Oh, oh, oh it's magic (Xie and Kevin)

[xie_er]

Zhao Jing used to be a nobody, born into influence and wealth but always in the shadow of those around him. In magical circles he was even worse, a barely-remembered witch that didn't have enough power for any familiar to even consider looking twice at him.

Somehow, though, after many years (and a few suspicious deaths), he's managed to climb his way to the CEO of Five Lakes, his power - of both kinds - growing exponentially.

The previous CEO was surrounded by some unfortunate rumorus before his death, so Zhao Jing has been focused on repairing the reputation of he company and solidifying his support, mundane and magical, which means it is far too delicate a moment for Xie to be in the spotlight, even if he was promised he'd be allowed to stop hiding when the position was in Zhao Jing's hands.

He just has to wait a little longer, that's all, and it's not like it's difficult to only appear in his animal form whenever Zhao Jing is in public, just uncomfortable, and the last thing they need is for somebody to recognise Xie for any of the things he's done to help his witch get where he is today, when his position is still so precarious...

He tells himself all the excuses he's heard from Yifu, repeats them in his head like a mantra as he sits through all the meetings and negotiations, a little black cat and Zhao Jing's feet, watching the men and women he's speaking to for anything Yifu can use. He hangs around when Zhao Jing steps out the room, listens to what they say behind his back - that's his job with normal people, to be a pair of ears they don't realise are there. Even paranoid types who scan for bugs would miss him, which he finds funny, privately, because he is a bug of a sort.

Not that he's allowed to take his original animal form - a scorpion would be out of place if anybody caught sight of him, and Yifu doesn't like the idea of him hiding in pockets or anything like that. He says it's dangerous, that something could happen to him, but Xie privately thinks he just finds the form creepy. Even around other magical people, the cat is preferred - his job with them is to be a reminder that Zhao Jing has a familiar, and a relatively powerful one at that.

It's hard for familiars to change the form they can take, but he did it, for Yifu.

He tells people the cat is called Scorpion, and that somebody else named him - which is technically true, Xie does mean scorpion, and his parents named him - and that he's vaguely embarrassed to have such a fiercely named cat.

(He doesn't tell magical people anything at all, they know Xie isn't a pet so they're less likely to ask, at most they will wonder why his familiar always stays in animal form. Zhao Jing just tells them he's shy. He isn't, he doesn't care about people seeing him, but it's easier to do the things Yifu wants him to do when nobody knows what he looks like)

Xie hadn't always known he was powerful - when Yifu had taken him in he'd been told he wasn't much, but that maybe he could be useful. Later, when some witch had made an offhand comment about it, the story had become that Yifu recognised his power and took him in before anybody else could steal him away, that he just wanted to protect Xie from the people who would use him for his power. Xie was already so far gone by that point that he accepted it, that he told himself he was lucky he had Yifu to protect him, to guide him.

It's funny how easy it is to lie to yourself.

When the meetings are over for the day he finally shifts back to human form, spending a few minutes stretching out the kinks that come from forcing himself into a form that isn't quite his, especially with how much he's had to do it over the last few weeks, and then going in search of something to eat. He could probably just head back to his own apartment since he doesn't think Yifu needs anything else from him, not today, but the outsiders have all left and everybody in Yifu's manor at least knows Xie, even if they don't know that Xie and Scorpion are one and the same, so it's safe to be around them.

He likes to spend as much time here as he can get away with, likes to remind Yifu he can be useful in other ways... and maybe he likes to keep an eye on this new apprentice Yifu has taken on. He doesn't understand why he needs anybody else when he has Xie, but the last time he'd questioned somebody new in the house Yifu hadn't spoken to him for a week, so he doesn't voice that thought out loud - he just watches the guy suspiciously every chance he gets, and wonders how easy he would be to get rid of.

He's halfway to the kitchen when something makes him stop. A tug of power, the vague echo of chanting, there's a ritual happening and something about it is drawing him close. He frowns, confused, and follows the pull...

Comments

[weird_cop]

The chair he takes - the chair they've left - is next to Kevin's, left at the table close enough that the two of them almost form a single point on the implicit pentagram of the table. That is, unless he moves it.

"Right." Lofthouse leads the meeting as she always does, "these are the facts."

She lays out what happened, from the company behind the exhibit to the sponsoring company, to the advertisement traps that were laid.

"The exhibition's been at that hall for weeks," she says. "But we checked for other likely places and that company is only sponsoring that one event. They picked that location."

[xie_er]

He doesn't move it, but only because it would be kind of awkward and obvious to do so.

