resist a shiver that nearly came its way through his body.

The captain scoffed. “Hmph, perhaps you weren’t the only one that had a line of descendants, you know?”

In a blink of an eye, Kevin stood right in front of him, staring directly through the captain’s soul intimidatingly. “Stop joking around.”

“I have no need to tell you. It’s not your business, and frankly, it isn’t mine either. So just stay out of it.” And with that, the captain pushed past the powerful man and entered the elevator, pressing a button and flipping Kevin off just before the doors closed.

Meanwhile, the 1st Flamechaser pondered what had just transpired. Perhaps an identity check on the two guests would help give answers to his questions.

Or… maybe observing what occurs in the Realm may do just the same.

Just then, Gray Serpent revealed himself from behind a pillar, bowing respectfully. “Do you have any orders, my sire?”

Kevin stared at the robot, thinking. “Continue your usual duties. I will give you orders when required.”

Gray Serpent bowed once more before entering another elevator.

Kevin stayed in the same spot for a minute, reflecting hard.

“I will get the answers I need, Captain, just watch.”

Chapter Text

After going through the doors, Kaveh and Al Haitham had walked for what they believed was a long time, their steps echoing through the dimly lit hallway. They clutched to each other’s hands like they were a salvation in this, strange, foreign place.

Vaguely, they could make out a grand door at the end, slowly getting bigger as they approached it. Al Haitham could feel both his and Kaveh’s palms were getting sweaty with nervousness, but he knew that he had nothing to fear.

(His only fear was what he had to confront about himself.)

The Light of Kshahrewar and the Acting Grand Sage slowed down as they advanced towards the entrance to what they assumed was the Realm. At last, they pushed the doors, enveloping themselves in the light on the other side.

The two were met by a large hall, with what they assumed was fake sun seeping through the windows on the upper walls. On the right of the area, they saw a desk with a large hologram of a sphere, with books and papers flung all around it in disrepair. On the left, they saw a bar (Kaveh’s eyes twinkled at that) with a lounge placed right next to it. It was lined with crimson, comfy couches…

With a pink-haired lady meeting their eyes and waving.

“Hi~! Nice to meet you two!” She shot up from her seat, skipping her way to where Kaveh and Al Haitham were awkwardly standing.

“My name is Elysia, the Miss Pink Elf here in Elysian Realm! And who may you cute boys be?” The lady smiled enthusiastically, almost burning the two men’s eyes with her radiance.

“I’m Kaveh, and this is my partner, Al Haitham.” Kaveh held out his hand, expecting a handshake.

Instead, the kind lady clasped his hand with both of hers, eagerly shaking it and smiling brighter than before. “Ah, what a cute young boy you are!” She turned her head towards Al Haitham, smiling before stopping short.

Al Haitham was somehow used to everyone studying him the moment they first meet eyes with him. But he was still rather surprised at how much people would be shocked by his appearance.

Did he really look so much like this mysterious person?

Thankfully, Elysia did not spend too long looking at Al Haitham’s face. “And what a handsome young man you are too! I’ll be your guide here in the Realm!” and with that she walked away towards the lounge, motioning towards the two men to follow.

Only when did they sit down did they realize that was someone else sitting in the lounge, not too far from where Elysia was sitting there before. This person was a lady who radiated refined tastes yet kindness for others. Kaveh looked at her for a brief moment, and then looked slightly up, only to reveal a painted portrait of the exact same person placed elegantly on the wall. The lady chuckled, breaking the blond out of his trance.

“A beautiful portrait, no?” She sipped the wine glass, the red liquid glittering from the bright yellow lights surrounding them. She stood up, coming to sit closer to Elysia, Al Haitham and Kaveh.

“It’s nice to meet you, new guests. I’m Eden, the previous owner of the Golden Courtyard and the 4th Flamechaser.”

Elysia smiled. “I don’t know if you already know, but we are simulations of the old heroes calls the ‘Moths’ or the Flamechasers. I’m the 2nd Flamechaser!” She clapped, happy with her explanation.

Kaveh tilted his head. “But what’s the Golden Courtyard?”

Eden chuckled. “It’s this place. I was the owner for a while, and then I handed it to another one of my colleagues. We then changed it to the Elysian Realm.”

“How many Flamechasers are there in total?” Al Haitham quipped.

“Thirteen! There are thirteen Flamechasers in total.” Elysia nodded. “You’ll meet them all very soon, but some are extremely shy, so please be thoughtful, okay~?”

Al Haitham and Kaveh could both not comprehend the notion that the other 11 of the most powerful people from a while ago would be ‘shy’ to meet them, but nonetheless, they nodded.

Eden shared one of her wine bottles, pouring a glass for the other three sitting in the lounge. Kaveh downed his glass in a matter of seconds, holding out his glass for a refill. Al Haitham shook his head slightly, enough for Elysia and Eden to notice his disapproval and to laugh.

The grey-haired man started at his reflection in his beverage, his eyes squinting at the blurry details of himself. From the moment that the captain had explained their situation, there was something that was nagging him. Not a reminder, but rather a deep, sickening feeling that tried to make itself known, but failed every time. That feeling seemed to affect him, as it was the cause of his lack of sleep the night prior, and his distant attitude towards Kaveh.

He shook his head again, and his eyes locked with his glass. Doing something that he never thought he would do, he copied Kaveh and downed his whole drink in one gulp. It seemed the alcohol had already got to him, since his hand wobbled as he silently asked for a refill.

Kaveh looked pityingly towards his lover, watching Al Haitham down the second glass and scoff when he saw Kaveh’s expression.

Kaveh shrugged. If his cute junior was going to get himself flat-out drunk, then as his mature senior, he would take responsibility and stay sober!

Well, relatively sober, Kaveh thought as he had a sip of the delicious red wine, unable to resist another taste.

All the while, Elysia was simply smiling and drinking a sip occasionally, whereas Eden was very intoxicated that she ended up popping open a second bottle, bringing the opening to her lips and simply chugging straight from the bottle.

It seemed that the reason Al Haitham rarely indulged in alcohol was because of a similar situation such as now, where he seemed to be so drunk that he could rarely stand (and only after a couple of drinks too). Kaveh, sighing as he did so, heaved Al Haitham’s arm around his shoulder, nodding sightly when Elysia showed him where they would stay for the time being.

(Elysia winked before turning away, dragging a very drunk Eden away to their room.)

Kaveh unlocked the door, dropping a sleepy Al Haitham onto the bed. With a tired sigh, he headed to the bathroom, going to clean himself up.

Afterwards, he snuggled into his spot on the bed, bringing up the covers as close as he can to himself. He left his consciousness drift away to sleep.

Al Haitham woke up, sweating heavily. He glanced around, seeing no signs of other life. In the spot right beside him on the bed, there was a faint warmth emitting from it.

So Kaveh must’ve just left, Al Haitham deduced.

He slowly made his way out of the bed, heading towards the door outside (how did he know where it was?) and walking slowly towards the main hall (how did he know the directions?).

He stood silently as he watched a figure sitting in the lounge - It looked blurry and cloudy to Al Haitham’s eye - talking to Kaveh, who stood in front of it. It seemed these two were having a… conversation, judging by the fierce and enraged face Kaveh wore. They had not noticed Al Haitham, as he was standing a distance away to avoid being seen.

“I trusted you!” The blond yelled. He couldn’t make it out (because he cannot see), but the mysterious figure seemed to react, judging by how Kaveh’s face grew even more outraged.

Then the blonde stilled, a single blood-curdling scream echoing all around them.

Red liquid seeped from where the claw stabbed through his torso.

“Kaveh!” Al Haitham thought he yelled, but he couldn’t hear anything come out.

(Because he cannot speak.)

The grey-haired man tried to move, daring his legs with all his might when he saw more and more blood drip out of the hole in Kaveh’s torso, the claw from the mysterious figure slowly ripping itself out of the blond.

Yet, Al Haitham cannot move, his eyes quivering in fear.

(He cannot move.)

He watched as Kaveh weakly moved his arm towards the cloudy figure, the life draining slowly out of him.

“I…trusted…you…” Kaveh mumbled, blood seeping from his mouth.

“I…trusted you…to be…yourself. But… you broke our… promise…” By now Kaveh was slowly drooping his head, too weak from the blood loss.

“You…” Kaveh feebly pointed an accusatory finger. “You broke it…”

“…Al Haitham.”

The grey-haired man’s breath hitched as he heard those words. As soon as Kaveh had well and truly lost consciousness, the figure dissolved the cloud…

Only to show himself.

Al Haitham clenched his jaw as he saw a mirror image of himself (It is not you, Al Haitham.).

No…no… it was different. (It is not you, Al Haitham.)

It bore ugly purple claws and had large flapping wings on either side of it. Horns sprouted on top of the figures head, with geometric pink patterns spread all over its biceps and legs. Yet, the hair, the face and the body all shared a resemblance.

(But is it not you, child.)

It was him. He broke his promise.

(What was the promise?)

It doesn’t matter what it was… all this showed was how much of a monster he was, and he broke his promise. And Kaveh died.

(You have not broken a promise.)

“I HAVE!” Al Haitham yelled. (There is no sound here.)

“I WAS THE ONE THAT MADE KAVEH DIE! I’M THE MONSTER!”

A sudden thud snapped Al Haitham out of his trance, seeing that the figure had dropped Kaveh’s unmoving body and slowly made his way towards him. Its steps splashed in the pool of blood that trickled on the floor.

Al Haitham felt terrified. But at the same time, why should he? He was at fault after all. Perhaps he deserved punishment.

(There was no fault, child. You are no monster.)

He was the reason that Kaveh died.

(You are not the reason.)

He was…

(You weren’t.)

He was?

(No, child.)

He wasn’t…

Al Haitham suddenly felt the urge to move away, and for once, his body responded to him. He took staggering steps backwards, but this movement was only paired by the monster taking another step towards him.

(Thank you, I have an opportunity now.)

Suddenly, Al Haitham felt a searing pain go through his head, causing him to collapse on the ground as he held his head in agony.

(“Please” wake up, Al Haitham.)

And wake up he did.

Al Haitham shot up in his bed, panting heavily. He grimaced as a throbbing headache made its way into his skull.

(He also felt a feeling of déjà vu.)

After a split-second did he realize why he was feeling this way.

The nightmare that he experienced…Al Haitham almost didn’t want think about it. But one crucial thing that he learnt was that someone was helping him.

“…Haitham…?” Kaveh mumbled. It seemed he had just awoken, probably by the sound of Al Haitham. The blond rubbed his eyes, slowly sitting up on the bed.

“Sorry, Kaveh. Did I wake you up? You can go back to sleep.” Al Haitham kissed Kaveh’s forehead, and smiled.

However, the architect did not go back to sleep. He just continued to stare with wide eyes, worry etched on his face.

“Al Haitham,” Kaveh spoke softly, his hand reaching out to cup his partner’s face. “…you’re crying.”

The grey-haired man touched his check, and it seemed that, indeed, he had been crying. Wet tear trails could be felt on his face, and Kaveh used his thumb to brush away the tears.

“Is everything okay?” Kaveh asked, smiling softly.

Al Haitham nodded. He didn’t like to lie, and he knows that Kaveh would be ready to comfort him, but he didn’t want to burden the blond more that he already does. It’s been a hectic couple of days, and then some…stupid nightmare doesn’t have to be added to Kaveh’s stresses.

However, that won’t stop the Former Scribe from investigating that mysterious voice in his nightmare alone.

