Chapter Text
Finally, they'd arrived at their destination after traveling many feet underground the desert's boiling surface. In front of the traveler and his choice of company—Wanderer—was arguably one of the oddest-looking domains that Aether had ever seen throughout all of his adventures.
This place... something was off about it. From the eerie atmosphere surrounding it to the lack of life around the entire area where the domain's entrance was, the blond traveler felt as if something was threateningly different than the others that he'd explored in the past. As if this domain had an aura of death surrounding it.
Aether felt this looming dread creeping up his spine when both he and the wanderer accompanying him had entered the premise. He didn't know what it was that told him to get out of there immediately, but he did manage to convince himself that the paranoia was exactly that; paranoia and nothing else. With that, he kept his head held high as both of them traversed into the uncharted territory.
"Hah, they said this place was special?" Wanderer laughs as he takes the lead and heads down into the first dark corridor. The walls were full of dust and cobwebs, indicating that no one had come here in a long time. Perhaps it had been abandoned for some reason?
"This place is filthy. What was the point of coming here again?"
Aether swallows. "Uh, apparently there's some ancient relic that resides here. The reward for it was rather high, so I... didn't want to pass it up." he explains, eyes widening as he catches spot of a decaying animal skull lying across him from on the ground that had over-saturated grass covering it. Moss had taken over the poor animal's remains and left it swallowed up by the green growth due to the puddle of water it had been sitting in. Something about the sight made a shiver crawl up the blond's body. He didn't know why.
Wanderer notices—because of course he does—and he gives the traveler an accusing glare.
"What's with you?"
"What do you mean?" Aether asks, forcing himself to take in a deep breath. Everything was going fine as of now, so then why was he so nervous? It's not like he hadn't been to plenty of domains just like this one. Well, maybe not exactly like this one, but that was the gist of it anyhow.
For the past month or so all he'd been doing was exploring these emptied and seemingly hallow buildings. As ancient and fascinating as they were, he had to admit that it got boring after some time. He was really only in it for the Mora at this point.
This place however, seemed to be different.
The puppet makes a displeased sound as he continues onward. "You look all petrified like you've seen something."
Perceptive of him, Aether thinks, though he almost wishes the wanderer wasn't so observant when it came to the little things.
"I don't know, I think I'm just feeling a little uneasy being here," he admits.
Wanderer scoffs—the sound is grating. Typical for him.
"For the great 'Almighty Traveler', you sure do get scared easily." He flashes the blond a smirk, and Aether feels annoyance take over just for a moment, until he realizes that it's surprisingly less unpleasant than the fear that plagued him earlier. The reason as to why the former Harbinger felt so inclined to be such a thorn in Aether's side when he did nothing but show him kindness was a mystery.
"...Can you seriously cut that out?" he asks, following close behind the arrogant puppet. Though he cannot see it, the traveler rolls his eyes. "Your antagonistic remarks are going to drive me insane."
"You're already insane if you think traveling with me is even remotely a good idea."
Aether stills momentarily at this, his footsteps stalling even as the other continued forward down what was at least the third hallway by now. Each one seemed to descend lower and lower underground.
"I know you wouldn't purposely try to hurt me," he starts, and the sentiment holds more weight than he let on. The blond wasn't ready to tell him about how he truly felt, even if it was most likely inevitable for it to happen one day. There was no doubt that the navy-haired male would take it the wrong way if Aether had just come up to him and told him that he'd been catching romantic feelings towards him when he was formerly his enemy.
"...Besides. I think you've learned your lesson when it comes to exacting revenge on people by now."
The one ahead of the traveler takes a solemn moment of silence before he comes to his next possible conclusion as to why he'd want to stick with someone such as himself.
"Then I'd have to assume you enjoy my company for some absurd reason?"
Aether nearly stutters, a small pit of dread growing in his stomach at the sudden accusation. Luckily—it was for reasons other than the fact that the two of them were currently in this creepy and disturbingly lifeless domain that practically screamed 'do not enter'. Maybe it was strange to admit, but talking to the puppet gave him a sense of ease when it came to the present moment.
"I wouldn't call it absurd, but yeah," the blond whispers, chewing on his lip as he seems to think about how the wanderer might take his response. The navy-haired wanderer takes a vow towards silence as he looks back at Aether with unmasked confusion.
