Your hands rested on your abdomen, the warm blood spilling out of the gaping wound caused you to feel nauseous. You tried to focus on staying awake. But as your surroundings quickly morphed you realized you were already unconscious.
Laying on the ground in a small puddle of your own blood you looked up to the only person that remained, Zhongli... Morax? Does it matter? You thought bitterly, they're the same person. Your heart sunk at the realization that you had been right all along, but only now when it was right in front of you did you accept it.
The memories of your own death were what all those nightmares had been preparing you for. For nothing was more horrifying than knowing you were already dead, not only that but experiencing it again. The fact that you were somehow still alive was both confusing and terrifying.
Shakily you looked down at your hands, even through your blurry vision you could see the strange colors appearing all over your skin. Whether you were hallucinating or not, you didn't know.
Drops of something hit you, something you didn't realize was tears until you looked up.
Never had you seen the geo archon show so much emotion, he rarely showed emotion at all in fact. But now, tears were streaming down his cheek. And all you could do was watch as you slowly slipped away.
Memories worth hundreds if not thousands of years pooled in your mind, if you had been able to, you would've screamed in agony. In the midst of it, you reached out desperately hoping to grab hold of anything.
With a bright flash you found yourself awake again, your vision, to your surprise, was a bright shade of green. Slowly you looked around, your surroundings were unfamiliar, bright and so... Peaceful.
For a moment you let yourself be absorbed by the beauty of the world around you, wherever you stepped, flowers bloomed. The quiet humming of a soothing song you hadn't heard in eons almost caused you to fall asleep again, but that was when you realized it was just another memory.
The only difference was that you had a surprising amount of control this time, with a shaky hand you flicked your wrist to the side, you had intended to try if you could use your elemental magic but had not expected for it to be so powerful.
With a single wave of your hand, a thorn the size of a full-grown tree flung out of the ground, surrounded by vines, moss, and small flowers quickly blooming all over its hard surface.
A single thought ran through your head, I need to wake up.
It was easier said than done, even though you were able to control most of your body. A powerful urge drove you onwards, you didn't know what you were looking for until you found it.
Flowers?
Why was it always flowers?
Your frustration boiled to its maxing point, with a violent impulse you threw your hands forward. But flinched as two gigantic claws hit the ground, a surprised squeal escaped you, it sounded so inhuman that you quickly began backing.
Perhaps you had been too focused on your thoughts to notice until now, but as you suddenly fell backward you realized you had been walking on all four of your limbs.
Luckily this was definitely enough to startle you awake because the next time you opened your eyes you were laying in a warm bed, with a familiar pain spread all over your body. A pain that assured you, that you were really awake this time.
"You're awake." a familiar voice stated.
With slight confusion, you blinked, before turning towards the window. There in the darkness, you recognized Xiao just casually sitting on the windowsill.
Is this normal? You questioned inwardly.
"What were you dreaming about?" Xiao suddenly asked, he glanced at you with glowing eyes. Glowing eyes that reminded you much of your own whenever your emotions got out of control.
"My past," you answered, pausing only to clear your throat, "I guess it was less dreaming and more remembering," you added with a tired sigh.
"Hmph." Xiao scoffed, "no wonder I could not wake you nor devour your dreams."
Devour... Dreams?
"So do you remember then?" Xiao suddenly asked, you looked up and a wave of shock hit you.
"Morax," you said, your eyes wide and full of shock.
Your stomach suddenly rumbled loudly interrupting your conversation, you gave a sheepish grin at the adepti staring at you with slight confusion and disgust.
"I'm hungry?" you more questioned than stated, Xiao now looked at you with concern.
You winced as you got up, your muscles felt like jelly. Like they would give out at any time, but hunger drove you onward.
"You should rest," Xiao held out a hand in front of you, his speed momentarily shocking you. "You're barely able to stand." he clicked his tongue.
"Where is Mor- Zhongli?" you asked, you had no idea which name you were supposed to use now. Both felt wrong, but also right at the same time.
