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“If I ever lose control, destroy Mondstadt, destroy everything…
can I rely on you to stop me?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Just musing... let me reword it; if you had to, would you kill me, Zu?”
“Worst case scenario, yes.”
“I hope you keep your promise then”
Albedo hated how quickly it all happened. His hand started jittering on its own and he knew it was his time.
Would Alice get here in time? Klee and Durin- would they be safe?
He locked his office door, searching for the damned dodoco-communication device. Alice had to get Klee and Durin now.
He considered stabbing himself, maybe poison? The idea of suicide always lurked in his mind. Dying on his own terms had always been his plan, in the end everything turns to ash anyway. But Kaeya had taken his sword a while back, and no potions in his office were strong enough to kill him. Guess he’d have to rely on someone else for once.
Would Kazuha fulfil his promise?
Albedo lost control of his hands shortly later. He threw himself against the wall in a futile attempt to die, some combustible mixtures smashed to the floor. Maybe the explosion would kill him.
The Favonius building burnt down first, the chemicals from the alchemist’s office had fanned the flames. The fire towered higher than the cathedral. Albedo stumbled through the mondstadt streets, face red and raw from the fire. Embers crawled up the wooden pillars of houses. Citizens gathered outside the city walls, herded like sheep by the knights.
His hand crept up his neck, gently pressing his hand against the star on his neck. Once glittering gold, now a deep purple, bleeding out like tree branches into his skin.
Albedo was slowly losing control of his body, soon he would lose his mind too. Shame, his mind was his best feature.
Jean yelled behind him, her arm dripping with blood. Lisa unconscious in her grasp.
“Albedo! What is the meaning of this!” She met Albedo’s eyes, his gaze losing the humanity behind it. Her sternness falling into panic.
“Master Jean.” His voice trembled. “Is Klee and Durin safe?”
Jean hesitated. “Yes, Alice has them”
At least, when he did lose control, they would be safe.
“Then, get out of here, while there's still time.” Albedo forced his body to move, giving Jean the chance to escape.
He watched as her figure disappeared through the smoke, the city closer to an empty prison than home.
The alchemist leaned against a wall, slow droplets of blood tricking down the stone.
Would Master just put him back together? Would he even be allowed to die?
Would Rhinedottir let her masterpiece fall back into dust, like all beings?
His body dragged itself through the streets. Carelessly throwing things about.
If the gods still looked upon him, would they answer? Would the so-called benevolent beings of the heavens still grant him his final conscious thought? Let him kneel beneath a false throne and die before a lord?
A flicker of white through the black smoke dragged his attention from his ultimate demise.
“Albedo...?”
His world, his everything. Why did Kazuha have to see him in this horrid state?
“My beloved...” Albedo muttered, his will waved beneath those scarlet eyes.
Kazuha’s grip around his sword as he stepped closer. “What is all this...? You were serious back then?”
Albedo nodded, crackling of fire and cries swelled around them like a cruel orchestra.
“So, kill me then. Before I do first”
Kazuha closed his eyes, the idea of facing against Albedo tore his heart, but he promised.
He raised his sword to Albedo. His blade level with Albedo’s neck, jasper eyes staring deeply into aquamarine.
“One last spar then? Your hand is too elegant to be lost in a solo strike.”
“So be it, a final spar.”
They blades met in the middle, grazing against one another, metal on metal like bodies mingling.
Their moves perfectly matched, footsteps tangling like a dance. Familiar in each other’s movements. Intertwined beings, shared embraces, memorised skin to skin contact used against each-other in a fight.
Where they once held the other so tight, sharp metal now cut their skin. Shared breaths turning to smoke. Broken eye contact, harsh stabs, only illuminated by the destruction of a home.
Albedos blade hit the ground- his back shoved against the cold rock. The samurai’s quick movements always seemed to besthim.
Kazuha straddled his waist, holding the sword to Albedos neck, the reality that he’d have to kill him dragging him down. His stare directly into Albedo’s eyes.
“You got me, my love.” Albedo weakly smiled, a small tear pricking his eye.
Kazuha’s hand shook, the sword he’d held so many times now a dead weight in his hands. Embers and flames of Mondstadt hitting his side. Charring his clothes, burning his skin. His vision blurry from the hot tears welling. He could barely make out the man lying beneath him, only two shimmering topaz eyes gazing up at him. Kazuha’s ears rang louder than fire.
“Appears so…” His voice course.
He gripped the handle tighter, like it would make up for his lack of will. The tip of the blade barely grazing the other’s neck, uselessly threatening him; they both knew he couldn’t plunge the blade into him.
Despite the destruction he caused, Kazuha couldn’t end Albedo’s life.
Albedo’s hand wrapped around the blade, despite the slicing at his palm, he pulled the sword closer to his own neck. His blood staining Kazuha’s sword.
“I’m glad you’re the one to kill me, Kazuha.”
The alchemist reached his other hand up to wipe the blurry tears from his face.
“Don’t cry, please, don’t cry over me.”
Kazuha stabbed the sword into the ground next to Albedo’s head, holding the alchemists bloodied hand in his own.
“I can’t… I can’t watch another one die.”
Albedo’s blood soaked into the bandages on Kazuha’s hand. Another loss soon to come to him, how many more until he could love someone truly without a fear?
His leaned down, lips barely brushing Albedo’s own. Breaths mingling.
“Please don’t make me do this.”
He gently pressed a kiss to his lips. Savouring the taste of his lover until the end.
As Albedo closed his eyes, Kazuha’s hand grasped the sword handle yet again.
He whispered apologies to his lips and held the sword up again, pushing himself up.
Albedo’s eyes fluttered for a brief second, memorising Kazuha’s face, his thumb rubbing the samurai’s cheek before closing them again.
The pain was overwhelming, feeling the cold metal sink into his flesh. He coughed specks of blood up, wincing from the pain. Kazuha’s teary apologies hurt his heart more than the blade.
“Kazuha…”
All things turn into ash in the end.
Kazuha’s tears fell onto Albedo’s face; the sword plunged in his heart pulled from his chest.
It’s the only thing inevitable, death.
He pulled Albedo into his embrace, blood seeping into his sleeves, his body slowly turning cold.
Albedo never feared it, his tension falling finally, body coming to rest.
He tucked a lock of blonde hair behind Albedo’s ear, memorising every mark on his porcelain face.
At least he died by the hand of his beloved .
“Goodnight… Albedo.”