The sleeping adeptus // Xiao x reader

Nightmare | 19

The second you stepped into the dream, you snapped awake, in the same illusion as the stranger. The area was blurry, and hard to understand. You heard loud crashing noises that made the ground shake, and the sound of fighting. You kept trying to look around you, but for some reason nothing was clearing up. You felt a man grab your hand, and when you noticed him the illusion seemed clear. He was a stranger, you didn't recognize him at all. "Have you seen my sister?" He asked you. Your expression grew with confusion, looking at him "why are you looking for your sister?"

"I lost her, I don't know where I am" he told you. He continued to hold onto your arm, no matter how much you tried to pry him off "What does your sister look like?" You ask him "she's an adult, has short brown hair that's in a ponytail" he explained, you thinking for a minute. That's the description of the stranger you were connecting with right now, but why are you meeting their brother instead of them? "Nevermind, I can't afford to waste time" he said. He sounded like he was in a hurry, and that he was scared. He let go of your arm and ran off, you reaching out to him "wait!" You called out, but he just kept going. You followed him before he had ran into a house. You could've sworn you've seen this house before. You stepped inside, looking around for where he went. This house looked so familiar, it almost made you uncomfortable. You finally enter the last room, coming to a halt the second you stepped inside. The man who was looking for his sister, laid on the floor dead. He had been brutally murdered, blood splattered on the walls. You felt dizzy, almost like you were gonna faint.

You've seen dead bodies before, in fact you had to kill countless people before you fell asleep. Why did this one body make you feel uncomfortable? You tried to leave the room but stopped when you saw the lady he was looking for. Uh oh. You tried to block the body but it was as if she saw right through you. She started to tear up but then heard a loud bang, followed by the irritating sound of something sharp being dragged on the wall. Both of snapped your head towards the sound, waiting for something, or someone to walk into the room. You narrowed your eyes when a thing walked in, studying it's features. It looked like a person, but his whole body looked like nothing but a blurred shadow. The one noticeable feature is the long bloody spear he held in his hand. You furrowed your brows and protected the lady, covering her with your arms as she coward into a ball. Protecting her with your body won't do much good, but something was telling you that it was pointless. You saw the man raise his arm getting ready to slash at her.

Your eyes widened as you held your hand out. You tried to use your vision but it wasn't working. "Stop-" you tried to yell as a last resort, but the man's spear went right through you like air and slashed at the women, or atleast what you thought was her. When you turned around with wide eyes, you saw he had hit the ground. The women was gone, no where to be seen in fact. You looked in confused as you heard the man sigh "you distracted me." He spoke out to you, making you snap your head to look at him. He then walked right through you "stop getting in my way, ghost." He told you, walking away. You hastily got up, following after him. "Ghost? I'm not a ghost. Im an adeptus" you corrected him. He scoffed "sure, you're already dead so I'll let you have whatever fantasy you want." You kept trying to grab the man as he walked "I'm telling you I'm a real being! I breathe!" You yelled at him. "I don't understand what's going on here, nor do I understand why you're trying to kill this person" you complained to him.

"You're dead, and it's non of your business so leave it alone." He snapped back. Your hand just kept going through him, you huffing in irritation. "And if I'm a ghost how come you could see me huh? Sounds suspicious" your comment made him scoff. He never replied to you, just kept walking. "Why won't you stop, there's no reason to kill her!" You yelled, no response being given back. The useless grabbing continued before eventually, he found the girl again. Your eyes widened as you got in front of him again, trying to block his view "no no no, stop!" You yelled, the man just sighing and walking through you, raising his spear again. Before you could try to stop him, you opened your eyes. Weren't your eyes already open? Soon that question was answered when you realized you popped back into the real world. You looked around, noticing your surroundings changed from the last time you were here. You were laying down in a bed, it wasn't your though. You stood up, feeling a headache start to grow as you rubbed your head. You saw feet step into your view as you were looking at the ground. You look up to notice the blond traveler grabbing your shoulders to keep you steady. "(Y/n) are you alright? Why are you up?" Aether asked. "Where's the person and the the uh.. oh the guy named kaeya, and paimon" you rambled on as you tried to walk away from aether but he kept stopping you.

"(Y/n) you should sit down, you've been asleep for awhile" aether told you. You looked at him confused "asleep? No, I just was in a daze for a few minutes. I barely did anything successfully, I need to go back to that illusion" aether forced you to sit down and you looked at him with furrowed eye brows. "I'm sorry (y/n), Xiao told me to keep you from leaving" you raised a brow at his statement. "Xiao? What are you talking about?" You asked him. "You've been asleep for a few days now, it wasn't just a few minutes. Me and paimon panicked and went to tell Xiao" he confessed. You sighed as you rubbed your temples "and why am I not allowed to leave?" Aether sighed at your question, almost as if he didn't know the answer. Paimon floated into the room "we don't know, Xiao just said that you need to stay here til he knows it's safe" paimon replied for aether. "Hey, were you listening to our conversation from the other room?" Aether narrowed his eyes at paimon as she giggled nervously.

"And the person? Are they out of their illusion?" You said, standing back up. Aether nodded "they've been out of it for a while, you're the only one that stayed in it" he told you. You sighed, rubbing the back of your neck. You didn't understand why he wanted to lock you up here, it wasn't gonna change anything. You saw Cloud retainer walk into the room and it was almost as if all of you looked up in shock. "Ah it looks like you've awoken, good." Cloud retainer said in a light tone. "What are you doing here?" Aether asked, already knowing he wasnt the only questioning it. "I'm here to get (y/n), I was told by Xiao she needed to get to liyue safe" she answered, making you sigh. Now this was too much, sure the other times you would deserve this treatment cause you were acting like a child, but this time all you wanted to do was help someone, you even got Xiao's permission to do so.  Cloud Retainer saw the look on your face, already knowing what you were thinking. "It's okay, we're only worried about you. We think it would be better if you came back" she said, trying to make you understand. You looked at her. In all honesty, you appreciated how much Cloud Retainer did for you, all this time. You smiled "okay, I'll come then" you stated, ready to leave. "Great, we'll get going now then" cloud retainer said with a light tone