Work Text:
Childe had acquired Foul Legacy in the abyss. At the time, it was another weapon at his disposal. Another way to fight. To survive. Foul Legacy had watched from the shadows as the crying little boy learned to wield a weapon and fight. The boy had learned and adapted so quickly, and when Foul Legacy reached out to the boy in his mind during a perilous fight and offered him its powers, the boy agreed without a second thought. When the boy had crawled out of the abyss with every last ounce of his strength, Foul Legacy had followed. They were one now, after all. The boy was him. And Foul Legacy was the boy.
Foul Legacy urged the boy on as he grew up, offering its powers as needed. The boy flew through the ranks of the organization his kind had constructed, becoming one of its top members and gaining access to more and more exhilarating battles. Foul Legacy sung with glee, happy and content, aiding the boy through his battles.
Then the boy was sent to a warm and golden land. The boy spent endless days taking one particular golden-eyed human out to eat, for walks around the harbor, on shopping trips through the different vendors, buying whatever the golden-eyed human so much as glanced more than a second at. The golden-eyed human was very pretty. Eyes as beautiful as jewels, long silky hair neatly tied back into a low ponytail, voice deep and smooth as he went on about the most mundane of things. An elegant suit and posture that indicated regality, but also power and strength. Foul Legacy itched to fight him, even more so after spotting the geo vision on his back.
As the months went by, Foul Legacy came to recognize a new feeling bubbling in the boy’s chest. It was warm and golden and made the boy smile like he never had before.
Foul Legacy hated it.
And every time the golden-eyed human, whom Foul Legacy was so very sure was more than just a human, made eye contact with the boy, Foul Legacy trembled in the back recesses of the boy’s mind. “Do not trust him,” Foul Legacy wanted to whisper to the boy, but the warm, golden feeling in the boy’s chest always made it hesitate.
Then the golden-eyed human revealed itself to be the nation’s god. The geo archon. An old and powerful dragon.
Foul Legacy would never forget the way the boy’s heart plummeted, how that warm golden feeling was so quickly replaced by a cold emptiness that sent shivers thru Foul Legacy. Foul Legacy seethed in the back of the boy’s mind. How dare the dragon? How dare he make the boy feel this way? How dare he play with him like a toy?
To Foul Legacy’s horror, the two made up only a couple of weeks after. It was a beautiful fight, but the dragon had prohibited the boy from using his abyssal powers and delusion. Foul Legacy grumbled as it was relegated to watching the boy fight. The peaceful days did not last, as soon the boy’s loyalty to his own goddess took him away again to different lands. A war was brewing, and the boy was needed to fight.
After the war, the boy and dragon settled down in the harbor the god had built and got married (as the humans liked to call it. Foul Legacy found the tradition a waste of resources). It was an official way to commemorate their bond. Soon, they discovered that due to Foul Legacy’s influence as well as the dragon’s adeptal powers, the boy’s aging had slowed drastically. The boy had been happy at first, then terribly sad as he watched his human companions grow and pass on. The dragon consoled him and suggested they move away from the harbor.
They moved to a small remote area in the woods of the god’s country and built a small house there. The two grew a garden, filled with different flowers and plants and vegetables to eat, and planted a small ginkgo tree sapling behind the house. Foul Legacy bristled in the back of the boy’s mind at how peaceful his life had become. The boy no longer truly needed his help to fight. To survive. And he sat in the back of the boy’s mind, watching him smile and laugh with the dragon with that warm golden feeling in the boy’s chest.
As even more years passed by, Foul Legacy came to realize it did not dislike the warm, golden feeling in the boy’s chest. How it made the boy so incredibly happy when he was with the pretty dragon.
The two lived a long happy life together and passed on peacefully together.
As the last of the boy’s presence seemed to fade away from his mind, Foul Legacy tugged a bit for control. The boy had relented easily, “May you find peace as well, my friend. Thank you.”
Making use of the mannerisms and knowledge it had gained from watching Childe live, Foul Legacy took control of Childe’s body after his passing and continued to live as its main host. Foul Legacy tended over the little house and garden the two had built, and even though Foul Legacy never truly understood the affection Childe had for the pretty dragon, it came to understand that Childe was truly happy and content there with him. That this house and its inhabitants held many precious memories.
Foul Legacy would take in injured monsters and let them heal there, giving them a home until they were well enough to move on. Many stayed and helped Foul Legacy tend to its daily tasks.
The hydro abyss mages and hilachurls would help attend to the garden, the geo slimes would happily help Foul Legacy with repairs for the buildings, and the rifthounds would help forage for food after learning to control their corrosion. If any dared step out of line and betray its trust, Foul Legacy didn’t hesitate to end them in a heartbeat. Occasionally, Foul Legacy would even cover up and go to the nearest village to replenish human-made supplies. Medicine and bandages and spices that couldn’t be obtained in the wild that it didn’t have the know-how to make itself.
