Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You were a mere scholar from the Akademiya, an expert in your field, but you had a rather stressful time organizing yourself. Being a Herbad; a researcher of great prestige, a greatly experienced scholar who held a leadership position. Yet strangely, you were a mess.
You held immense knowledge across all seven darshans, the six schools in the Akademiya, including the forgotten darshan.

You were no ‘mere’ scholar, but who wouldn’t be in his eyes?

So when you got the opportunity to work for none other than ‘The Doctor’ himself, you were, well, horrified. Should you accept the invitation? Were you even capable of such a job? Were you capable of withstanding the pressure of working under such a man?-

the outcast himself?

You read the letter once more, to see if you hadn’t mistaken anything.

Dear {y/n},

I hope this letter finds you well,
I can tell that you have a keen interest in the more forbidden fields of research.

I am aware that your current role in the Akademiya prevents you from exploring this area of study. I recognize how annoying it must be to have to keep your research a secret so nothing could harm your standing as a Herbad at the Akademiya.

This is why I would like to offer you the chance to continue your research while working under me. Not on behalf of the fatui, but instead as my personal assistant.

Regards, The Outcast

Upon receiving such a letter, you immediately went into the archives. You combed through years of files until you found a terrifying case, a case about; Dastur Zandik

Thoroughly reading the documents, you learned more about him. How he had performed gruesome, illegal experiments on people with Elizar, all while being a scholar at the Akademiya. How he was known to be an outcast and was ostracised for being strange and a heretic. How his crimes led to him being expelled by the Akademiya.

Could you really work for such a man?

You, yourself have committed a few crimes that went against the three virtues of the Akademiya- but nothing so gruesome. To be able to withstand such gore could only be achievable by someone so inhumane. You’ve had a few cadavers, a few illegally obtained knowledge and equipment, but never would you be so cruel and so cold to ignore someone's screams of pain as the scalpel you held pierced their body.

You’ve only committed three sins out of the six. You’d be lying if you haven’t been tampering with life and death, delving beyond the universe, and investigating the origin of words. You had quite the reputation, considering you were a Herbad, which meant many looked to you for guidance and wisdom, some scholars became your disciple and you shared your knowledge, guiding them to the best of your abilities.

Experimenting with forbidden knowledge has caused your behavior to slightly shift, you became a bit detached from others and spent most of your time at home or in your study, continuing your research. You were more anxious around everyone, and you were easily scared off. And so, it was rare to see you walking the halls of the Akademiya without bloodshot eyes, a slight frown on your face, and arms full of books and documents.

Eventually, you did respond, the fatui must’ve known about your interest in the forbidden studies, why else would they personally send you the letter?
You knew you were practically killing your social life, not that you had much of it anyway. But it was still a big risk for you if the Akademiya- if the people of Sumeru found out that you were working under The Doctor?- you didn’t even want to think about the possibility of anyone knowing. You knew the Akademiya would be suspicious of your sudden resignation. So when you submitted your resignation letter they couldn’t help but be curious.

You cleared your throat as General Mahamatra reviewed your resignation letter, you were a bit nervous, considering- you, yourself did indulge in a few illegal studies and violated some rules in the Akademiya, not exactly the prime example of a model scholar.

Thankfully, Cyno has yet to catch up with your involvement.

His eyes met yours and he nodded and sighed “I see, I’ll pass it on to the grand sage.” You couldn’t help but be relieved, letting out a deep sigh. You quickly thanked Cyno and turned around, hoping to leave as soon as possible. “I do have to say, It’s a shame a great scholar like yourself has decided to leave the Akademiya.” You tensed as you slowly turned back to face him but thankfully, you didn’t have to come up with an excuse. You had been working under the Akademiya for a long time after all. You put on a strained smile, “A shame it is…” you responded, trying to keep the situation light. You cleared your throat to not seem so stiff. Cyno nodded “well, I hope to see you around. Goodbye, {y/n}.” The General Mahamatra turned away and left to attend to other matters.

You sighed in relief as you were lucky to have a conversation without him cracking one of his strange jokes.

Upon arriving home, you caught sight of a letter on your table, a fatui symbol on the wax stamp. You never knew that the Fatui replied so quickly. The letter had an address, it was in one of Sumerus forests, far from Sumeru City. Your eyes scanned the short letter and then put it back down.

It would most likely take a few days for you to get there.

