Stardust

J E A N

Present day, Mondstadt, Statue of the Anemo Archon

The troublesome three Jean shipped off to Dragonspine blinked into existence underneath Barbatos' feet as Venti fell. Kaeya was there, pushing their archon aside as he took a weight that by all accounts should have been hers.

All Jean could see was her best friend dying.

Kaeya couldn't be touched–a shield of ice mirroring the one encasing the city kept even blades away. Jean tasted the blood as she bit through her lip, focusing on what she must do.

Her people were fighting. Varka was right–there was no method to the madness of war. Monsters reigned down and Lumine simply could not be everywhere at once.

The soft plop, one after the other, then a steady torrent of rain made Jean's stomach drop. She had never once felt the rain within the city walls, but the shield of cryo could not deflect the elements–Kaeya was no god.

Covered in feathers and the purest white stained red, Venti raised his shaking hands to the skies. His voice broke as he begged the wind to return. Venti shone like a celestial body; Kaeya was born of night and stars.

Her Captains' clothes were unlike anything she had ever seen, armor and stars all woven together. Even Lumine's white dress was dyed black. covered in feathers and the purest white stained red.

Kaeya somehow bore the weight of a city that betrayed him more times than Jean could ever excuse. The prejudice, Diluc, her own incompetence. Kaeya had so many reasons to be angry, but he ignored them all, blood pouring out of where he knelt, fists scraping the cobblestone.

Kaeya could maintain that shield only when he was injured enough to call it forth. A last resort Jean rarely saw.

"Burn it down," Albedo demanded, jerking at Diluc's jacket. She never saw him so furious, so alive.

"The shield- the city-" Diluc stuttered, hands shaking around Wolf's Gravestone. An impossible choice. Albedo said nothing. He simply dropped his hands, turning with a face as impassive as ever. Jean saw the moment he changed.

His eyes narrowed into a twisted version of Stormterror's, all the wrong blue with cold slivers of the darkest ink. Jean felt the familiar pulse of Dragonspine in her sword.

Albedo was going to break it, Jean realized, with whatever creatures stirred inside them. Before he could do anything, the creatures of the Abyss were upon them.

As she sliced through the Mitachurl, unable to do anything but fight, Jean finally let the tears fall. Her best friend was going to die so close and she couldn't even touch him. As if Kaeya could hear her, she felt the softest kiss of snow. The rain was gone now, transformed into the gentlest snow.

Kaeya never could stomach tears.

Albedo slammed a shield around Kaeya as he ran another Herald through. The armor around him glistened, golden just like the isotoma lifting Amber into sniping position.

Albedo's flowers of Khemia sprung forth, clearing his path as he ran forward, somehow passing through the shield.

The moment Albedo touched him both their bodies crashed down, as if there was simply nothing left to hold them up.

Kaeya was dying. Now Jean had to wonder if Albedo was too. They would kill themselves to keep this up. Jean could not overtake his shield of ice with her powers, not if Kaeya did not lower it first.

That was her captain on his knees holding up her city. Jean had to do something. An old conversation with the alchemist came back to her mind, surprisingly startling as she saw the white flower in Lumine's hair as she spun in perfect swordsmanship.

"Why Cecilia's?" Jean asked, looking at the flowers Albedo was grinding into a tincture.

"They are a flower that symbolizes many things–the being that goes with time, the heart of angels, the purity of alchemy," Albedo said as he picked one up. He always looked so at peace here in his lab.

"Time?" Jean blinked, surprised. "Like the legends of Isaroth?" Albedo chuckled.

"You're surprisingly well-versed in the myths for a deaconess's sister and a noble, but yes. Even the Anemo Archon was blessed by these flowers when Isaroth passed," Albedo said. "Cecilias and Dandelions hold the power of time themselves."

Jean was running, she felt her knees bloody as she fell before her god, grasping Venti's shoulders. The Abyss was running wild. Lumine would not have come if Aether could not stop it. Her Captains would find him.

"I only need a moment," she breathed and Venti blinked, then he understood. "If Mondstadt should fall, let it fall on me."

"There will be no more Vanessas." Venti shook his head , his voice shaking as his wings fluttered around him. His blood stained her hands, spilling out more than she could bear, but she could not do this alone.

"We must. I have no intention of dying." Jean smiled. "You saved them for a reason, didn't you?"

Venti said nothing, clearing his throat with a cough. It was clear he did not want this. But Venti was no stranger to agreeing to things he desperately did not want to do.

"Wings of time, Petals of Mine, let this bard's words ring true, hold in place with steel and blue." The swirl started to pour out of him, and Jean could feel the particles failing him. Without his gnosis, Venti could not sustain such a blessing.

"Barbados, guide us," Jean whispered and she felt her power grow. For a moment, she could hear them praying. The people of Mondstadt. She could see Flora crouched behind her living room. Lisa was there at the gates, weaving currents into the river as Huffman screamed orders. Glory stumbling in the ashes.

Then, amongst them all and one of the loudest, was Barbara. She was bleeding and had so little elemental power left as she sang her heart out, a ballad not fit for the church but one of Venti's favorites, focusing on the dying laying around her.

Jean could hear their hearts crying for Barbados as her Dandelion Wind finally came, healing him as their prayers ripped the archon apart.

A moment.

For Mondstadt.

Just a moment. 

Here is the concept art for the famous trio's outfits!!