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Albedo comes to with a groan and immediately wishes he wouldn’t because there’s white hot agony all over, burning him alive and making it hard to form a coherent thought.
He tries to blink his vision clear but there’s a veil over it and it takes him a moment too long to realize that it is probably blood. Albedo still tries a few more times until he at least can make out some things around him.
There’s white all around and Albedo puzzles over this until he remembers that this is probably Dragonspine. It has to be, right?
He wrecks his brain, trying to remember what happened but it’s all in bits and pieces in his mind.
There was his laboratory at some point, and a loud explosion and noise, though Albedo isn't sure about the order of things. Did an experiment of his gone wrong?
Albedo closes his eyes, trying to take a deep breath but something is stopping him from doing so. He tries to raise his arm, wanting to check his chest but not even that is working.
He blinks his eyes open again, surprised to find that things have gone dark around him. It makes no sense because it was just blindingly white but when he spots a star in what he assumes to be the sky he realises that it has turned night.
This is not good. He’s losing time, it seems, and he still doesn’t know where he is or what happened. He tries for his hand again but when he still can’t move it he turns his head.
It turns out he’s on the ground, flat on his back and he feels a bit better having figured out his own position even if everything else is still a mystery. The agony is still present, filling every part of him but Albedo thinks it’s been so long that it barely even registers anymore.
It takes him a few tries, blinking his eyes rapidly before his vision finally focuses and he sees why he can’t move his hand.
Makes sense, he thinks, with the stones burying him. It also makes much more sense why he can’t seem to take a deep breath because everything from his ribcage downward is crushed, apparently. Huh. Maybe he’s not in enough pain after all, Albedo thinks and despite the spark of worry he loses a bit of time again.
It’s light again when he can focus next time and he’s unsure if it’s a blessing or a curse that he’s not human. The agony is still there, as is the stone on top of him, and he figures a normal human would have long died. Not so Albedo.
It barely matters to his body that he can’t breath properly and that he’s steadily leaking blood still—is that another thing to worry about?—and that most of his form is probably nothing more than a shapeless mush by now.
Albedo would prefer if he stopped feeling pain at some point, though, because the agony is making it hard to think.
He still doesn’t quite remember how he ended up here, but the snow around him reminds him yet again that he must be on Dragonspine and that means help is a long way out. People don’t tend to look for him when he leaves for one of his expeditions to Dragonspine and it’s not as if he’s still in his lab where people would go first.
Kaeya might come for me, he thinks but between one blink and the next, between light and dark, that thought is lost as well.
The passing of time is strange for him; he knows that time must pass based on the fact that sometimes it’s day and sometimes it’s not but it doesn’t feel like it at all. He’s still crushed, he’s still trapped and he’s still in so much pain that his mind is hazy.
At one point Albedo remembers that he has a geo vision—something that should potentially help him with the stone crushing him into the ground but he can’t muster the strength or concentration to access that power. He doesn’t even know if the vision is still with him or if it’s been crushed like everything else.
This is not good at all and the despair he suddenly feels is enough to even overshadow the pain. What if this is how it’s going to be from now on. He’ll stay here, body crushed and broken, unable to do anything, neither decaying nor rotting and definitely not dying.
Albedo thinks he’d definitely prefer death over that.
The thought brings a spark of anger with it, because he was supposed to do things, still; Klee is not nearly old enough to look after herself and he still hasn’t finished his Master’s assignment and Kaeya—
Albedo was looking forward to seeing where things with him might go and now he’s stuck on this mountain, neither dead nor alive and it’s unfair. It’s unfair enough that the spike of his blood pressure—of the little he has left and is he regenerating blood perpetually?—makes him pass out again.
It’s dark once more when he comes to and there’s a sound in the air, something Albedo can’t quite place. It drifts in and out again and by the time he realises that it’s his name he hears it’s already light again.
Albedo opens his mouth, trying to call out to whoever it is calling his name, but he’s not sure his mouth is even moving. There’s certainly no sound coming out of him and he distantly wonders if the seeping of his blood will be enough to alert anyone to his position.
It probably isn’t, Albedo thinks desperately and he wonders if the people looking for him will leave without ever finding him, dooming him to haunt the mountain as a ghost made of agony. He wonders if he’ll be a beating heart forgotten in the snow, like Durin and the thought of joining his brother like that is almost comforting.
