Saving Time - A Caleo Story

Ming Dynasty 4x1

Leo didn't trust Octavius.

Simple and painful.

There was something in the eyes of the boy- clearly, he couldn't be older than 20, which made him a boy under his eyes, even if he was younger than him -that made him untrustworthy. Maybe it was the way his eyes gleamed when he looked at the machines and asked for details on how they worked. Or the way he was staring at Rachel when she wasn't looking.

Plus, the idea of dragging him inside the machine wasn't from any of them. The situation just happened and while Rachel wanted to point herself as the guilty party- no one allowed it, who would know that having red hair would bring this mess? -, no one had predicted it. Not even Reyna, who relented and just hoped they hadn't changed anything important.

The good thing about driving a time machine is that it doesn't need a driver. You just write the time coordinates and it drives alone. That left plenty of time for Leo to stare at Octavius and get an opinion from him.

"You're suppose to get along with him." He heard from the side. He glanced and saw Calypso sitting next to him. Leo said nothing, just went back to stare at Octavius.

"I don't trust him." He admitted to her. It wasn't easy being sarcastic when you were slightly angry.

"Maybe you would if you knew him..?" Now Leo did see Calypso with his patented 'are you nuts, woman?' look. It would make him open his eyes big while one eyebrow would reach the hair line, almost disappearing. Sometimes, it would be accompany with lifting his upper lip a little, but that if he was insulted. Like now. Instead of feeling the awkwardness that came with it, Calypso hid a laugh.

"You think is funny, woman?"

"Your face is funny." Leo flushed and looked away, but Calypso was still smiling. They watched Octavius in silence for a few minutes before she spoke again. "Talk to him. Who knows, maybe he only looks deceiving..." With that, Calypso got up and left, leaving Leo to ponder. He decided she was slightly right, knowing him would give him more insight if he was trustworthy or not. So, he got up and walked to him.

"Octavius." He called him, making him look at whoever was speaking at him. "Walk with me." Octavius frowned, obviously not understanding. Leo just rolled his eyes. "Just come with me, would you!" He grabbed his arm and took him to a different part of the machine. Now, the first engineers had designed the machine to be bigger inside that outside, so Leo took Octavius to his room. "Sit."

"What do you want from me?" Octavius wondered, but sounded like a defensive attack to Leo and he smirked a bit. It was time for a little psychology.

"From you? Nothing." Leo saw Octavius blinking in surprise. "Octavius, you are here because of a bad situation, you have nothing I want... and if we weren't on a schedule, I would had already dropped you near the beginning of Rome, so you could use your talents on who deserves it." Of course, Leo didn't mentioned who were those deserving.

"That girl..." It was obvious to Leo he was referring to Rachel. "...she can't see the future, right?"

"No. And I don't remember we gave any indication that she can." Leo noticed how Octavius' shoulders slumped down and he kept his anger in check. "Now that I ruined your plan to kidnap her, here's another little secret..." Octavius' face paled, specially when Leo walked closer to him. "I'm the only one in this crew that can drive this machine. No one else. So think about that when you plan a mutiny or even consider betray us."

In retrospective, Leo probably wasn't doing what Calypso had suggested him, but flaunting to Octavius that he knew his plans and leaving him pale and a little scare was good in his book. He returned back to where everyone was relaxing and saw Rachel looking slightly better. He smiled at her and kissed her cheek in reassurement. He couldn't help but to smirk when Octavius glared at him.