Chapter Text
Alhaitham:
Alhaitham watched the Hydro orb fly up into the sky, taking Kaveh away from him. He can't catch up with it at this point; his best bet is to gather more information on the Harbinger who stole away his roommate. He turns to Cyno, who looks as furious as he feels.
"We need to find information on that man. Once the Matra gets here, have them investigate this place. I'm not sure what they have done to Kaveh to make him act like this, but we need to find a way to reverse it. The Fatui you interviewed said something about Dottore, no? We need to look into him, too."
Think logically, Kaveh needs you; you just need to help him, like you always do. Just do what you're best at; you research all the time, so it's no different here.
Without waiting for Cyno's answer, Alhaitham gets up and starts looking around. The stained glass windows project light onto his face as he walks. The Palace of Alcazarzaray truly was magnificent, he had never been inside of it before, but he could see why Kaveh considered it to be his magnum opus. It was almost as wonderful as its creator, and - No! Alhaitham could think about this once Kaveh was back where he belonged, and not with that Harbinger that seemed a little too close to Kaveh.
Alhaitham walks into one of the rooms and begins to look around for anything useful. The room had several bookshelves filled to the brim with books on weapons, machines, and buildings. Looks right up Kaveh's alley, minus the weapons. Past the wall of bookshelves, there is a desk as messy as the one Kaveh has at home, littered with blueprints and letters, which looks recently used. On the other side of the room, a well-made bed sits, a small lion plushie staring back at him. Cute, he thinks to himself before returning to his investigation. Framed on the wall are several photos and a copy of Kaveh's degree. The photos are normal for the most part, one of Kaveh and Mehrak, a slightly bigger one has Cyno, Tighnari, himself, and Kaveh in their Akademiya days. The last one, however, was unnerving. Kaveh was wearing a Fatui uniform and standing next to what looked to be a younger Version of the Harbinger that had kidnapped Kaveh. He was smiling, holding Kaveh's waist in one arm and his Harbinger mask in the other. What was strange was that Kaveh was also smiling.
He walks up, slamming his fist straight into the photo, the glass framing it shattering on impact as shards fall to the floor, some cutting his hand and coating the broken frame in blood.
Alhaitham sighs, turning back to the desk and sitting down, scanning through the blueprints, he finds a lot of weapons that the Fatui use, as well as some new ones he's never seen before. On the side of each are notes scribbled in handwriting that could only belong to Kaveh.
"What have you gotten yourself into..."
He picks up some of the letters, reading over the contents.
Skimming over the top few quickly, the letters are between Kaveh and Dottore, mostly about projects, but the most recent one, dated a little over a week ago, is a request for Kaveh to return to Snezhnaya.
"What in the world? They are trying to isolate him, aren't they?!?"
Blood drips onto the letter as he crumples it into a ball before picking up a letter next to it that is in Kaveh's handwriting. The ink is fresh, so it must be a reply to the recent letter that he had not yet sent.
Kaveh requests a month to get his affairs in order before returning; most have some kind of blackmail on him, which makes him so willing to return... He should look into Kaveh's family members; maybe they have one of them hostage?
Let's see, he knew Kaveh was an only child... And Kaveh's father was dead, so that left Kaveh's mother, whom he had conveniently never seen before. She fit the bill perfectly. She used to be an Akademiya student, so he could easily find some files on her then-
Alhaitham's train of thought is cut off by a crash as a Fatui Agent slams open the door across the hall and meets his eyes. Glaring back at him, the Fatui averts his gaze to scan the room, eyes lingering on Alhaitham's bloodied hand. The Agent's voice calls out worried.
"What did you do to lord Kaveh? Did you hurt him?"
Alhaitham hurt Kaveh? HURT KAVEH?!? This Fatui couldn't speak; they were the ones hurting Kaveh. How dare he even say that Alhaitham would hurt Kaveh?
Alhaitham lunges forward, not thinking, as he shoves the agent to the ground, choking him as the man struggles in his grip, a gloved hand wrapping around Alhaitham's own, clawing desperately.
Good. Alhaitham thought to himself, 'This man deceived it; he hurt Kaveh, then had the nerve to even think Alhaitham would stoop to such a level?
A weak sputtering noise emerges as he tightens his grip, then a crack echoes as the airpipe gives way, air pushing weakly out with a wheezing noise. The man's head lolls to the side, a crack of bone echoing through the hall as blood begins to trickle out of the agent's mouth and down his chin, coating Alhaitham's hand in the now dead man's blood.
Alhaitham stands up and turns around to see Cyno looking at him with unease and slight anger; however, his voice stays firm as he looks Alhaitham up and down.
"We could have gotten info out of him, I know you're mad, I am too, but killing them won't help. Did you at least find anything useful?"
"Yes, they seem to have something over Kaveh, a family member, some likely, so I have somewhere to visit, clean up here, and if anyone asks, the Fatui man attacked me first, okay?"