The two got ready and went out. Kaveh had no idea what he had to do, since the captain had so graciously abandoned them to let them figure out how to get home. Meanwhile, Al Haitham was trying to formulate a plan on how to distract Kaveh while he asked around. He knew that Kaveh would be curious should he ask about the voice in front of him.

Luckily, it seemed the gods were smiling on Al Haitham today, as Elysia waved and then quickly grabbed Kaveh by the elbow.

“Hello you two! Did you have a good sleep~?” the pink haired lady smiled radiantly. Then, she turned to Al Haitham. “Eden figured you might have a hangover, so she asked you to meet her at the lounge,” then she turned back to Kaveh. “So in the meantime, I’ll take this cutie on a tour~”

And with that, Elysia skipped away, with Kaveh stumbling behind and spluttering questions.

Al Haitham couldn’t tell if he should be worried and grateful about the sudden opportunity that had arisen, however, he still made his over to the lounge, where he saw the 4th Flamechaser sipping what he assumed was a hangover soup. A steaming cup was resting on counter, with Eden motioning towards it when she noticed the grey-haired man’s presence.

“I’m sure that you aren’t feel the best, Al Haitham, so I have some hangover soup for you. Please, drink it.” She smiled before returning to her own beverage.

Al Haitham nodded, gently taking the cup and sipping it as he seated down on the couch. As the 4th Flamechaser, he figured that Eden might now a bit about the voice that he heard. He hadn’t experienced dreams for very long since the destruction of the Akasha, but he believed that mysterious voices in your dreams that seemed to help you wake up isn’t exactly a norm.

After a while, Al Haitham coughed, causing Eden to look his way and smile.

“Is something wrong?”

“I… have a question to ask you.” Al Haitham started silently.

Eden chuckled. “Please feel free to ask!”

The grey-haired man took a deep breath. “I… had a nightmare last night…and… while I was in it, there was a… voice. I know dreams tend to have their own laws and thus have their own fantastical creations, but this voice seemed too real. It helped me wake up.”

Eden stilled. “Tell me, what voice was it? Was it a male’s or female’s?”

Al Haitham pondered long and hard, trying to grasp the details of his dream that seemed to slowly fade away in his memories. “I think…it was a woman’s.”

Once again, Eden grimaced, silent worry written on her face. “Do you remember…what she said last in your dream?”

The grey-haired man squinted, racking his brain for anything that could be helpful. He remembered that, just after fell to the ground in pain, he heard a phrase, and then the next thing he could remember is waking up in reality.

“It was… um… 'Please wake up, Al Haitham'. But the 'please' was…different. I don’t know how to effectively describe it, but it seemed to be…powerful.”

At those words, Eden gulped, the worry on her face now extremely evident. She stood up, albeit a bit unsteadily, before making her way out of the lounge.

“I’m going to tell Elysia about this, okay? Oh, and if you experience something like that again, let anyone one of us know.” And with that, she left.

Al Haitham was left sitting by himself, shocked by what had just occurred. The voice had tried to help him, and yet Eden seemed fearful.

The grey-haired man leaned forward in his seat, resting his head on his palms.

It seemed that this place was more bizarre that he thought.

Chapter Text

Eden walked her way over to where she believed Elysia to be. As excepted, she and Kaveh were in a part of the realm that simply radiated peace. There were rays of sunlight shining through the leaves that were falling softly. She could hear Elysia and Kaveh chatting a distance away. Wasting no time, Eden immediately strutted over there, causing both Elysia and Kaveh to look her way.

“Hi Eden~! What’s wrong?” Elysia greeted.

“Aponia visited Al Haitham.” Eden was short and to the point, but Elysia simply laughed it off.

“You know that Aponia’s a bit of a shy girl, don’t be mean like that…”

Eden gulped. “Elysia…you know that Aponia only meets someone early when she is interested in someone. She only met Raiden Mei after a long while.”

Elysia nodded. “Hmm… I do get where you’re coming from. But let’s watch and see, okay~?”

Suddenly, Kaveh piped in. “Wait, did Haitham meet a new Flamechaser? But why are you all so worried, I thought they were your colleagues?”

The bronze-haired lady grimaced. “I’m afraid it’s a bit more complicated. You see, Aponia…she’s very powerful. She’s a very powerful physic. And…she’s very strong to the point that it’s dangerous. I’m sure it’s no big deal…but… if Al Haitham is introduced to Aponia’s power early on… I don’t know how it will affect him in the long run.”

At those words, Kaveh immediately stood up, running towards the portal that would lead them back to the lounge. As he disappeared into the exit, Eden and Elysia glanced at each other before making their way in the direction of the portal.

Meanwhile, Al Haitham was just about finished with his soup, and so he placed the cup on the counter and stretched. He didn’t really see any place where he could gain some exercise, but he figured some simple yoga would get the job done.

Suddenly, he heard a flash near the centre of the hall, and so he peered around and saw a humanoid figure slowly appearing. At last, Al Haitham was met with the sight of a purple haired lady, with horns growing out of her head and two giant robotic arms floating behind her. She wielded a sword in her arm and the floating entity was clutching a sheathed katana.

The lady suddenly whipped her head around to face Al Haitham, her eyes narrowing slightly at his presence. With no idea what else to do, the grey-haired man simply met her stare head on, undeterred by her intimidating aura.

She slowly floated over to the lounge, her posture defensive as she stood a few feet away from Al Haitham.

“Who are you? And why do you look so much like Su?”

“I have no idea who that is.” Al Haitham calmly stated.

The lady’s eyebrow twitched. She pointed her sword towards the other. “Then what are you doing here?”

Al Haitham started to get defensive, seeing that the lady was asking for a fight. He activated his battle suit, summoning his sword. “Look, I just want to get home, and the Captain from Schicksal said exploring this place would help.”

At those words, the lady lowered her sword, her eyes widening.

“The captain?” She cast down her head in thought. After a while of Al Haitham awkwardly standing there, she ended up looking right back at him and slowly approached him.

“I’m sorry…about earlier.” She placed her sword back, and nodded slightly.

Al Haitham copied her, sheathing his sword back and sitting down. He opened a mouth to ask a question, but another flash radiated in the hall, a figure materializing. Al Haitham’s eyes widened when he realized that it was Kaveh, and he widened them further when he saw the fearful look on his partner’s face.

Kaveh looked around, his eyes quivering, until he at last made eye contact with Al Haitham. His jaw clenched in silent fear as he took in the situation the grey-haired seemed to be in.

Upon noticing the purple-haired figure in front of the Acting Grand Sage, he immediately rushed over standing right behind her and activating his battle suit.

“Who are you?!” His hands trembled slightly, only noticeable to Al Haitham. The purple haired, however, did not notice and simply furrowed her eyebrow, raising her hands to signal her peace.

“I mean no harm.” She twisted her heel, turning around to face the blond. He looked furious, though there were glimpses of fear running through his red eyes. Al Haitham tried to signal to his partner that all was fine, but Kaveh ignored it, gritting his teeth as he met the lady’s unamused stare head-on.

“Are…you Aponia?” Kaveh asked, his anger slowly rising.

“Aponia? No… I am not. I am Raiden Mei, a visitor in Elysian Realm.” The lady, or Mei rather, shook her head.

At those words, Kaveh widened his eyes, realization dawning on him as he deactivated his battle suit.

Al Haitham, however, was still confused. “Aponia? Kaveh, who is that?”

But before the blond or Raiden Mei could answer, two flashes buzzed through the hall as Eden and Elysia arrived. Elysia smiled as she skipped over to where they were all conversing and waved towards Mei, who waved back.

“Hello everyone! My, are you all having fun without me~?” Elysia pouted, causing Mei to meet her with a deadpan stare and while Eden simply chuckled lightly at the show in front of her.

Kaveh, realizing his chance, ran over and hugged Al Haitham tightly. The grey haired man was confused, though he quickly returned the embrace. Mei looked wistfully at the scene while Eden and Elysia smiled at the couple.

Suddenly, the pink-haired lady clapped. “Now, what happened that made all of you looked so upset?”

Kaveh turned to face her, looking down sheepishly. “I…um… mistook Ms Raiden Mei for Aponia.” He turned towards the horned-lady, bowing in apology, which may shook off, already having forgiven him.

However, Al Haitham was getting slightly annoyed about staying out of the loop about this so-called Aponia. “And who is this Aponia?”

This time, Eden chimed in. “That voice that you experienced… that was Aponia… and, to put it simply, she may have posed a threat to you.”

“But she helped me.”

Elysia smiled brightly, “Don’t worry, she doesn’t mean any ill intent. She is just simply very powerful that she may unknowingly cause some harm. But it should be all good when she starts to show her kindness and beautiful self!”

Eden grimaced slightly, “She is very nice, but I would still exercise some caution. Perhaps, the nightmare you experienced was a result of that power.”

Now, this time, Kaveh realized there was something that wasn’t aware of, but as soon as he heard those words, he stilled. He slowly glanced his head up to Al Haitham, anger clearly brewing across his face. The grey-haired chose to ignore it, instead mentally contemplating if he should write his will before he faces Kaveh’s wrath.

Mei sighed, understanding that perhaps the conversation was ending. “Well, I shall take my leave now. It was nice meeting you. Should you need any help, feel free to come to me.” And with, she left.

Elysia and Eden decided to leave the two lovebirds alone as well, and so they set off for their own tea party together.

And thus, Al Haitham and Kaveh were left standing in the lounge, with the blond nearly frothing at the mouth. The Former Scribe wasn’t entirely aware of what had caused Kaveh’s anger, but he knew that the rage the architect had under any occasion was just as powerful as a bull-dozing Sumpter Beast.

Suddenly, Kaveh turned around, facing Al Haitham with fury-filled eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Al Haitham gulped, opening his mouth to answer, but immediately shut up when Kaveh started speaking again.

“Am I that untrustworthy to you? Why can’t you tell me that you had a nightmare?” Kaveh’s looked down in order to stop the flurry of tears that were threatening to leak from his eyes.

Al Haitham face contorted with guilt. He knew that Kaveh worried about him, maybe a bit excessively, but he worried, nonetheless.

Suddenly, the blond looked up, holding out a pinkie out in front of him. “Here, you need to promise me that you’ll tell me about what happens, however big or small it may be. We’re in this together.” He looked at Al Haitham expectantly.

The grey-haired man couldn’t help but chuckle, twisting his pinkie around the older man’s delicate one, shaking it much like they used to back in their Akademiya days.

“I didn’t realize that Senior Kaveh was still into ‘pinkie promises’ even at a mature age.” Al Haitham smirked, seeing Kaveh’s blushing face.

“Hey! You still have to hold them seriously. Promises are honest things!” Kaveh pouted, looking away. The Former Scribe let out a dee chuckle at his partner’s antics and decided to take a seat. The architect quickly followed suit.

“So you promise, yeah?” Kaveh turned tentatively towards his partner.

“Hmph, of course I do.” And with that, the two settled themselves in a comfortable silence together, their fingers interlocked as they stayed in their joint peace.

(Al Haitham experienced a sinking feeling of dread when he realized the promise was similar to the one in his dream.)

Su glanced up without opening his eyes. His spot under the tree never needed his eyesight, his mind and soul the only tools in understanding ‘Honkai’ and the universe. The soft sunlight seeping through the gaps in the leaves coated himself in warmth as he raised his head up.

But this was not the reason for Su’s unrest, no.

