Aether needs to hate him.
"Yikes, that was close! Someone's angry-ah!" Paimon squeals as Aether grabs her and rolls out of a burst of short-lived Geo crystals. As he gets up, Paimon dematerialises, wisely choosing to sit this fight out.
Albedo rotates his shoulders to fight the incoming stiffness after using his Geo vision. Any wounds Aether has inflicted so far are shallow, nothing more than tears in clothing and shallow grooves in his chalk, the result of both Albedo's durability and Aether's hesitance.
The latter is a problem.
"Why are you doing this?" Aether asks, desperation completely overshadowing their typical cheery tone. "We're your friends–!"
"Friends?" Albedo cuts him off, seizing the opportunity to sever the last obstacle against his true goal, even when his heart protests. "You believe we are friends?"
Aether tops and stares at him, confused. Understandably so, since he believes the answer to be a simple, unequivocal yes.
And of course they are. Aether makes sure to visit him every time he's around, and Albedo's made sure to pack extra supplies in his camp just in case of an unexpected visit. Visits in which a significant portion is spent simply enjoying each other's company, either alongside others or just the two of them. It's a friendship Albedo treasures, one among few, and one that has been confounding him. Unlike the rest, there is something not quite right in categorising Albedo's feelings towards Aether as friendship, like trying to a square peg through a round hole. It's something he tried to express during his last outing with everyone, but ultimately fell short of, like so many of his goals.
But that is not relevant anymore. Now, Aether needs to hate him. "Please don't mistake our relationship. My interest in you extends only as far as your unusual origins," Albedo lies. "Disappointingly, your atypical expertise with elemental energy seems to be your only noteworthy feature," he continues, compounding lie after lie.
Aether takes a step back, aghast. "But, I thought you… I thought we…"
"If you have something to say, then do so instead of stuttering."
Aether is staring at Albedo as if seeing him for the first time. "If that's true, why spend so much time together? Why tell me the truth of what – who you are?"
Ah right, Albedo has done that, and the mere memory makes his heart flutter, out of equal part fear at exposing such a fundamental part of himself and delight at how readily Aether accepted him, how quickly he was to ensure nothing changed in his fondness.
But now is not the time for truth. "A simple way to get you to trust me. I know you are the type who can keep secrets. If I shared my origins with you, it would only endear you to me, while keeping the chance of my exposure minimal." Albedo fakes a small, mocking smile. "A little monster seeking friendship is sure to tug at your heartstrings, no?"
Albedo says those words even if he can see how they chip away at what remains of Aether's fondness towards him. Aether needs to hate him.
"But…" Aether starts, looking like a lost child. He raises his hand towards Albedo. "All of it?"
"There was not much to begin with," Albedo lies.
Aether drops his hand along with his gaze. Albedo wants nothing more than to stop this, to drop this facade and go back and continue his quiet life with Aether and the Knights and Klee–
But that's not an option anymore.
Aether lunges at him with no warning. Albedo reflexively brings his sword to guard, but one swipe from Aether has it flying out of his grasp. With his other hand, Aether pushes him down, one hand pinning him at the neck, the other holding his sword up. Albedo is momentarily shocked at Aether having so quickly broken through his defences, but he quickly relaxes, closing his eyes before the blade drops–
Aether's body shifts, no doubt bringing down his sword, but its tip never reaches Albedo. Instead, he lays still and confused. Perhaps his body has gone numb and though Aether has pierced through him, so he no longer has the capacity to feel. Or perhaps his perception of time has dilated. Or he's already dead, and the afterlife of a homunculus is nothing more than a frozen vista of their final moments.
But the truth becomes evident when Albedo opens his eyes and sees the blade buried into the ground, next to his neck.
"You're lying," comes Aether's voice from above him. His gaze is fixed on his sword, refusing to look Albedo, his clashing grief and stoicism resulting in a strained grimace. "You must be. Who's making you do this?"
Albedo can't answer. This isn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to have been killed. He still is. His fate is death, not redemption, not reconciliation. How can Aether still reach out to him, after what Albedo has said and done?
"If you need help, I'll–"
"Don't toy with me!" Albedo pushes Aether off him, baring teeth, both surprised by his strength. He can't keep up this cruel facade. He just wants it to end.
Despite holding on to his sword, Aether's pose is anything but aggressive. "You wouldn't betray us," he says with complete conviction, before he repeats: "Who's making you do this?"
Aether's figuring everything out with alarming speed. Soon enough and he'll doom himself as well–
Except it is his book Albedo has read, and the newfound knowledge made it clear how unique Aether is, and how little the laws of Teyvat, of Celestia, apply to him.
Albedo's whole body shakes, his suppressed emotions finally getting the better of him. At first, he thinks it's laughter; guilty, manic laughter at everything he has done, everything he represents, but as seconds pass his so-called laughter turns shaky and shallow, interspersed by sharp inhales.
Dry sobs. He's lost what little composure he had left.
"Albedo?"
"It's dusk," he says, struggling to suppress all those ugly sounds coming from deep within his heart. "The time between the sun and moon."
The small pause and subsequent horrified look must be one of realisation, at what Albedo foolishly read through, at the true cause behind Klee's sudden illness and just as sudden recovery. That Klee was one bargaining chip among many, just a hint of what would be done in the case of non-compliance.
That the only way to avert such a fate is for Albedo to die and take his ill-gotten revelations to the grave.
"Are we being watched?" Aether asks.
It's a silly question. Of course they are. All Aether needs to do is look up to Celestia floating above all creation.
"I won't kill you," Aether continues.
"You won't," Albedo says with a shake of his head. "Celestia is my killer."
"You know what I mean."
Albedo only has the strength to make himself sit up. "Then we wait for the other Knights to arrive."
"There has to be something–"
Albedo shakes his head.
"There has to!" Aether yells as grabs him by the collar, forcing their faces close. His eyes are like liquid gold. "Or is the brilliant alchemist only able to lay down and die?!"
'Yes,' is how Albedo is supposed to answer. He's completely trapped. Any plans he comes up with to evade his fate will be noticed by Ceelstia, by that accursed gem on his collar–
Unless.
"The eye of god can only be blinded when dipped in the heart of a sinner," Albedo whispers.
It's a guess borne out of his recently acquired knowledge. A hypothesis he cannot test, a theory he cannot gather evidence to support. A plan he can only obfuscate and disguise as his demise, and hope it is understood by his chosen killer.
And Aether, wonderfully bright Aether, looks between Albedo's vision and his heart. "This will still kill you."
"Of course it will," Albedo says, louder this time. Aether still hesitates, so Albedo gives him a smile. "But I trust you. And death here means returning to the leylines."
Aether grabs Albedo's vision, tearing it away from his collar. The feeling of it held by a foreign hand is unsettling, like a weight pressing down on his heart, but the fact it's Aether suppresses his rising panic.
Albedo falls back into the ground, stones digging uncomfortably into his back, but it will be over soon. Aether lands on top of him, one lining the Geo vision with Albedo's heart as the other raises his sword once more.
Something wet lands on Albedo's cheek. He focuses his sight to Aether, standing on top of him with glassy eyes. "I'm sorry."
Albedo smiles, even when Aether plunges his sword into his Vision, cracking it and fatally embedding it into his heart.
