Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Scaramouche hated Dottore’s experiment days. 

He had been trying hard to avoid them, even taking assignments as far away from the Doctor as possible. Unfortunately for him, however, Dottore had set up a new lab in the area after he had accidentally blown up the last one, and the clone working there had found him and dragged him along.

So he trailed behind Dottore as he was led down the halls toward the laboratory. He knew better than to put up much of a fight anymore, as that was too much of a risk to his own health. Instead, he kept quiet while walking down the hallways, until the two turned a corner and Scaramouche was met with walls made of cages. He tried to stifle his gasp, but Dottore noticed and turned to him, grinning sadistically.

“These are just the current patients I have been working on, I’ve been doing a bit of studying on that Elezar disease from Sumeru, along with a few… other experiments. Don’t worry though, I won’t be keeping you locked up with them, or the other harbingers would be mad about having to do your assignments.” 

Dottore’s explanation did little to ease Scaramouche, who was eyeing the subjects in their cages. Most of them were adults or teenagers who sat quietly at the back of their cages, barely moving or even bothering to look at him as he passed by, seemingly dead to the world. However, toward the middle of the hallway, a little pair of hands lunged out at Dottore’s ankles, making him jump back before kicking at the hands. Scara glanced inside the cage and was shocked to see a pair of small, pink eyes glaring back at him.

“ That one ,” Dottore scoffed, “is a feisty one. I’ve been treating her for a few years now, but she still has fire in her. I’m hoping to wear her down soon enough.” Dottore kicked some dust at the child before continuing down the hall, huffing loudly.

Scaramouche continued looking at the child for another moment, observing her skin covered in bandages and bruises, before continuing to follow the Doctor to his lab. He knew that if he kept Dottore waiting, it would be an even worse day for him.

It was hours before Dottore finished the appointment, finally removing the restraints from Scaramouche and letting him sit up. The pain was fading but still very present, as Dottore didn’t think sedatives or pain relief were all too necessary for his patients, especially not a puppet. Scaramouche double-checked his bandages, ensuring they were hidden and secured, before turning to Dottore, who had hastily cleaned up his workspace and was starting to walk out.

“What, you aren’t even going to escort me out?” Scara jabbed, though he was genuinely confused, as Dottore never really left him alone in his lab after an appointment.

“No, I have a meeting to go to, and I’m nearly late. You know the way out, so go once you are able to stand.” With that, Dottore left Scaramouche there to recover and leave on his own.

Considering he wasn’t being rushed, Scara decided to sit for a little while and let his body actually rest. After a couple minutes, he heard one of the cages from the hall rattling, and his curiosity got the better of him. After slowly standing, he went to investigate the source of the noise, only to see the young child’s hands prying at the bars of her cage. Scaramouche walked down the hall and crouched a bit to better look at the girl, ensuring he was out of reach. The girl was still young, not even a teenager yet, but she looked as worn down as a grown adult. Her green hair was messy and somewhat covering her eyes, but her eyes still shone with a fire, desperate to leave this place.

Somehow, Scaramouche felt something stir inside him. He couldn’t tell if it was pity or somewhat guilt, but he knew he felt something looking at the child. She honestly reminded him of himself and of the child he was once friends with, but he pushed those thoughts away quickly. He knew it was a bad idea to mess with the Doctor’s test subjects, so he stood and started walking away.

Then he heard a quiet sob behind him, and he stopped dead in his tracks. Sure enough, the child was crying, and really she had every reason to be. If Scaramouche didn’t know any better, he would have thought his heart was aching for a child he didn’t even know, but it’s not like he really had a heart to begin with.

“Oh, fuck it, ” Scara whispered, before turning back and marching back to the lab. He found the keys to the cells pretty easily, as Dottore didn’t exactly hide them, and he went back out to where the girl was. The girl shrunk back at how fast he moved, seeming nervous about what he might do to her. He only fumbled with the keys for a moment before finding the right one and opening the cage, then grabbing the girl by the wrist and dragging her out.

“Come with me,” Scaramouche ordered. “If we move fast enough we can slip between the guard’s rotations.” The child was startled, but she obeyed him, following quickly after him. 