"He left to get some medicine in Liyue," Xiao rolled his eyes, "leaving me here to babysit you," he grumbled.
You tried not to let your disappointment show, "at least we can get to know each other now right?" you joked lightly. The Adeptus looked unamused but said nothing.
"But please, let me pass. I'll probably die of starvation before anything else at this point." you chuckled dramatically.
Xiao answered by taking a step back, you gave a thankful smile and quickly left the room. The fact that you looked like a mess and hadn't changed clothes didn't bother you in the slightest as you moved down the hallway.
You took your usual seat by the balcony and were pleasantly surprised by Xiao joining you, apparently you let your happiness show a bit too much causing Xiao to remark that he was only staying because of Zhongli asking him to do so.
The smell of meat hit you as soon as the waiter began moving towards you, never in your life had you thought anything smelled as good. In fact, you were surprised at how good your senses suddenly were.
"Thank you." you smiled thankfully at the familiar waiter, he merely smiled in response and mouthed something which you didn't hear.
Almost like an animal you tore into your food, Xiao was a fast eater but he was surprised by how fast you ate. Like you hadn't eaten in days, truth be told you barely had.
It was only when you accidentally bit your lip that you paused, you winced and touched your lip out of instinct, Xiao furrowed his eyebrows at the sight and mumbled something about mortals when he suddenly paused.
"Open your mouth," Xiao ordered.
You froze momentarily before staring at him with slight confusion, "what?"
"Open your mouth," Xiao repeated with clear annoyance.
You grimaced before hesitantly opening your mouth, Xiao's eyes widened ever so slightly which you found surprising considering he didn't let many emotions other than annoyance and disgust show.
In a flash of green he disappeared causing you to groan, you were just about to turn back to your food mumbling about Xiao being rude when he suddenly reappeared, a small mirror in hand.
He handed you the mirror expectantly, you knew what he wanted you to do and so slowly opened your mouth. Much like Xiao your eyes widened, you almost dropped the mirror in surprise as you stared at the teeth-- fangs in your mouth.
If you were eating like an animal, you definitely looked like one now too.
"What are you?"
"I-" you paused racking your brain for answers, "I don't know," you answered through a sigh.
Instead of answering, Xiao stared at you expectantly. After an awkward silence, you turned back to your food, the hunger you felt was enough to force you to look away. If anything you were surprised how natural it felt having fangs instead of teeth.
You had just finished your food when your head snapped up, "he's back." you stated, Xiao remained silent only staring at you.
His unasked question was answered when Zhongli appeared after a minute or two, you couldn't help but smile as you saw him, your archon, he wasn't dead and all this time he had been taking care of you.
You stood up, completely ignoring the searing pain. There was something more important you had to do, you ignored the nausea that quickly followed and tried to blink away the blurriness in your vision.
"We need to-" talk you wanted to add but didn't get a chance to finish your sentence before you fell forward, someone shouted your name but you didn't reply.
You only stared at your hands, slowly changing color, morphing, turning into scales. You closed your eyes and swallowed numerous times to keep your food down.
Someone turned you over, "please drink this."
You opened your mouth revealing rows of fangs, the taste of iron and dirt was suddenly in your mouth. A thick liquid was poured from a bottle right into your mouth, you coughed at the bitter taste and tried to move away but stern hands held you in place.
"What happened?" Zhongli asked the question not aimed at you.
You tried to speak, and as you did Zhongli turned back to you, without warning he placed a gloved hand on your forehead. What felt like electricity sparked through you causing you to instantly fall limp.
However, you were still conscious albeit barely so.
Voices passed by, you felt yourself being moved but had no urge nor no energy to struggle, what could've been minutes or hours later you were in a bed, your hand softly wrapped itself around Zhongli's coat. You couldn't say the words, but he understood.
A warm feeling spread through you as Zhongli slowly laid down next to you, it didn't take long before he wrapped an arm around you and cradled you against his chest, an action that made your heart skip a beat.