Art by @thijikoy
TW: yn's unstable behaviour tbh
----------------------
Darkness and darkness...
All you see is darkness.
It has been long since you lost the track of time. You don't know where you are nor what day it is.
Things have gotten so weird. You feel like living your life, yet, you also feel like dreaming.
At least, you believe you are living your life. You feel like reviewing events from the past.
You were in the middle of a discussion with Dottore about ancient technology. Once this conversation was done and he had left the room, you were progressively surrounded by darkness and then have to witness a moment you almost forgot; when Granny Ruoxin took you in.
These past events seem to keep flowing up recently. You always knew some things weren't real before, but now memories are showing up in your mind.
You also sometimes hear voices, but you somehow can't manage to process them.
Your mind is completely confused.
You feel powerless.
You keep walking in the darkness, hoping to find at least the lowest glow of light. You cannot hear anything, you cannot feel anything, you cannot see anything; like if your soul is removed from your body, or your senses are not working as they would.
"It has been a while since we last went on a walk together, hasn't it?"
You immediately turn your attention toward the voice. You see Baizhu, walking by your sides. You then look at your surroundings, seeing the wilderness of Liyue. You believe you are near those mountains where the Adepti live.
"I honestly quite missed these walks. Snezhnaya is so different from Liyue, it is hard to get used to this nation. I still have the feeling Liyue is my home." You answered automatically.
Right. You cannot control your motions. All you do is simply watch your past self from your past self's eyes. It was rather annoying when you saw Azar congratulating you for your results on an important exam during your time in the Akademiya. All you wanted was shocking him to death.
Baizhu hums, "My brother said the same thing after starting to work for the Fatui, which is why he always takes his holidays here."
You stay silent for a moment, only nodding in response.
"So, why inviting me on a walk?"
"My, am I not allowed to invite a dear friend anymore?"
"I know you Baizhu, if you want to talk about something, please do."
He chuckled, knowing exactly you were suspicious of him.
"I heard you received a vision."
You frown, not sure how he knows about it.
"Your brother told you, didn't he?" You sigh, expecting it to happen.
"You really don't like your vision, do you?"
You shake your head, crossing your arms in the process.
"That thing is insulting, and the worst is that it is impossible to destroy."
"Having a vision is not as bad as you think. It can help everyday life, such as creating a vine to grab objects from far away for example." He chuckles at your glare, "Come on (Y/N), and don't tell me you have never used your vision for random reasons."
Well, you did use your vision sometimes to go faster, send electricity for some experiments, and even used it to electrocute test subjects that won't stay calm.
You look back in front of you to not meet his amused look.
"Visions are only created to spy on people so Celestia can be sure people are being all nice and sweet. I don't even see why I should use one when I already have a delusion that is more powerful than a vision."
"But to what price?"
You sigh, "Delusions are not working on everyone. A Mondstadter once used a delusion for three years and he never had one little sequel. Plus, I always stay in the lab, meaning I don't need to use it intensively."
"So you have more utility in a vision than a delusion?"
You shoot him a glare, "Don't say something I haven't said."
When your gaze goes back in front of you, Baizhu and you stop in tracks, looking at a band of treasure hoarders looking at you with an interested look. One is holding a hammer, another a knife and some are holding what looks like potions.
"We won't get rid of them easily if you use your Dendro delusion. You surely are aware about how powerful Electro and Dendro can be combined." He chuckles as you roll your eyes, knowing what he meant.
"I'll get your back." He says before sending a kind of snake in the direction of the bandits. The snake travels between the enemies, applying the Dendro element to them.
You summon your polearm and cast it in the direction of one of the thieves, stabbing him in the chest. Before he falls down, you summon some electro bombs made with your vision and cast them in their direction.
"How do you like my new experiment?" You mutter to the treasure hoarders though you do not expect any answer from them.
When the smoke fades away, only two treasure hoarders survive it despite their bad condition. Before you could make one step in their direction, they flee away at a rather fast pace.