"Are you sure that you aren't just using me and my abilities as an asset? You know, that would be a lot more reasonable than the prior reason."
The traveler shakes his head. He keeps his posture up but avoids the other's leering eyes.
"You're useful, sure, but that's not the only reason I keep you around."
There were actually many reasons why Aether kept him around, but those were still secret as of now.
"Hmph..." huffs the blue-haired male. After that, he doesn't say another word.
A few more silent steps forward, nothing more was said for a good couple of minutes as they continued moving forward even with the heavy atmosphere. It was clear some things were kept unsaid, even though neither of them would admit to it. Likely ever.
Stairwell after stairwell, each level they passed only got even more suffocating than the previous.
Until—as they walked side by side—they finally reached what appeared to be the end of the line.
At least, that's what Aether had assumed. He was unfortunately wrong.
"Wait, over there," he says, his eyes locking onto the corner were the 'final' passageway resided. Moss and vines littered the walls—stone and rock covering the dirt floor that made it hard to access the area at all. Funnily enough, there was a curt little pathway just in the middle of all of the debris, almost as if it had been maintained on a regular basis by someone, or something. Small mechanical tics sounded out from just behind that doorway, nearly hypnotizing in rhythm.
"I hear something," Aether hushes, a hand coming out to stop the wanderer in his tracks.
"I'll take a look," volunteers the puppet, and if the traveler didn't know any better, he might even say his words sounded arrogant. "Stay here."
"I don't need protecting..." protests the blond.
He was ignored, ultimately.
"Quiet down already, you're going to give me a headache."
The navy-haired eccentric walks in front of Aether, taking a nearly protective stance as he listens to the strange sound that echos off the barren stone walls. He had to admit, the sound was making each step further harder than the last. His nerves were slowly getting to him.
Turns out, he wasn't crazy to be afraid of this place.
Not when the trap that had been well camouflaged finally goes off in one swift slice. It all happens so fast, that the blond can barely process what is happening until he sees the puppet being pierced by multiple sharp spikes that shoot out in all directions of the passageway. His heart sinks to his stomach when the wanderer makes an utterly agonizing sound of pain. It's neither a scream nor a groan, but it's much closer to a choked-out wail—the sound muffled by the blood that fills his artificial lungs.
No.
"Wanderer!"
Said other was being held in place mid-air by the metal spears that had impaled him in nearly every place of his body. From his torso, his chest, his arms and hands, to his legs. One even grazed his forehead by what seemed to be a centimeter. It didn't change the fact that this injury was no joke. The damage dealt was hard to tell from the shear darkness of the domain, but Aether still knew. He knew this could be fatal.
The purple blood-like fluid staining the spikes within him had only made his observation even more credible.
It's all a blur—from when the wanderer is being stabbed in multiple directions to him then falling to the ground miserably as those same spears retract back into the walls and ceiling as if they'd never even existed. The traveler is unable to process all of this, he feels like he's about to pass out when he watches his companion's back hit the hard floor as he chokes up some blood.
Aether swears he runs faster than he'd ever run before when he's desperately trying to reach the wounded puppet.
He's by his side in an instant, accessing the damage to his body and doing his best to stay calm through it all. What he finds is worse than he'd originally anticipated.
"Aether... I-I..." Wanderer gasps out helplessly with a harsh cough, blood spewing out of his mouth as each syllable leaves him. He'd been unequivocally decimated from nearly head to toe, bleeding out on the ground in such a pace that it had Aether worrying for his survival probability. He was infuriated with himself for allowing the puppet to come along with him for this. He should have known better. But now, he suffered the brutal and unforgiving consequences of his own decisions.
"H-Hey... It's fine, it's fine," the blond assures him—though he was both internally and externally panicking just as much. He does everything in his power to keep his composure in check in hopes that it might calm the other down, even just by a notch.
"I'm going to get you out of here, okay? I'll... I'll make sure that you make it."
"Promise me," the blue-haired wanderer demands, weak hands grabbing fistfuls of Aether's scarf and pulling him down to his face. Blood trickled down his porcelain forehead, an abundance of fat tears rolling down his cheeks. Despite it all, he still looked immensely angry. "Promise me, r-right now!"
