Guilt

Time seemed to have slowed down as he watched the walls fall apart and the ceiling collapse. The whole place was caving in, and there was only one way out.

It seemed that Beidou thought the same, as she grabbed him and dashed towards the entrance of the domain as fast as she possibly could. Sai was assaulted by a sharp pain before his sight blurred and he passed out.

…

"Hey, hey, take it easy. It's me, Beidou."

Someone gently held him from standing up.

"Heuukk!" Sai grabbed his head and moaned in pain.

He was hit on the head yet again, this time by a falling piece of boulder, and his head was full of dried blood. Luckily for him, it wasn't a big piece, or he would have had more than just a deep cut.

"You were hit pretty hard by a rock back there. I'm sorry about that, I couldn't avoid it on time. You okay?" She sounded guilty.

It took him a while to remember what had happened up until that point.

"We… are inside the domain?"

"Yup, I managed to carry you inside at the last second."

His fingers felt the dried blood.

"How- *cough* How long has it been?"

She let him go and sat by the wall.

"Haah. Just a couple of hours."

"A couple of hours? Damn." He cursed.

Sai stood half-way up and looked around.

To his left, where he guessed would be the entrance of the domain, was a tight, dark corridor. The walls looked like stone walls and there was not another source of light. To his right was the opposite, a lot of light lit the way of a broadening hallway. A peculiar lamp stood a couple of meters from them. He could also see a stairway in the distance.

"I carried you until I found some light, then I cleaned your wound and left you here, resting. I checked the area, and there doesn't seem to be any immediate threat. I also went back to check the outside, but… I can't move it an inch. The huge doors over there don't budge either, there seems to be some sort of mechanism…" She pointed to the stairway.

"I see." His head was still throbbing quite a bit.

They remained in silence for some time. Sai recalled how they ended up there, and he felt somewhat guilty for their situation. Maybe running through them would have been better. Maybe fighting them out would have been better. Heck, maybe trespassing on the Hypostasis would have been better.

"Beidou, I'm… I'm sorry about all of this. If it weren't for me, you would-"

"Hey, stop that. This isn't your fault."

"But it was my idea that brought us here in the first place. I-"

"If I hadn't decided to fight that guy we also wouldn't have ended up here. If I had listened to you, to reason, instead of my feelings, we wouldn't have been here at all!"

"No, that's…"

"You know, the reason why I decided to follow your plan is because my crew's objective was to investigate the out-of-place movements happening in this area. We were also responsible for stopping any outside threat before it could take form. For the sake of that mission, I chose to follow that Fatui bastard inside this cave. And also…" It seemed like she was hesitating to say something.

"...And also, I didn't know if I could trust you, so I thought that I could find out if you were put in danger…"

"..."

"I'm sorry. If I had believed in you, if I had prioritized your safety, you wouldn't be stuck here with me…"

Sai felt a torrent of emotions from within him. He realized that this moment might have been the most valuable moment he'd had since transmigrating: Beidou's sincerity and kindness to take the guilt upon herself even at a moment like this… He felt sadness, warmth and pain. But most of all, he felt happy.

Sai wiped the tears threatening to fall from his eyes and started laughing.

"Hahahah! Pff. HAHAHAH-"

"..." Beidou didn't react.

"What do you mean 'stuck here with me'? None of us is stuck anywhere. This is so unlike you, captain."

"You- Didn't you hear what I said? The entrance is locked and the exit too! There's no way out! I tried destroying the walls but I can't seem to be able to damage them. I… tried everything! Unless you know how to unlock that mechanism, there's no w-"

Sai grinned at her.

"...there's no way. You… you know how to unlock it?" Beidou widened her eyes.

"Probably not."

"*Sigh* You must have lost your mind after that hit." She gave up all hope.

"But we won't know unless we try, right? Those Fatui managed to do it, why couldn't we?" Sai said as he stood up with difficulty.

"..."

"Hey, we're not gonna go anywhere if we keep blaming ourselves for what happened. I don't blame you, and you don't blame me. That's enough, right? Let's keep moving forward." He offered his hand to help her stand up.

"Haaah. You're right. It's not over yet." She grabbed his hand and looked at him with her usual confidence. "Sorry, I don't know what got to me, but it won't happen again. I can promise you."

"Great. Now, let's go see what we're dealing with." He said then pulled her up. "Eeuk!"

"Be careful! Your wound is still open!"

As they walked towards the staircase, Sai searched the architecture for familiar things. For starters, it had the same color palette. The classic gray and the beautiful bright blue that was very used in the game. He recalled it having to do with the Ley Lines…

Once they climbed up the stairs, Sai was faced with the tallest doors he had ever seen in his life. Mondstadt's gates were nothing compared to this massive entrance. It had almost no engravings, just pure, smooth stone.

On the floor, he could see a lot of different patterns, daring him to do something to them.

"It's that thing."

"What?"

"We have to use that thing to open the door."

Almost unnoticeable to the side was something that could be described as a cube in a pedestal.

It was the simplest method to open domain doors in Genshin.