"Was I… always this naive?"
That childishness, that recklessness… Had Mei, Bronya, everyone really been humoring such an immature self all along?
Standing before her younger self, buffeted by the echoes of Flamescion's memories, Xia Qi was engulfed by a tidal wave of emotion—searing shame, cold fury, and a profound, aching sorrow. Sorrow for those lost three years, where everyone had grown, weathered, and strengthened, while she alone had remained stubbornly, willfully stagnant.
This potent cocktail of feeling ignited her will. Without a moment's hesitation, she raised the greatsword.
Whoosh!
A blinding arc of searing flame lanced forward, piercing clean through the abdomen of the charging Kiana.
In the next heartbeat, the flames dissipated. Xia Qi now stood behind her past self, both hands gripping the sword planted tip-down, her posture one of cold, absolute finality. The single, decisive thrust was complete.
Thank you, fate, for this chance to set things right.
"H-how… is this possible…" Agony, sharp and burning, forced Kiana to her knees. She stared down, pupils trembling violently, at the grievous, smoldering wound. Her mind screamed in denial.
Am I… dying?
I can't… Not yet. I have to get Mei and Bronya out of here!
A desperate, primal refusal surged within her. Their faces flashed in her mind. She couldn't fall. Not here.
"Have you still not realized who I am, Kiana?"
Xia Qi retracted her sword, its edge singing softly. She walked slowly past the kneeling girl, then looked down, her gaze calm yet piercing. "This is your dream, Kiana. You will not die here."
"You…?" Kiana struggled to lift her head, her vision blurring. With a monumental effort, she finally focused on the face above her.
In an instant, her eyes widened, shock erasing the pain for a fleeting second.
"Me?!"
"Finally recognized me, have you? Kiana Kaslana." Xia Qi's eyes narrowed slightly. Seeing that expression—the shock, the disbelief, the raw, unvarnished childishness of someone whose first instinct in crisis was to simply wait for the end—a flicker of disdain, hard-won and weary, passed across her face.
"Impossible… I'm… dreaming?" Kiana muttered, the words tasting like ash as her reality fractured.
"A life of comfort has made you soft, Kiana. If this is all you are, how will you protect Mei? How will you protect anyone when the true storms come?" Xia Qi's voice remained steady, even as flames began to dance along the length of her blade, writhing like living serpents.
She tightened her grip and raised the sword high. Its fiery light fell upon Kiana's pale, upturned face.
"Now… judgment is upon you!"
"AHHH!!!"
---
Kiana jolted awake, a scream dying in her throat. The visceral terror of the dream was instantly overwritten by a more immediate one: a monstrous shadow, immense and swift, filling the window and lunging toward them.
"Mei! Bronya!!"
Thought was a luxury. The phantom pain in her gut and the shadow of death from the dream fused into pure, galvanizing instinct. Her enhanced muscles coiled and released. In one fluid motion, she sprang up, grabbing both Mei and Bronya.
CRASH!
A split second later, the world exploded in sound and splintering debris as a colossal blade sheared through the room they had just occupied.
---
"This is all I can do for now."
From her vantage point, Xia Qi watched the scene unfold. Seeing Kiana wake in time, react with decisive speed, and handle the initial assault without the remembered panic… a faint, grim satisfaction lifted her heart. The method had been brutal, but time for gentle guidance was a luxury the past did not afford.
And besides… it worked. History had just bent, ever so slightly. It was proof—the fate she knew was not set in stone.
But this small victory was not enough. They still lacked the power to face this beast. Should she step in and destroy it? Or… let events unfold, allowing Himeko and the others to discover Mei's secret?
The calculations warred in her mind, complex and heavy, before settling into a cold, clear resolution moments later.
I will not intervene further.
So, she watched. She watched as Kiana, Mei, and Bronya fought their desperate, losing battle. She watched Bronya get thrown aside by a glancing blow. She watched Raiden Mei get tackled to relative safety by Kiana. She watched…
"Hmm?"
A cold spike of realization. Change did not guarantee a better outcome. The beast's next attack, a vicious, horizontal cleave, was aimed with lethal precision—directly at Kiana's midsection. In her memory, it had missed. Now, it would not.
"My, my…"
A sigh, tinged with resignation, escaped Xia Qi's lips. She vanished from the rooftop.
---
"Kiana, flip your body in mid-air. You can do this."
For Kiana, time distorted. The world around her slowed to a viscous crawl, the roaring beast and flying debris freezing into a terrifying tableau.
"What?!" Her thoughts, however, raced with crystalline clarity.
"Don't overthink. Do as I say. Engage your core, torque your hips and legs, twist."
The voice was calm, intimately familiar—her own, yet not. Driven by instinct deeper than fear, Kiana obeyed. Her body began to rotate in the air, a fraction of a degree at a time.
"Good. Like this, you will only lose one kidney."
"!"
"Why panic? Compared to death, or being incinerated, a single kidney is an acceptable price."
Noting the terror in Kiana's wide eyes, Xia Qi's tone softened, just a hair. "It's fine. With proper treatment later, your body will heal completely."
"No… don't… want to…" Kiana's protest was a drawn-out whisper in the slowed time, but Xia Qi paid it no heed.
Time snapped back to its normal, violent flow.
THUD!
The massive blade connected. Not a clean bisection, but a brutal, glancing impact. A spray of crimson painted the air as Kiana was hurled backwards like a broken doll.
"KIANA!!!"
Raiden Mei's scream was a raw, shattered thing, tearing from her throat with a force that seemed to shake the very air.
And then…
The world answered.
Dark clouds congealed in an instant, swallowing the sky. Purple lightning, vicious and alive, tore through the gloom. Thunder, not from clouds but from the awakening of a divine wrath, shook the foundations of the city.
Xia Qi, watching from the building, felt the static raise the hair on her arms. Her gaze was locked on the figure descending below, wreathed in celestial fury.
The Herrscher of Thunder.
"Mei…"
She breathed the name, her heart a tumult of old grief and new resolve. This was the Mei she knew from legend and loss, the side Mei had locked away and never shown again.
This time… If we were to fight now… I would win. And you, Mei… you wouldn't have to walk that path alone anymore.
---
Raiden Mei cradled the unconscious Kiana. From her back, wings of crackling lightning erupted, holding them aloft. Under a cataclysmic pillar of thunder that connected heaven and earth, the Honkai beast was unmade, erased from existence in a flash of purifying light.
"So that's how it was."
A faint, understanding smile touched the corner of Xia Qi's lips.
"I was fading then, so I remembered nothing after. Aunt Theresa and Himeko only gave me pieces. Mei never spoke of it. Now… I see what they were shielding me from."
"..."
The Herrscher of Thunder, still holding Kiana close, slowly raised her head. Her eyes, now pools of chilling, electric violet, swept upward with deliberate, terrifying grace. They found their target instantly, locking with an icy, omniscient indifference onto the lone figure standing on the distant rooftop.
-------
A/n: New content and Story posted on my patreon go check it out!
patreon.com/deadlygoober