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The Wanderer has been on high alert ever since that incident with Columbina and The Doctor. Since the meeting after the incident on moon prayer night, the puppet has been skipping sleep every night, preparing his next move. Tonight, however, he decided to go investigate in person, by himself.
When he finally arrived at Paha Isle he scanned around until he arrived at a familiar cliff side. With a small blast of anemo, The Wanderer cleared a few boulders to reveal a hidden door built on the side of the cliff.
Bingo.
He had been to this area, a secret little lab tucked on the side of a cliff to the east of the Kuuvahki Experimental Design Bureau, several times in the past on missions to Nod Krai with The Doctor. Almost 3 centuries ago, Dottore had suggested that he tag along with his mission to research on the kuuvahki levels of Nod Krai so that they could “complete the mission swiftly”, but it was obvious to Scaramouche that he only needed an excuse to continue his experiments on him. That was a time when Scaramouche desperately wanted to grow stronger anyway, and The Tsarista never turned down his suggestions either. Hmph, how kind of her to do so.
He brushed off some dust to see the numbers on the keypad more clearly and recalled the last time he came to this lab — 9-2-6-3-4-5 — he remembers to be the password, pushing in the code the Doctor once used. There’s a quiet beep, and the door hisses open. This so-called “secret lab” unlocks like this? With just a simple six digit code? Well that was laughably easy.
Moving through the passageway felt strangely uneasy. Usually in Dottore’s labs, he could hear distant screaming, or the sound of machinery operating in the background, or even water dripping from broken pipes, but here, it was dead silent. An eerie silence that sent shivers throughout his artificial bones. Doubt seeped through the puppet’s joints. He did not let it consume him. Moss sprawled across the muddy floors, the slight stench of old chemicals that burned his nose, the flickering light above that was about to give up with the slightest gust of wind... It seems like that bastard has abandoned this area. It didn't exactly look like the same lab he was in all those years ago.
Wanderer glanced in the room to his right, the door ajar. There was an operating table with faint traces of blood — he wondered if it was his. On the left was a door he doesn’t remember. Perhaps he simply didn’t bother looking around last time or was too disoriented after the experiment to do so.
With steady hands, he opened the door on the left slowly to reveal a room with many shelves full of old beakers and test tubes with unknown chemicals. He stopped breathing to avoid inhaling any of the old dust particles floating around in the air and almost flinched at the noise of a rat scurrying behind him. In the middle stood a strange coffin-like box. The light above automatically lit up as he walked inside, and he closed the creaking door behind him.
But before he could ponder what was going on in that room, an ominous presence washed over and infiltrated his senses. Someone turned the rusted knob; the door behind him opened with a slight creak. The wanderer knew this feeling all too well. His joints immodestly went stiff with slight fear. The clatter of metal heels against the steel floor. Two deliberately slow steps were headed towards him. He turned around with slight fear— sure enough, it was him.
“Didn’t realize this lab had so many rats running around!” Dottore mused, “Hm, I thought I would find you here, Balladeer,”
The name felt like a bucket of ice cold water. He had to force himself to not let his thoughts whirl into a spiral. Wanderer clenched his fist, nails pressing deep into his palms. How does he remember? “You..!”
As if the doctor could read his mind, “you seriously didn't think I would forget, did you?” He smirked as he summoned the frost moon’s moon marrow and held it out. “Even if I didn’t create a backup, it would be too easy to figure out otherwise. I’m sure you know already: the sacred relic frost moon scions can reveal the true past; it only confirmed my hypothesis.” The Doctor looked straight into his eyes. “You cannot hide your true past, Scaramouche.”
Of course, he saw it coming but this was much quicker than he had anticipated. He pressed his nails deeper into his palm to anchor himself down, almost enough to draw blood.
“What are you doing here?” The puppet gritted out. “You saw it right in front of your eyes, Columbina escaped though the moon's reflection — that's where the moon that you want so badly is hiding.”
“Oh, no. That's not what this is about.” Wanderer could feel his blood red eyes piercing through him. “You see, there’s a little secret I’d like to share with you. Right here, in this laboratory.”