"We should move them out of the way while they're unconscious." Baizhu says, his fingers are checking the pulse of the thieves.
You ignore his comment and pick up the body of the thief who had his chest stabbed by your polearm. You bring it near the edge of a nearby cliff and let it fall down, expecting it to be eaten by some wild animals.
When you walk back to Baizhu, you notice the corpses lying against a wall. The thieves are looking like they're sleeping.
"You could have just left him here you know? You won't get arrested for having beaten up some."
"This one was dead."
Baizhu gives you a bombastic side eye for a second, until he raises his thumb up.
"I suppose he will be eaten by one of those Hilichurls or a wild beast. Now let's not stay here for long."
He waits for you to catch up to him. Once you are at his level, he starts walking again.
"Using a vision does not mean you need one. Using it could simply mean you are using the tools at your disposal to reach a goal, though you could use other tools. You need not gate keep an asset for your dignity."
You don't say anything and he stays silent as well.
After a few minutes of walking, you arrive near a cliff where he stops. The sun is slowly setting, giving the sky a mixture of orange and yellow shades with a slight hint of purple. You need to agree, the landscape is beautiful with this lighting.
"To add, using or not a vision won't change the fact you have received one. So why not make good use of it?"
You remain silent. You could never admit it, but he does have good points here. And why not use the vision to create more powerful vision that shall not require one's stamina?
Baizhu sits on a rock nearby as you watch the landscape.
"With that said..." He speaks but you could not hear his sentence. You turn your head toward him.
"What did you say? I couldn't hear you."
He has a kind and sweet smile, yet it shows some fatigue. Knowing his condition, this walk must have tired him a bit.
"Don't you think it's time to wake up?"
...
The silence dominates the air. The light wind has stopped; the birds have stopped chirping...
No sounds can be heard besides your voices.
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you think you have been asleep for too long?"
You don't say anything to this, not understanding what he means.
Your heart is somehow pounding loudly in anticipation, as if it feared something would happen. Baizhu's image is slowly fading away, just like the background, and you are soon surrounded by light.
You inhale sharply and loudly as your eyes shoot open. Your heart is heavily pounding and your breathing is irregular and quick. You feel as if all your senses are working at the same time at maximum speed.
A woman runs to your sides and you can hear her yelling at someone, though you could not really comprehend what she says. She looks at you and seems to be saying something.
Slowly, you understand that she asks you how you are feeling and that the doctor will arrive quickly.
After a few minutes, someone enters the room, slamming the door open in the process, and they walk toward you. The woman then leaves your side to let the person replace her.
It's a blue haired man with blood red eyes. He is familiar to you and you are sure you know him, but your brain does not allow you to really process the names of people.
The man checks a few things here and there, then puts a tool on your forehead. His hand is gripping yours. Once he is done, he gets down on his knees to reach your level. He looks at you with a small smile.
"How are you feeling?" He asks, his voice murmuring the words.
"Dottore..."
You have finally managed to process his name, now it would be nice if you could just feel less weak.
"Tired much, huh?" He says, "Just take some rest. There is no need to rush."
Your eyes are weak, yet you turn your head to look at the window. You barely look at it that you immediately turn around and hide your face in your pillow.
"Who the hell turned on the lights?!!" Your yell gets muffled by the pillow. Dottore looks at you cautiously.
You then lie back on your back and immediately sit straight on your bed.
"Wait, what the hell happened?! Did you put some drugs in my meal??" You say, your eyes wide open looking straight at Dottore.
"Hey hold your horses! Holy science I have never seen someone waking up like this after a coma."
"What?!"
Dottore sighs and puts his hands on your shoulders. His blood red eyes stare right into your eyes.
"I will explain everything so you can catch up with the events, but first you need to calm down a tiny bit."
You turn around so your body can face him, legs crossed.
"Go on."
"After getting the electro and Dendro gnosis, the scribe of the Akademiya stabbed you but fortunately, Omega was nearby and managed to stop the bleeding before you lost too much blood. He then brought you back to Snezhnaya and since you were in a too critical state, I decided it was best for you to have a few modifications."
