Cold Blooded

Caring

"Misses?" Chongyun scratched at the side of his neck as he looked up at the beautiful lady. "Something feels weird today. I think somebody needs my help..."

***Oh?*** Misses glanced down at him with her midnight blue eyes. ***Who could need you? After all, you're just a little boy, my pet.***

"I-" Chongyun thought about it and scratched at his neck harder. It was hard to think when everything itched so much. "I don't know, but I think someone needs me." Chongyun pointed out to the sea of clouds. "Out there. Someone needs me"

***No, my child. No one needs you.*** Misses beckoned Chongyun closer. He came over and sat in her warm embrace. All of his thoughts and worries began to melt away and Misses' voice was all that remained. It was all that he could think about and all that mattered. Nothing else remained and nothing else mattered except for what she said. What she said was what was true.

***No one needs you. You're just an insignificant little boy. Nothing but a pawn on the playing board. You can't even resist my will. It's fascinating what measures the yang spirit within you will go to just to preserve you. Making you a child, nothing more than the epitome of purity and innocence. Why, you get younger with each passing day.***

Misses laughed softly and pulled Chongyun closer to her and held his small head against her shoulder. Chongyun knew that what she said was important and that something about what she said should bother and concern him, but none of it did. All that mattered was her sweet voice, not the words she said.

***You're so weak and fragile it's almost laughable that I still haven't found a way to completely snuff you out. For now though, I guess this will have to work. Maybe you'll just get smaller and smaller and smaller until you disappear.***

"Misses?" Chongyun muttered sleepily as a lock of her thick hair fell into his face. "What are- what are you talking about? You wouldn't ever leave me here alone, right?"

***Of course not, my child.*** Misses pulled her hair back behind her ear and slowly closed Chongyun's heavy eyes with a gentle touch. ***I don't ever plan on leaving such a perfect host for my revenge.***

-<>-

"Chongyun, I wish that we could just wake up and be on the Karlin again. I wish that none of this had ever happened to you." Saya looked down at Chongyun's small frame. He was curled up on himself, tangled in his pile of treasures. It had been five days since the photo of Gisei and five days since they had seen Three. According to Ajax's letter, after today they would be on their way out of here. Straight out of here and out of Snezhnaya.

For the past week, Saya had been lost. She didn't know what was right anymore. Gisei was gone, that man wasn't him anymore. She couldn't even allow herself to hope that there was still a shred of him left in there. He was gone and she had to accept it and let go of the person that had fallen out of her grasp long ago.

The only thing that she had to cling to was Chongyun. She had to save him and get him out of here. She had to be there to help him pull the pieces back together. She couldn't lose him too, not even if it shattered her in the process.

"Good morning, children," A man strode into the room, his voice filled with something akin to boredom. He held a few papers in his hand and looked much like Three, but significantly older. He had to be at least somewhere in his late twenties, but appearances tended to be deceiving.

Saya had heard about the third harbinger's different segments, but had only ever met Three. It was weird seeing the same person, so drastically different. Or was it? That's what was going on with Chongyun, right? He was both the brutality of a monster and the innocence of a child. This was all too confusing.

"Where's Three?" Saya asked, before she even realized the words had left her mouth. The past few days random fatui members had been sent in to give Chongyun a new dosage of the yang energy and not all of them had made it out of the room.

"Oh, that thing?" The older Three pulled at the cuffs of his coat. "It's currently being... fixed, I guess you could say. Not really isn't worth the effort, but I have to do it anyway."

"He's been broken for years, why are you now fixing him?" Saya rose to her feet, wishing she still had her lantern or really any weapon.

"I'm not fixing him like that," The man chuckled quietly. "No, not at all. You see, he was still made with all the emotions and thoughts of a child despite how hard he tries to rise above it. Every now and then, he becomes too attached to people and begins to care about them."

The man said this with such disdain, as if caring for someone was the most shameful thing someone could do. Saya was only confused further. Three cares? About who? It couldn't be her, Chongyun, and Gisei? Right?

Saya thought back to that day, Three had seemed upset then. She had assumed that it was because he had lost something to toy with, she had never thought that he had really cared. 'I truly am sorry.' That's what he had said. Saya couldn't quite wrap her mind around it. Three cared.

"Yes, well," The man folded up his papers and slipped them into a pocket. "Three is being taken apart and reconstructed to remove your existence from his memory bank. From now on, I will be the one incharge of this experiment."

"What?!" The man's words sent a chill down Saya's spine. A thousand questions swirled through her mind. What was he doing to Three? What would he do to Chongyun? What would become of her?

"Yes, from now on I will be the one making sure that the subject gets what he needs." He pulled out a syringe filled with the swirling yin energy. "Now, if you please, wake up the subject."

"Wha- no," Saya spread out her hands. "Why can't you just leave him alone?"

"Fine then," The man grabbed Chongyun by his arm and pulled the small boy to his feet. The boy's eyes slowly opened as the older Three prepared to inject it into his neck.

"Saya, duck!" A voice rang out from up above and a moment later an arrow flew through the air. Saya dodged just as the arrow flew above her head. It had shot right through the syringe and the yin energy slowly leaked out onto the floor and disappeared into the ground.

"I'd know that cocky voice anywhere," The older Three growled and tightened his grip on Chongyun's arm. "Come on out, Tartaglia, before I just decide to kill the boy."

chapter art in game