Chapter Text
Li Tianchen scowled, slowly stalking through the dark alleys of Guidu. His hands itched to grab the knife in his hoodie's pocket, despite not even feeling watched.
He didn't trust the silence.
He did trust Liu Xiao.
If Liu Xiao assumed this to be their best course of action, so be it. He could handle this. He could get Cheng Xiaoshi, he could get his power.
Liu Xiao wanted him, preferably, alive.
Preferably was a nice word. It meant that if needed, Li Tianchen could kill him if there was no other option. Part of him hoped for it. The time traveler deserved to die.
If he'd just listened and stopped being so selfish, Li Tianxi wouldn't have died. It was all that time traveler's fault. His and that former seer's.
His hands itched again, but this time he yearned to wrap his fingers around the white haired man's neck and get a taste of his powers. He wanted to see Li Tianxi again.
Or perhaps he just wanted to feel the high of taking control of someone, at this point.
The more often he took control of someone, though, the less exciting it was.
The white haired bastard stopped fighting it quite fast.
Desperately, regardless of anything and everything else, he still hoped Liu Xiao would fix it all.
In the distance, he saw the flickering lights of the abandoned train station. His steps slowed.
He knew that Cheng Xiaoshi was supposed to be there. The time traveler. The guy who got his sister killed. The one who's power was even more valuable.
Li Tianchen took a deep breath and told himself to stay calm. Liu Xiao trusted him, relied on him to do this right. So he had to be level headed... or as level headed as needed to finish the job.
So he continued onward until he spotted the brunet at last. Sitting alone on a rusted bench, head already turned to face him.
Internally, Li Tianchen swore. He'd hoped he could sneak up on him. That would've made things easier. At the very least he couldn't see any pictures near the guy, so he should be safe from his disappearing and reappearing act from the darkroom?
If he pulled the trick from last time, they were going to have trouble, though. He needed to keep him from clapping his hands if he had found a loophole.
"Unless shapeshifting is among the things you can do, you aren't Liu Xiao" the time traveler didn't sound surprised, much to Li Tianchen's annoyance.
With a shrug, he stopped a good distance away. Too far to stab him, close enough to catch up if the other decided to run. If he had a gun, he could've ended this faster. He didn't have one on himself. He'd never held a gun in his own hands.
The feeling of holding a gun in too large hands still lingered.
"He's running late" Li Tianchen lied quickly, shrugged. Looked around for something, anything, that could give him a clue on whether or not Cheng Xiaoshi really was alone.
Liu Xiao's subordinates had scouted out the area and kept an eye on the streets. He'd said so, and Liu Xiao had no reason to lie to him.
Logically, he knew that there was no one.
He would've been told.
Still, he felt on edge. As if something was bound to go very, very wrong tonight. He was on his own, now, anyway. But he had his power. He had the time traveler in front of himself. If it came down to it, he could simply take him hostage.
Still, he'd prefer avoid having to deal with a crowd. Crowds were hard to get back under control- especially since he could only take over one person's mind at a time... and only by touching them.
He glanced around again. Still saw nothing. So he approached, ever so slowly. Cautious of potential threats, for once.
"He's not" Cheng Xiaoshi sounded certain of that. His eyes shimmered oddly. "Do you have a message? Anything? Or maybe you have an apology for what you did?"
Li Tianchen bristled. "An apology for what?" he asked, spitefully. In truth, he knew exactly what the diver wanted an apology for. Then, almost as an after thought, he shrugged: "She's not even dead, is she?"
For a moment, they both stood and stared at each other. The time traveler's expression reminded him of the first time he'd seen him properly, if through Liu Min's eyes. This time, there was something nearly protective there, too.
"It's a pity" he continued, voice lined with something biting and tried to get a closer look at the other's eyes, "she'd be better off dead. It should've been her, back in the tunnels. Not Li Tianxi"
The expression changed. Not entirely, not outright visible to anyone who didn't know how people worked. And Li Tianchen liked to think he knew how they worked, after taking over bodies and committing murders and faking suicides over and over.
The phantom pains of pain and death still stung.
He recognized rage when he saw it. Quiet satisfaction curled in his chest at the sight. He'd hit where it hurt- and he latched onto that with a smile that was too wide and sharp to be anything but a clear threat. "She doesn't deserve to live"
The time traveler clapped, vanishing in an instant. Li Tianchen had hardly enough time to react before he reappeared, next to him this time, and just barely threw his arm up to block the punch thrown his way.
