Chapter 4: The One Holding the Knife

Albedo would have sworn if he knew how to. What words were taboo and which were not was lost to him long ago. That did not mean he didn't see times like these fit to use such words.

The world around was corrupted with drink still and he had issues with concentration. The cold of the frozen air around him helped with nothing as he did his best to hold up a temporary defense of some nature. He was well versed in the art of creation, though using it immediately in battle and forcing the ground itself to bend to his will was difficult. He had to wonder if all those affiliated with the earth had issues using its power as well.

"What do we do?" Jean's voice beside him was worried as she did her best to put up a shield. It was substantial in the fact that it blocked the flakes of chipped earth and frozen water from striking them, but anything with real drive was going to pierce right through it. Beside her the tavern owner seemed to be passed out and he was far too pale for his liking.

The Captain meanwhile was in the center of his lab with a shield up of his own, destroying anything that wasn't nailed down, and even some of the things that were. The very fact that he looked so different had Albedo confused and what he had managed to make of the antidote was safely in his only free hand – his other fighting to keep the earth in place.

"What happened to him?"

"This… his hair just… kind of changed, and so did his skin. Why? Was it not supposed to?"

"No. The.. the chemicals in my body are foreign to the human body. My own is of a different sort. It should have formed as some sort of outward entity that merely effected it's host. I had hoped not to fight him but knew, should it, it would be fairly obvious where to attack… Are you sure you saw nothing form on him? These changes are… strange."

"Nothing. Diluc was the one beside him most of the time though." Jean's eyes darted down for a minute. "He's getting worse."

Albedo knew that he was no fighter. He could be one, had been in the past when he needed information or samples from enemies. His main focus had always been alchemy though, and in these conditions he could hardly finish his remedy. Besides that, should it come down to a fight, they'd likely end up losing the tavern owner as well as Kaeya, and Mondstadt's driving force would be greatly diminished.

"I can buy you time, though not much. Help him how you can." Albedo frowned, concentrating, his arm weak and in pain as he turned the already formed earth on itself. It was hard, painful even, as his muscles unconsciously tensed with the strain of it until he had formed a small dome around the two beside him. Hopefully she'd be able to heal the fire user. They needed it, badly.

Albedo took up his own stance, no sword at the ready though he knew he had one somewhere in the chaotic mess that his lab now was. He held his hand out before him, facing Kaeya. "Your absorption of the impurity is internal, isn't it. How did you manage such a thing?"

Kaeya tipped his head, his eye a blue color Albedo had only see a few times that nearly made his heart skip a beat.

"I should thank you, really. I've been trying to free myself on these constraints for some time now. If not for that red head, I would have been allowed access long before now. I was never meant to be dormant so long. Do you, alchemist, assume you know all our secrets? We have had our claws in this boy long before now. He is ours. Just as you are, Master."

Fear was not something common in him, though Albedo felt it run through his blood like ice water. He disliked the fact that he was feeling so strongly due to his disconnect with the world. "Explain. He…."

"Ah, you understand now. Yes, he is one of ours. We have been with him since the beginning. He is us and we are him. You have simply made the doorway we have been fighting to find."

Regret was not something as foreign as fear and he now understood what had happened. Kaeya was no native to Mondstadt. He had never asked him why he looked and dressed so different, where his strange name came from. People all around had similar, different traits. Humans were wide and varied.

So there had to be a focal point, somewhere this creature had touched Kaeya. Hopefully it wasn't his heart or there was no hope. How to find it though….

They clashed, Kaeya forming blades of ice when he had none of his own to fight with. Finding that a good idea, Albedo made a counter of his own with one poorly formed of stone. It was heavy and ill-suited for his way of fighting style.

A great many cuts adorned his skin in ways Albedo wasn't used to suffering. He did his best to twist the earth to have the ice work against Kaeya, though the barriers he ended up placing were half formed and did little to block the attacks.

He was panting and dripping blood freely onto the floor, no one in any danger of coming into contact with it. He had already made sure that, temporarily at least, the effects of his own blood would not be transferred. It left him little access to his powers but he didn't plan on using those any time soon.