It took in injured travelers too. Humans who would pass by battered and torn. Usually, they were scared and would ask why he lived among monsters while Foul Legacy tended to their wounds. And every time, Foul Legacy would just shake its head and repeat, “They are not dangerous. Do not worry.”
Travelers who left the house would tell stories, but none are able to relocate the place. Rumors spread about the section of the woods, where a mysterious house stands with a man surrounded by monsters. Most hear the tales and decide to steer clear.
Hundreds of years down the line, Zhongli and Ajax are reincarnated as humans in a world that has learned to move on from the age of Gods and Celestia. The two meet on a commission in the adventurer’s guild and hit it off, growing incredibly close very quickly. However, the more and more time the two spend together, the more they see in their dreams snippets of a past life – the life of a dragon, a god, that had lived too long but found love again, the life of a weak boy who had fallen into the depths of Tevyat and returned and crawled his way to the top, toppling gods and conquering the heart of one as well. Ajax questions if their affections are just a result of their past lives. If their feelings are even real. Zhongli cries when Ajax says that.
They fight. Words and things flying. Weapons cross.
They break up soon after, and Zhongli retires from the adventurer’s guild, opting to open a small shop that sells antiques and old books.
But as fate would have it, their paths soon recross and they make up, moving into the home Zhongli has built above his shop.
It is on one faithful day when Ajax is on a commission from the adventurer’s guild when a landslide occurs, gravely injuring him. As fate would have it, Ajax had stumbled into the forest half conscious before he passed out near a familiar house. Foul Legacy sees him nearby the house and takes him in, tending to his wounds.
Foul Legacy is nervous. That is the boy is it not? But he is different. Calmer. Less violent. But still strong, with his heart on his sleeve. It truly is a different world now outside the bubble of this little home in the woods.
When Ajax awakens, he's confused and scared, throwing a flimsy punch straight at Foul Legacy’s face. He is unsuccessful in hitting his target, but he does manage to reopen the wound on his chest.
“Who are you? What are you doing to me?!” Ajax yells, before hissing in pain. Foul Legacy shakes his head and hurries to rebandage his wounds, struggling against Ajax who squirms under him trying to fight his efforts.
“Don’t move. Hard to bandage. You are safe here,” The doppelganger says, “Mean no harm. Them too.” he motions towards the abyss mage who is making an ice pack for the boy.
After a moment, Ajax calms, assessing the room around him. Although there are monsters, and the man taking care of him looks exactly like him, albeit a tad bit older, he seems to be well cared for. Wounds treated and well fed. No one has tried to hurt him. Not yet at least. He sighs after a moment, “Ok. Thanks.”
His doppelganger just nods and leaves the room after he finishes rebandaging his chest.
Ajax drifts in and out of sleep. When he is awake, he is struck by the similarity of the room to the room he sometimes sees in his dreams. The memories of warm golden eyes and a smile, of branching cor lapis antlers and a strong, brown scaly tail tipped with a tuft of soft golden fur. They are of Zhongli, yet they are not. His Zhongli does not possess these traits. There are gloved hands that often reach out to Zhongli in his dreams. They are strong but gentle, fighting monsters and cooking meals, and tucking a lock of hair behind dream Zhongil’s ear. But they are not his. These are not his memories. These are Childe’s, the 11th Fatui Harbinger’s, not Ajax’s. They are from a life hundreds of years in the past.
When Ajax’s doppelganger deems him well enough, he allows him to roam the house and gardens outside. He is instructed to use a crutch. His doppelganger doesn’t seem to like to talk unless necessary, but he is always watching him with eyes that look just like his. There is an emotion behind those eyes Ajax just can’t pinpoint, and sometimes it sends shivers down his spine.
It is the first time Ajax steps into the common room that all the feelings of deja vu finally fall into place. The room is kept incredibly clean and tidy, and he spies a hilachurl diligently dusting the bookshelf. It is the room he often sees in his dreams – the couch is the same, as are the table and rug, and all the photos that line the shelves and walls. The antiques are displayed on the bookshelf alongside thick volumes of books in ancient fonts Ajax can not read, but he instinctively knows they are in an old Liyuean and Snezhnayan dialect. The photos often depict a ginger man and a dark-haired man with golden eyes smiling at the kamera. Occasionally there are also other individuals: a blonde-haired traveler and their twin with a floating fairy companion, a teal-haired adeptus with a frown on his face, a drunk bard, a blue-haired chef and her bear-like companion, the list goes on.
Ajax’s eyes widen as he studies all the photos.
They are of Childe. They are of the person in his dreams.
They are real.