How could he promise if he didn't know how this would turn out? Surely... he'd be able to save him, right? Just like the people before, the people he'd saved the lives of. The renowned traveler: how could he let a life this precious to him slip past his fingers? He'd vowed to never let that happen again after the situation with Teppei. Even if, ironically enough, it was the doing of the puppet's prior incarnation that had led to the Watatsumi soldier's untimely death.
"I... I can't," he croaks, eyes watering up as he watches the one who'd acted so unjustly towards him in the past suffering as every painful second ticks by. Behind those eyes was pure fear, resembling too much like the fear he'd seen in the Kabukimono's memories when he'd lost his only family at the time. It hurt too much, and gods, was it all too familiar.
"Aether... I'm... I'm scared."
The traveler swears to the Celestia above that he can feel his heart break in that very moment. The truth was that he didn't know whether or not he could get the injured puppet out of here alive. Knowing that had tears streaming down from his golden eyes. It hurt so fucking bad. His heart was shattering into a million pieces, being ripped out of his chest and stepped on like it was some joke.
This wasn't fair.
"I need to find the way out of here."
"Please, don't go," the darker-haired male rasps weakly, a shaky arm extended out to hold onto the fabric of his scarf even as the former Harbinger himself was losing his strength as more and more of his vital fluid poured out around his body. The unadulterated desperation in his voice shakes Aether to his very core.
"I-... It's too late for me, isn't it?"
The blond is too busy trying to figure out how to make the excessive bleeding stop to be engaged in the conversation, but it feels as though everything in the moment was going too fast. One moment he'd have his hand over the Wanderer's gushing wound while searching for a quick way out of this wretched place, and then the next thing he knew, he was watching as the deep purple fluid trickled past his fingers in a steady stream.
"Don't lie to me. Don't even b-bother to sugarcoat it. Just tell me the truth. I'm going to die here... aren't I?" He asks, unmistakable horror in his tone even as he does everything in his capability to hold himself from breaking down in the midst of his possibly fatal situation.
"I need... to get you out of here..." Aether croaks, his own voice is sullied by fear—fear, and regret.
"I don't think I'm going to make it, Traveler," the puppet says with a humorless laugh. The light in his normally bright, life-filled indigo eyes is fading so quickly that Aether can't do anything but sit there by his side as he passes away. No... passes away? He couldn't possibly. He just couldn't.
But everything told the blond that he was wrong. The wanderer was dying, and it was no slow process either.
"So don't bother to leave. I need to tell you... something before I- before I go."
"Wanderer... I—" he tries pathetically as more tears fall down, only to be cut off by the one slouched below him.
"—Aether... Aether I'm going to miss you. I'm going to miss you so much. I'm sorry, for everything... everything I've done to you..."
"Shut up!" Aether cries. "Don't... d-don't say that!"
The wanderer takes in a sharp yet unnecessary breath, his own eyes producing colorless tears. He was giving up. It was so clear that it almost made the traveler want to scold him for it. The grief he had felt overcame any sense of anger that he'd felt, despite this.
"This is... the price I pay... for my sins..." whispers the withering puppet. His attempt at speaking becomes rather futile as he seems to lose the ability to speak properly at this point in time.
Aether rushes to hold his weak body up as he nearly hits his head on the ground. He's crying hysterically as he does everything in his ability to stop the bleeding. Nothing works. Everything he tries is in vain, and it makes him feel utterly useless.
"No. Nonono, stay with me, Wanderer. Please. You can't go, I..." he begs, sobbing as he claws to bring the man closer to his chest. "I... need you."
The weak smile sent his way is bittersweet, it's emotional, loving even, but Celestia above, it hurts. It only makes Aether break down into more tears, some of which fall onto the wanderer's face and leave his blood streaking down like mud running down hillsides on a rainy day. Except, this was no rainstorm. This was the purest and most disgusting form of heartbreak.
"Aether..." he murmurs with shortness of breath even though he didn't need to breathe, eyes staring up, but not at the sobbing blond. He was looking straight through him, as if he wasn't even there. "...Ae-Aether..."
The traveler can feel him go limp in his embrace, and a scream nearly rips from his throat.