With Su’s capabilities as a psychic, he had unofficially taken the role of observing all realms with the Golden Courtyard.

And one of them being the Deep End, where Aponia was.

The 3rd Flamechaser had been confined in that mysterious place due to her abilities. Though no-one can deny the skills she had, her power was too formidable to resist. Thankfully, as a psychic himself, Su was barely able to withstand the urge to succumb to the power.

He always kept an eye on it and Aponia’s energy levels, just in case. And it seems he had done the right thing, judging by the change that had just occurred.

Usually, if Aponia isn’t doing anything that requires her psychic powers, her energy levels are constant and unchanging.

But recently, there was a sudden change.

Just what could’ve caused this?

Perhaps Elysia would know.

The two Teyvatians were bored out of their mind, so after some simple exploring, they managed to dig up some books. Al Haitham sat comfortably in lounge, indulging in a special read about ‘Honkai’ energy, one he believed would be useful later. Kaveh, on the other hand, would much prefer to do some sketching, especially after seeing the wonderful architecture and views within the Elysian Realm. However, no paper and pen were in sight, and Merhak had not arrived on this planet with him, so he was forced to pick up a book. Luckily, there were scriptures about art principles and architecture.

(Some of the art books had childish sketches and annotations within in them, confusing Kaveh.)

Eventually, Elysia walked up to them, chuckling slightly at the sight of the two of them curled up to each other reading books. Her footsteps alerted the two, causing them to look up in surprise.

“Hello~ I’m guessing everything worked out between you guys?” she grinned in amusement.

The two looked at each other before nodding, small blushes working their way up onto their faces.

“Anyways, I wanted to come meet you about something.” The pink-haired lady plopped onto the seat next to them, her smile bright yet serious.

“I was wondering, why are you here in the first place? We love your presence, but surely there’s a reason for coming here, no?”

Kaveh and Al Haitham were confused for a second, but then, as they tried to recount all the events that occurred in the realm, they realized that they hadn’t actually explained their predicament.

However, both of them silently agreed that their situation was far too complex for them in explain in full, so they opted to give a half-truth instead.

Al Haitham cleared his throat. “We are unable to make it home without exploring this place, according to the captain of Schicksal.” He feebly hoped that the explanation would be enough to sate Elysia’s curiosity.

Luckily, upon hearing about the red-head, the pink-haired lady smiled brighter than the two thought she could. “Ah, so you know the captain! That’s great! Well, I won’t pry any further.”

“But… to explore…you…might have to wait a while.” Everyone turned their heads to find the source of the new voice.

They say Raiden Mei floating up the stairs, her heels clacking as she landed right in front of them. Her piercing violet eyes held small sparkles of child-like guilt.

Al Haitham cocked his head in confusion. “Why?”

Raiden Mei chuckled awkwardly. “I…have the power to give permissions to certain people. It’s rather complicated, but the point is that this permission only refreshes once a week. So, I already used this week’s permissions to explore so…”

Kaveh visibly groaned, his head thumping back onto the seat in annoyance.

Elysia chuckled, laughing at Raiden’s attempt at seeming strong despite her guilty expression. “Ahaha~ Mei is so cute when she’s shy~!”

The purple haired lay grimaced in irritation.

It looked like the Teyvatians would have to stay longer than they thought.

There wasn’t any reason to do this, the captain knew. But his sinking feeling of dread that accompanied his recollection of his conversation with Kevin was hard to ignore.

The red-head was aware that the previous 1st Flame chaser would check on the progress of Raiden Mei’s journey in the Elysia. So, he would surely already know about the progress of Al Haitham’s and Kaveh’s exploration of the Elysian Realm. He just hoped that the two would be smart enough to not explain their whole predicament.

The captain knew that the alive Kevin did not hold any romantic feelings for Su, his head still stuck in the Previous Era and his relationship with DR.MEI. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t investigate something would be related to his best friend.

With these reasons in mind, the captain evaded every surveillance in building before jumping straight into the elevator of World Serpent. He smashed the closing door buttons multiple times as possible in order to avoid the multiple robots milling about.

At last, he arrived in the same place he was in a couple days prior, only this time he was much more secretive and alone.

He hurried down to the entrance, pushing the doors open with all his strength and then headed off to the Elysian Realm.

He had to make sure that those two would be safe, and he wasn’t hesitant to fight against the powerful 1st Flamechaser in order to ensure their safety.

The Gray Serpent kneeled down, his eyes closing in respect.

“My Sire, I have done as you instructed. The robots had been re-configured to avoid the suspected route of the captain, and all hidden cameras were deactivated. And so the captain has arrived in the Elysian Realm.”

The white-haired nodded in acknowledgement, before waving his hand to dismiss the robot.

Kevin closed his eyes, contemplating. It was as he suspected; the captain came back to guide those two strangers through the realm. The journey so far had been insignificant for the two men, which had essentially bored Kevin when he was observing them. Thankfully, the captain’s added presence would help move things along.

Kevin hated seeing the sight of that grey-haired man, so he hoped that they would be gone soon.

The white-haired male stood up from his throne, walking quietly towards the surveillance room.

He somehow felt a feeling of impatience when observing the Elysian Realm. It was a strange feeling, especially since he had the patience that spanned over 50,000 years.

“Time to watch.”

Al Haitham and Kaveh looked up suddenly, hearing the doors from the entrance of the Elysian Realm open. Everyone around peered towards the noise in curiosity and caution, their heads turning around.

Suddenly, a man dressed in white captain clothes and donned red hair hurried up the stairs, running towards the lounge as he recognized everyone there. In turn, everyone else knew who it was.

“Captain~! Long time no see!” Elysia waved over to the captain, who waved back.

“Ugh, about time you showed up! We have no idea what to do!” Kaveh shot up from his seat, grimacing in annoyance. The captain merely laughed Kaveh’s tantrum off, simply patting him and Al Haitham on the shoulder as a sign of greeting.

“It’s been a while. I admit… I did leave you guys to figure this all out…so worry not! I have arrived now!” and with that, the captain thumped his chest in pride.

Abruptly, Raiden Mei spoke up. “Captain… it’s nice to see you…” She looked down in shyness and embarrassment.

“Haha, it’s been quite some time isn’t it? How’s World Serpent treating you?”

With that, the two engaged in conversation, catching up after what seemed to be a long time apart. Raiden Mei previously used to be a Valkyrie in Schicksal, but after an event, she ended up moving to World Serpent to save her close ones. It had been a long while, so the captain and the purple-haired girl chatted leisurely in reminiscing and catching up.

That left Al Haitham, Kaveh and Elysia to converse. However, the pink-haired lady seemed to perk up her eyes in some silent signal, nodding as she seemed to mentally communicate with someone. The other two were extremely confused at the actions. At last, Elysia looked back towards Al Haitham and Kaveh, waving and slowly walking away.

“Sorry you two, but I have to get going. See you!” and with that, she left.

After a short while of standing awkwardly, the captain approached them, with Raiden Mei slowly making her way towards another place in the realm. The red-haired man smiled.

“Sorry for leaving you guys! But I’m here now to help you!” the captain ignored the death glares Kaveh was sending towards him.

“It’s probably been a long day for you guys, so let’s go to sleep okay?” The two Teyvatians nodded, and so they turned and left the captain alone.

Once Al Haitham and Kaveh were ready, they plopped onto their bed, their minds whirring with the multiple thoughts that circled in their heads.

They switched the lights off, ready to descend into slumber.

But just before Al Haitham could close his eyes, he heard Kaveh mumble.

“If you have a nightmare, tell me, okay?”

The grey-haired man offered nothing more than a hum in agreement before falling asleep.

Al Haitham opened his eyes softly, his vision slowly unblurring as his mind became less foggy. He observed his surroundings, seeing darkness surrounding him except from a single source of light from where he was standing. As he slowly moved, the light followed him.

Al Haitham started walking in what he assumed was forwards, which he really couldn’t be sure of because of where he was. The area seemed like a hall way, with no roof and walls, with only tall pillars lining the edge. Outside of that, there was only darkness as far as the eye could see.

Eventually, Al Haitham started to pick up the pace, running towards one end of the empty corridor.

As he started to reach a certain distance, a collection of pained whispers echoed in his mind. He ignored them, pushing further in whatever direction he was going. The sounds increased every time he took a step forwards, so he figured that he was getting closer to whatever was in this place.

Suddenly, the whispers quieted down, with a soft voice coming talking over them.

“Hello, Al Haitham.” The man in question stilled.

He recognized that voice. It was the same one from his dream. So that must mean that she was…

“That’s right, it is me, Aponia. ‘Please’ come forward, child.”

Without even thinking about, Al Haitham took slow steps forward. He internally struggled to fight back, but it seemed that he no longer had any control over his body. And slowly, he felt his own mind succumbing to her power too.

He could slowly make jail bars, a woman dressed in white sitting behind them. He had the sudden urge to quicken his pace, and then he stopped when he came face to face with the cell and the woman inside it.

“Thank you child. You have a strong mind.” Al Haitham felt himself nod. “Tell me, why do you look so much like Su?”

Al Haitham used the sane part of his brain to fight against the urge to answer, but to no avail. “I don’t know who that is, but I am related to him in some way.”

Aponia simply nodded.

Before she could say another word, a leaf fell slowly in between Al Haitham and the cell. Both the grey-haired man and the Flamechaser watched slowly as it drifted down onto the ground, landing elegantly with sparkles trailing behind it. Aponia looked up, and Al Haitham could feel her eyes narrow in slight annoyance even though he couldn’t see her face.

“Su.”

Chapter Text

Al Haitham managed to break free from Aponia’s control when she was surprized, so he used this opportunity to finally put a face to the name.

His eyes widened when instead he was met with a blurry outline of a figure floating above him a distance away. Leaves became to form and drift all around him, until he felt a voice speak.

“It seems we part now. But with the inevitable curse I have been given, I can see you are doomed to betray your loved ones.” Aponia clasped her hands together, before nodding slightly. The darkness consumed her, leaving only Al Haitham and the mysterious glowing figure of Su.

“Come, you have spent too much time here, it is not safe.” The outline of the figure descended in front of him, landing just a few feet away. He directed a fast flurry of leaves to Al Haitham, causing the Teyvatian to bring his arms in front of him and shut his eyes.

Al Haitham shot up in his bed, sweating. A large pounding headache made its way sharply through his skull. He released a large groan, which caused Kaveh to immediately open his eyes and sit up. He cradled his boyfriend’s face in concern.

“Another nightmare?” the architect whispered. Al Haitham refused to speak, and instead nuzzled into the hand on his cheek. Kaveh chuckled lightly at the feline-like gesture.

Eventually, the former Scribe spoke. “It wasn’t as…bad as the last one. I think I actually met Aponia.”

Crimson eyes widened in worry. “Did anything bad happen? Did she hurt you?” Kaveh released a sigh of relief as Al Haitham shook his head in disagreement.

Suddenly, the blond tugged his partner to lie back down on the bed. They cuddled next to each other, which were their cues to go to sleep.

Thankfully, with Kaveh by his side, no more dreams or nightmares came to Al Haitham the rest of the night.

Kaveh and Al Haitham made their way over to the lounge. However, before they turned the corner that led to the main hall, they heard two voices.

Two familiar voices.

“How’s life doing?” Kaveh widened his eyes, glancing at Al Haitham when he saw that indeed, the former scribe realized the similarity as well.

That voice was exactly the same as Tighnari’s.