Kaeya stood with merely one injury he had inflicted to his left arm, more of a blunt force than a cut with what he'd had to work with.

"I don't want to kill you, Albedo. You know this. I will if you insist though. The stone cage, drop it. My only target right now is Diluc."

"Not happening." Albedo took up his stance, the sword too heavy, and falling with a loud clang to the ground. That was hardly what he had intended, or the image he had wanted to project to the creature Kaeya was now becoming. He moved his hand to place an open palm in his direction. "Do not make me resort to more dire measures."

"You think we do not know of you. That is a falsehood you should not coat yourself in. You will help us and I would be in trouble should you fall. We will have you as well, one day. You are one of us."

"I am me and only me." Albedo knew his resolve was far stronger than this creature could know but his body was not. It was a strain to keep his arm in place as Kaeya took a few steps towards him.

"Take down the barrier, alchemist."

"I refuse." Albedo wavered where he stood before falling to a knee. He could still use his powers in this position, if he was conscious enough for it.

"Forgive me for my actions then. You brought them upon yourself."

Albedo quickly created an encase of ice and earth around him but not before Kaeya's blade of ice made it through. Staring at the weapon that had gone into his chest, he could feel the blood raise up and start to choke him as it overflowed out of his mouth. He looked up at those blue eyes, straight out of the Abyss as they were.

"Farewell."

…

Jean did everything she could with the protection offered to her. She no longer was near a torch so she did her best to warm Diluc herself. Hugging him had been something she hadn't done since long before, when she was nothing more than a child and he barely a teenager. It had been easy back then, fun even.

Her wind picked up as her heart did, trying her best to keep him warm at the same time the air was chilling both of them. With the chill came a soft, healing power that she possessed. It was not as fast as her sister, not as easy to use, but it was there at her beck and call.

Nearly screaming when part of the rock tore away from where she was, Jean jumped to her feet to defend Diluc. He was still unconscious and far too injured to fight anymore.

Kaeya stood before her, a hand placed lightly on the stone of the opening he made. Ice formed along it's rim. "Pity. I didn't want to have to kill him but he wouldn't let me in here. Jean, I ask you again so you do not suffer the same fate. Move aside."

"What?" Jean tried to look around him but the whole room had turned into a snowstorm. "What did you do to Albedo?"

"I told you, he left me no choice but to kill him. Don't force my hand as well."

"Albedo!" Jean shouted out, hoping to get an answer. "Are you there?" She had heard tales of what he was capable of, of the research breakthroughs in alchemy he had made. She had never heard tales of him as a fighter but she'd always assumed…

"Jean, back up. This is between us."

She spun, hearing Diluc shift and slip on his coat. He was still hurt, still bleeding, but she had managed to fight off most of the cold and some of his more dire wounds. She could not replace blood.

"But-"

"No, don't interfere." He stood beside her. "Go help Albedo. See if he has any way of stopping this. If he doesn't, I can take care of things." His sword was back in his hands, large and threatening, while Kaeya's lay somewhere on the ground behind her. She didn't want him to have it but even without it, if he had just… killed Albedo… did he really need the sword?

"You shouldn't have to. Diluc, this is our job. It's what the knights are for."

"And I'm his target and I don't give a damn what the knights are for. Those who are not knights have stood up against as much."

There was a pain there as she remembered his father, refusing to ignore that day or the sacrifice Diluc was offering up, mirroring that act. In this fight she already knew Kaeya would be the victor. He had won earlier, and she hadn't healed Diluc enough to change that outcome.

"Fine." Her words were soft as she took a step away, matching glances with Kaeya as he politely stepped to the side for her to exit.

It wasn't hard to find Albedo. She rushed over to him, seeing the weapon still inside his body as no breath left him.

"Oh no."

Then something happened, the world a flash of light and color. She vanished.

…

Diluc's arms shook as he clashed once more with Kaeya's blade, though this time one formed of ice right before his eyes. If that were the case, Kaeya could make as many blades as he wanted. He stuck to the one, the ice swirling around them as his opponent couldn't help grinning, laughing every time he drew pain or blood. Mostly blood. That ice sword was sharp.