As the harbinger walked towards his direction, he stiffened up, eyes following his every movement and getting ready to activate his vision, but Dottore walked right past him and put a hand on the strange box.
“Why don’t you take a look inside” Dottore told him while slowly lifting the lid.
Wanderer took in a sharp gasp. No… way.
Inside lay the familiar face — facial features he knew all too well were screwed up in a slightly pained expression, the familiar red streak that ran through his brown hair, a bandana loosely hanging around his head. On his chest however was a bunch of wiring and metal instruments all chained together into a sickly bloody mess. It dug into his bruised skin and cracked dried blood was littered all over his torso. Niwa..? He wanted to puke. It felt like his heart was being ripped out a second time. Luckily, the lights were dim enough so that he couldn’t observe it in all its detail before he quickly peeled his eyes away.
“Isn’t this a lovely reunion? I came all the way here to show you. I’ve waited so long for this.”
“How… What… did you do?”
“Oh, nothing new. Just another experiment on human life, that's all!” Dottore clapped his hands together as if it was just a little science project of his. No, he was sure that it was.
The puppet only stared at him, clearly unimpressed. A familiar hot fury bubbled within his chest, just seconds away from bursting into raging flames.
“Calm down, Scaramouche. You want to know what happened with your friend, hm? I’m sure the lesser lord already told you the truth, so I’ll cut right to the chase. There’s something else I did with your friend here that I left out of that segment's memories. After his heart was removed, I extracted his memories before his brain gave out completely and hooked his chest out with a device I invented. I’m curious… say, if I activate it now and give this body the memories back, four hundred years later, will my machine work and bring him back to life, or will this be another failed experiment?”
Wanderer resisted the urge to take a deep breath. It’s not like he ever needed to breathe anyway. “What do you gain from showing me this? Isn’t satisfying your curiosity by yourself enough? You're not telling me all this just to get a reaction out of me. What do you want?”
“Oh, don't look so upset.” Dottore crossed his arms, letting out a slight chuckle, “I’d like to make a proposal, dear puppet of mine. I’d like for you to betray Columbina and her little followers for me. Tell me what they are planning. Report to me whenever they make their next move.”
“Hah, I’m only working with them because they want to fight against you, Dottore. I want you dead. Besides, I’m just a useless puppet to you, isn’t that right? You dumped me out like trash the last time.”
“Yes, yes — you want your revenge. But all your companions say the same thing: revenge isn’t the best decision. How about I make it up to you instead? I’m more than 99% sure my device will work. You’ll get to live a happy life with your friend again, like he never even died. And when I get the chance, I could even ask the Tsarista to let you borrow the gnosis for a while — I’m sure she’s benevolent enough to agree, as long as it doesn’t interfere with her agenda of course.”
“Why do you even need my help? Surely you aren’t scared of that little pigeon.”
“Hmph, I thought you knew me quite well. I’ll tell you this much — every faction of Nod Krai, as well as powerful individuals of the Hexenzirkel and Knights of Favonius has a target on my back. Even with this much power, it’s hard for me to ignore the variables that could put my experiment at risk, don't you agree? I’m just taking a few countermeasures here.” His mouth twisted into that insidious grin again, “and I do wish to study you again one last time. Though I know every detail of your body’s constitution, you seem to have a deeper connection with irminsul than I thought. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like you would be happy to agree to that again.”
Wanderer shivered at the thought of being under The Doctor’s scalpel once again. “You’re mistaken if you think I’d ever help you with anything.”
“Oh this isn’t about helping me. This is merely an exchange, a covenant that will be of benefit to both. Think about it— all you have to do is play nice with the traveler as usual, and you could be living the life you always dreamed about.”
Niwa, the one who accepted him as human, the one who he saw as his family. He could grant him a longer life, a second chance against fate. He could-
“No. I’m not falling for any of your tricks again, Dottore.”
“Oh really? Was it not you who threw away your entire existence for a slight chance to change his fate? Was it not you who yearned to harbor the electro gnosis, even if it meant losing your mind and body altogether?"