The other voice, on the other hand, was much more chippier, much like a certain red-haired dancer. “Good, good! Oh, how’s the little girl by the way?”

Little girl? Were they talking about Collei?

“Hm…she’s doing alright. She’s still a bit weak, but she’s getting stronger, and she’s able to forage rather well.”

Yep, definitely talking about Collei.

“By the way, make sure to invite her to come to my next performance! I added some new segments in my new show!”

Kaveh and Al Haitham looked at each other before making a silent agreement. They ran towards the lounge, confident in their conclusions.

The two conversing, it had to be Tighnari and Nilou! There was simply no way that what they were talking about wasn’t related to themselves. If there were people from Teyvat that they knew, perhaps their journey would be a lot more exciting.

With that in mind, they turned the corner, went up the stairs to the lounge-

Only to be met with two people who definitely were not Tighnari and Nilou.

Instead, there were two women. One wore a dark grey hood and cape, complimenting her piercing red eyes and busy dark hair. The other sported a top hat, with multiple mechanical gears decorating her outfit. Both looked towards Al Haitham and Kaveh, looking equally confused as they were.

The one in the top hat laughed. “Ahaha! You must be the new visitors Elysia was talking about!” Her tone made the two Teyvatians involuntarily shiver.

“Come on now, I think you’re scaring them Vill-V.” the other lady sighed, before smiling warmly in the direction of Kaveh and Al Haitham.

“Hello, I’m Raven, and this Vill-V.” Kaveh opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted. “Before you ask, I’m not a flame-chaser, but Vill-V is. She’s the fifth one in the rankings.”

Before Kaveh could ask another question, he was once again interrupted by the footsteps of an additional presence. Everyone turned their heads towards the source, and recognized that it was the captain.

“Hello! Ah, hey there guys!” the red-head waved towards the women. He glanced between the Teyavtians and the others, trying to decipher what had just transpired. Sensing no ill-will or former harmful intent from either party, he shrugged, making is way to the two women sitting down in the lounge. Kaveh and Al Haitham followed suit.

“Hey Raven, it’s been a while.” The person in question nodded back at the captain, getting up and heading over to the bar.

“To celebrate, why don’t I mix a couple drinks for you?”

Both the captain and Kaveh pounced at the opportunity, but only the captain managed to agree as Al Haitham had turned to face the architect.

“No, Kaveh. We need two sober minds if we want to get home.” He face remained unimpressed at Kaveh’s annoyed scoff.

The architect made his way towards Raven, ignoring Al Haitham’s glare deepening in intensity. “If I remember correctly, you were the one who was flat-out drunk last time. I think it’s fair that I have my turn now.” The former Scribe sighed, already aware that he would agree to Kaveh’s requests even if he tried to deny it. He watched wistfully as Kaveh made grabbing motions towards the glass that Raven was currently pouring into, earning a hearty laugh from her.

Al-Haitham made his way to the bar, seating himself on a bar stool and pondering. He was curious, and with this his chance, he wanted to know more about the people around him.

“Raven, are you part of Schicksal as well? The captain knew you.”

She shook her head, her bangs swaying with the motion. “No, I don’t. I’m actually part of World Serpent, but… I guess you could say that I’m bit of a free spirit. I do bartending as a side gig, and then I met the Captain through there.” Raven shrugged. “He’s a good guy, even if we are somewhat enemies.”

“I heard you talking about a child… what was that about?” Al Haitham leaned backwards in the bar stool, crossing his arms not in a defensive stance, but rather in a relaxed position.

Raven smiled. “I… actually run an orphanage – somewhat. After the incident in Nagazora, there were a bunch of kids who survived but had no parents, so I took it on me to help them a little. It’s not much, but they made do, and their really good kids. One of them, in particular, she’s a bid sickly, but she’s getting stronger and is now a keen explorer.”

A bit like Collei… Al Haitham thought. He had no clue what Nagazora is, but he figured something catastrophic happened there.

He suddenly had a glass of a queer red liquid topped with a lemon pushed towards him, with Raven’s encouraging smirk accompanying it. With a sigh, he brought the glass to his mouth, savouring the tangy yet sweet drink. To his surprise, he found that he quite enjoyed this drink.

Abruptly, he was acutely aware that he and Raven were the only ones engaged in conversation. He turned his head to his right, seeing that the Captain, Vill-V and Kaveh were all giggling and whispering amongst themselves. His eyebrow twitched when he saw how close the Captain was with Kaveh, his hand close to his neck, resting neatly on his shoulder. His eyebrow furrowed further in anger when he saw the captain whisper something close to the architect, which caused the blond to laugh joyfully.

Kaveh was only allowed to laugh like that with him.

Al Haitham widened his eyes. It seemed that the alcohol was getting to him. When has he ever had such possessive thoughts? He downed the rest of his drink in an attempt to distract his thoughts.

He then grimaced when he glanced towards Raven, who was staring at him with an amused smirk. She chuckled, before turning away to clean up.

The grey-haired man made his way to the three, who stopped talking and greeted Al Haitham with smiles.

“Hey there, did you enjoy your drink? Hmm… you are looking a bit drunk.” The captain’s comment earned him a half-hearted slap across the head from the Acting Grand Sage. The red-head was surprisingly undeterred by the gesture, because it meant to him that the stoic scribe felt that he was a friend.

He was sure, however, that Al Haitham would not admit to it. In fact, the only reason he acted like this with him was because of his inebriated state.

“Al Haitham, did you know that Vill-V is an engineer? She’s given me some great advice.” Kaveh exclaimed, his crimson eyes deepening in joy. Al Haitham glanced towards the Flamechaser, surprized to see a creepy yet amused smile gracing her face.

“Hehe, happy to help! A magician doesn’t keep all their tricks to themselves!” So, she’s a magician it seems. She then turns to the man, her eyebrow raised in curiosity.

“So…why do you look like Su? Are you one of Mobius’ experiments?” Al Haitham once again felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance. Again, with this question? Honestly, the former scribe was getting rather annoyed by Su, even though he had no reason to.

After a while, Vill-V and Raven left, with the Flamechaser going towards her laboratory and Raven having to resume her work outside the realm. The only ones left were the captain, Kaveh and Al Haitham.

“So…let’s see what we can do. It’s currently Thursday, and I heard that Raiden had used this week’s permissions already. So the only thing we can do it wait.” The captain suddenly turned to Al Haitham. “I heard from Kaveh that you met Aponia twice. How did you meet her?”

Al Haitham started to explain what had transpired so far. He described his vivid nightmare, with Kaveh gasping and the captain solemnly nodding. He then described that curious place he visited, and how Aponia tried to control his mind.

“Wait, now that I remember it… I think… I also met Su. But not clearly, it was more…like he was outlined. I don’t actually know what he looks like.”

The captain nodded the entire time Al Haitham was speaking, mentally processing the information. “It seems he knows of your existence. Well, that’s relatively easier for me then, no need to do some awkward introductions.”

Kaveh frowned. “But you’ll still have to introduce Al Haitham as Su’s data baby though.”

“Please don’t ever say that again.”

The captain laughed quietly as Al Haitham and Kaveh bickered, then resumed back to his own thoughts. He believed that Su meant no harm, he knew that the 7th Flamechaser had a very kind and caring personality. He would have to keep watch, however, for Aponia and any others who would threaten the two visitors. No-one in the Elysian Realm seemed to truly hate them, but their methods of getting the truth about Al Haitham’s appearance will be a bit… unorthodox, to put it lightly.

The captain sighed, feeling a headache throbbing its way into his brain. This situation was truly far from ideal.

Kevin sighed once again. He hoped that the addition of the Captain’s presence in the realm would help get the two visitors out of there, and learn the truth of their existences at the same time, but once again, they are instead… holding tea parties and talking amongst others.

The white-haired man sighed again, covering his eyes in annoyance as he leaned back in his chair. But then he abruptly sat up, an idea sparking within him.

If the people in the realm weren’t willing to get the two visitors the hell out of there, why can’t he? Of course, he couldn’t directly be involved…but he could give them a small push that would inevitably force them to leave.

And to reveal the truth.

With this in mind, Kevin made his way towards the laboratory, where he found Jackal tinkering with multiple small gadgets and stigmata. She looked up towards him when they heard his presence, then immediately bowed in respect.

“To what do we owe the pleasure, my sire?” Jackal bowed her head further as she spoke.

“I believe I have found a use for MAXA-4501.” The masked scientist raised her head and eyebrows when she heard those words.

“Really? That’s wonderful, we were nearly out of space in storage, and there wasn’t anything we could find where MAXA would be useful for.” Jackal explained her predicament. “Where would you like me to send it?”

Kevin stayed silent for a few moments, before eventually voicing his decision.

“The Elysian Realm.”

Raven had just finished cleaning up when she felt her communicator buzz. She took from her pocket, sighing when she saw the familiar symbol of Jackal’s logo on the screen. She walked away to find a rural corner in the main hall, before picking up the call.

“Oi, I’m on my break, leave me the hell alone.” Raven growled. The person on the other side merely laughed in that same mocking way that made the assassin simply want to climb the millions of steps that led to World Serpent HQ and beat the shit out of that masked degenerate. Instead, she repressed her murderous intent and simply inhaled and exhaled to calm herself.

“Oh, little birdie, I’m afraid what the sire wants, he gets.” At those words Raven realizes that the call was just not some dumb prank by Jackal, but orders from her superiors.

With the lack of response, the scientist continued. “There’s a specimen that we need you to insert into Elysian Realm. MAXA-4501, it is called. Just drop it into the code of the realm and then you’re good.

Raven pinched her nose in annoyance. “In case you haven’t realized, you dumb bitch, is that I am not a hacker. Sure, I can get in, but in terms of brains, Klein will most definitely get on top.”

“And I’m not even on your list of ‘Smartest People of All Time’?”

“No.”

“Tch, you wound me. No matter, just come out of that Elysian box and get the USB. I’ll deal with the technicalities.

“Good. But I’m getting the hell out of the realm afterwards, I don’t want the captain on my ass.”

“And he won’t. But I will be if you don’t do your job right.”

Raven raised an eyebrow. “Literally or figuratively?”

Jackal laughed. “My, never knew Raven had a flirty side! No, just figuratively. Catch you later, little bird~” and then the line went dead.

Raven nearly crushed her communicator in her irritation. Maybe her murder plan wasn’t so bad after all.

At last, after practically wrangling the mysterious USB from Jackal’s grasp, Raven was back in the Elysian Realm. She entered the hall, looking both ways, and noticed that there was a suspicious lack of any presence. Her instincts were blaring alarm bells in her head, but she shrugged and made her way to the desk on the right-hand side of the hall. She touched the holographic globe, which then converted into a number of screens.

Raven sighed, already feeling a headache coming her way. She just wanted to get this done as possible.

After some clacking away, she inserted the USB into a plug point.

The assassin eyed the device curiously. What was so special in there that Kevin, of all people, wanted something as small as this to go into Elysian Realm? There was probably only a small virus that the computer systems in the realm would easily be able to overcome.

With a shrug, Raven watched as Jackal started to remotely insert the code, before a green progress bar eventually filled up, signalling the finish.

As instructed, she disconnected the USB and burnt it, summoning her fire battle suit power to shrivel the device into nothing but ashes. Raven glanced around once more, before making her way back to the World Serpent HQ.

The captain’s eyes followed the stealthy World Serpent soldier from where he was leaning against. He had noticed Raven was acting suspiciously, so he quickly dived into a spot out of her sight. He peeked over into the control room, where Raven was tinkering with the computer.