More real than any accounts in the history textbooks of the Great War Against Celestia, more real than the theological textbooks about Rex Lapis and the Religion of the Seven the world used to follow, more real than the decaying artifacts he’s seen in a museum.
Ajax hears the door open and his doppelganger walk in, footsteps pausing at the doorway. He is studying Ajax, expression grim and hard to read.
“Are you Childe?” Ajax asks.
The doppelganger shakes his head. “You remember?”
“But you must be him, aren’t you? But the history books, and the other adepti accounts, all say you’re dead. Rex Lapis and his mate had both passed on peacefully hundreds of years ago. Is that all a cover-up? You’re in the home he used to live in. But where is Rex Lapis? But this home…it’s the same home I see sometimes in my dreams. It…it has to be you.”
The doppelganger shakes his head again, “Not him.”
“What? But you look just like him. Your hands. Everything. There’s no other explanation-”
“No! Not same.” The doppelganger looks panicked before saying, “Wait.”
He rushes into the room he stays in, Zhongli and Childe’s room Ajax’s brain provides, and returns with a well-cared-for box. Inside on a velvet pillow lay a blank Snezhnayan vision, delusion, and a worn blood-red mask.
He points at the vision, “Gone,” he says. His eyes are downcast as he studies the blank gem. “But we used to be one. From abyss. To survive, we were one. But here,” the doppelganger gestures around the cottage, “you were happy here. Safe. But now it is missing one. A pretty dragon.”
Ajax’s breath catches in his throat as the words seem to sink in.
“From…the abyss?”
The doppelganger nods. “Fought together. Very strong.”
“I’m sure you were,” Ajax says with a nervous laugh. His brain struggling to catch up with the reality that had been placed before him. “Then….., they’re really both gone?”
The doppelganger nods again. “It is okay. They both happy. Good long life here together.”
Ajax’s thumb ghosts over a photo frame of the two smiling at the kamera, “I’m sure. I’m sure they were.”
Back home at the harbor, Zhongli is worried sick after Ajax does not return home. It’s been a week; Ajax never spends so long on a commission from the guild. Zhongli finds out from Katheryne there are reports of a landslide hitting the village Ajax was at for the commission he had accepted. In a panic, Zhongli packs a bag and sets out for where Ajax was most likely last seen. Zhongli only panics harder when no one in the village had seen Ajax. The village is in bad shape, but after asking around, Zhongli is sure Ajax is not here. He is not here among the injured or buried under the rubble.
Zhongli decides to search through the forest behind the village where Ajax had most likely gone to collect the wood for his commission. As Zhongli walks deeper and deeper into the woods, he stumbles upon an eerily familiar path resembling the one he sees in his dreams. There is more shrubbery and it is not as well kept as before, but the winding twists and turns it has are all the same. As Zhongli follows it, he sees a familiar-looking cottage in a small clearing, surrounded by beautiful gardens and a tall ginkgo tree in the back. As Zhongli nears the cottage, he is horrified to see the garden surrounded by various monsters from hilachurls to abyss mages to baby geovishaps. And at the very center of the circle of monsters in the garden with his back to Zhongli, is a head of ginger hair that seemed to glow in the setting evening sun.
“Ajax!” Zhongli calls, readying his weapon. “Get out of there, it’s not safe!” Zhongli readies the polearm he had brought, it hadn’t seen much action in recent years, but he expertly twirls it around in his hands before preparing to attack.
The ginger turns his head and his eyes widen when he sees Zhongli. There is a look of recognition, but something is off. The ginger rushes to stand in front of the group of monsters, creating a barrier using himself between Zhongli and them. He shakes his head vehemently, “No! Not bad!”
“Ajax, stand back! I don’t know what they did to make you say that, but they’re dangerous. It’s not safe!”
The ginger shakes his head more, “No! Don’t hurt! Please!”
Inside the house, Ajax hears a loud commotion and the sound of his doppelganger’s raised voice (he should really ask him for a name to use). Ajax rushes to the window and gasps at the sight of Zhongli with his polearm ready and pointed at his doppelganger. His doppelganger seemed to be shielding the group of monsters behind him who had all slowly started scampering backwards.
Ajax hobbled over to the front door and slammed it open as loud as he could. He achieved his intended effect when Zhongli and his doppelganger both turned around at the noise.
“Zhongli!” Ajax made his way through the monsters and dropped his crutch, pulling Zhongli into a tight embrace. “Zhongli, don’t worry. It’s okay. It’s safe here, and I’m okay. Please don’t hurt them. Or this other me.”
“Ajax?”Zhongli gasped as he slowly returned the embrace, squeezing Ajax tightly. “Ajax! Ajax….you’re safe.”
“I am. You came looking for me?”