“You don't realize, I owe Lesser Lord Kusanali for giving me a chance, I’m indebted to the traveler for helping me, I found a peaceful life in Sumeru, and I have friends who I trust more that I ever trusted you. The past cannot be changed — I’ve already accepted that. You're too late, and it's not like you keep any of your promises anyway,” he made the effort to smirk, “so why don’t you rot in hell instead?”
“…” The Doctor only sighed. “Back then, no one would have believed that the heartless Balladeer would say anything like this,” his smile dropped, “What a pity.”
Dottore flicked his wrist and the coffin with Niwa resting in it disappeared. Was it just a hologram this whole time?
All of a sudden, Dottore summoned his mechanical spike-like constructs and aimed it at the Wanderer. Barely having enough time to react, he jumped out of the way but got grazed on the shoulder, deep enough to cause blood to start dripping out of the cracks. His hat fell to the floor with a thud from the sudden movement.
With adrenaline coursing through his false veins, he called upon his wind favored state and flung a couple of wind blades at the doctor, though he knew he couldn’t defeat him, especially with the power of 2 moon on his side.
Of course, the Doctor blocked every attack with ease. “Give up — there is nothing you can do to escape my control, puppet.” He summoned a few more mechanical drills and aimed for the puppet’s head, missing by a centimeter.
The small, tight space did not allow for much room to fly, and he couldn’t take advantage of ranged attacks, he decided. Wanderer kicked against the wall to propel himself across the room, aiming to assault the doctor from his side with a smaller, condensed ball of anemo, but only managed to crush one of his machines blocking the attack. In return, one of the devices caught his leg and drilled a deep gash across his thigh. Biting his tongue, he held back the urge to scream, only letting a small whimper escape. He swiped a random beaker from the shelf behind him and hurled it at Dottore, but that was shattered by one of his mechanical creations before it got across the room.
“You fucking cockroach. Why can’t you just die!?” He panted harshly, fueled with hatred.
Dottore let out a laugh mockingly and put his hands behind his back.
“You're weak, Balladeer.” He commanded his machines to shoot a few beams at the puppet, which he dodged, and it only tore a hole through his clothing. Dottore teleported behind him to dodge any strikes aimed towards him and tried to stab him in the back. Wanderer, however, with his anemo vision was much faster than he remembers. He flew to the side as he looked around for any opportunity to escape.
Behind him, Dottore opened his mouth and spoke."I must say, your little dragon friend seems quite interesting.”
Wanderer was suddenly filled with a sense of dread, “N- Don’t you dare”
Within the spit second of uncertainty, the puppet was stabbed straight through his hollow chest, causing him to slam his back on the shelves.
“Aagh..!” He let out a strangled wheeze, falling on the floor as fresh blood dripped from his head. Focus.. Focus! There was no way he was going to let that abominable psycho kill him. He forced his body to stand up even though every alarm in his head screamed not to move.
Test tubes full of old chemicals slipped from the shelves and shattered on the ground, causing the liquids to mix together. Without a warning, a massive explosion ignited, and it blew up in front of the two’s faces, filling the entire room with ash and smoke.
Without a second thought, the Wanderer blasted himself out of the labs the moment the smoke covered their vision. Thankfully, the doors were left open, so he could easily rush out. He used all his strength to burst through the empty corridor and headed straight for Nasha town, where he believes he last saw Durin. If he had a heart, he’s sure it would be beating rapidly by now. But flying at the maximum speed while bleeding out brought Wanderer to his limit, causing him to feel exhausted and draining all of his energy very quickly. After a few seconds, black dots started to appear in Wanderer's vision. A faint ringing began in his ears.
Right when Nasha town came into view, a sudden wave of dizziness crashed over him. No… can’t… The world blurred in front of his eyes as his body crashed down onto the grass below. He grunted, slumping in the dirt one last time before his mind blanked into an empty nothingness. At that moment, he’d only hoped for his little dragon to be alright.