She suddenly took out a small USB, with the label MAXA-4501 labelled on it. The captain’s eyes widened as he realized what was up. He had discovered this unique specimen long ago… but it escaped when he tried to capture it… and now it was right in front of him.

But the captain did not move from his spot.

Instead, he simply watched as Raven burnt the USB into a crisp, and then swiftly exited the realm.

With a sigh, one he was sure that she was gone, the captain made his way over to the hologram computer, trying to notice any immediate changes in the realm after inserting the USB.

“Let’s just get going.” The captain turned on his heel, ready to leave.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, not so fast captain.” The high-pitched voice made the captain go to a screeching halt, immediately reaching for his weapons.

But they were not there.

He turned around, ready to face the enemy with his bare fists alone-

But he received a blow from the back of his head before he could fight.

The mysterious entity clapped its hands. “Ahahaha! It’s been so long captain! Thanks to you, I will have so much fun with the other people in the realm”.

Chapter Text

“All ready, Captain?” Rita Rossewise, S-rank Valkyrie in Schicksal, dusted off wrinkles in her skirt before bowing slightly. The man in question nodded, inspecting the large ruin in front of them. Durandal and the rest of the Holy Blades stood behind the heroes, ready for their mission.

Otto Apocalypse, the Overseer of the organization, had issued a mission to the captain and the Holy Blades about a special stigmata that had overrun an ancient ruin.

Now, the team and the captain finished securing the perimeter of the ruin, and had decided to continue venturing forth. With, Durandal, Rita and the captain taking the lead - and majority of the Holy Blades staying outside as backup – they all started pondering their choices.

“Captain, I’m detecting multiple Honkai beasts in the structure. Should we proceed with more people?” Durandal glanced towards the captain in front of her, who held their steadfast gaze towards the intimidating entrance of the ruin. He shook his head, so the two S-rank Valkyries and the red-head ventured inside.

The clashing of scythes and the swinging of lances could be heard over the shots of the captain’s hyper-speed guns. When at last the chamber was cleared of monsters, the captain glanced around, assessing the damage of the Valkyries. They had ventured quite far into the ruin, and had been ambushed by Honkai Beasts multiple times. By the time they had gotten here, many of the A-rank Valkyries who came along were either partially injured or tired. After some thinking, the captain came to a decision.

“Everyone,” he announced, signalling for everyone in the room to listen. “Durandal, Rita and I will continue into the ruin. Everyone else, head back and recuperate. If we do not return in the next 20 minutes, contact HQ for a rescue operation.” There were silent nods before all the A-rank Valkyries slowly walked towards the exit.

Rita and Bianca did not make any comment about the captain’s choice, instead assuming alert stances as the three of them continued forth.

“Captain, I’m detecting an Emperor-class Honkai Beast ahead.” Rita held up her Honkai-detector towards the captain, who glanced at it to confirm.

“Don’t worry, we will be fine.” Durandal looked towards Rita and smiled, who smiled in turn. The captain was happy at their obvious affection each other, but cringed nonetheless. With a sigh, he continued forward.

After a while, the three managed to go through majority of the maze-like ruin in the span of a few minutes. At last, they found themselves in front of a large door, and Rita’s Honkai-beast detector was beeping rapidly.

“Looks like we are here. Proceed with caution.” Both the captain and Rita nodded at Bianca’s words.

Durandal held her lance in front her, ready to attack any entity that would make its way towards them once they opened the large door to the chamber in front of them. Likewise, Rita readied her scythe and the captain pointed on of his guns towards the entrance as he used the other to push the large door open.

But nothing greeted them except darkness ahead.

As the three peered towards the mysterious entrance, a large, thick black fog came towards them, whirling rapidly in multiple directions. Bianca used her lance to protect herself from any creatures that might attack at this inopportune moment.

However, as she stood still, unable to see her companions due to the fog, her eyes began droop slowly, a sudden tiredness washing over her.

She missed the sound of Rita and the captain screaming her name as the darkness flooded her vision.

Without being aware that she was asleep, she shot up to a large alarm blaring right next to her. She blinked, slowly recognizing that she was in her room back at Schicksal. The noise was of her alarm clock yelling at her to get ready for her morning routine. With a sigh, she got up, pumped up and full of energy for the rest of the day.

But didn’t she go somewhere right before?

No, no…

Yes?

No. She did not.

Good.

With that out of the way, Durandal continued with her morning routine, until she suddenly received a notification from Rita to meet her in the courtyard of Schicksal HQ. With a grin on her face, she hastened her routine and then sped off to meet her friend.

(She did not notice the lack of people in the area.)

Durandal’s face lit up brighter when she saw the familiar figure of Rita on the platform that looked out towards the sky. Her hair was rustling as the artificial breeze made its way through the floating sphere of Schicksal base, the casual clothes that she decided to wear clinging to her tightly by the force of it. The maid turned and waved when she noticed the blonde make her way over to her.

“Thank you Bianca, for coming on such short notice.” Durandal merely nodded, dismissing Rita’s thanks with a hug to greet her.

But before the blonde could say anything, the ‘shing’ of a scythe could be heard slicing through a body. And eventually, Durandal was met with the torso of Rita standing in front of her, with it collapsing next to its decapitated head, blood leaking out profusely.

Immediately, the Valkyrie summoned her lance, but to no avail. She did not come in her battlesuit, so she was left to defend herself with her fists only. But when Bianca went to look at the perpetrator that dared to kill her friend, she was shocked to find another Rita, one in her actual battlesuit.

“Wha…”

“Bianca, you need to wake up!” Rita yelled as she snatched Bianca’s wrist. They ran towards the edge of the platform, before jumping off and descending through the sky.

Durandal covered her eyes from the wind…

Before eventually waking up on the dusty floor of the cave, and the captain and Rita hovering over her.

“What…happened?” Bianca asked as she stood up. She saw the concerned faces of her two companions.

“It… was the power of that stigmata. I barely managed to get you out of there.” Rita sighed, hugging Bianca tightly.

The floor suddenly shook, a large roar vibrating through the cave.

“Perhaps we should get out of here!” The captain yelled over the sound of rocks falling and the monster’s stomping. The Valkyries quickly nodded before making their way to the assumed direction of the exit.

They ran and ran, their legs tired but relentless with their desire to escape. The three had to perform some evasive manoeuvres to avoid the rocks stabbing them through their torso, and were successful. Before long, they could see the familiar light of the outside world.

Though, a high-pitched voice suddenly spoke out.

“My… my… looks like my three little toys are running away!” The three in question turned around, their weapons at the ready-

And were met with a small girl with two plaits, her eyes and arms with stitching around them to resemble a doll. Her eyes looked eerily like sewed-on buttons, similar to a creepy doll that would be deteriorating in an old house attic, yet her clothes were kempt and clean.

It seemed that the stigmata that the Schicksal crew were trying to find were here.

Rita immediately shot a set of sharp ice crystals with a swing of her weapon, with the captain sending a large burst of energy through his gun. The stigmata, however, opened a portal-like structure and used it to capture their attacks, before vanishing completely.

“Aww… my toys seem to be tired. Maybe I’ll put them out of their misery!” and then another portal opened up behind her, and then the stigmata stepped inside. Without a single trace left, the entity was gone. Instead, the large stomping was getting louder and louder, until the monster revealed itself to be a very angry Emperor-class Paravati.

The captain opened his eyes slowly, the recollection of the previous event still fresh in his mind.

He remembered, that after defeating Paravati, they were unable to find the stigmata again. With their figurative tails between their legs, the captain had to reluctantly tell Otto about their failure with the mission.

But instead, the Overseer simply laughed in the same mocking way he always does, and then told them that he had not expected them capture it in the first place.

After placating the Captain and stopping him from punching the overseer, Otto explained that the stigmata was a specimen he had found a while ago in France. It had the mysterious power of creating special domains according to the target, which Rita confirmed. The Valkyrie explained that how she had managed to find Durandal was through her connection with the Sumeru Tree. She had located a mysterious domain, where she saw Durandal, oblivious to her situation, talking to a fake copy of Rita.

With that, there were merely some theories about this mysterious stigmata, but eventually this was nothing but simple theories that were easily dismissible.

The one that stood out the most, however, was that the stigmata could create domains, which was in fact not new information.

But at least it was confirmed, judging by where the captain was now.

He was sitting in a chair, surrounding by multiple screens and keyboards. Everywhere he looked, that’s all there seemed to be.

With no other option, the captain decided to check out the gimmicks and see if there was any answer to his predicament. He clicked on the screens. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, all the files and software was extremely similar to what he had on his own Schicksal devices. In fact, some of the files were ones that had only been seen by a select few, so there was no way the stigmata had seen confidential files.

So, note number one: The stigmata can create domains custom to the victim, judging by how they created an environment so similar to what the captain was used to.

Eventually, the captain realized there was no point trying to find some secret backdoor in these computers, and so all in all, it was a fruitless endeavour.

Next, the captain tried to get up from his chair.

But suddenly, a red alarm blared throughout his ears, and that pain of it forced the captain to sit right back down. Eventually, after clutching his ears for a long time, the ringing in the red-head’s ears came to a halt.

So, note number two: Do not attempt to leave.

The captain sighed. With nothing to go off, all he could do is either wait until someone gets him, or to brew himself in this chair until his death.

Great, just great.

The captain decided to sort through his thoughts.

If the domains are made custom to the victim, which seems to be highly likely, then this place is specifically for the captain. But what is the goal of these domains? What does the stigmata achieve?

Suddenly, just as the captain was about to groan in annoyance again, a screen blinked to life with a new window. With curious eyes, the red-head peered towards it, noticing the familiarity of it.

A weird video had popped up in front of him. When the captain tried to close the window, the screen froze then glitched back to life, the video still open. With no way forward, he clicked play and watched the mysterious footage.

It was a very simple animation. A family of relatively well drawn stick figures living in a house. It seems to show a short story of a particular protagonist, a small girl living through her life.

The details of the stick figure became more defined as the drawn simple flicks of hair became more sophisticated curls, and the height of the stick figure compared to its parents definitely grew.

Alas, not everything can be peaceful.

Suddenly, splotches of horrific pink crashed its way through the footage, eating up every single figure. And when all was said and done, the little girl was the only one left.

The video stilled suddenly, the childishly drawn stick figure somehow becoming creepier during every moment passing in the captain’s eyes. The silence was too much to bear, until eventually a new window popped up on the screen, right in front of the video.

It was clear that either the person who made the video had improved their artistic capabilities, or someone else had drew it, as a more detailed, professional drawing of a child was shown.

The lines and scribbles all melded to show a young girl, probably the one from before, smiling directly into the captain’s eyes. He shivered involuntarily, observing the thread-like stitches that connected all her individual body parts to another, much like a ragdoll. Yet, the girl seemed so…alive. Her smile was ever so wicked yet gentle, her eyes piercing yet soft, her chuckle evil yet innocent.

Wait…chuckle?

The captain blinked himself out his trance when he realized that the image had now started to sprout out of the screen, its hands making grabbing motions as its full body started to materialize. The captain could do nothing but watch, scrambling for something to defend himself but to no avail.

Threads burst from under the floor, tying and thus immobilizing the red-head to the chair as he struggled.

Eventually, the girl had fully formed, and was towering over the captain, her malicious grin causing another shiver go through him.

“You… you’re,” the captain flinched when he realized who was in front of him.

“…MAXA-4501.”