He listens to the explanation with a sinking feeling - he had held on to a dim hope that perhaps, maybe, Yifu had just gotten lucky, but no...

"So they knew at least roughly where we were."

Maybe they were followed, or traced some other way...

"Do you think they were just waiting for us to show up, or did they know we were there that day?"

If they'd just been followed right at the beginning, it was bad but it didn't necessarily mean they were still being tracked. If they'd known they were there that day, it was worse news.

He wants to know, but truthfully he'd normally just let them figure it out and only join in when he had to - mostly he's asking the questions as a subtle way to try and say I didn't do this, I'm just as in the dark as the rest of you.

[weird_cop]

It's rare enough that he joins in at briefings that Kevin looks briefly at him, but makes no comment.

Lisa answers.

"It's hard to be sure. There's no record of the two assassins you met being there before, but that doesn't mean much. Nor does the fact that the exhibit was generally always quiet, it's a very specific subject. But..."

She glances over at them.

"... the hall was closed for emergency cleaning earlier that day. Um. Apparently there was a sewage leak reported that came to nothing, but the visitors who were there were cleared out. This would have been about ten minutes after you left the house."

"They knew we were on the move," says Kevin

[xie_er]

Xie frowns thoughtfully.

They must not be able to get through the wards, or they would have moved earlier, but the exhibition was still open to the public - even if they took steps to clear the courthouse as much as possible, there was still a risk. Xie was busy on the phone for most of the drive and he still saw half a dozen places that would have been well suited to set up an ambush point with less chance of witnesses.

Xie knows he's Yifu's best assassin, but that doesn't mean the others can't do their jobs, there's no way they wouldn't have chosen one of those spots if they'd known the route they were going to take.

Which meant they didn't know the route they were going to take.

"I don't think they knew exactly where we were." He says eventually "Not until we came out of the wards."

It must be some kind of tracker, something that the wards interfere with.

[weird_cop]

"Right," agrees Quill, sounding slightly tired from all the worry he'd been doing. "Ross?"

Lisa brings up a window on her laptop where she's been making notes - specifically a list of possible tracking techniques.

"It's possible that there are ways of tracking through magic that don't show up with the Sight," she says, "so we may have missed them. But they were also blocked by our circle, so I feel like..."

Kevin nods, leaning back in his chair to look up at the ceiling.

"I didn't see much like that at Zhao's," he says. "They're not into.. stuff< in the same way. And never saw anyone react to something that says they had the Sight, you know?"

[xie_er]

Xie makes a vague hum of agreement - the way that Kevin saw the magic of the necklace wasn't something he was aware of anybody amongst Yifu's circle being able to do. From the way they're talking as well, it seems like maybe if it was the necklace they would have been able to see...hopefully?

He frowns slightly, thinking of his knives - and the assassin that came after them today, who uses knives when her fire fails her. Thinks about the fact that he left his phone behind, and about phones not working within the wards...

"What if it isn't magic?" He mentally runs through the things he had with him, trying to think if any of them came directly from Yifu, if there's any chance of some kind of bug or tracker being in any of them...

[weird_cop]

"The only tech I had on me was my phone," Kevin says, and he pulls it out of his pocket and hands it over, glancing at Xie to confirm he had nothing of the same.

"The Focus..."

"Being swept now," Quill says. They broke in, but I think that was about disabling it for a getaway. And they would have had to bugged it at the Nick, which seems unlikely.

Lisa gasps suddenly, looking up from her laptop.

"...oh no," she says. "Oh no, oh shit. We even planned for it..."

[xie_er]

Xie shakes his head. No tech, the only thing he had was jewellery, and most of that was either not from Yifu or had been left back at the house anyway. Except for the one thing that he's fairly certain doesn't have any kind of tracking device in it - it would be hard to manage, given that the pendant looked like frosted glass.

He also can't bring himself to admit that he still has it on, so he's mostly just really hoping it isn't that.

At Lisa's gasp he raises an eyebrow, confused.

"Planned for what...?"

[weird_cop]

She looks up at Kevin, a faint look of horror on her face as she tries to avoid looking Xie in the eye.

"We were expecting a cat."

He stares, and if anything the horror is greater, similar to when he first touched the collar. Kevin stands up suddenly, sending his chair flying behind him.

"Get me a scanner now."

[xie_er]

For fuck's sake will they stop mentioning that they were hoping for a cat for five -

Well.

That was... a reaction.

Xie leans away at the sudden movement, giving Kevin a look like he's gone crazy. Scanner? Scanner for-

Oh.

They don't think the tracking device is in a piece of technology. They think the tracking device is in him.