"No... please. No. No! Kibo!" he cries out, grabbing hold of the seemingly lifeless puppet and picking him and into his arms with one strong tug. He holds him close even as his blood leaks into his clothing, whilst also desperately trying to find the way out of this cursed domain. His heart, despite feeling broken, hammers in his chest as if it's about to explode.
Aether feels a flicker of hope course through him when he sees the way they'd come in. Though, the dread-filled feeling in his stomach tells him that it's already too late.
This is cruel. Unfair. This world really was playing some kind of sick joke on him, wasn't it? First his sister leaves him and now his closest friend. No, who was he even kidding? They had to have been so much more than just friends.
Aether loved him; he loved the one he'd once named 'Kibo' even though he didn't even bother to call him by the name until now. Now, when he was dead in his arms, heading lulling to the side lifelessly with his eyes shut, dangerously beautiful long eyelashes and the sweetest features dawning his face. If he hadn't been leaving a trail of his peculiar-colored blood that led to the spot where the fatal trap had been set off, the traveler would have assumed he was fast asleep with how peaceful he looked despite it all.
He wants to scream, but no noise comes out.
Instead of wallowing in his grief, his panic mode sets in. He had to believe that it wasn't too late. It couldn't be. He wouldn't allow it to be.
"Hold on—hold on, it's o-okay. I'm going to fix this," Aether mutters to the puppet that he carries bridal style within his arms, though he can barely keep himself together in this moment when everything felt as if it was crumbling down onto him.
He nearly trips several times when it came to hurrying out of the place he'd been dreading for the entire time since they'd arrived there. It takes the traveler several excruciating minutes to find an exit that led to the earth above all of the dark stone walls in the domain, and each second that ticks by only makes him feel less and less hopeful when it came to the chance that he'd be able to save the wanderer.
"Kibo, Kibo... I'm so s-sorry." The blond apologies repeatedly, though he doubts the one in his hold can even hear him. "You didn't deserve this. You didn't. I should have known better than to bring you along with me, it was so stupid of me."
He takes in a sharp breath when the old dusty secret passageway opens up and he finally sees the light of day. Aether had never been so relieved to be outside.
"Nahida, please! Nahida!?" he cries out in an attempt to get the Archon's attention, as if she could hear him in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, he still had the ability to communicate with her through his mind, and with that the small god a message by using telepathy.
In an instant the Lesser-Lord appears out of the side of his vision. He can't get a coherent explanation out, but he doesn't even have to because Nahida seems to understand immediately once her eyes lock onto the blond's figure that held the lifeless navy-haired male within his arms. Her face flashes to shock and fear.
"Traveler...!" She runs up to him to get a closer view at the injured puppet. She looked utterly horrified when the severity of his condition dawns on her.
"Please help him..." Aether begs with a cracked voice, a fallen expression of guilt on his face as he stares the white and green-haired girl in her wide eyes. "I-I didn't know what to do Nahida, and now I'm afraid that it might be too... late."
"Traveler, we need to get him to the Sanctuary of Surasthana as soon as we can," she orders. "You can use teleport waypoints, right? I need you to take him there and I'll meet you inside, okay?"
The blond chokes back his tears. "Okay."
"Breathe Aether, we'll do everything we can to save him."
"R-Right," he rasps, quickly nodding. "I'll go right now."
The young god gives a reassuring smile before she vanishes into thin air within the blink of an eye. Aether wastes no time in taking the closest waypoint to the sanctuary. Thoughts run amok in his head of all the potential outcomes that could come of this scenario.
Was he already too late? Could he have stopped the bleeding somehow and he just hadn't thought of it? Perhaps this was all some nightmare that he wasn't able to wake up from? He didn't know, he didn't understand at all and that troubled him greatly.
It's been about an hour since the wanderer had been administered to the infirmary inside of the Sanctuary of Surasthana.
The traveler paced back and forth aimlessly at the foot of the door to his hospital room—or rather, it was more like a morgue by the looks of it. Whatever the case, it had the blond unintentionally biting at the inside of his mouth. To say he was nervous would be an understatement. He had Paimon by his side now to comfort him, but she didn't quite know how to sooth his endless thoughts.