“Of course. I was worried. After a week, you still hadn’t come home…”
“I’m sorry… I didn’t realize how much time had passed…”
Zhongli slowly extracts himself from the hug and looks over Ajax, assessing his bandaged and healing wounds, the way he seems to be well taken care of. “Of course. I’m just glad you’re okay.” Zhongli gestures around at the ginger behind him and the monsters. “And they are?”
Ajax smiles and tugs his hand, “I’ll show you. The house. You’ll understand.” He turns towards the doppelganger as if asking for permission and the other Not-Ajax nods.
Zhongli gasps as he stands in the entryway. His eyes scan the perfectly preserved room he often sees inside of his dreams, from the photos on the walls to the antiques. Zhongli, for once, is not quite sure what to say.
Zhongli had never been sure what to make of the dreams of, who he assumes is, his past self. A dragon, the prime of the adepti, who had gone on to become this country’s god. He had led countless wars and lived through so many tragedies. But the dreams that always stuck out to Zhongli most were the ones that included Ajax. No, not Ajax. Another Ajax. Childe as he sometimes liked to be called. Tartaglia is the name he uses that strikes fear on the battlefield. The other Ajax was a lieutenant to another Archon. He was a seasoned warrior, but just like his Ajax, he had a heart of gold. But these events all occurred so long ago, in a world that seemed so entirely different from the reality Zhongli and Ajax lived in now. Things had changed so much and some things were so different from how they were described in the history books. Zhongli wasn’t sure how much of it could even be real.
Ajax chuckles beside him. “It’s a lot, isn’t it? But it looks straight out of a time capsule…like we’ve stepped back inside of their home.”
Zhongli turns towards the doppelganger who is standing just outside the door, a safe distance away from the two. He is wringing his hands just like Ajax often does, and he looks up to meet his eyes before turning to look away. “You-you are not the other Ajax though, are you not?”
The doppelganger looks up at him again when he realizes he is addressed and shakes his head.
“Could you, perhaps be…the other entity that had lived inside of him? One that had come from the darkest depths of Tevyat to fight alongside him.”
The doppelganger nods slowly, “Yes. That is me. Foul Legacy is the name he gave……I am glad. He found you. Again. The pretty dragon that made him happy. Safe. No need for me, to fight. So I watched. And watched. At first, I was angry. But then, I realized that is good. And when he was gone...I thought...maybe, I could be like that too. Happy. If I tried to protect...what he had.” Foul Legacy paused as he looked at Ajax and then at Zhongli, eyes focusing on their joined hands when he noticed how Ajax had squeezed Zhongli’s hand reassuringly. “I thought…maybe one day...he would come back."
"Thank you for preserving this place,” Ajax said, a soft smile on his face. He squeezed Zhongli’s hand again, “Did you...find your happiness? Was it here?"
Foul Legacy slowly nods. "It is peaceful here. Protecting and helping others.” A small smile makes its way across his face – gentle and kind and happy, “And you came back. With your pretty dragon."
Zhongli stays at the small house with Ajax until his wounds are fully healed under the protection of Foul Legacy. They come to understand the kind heart Foul Legacy has developed, and the home he has helped create for all the monsters there. Eventually, the two return to their lives in the harbor, but they make a point to visit the secluded little house in the woods often. It always brought a smile to Foul Legacy’s face whenever they did, and he would hum happily in the kitchen as he cooked a feast for them including all of their favorite dishes, from both their past and present lives. The cottage would be decorated with fresh flowers and other seasonal decor just like how the other Zhongli and Childe would always do when they had celebrations there. The house is lively and filled with laughter and cheer. It is just like the times from before, all those years ago.
The seasons pass, and time moves on. Zhongli and Ajax adopt children in the harbor and they often bring them to see Foul Legacy during their visits. Foul Legacy spoils them rotten, just like how he remembered Childe would with the kids he came in contact with in the past. Ajax just laughed at the small frown on Zhongli’s face when the kids declared Uncle Tart (the name they had settled on calling him after struggling to pronounce Tartaglia) their favorite – even better than Daddy and Papa.
More seasons pass. Zhongli and Ajax retire from their jobs in the harbor. Their kids are all grown up with families of their own. The two decide to move into the quiet house in the woods. It makes Foul Legacy incredibly happy. But as the years pass, he also comes to understand that this Zhongli and Ajax would soon leave him behind too. It will become just him again in the secluded woods.
The two pass away together again. Maybe it is fate. Soulmates? Is that what humans call them?
Foul Legacy cries for the first time. He understands now why humans do it, what grief is. Why the boy was so scared he’d leave the pretty dragon behind all alone all those years ago because of his own human mortality.
Foul legacy buries them together in the garden under the ginkgo tree.
Hundreds of years pass again. The pain of their loss again dulls with the passing of the seasons. Foul Legacy continues to maintain the cottage and the newer additions to it.
Then, on one fateful autumn afternoon, a familiar head of orange hair appears again