The stigmata’s widening smile was the last thing the captain saw before a burst of pain from his head, forcing him to black out.

Al Haitham and Kaveh, after leaving the lounge to rest, came back to the main hall only to be met with an eerie silence. They thought that maybe the captain, or another Flamechaser, would be waiting for them here, but no presence could be seen or felt.

Al Haitham still felt suspicious, while Kaveh decided that it was a mere coincidence that they arrived at a time when no-one was here. With that, he plopped himself onto the couches and whipped out a notebook to sketch in. The grey-haired man, meanwhile, sat down next to him and pulled out a book he had been reading earlier.

This routine was extremely similar to their previous lives in Teyvat, yet the difference of location did not waver the warmth and comfort such mundane activities provided to them.

It was after a good while when the two could hear a presence making their way over to them, causing them to abruptly sit straight and remain alert.

They were greeted by a woman in pure white clothing, a piece of cloth covering the top of her head. It reminded Al Haitham and Kaveh of the nuns that worshipped Barbatos in the city of Freedom. Multiple small flowers, butterflies and jewels decorated her appearance as she walked elegantly towards them.

It was only then Al Haitham realized who this person was. He stood up immediately, brandishing his weapons and activating his battle suit. Kaveh was confused, but copied that action regardless.

“I mean no harm, my child.” Her hands remained in their clasped position as she opened her eyes. Al Haitham remained where he was, refusing to let him or Kaveh succumb to that terrifying power he experienced before.

Kaveh still stood warily, unaware of what was going on. “Al Haitham, who is this?”

Instead, the nun answered the question. “I believe this is the first time we have met, Kaveh. My name is Aponia, the third of the Flamechasers.”

Immediately, Kaveh pointed his weapon towards the Flamechaser, understanding Al Haitham’s apprehension. “You better not do anything funny.” He emphasized his threat with a minuscule thrust of his claymore.

Aponia remained undeterred. Instead, she bowed - a sign of peace. “I only wish to… know the truth. I believe our initial introduction was…not on the best of terms, so I wish to amend that.”

As much Al Haitham would like to remain wary of Aponia, he does realize that she did help him on their first encounter, where he was trapped in his nightmare. With a weary sigh, he lowered his weapon, looking headfast towards the Flamechaser with determination yet caution.

“I’ll listen to what you have to say.” Kaveh whipped his head to look at his partner, his bewildered expressions becoming more shocked by the millisecond.

“Haitham, be careful! We don’t know what she wants!” the architect hissed.

Again, this time Aponia answered. “ I believe I have already stated what I wanted...”

Is this lady for real? Kaveh thought blankly. Eventually, when neither party decided to say anything, the blond put his weapon away. Aponia took this as her cue to start speaking.

But before the Flamechaser could utter a word, an extremely tired voice accompanied by the small pitter patter of feet interrupted the tension.

“Excuse me, can you please go do this somewhere else? I don’t want to have to do any cleaning.” Al Haitham and Kaveh blinked, looking left and right trying to find the voice. Their eyes catch onto a small tuff of light green hair from behind Aponia, which stated to slowly form into a…child. But even then, this creature was smaller than an average human. As it approached the crowd, the Teyvatians could make out the eyebags and tiredness that coated their entire being.

Aponia bowed slightly towards the green-haired creature. “I apologize Klein.” She then turned to Al Haitham. “I believe we should continue this conversation another time.” She turned to face her back towards them, and then a flurry of butterflies came around her, only to show that the Flamechaser had vanished.

Klein, as the visitors has learnt, walked closer towards them. Its tiny pupils widened when it locked eyes with the grey-head, but blinked to talk to them both.

“I guess it’s necessary for introductions. I’m Klein, an ELF assistant to Mobius. I oversee general affairs of the realm.”

Al Haitham and Kaveh pretended that they understood what the assistant just said.

“By the way, have you seen the captain?” Klein tilted her head with a questioning stare. The Teyvatians both shook their heads.

“I’m worried, the entry and departure logs don’t show him leaving, but I haven’t been able to find him. I tried to contact him, but his contact immediately goes to voicemail.”

Kaveh stepped forward. “Is there anything we can do to help?”

Without any response, Klein turned around, making their way to the other side of the hall towards the large desk with the holographic sphere. With a shrug towards each other, the other two decided to follow him.

The small ELF jumped onto a stool, pressing a button that caused the hologram of the globe to convert to multiple screens. Lines upon lines of data, code and descriptions kept occupying the entire interface, until Klein made one screen bigger than the other.

It depicted what would be a bird’s eyes view of the main hall, although it was from a small angle. They could just make out their silhouettes in the corner of the image, their bodies represented by a couple of pixels near the desk on the screen.

“This screen shows all the security cameras of all the public locations in the realm. We might see the captain through there.” Klein tapped on multiple keys on the keyboard as she spoke.

“And if we don’t, what then?” Kaveh nudged his partner as a small scolding for his comment. Klein decided to ignore the question and instead motioned for the two visitors to look at the screen again.

The ELF flicked through multiple locations. There was the main hall, the hallway leading to the rooms, and gardens and small arenas. However, after a couple taps, the screen showed the main hall again, right where they started.

“Surely that’s not everything in the realm?” Al Haitham asked. Honestly, why did they have to help find the captain? No offense, but it seemed that he was pretty capable of taking care of himself.

“No, these are the public locations, remember? So if the captain isn’t those locations… then he might be somewhere else in the realm.” Klein responded blankly, though the minuscule panic she felt was wavering in her voice.

Kaveh was still confused. “So how do you monitor other places?”

The ELF met his gaze head-on. “One of the Flamechasers here takes a duty to observe all the places in the realm. I’ll ask them to come over here and help us.”

“And who is it?”

Klein hesitated.

“It’s Su, the seventh Flamechaser.”

Al Haitham waited tentatively as Klein contacted Su. At this point, the captain’s disappearance was the last thing on his mind. Instead, his nerves were grating as he realized that he was finally going to meet this mysterious person that looked so much like him, except in real life.

What would he look like, other than that foggy outline he saw in his dream? He was said to be so similar to him, so he was assuming that there would be many complimenting features, such as his multicoloured eyes, or grey and green hair.

He sighed, feeling a tension bubbling within him. Okay, so he was going to meet this mysterious data father or whatnot soon. So what’s the big deal? Why does the Acting Grand Sage, with his pride for being able to regard situations with logic, suddenly experience an unexplainable feeling that made him want to…run away?

He started to feel that same nauseating emotion that he experienced at the start of his journey here in the realm, a pull that forced him to look the other way about the truth.

But the truth of what?

The sound of someone walking across the marble floor momentarily stunned Al Haitham. He was dragged out of his thoughts as he saw Klein move forwards in the direction of the new person, while Kaveh came next to him and squeezed his hand reassuringly.

As the stranger walked up to them, as soon as both he and Al Haitham faced each other, they both stopped.

It was like looking in a mirror, to effectively describe it. To Al Haitham, the person he was looking at was like a copy of his younger years, when he was slimmer and much smaller. His hair was the same light-grey as Al Haitham’s, with the signature green streak on the side. It was grown out all the way to waist, the ends fusing into a beautiful pale colour.

The mysterious Su had his eyes closed, yet he knew where to look and to walk.

His head turned towards Al Haitham, and he stood still, a soft smile gracing his face. His eyes still did not open as he held out a hand for the other to shake.

“You must be the visitors that entered the realm recently. My name is Su, the seventh Flamechaser.”

Despite his kind introduction, Al Haitham could only stare. He felt his mind drifting away from his body as he was suddenly overwhelmed with a torrent of emotions. Grief, happiness, anger….

Fear.

But what did he have to fear?

Before he knew it, he could feel himself take a step back, and then another, and then another. He immediately turned away and ran.

He could hear Kaveh yelling and running after him, but he was too dazed to realize it. He didn’t even know where he was going.

What had truly become of him? Where was the level-headed, logical man when you needed him?

The moment Al Haitham saw Su and his appearance, it was like he was hit with a brick. His heart hammered in his chest as he kept on running towards who-knows-where, feeling frustrated at the onslaught of negative emotions threatening to drown him. Why, why? Why?!

Why was he feeling these damn feelings? He shouldn’t even have feelings because he shouldn’t exist in the first place-

Ah.

The man stopped, the reality of what he was feeling hitting him.

The reason he filled with the grief, that he felt fear, was because seeing the mysterious Su revealed to Al Haitham that…that-

He shouldn’t exist.

Yeah, the captain said otherwise, but if you found out your entire existence was created from a mistake, who wouldn’t feel like they were meaningless in the grand scheme of things?

It seemed that statement applied to the usually stoic Scribe.

If all Al Haitham was is a… a being that wasn’t supposed to be in Teyvat, let alone exist… then-

Al Haitham could register the presence of Kaveh slowly approaching him, his dainty hand gradually coming in contact with his shoulder as an act of comfort. No conversation or demands for truths were said, which Al Haitham was grateful for; he never really knew how to express his feelings.

Instead of going back to the main hall, he felt Kaveh guiding him towards their room and collapsing on the bed.

Chapter Text

Even with his eyes closed, Su only continued to watch as Kaveh went after Al Haitham. The gradual descent of their footsteps accompanied the silence until it was only Klein and the flamechaser left.

“Not quite what you were expecting, Su?” The ELF’s tired voice rung out amid the imposing quiet.

Not a word was spoken for a few seconds, before eventually Su let out a small exhale. “Not anything about the current situation is expected.”

With that as Klein’s answer, she let out a deep sigh, before turning back to her holographic screen that showed parts of the Elysian Realm. She gestured towards Su, asking him to come closer. The grey-haired man obliged, observing the multiple images projected.

Indeed, as Klein had stated, the captain was nowhere to be seen. Therefore, it was up to the psychic to find the red-haired man.

Green wind and leaves materialize around Su, his hair blowing upwards from the sheer energy of his power. His eyes open slowly, a fuchsia glow shining over his pupils. His focus was to the area right in from of him, his eyes unwavering as he let his mind race through images of the secret locations of the realm.

In the Elysian Realm Garden? No. In the Deep End? No.

Oh… over here in the Last Grave? No… that’s just Kalpas.

Forgotten City?… no.

Hmm? Oh! Definitely over at the Twilight Woods! ...No.

Instead of a large, frustrated sigh, Su simply dispelled his power and let out a breathy exhale. He had gotten nothing out of the endeavour – and considering the look he saw on Klein’s face, that doesn’t mean anything good.

“Nothing I’m afraid, Klein.” Su went back to his normal state, his eyes closed fully yet seeing once more.

The silence that accompanied Klein’s quiet apprehension was suffocating to the two. Su knew that his power had its limits, as he was only a frontline psychic, yet the thought did not comfort him about his lack of answers of the Captain’s location.

There was only one option to go with now, and judging by the glance Klein gave him, she was thinking the exact same thing. They set off together to the Deep End.

Sharp ice icicles the size of mountains sprouted from the arena, instantly dropping the temperature to freezing low. Yet, the man who made them was unaffected, his icy eyes burning with resolve.

Kevin exhaled slowly, not out of exhaustion, but out of… peace. It was strange – as a man full of contradictions would be – he found himself calm and tranquil among the chaos of battle rather than the mundane of ordinary life.

(His life was far from ordinary, though.)

With a snap of his fingers, the rest of the World Serpent training robots ceased to exist, their metal parts exploding as ice stabbed through them from an unknown source.

“Training Objective Complete. Continue?”