It wasn't her fault, after all. Aether didn't understand why he'd been so antsy either. Maybe it was the drearing feeling of remorse that had him in a such a headlock, or maybe it was just his guilt.
"...Traveler?"
He turns, eyes locking onto his small floating companion that wore a concerned expression on her face.
"Hm?" he hums, though the sound is still hoarse from his sobbing earlier. The blond understood that Paimon couldn't possibly get it; she couldn't grasp why he would be so distraught over losing someone who seemed to bring him nothing but trouble such as the wanderer, such as Kibo. And that was okay. She didn't have to.
"I know Paimon has asked this question about a bazillion times by now... but uhm..." She had both of her arms behind her back. Her look was sincere, though she also seemed just as worried. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know."
The answer was simple, because he truly did not know. Was he okay, or was he just pretending to be okay?
"Oh... okay."
The traveler didn't mean to seem so blunt when it came to his tone, but he was ultimately unable to help it.
"Paimon. My relationship with him was more complicated than you think," he finally says with a shaky exhale following after. It was true, he and Kibo had something brewing between them for the past month or so, some would call it tension, while others might've called it two touch-starved idiots in love. The thing was, Aether never even got to hear his feelings be reciprocated or rejected. That was what hurt worst of all.
"Huh? What do you mean? Paimon doesn't get it."
Once again, the golden blond has to ground himself. His mind was spiraling; the floor beneath him felt unstable even though it wasn't. He glances in his travel guide's general direction. It was so hard to explain something that he didn't even understand himself.
"I really liked him, you know? It's stupid to think that I became so attached to someone like that. He did so many things wrong and yet all I could do was focus on the good."
Paimon doesn't seem to catch his meaning. Which was fine, but it made it much more embarrassing for him to have to word it out for her.
"I wanted to be more than friends with him... Paimon," Aether explains as he retracts his gaze; his eyes now glued onto his fidgeting hands that laid in his lap. He felt as if he was confessing something regrettable despite the fact that he knew his floating friend wouldn't resent his feelings, as she'd have to realize at the very least that he was not in control when it came to his attraction.
The traveler finds his heart beginning to race when he pictures what it would have been like to hold Kibo's hand one last time. To hear his teasing voice, which was still so beautiful even when he was being nothing but a pain in the ass. The way he showed that he cared through such little gestures like giving Aether something to eat or drink whenever he'd been out on an adventure for too long... everything that he had done left a lasting impression in the blond's mind now that he wasn't here.
He would do anything to speak to the puppet again, even if it meant he was to be called an imbecile or incompetent. Aether understood nevertheless that Kibo had teased him because he liked the reactions that it got out of him. Maybe he liked seeing him get so worked up, or maybe he was just happy that he was able to mess around with someone without them taking it to heart.
Whatever the reason; right now, it didn't matter.
Because he wasn't here.
And as far as Aether knew, he was as good as dead.
"I think... no... I was catching feelings, but I don't understand why."
"Ohhhh..." It takes a few seconds for what he'd just said to fully come crashing down onto the fairy. When she does finally realize, her expression is more comical than anything. If the traveler wasn't feeling so down right now, he might have even laughed.
"Wait a second!—Why didn't you tell Paimon about this earlier?! And why did it have to be him? Xiao or Ayaka would've been wayyy better candidates for your heart don'tcha think?"
He swallows. She had a point, Xiao or Ayaka were definitely more reasonable options when it came to lovers. Unfortunately, he'd never felt the feelings that he felt towards Wanderer with either of them. It was different. When he had talked to Xiao—for example—it was obvious that they were nothing more than friends. The same went for Ayaka. Sure, she was pretty and incredibly kind, but that alone didn't spark any romantic feelings towards her.
When it came to Kibo on the other hand, he didn't even have to try to grab the blond's attention. Everything he did from the way he flashed him those incredibly sly smirks to the way he became so much more docile when the two of them were alone, something about the man had butterflies fluttering around in Aether's stomach every single time.
"It... it doesn't work like that," he utters regrettably—and the small smile that once formed when he thought about the puppet had ceased all existence once the harsh reality of this whole situation hits him like a boulder.
"...I didn't choose to fall for him. But I definitely did."