You followed the directions on the map provided with the letter, you hesitantly stepped into a cave, pushing the vines away as you walked in. The cave was dark and humid, as you walked further in, you heard the familiar hum and buzzing of various machinery and equipment. The cave walls were adorned with moss, and vines, but the more you ventured inside, the more the moss and vines seemed to disappear until all you could see were silver metal platings adorned with some gold and rusty metal, You eventually came across a door and it opened automatically as you stepped near it. It was a laboratory, apparently built in one of the mountains. It had dim lighting inside, you carefully walked inside, watching your step as you examined the machinery and mechanisms inside the laboratory. The occasional sound of zapping from the machinery’s faulty wiring surprising you. Walking upstairs, you saw a door at the end of the hallway.

You walked inside and happened to find a strange man with untrimmed blue hair resting his head on a long wooden desk. Papers, notes, and documents surround him, there was a spillage of a few chemicals on his desk, dripping down the side of the wood and spilled onto the floor. Your eyes widened for a moment before taking a small step back when he flinched. He slowly raised his head from the desk, your eyes widened once more to see that he… had no eyes?

He had no eyes, yet you could still feel his enraged gaze on you, he grabbed his mask and quickly— frantically— put it on. While he did, your eyes drifted to the floor, a similar letter to the one you had in your pocket, the similar paper and handwriting used as the letter The Doctor had sent you. It was stained from the previous chemicals, a small portion of the letter drenched in the mysterious liquid.

Segment Lάthos,

Your foolish decision to continue your meaningless research in …………………
Not only have you continued to defy my orders and have ………………………..
And to prove your ignorance further, not only do you think ……………………….
It’s absurd and fascinating you truly believe that something as ……………...as you
Has the skills and knowledge to prove your silly theory…..………………………
However, since I find your ignorance and delusion to be genuinely humorous,
to thank you for even the tiniest bit of entertainment, I've given you a small token.

Play nicely

Prime

Once he had properly adjusted his mask, he stood up and you noticed his disheveled appearance.

So…

he was The Doctor?

Taking note of the fact the ‘person’ that stood in front of you had a similar pattern to that of a ruin guard before it had been concealed by a mask— it was easy to conclude that he was a machine of some sort— maybe an android?— And by recalling the note, ‘Prime’ addressed ‘it’ as a ‘something’ and as a ‘segment’? And Lάthos? Lάthos?— as in error? … Segment Error?— You were quickly snapped out of your thoughts when you noticed the shadow looming over you. He towered over you with a scowl, you could feel yourself shrink and back away before he spoke with a venom-laced and condescending tone.

”What are you supposed to be?”

You could ask him the exact same thing.

Chapter Text

Quickly flustered by such a first encounter, you back away, and clear your throat once more, unaware that your sudden step back had resulted in landing your foot in a puddle of mysterious liquid. You quickly step forward once more, unnerved by the anonymity of the liquid and startled by the sudden sound of your foot hitting the puddle. You’re face to face with the outcast himself, ignoring how he was somewhat of an idol to you, he was a terrifying man, you wouldn’t dare make such a bad first impression, you probably already have, invading his lab and office, and now you were wasting precious seconds of his time being so skittish and nervous.

Ignorant to the fact that he had also stepped forward to get a better look at you, you were suddenly very close to him, coming face to face with his collar. He could feel your body heat, yet you could feel nothing radiate from him, he could sense the faint yet lovely sweet scent of your perfume, you could smell the rubbing alcohol and smoke still on him. Your hands slightly shook and your eyes darted from wall to wall and eventually settled your gaze on the floor, struggling to speak. You could feel his judgment and obvious irritation– yet you missed the spark of curiosity as he noticed your eyes, a strange familiarity, a look almost too familiar. The same tired ones he too had when attending the Akademiya, that strong, undying, unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Though you try to conceal your yearning for such knowledge, you can’t hide it from someone like him, someone who understands you.

After all, his thirst for knowledge never subsided, only growing stronger with every ounce of knowledge that came into his possession. He knew what it was like to have to hide every brilliant theory and hypothesis merely because it was deemed immoral by society, for the sake of not being ostracised. He understood your struggle… and perhaps that was the problem. A frightening and revered man like him? Of all the strangest oddities, he was the one who understood the most. What does that say about you?

The dim lighting of your surroundings, the flickering light various machines gave, a single lightbulb on. It was obvious his office was falling apart. Gathering the courage you needed, you stepped back this time, finally meeting his gaze. As his office was falling apart, he too had been deteriorating along with it. It was an obvious cry for help, you could see why his superior self had called you to be his assistant. Thankfully, you had prepared yourself for any sort of mess. You knew very well you could probably never fix someone– or more rather, something like him. But you saw no need to fix him, you saw him as a monster, yes, but you also saw him as treasure, a hidden gem, with a brilliant mind, and striking looks, of course, you would never dare tell him such things. He was a clever man, he just needed your help.