…
Katsuragi ruffled the innocent puppet’s hair with a proud smile. “You’re going to do great, Kabu, I’m sure of it!”
The harsh winters of Inazuma had just passed, and spring was beginning to bloom. At the same time, the prized Ditatara Nagamasa had just been forged, and the people of Tatarasuna gathered around for celebration.
“Niwa!” Kabukimono exclaimed when his friend walked over.
“This is your first time performing in front of an audience, right?” Niwa asked softly, giving his young friend a kind smile. “It felt like just yesterday when you were struggling to even comb your hair,” he laughed.
“H-hey!” Kabukimono stammered nervously, not used to being teased like this.
Niwa patted his friend’s shoulder. “I’m excited to see the sword dance,” he reassured him “you and Katsuragi will do amazing, I’m sure of it.”
…
Durin was having trouble sleeping, so he decided to take a stroll near Nasha town. With everything that has happened recently, he couldn’t help but worry for the future. Their fight against Rerir was already terrifying — how did he find himself in an even more dangerous situation!?
Before he knew it, it was already 3 am, and he somehow ended up on the hills outside of the city. He better head back — Albedo told him that he shouldn’t walk too far from the Curatorium, especially with a dangerous Fatui Harbinger on the loose.
Just when he was about to turn around and head back, he heard a small noise in the distance and hurried up the hill to investigate. It sounded like .. sniffling? Oh no! He hoped somebody wasn’t hurt.
“Niwa..”
That voice… it sounded so similar to-
His mind filled with worry. Durin ran up the slope only to find his best friend passed out on the grass, several deep cracks littering his body, purple and red blood was seeping from all over. Durin knew his friend was a puppet but-but. It looked gruesome. It was gruesome. Tears were slowly slipping from his eyes and he was curled up in a slightly fetal position. Quiet sniffling wrecked his whole body. Durin has never seen him like this. He looked so- so small, so fragile — he just wanted to run over there and hug him.
Before they became best friends, when he was still a poisonous toy dragon, cursed with a body that would bring destruction wherever he went, he used to be terrified of the hero and his friends. Even now, his best friend always held his head up tall and talked with confidence. He was always the one there for him; the one who always comforted him when he was nervous. Compared to now, Hat Guy would have looked dead if he didn't notice his shallow breathing or the slight trembling.
“Hat Guy..? H-hey, what happened?”
Durin reached out his hands to shake his friend on the shoulder.
With the slightest touch, Wanderer jolted awake and instinctively slapped Durin’s hand away aggressively.
“Ahh, Hat Guy! Are you alright?”
The puppet tried to calm his breathing. He opened his mouth and closed it before finally deciding to speak.
“Durin. What are you doing here? It’s late.”
“I… I couldn’t sleep. I was just walking around. I then found you lying here on the ground and…” Durin sat down on the grass with his legs crossed. “But what about you? What happened?” Hat Guy tried to do the same and slowly tried to push himself up from the ground.
“Stop! You’re still bleeding,” Durin stressed, offering his hand to help.
The puppet pushed through the agonizing pain and leaned against a rock. “It's alright. I'm a lot more durable than I might look. It doesn’t hurt.” He hugged his legs to try to calm down and looked away from his friend the moment he realised he was crying. Pathetic. He covered his mouth tightly, desperately trying to keep the sniffling from escaping his lips.
When Hat Guy seemed to have calmed down, Durin decided to break the silence.
“Earlier, I heard you say the name Niwa. Is he a friend? A-ah! You don’t have to tell me, of course! I’m just a bit curious.” Durin subconsciously curled his tail closer to his legs.
“…”
Wanderer looked up at the fake stars. They glowed faintly, scattered across the dark sky. Clouds drifted slowly across the enchanting view. It was peaceful here. He bathed in the comforting silence.
“He.. he was my family.”
Durin took in the fresh, cool air and joined him in stargazing. They stared at the false sky together for a while.
“Durin,” his hatted friend finally said, “Prepare for a final battle. I’m not letting the Doctor take away anything precious from me again.
Never ever again.”