Comforting enough that the next shout of his name has him flinch, making his body light up with pain. He thinks he lets out a groan, or maybe just a silent breath but he can’t be sure.
Albedo closes his eyes and concentrates on his ears for a change, trying to figure out what’s going on around him.
His ears work better than the rest of his body, it seems, or maybe the wind is just strange in this part of the mountain, because he can hear quite clearly.
“Kaeya, it’s getting dark again,” Albedo hears someone say, and he has a hard time putting a face to the voice.
“I don’t care,” Kaeya’s voice gives back and Albedo likes to imagine that he might be worried about him.
They have to be looking for him if they are shouting his name, right?
“It’s dangerous in the dark,” the other voice insists again and a face flashes in front of Albedo’s eyes.
Bennett. That’s Bennett talking, he thinks and that gives him a little comfort. At least Kaeys is not going to freeze to death on this mountain with Bennett in tow.
“It is, so if he’s out there somewhere, then he’s in danger, too!”
“It’s been so long, though,” Bennet cautiously says. “Maybe—”
“Shut up,” Kaeya snaps at him and Albedo wants to chastise him for being mean to Bennett. “I’m not leaving before I find him.”
Albedo can’t move a muscle in his body but he can identify the stubborn streak in Kaeya’s voice. He’s not going to leave here and he won’t let Bennett leave without finding Albedo.
Albedo needs to alert them somehow if he wants them to return to the safety of the city. And with Kaeya on the mountain, who is even looking after Klee at the moment?
The thought of Klee being on her own, of Kaeya being stuck on this mountain sends a jolt of panic through him and it gives him just enough energy to focus back on his body. So far he’s concentrated on his right arm—it’s the one he uses most, after all—but now he extends his focus. His left arm isn’t completely trapped like the right one and Albedo uses that tiny little spark inside of him to press his fingers into the ground.
It doesn’t feel like much, doesn’t feel like anything at all and of course it’s not enough to summon a complete isotoma but he knows he did something when there’s a golden glow.
It vanishes after a few precious seconds and with it Albedo’s strength and he can just hope that it is enough.
“Did you see that?” Kaeya asks and Albedo wants to weep.
I’m here, he desperately thinks, hoping to somehow imprint his thoughts onto Kaeya but he can barely keep his focus.
Just that little bit of movement had cost him everything and he can’t even keep his eyes open anymore.
“I didn’t see anything,” Bennett gives back, his voice growing fainter with the second and if Albedo could he would cry.
“There was something. Go back if you want, but I’m not leaving before I checked it out,” Kaeya replies and his voice in contrast is getting clearer by the second.
He must be coming closer, right? He must find Albedo, he must end this agony, there’s no other choice. Albedo can’t contemplate what it would mean if Kaeya leaves now.
“Captain, I don’t think—holy fuck!”
“Albedo,” Kaeya’s voice breathes out, and Albedo wants to frown at the tremor in it.
They found him, right, they must have, so why does Kaeya sound like that? Albedo wants to open his eyes, check if they are really there with him, but he’s tired. He’s so tired and getting his lids to open requires more strength than he has so he contents himself with listening to Kaeya’s voice.
He could die to worse sounds.
“Albedo, can you hear me?” Kaeya’s voice asks and it sounds close and scared and that last part is enough for Albedo to flutter his eyes open.
Kaeya is not supposed to be scared.
“He’s alive,” Bennett says. “I’m going to heal him, step back.”
“No, don’t,” Kaeya rushes out and Albedo wants to cry out. Healing means less pain, so why would he stop him? Doesn’t he know that Albedo is nothing but pain? “The rock—if you heal him before we move it, he’ll just be crushed again. Where’s Noelle?”
“She—Captain, everyone else returned to the city already,” Bennett carefully says and Albedo thinks that everyone else was really smart.
Nights on Dragonspine are dangerous and it is night again, right? He tries to look at the sky to check but everything around him is dark again and Albedo figures he must have closed his eyes again and he doesn’t think opening them once more isn’t worth it.
“Well, we have to do something, we can’t just leave him like that! Albedo, do you hear me?” There’s barely controlled panic in Kaeya’s voice and Albedo would love to reassure him that he’s listening but his body isn’t cooperating.
“We have to get that rock off him, no matter what,” Kaeya decides. “Bennett, be ready to heal him.”