The two hurried down the hallways, with Scara leading to ensure no guards would see them, as they headed for the entrance. In the entry hallway, Scaramouche paused, holding the girl back, as he heard Dottore talking to some other Fatui members in one of the meeting rooms nearby. He checked cautiously, then thanked any archon that was listening that the door was closed. He motioned for the child to stay low, and the two slowly crawled past the doorway to stay below the window. Once near the exit of the lab building, Scaramouche found some extra shoes, a cloak, and a hat, shoving them onto the girl hastily. He then scanned outside for any guards before picking up the child and booking it for the forest nearby, with the girl only letting out a small squeak in protest.

He had probably been running for about an hour, and while it really didn’t fatigue him all too much, he could feel his wounds from his appointment aching. He reached a larger hill that gave a good lookout, stopping there and setting the child down.

“That way,” Scara pointed, “leads to Mondstadt. There’s likely villages and stuff along the way, and it is probably your best bet for good healers. Get going now and you can make it to a village before nightfall.” With that, he turned and started walking away.

“Thank you!” came a quiet voice from behind him. Scaramouche turned and looked at the girl, waved, then disappeared into the forest as he heard her running off.

A week later, Scaramouche was back in the Doctor’s lab, with bright crimson eyes staring him down.

“I assume you have heard about one of my test subjects escaping by now?” Dottore questioned while picking up a scalpel from his equipment tray. “I suppose you don’t know anything about that, right?”

Scaramouche kept his eyes down, knowing no matter what he did in this situation, he was going to look guilty.

“You know, I’m kind of surprised,” Dottore continued. “I thought for sure you didn’t have a heart in there. Though maybe I should double-check that theory?”

And perhaps the only thing that kept Scaramouche alive through that night was knowing that one less child was going through the same pain that he was.

Chapter Text

Wanderer lounged on the couch of the Sanctuary of Surasthana, reading one of the many books that Nahida had brought from the Akademiya library for him to peruse. This one was actually about Inazuman politics surrounding Taratsuna, and he had already found multiple inconsistencies. He had actually started keeping notes on it on a little notepad Nahida had given him, and he was starting to run out of room on his current page.

“You know, at this point you might as well enroll in the Akademiya, considering how interested you are in this.” Nahida said, startling Wanderer from his book. She had come back to the Sanctuary after some meetings and had managed to come in without alerting Wanderer to her presence,

“Gods, you can’t go sneaking up on people like that, Buer-... sorry, Nahida.” Wanderer grumbled.

“Oh my me, you apologized? I thought I would never see the day!” Nahida giggled, ruffling his hair a bit. “Anyway, how are you doing, you hungry at all?” While Wanderer liked to boast that his body didn’t need food to survive, it actually made things a lot easier and gave him more energy, so Nahida had been slowly getting him into a proper eating schedule.

“I could probably eat,” he said while straightening his hair. “So what is our plan for food, then?”

“Well, tonight Tighnari had invited me out to chat and have dinner in Gandharva Ville with him and his family, and he said it was alright to bring you along if you wanted to come!” Nahida smiled, but Wanderer could tell that there was a second hidden question left unasked.

“I’m assuming you also want to ask if we should tell him about the whole… past thing. About me erasing myself from Irminsul and everything.” Wanderer remembered that when he erased the memory of himself, he also erased the memory of the Akademiya trying to turn him into an archon, and in turn him striking Tighnari with lightning, which could lead to some awkwardness.

“Only if you feel comfortable doing so, though it would make it a lot easier to explain who you are, I’m sure.” Nahida commented.

“Okay, well what am I supposed to say, though?” Wanderer snapped. “‘Oh, hi, I’m Ali, but actually I’m a guy who erased the memory of himself from Irminsul so no one actually remembers that I was a puppet made by the electro archon, worked with and was tortured by the Fatui, and also got turned into a pseudo-god by the Akademiya that struck you with lightning one time, sorry about that!’” Wanderer paused after his rant, looking to Nahida, who, oddly enough, didn’t seem phased by the outburst at all.

“I mean you could probably do it with a little less yelling, but that at least works as a cursory explanation that you can add details to as questions are asked.” Nahida calmly noted.

“Wait, what?” Ali questioned. “Don’t you think it would be, I don’t know, a little overwhelming for the first time meeting them?”

“I mean, a little bit,” Nahida sighed, sitting on the end of the couch. “But it is an explanation that I feel would need to be said at some point, don’t you? Besides, I believe it would lead to a pretty good conversation about things, and that could help you get to know Tighnari and his family better, too.”