Surprise left him dodging sloppily.
With the close proximity, he saw what he'd not seen before properly. The time traveler's eyes were golden, not brown.
He threw a punch himself, but there was only empty air where the diver had been- gone with another clap.
Not photographs, not this time. He'd have noticed those. His eyes darted around, but he didn't have enough time to focus on his surroundings before Cheng Xiaoshi reappeared, trying to tackle him.
Just barely he stumbled aside, face twisting into a sneer when he saw long sleeves and gloves. He'd learned, apparently. He couldn't tell if he'd had them on before. He hadn't paid attention to that.
"You're never touching my sister again" the diver glared at him, and when Li Tianchen glanced past his head, he spotted a security camera. That explained a lot.
A loophole, then.
Another clap, and the diver vanished. Reappeared and punched his side before disappearing once more.
Li Tianchen turned, tried his very hardest to keep up. When he saw him appear next, he noted a pattern silently to himself.
With the next reappearing, he was ready.
With a nearly feral growl, he tackled him to the floor, grabbing his arms to prevent him from disappearing again.
The only downside was that he couldn't reach his knife like this to threaten him.
"Maybe I should make you watch as I kill her. Or maybe... I should make you kill her" he spat, tightening his grip and tugging one of the gloves off.
His power thrummed beneath his skin and he grinned with nearly manic glee when he finally made contact with skin.
But Cheng Xiaoshi's eyes remained lucid and filled with silent rage. Perhaps, even, enough rage to prevent him from realizing that something odd had just happened.
Behind them, a new voice rang out, nearly cheerful despite the calm tone:
"This is enough"
~
"Are we not to follow him?" a man asked, standing with his hands clasped together behind his back. He was accompanied by five others who remained by the far wall, near the door. All their eyes firmly trained on the floor. Only the speaker dared to look at Liu Xiao.
The young man sat behind his desk, hands idly fidgeting with a rubix cube, eerily calm.
There were many heart beats, but he only focused on the one in front of himself.
"No" he answered, a hint of amusement present within his voice. Twisted the cube and smiled to himself. Bringing himself further from aligning the sides. "He's going to be arrested soon, I'm guessing"
"Sir-"
"It's all according to plan" Liu Xiao's words left little room for argument, the man in front of the desk shrinking back when he rose to his feet. The chair screeching against the floor with a quiet noise.
Silence filled the room for a long moment in which Liu Xiao simply stared down his subordinates. Then, his lips twisted into a nearly gentle smile. "Sometimes," he said and sounded almost mournful, "we have to make sacrifices"
He stepped around the desk and leaned against it, nearly lazy in his mannerisms. His eyes drifted to the corner of the room, briefly dancing over his sleeping pet, before returning to the man before him.
"By acquiring Li Tianchen, they'll lower their guard automatically. It's not him they want, but they'll assume to possess more information with him in their grasp"
Slowly, the man wandered around the room, towards the windows. The sun was gone. Out in the darkness, there was nothing of interest for him to watch.
"In truth, they want their seer back... Maybe it's time to send a message. He's a valuable piece to own on this chessboard. It's ridiculous that they think I'll hand him over so easily" he mused, tapping a finger against his chin. "Perhaps Li Tianchen will rectify his latest failure... perhaps not"
The men stayed silent, but didn't bat an eye. None of them was surprised when, with a few twists of his hands, the man finished the rubix cube with correctly aligned colors in seconds.
Idly, he stared at the orange side.
"Not to mention that someone contacted Cheng Xiaoshi- and there's only one person you lost track of. Perhaps it's time I show them what happens when they underestimate me. Surely that would prove a point to all of them, if a little accident were to happen..." He laughed softly.
Then, slowly, he shook his head with a smile. "Now then, anything else?" he asked, and his man had never bowed faster.
"No, sir"
"Hm... dismissed"
Quickly, uneven steps headed away and down the hallway, unbeknownst to Liu Xiao, who's focus remained on the men scrambling to leave their boss.
None of them saw someone disappear around the corner of the hallway when they stepped out of the room.
Too occupied thinking of what the man had said.