Journey | Albedo's Descent Book 3

Chapter 27: A Friend Returns

The moment Albedo took his last step out of the hole, the storm, which the alchemist hadn't even noticed, was gone.
Kaeya let out a relieved breath and found himself able to move again. He ran to Albedo and embraced him tightly, "what happened?!"
Albedo held a jar in his bare hands. Inside the jar was more of that weird ooze, except this was moving on its own.
Kaeya stared at it, "this is it? What a crummy gift..."
Albedo looked down at it pensively, "I guess I have more experiments to do now..."
Kaeya sighed, "let's just get out of here.
They made their way back to camp. The mountain was unsettlingly quiet...
Albedo found that the Mystery Goop 2.0: Live Version was unable to crawl out of walled containers like the jar it had been in earlier. It seemed unable to carry its weight upwards.
"Interesting... I had thought it might be like a slug or snail..."
Kaeya kept his eyes off of it. It made him feel sick. "Do we know anything new?"
"Aside from the fact that it is very aware of its surroundings and cannot climb... not much. But it's only been a half an hour since I got it." Albedo took a dropper and poked the gross mass with it.
The mass pulled it in and Albedo had to fight to take it back, "it's stronger than it looks... so why can't it climb...?" Albedo took to his notes scrawling out equations and other nonsense Kaeya couldn't understand.
Then Albedo walked over to the fireplace and stuck a poker in the fire. He stood there for a short moment before taking the now extremely hot poker out and walking back over.
"I hate this thing, but isn't that a little... inhumane?..." Kaeya said quietly.
Albedo responded simply, "I won't touch it. The other ones hated heat and I just want to know if it is the same."
The moment Albedo lowered the poker near the small enclosure, the loving goo inched away from it, making hissing sounds.
Albedo "hmm"d and moved it closer. The hissing escalated into sizzling, and the goop had made its way into the corner.
Albedo held the poker steady, waiting to see what would happen.
To everyone's surprise the mass suddenly leapt onto the poker, sizzling and cracking as it collided.
At first Albedo wondered if it was suicidal and if a barely-sentient being could be suicidal. Then he realized that nothing was happening... the ooze was just fine, sliding off the poker as gravity pulled.
Albedo slowly pulled the poker back and tentatively touched the tip.
It was colder than ice. Maybe even colder than the temperature outside.
Albedo recoiled his hand sharply.
"Albedo! Don't do that!" Kaeya had just opened his eyes to see him pull his hand back.
"It's cold." Albedo looked at Kaeya with wide eyes.
"What?"
"It's cold..." Albedo walked back over to the fireplace and put the poker on the stand.
"I don't... understand..."
Albedo shook his head, "it must have to do with it being more alive. The being itself emanates such a cold feeling, that it feels like you're being turned into a popsicle when near it. It must be the same sort of thing."
The alchemist wondered why the color of the feeling coming off of the ooze before him was different than the thing as a whole... Maybe it was different and that's why it was a gift?... But just how different? And in what way?
He looked up at Kaeya, then he blinked a few times. Kaeya had a sort of feeling radiating off of him as well, except his was a deep blue color that flowed from being more of a pale color to more vibrant.
Kaeya seemed to get nervous, "what?..."
"Oh," Albedo shook his head, "it's nothing."
Kaeya pursed his lips, "I don't think it's nothing..."
"Well, I mean..." Albedo hesitated, "Lisa can see people's feelings, right?..."
Kaeya nodded, "yeah, I think she calls it an aura."
Albedo paused, "I think I can see something like that... but more consistent. The color doesn't really change..."
Kaeya gave him a concerned look, "how? What does it look like?"
"It kind of looks like fire," Albedo shrugged, "and I'm pretty sure it comes from the same place my visions came from." He pointed to his left eye.
Kaeya sighed quietly, "do you think it will ever... go away?..."
Albedo shrugged again as he started writing a few more things down in his notebook, "who knows? I'm not entirely sure I even want it to go away..."
Kaeya stared at him in disbelief, "Albedo..."
"This could be helpful, Kaeya. I can see so much more now," Albedo was speaking with a strange erratic sort of excitement, "I mean, just look at what has happened already! I saw the future! Kaeya, this-"
Kaeya looked up at him slowly, "Albedo... it isn't worth it if it causes you pain... I thought you were dying last night... That black was leaking out of your eye and afterwards it just went right back in..." Kaeya was barely holding himself together. "I don't... want things like that to happen again..."
Albedo was speechless. But... wasn't this a good thing? Sure it did hurt terribly, but wasn't how much it helped worth being in pain for a meager minute or so?...
Kaeya heaved a heavy sigh as his shoulders and whole posture lowered, "I don't know how much more of this I can take..."
Albedo didn't even hear him. His mind was lost trying to justify his reasoning.
"Just... please... stop this..." Kaeya pressed his hands over Albedo's, which were against the table.
Albedo looked up at him, feeling hopeless. Did Kaeya really not see what Albedo was trying to do? He was trying to protect everyone... All he wanted was to complete his purpose.
Kaeya squeezed his hands, pleading with him, "before you can't..."
Albedo couldn't meet his eyes anymore. Albedo hated to do something like this alone... but it seemed no one understood him...
"It's already too late..." there was an ominous, barely audible whisper in Albedo's ear.
Albedo inhaled sharply, looking about to find where the voice had come from. It wasn't too late. Albedo could stop if he wanted to. He just... didn't want to. This was important.
Kaeya held onto him tighter, panicking, "what-"
"You didn't hear it?!" Albedo's mind was running a million miles an hour. Was it something only he could hear?! Or was it too quiet?! Was Kaeya not paying attention and just happened to miss it?!
Albedo's eyes were drawn to the enclosure. The blob seemed to be staring up at Albedo intently.
The alchemist felt a shiver go down his spine as he stared back, "was it you?..."
The mass made no movement of any sort to signify it heard or understood him.
Kaeya walked around the table, putting his hands on Albedo's shoulders and squeezing him gently, "what did you hear?"
"It was... a voice," he tore his eyes away from the goo, "I thought..."
Kaeya looked at Albedo with a torn expression, "Albedo... you know I trust you..."
Albedo could feel where this was going, "but you still want me to stop..."
"Because I care about you," Kaeya spoke quietly, "I hate seeing you get hurt... sigh... but I'm not going to force you to do anything. I... I know how smart you are. I know whatever you decide to do isn't just for you." Kaeya smiled a little bit.
Albedo felt relief wash over himself all at once. He embraced Kaeya tightly, "thank you..."
Kaeya was a bit surprised and had to load for a moment before he hugged back. "I just know how you think... The last thing I would expect you to do would be something destructive."
"Oh really?"
Kaeya and Albedo instantly separated to see Rosaria standing in the doorway with a hand on her hip and her nose upturned. "Because it smells like something fishy is going on," she narrowed her eyes.
Kaeya laughed nervously, "there's nothing wrong with hugging, Rosaria... I hug you all the time..."
Her eyes narrowed even farther, "hmmm... we'll see..."
Albedo chuckled before whispering, "looks like our chaperone is back."
Kaeya groaned softly, "aw man..."