He had to either drive him off or kill him. Kaeya was not himself and a clear danger. His attacks, even as they were aimed at vital points, missed the limber enemy before him as he danced away and chuckled, coming back only to hurt.

It was far too cold and his vision too bad. Diluc knew he wouldn't win this time. Last time, there had been a chance. Now, injured and worn down while Kaeya somehow was not, those odds had been drastically lowered.

It was easy to burn away the shields and the blades. It was harder to keep it up as the single blade Kaeya always formed was faster and precise. He knew he did some damage but there was no comparison to who was doing more.

Cutting the point of his sword into the frozen ground when he could hold it no longer, Diluc let out heavy breaths. "Why… why me? Do you want to kill me so badly?"

Kaeya laughed, loud, real, painful. It echoed with darkness and joy and pain. "Did the alchemist not tell you? It doesn't matter much to me to explain it. You'll be dead soon and I'll enjoy it." Kaeya walked forward, Diluc raising his blade to block him. It was easily tossed to the side as he was pushed up against a wall, the ice user's cold fingers lightly moving up to hold his face. "It is hard for us, you see, when our host has reason to live. What this one cares about most, Diluc, is you. I have been fighting him as much as I have been fighting you and, seeing him cause you pain, I was able to regain more use of my power. I weakened him. Killing you, I will have no barrier any longer. I will be able to use my full power and he will lose his reason for being. It is as simple as that."

"He doesn't care about me more than his own damn life," Diluc spat, only to have the Kaeya that, he would finally admit, wasn't Kaeya, smile devilishly at him.

"Oh, but doesn't he?"

Diluc swallowed, reacting as fast as he could when the blade was drawn near his stomach. He grabbed it, holding it mere inches away as it cut into him where his glove was already damaged. He laced fire up the weapon, watching most of it disappear as Kaeya retracted his hand, shaking it. Served him right not wearing gloves that covered his fingers.

"You bastard."

Diluc pushed against him. If it was going to come down to a fight he had a better chance of winning one at closer quarters. He punched him, hitting him in the face as Kaeya tried to fight back, ducking and weaving as they were now on a more even playing field. The wind blew and the ice frosted just as fast as he used his own powers to melt it, leaving them in a mess of hot and cold patches that got them soaked.

"Diluc, don't let him move!"

"What?" Kaeya turned the best he could to see behind him as Albedo's voice called out. Diluc didn't let him have any options about staying still as he grabbed him while he was distracted, pinning his arms to his side as he struggled to trip him, Kaeya keeping his feet and being trapped between them both.

Albedo came out of nowhere, the mist lightly wetting his hair as he reached up as far as the shorter man could reach. One hand in Kaeya's hair, Diluc saw something in his hand but not what it was before Kaeya screamed.

It echoed all around them, the frost inside the cave falling away as if it were nothing.

They could all see again and the cold settled in a natural way. Diluc held him as Kaeya fought back still, screaming out and resorting to trying to kick and bite him when escaping failed.

After a few seconds he seemed to calm down, nothing bet dead weight in his arms that had both of them going to the floor. Diluc did his best to lay Kaeya down, seeing that the eye-patch he always wore was gone and there was something dark and covered with blood that had been shoved into where his eye had been.

"Jean, heal him quickly before he bleeds to death. Diluc, I'm going to need you to get the rest of my ingredients from wherever they've flown off to. Quickly."

Albedo's hand had blood all over it, smearing it around as he looked closer at the injury he had given Kaeya. Diluc watched, entranced, not all that ready to get about moving at the second.

Albedo looked up at him, seeing him standing there. "There's a box somewhere around here filled with wood shavings. I need that as well as a root that's a deep purple. It looks like a dried out tree. Can you find those?"

"Yes… maybe. What happened?"