[weird_cop]

Kevin gives Xie a look that is part pity, part apology, mostly fury at what has been done to him.

As Quill wordlessly puts a small device in his good hand, he tightens his lips and brings the end towards the back of his shoulder.

...where it beeps cheerfully.

[xie_er]

When Xie was 15 he got appendicitis.

It was maybe six months after Yifu had brought him to the UK and he'd been in the middle of an English lesson when the pain started, racing across his stomach until he was struggling to concentrate. The tutor had accused him of faking it and demanded Xie continue with the lesson. Xie told him to go fuck himself and threw up on his shoes.

It was all a blur after that, he ended up in hospital, trying to explain in hesitant, broken English where the pain was. They'd taken him into surgery.

When he woke up, he was at home, with a scar on his stomach and Yifu sitting by his bed. And an ache, in his shoulder.

When he asked about it, later, Yifu told him he'd tried to get out of bed at the hospital, still out of it from the anaesthetic, and he'd fallen. That was why Yifu had brought him home to recover there.

It's strange, to remember that so clearly all of a sudden, but how can he not? When the scanner is hovering over the faded white line of a scar he'd been told was from hitting the edge of a dresser in the hospital.

He tries to tell himself that it was just Yifu trying to keep him safe, he really does, but it's really hard to believe that's all it is when Yifu lied to him about it, never told him it was there.

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

"Well." he says, fighting to keep his voice steady "That answers that question."

[weird_cop]

The rest of the room is silent as Kevin adjusts the settings on the scanner in his hand, and holds it close again, where it makes another noise, this one an even more unbearably cheerful jangle as the device is deactivated.

"Is that all, Superintendent?" He asks, not taking his eyes off Xie.

"Yes," she decides. "We'll finish the debrief tomorrow."

[xie_er]

Xie doesn't actually know that the noise means he's deactivated the chip, but he can make an educated guess. He almost wishes it wasn't so simple. That it wasn't still there.

His hand twitches, the familiar movement that should have a blade dropping into his palm. If he had even one of his knives right now he'd be digging it into his own shoulder without a second thought.

They're in another safe house, though. The kitchen will have knives. How long until he can slip away and get one?

Not too long, apparently, since they seem content to finish now. He can feel their eyes on him. Feel the horror and the pity like it's a physical thing dragging over his skin.

"Where's the bathroom?" he asks, like he wants to throw up. Maybe he does. But he wants to get this thing out of him first.

[weird_cop]

Kevin had turned away to usher everyone out of the portal, so he doesn't see the movement of Xie's hands. But he turns when Xie asks, and indicates the stairs.

"Up there, I guess."

"First on the left," Quill says helpfully.

TW for knife stuff I guess lol

[xie_er]

Xie makes a noise that might have been a thank you and disappears up the stairs. It takes him a moment to locate the kitchen, and a little longer to find a knife. It's not very sharp, but he's willing to make do.

There's a mirror in the hallway, so he doesn't even bother to go and find the bathroom, just yanks his shirt off and twists - it's awkward as fuck but he manages to slice into his shoulder, using the old scar as a guide and gritting his teeth against the pain. Blood trickles down his back as he pulls the knife out and uses the mirror to try and look into the wound and find the chip.

It's deeper than he expected when he spots it, and he has to grit his teeth again and dig the point of the knife back into his shoulder to pry it out.

[weird_cop]

Kevin gave him a moment - giving Lisa a full description of both assassins, confirming with Jimmy that he really is okay and doesn't need medical attention. And only when they're gone and the portal is dismantled does he head up to the main house.

The first thing he sees is the blood.
The second thing he sees is the necklace, shining out of the mess as if screaming for attention.

"What the fuck?"

[xie_er]

Despite the fact that not ten minutes ago Xie had been solely focused on the necklace and praying it wasn't what Yifu was using to track him, it isn't even remotely on his mind in that moment when all he wanted to do was get the stupid chip out of his shoulder.

So when Kevin steps into the hallway just a few short moments after he's finally dug it out and is clutching it in bloody fingers, reeling ever so slightly from the wave of dizziness that's just hit him (pain or blood loss, he isn't entirely sure. He's not bleeding that badly, he thinks, so it's probably the former), he turns towards him and the only thing that registers is that Kevin has just walked in on him, knife in hand, having slightly mutilated his own shoulder.

"I needed it out." He says, as if it's that simple.

[weird_cop]

Kevin takes a second to stop staring at the necklace, to realise that Xie has something else on his mind and there is something more pressing.

He's still angry as all hell though, and that fuels him as he strides across the hall and snatches the chip from Xie's fingers, smashing it against the wall, where he grinds it with the heel of his hand until it falls apart.

