Verisimilitude (GI Various x Reader)

Chapter Forty-Three

        How many years has it been since he'd forsaken his homeland and the Archon who created him? The irony and gall that the Jester has for assigning him back to the nation where he was created in search for the Electro Archon's Gnosis. A Gnosis that may very well already be in the hands of the Oracle Knight of Mondstadt. A part of him seethes in rancor and betrayal at the thought of her from the last time they met during the search for the meteorites and the information they held. How she had no memory of who he was.

"Yet, according to the Doctor's notes from that time, she used the Electro Archon's Gnosis against him. I would have been able to tell if she had the Electro Gnosis back then during the search. So, she must have obtained it more recently..." But still, how could she be in both the past and the present? It doesn't make any sense. If the woman he'd met all those years ago had been an ancestor of the current Oracle Knight then that could perhaps explain the uncanny resemblance the two shared.

However... there was no doubt about it.

The Oracle he met in the past before his life fell to ruin, and the Oracle Knight of the present are one and the same. A weak part of him that he wishes would just shrivel up and die wonders just how she's able to do it. To change the past is a dangerous power. If he could learn just how she does it... then maybe everything would be different.

Footsteps echo behind him. Scaramouche fights the annoyed groan that grows in the back of his throat.

"What do you want, Signora. I have better things to be doing than to listen to what you have to say." He bitterly calls out without even turning his head. The taller woman clicks her tongue out of annoyance.

"You're moodier than usual, Balladeer. Old memories being dredged up from being back in the nation you abandoned?" She asks, and one would be tone deaf if they couldn't hear the sarcasm that dripped from La Signora's voice. "Don't you even dare think about letting those past feelings ruin our plans here." Scaramouche closes his eyes, a scowl forming upon his brow as he laughs, voice dripping with annoyance.

"As if you're one to talk. Didn't you straight up attack the Anemo Archon, Barbatos, out of pure revenge?" Signora glares bitterly at the puppet before her.

"How dare- if I could throw you back down into the Abyss, I would without a second thought." She bitterly proclaims. Scaramouche laughs at her pathetic attempt of a threat.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night. Now, I have a job to do and I'm more than certain you do as well." He walks past La Signora's fuming figure. Just as he's about to leave, the Eighth Fatui Harbinger's voice stops him.

"Don't you forget the other mission that has been assigned to all of the Fatui Harbingers by her majesty, the Tsaritsa." Scaramouche huffs, annoyed.

"You mean the self-same mission you, yourself, failed to complete after being threatened by the Geo Archon? As if I could go a day without being reminded about it..." He mutters, annoyance still dripping in his tone. He doesn't stick around to listen to any more of Signora's annoyed fits of rage. The woman only came over to get a rise out of him, after all. Well, suffice it to say, her plans backfired. Scaramouche's thoughts return back to what he'd been thinking about before La Signora's interference.

As someone who has met the Oracle Knight in the past, there are so many questions that run through his mind. One that aches in his non-existent heart...

"How could you just abandon your promise... without a care in the world?" He closes his eyes.

"I guess it doesn't matter anymore, right? Before long, I will have that which I have longed for after all of this time..." When he next opens his eyes, they center in on the Tenshukaku in the distance. A bitter bile of hatred writhes in his system at the sight of Inazuma's crown city.