Looking down at Kaeya a brief moment, Albedo let out a breath. "This… virus like quality usually doesn't work the way you have seen. My blood, right now at least, is safe to touch. Kaeya is from somewhere where this condition naturally lives in your veins – like me in a distant way. Scaled down, I suppose you could say. Instead of forming something you could have easily removed, it awoke something already present. Due to the fact that he had control and was speaking with Jean, I was able to find out it steamed from his eye. That being the case, to remove the power it has I need both the antidote and to remove his eye. He'll live, and that should be good enough. Please, go find me those ingredients now?"

Diluc moved, sore muscles and all. It took him fifteen or twenty minutes to find the root. The box had been easy. He gave both to Albedo who was still over Kaeya, near his face, while Jean had a healing wind moving around them both. It took a while to notice Albedo himself was also covered in cuts. There was a large spot of blood on the ground further in.

"He said he killed you."

"He thought he had. I knew there was no way to defeat him at the same time I acquired information from him about what the corruption had done and how to counter it. The me he thinks he killed was nothing more than a copy. It was, however, my blood that I needed to both fuel the power as well as trick the enemy. I'm not doing very well right now, even with Jean's lovely assistance. If any of you have a bed I could rest in, I would appreciate it. If we all need to, however, pass out here, I would like it if you could find something to light so we won't all die before I wake. I leave that to you, Diluc." He took the root in his hand and, in a way Diluc had never seen before, simply turned it to powder that fell over the bloody dark hole, free of the impedance that had been Kaeya's eye.

"You were talking about the evil-"

"Diluc, stop. I'm not sure what Kaeya has been through but the rest is his story to tell. Besides" Albedo wavered a bit, the wood shaving turning into a milky salve that fell from his fingers. "I can't stay conscious any longer. I used too much power and lost too much blood." The alchemist passed out, leaving Diluc with an injured, half crazed ice user and Jean, who looked like she had used up most of her power too.

Slowly, Kaeya's hair took on it's old color again, his skin fading to it's dull bronze he was used to seeing. His chest rose and fell in a natural rhythm, both Diluc and Jean watching over him while this happened. When nothing else seemed to occur, Diluc went over and knelt beside them.

"I've never been this tired in my life. I'm not sleeping in this cold though. I'll take Kaeya myself. Can you carry Albedo?"

Jean nodded. "You're in no shape to do that though. I healed only some of your wounds and you've been fighting so hard."

"There's not much choice." Diluc shifted, doing his best to hold Kaeya in his arms before throwing him over his shoulder. It looked like his eye wound would take a lot to heal and carrying him wouldn't do much damage. "Hurry."

It felt as if it took forever to get down the mountain. There were enemies they had to avoid and, if not for a few interested members of the adventurer's guild, he had a feeling some of the more human of those that stood in their way would have taken them down.

It wasn't far off from the chilled winds of the peak that Diluc gave up on the idea of making it back to Mondstadt, or even the winery. He placed Kaeya down, more falling beside him than willingly laying so close. He thought about moving but, in the end, just closed his eyes to get some well deserved rest.

….

Kaeya woke before the others. It was dark and the moon was half hidden in the clouds as it lay high in the sky. He looked over at the unconscious people around him after taking in his own injury.

He had never been able to show anyone his eye before, had no idea how it had been removed, but was thankful that he and the others all seemed to be breathing.

Lightly moving some of Diluc's hair aside, he noticed where all the blood had fallen. Having precious few memories, that fact had stood out to him enough to make him check. There was a scar there now, running down most of his face on the side. Kaeya winced, knowing that would not be pretty and was a clear sign of his betrayal.

Albedo looked no better, though his deepest and clearest scar seemed to go across his shoulder to near his throat. It was healing well enough but there were many marks, on the both of them, that would be there long after.

His steps as silent as he could make them, Kaeya walked away. He didn't know where he was going to go but he couldn't face what he had done. He had no memories of it, but it was his blade and his powers that painted their skin. He was grateful Jean had no such marks.

Hands in his pockets and head down, he made sure to travel past the coastal area. There was no boat and no land there, and he was not foolish enough to trap himself. The pain in his eye retained his attention, a lot, until he stopped to rip some more of the remaining hanging cloth of his coat and wrap it around his head. He'd get an eye-patch later and really need it this time.