His other hand, the burned one, rests on Xie's shoulder.

[xie_er]

It's when Kevin's gaze shifts to the chip that Xie realises what he was looking at, and the sudden rush of guilt has him frozen in place for a moment - long enough for the chip to be grabbed before he can even really react.

It's strangely satisfying, though, to watch Kevin destroy it. More satisfying than he would have thought, in fact, given that he was being robbed of the chance to destroy it himself.

The hand resting on his shoulder, though, reminds him that Kevin has a reason to hate the chip too. Xie's hatred is visceral, a twisting something in his gut that he doesn't know how to name or even face, but not so all-encompassing that he can't recognise that Yifu being able to track the chip is the reason Kevin was attacked, the reason he was injured.

He wonders if Kevin wishes he could smash him against the wall as well.

[weird_cop]

It is indeed deeply satisfying to destroy it, to have something physical in his hand that he can destroy, that isn't magical or psychological or otherwise intangible. He stares at his hand on the wall, wishing that it had made him feel better.

"There," he says. "Now he can't find you."

But there's that doubt. The one he hadn't even contemplated until seeing that pendant.

Does Xie still want to be found?

[xie_er]

It's the phrasing that does it, that makes his thoughts echo Kevin's and brings him back to that same circular argument.

When he's thinking about Yifu finding them it seems simple, obvious. Of course he shouldn't. He's trying to kill them. Xie knows the condition of his return, Du Pusa said as much; he breaks the bond and goes back himself.

Now he knows how to break the bond, but the horrible, realistic part of him that he doesn't want to listen to knows full well that if he showed up unable to form another, his power locked away from Yifu for good, what use would that be? Yifu would never put himself through the ritual to get it back even if he could convince Zhou Zishu to tell him how they did it.

The only other way to break the bond, short of Yifu finding the power to do the transference spell himself (unlikely), is for Kevin to die. Xie can't do it himself, and for all that Costain suspected him of orchestrating their little outing, there's no way he'd actually be able to pull something like that off, especially not now.

There's a part of him, stubborn and foolish and desperate to be loved, that does want Yifu to find him. Wants him to raze this place to the ground and take Xie back. But that part wants him to come personally, wants him to actually care about Xie enough to come for him.

Except when he thinks about either option - about managing to get Kevin killed or Yifu coming to do it himself - the thought of it actually happening is... painful. Unpleasant. He spent months wanting to kill the man himself and now the thought of anybody else doing it is suddenly objectionable.

It's the bond, he thinks. He just needs to break it, and he'll deal with the consequences after, once he can escape. Maybe he can still be useful to Yifu, even without it. Maybe he can just leave them all behind and go live on a mountain, let himself go crazy because it's going to happen anyway.

It's a long, long moment before he swallows, nodding slightly. He looks down at his bloodied hands, the knife he's still holding.

"I should clean up."

[weird_cop]

That grounds him. Gives him something to think about, something to do, as tangible as smashing the chip. Kevin falls back into his protective instincts, his first aid training coming back.

Kevin nods, and his eyes shift down, narrowing as they pass the pendant, but falling on the knife, his hand softly closing on it, pulling it gently away from Xie.

"Come on."

He's pretty sure there'll be a first aid kit in the bathroom.

[xie_er]

He takes the knife away first.

He takes the knife away even though Xie physically can't hurt him, the first priority is to remove the weapon from the suspect.

(It's not a fair thought, it isn't, there's completely logical reasons to take a knife off of someone who just used it to dig a tracking chip out of their own shoulder that have nothing to do with him being a criminal)

Xie lets it go, turns to follow him. For a moment, his eyes catch on the smear of blood on the wallpaper, the spot where Kevin crushed the chip. There's probably more on the carpet. He wonders if they'll be able to clean it up, if Kevin will have to explain to the others why Xie bled all over their safe house.

He trails after Kevin into the bathroom, moves to the sink to start washing his hands, already making a plan in his head. Wash his hands first, use one of the towels to wipe up the excess blood from his shoulder. Work out if he's going to need stitches. It's going to be hell to stitch up his own shoulder but he's done more awkward places. He doesn't expect Kevin to help, he did this to himself.

[weird_cop]

Leaving the knife on the hall table, where it can further smear blood into the polish, Kevin opens the door for Xie to enter the bathroom. But then, when Xie is in front of the sink, Kevin pushes him out of the way so he can get there instead.

He soaks a washcloth first and presses it gently against the wound, intending to ask Xie to hold it. But then he spies the necklace again and realises he can't do this with that in place.

"Take that off," he says bluntly.