Cold Blooded

Monsters

Zandik was there, but they were no longer in the room with the table. They were in a small room with only a bed, a desk, and shelves crowded with books. Zandik cried out and pointed at a spider crawling on the wall. A man with the same light blue hair as Zandik and the same red eyes smiled gently and caught the bug in a cup.

He slid a piece of paper under the cup and slid the spider off the wall. He held it out for Zandik to see and grinned. "Don't worry about him," the man said, lifting the spider up to a corner of the book shelf. "People sometimes don't understand the things that help them and call them monsters. He's just trying to find a corner of the world to live his life. Just like the two of us."

"Hehehe," Zandik giggled and gave the man a hug. "Thank you, Big Brother. I promise I will always be nice to our spider friend."

"Good," The man ruffled Zandik's hair with his hand. "You never know where you'll need a friend."

Chongyun slid back into the darkness, but it was like a storm. He was thrown about until he emerged in a new memory.

"The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the water spout..." Zandik climbed up the shelves and looked at the spider as he quietly sang the nursery rhyme.

"Three! No, get down from there!" The man dropped the papers in his arms when he entered the room and helped Zandik down from the shelves. "You need to be careful, falling will hurt you."

"But you can just fix me, right?" Zandik said, his eyes wide with all of the innocence in the world. "Like when I accidentally break my toys?"

"I might be able to help you, but you're much more important than any toy," The man stared at Zandik with concern. "And I would be very, very sad if I couldn't fix you."

"Okay," Zandik said, looking up at his brother. "I'll be more careful. I was just checking on our spider friend."

"Good," The man said, standing up and collecting his papers. "Take care of your friends, but always put yourself first. No matter what."

"Okay, Big Brother!"

The storm of darkness pulled Chongyun back out and threw him about for a while, flashes of moments sprang through but disappeared a moment later. There were flashes of the man, Zandik, the room, birds through the window, and blurs of things Chongyun couldn't focus on in time.

Chongyun was thrust into a large room with huge rotating rings that seemed to float in the center around a glowing orb. The room was layered in a way. There was the floor he stood on and then a higher floor where people peered down at him. No, Chongyun looked over his shoulder. They aren't looking at me.

Zandik stood, half hidden behind his brother, as an older man studied him. The old man bent down and grabbed Zandik by the chin and began to look him over closer. The small boy flinched, but said nothing. His brother stood perfectly straight. He stared out at the people on the higher level of the room, a fire in his eyes.

"Tell me, what do you call this little monster?" The old man let go of Zandik's chin, standing up to stare at his brother. The old man was a few inches shorter, but he stood with a dominating power.

"Grand Sage," Zandik's brother looked straight forward, right through the man. "This is Three. He is capable of feeling both physically and emotionally. He is capable of learning just like any other human being, and he is not a monster."

"Oh?" The Grand Sage turned away and took a few steps towards a set of stairs to the upper layer. "Then what is it?"

"He is a segment of myself," People stopped muttering and stared down at Zandik. His brother continued. "He was molded after myself. His voice is as mine was at that age and he is capable of thoughts and learning just as any other child."

People from above began to laugh. A few pointed at the man and his "brother." Zandik began to look more upset than scared. He took a step towards them all and towards the grand sage.

"It's not very nice to laugh at people," Zandik stated. His voice just a bit louder than necessary revealed his thinly veiled fear. The onlookers fell silent, but the sage just laughed harder.

The Grand Sage came up to Zandik and grabbed his shoulder. "Amazing," he turned Zandik's head this way and that. "He sounds like any regular boy. Now where is the sound box?"

The man's wrinkled fingers slid around the seams of Zandik's mask until they brushed over something. There was a soft click, Zandik's brother stiffened, but didn't move. Zandik was shaking.

The man pried open the mask to reveal a cavity filled with wires, gears, and a large microphone. The sage tapped the microphone then looked up at Zandik. "Speak, monster."

"I'm not a monster!" Zandik cried out. It was weird. The voice of that boy, so crisp and clean, so real, being produced through a small grey square.

"Hah, clearly you haven't spent enough time in front of a mirror." The Sage closed the mask and tapped Zandik's nose. The boy whipped at the top of his nose and glared at the man, but didn't utter a word.

"It's an interesting... thing... that you have made," The Grand Sage began to ascend the stairs and joined the people on the upper level. "You're a bright young man, you can grow if you continue to study here. Scrap and dismantle that thing and I'll allow you to stay here. Keep it..." The man stopped on the top stair and looked back at Zandik and his brother. "Keep it, and I'll destroy that monstrosity myself. The last thing we need is another of you."

The man turned and left without another word. The people took that as their invitation to talk. People began to laugh even louder than before and point without shame.

"Get out of here, you freak!" Someone cried from above. The voice was spurred on by his colleagues' cheers. "Take yourself and your little monster back to whatever hole you crawled out of!"

"Do any of you know what you're wasting here?!?" Zandik's brother yelled at the people above him. "This boy is something that we can barely understand! He can feel and think and live just like us! He's just as real as any one of you! HE could change the future forever! HE is better and more important than any of you! He is going to change all of Teyvat! This discovery could change everything we know of life, of the gods, of the abyss, and everyth-"

"Brother?" Zandik tugged on the corner of his brother's coat. The man turned to Zandik, his jaw set and murder and insanity blazing in his eyes. He stumbled back half a step and looked at Zandik.

"Brother?" Zandik repeated. "You're scaring me. You and all these people. You're scaring me." Zandik trembled as he looked at his brother. Fear painted across his face. "Can we, can we please go back to the room. The place outside isn't very nice."

"I-" His brother stumbled over his words for a moment, but managed to take a small breath. The anger in his eyes faded away. "Yes, you're right. Let's leave here. Let's go back to the room."

Zandik grabbed his brother's hand and they went to a platform that slowly began to sink into the floor.

"That's right!" A final voice called. "Get out of here! Try coming back and we'll dismantle you ourselves!"

Zandik flinched and turned to look at his brother. Small tears began to prick at the boy's eyes, threatening to spill over. He hugged his brother's hand tighter as they slowly descended. The pain and heartbreak Zandik's eyes were enough to show that he was more human than the monsters in above them.

~author's note~

This and the next chapter were supposed to be just one, but this chapter was getting pretty long. Hope you all are excited for Honkai Star Rail to drop! Thank you for reading.

Chapter art posted by @Miyako_Donquixote