Chapter Text
Years before the present.
When Osial had come back to the mortal world, he had expected to lay low in Liyue and recuperate his energy before taking his revenge on Rex Lapis. He had planned on taking back the chaotic powers that were stuck, trapped, in the Guyun Stone Forest where the Geo Archon had sealed his body away before defeating him once and for all.
What he had not expected was being born in the Archons damned coldest region in Teyvat.
It was a stark contrast from the warm waters and weather, in general, of Liyue. When he'd first come back, Osial had found it horrible, chilling, disgusting. A pain in the ass, to say the least. He'd learned to grow accustomed to it, as he was forced to grow up in Snezhnaya.
Snezhnaya, the frostbitten region so far away from Liyue that it almost made Osial homesick. Emphasis on 'almost'.
He couldn't recall when exactly he'd woken up, but he remembered the biting colds of the wind first thing. There was also the sound of crisp snow crunching under his boots. He was sure that when he'd chosen his new vessel, it was tucked neatly into the warm blankets of its comfortable home. So how, and why, on earth is this kid out here? he'd wondered.
Until now, he had simply been resting. He had rested in his vessel's body, letting it run about, doing its own business before he'd take over. It was only a matter of time. He just had to hang onto that thinning patience. If he could wait all those years to have revenge on Rex Lapis, he could have waited a little longer to slowly chip away at his vessel's own conscious.
But now, as the young teenager lay still on the cold floor of some strange place, after having tripped and fallen a long way, Osial knew he had to take over immediately or his new vessel wouldn't survive. He felt pain and he was sure one of his limbs was broken, or at least some part of him had fractured in the fall. Fuck those wolves and bears, honestly.
The last piece of Ajax's own conscience was eaten away at as Osial took over almost completely. He would've taken over completely, but he needed to leave a little bit of his personality, lest people think something was wrong with him.
Or, well, Ajax. They were one in the same now anyway.
Sorry, kid, Osial thought to himself, but your body is mine now. If you still existed as yourself, you would've thanked me for this.
As he lay on the ground, trying to catch his breath, Osial heard footsteps approach him, then a female voice called out dryly, a twinge of concern in her tone. "A kid?" No, Osial wanted to snap, the Overlord of the Vortex. He said nothing though, trying to play the part of the injured fawn. "Come with me. It's too dangerous down here. You won't survive without proper training."
And she picked him up without ever waiting for his answer and nursed him back to health. Then, during however long passed, she trained him and taught him to fight. She nurtured his trouble-making nature, made him violent, and Osial felt his vessel become more ruthless, more resistant and definitely stronger.
Ajax was forced to kill, beat and slaughter to survive. That was the horror of the Abyss.
Before he realized it, three months had passed. He couldn't remember what exactly had happened in between his time in the Abyss and coming back to the surface, but when he woke up again, he was back in the forest. Not only that, but he had gone back up unhindered.
Ajax looked at his hands, calloused from wielding a sword and too rough to be that of a fourteen-year-old child's. Ajax, Osial whispered to himself, never speak of this again. And they both agreed on that. Cold wind whipped his hair into his face. The sting snapped him out of his daze, and that's when he remembered those wolves and bears that had mercilessly hunted him down.
Ajax—Osial—grinned wickedly and flexed his hands. "Let's see how those bastards are faring now, shall we?"
➸➸➸
When his mother and sister found him later, lying in the bloody snow, corpses of the animals and a rusted shortsword littered around him, he was unharmed. His family dragged him home and forced him to rest, but they never asked him what had happened to him. And he never told them. Ajax came to learn that what had been three whole months for him was a mere three days for them.
"We're so glad you're back, Ajax," his family would say tearfully.
He would only nod and smile comfortingly.
But he knew he really wasn't 'back'. His childhood self had long been devoured and replaced with a blood-lusting monster. Both Osial and Ajax had been changed into an entirely different being after their time in the Abyss.
As much as it scared whatever was left of the original Ajax, he had to accept the truth.
This was no longer really either of them. Not Ajax, nor Osial. This new person was the one who would become the Tsaritsa's favourite pet and most lethal weapon.
This was the eleventh Fatui Harbinger, "Childe" Tartaglia.