“And what makes you think I want to get to know them?” Wanderer scoffed.

“Because you didn’t immediately say no to having dinner with them, silly!” Nahida smiled at him, because of course, she knew how he worked by now. “You usually refuse dinner with anyone but me or the Traveler, so I think you genuinely want to get to know them, or at the very least a part of you wants to atone for hurting Tighnari back then.”

“The fact that you aren’t even reading my mind to come to these conclusions should be even more unnerving, Nahida.”

“It comes with the territory of being both goddess of wisdom and your aunt, Ali.” Nahida laughed. “Remember, if you aren’t comfortable bringing up the conversation, you don’t really have to, but that part is all up to you.” Nahida hopped down from the couch and held out her hand. “Now, I need to make some candied Ajilenakh nuts to bring over, do you want to help me?”

Wanderer got up, taking Nahida’s hand, and they walked over to her kitchen to make her desserts. While he wasn’t a fan of sweets, he secretly enjoyed being helpful by assisting Nahida in the kitchen. The dessert came out perfectly as expected, and Nahida wrapped it up in a cute little box with a bow, though Ali wasn’t exactly sure where she got either of those things.

“Alright, ready to go!” Nahida said. “Would you mind giving me a ride there?”

“You are lucky you are small enough to do this with.” Wanderer groaned. He lifted the archon up onto his shoulders, making sure she wouldn’t fall off. “Everything secured? Your bag won’t fall, will it?”

“Nope, we should be all good, thank you!” Nahida grabbed Wanderer’s hat and put it on top of her own head before resting her arms on top of his. “Alright, Ali, onward!”

Wanderer and Nahida only took a little while to get to Gandharva Ville, meeting up with Tighnari and Cyno at their home. Tighnari and Cyno introduced the two to their daughter Collei, and Nahida immediately started doting on the girl and asking her questions about her studies. Wanderer sat back and laughed to himself, but noted that something about the girl seemed a bit familiar.

“So, Hat Guy,” Cyno said, interrupting Wanderer’s thoughts. “I haven’t heard much about you, so what’s your story?”

“Ah, I think it might be better discussed in a moment, probably once we have dinner.” Wanderer stammered. He wasn’t used to feeling nervous, which made him a bit more uncomfortable, but Cyno fortunately didn’t seem to notice or care.

After everyone sat down and started eating, the question was posed to him again. Since he was a bit calmer now, he was able to give approximately the same information from his rant to Nahida earlier. It was a bit more succinct and he didn’t yell, and he ended it with a genuine and formal apology to Tighnari.

“I know that while you don’t hold the memory of me being the one to strike you with lightning, I was still technically the one who did it, so I would like to apologize for my actions so that we may start off on a better foot.” Wanderer bowed slightly at the end of his sentence, nervous to make eye contact with anyone else at the table.

“Well, Ali,” Tighnari started, “this all is definitely a bit of a surprise, and while you are correct that I don’t remember you as the person who struck me with lightning, I do accept your apology. You seem genuine, and I think we can start off a new leaf here.” Ali breathed a small sigh of relief, glad that the interaction went well.

“I guess you could say this is all a very shocking revelation, eh?” Cyno joked. Tighnari and Collei groaned at him, while Nahida actually giggled a bit, which made Cyno grin. “Finally, someone laughed, I knew I would get one!”

“Ali, I have a couple of questions, if you don’t mind,” Collei piped up. Wanderer turned to her and took a sip of his drink, listening. “You said you had been part of the Fatui in this time that you erased, and that they also tortured you? I’m a little confused, could you clarify?” Ali set his glass down and prepared to explain.

“Well, after I left Inazuma I was approached by the Fatui and was convinced to join them,” he explained. “I ended up becoming one of those harbingers, number six to be precise.”

“I had heard that the sixth spot had been vacant for hundreds of years,” Cyno said. “I’m assuming that has something to do with the part where you deleted yourself from Irminsul?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Ali confirmed. “As for the torture part, that was all the work of Dottore, or the Doctor. He was messed up, and turns out he had messed up my life in other ways before he ever experimented on me.” He noticed Collei looked nervous at the mention of Dottore, almost frozen and staring off into space.

“Collei, you okay, honey?” Tighnari asked, reaching his hand out to her. She took his hand and took a deep breath before talking.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Collei confirmed, before turning to Wanderer and Nahida. “The Doctor… he had actually taken me as a child and had experimented on me, both related to my Elezar and some other… experiments he had.” Despite having said she was okay, she looked like she was about to cry.

