With Xiao's Banner Being Up, I've Thought Of A Particularly Painful Scenario.

With Xiao's banner being up, I've thought of a particularly painful scenario.

"If you awake to a knife at your throat, if monsters dig their claws into you, if death comes knocking at your door... Call out my name. Adeptus Xiao. I will be here when you call."

You felt so cold, so tired. You felt like you were fading away. The battle has finished and your team had emerged victorious but why was it that blood was still flowing out of your wounds. You gasped as you slowly sat up, some wounds reopening. The snow numbed your fingertips and your breaths became white in the air. You could barely see in front of you as you stumbled down a path, trying to see something that would tell you where you were.

You thought of your team. Were they alive and well? How was the traveller? Where was Xiao? You contemplated calling out Xiao's name but a memory flashed before your eyes and it made your heart squeeze in pain.

"You called me out for this? I have more pressing matters to attend to."

No. You can find your path home. You're probably just close by, you couldn't have gone too far from the scene of the battle. You continued down the path, the freezing breeze creating little icicles on your lashes and hair. Your lips were turning blue and your eyes were drooping from the exhaustion. Little frozen puddles of your blood being left behind.

How long has it been? How long have you been walking this path It's all been towering snowy mountains and frozen lakes. Have I been walking in circles? You think for a moment but you can't tell if you have been. The snow has been falling heavier by the minute and you've lost more blood than you ever have. You want to lay down, sleep but you know better than to do that right now. If you closed your eyes now, you wouldn't open them again.

You slowly lose hope in finding a way out of this place alive. It's too cold. You've bled too much and there hasn't been even the slightest sight of the flicker of a flame in hours. You aren't sure if you can even bend your toes anymore. I want to see him again. You wish to all of the archons to let you live just long enough to see him for a last time. You have a thousand words you want to say and another thousand more stuck in your throat but there's three words you want to say again for the last time.

He has never replied in the same way. He has looked at you with affection before but that look has become more and more scarce especially with the arrival of the traveller. What was once your place next to Xiao became the traveller's. He looked so at ease with her. You even saw him crack a smile and a light chuckle in front of her.

He hasn't even smiled at me before. No. Stop with those thoughts. I'm not that replaceable. I've been with him for longer, stood by him even in the worst battles. What haven't I done?

Have him love you back. A dark voice spoke in your mind. It paused before laughing at your despair. As soon as it came, it disappeared just as quickly.

You shake off the thoughts before continuing to stumble down the snowy path. Just a little bit more. You think to yourself when your knees buckle and you fall down to the ground, face down. You try to push yourself up but you can't. You barely manage to flip onto your back. Your lips quiver not from the cold but from the truth. Xiao hasn't looked for you ever since you've woken up. Was your presence or absence unimportant to him? Has he thought of you?

The truth was scary. You knew you wouldn't be able to escape on your own out of this place. Not in this state. You reach a hand up in the sky, grasping at the stars and the falling snow. You lick your dry, bloodied lip as you are barely able to speak your thoughts as your brain starts to make you see an image of Xiao. It ripples when you reach towards the image, but despite it being only an image, it brings you comfort to see him in this time.

"I want to see you again. I want to be by your side no matter what. I want to be selfish. I want to love you, kiss you, hold you. But I can't." You pause for a moment, trying to stop yourself from coughing up blood but failing. Once the coughs subside, your eyes dull. "Xiao..." You stop for a moment. You expect to see him come but you can't see or hear him at all. Did he not hear you? "Adeptus Xiao..." You try again. Maybe he'll hear it this time. You wait a little bit longer. "Xiao, the one that I love, save me, please..." You barely choke out as tears bubble in your eyes. The streaks of tears freeze in seconds as they flow down your cheeks. "Alatus... Adeptus Xiao- Xiao-! Please hear me- save me... Anybody... Please..." Your begs for rescue were unheard. You call out his different names but he doesn't show. Darkness ring around the edges of your sight and it blurs what you can see but you don't stop calling out to him. Not until your voice becomes low whispers and you call his name for the last time before you are silenced for an eternity.

Xiao feels like something is amiss. Ever since that battle weeks ago, everything has felt a little bit off. Everyone was there. Verr Goldet, the traveller, the people at Wangshu Inn. He cannot recall anyone missing. Has there been a task he had yet to finish? He isn't able to think of anything and writes off the feeling. Perhaps it was the adrenaline. He steps back into the balcony as he stares out at the peaceful sight in front of him. A hand suddenly places itself on his back and he instinctively calls out your name as he turns to face you. Only that the person in front of him isn't you. It's the traveller. Where were you? He hasn't seen you... Since that battle...

He disappears and returns to the scene of the battle. You aren't there. He teleports to places you've gone together and you still weren't there. Where are you? He scours the land of Teyvat to look for you but only at the outskirts of the Entombed City in Dragonspine does he feel a trace of you. He follows this trace and sees dark maroon marks on the dirt and rocks. He hasn't felt this type of impending doom. You couldn't be here. You must've just visited. At any moment, you'll just jump out and place that warm hand of yours on his arm or back as you always had and smile at him with that bright smile like you always have.

Any hope of seeing you smile at him again is diminished when he sees you. Your body frozen and encased in solid ice coffin. He tries to break the ice but no matter how much energy he pours into it, nothing cracks the ice. It regenerates faster and is stronger than the strange ice. "I will save you now. The day came where darkness has taken you and I was not there. It will be up to me to undo what has been done."

He continues to strike against the regenerating ice until- "I knew you'd save me, Xiao." Your voice is carried by the wind. He turns to the source of the sound and he sees an apparition of you. It's the you he remembers. Unharmed, smiling, and warm. Not the you beside him. Wounded, pained, and cold.

You smile at him like you always do. Your apparition fades before he can speak and reappears. It was showing him your final moments. You crying out to him. Your declarations. Everything. He wants to say that he's too inhuman to be carried by such trivialities like love and emotions but it's you. You've always been by his side but he hasn't been by yours in the longest time and he sees it now. He remembers how your smiles twitch when he leaves you behind in favor of accompanying the traveller. He remembers how you shrink bank when the traveller joins in and you become part of the background. He remembers you cooking almond tofu so many times just to make sure he has something to eat if he returns at any time. He remembers your kindness and he wishes that it wasn't just being remembered. He wishes for you to be by his side again but seeing how pitiful you were, calling out to him for so many times in your last moments and not being heard. What was he even doing then? He wasn't injured too badly. Where was he when you were suffering and calling out to him? Was this the way he'd return your kindness? By forsaking you at your last moments?

Even the most evil creatures wouldn't be this cruel.

"I will find retribution for my actions and bring peace to you. I will go with you in the afterlife. I will do right by you in our next lives."

-Big-Sad Anon

ԅ༼;´༎ຶ ۝ ༎ຶ༽ᕤ yes officer. This. This made me cry. Arrest them.

Oh. My. God.

How am i supposed to even function normally after this 🥲 comrade i cant even open my eyes im crying too much why would you do this /j 😭