So with enough courage you held your hand out, shifting your expression so as not to look so terrified, praying your voice wouldn’t come out broken and scared, you finally spoke.

“Pleased to meet you, I’m [reader] …”

With a rather careless grab, he shook your hand, rather too tightly, the scowl on his face had softened. “–Your assistant” You couldn’t miss the way his lips tugged upwards into a smirk, the way his lips had parted just a bit as he let out a soft yet deep chuckle. Well, Dastur Sohreh was not lying when she said he was handsome. “My assistant, hm?” He broke off the handshake shortly “Although, I must say I appreciate you coming all the way here, I’m afraid it was for naught– I don’t need incompetent menials–”

“I assure you I am not incompetent” Silence as you cut him off, the words had just slipped past your lips. You had been called a lot of colorful titles but none had ever considered to call you incompetent. You watched as he fixed his posture, no longer hunched, his back was straight and he was much more intimidating, so much so you couldn’t help but tense up and unknowingly straighten yourself as well. “Is that so?” A small frown appeared on his face “Well, you must be something to have caught Prime's attention. I wonder, just who are you?” He leaned down to catch the finer details of your appearance, his deep voice making it all the more intimidating. It suddenly dawned on you, did he even know that he was getting an assistant? Was he even aware you were sent here? You read the letter on the ground, there was no specific mention of you, were you perhaps the said ‘small token’? He was right to be suspicious.

You quickly took the letter in your pocket and handed it to him “T–this is the letter I received –” He took the letter between his fingers and opened it. Scanning the writing on the parchment, if he had an eye, it would twitch. You could feel his desire to rip the letter apart, but seeing that Prime himself had taken an interest in you… “and– uh, this is the map that was also provided–” You said as you also handed him the map. After some time of going back and forth, you could hear him mutter insults as he went back and forth between the map and the letter. The paper crumbles as he balled the map into the palm of his hand before throwing it to the barely lighted fire. You watched as the map burned and disintegrated as it was used to kindle the fire. You could feel yourself tense as you did “I needed that to get home…” You muttered, to which he responded by placing his hands, along with your letter, inside of his pockets. “Unfortunately, I can’t let you leave knowing you have the exact location of my lab in that drab coat of yours.”

You sighed to yourself before meeting his gaze once more, an irritated groan left him. “And unfortunately for me, I’ll be risking taking you in… as my assistant.” You couldn’t help but light up, unaware you were doing so in the first place. And, unknowingly for Lάthos, he couldn’t help but take interest in the way you light up. Maybe it would be best to go along with Prime’s wishes in the meantime. “It’s an honor to work for you!” He’d never been thanked so sincerely before, you were certainly rather strange. He recognized the way you looked, your eyes, your posture, your mannerisms. You had been using forbidden knowledge. Before he could even say anything, you perked up suddenly remembering you had left your bags in the hallway, you quickly excused yourself. You at least took initiative, of course, that only meant he didn’t have to constantly keep an eye on you.

His lab was rather far from any town or city, you failed to notice his footsteps as you organized and put equipment in its correct place, unknowingly organizing the whole area around your bags. Subconsciously placing each single item in its place one by one. He never had the time to do lowly tasks such as keeping his area clean, he only did so when he had to work with delicate materials, perhaps during a sanitized surgery, or an infectious disease. He only stood there, his hands behind his back as he observed how you began to clean. Wiping and dust away with the sleeve of your coat as you continued to wipe the remaining dust, his voice interrupted the silence. “The room on the left.” He spoke with an unamused tone. You turned your head towards him, his back already turned against you, pondering what he could mean. “Use it.”

You soon turned your gaze to the corridor he had mentioned, your eyes landing to the door on the left. You had no expectations for the room he would provide you. You were meant to stay five days a week, surely, he wasn’t expecting you to move in completely? To abandon your life in the city just to move out into, practically the wilderness. You weren’t sure how the Fatui ran things, or at least within the scientific community their military held. You would return home in a few days, regardless. Flipping the lights on, you were met with a windowless, lifeless, and plain room, completely empty, despite a mere desk. You found yourself oddly satisfied, at least within the confines of this room, you were free to continue with your forbidden research. A peculiar sense of relief despite being within close proximity with a killing machine, literally. Free from the judging eyes of undedicated scholars who couldn’t even begin to understand the forbidden knowledge you held. At least he did.