The morning sun hurt as he caught glances of it to his left. He didn't want it to rise and people to wake, possibly find him and question him on his appearance. He could feel the dried blood all over him, very little his own.

He had to wonder how much was Diluc's.

Painfully, that thought made his heart hurt. He did his best to ignore it but, in all the years of terrible waves of feeling that he hid, rather well in his opinion, he had never physically harmed Diluc. Not since that day. Now he had scared him, near killed him. He didn't want to know what else he had done while not aware of his actions.

Water met him after a while. He could travel the long way, find the bridge that connected this land to the next, or he could swim and wipe away the marks on his skin, possibly some of those on his clothes.

"Are you going to run away?'

Kaeya's eye widened, pain going along with it where skin stretched on the other. He turned, Diluc standing behind him with his arms folded.

"How were you so silent?"

"You were distracted." Diluc looked to him before looking beyond, at the water. "Are you running away?"

Kaeya said nothing, his glance falling lower. He didn't know what he was doing.

They stood there in each other's company, alone, far longer than they ever had in years. Kaeya didn't notice it until the sun was high enough in the sky that he wanted a hat and his legs were tired of standing still.

"I don't know."

"You're not doing a very good job if I could follow you." Diluc shifted, having been still as long as Kaeya had, as if he had been waiting for him to make the first move. "You don't want to either, not if you're doubting it."

"I can't… I can't go back. They'd kick me out anyway. Albedo is a knight too, technically. You know as well as I that turning traitor on a member will, at the very least, get me expunged. At worst, I'd likely get banished. Leaving before that happens seems the better option."

"For a coward."

"What do you want me to do?" Kaeya felt some emotion well up in him even as he refused it. "I can't explain what happened. It was still me that did it. Nothing will change."

"Albedo said something that had me thinking. You have something in your blood like his. I doubt that's something he would want to share anymore than you have. So, who's to know?"

"You have marks. He has marks. Someone will say something."

"We fought an enemy in the mountains. We drove it off and it's not coming back again. We were injured. I don't see why you have to make things so complicated."

Kaeya felt his shoulders lower slightly. "That's a lie. Besides, I'm sure you're not happy with me either."

"I'm not." Diluc glared at him as he always did, anger and hatred and fire. "You tried to leave without speaking to me. I've done the same so I'm not one to act on it, but it ticked me off. If you think I don't blame you, you're wrong. I do. I blame you for being a dumb ass that cares about me too much when I don't want your damn care and worry. It almost just got me killed. That wasn't you though and if I thought it was I would have killed you in your sleep."

Kaeya had words but they didn't come out. They weren't the right ones and he didn't know what to say. He wanted to fight back but he didn't want to argue either. In the end he fell silent with only one question. "What if it happens again?"

"Then I'll kick your ass again."

Kaeya had to laugh. It hurt but it lightened his heart at the same time. "I suppose so."

"Get your ass back to the others now before they wonder where we went." Diluc turned, heading back the way they had come. "Don't make me drag you this time."

"I'm coming, I'm coming." He took a few steps, unsure of following Diluc, before he gave up on any of the unease and simply took his place beside him. "So… I'm sorry."

Diluc glared at him before looking forward. "I forgive you for this."

There was a tensing of muscles before Kaeya faced forward again and nodded. "Thank you."

They traveled in silence, the grass making no sound under his feet. Perhaps Diluc got away with following him because he had blended in so well with the sunrise. Now he looked like a flower, tall and proud and bright.

"We have a lot to talk about."

The words floated on the wind and Kaeya found himself nodding. He had told Diluc about himself, about where he was from. Now he'd have to tell him a bit more, things he had never wanted anyone to know.

More than anything though, they needed to speak with Albedo. "I know."

"If I need your help, will you give it? I won't be asking."

Kaeya smiled coyly. "Of course. I wouldn't dream of calling it help. We'd likely have the same goal. Do you mind a partner?"

"You're not a partner, you won't be. We'll just be two people with the same goal."

That was more than Diluc had ever admitted to before and far more than enough to get Kaeya smiling a genuine, gentle smile that was left unseen as they traveled on.

"Of Course."