Chapter Text
It'd been hours since Sister Rosaria had begun to walk the treacherous path up the northwestern side of the mountain. She didn't bother counting out how long it'd been, really. Her intuition simply told her, judging from the way the sun moved in the crystal clear blue sky. There were few birds, and fewer clouds — something she strangely felt was noteworthy as she trekked through heaps and piles of snow, and steep rock.
The frigid wind that could cut your skin like a knife didn't bother her in the slightest. If anything, it was a minor inconvenience that didn't impede her ultimate goal. "Find the alchemist" , she told herself. "Get your answers, then get out."
She was suspicious of Albedo for a very, very long time. Since he arrived in Mondstadt, she believed that the dangers that he and his alchemy posed to the City of Wind and Song were immense. If something bad were to happen, she was convinced that the consequences would be catastrophic. The tiniest hiccup, capable of taking hundreds, if not thousands of innocent lives. She would follow him as closely as she dared, not allowing her concentration to be broken in the slightest as she watched him with the eyes of a hawk.
Even after the Traveler tried his very hardest to change her mind about the Chief Alchemist, she remained stalwart in her belief that he was dangerous. It did not help that in the few short times they'd met, he was just as reluctant to speak as she typically was. She'd heard so much about how amiable he is, so how come he fell silent whenever she was present? It was suspicious how much he would mysteriously keep to himself. And to Rosaria, anyone who would do that had a great many secrets to hide.
Everyone has told lies, withheld secrets, dealt under tables. Sister Rosaria knew this all too well. However, for her, it was a majority of her life. She would know it better than anyone else...but it seemed Albedo did, too.
She may have been distracted, but she was not caught off guard. Her eyes caught a glimpse of what looked to be a head of long, blond hair in the distance, looking downward. This was her chance to get answers. Until she heard footsteps coming up behind her.
Rosaria whipped around, her ebony-crimson spear drawn and pointed into the heart of whatever had made its attempt to ambush her, and was confronted with Albedo himself, blade drawn, also pointed at her. In seconds, she analyzed his features to confirm what she was seeing...and noticed something was missing. Before she could fully identify what it was, the alchemist leapt back and began to run. Rosaria's vision tunneled in, and she proceeded to rush after him. Her polearm pulsed in her hand with an indescribable warmth. She stopped just short of a patch of ice that the alchemist had slipped and fallen onto along the path. She threw her spear forward, letting it soar through the air at her target.
Her aim was true.
The carmine red spear's color brightened as it pierced his right shoulder, pinning him to the ground on his back. He cried out in pain, as what was presumably blood began to trickle from the fresh, ugly wound that began to decay around the entry point. It quickly began to drain, staining his clothes and the snow beneath him with a deep red color that was near black. Any attempts he made to remove the spear were futile, and Rosaria was only approaching faster, getting closer. He desperately kicked, unable to crawl away before Rosaria stopped him, standing over him, her heel placed on his chest as she glared daggers down at him. Sinister blood red eyes met soft, blue-gray ones that slowly emptied of all life within them.
She spared a glance downward at his neck, and the detail that stood out to her from before finally made itself apparent: there was no diamond-shaped mark on his neck.
The blond man froze upon seeing the glint of a red gem in his peripheral vision. "Sucrose, would you mind putting a stop to the experiment?" he requested as calmly as he dared. "M-Mister Albedo, we've barely even begun! Is-is there, um...some kind of problem with the experiment?" she asked.
"No, not at all. I just have important business to attend to for just a moment, if you wouldn't mind waiting for me until I get back?" Albedo said,
“Of course, Mister Albedo!” she assured with certainty, hesitantly diverting her attention away to offer up a half-hearted, awkward smile before a puff of smoke drew her back to the vials that had now begun to bubble viciously. Just as Albedo leapt off the broken bridge and into the air to glide, he heard a loud bang!
"I'm sure she's fine," he thought to himself.
He followed the rushed footsteps of the nun in the snow with immense caution, looking around with a frightened look on his face. She seemed adamant about chasing down whatever it was that was behind her, the alchemist was certain of that. Even judging from the space between her prints, she must have been moving fast. How far had she gotten by now? He was knocked out of his thoughts by a sudden scream from his own voice just a short distance away. He quickly ran toward the source of the sound, but before he could find it, he was confronted with the nun herself. Eyes red like blood. Thin, and intense. If looks could kill, Albedo would not be standing here.
In one hand, she held a spear seemingly forged from Starsilver Ore with its luminescent, beautiful dark sheen, with a tip made of bone that was covered in a viscous black liquid.
In the other hand, held up high beside her by its hair was the decapitated head of Subject Two, still fresh enough for the blood that dripped from the neck hole to melt the snow beneath it. He gasped, stepping back as he covered his mouth in shock. She threw it toward him, her expression unchanging. It bounced twice across the ground, until it rolled unceremoniously toward Albedo, stopping at his feet. Subject Two's lifeless eyes stared up into his own, causing Albedo to shudder as he began to think about what Rosaria was capable of.
He looked back up at Rosaria, unsure of what he should do, facing the threat of a painful, agonizing death. "Start talking, alchemist," she demanded, words laced with venom more powerful than the weapon she wielded. "Or do you wanna be next?"
Albedo gulped nervously, brows knitted together with worry as he held out his hands. "It's a long story," he began to explain.
"I've got more than enough time," she retorted, her conviction unwavering. "Talk."
The blond took a deep breath. "I'm sure you're aware that I am not completely human. Is that correct?" he asked.
She huffed quietly. "I figured as much, but that doesn't explain why your clone attacked me," she hissed out. "Talk."
He took a hesitant step toward her, hands still raised, shaking. He felt Subject Two's head roll away from him. "I was not born. I was created by an alchemist known as Rhinedottir. I was not the only one to be made-"
"-How many more are there?" she interrupted, her spear now aimed where Albedo's heart would be.
"None, that I know of. Subject Two was the first, and now deceased, and the Traveler’s already dealt with Subject Three. There should be no others, and you've nothing to be afraid of."
Rosaria scoffed at that, her nose crinkling as she bared a vicious smile. "Afraid?" she asked, chuckling at the statement. "I'm not afraid of you."
"Yet you inquired about there being more of me?"
The sister growled, advancing quickly with the spear tip centimeters away from Albedo's chest. "Don't be a smart ass, just talk!" she howled.
"Please, put away the spear...You don't have to hurt me, I'll explain everything when we get back to my camp. Please," Albedo begged.
She searched something in his face for an uncomfortably long while, her eyes glancing down toward his neck before she frowned. She sighed, moving backward and standing the spear up at her side before it dissolved into wispy particles of silvery-gold, reappearing on her back. "Try anything, and I'll make sure you both share a grave."
The alchemist nodded, hesitant to turn his back on Rosaria, afraid that she may change her mind, and decide that she wants to kill him now. But luckily for him, she doesn't. He wipes his brow of the sweat gathered from the tense standoff, now standing beside the pale woman that just moments ago threatened his life. "Lead on," she ushered. And with that, he waved her to follow him, and she began to trail closely behind him.