Title: So brave!
Fandom: Guardian
Contents: Spoilers! Implied time travel, Guo Changcheng POV, flashfic I wrote in a meeting this morning, ~700 words
Note: This was inspired by a post at the plot bunny farm, but doesn't actually manage to fill the plot bunny at all, darn it.

Summary: Wherein a second Chief Zhao arrives via wormhole just as the team summons Hei Pao Shi, and Guo Changcheng is very confused.



Guo Changcheng can't believe his eyes.

It was bad enough that he'd choked on the incense smoke enough to make his eyes water, even before the lights flickered and the fog rolled in. Everyone else took the whole thing in stride, though, so it was probably normal for there to be weather inside the building at the SID. How would he know?

And sure, having Hei Pao Shi show up suddenly was -- okay, that was the only way Changcheng had ever seen him, so maybe he just came and went like that all the time.

But then a gaping hole appeared in the ceiling and dropped two people on the table, and that was just too much for his nerves to take. So Changcheng found himself crouching behind the stairs, legs shaking, as --

-- a second Chief Zhao dusted himself off, laughing as all eyes turned to him.

"Aha! I remember this!"

And even that made a certain amount of sense, because Chief Zhao was exactly the kind of person to drop in like that and be so confident even with everyone staring.

But the other person who fell out of the wormhole was a second Changcheng! And even though he slid off the table and landed in a pile of limbs on the floor, he picked himself up and jumped up onto the table to stand behind his Chief. He held something in his hand and gazed back through the wormhole in determination.

So self-assured! So competent!

Surely that couldn't be Changcheng! His eyes must be wrong. He rubs them enough to make them water again, but that other person still looks an awful lot like him.

"I know you have questions," the second Chief Zhao is saying, "but we don't have time for that. We only have a minute to tell you what you need to know."

"Chief Zhao." Changcheng ducks his head as Hei Pao Shi speaks; he doesn't even wait for Chu-ge to glare at him. "The timeline?"

"Doesn't survive your death, Professor."

"Eh?" Chief Zhao -- the first one, or at least Changcheng's Chief Zhao, this is already so confusing -- swings around to look at Hei Pao Shi.

"Or so I was told by the version of myself who came to talk to me." The other Chief Zhao jumps down from the table and walks over to -- yes, this is very confusing --

"You!" he waves a finger in the other Chief's face to get his attention and talks fast. "The Hallows affect time. This is the earliest point you can reach safely; don't try to go back farther! The Dixingren behind the recent attacks is Zhu Jiu, he needs light to teleport, and he isn't the one in charge."

"Hei Lao-ge," he says, finally pausing for breath and a little bit of respect. "Please consider sharing what you know sooner than you might think prudent."

Hei Pao Shi nods slowly.

"xiao-Guo?"

"Uh?" Changcheng calls, at the same time that the second Changcheng shakes his head, still staring into the wormhole. "Not yet, Chief!"

The second Chief Zhao rolls his eyes. "You're too stubborn for your own good, Hei Lao-ge. If your brother gets the Hallows before we do, many people will die."

"Ah! Ah!" The second Changcheng startles at something he can see in the wormhole, and then moves the object in his hand -- a mirror? Light flashes up through the hole in the ceiling. "They say yes."

"Good! That's my cue." Chief Zhao reaches out suddenly to shake Chief Zhao's hand in both of his. "One last piece of advice: don't be nervous of wormholes, there are rather a lot of them in your future."

Changcheng's Chief Zhao laughs and tucks his hands into his pockets. "I look forward to it!"

For the first time, the other Changcheng looks over at where Changcheng is still crouched behind the stairs and grins. He waves a gleeful thumbs-up sign at Changcheng before leaping back into the wormhole. So brave!

The second Chief Zhao follows a moment later, right before the wormhole disappears with a loud pop!

And then it finally happens, what Changcheng has been dreading since this started: He passes out.