"Then... how long have you felt like this, Traveler?" asks his companion. Unlike him, she wasn't sitting down in a chair outside of the room where Lesser Lord Kusanali had been accessing Kibo. Paimon rarely ever sat down, after all.
"I'm not sure. It's been a while... so maybe a few months?" he estimates.
"W-Well... he's going to be okay, right? You'll get to tell him about how you really feel?"
"I don't know," Aether admits. "I... I regret not telling him earlier."
"Hey, cheer up! It'll be fine. Paimon promises to stay with you until he wakes up!"
As much as the traveler respected the fact that she was trying to lighten the mood, he really wasn't able to feel anything other than guilt and grief right now.
"And if he doesn't...?" he asks.
This leaves Paimon at a sudden loss for words. He knew just as well as she did that neither of them knew for certain that the wanderer would ever wake up again.
The panic on her face as she searches for an answer only makes Aether feel even worse than he already did.
"Uhm... uh, then... we can wait some more!" stutters the white-haired fairy when she cannot come to any other conclusion.
"Traveler?" comes a cautious voice from the shutter-like door as it slides open half-way. Almost immediately Aether is on his feet, looking expectantly in the small god's direction.
"Is he... is he okay?" he asks anxiously.
She flashes him a caring smile, and while he should've been comforted by it, for some reason... he knew whatever news she had to tell him wasn't going to be particularly positive in nature.
"I don't know yet," Nahida confesses with a shake of her head. "He hasn't shown any signs of his consciousness returning yet. ...However, I have put tabs on him and he's been bandaged up accordingly."
The pause is uncomfortably noticeable. Everything seems to go slow down when he waits for her to continue.
"...I just thought I should tell you that the chances of him coming back are looking rather... slim."
"What?" The volume of the blond's voice went higher than he would've liked when the word slips out past his lips, but this was serious. Any comfort he had received from Paimon went straight out the door with this confirmation of information. He knew that Kibo hadn't been in good condition from the moment he saw his injured—and nearly decimated, body on the floor of that domain.
Aether's voice cracks, and before he knows it there's that same feeling of dread stirring in his stomach once more. He wanted to vomit.
"How slim...?"
The lesser lord sighs. It was clear that this whole situation troubled her just as much as it did him.
"Well, considering the amount of vital fluid he'd lost, I can't be sure whether or not I'll be able to revive him. If I'm being honest, I'm not even sure how his anatomy works."
She takes a finger up to her chin as she thought about it all; the girl seemed troubled by whatever information she had learned, and that only made the traveler feel even more nauseous.
"He appears to function much like that of a human would; he has blood, which is clearly just as crucial to him as a mortal in terms of keeping him alive. Despite this, I was unable to confirm that he actually had any organs, so I'd initially assumed that it was merely a cosmetic feature."
Aether found himself subconsciously picking at his already chipped nails as he listens to everything that she dumped onto him.
"Upon further inspection I was able to conclude that he would need a blood transfusion, though as far as I'm aware, the only person with his blood type is himself."
"Well, what about me, I'm not human, right?" the blond interjects way too eagerly. "Would you be able to give him some of my blood?"
"Aether... I'm afraid it doesn't work like that. You may not be human, but you're not a puppet either."
"Please, just try."
Nahida gives a questioning look, however despite her conflictual muses about the idea, Aether could tell she was rather touched by his desperation. The Archon was no fool, after all, and she was the farthest thing from it with the title 'God of Wisdom' in her midst. Maybe it was her tendency to be confused by such strong emotions that had her confused about his insistence, but ultimately the blond knew she had come to her conclusion.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asks, for confirmation. It's almost funny how fast the blond responds. Maybe he really was in love with the puppet to be so willing to give up his own blood for him.
"Yes."
"...Okay. Come with me."
Aether is able to hear Paimon protesting in the background, but he doesn't acknowledge any of what she's saying. He wasn't in any way inclined to help the former Harbinger even in the slightest, and yet, when it came to his feelings, the answer was so incredibly clear to him. Of course he would be willing to do whatever it took to potentially save the one he'd come to care about. Even if his attempt did nothing but bring failure and devastation.
He was willing to risk it.
After all, he had nothing to lose by simply trying.
So that's what he did.