"What kind of modifications? Don't tell me you have set some weird things in my body!" You grab his collar with such a force that he has to bend forward a bit.
"What is up with you being so aggressive?! I have not done anything harmful for once! You are in the middle of the transition to become immortal!"
You blink a few times and let go of his shirt.
"What the-"
"This experiment is extremely long, and waking up from this coma shows that the experiment is going well. You just need a few more years before you can definitely not age anymore."
"Alright, this is absolutely lovely but I don't care for the moment. How long have I been in a coma?"
"Around five years."
Five years?!
All the experiments you did right before going to Sumeru must have failed... All your test subjects you were observing...
"Tell me I still have this creature from the Abyss left! I needed to test a few poisons on her!!"
Dottore stays silent for a moment, waiting for you to calm down a bit. You look at him with a pleading look, your eyes look like they will let tears drop.
"She is gone since a few years now."
Damn it...
You get up from the bed and walk toward the closet. Dottore follows you closely, knowing that you are currently more unstable than usual. You take some clothes and quickly put them on.
"Where are you going?" He asks, his voice neutral.
"Asking the Tsaritsa to remove this damn curse of the Gods in exchange for giving the gnosis."
You grab your vision and walk out of the room in a hurry. Dottore quickly follows you since he knows you would be ready to go to her throat if she refused your request. And she would for sure.
You quickly arrived at Zapolyarny Palace. The guards immediately let you enter when they see Dottore and they do not dare to ask the reason for your presence as soon as they see your deadly stare.
You rapidly reach the throne room, where two guards are guarding the entry.
"Her Majesty is in the middle of a meeting. You cannot enter."
You blink twice and knock down the guards without a sweat. You widely open the doors of the room, ready to slay everyone as usual.
"Your Highn-"
You immediately shut up at the sight before you.
The world wants you to be mad, is that it?
You see the Traveler with his companion, both in front of the throne of The Tsaritsa. The Traveler glares at you while the fairy hides behind him. The Tsaritsa, her, doesn't move a single bit but her eyes send daggers to you for interrupting her.
"You..." You mutter between your teeth.
"Not this crazy guy! Didn't Al-Haitham say it was done for him??"
Before you could jump to their throat, a pair of arms wraps around you to prevent you from moving.
"Dottore let me the hell go!! I need to break their spine to fix them again and break them until they become so mad they would beg for mercy." You try to break free from him but your efforts are useless.
Your attention then goes back to the Traveler who seems ready to fight you if necessary. However, he put back his weapon where it was as soon as he sees Dottore's cold glare that simply says "do you not dare."
You deadly look at the Traveler.
"Because of you, I don't have any of my previous test subjects anymore. So you will bring me back new test subjects or I will make sure to turn you into one of those stupid mekas we find in Fontaine. Is that clear?"
Before the Traveler can reply, Dottore speaks up.
"Alright, now you will stop with this childish behaviour and go back to your quarters since you still need rest."
You still try to get off of him but he firmly grabs you. He turns you toward the door before he looks back at the Traveler.
"Please excuse him, he is in the middle of a recovery and his temper can be rather... Aggressive for the moment."
As soon as he finishes the sentence, he brings you outside so you cannot cause any more trouble.
Back to your quarters, you simply look out the window, sat on the edge. It took you a while to calm down. Dottore concluded that your already unstable personality was not a good match with the side effect of the recovery. As such, he decided to keep you indoors for a few days until you would be more stable to socialize.
Dottore rests his chin on his arms that are resting on your laps. One of his hands gently holds yours and he leaves a kiss on it. You look down at him.
"As much as the process of this experiment is rather shocking to the body, the result is worth the pain."
He gives you a soft smile and straightens himself to sit beside you. The light of the sun makes him even more handsome than he already is. You smile back at him before bringing your lips to his.
The kiss is soft and loving.
You are glad to be with Dottore, and this love would surely last long.