“What are you going to do?” Bennett asks and it’s a good question, Albedo thinks, because even though his body has long gone numb he can still feel the excruciating brittle cold that suddenly engulfs him.
“Everything shatters if it’s cold enough,” Kaeya presses out and there’s an ominous crack in the air.
Albedo tries to open his eyes to see what Kaeya is doing but it feels as if his body has turned to ice. He’ll just have to trust that whatever it is is helping him.
“Get ready,” Kaeya pants, the cracking growing more frequent with every second.
There’s the sound of something akin to glass splintering, followed by the absence of pressure on Albedo before there’s a small explosion and then Albedo is certain that his body has been replaced with agonizing white-hot fire.
It’s bad enough that a scream is ripped from his throat and he loses time again, his mind unable to comprehend what is happening.
“Just a moment longer,” he hears Kaeya’s voice through the blood rushing in his ears and the pain slicing through his brain and Albedo clings to that.
Kaeya is there. Kaeya is promising him that it will stop.
And it does stop, but it feels as if it takes an eternity. When the pain recedes, Albedo finds that he can open his eyes again.
“Albedo, can you hear me?” Kaeya asks again and this time Albedo manages a tiny nod.
It seems to have been the right answer because the relief is clear on Kaeya’s face.
“Bennett, can you do it again?” Kaeya asks without taking his eyes off Albedo and Albedo can’t find it in him to look away either.
“Gimme a moment,” is Bennett’s answer and Albedo sees Kaeya nod.
“You’ll be alright, Albedo, you hear me? I’ve got you, you’re going to be fine.”
Albedo trusts Kaeya, trusts his voice, trusts him with his life and so he manages a small smile before everything goes dark.
~*~*~
When Albedo comes to it’s to softness all around him and a careful hand engulfing his. Albedo’s mind is hazy, but he does remember that the last time he was awake things were radically different and his inquiring nature wins out over his exhaustion.
He opens his eyes and isn’t met with a starry night sky or the burning sun but instead with a wooden ceiling.
Albedo blinks at it for several times before he finds it in him to turn his head and he’s not quite surprised to find a slumped Kaeya next to him.
It’s his hand holding Albedo’s and the warmth rushing through him is almost enough to send him back to unconsciousness.
He’s back home. Kaeya has found him, has saved him and Albedo is back home.
Albedo manages to squeeze Kaeya’s hand and it’s enough to wake him up. He shoots up, his eye big and scared but when he finds Albedo looking back at him he deflates.
“Albedo,” he breathes out and carefully squeezes Albedo’s hand back. “How do you feel?”
“Shit,” Albedo croaks out, surprised that his voice manages even that much and he panics when he sees tears gather in Kaeya’s eyes.
“You scared me,” Kaeya admits, carding his fingers through Albedo’s hair. “Does anything hurt? Blink once for yes and twice for no.”
“No,” Albedo says, stubborn as anything and it’s enough to make Kaeya chuckle, though his voice is wet.
“Stubborn bastard,” Kaeya mutters. “Though I guess I should be thankful for that, otherwise you’d probably be dead by now.”
Albedo’s memory is still trying to catch up to everything but he remembers with sudden clarity how he passed out at the unfairness of leaving Kaeya before they could even try to define this thing between them and he needs for this to never happen again.
“Love you,” Albedo manages to get out, forcing his body to give voice to his thoughts in case something else happens and Kaeya doesn’t know.
The though is unacceptable to Albedo.
He regrets his choice when the tears spill over but he figures it’s okay when Kaeya smiles at him.
“I love you, too, but you need to rest more. I’ll be here, I promise, but you’re still weak.”
“No pain,” Albedo reminds him again, kind of amazed by that himself after what must have been days of constant agony.
“That’s good, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re weak,” Kaeya gives back and cups Albedo’s cheek in his hand. “So sleep some more. At least enough to converse in complete sentences, okay?”
It’s a reasonable demand Albedo guesses but he remembers how he lost time in the mountain and he’s not keen on doing it again. Some of that must have shown on his face because Kaeya’s gaze gentles.
“It’s okay. You’re back home, and I’m here. Nothing will happen to you. You can sleep, I promise.”
“Stay,” Albedo still says, as if Kaeya would ever lie to him but Kaeya doesn’t seem offended at all.
“I will. I’m right here.”
It’s enough reassurance for Albedo and he almost immediately falls into a deep sleep, secure in the knowledge that when he wakes up again, things will be right again.