Kevin ignored the mechanical voice of the system and instead made his way out from the arena, going back to his surveillance system. He was sure MAXA-4501 would’ve at least caused some chaos by now in the Elysian Realm.

The stigmata was an interesting specimen, to say the very least. The Kaslana could distinctively remember his own encounter with it, with its doll-like features and child-like personality.

(Of course, she was no match for the 1st Flamechaser. She was 50,000 years lacking in experience than he was.)

The domain that it created – that was custom to him and his experiences – was nothing short of creepy. Even for as old as he is, seeing his past and memories come up in a way that was mean to manipulate him was enough to make Kevin’s hairs to subtly stand on end.

But he was familiar with this kind of power. It was similar to Fenghuang Down, after all. Eerily related even. Yet, it was Kevin’s own familiarity with the Divine Key that he was able to discern the truth about the stigmata. The domain took a different approach to Fenghuang Down, where in that case it was mental fortitude that was the key to escaping.

No, what differentiated the Divine Key from the stigmata was its unpredictability.

The memories it digs out of you are tailored to its whims. And so, when Kevin fought against the stigmata, he was aware of the differences in the domain, especially when compared to his own memories.

In the end, it wasn’t the hellish power nor the mental strength he had that got him out of there, but rather the-

“Incoming communication – Grey Serpent No#56247.”

Kevin ever so lightly leaned back in his chair, annoyed with himself and the interruption. Here he was thinking about irrelevant things while he should be doing something important – and he got interrupted at an inconvenient time.

(Yes, watching the Elysian Realm is important business, thank you very much.)

With nothing to do but answer, Kevin reluctantly brought his mind back to the present and responded to the call.

Al Haitham groaned, the small nap he had insufficient in repelling his exhaustion, as well as removing the memories from earlier. He glanced on his side, noticing Kaveh sleeping blissfully.

A pang of envy went through him, but he quickly snuffed it out. The issues and circumstances are affecting him only, so why is Kaveh so…calm? But he knows that the thought is irrational. Rude, even and he is ashamed of it.

But deep down, rather than annoyance, Al Haitham feels…lonely. He is alone. Truly alone in the situation. Yes, Kaveh is so supportive to him, but… Al Haitham doubts he would truly understand what he is going through.

It’s not like he could walk up to someone in Sumeru and ask them, Hey, have you ever been a universe travelling baby from two men from another world, and doubted your own existence because of it?

No, just me?

He knows that its cruel of him to leave Kaveh out, but the Acting Grand Sage has always been someone who would rather deal with the situation – whether than be physical or internal – by himself.

With a weary sigh, he slowly slid his arm out from underneath Kaveh’s head. Al Haitham knows that he had already left Kaveh out of the loop once about a nightmare, and had promised him that he would start telling him the truth…but… the man simply didn’t have the courage to talk about his problems.

After all, its one thing to tell someone an event, but another to tell them your own feelings about the matter.

(It was strange – a deep gut feeling of dread came over him as he realized he was breaking his promise to Kaveh. It’s not like anything bad would happen right? After all, last time Kaveh was just simply concerned about the nightmare, and trusted him to speak up about his wellbeing.

Huh…now that he thinks about it… what was the nightmare that time about again?)

With muted silence, Al Haitham slowly made his way out of the bed and into the main hall. It seemed that once again, the area was completely devoid of people, his footsteps the only thing accompanying his presence.

A glance around the area revealed something to him – a shelf full of little egg-like ornaments. Each of them varied in terms of design – some were decorated with little trinkets and accessories, while some had little to none.

Al Haitham came closer, counting 13 in total. Observing further, he realized that some of them resembled the people he had met so far – a purple one reminded him exactly of Elysia, a gold and maroon one reminded the man of the wines that Eden was drinking, and so forth.

There were also others he didn’t recognize, so he could only assume that they were ornaments related to the Flamechasers he hadn’t met.

The grey-haired man was curious – for what purpose were these here for? Do they serve a pure decoration meaning? With nothing else to go off of, Al Haitham reaches to touch one of the ornaments.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, visitor.”

Faster than lightning, Al Haitham retracted his arm and whipped his head around to meet the source of the voice.

It was Su, leaning calmly against the wall near the lounge, his hands interlaced behind his head.

The Acting Grand Sage had no clue what to say, the memories of their previous meeting flooding into his brain, rendering him embarrassed. Thankfully, Su was merciful enough not to mention his obvious inner turmoil, and instead continued with his own words.

“I don’t recommend touching those.”

Al Haitham looked up to meet Su’s eyes, even if they were closed. “What are they?”

“We call them Remembrance Vessels.” Su came up from his relaxed position, walking closer to touch a specific Vessel – one with dark blue and gold adorning it in swirls.

“They hold our memories – memories about the previous era that have all contributed to our individual lives.” Only then did Al Haitham realize that the Vessel Su was touching was his own.

“So why can’t I touch it? Do you have something to hide?”

Su’s hair rustled softly with the shakes of his head. “No, not anything dangerous or evil. I advised you not to touch it because you will see my experiences and what I have been through.”

His eyes opened ever so slightly. “I do not know if you have been in a war before, Al Haitham, especially with something like the ‘Honkai’, but there are some things that should be seen with discretion.”

At Al Haitham’s silence, Su continued. “There were previous visitors in the Elysian Realm who viewed the Remembrance Vessels with a delicate mind. They barely were able to leave with a coherent mind.”

The other man looked down. “Do any of your memories have an answer as to why I look like you?”

Su closed his eyes again. Ah, so he decided to bring out the elephant in the room.

“No, I unfortunately I don’t. I’d say I am as confused about this predicament as you are.”

Al Haitham looked back to the flamechaser. “I do know a little bit…. But… I don’t think it’s the full truth. It was the captain who told me everything I know.”

Su tilted his head to the side slightly. “You think that the captain is hiding something?”

The other reflected on his past experiences and how the captain acted. He didn’t seem to be driving the two towards their goal to getting back to Teyvat, nor did he explain anything further beyond what actually happened. And now…

“Speaking of the captain… did you manage to find him?” Al Haitham asked.

Judging by the perplexed and souring face of Su, either something bad has happened to the captain, or they haven’t found him yet.

Su sighed softly. “No…we… we didn’t find him. I tried my utmost best, but… I could not detect his presence anywhere. So…”

He sighed once again.

“…so we had to consult with Aponia. She is undoubtedly much stronger than I am in terms of being a psychic, so we had no choice but to ask her.”

Al Haitham motioned to the other to continue. “And…?”

“Nothing, I’m afraid… he has simply vanished. We’ve check previous footage, any tracking he might’ve had, anything – but we could not find his location.”

“I’m assuming this is not normal?”

“Oh, definitely not, visitors come here all the time, so we make sure that they are safe.” Su recounts.

“In that case… that means something has changed since Kaveh and I arrived.”

The Flamechaser hummed in contemplation. “That is a thought…. Hmm… give me a moment.” He then made his way over back to the holographic sphere and pulled up one of the screens. Al Haitham merely watched in curiosity as Su let his closed eyes scan over the writing.

“No, I don’t think it was your presence. Look –” Su pointed to a part of the screen. “It was recorded that someone left after you two had entered the realm. So, something must’ve happened after that person left that caused the captain’s disappearance, judging by the times recorded.”

Al Haitham glanced at the screen. “Who was it?”

“Hmm… Natasha – or Raven, as I’m sure she introduced herself as to you.”

Suspicion whirled in the Teyvatian’s mind, trying to speculate what happened. Could Raven have kidnapped the Captain? No… they seemed rather close. Maybe Raven… killed him….?

Before his thoughts could delve any further, a loud, high-pitched yell from the hallway near the residential rooms. Al Haitham’s mind immediately flashed to Kaveh and whether he was safe. Without even thinking about it, he made his way over, with Su briskly following behind him.

He turned the corner and-

Al Haitham’s worst fears came true.

Kaveh lying on the floor, motionless save for a twitch in his limbs that would eventually subside. His battlesuit and clothing were roughed up and torn, with blood splotching through from multiple wounds around his body.

Standing over him was a girl with cat ears and a tail, her face full of dread and fear.

Al Haitham immediately summoned his sword, sparing no second in approaching the intruder.

He was immediately stopped by Su placing a hand on his shoulder, coughing to get the girl’s attention.

Her feline features perked up upon hearing him, and immediately relief came through on her face.

“S-s-su!! I-I f-found this… this man…cov-covered in blood! I didn’t do anything to-to him, I-I swear!”

Su came closer slowly. “It’s ok Pardofelis, we’re here to help.” He crouched down to assess Kaveh’s condition.

The Flamechaser glanced up at Al Haitham and Pardofelis. “You two, take Kaveh to the medical bay. I will go on ahead to prepare the equipment.”

With nothing more than a glance between the feline Flamechaser and the Teyvatian, Su immediately ran as fast as he could towards the medical facility.

This is bad… Su grimaced. First the captain disappearing, and now Kaveh being attacked. Could it be a fellow colleague? I don’t want to suspect anyone… but…

Something is happening in the Elysian Realm, one we’ve yet to discover.

Su rushed through the doors and began preparing his equipment for medical treatments.

Perhaps… I should let him know…

Chapter Text

The slow but steady beeping of the heartbeat monitor was terrifying, yet strangely reassuring to Al Haitham. If not for monotonous noise, he would’ve had no other indication of Kaveh being alive, but that fact did not lessen his own dread.

The injuries the blond had sustained weren’t fatal, but they definitely weren’t minimal either. Bruises and deep cuts were scattered across the expanse of Kaveh’s pale, sickly skin, and his breathing was much too shallow and weak for such an energetic person. A particular deep gash across his chest was wrapped tightly with bandages.

As Al Haitham clutched his partner’s hand, he chanted in his mind that Kaveh will be okay.

At least, the doctor had mentioned that he would be alright.

Speaking of the doctor…

The grey-haired man stole a glance up towards Su, noticing the other was sorting through the supplies he had brought out when treating Kaveh earlier.

When Al Haitham had rushed into the bay earlier, he had immediately laid Kaveh down on the bed, and Su had set to work. The Acting Grand Sage had to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill as he saw Kaveh’s limp body trickling out more blood, the Flamechaser desperately trying to stop the bleeding and disinfect the wounds with precise motions.

Eventually, the situation had led to where they were now – Al Haitham sitting next to the bed, staying as close as possible to Kaveh while Su was tinkering with his supplies. Pardofelis, being very weak in the stomach, had ran away after Kaveh was okay.

It had honestly shocked the Teyvatian that the psychic was able to perform medical procedures with the swiftness and accuracy that would rival even some of the top doctors at Bimarstan in Sumeru. Moreover, not once had the man opened his eyes during the entire ordeal.

With his curiosity having gotten the better of him, Al Haitham decided to ask. “How do you know so much about medicine and first aid?”

Su chuckled, his eyes crinkling upwards in kindness despite being fully closed. He leaned against the counter, facing the other.

“It was my field of study in my younger years.”

“Your field of study?”

Su released a soft exhale. “You know, visitor, everyone you meet in this realm used to be… normal, for a lack of better terms.” The Flamechaser looked to his side, as if he was viewing something in the distance that he couldn’t reach for.

Or something that he could never touch.

“I had gone to school much like my peers, and had gotten my degree and job as a doctor. That, of course, is where my expertise had come from.”

Su had looked back towards Al Haitham. “Us Flamechasers have had dreams, Al Haitham, however big or small they are. Some of us have achieved them, some of us haven’t. But Honkai took that away from us regardless.”