“Wait, that’s why I thought I recognized you!” Wanderer exclaimed, which startled everyone at the table. “I remember you, you’re the little girl I helped escape a few years ago!”

“That was you?” Collei asked, no longer on the verge of tears. “I thought it was weird that I could never remember my rescuer’s face, but I just had chalked that up to like, trauma or something.”

“To be fair, it could have been a combination of both,” Nahida said. “You could have actually been forgetting due to trauma before he erased himself from Irminsul, and that just solidified it.”

“Well, while this is exciting, we should probably finish our food,” Tighnari interjected. “You two can trauma bond later, for now, you both need to eat something.

The rest of dinner went smoothly, with little bits of chatting in between. After the main meal, Nahida brought out her candied Ajilenakh nuts and everyone enjoyed them, even Wanderer eating a few.

“Alright, I need to have a few work discussions with Cyno and Tighnari,” Nahida explained. “Especially about the Withering and such, so you two should go chat and explore or something.”

“You really never stop thinking about your work, do you?” Wanderer groaned.

“That’s fine!” Collei said. “Come on, Ali, I can show you around Gandharva Ville a bit!” Wanderer followed without any more fussing, as he knew that the other’s conversations would be boring to him anyway. Collei led him around, showing him a few of the houses and medical huts around the village, before they made their way up one of the larger trees to sit and chat.

“So…” Collei started. “I guess the most obvious question to ask is why the hell you actually saved me back then, huh? I mean, you were working for the Fatui, it’s not exactly like you were one of the good guys.” She started to mumble towards the end of her sentence and seemed a bit nervous as to what the answer would be.

“Well, you aren’t wrong, I definitely was shit back then,” Ali said. “I think it was mostly just how I had seen you. Dottore had you and all his other test subjects locked up in these cages, and everyone else just looked so dead inside, because archons know what he did to them.” He paused for a minute, just thinking. “But you still had life in you, sure you looked tired and mad, but you still looked alive. I think I also definitely had a soft spot for kids, and I still kind of do I guess.”

“Aw, you have a heart.”

“Actually no, I technically don’t.” Wanderer slightly chuckled. “I wasn’t made with one. I don’t really need to pump blood the same way humans do, so I just have a few assorted pumps in my body to work things. Believe me, Dottore cut me open enough times that I know what’s inside me by now.”

“Mmm, yeah, he liked to do that,” Collei mumbled. “Well, you might not have a heart, but you are still a living person who experiences life and feels emotions like I do, so I think you’ve got a soul or whatever.” Collei turned more towards him and smiled. “Puppet or not, you’re still alive like I am, so that counts for something, right?”

“Heh, well,” Ali paused, holding his hand to where a heart would be, next to his vision. Thinking about it, his vision was partially a symbol that he did have a soul, no matter how he tried to deny it. “I guess you aren’t really wrong.”

The two sat in quiet for a bit, enjoying the last bit of sunlight as the day ended. They heard Nahida and Tighnari calling for them back in the main village, so Ali stood, turning to help Collei up as well.

“So,” Collei said, holding out her hand. “You think we’re gonna end up being trauma buddies?” Wanderer laughed as he took her hand, pulling her up.

“Well, considering we are some of the only people in the world who can understand each other’s experiences, I think it’s worth a shot.” Wanderer smiled, tipping his hat to cover his face a bit. “Besides, Nahida and the Traveler are always nagging me that I need more friends, and you seem like a good one.”

“Tighnari actually says the same thing a lot,” Collei giggled. “Maybe they will stop ragging on us and we can actually have a friend.”

The pair made their way back to the others, where everyone started exchanging goodbyes.

“Come back and visit!” Collei said. “I would say to write as well, but I’m still kind of learning to read, so that wouldn’t be the easiest!”

“Well, then I should help teach you,” Wanderer laughed. “Multiple teachers could probably help with that a bit, who knows?” Collei grinned, excitedly jumping up and down a bit. Everyone then said their final goodbyes and Ali and Nahida headed home for the night.

“You did well today,” Nahida said, resting her head on Wanderer’s as she rode on his shoulders. “I’m glad you actually made a friend, and I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks, Nahida,” Ali said, smiling. “Honestly, I’m happy too.”