As Never Was

Chapter 14

The thing that Charles asked Anubis to do was some sort of mind game. A simple one, given how Shao Long was easily one of the most paranoid person Charles had ever met, and for good reason too. It wasn't that he thought of that singular trait as something pathetic, because the person who ranked second on that list was he himself. It was a good thing to be paranoid, especially with the line of work they put themselves in. That aside, this trait was what gave Charles so much advantage over the course of the decade. 

Because 16-year-old Shao Long wasn't, in any way, paranoid. 

That's how he lost so many fucking times. 

As expected of him though, Shao Long learned and he learned fast, to gather enough clues in his surroundings, regardless of its importance. Sometimes it led to his victories. Sometimes not. 

But manipulating Shao Long was almost too easy when the right nudge is used. Given that the amount of 'right nudges' decreased significantly the longer they fought though, it did wear Charles out thinking of the ways he could scare Shao Long away. 

Now was a different story. Now, he had the advantage of Shao Long not knowing his identity as a fellow time traveller. 

The hard part was convincing Anubis of being the 'right nudge'. 

Once or twice, Charles feared he was actually talking to a time traveller Anubis too, but a short interaction with the 'not-yet-king' Anubis evaporated all doubts he had. Anubis of this age was still practically a lost child with little to no dignity. The Anubis Charles last saw before this one, was a much more mature and humane person who looked as though he had never gone through a crazy phase as a teenager. Texting Anubis now though, quickly made Charles roll his eyes and hiss, "What a child," under his breath. 

Very little trust is given to Anubis in his thirties, much less this teen one. But that didn't mean that he didn't have valuable information. In certain cases, Charles had to acknowledge that Anubis was much more.....experienced in the more mystic aspects of the universe. He didn't always want to admit it, but the things Anubis did weren't things humans were able to accomplish without the help of.....well, the other side. He had technologies, yes. He had skills. He learned eye tricks and some weapons he customized somewhere, but there were also nonsensical potions and trained animals that just seemed a little too obedient and....admittedly creepy. 

So if there was anyone he thought had any clue as to what the fuck happened to both him and Shao Long, it would be him. 

That was what he said, at least, before Anubis paused for a single minute across the line before asking if he was sane, because by his words, "What the actual fuck." 

Point was, Charles may believe that Anubis would have a clue about this whole time travel thing, but he didn't think that this kid could actually know everything. The fact that Anubis hadn't caught wind of their very strange behaviours these few days proved that the Egyptian knew very little, if at all, about the truth behind time travelling. It wasn't in Charles' nature though, to risk telling the dude an important detail such as time travelling when he knew that Anubis and the word 'trustworthy' couldn't be put in the same sentence. Not when he knew the things he could do with information as heavy as that. Dude might as well suddenly have the inspiration to do some experiments on them, God forbid.