He smiled. “Perhaps it was better to give up on our own dreams to save the rest of humanity’s”.

Al Haitham took in a deep breath, a strange sense of sadness washing over him at Su’s words.

Shaking his head, the Acting Grand Sage leaned forward in his chair in an attempt to dispel his thoughts, instead focusing on the steady breathing of Kaveh on the bed.

What could’ve happened to Kaveh while he was away? The foreboding guilt that was brewing began to flood into his senses, rendering him frozen - I could’ve been there to protect him .

Su’s presence came closer to the other side of Kaveh’s medical bed, as if sensing the guilt in the other grey-haired man. “Please do not blame yourself, visitor. It was merely an accident, and he is fine now.”

Al Haitham dropped his head, “But… if I had been there… then whatever happened to him could’ve been prevented.”

A sigh came out of the Flamechaser’s mouth. “There is no guarantee that you wouldn’t have gotten hurt either.” A beat. “If the captain had not managed to escape such a force, then it is a miracle Kaveh is still here.”

A moment passed, until Al Haitham realized the meaning of Su’s words and glanced up at the other.

“Are you saying that…Kaveh was attacked by whatever had taken the Captain?”

“It is the most promising possibility that I can believe.” After some consideration, Al Haitham had to agree.

It was at this moment that the tell-tale sound of someone entering the Elysian Realm Hall from the battlegrounds was heard. A few seconds later, the door to the medical bay slid open, revealing Raiden Mei. (The lack of floating claws was appreciated by Su – he didn’t need any damage to his equipment.)

“I heard what happened from Pardo… is Kaveh ok now?” She smiled weakly in relief at the Flamechaser’s nod.

Al Haitham straightened his posture from where he was crouched sitting next to Kaveh’s bed, turning to face Mei. “We believe that whatever had caused the captain’s injuries is responsible for Kaveh’s injuries.”

“And unfortunately, as much I would love to trust Miss Natasha, she seems like the most relevant suspect due to the coincidental timing of her entering the realm.” Su chimed in.

For a few minutes, the entirety of the medical bay was silent – save for the rhythmic beeps from the monitors. Natasha was a friend to most of the people in the room, but it is undeniable that she had a possible relation to the attacks that have occurred in the realm.

After a while, the Flamechaser decided to speak. “I will watch over Kaveh here. Visitors, please go look for anything else that could possibly help us during this distressing time.” With a nod (a determined one from Mei, and a reluctant one from Al Haitham), the two left the bay.

Once Su was sure Al Haitham and Raiden Mei were out of earshot, he summoned a fragment of power that he used to communicate with other people in the realm. It was rather convenient to have telepathic communication in these sorts of circumstances – not that the realm’s current situation had occurred before.

“…Hello?”

A second of silence.

“ Hello, Su ”

The Flamechaser released a breath he didn’t even know he was holding.

“Have you heard?”

“ Yes, I have. The captain has disappeared, no? ”

Su shook his head, before remembering that the other person on the line would be unable to see it.

“That’s not all… a visitor was attacked as well.”

“… Have you treated them? ”

“Yes, I’m still in the medical bay.”

Another second of silence.

“ I’ll be there. ”. With a silent nod, Su disabled the communication, leaning against the counter in contemplation.

Despite Su’s request, both Raiden Mei and Al Haitham had no clue what he meant by looking for leads. Did he mean it in a literal sense – as in having to look under every table and in the couch gaps? At this point, the Acting Grand Sage had deduced that was their only course of action.

Thankfully, they were saved from their pointless endeavour when the doors of the entrance to the Elysian Realm heaved open.

There stood Raven.

In a flash, Raiden and Al summoned their weapons to point towards the intruder. In return, Raven’s survival instincts kicked in as she brought forth her bow and had multiple arrows at the ready.

“Woah, woah… what’s wrong, guys?” she took a few steady steps backwards, but that was only accompanied by the predator-like stalking the other two were approaching her with.

Al Haitham was the first to answer. “Do you know what happened to Kaveh recently? He was attacked.”

Although their speculation about Raven being responsible for the recent incidents wasn’t very substantial, her flinch and then her hardening gaze practically confirmed her involvement.

Raiden Mei continued, “the Captain has also gone missing for a while now. Any idea?”

At this point, there was no longer any placating kindness. Instead, both parties exhibited a menacing aura as their faces and postures grew hostile. Raven had readied her bow, ready to defend herself when the inevitable attack occurs.

Without any warning, Raiden Mei leaped forward, unsheathing her large katana as she sliced forward with her sword. Lighting buzzed as it collided with the fiery embers that Raven had summoned – which she then directed towards Al Haitham.

With hardly any time to react, the sage brought his arms forward in a cross, praying that the battle suit (which he realized he actually hasn’t fought in before) would be enough to protect him.

Thankfully it was, but it rendered him completely immobile to dodge the next flurry of attacks by Raven – namely the scorching arrows coming his way.

Mei pivoted on her heel, sensing the danger and aiming to at least get in between the projectiles and Al Haitham. However, it was much too late for that.

“Activating defence protocols. Combat system ready.” A robotic voice echoed into Al Haitham’s ears, with almost immediately a transparent shield came up around him. Judging by how the arrows had been stuck in front of them, the voice had come from his battlesuit.

Feeling a sudden surge of energy, Al Haitham leaped forward, ready to strike as he closed the distance between him and Raven. Raiden Mei too, had positioned herself - eager to hit. His swiftness surprised Raven – and himself – that she had no time to parry the blow from Al Haitham.

She collided into a wall, a pained grunt leaving her as she tried to get herself back up. Before Raven could even aim her weapon, both Al Haitham and Raiden had pointed their own towards her, effectively cornering the agent.

Raven remained in her position, panted heavily as her body leaned against the wall in an attempt to regain her bearings. Only five seconds into the fight yet she’s already at a disadvantage. Perhaps she should…

Seems like Raiden Mei understood her intentions. She turned away. “Al Haitham, watch out!”

Raven disappears, a flurry of thick dark smoke following her wake, which eventually caused Al Haitham to lower his sword to cough violently.

At some point, Raven had completely disappeared, the only thing surrounding Raiden and the Teyvatian were the clouds of thick, suffocating smoke that didn’t seem to go away even after some time. Al Haitham kept breaking into a wheeze, the fumes flooding into his lungs. It seems Raiden Mei was also trying to supress the urge to cough, but was failing spectacularly.

“I’m here… to deliver you PAIN!”

Raven’s voice echoed through the hall as arrows of all directions came through the smoke, with the mercenary’s silhouette visible through gases.

This time, with the fiery smoke slowing them down, the Herrscher and the Acting Grand Sage were both vulnerable to the incoming attack. In a last-ditch effort, Raiden created a powerful blow with her sword, clearing the smoke.

Alas, the arrows coming their way were undeterred.

The pain never came. But something much worse.

Bitter, searing, coldness .

Icy flakes of blood flowed through Al Haitham’s veins as the sudden temperature drop engulfed him like a frozen cloak. Clawing, scratching, nothing could relieve the scorching wintry he was drowning in as he struggled to breath.

A glance around his surroundings revealed the cause-

A man exuding an icy aura had come between the fight.

Al Haitham could deduce that this was undeniably another one of the Flamechasers – a highly ranked one too at that - purely from the sheer power the man was radiating. His blue eyes emitted the determination of a seasoned warrior, his stance ready to attack with all his might.

The ice started to crawl up Raven’s legs, rendering her immobile as she struggled to free herself. Even with the effort of her arrows of fire, she was still completely stuck.

Seeing this, the man controlled the surrounding temperature once again, bringing it back to something tolerable. Al Haitham brought his focus back to normal without realising it had struggled in the cold.

Raiden Mei, having recovered from the change in temperature quickly, made her way to Raven, who was still stuck in the ice. The man then turned to Al Haitham, eyeing him with something akin to distrust. He scoffed, turning away without even greeting the Teyvatian.

Al Haitham couldn’t stop the subtle irritation showing on his face. Just what was his problem ?

Su had rushed his way towards the main area, though his lack of athletic capabilities meant he arrived much later to the scene than he would’ve like. Nonetheless, he was surprised to their suspect trapped in ice, Al Haitham looking annoyed and…

“Kevin?”

The man in question turned his head around, bending his head down in greeting to the one who said his name before facing the others again.

Su observed the hall, noticing the remnants of scorched feathers and the icy temperatures around them. Raven was frozen in ice to her knees, giving up her attempts to melt it with Mei hovering around her in suspicion. Al Haitham was glaring pointedly towards Kevin, who seemed to have purposefully ignored the look directed his way.

The psychic decided to approach the World Serpent Agent, who was refusing to answer Raiden Mei’s interrogations.

“Raven, what did you do to the captain?” The agent in question remained tight-lipped, causing Mei to draw out her weapon to line it parallel to her neck.

Snaps of lightening surrounded the katana as Mei’s patience thinned. Thankfully, Su walked forward before the situation would escalate.

“Visitor, it’s ok.” His closed eyes faced Raven. “I understand that perhaps you are bound to some secrecy, but I ask you this: is the disappearance of the Captain, as well as the attack on Kaveh, related to an order you were given?”

Her silence, unlike before, was a telling answer.

Su sighed, motioning to Kevin who was observing the ordeal to release the ice that trapped Raven. Almost immediately, the agent disappeared, leaving a flurry of rich carmine feathers in her wake.

Al Haitham eyes glowered at what just happened. “Why did you just let her go?”

Another sigh left Su’s lips. “There would’ve been no use. Natasha is a seasoned professional; her ability to remain silent would’ve cost us valuable time.” The Flamechaser turned, walking towards the medical bay. Kevin followed suit, remaining silent and glaring at the Teyvatian over his shoulder as he trailed behind the psychic.

Really, what was his problem?

Al Haitham quickly followed the two towards the bay, returning the daggered look in full.

Mei looked around awkwardly after being left behind in the main hall. With an annoyed sigh, she went to do her own tasks, not noticing the masked man who had been observing the scene the entire time.

Kaveh was still resting, undisturbed by the battle that had been raging in the main hall just moments before. Kevin was a few inches near Su, who was leaning on the counter in silent contemplation. The unfounded animosity between the albino and the Acting Grand Sage was filling the room, which was either unknown or ignored by the psychic.

A few minutes passed before the blond finally awoke from his slumber. Al Haitham had immediately rushed to his side, grabbing a glass of water that he had prepared beforehand and raising it to Kaveh’s lips. While he was assisted into a seating position, Kaveh took note of Su and the new presence in the room he was in.

“What… happened?”

“You were attacked.” Su responded solemnly, glancing over the abundance of bandages that were covering Kaveh’s body. “We suspect that whatever had attacked you had likewise caused the Captain’s disappearance.”

Kaveh stilled, a wave of panic suddenly washing over him as he recollected what had happened to him before he had ended injured.

Su leaned forwards earnestly. “If you can, telling us who or what attacked you will help us defeat it”.
“I…, no, its impossible… but… It can’t be….” The architect mumbled to himself as tremors of nervousness racked through his body.

Al Haitham embraced him gently. “Kaveh, it’s ok. You don’t need to tell us now.”

Kaveh shook his head vigorously. “No! It’s not that… it’s just that whoever attacked me shouldn’t be here, let alone exist!”

Worry was etched onto the grey-haired man’s face.

“What do you mean?”

Kaveh gulped.

“It was…my father.”