Prologue

"I need you to kill me."

It takes more than a moment for the self-proclaimed genius to process that sentence.

"Wh-what? What?!" Jack twists his body to face the man sitting on the throne and consequently falls. "Did you...what did you say? 'Cause-" Jack continues to babble. Chase waits a moment for the shock to pass over the Goth. Then he would explain.

The millennium warlord had not survived his countless enemies' attacks and plots by being cautious but by being rationally paranoid.

Chase Young had sold his soul, killed whole armies, built himself a throne and an empire.

He wouldn't ever lose all he had gained because he didn't see the possibility of a threat.

The warlord keeps himself fit for battle, knowledgeable of all that surrounds him, but mostly he prepares against any possible threats.

Chase analyses his enemies and allies and constructs their possible strategies to dethrone him: an exercise that feels more and more like a game.

A game which has become tedious.

Everyone, Xiaolin or Heylin, had proved themselves too predictable.

Except for a particular fanboy.

Jack Spicer was too much of a joke ever to be considered anything but an annoyance. The Goth had no focus and could barely hold a conversation, much less a long-term plot. He is too much of a coward to try to dethrone the Dark Prince. Physically weak, no allies, and clumsy. Simply put, Jack has the worst luck the stars could offer.

But Jack could build an army in a week if he pleased, the technology he creates could easily compete with magic, and everyone expects so little of him -no one would ever see an attack coming. However, to Chase Jack...feels safe.

The Goth stares at the warlord in absolute confusion and terror.

"If you were to try to kill me, Spicer," Chase continues, "how would you?"

"I would never! What would be the point, anyway?" Jack puffs and moves to a standing position. "I wouldn't be able to attack you even if I try to!"

Chase almost laughs at how aggravated Jack looks. It sounds like the Goth genuinely cares.

"That doesn't answer my question," Chase observes the teen's horror grow as he caresses his flaming red, dyed hair.

"This is a fucking test, isn't it?" A smile forms on the pale face.

"Yes, indeed. But you have yet to answer."

Jack takes a moment, studying the warlord's features; Chase knows that over the years the Goth had learned how to read a few of his micro expressions.

"Why would you-" Jack stops mid-sentence, sudden understanding overflowing his mind.

"Wow. I am flattered." Chase doesn't even try to stop his eyes from rolling to the ceiling.

"I thought it is established that any attempt against my life would end with your death, your painful, slow death."

"You ask me?!" A glare from Chase is enough to warn Jack of his tone, but nothing else is said. "I imagine this is your version of fun?"

"It's an important exercise," Chase explains, and Jack moves closer to the throne, he sits by the war lord's feet.

"Are you sure you are not just bored?" Jack teases, but Chase doesn't react to the teen's words.

"Strategy is essential for survival but to thrive, one must know their enemies' and allies' strategy."

Jack bites his lower lip to refrain himself from interrupting. Chase takes a deliberately long pause to taunt the teen.

"To be able to predict a person's reactions in different sceneries requires a knowledge of the person's core and a perfect understanding of the situation and risks." Jack nods. "Some people are harder to comprehend than others. You, Spicer, are one of those people to me." Jack smiles like it was a compliment.

"Oh. You want to get to know me?!" Jack exaggerates his fake embarrassment. A few years back, Chase would have kicked Jack away from him for his tasteless commentaries, but the immortal had come to accept that those remarks are what Jack calls humor.

"I had… a difficult time imagining what your strategy would be if you were to attack me."

"Well, that's easy." Jack jumps from where he was sitting. "I wouldn't!"

Chase lifts an eyebrow, but the teen insists.

"Why would I? There are easier ways for me to die that are less painful and embarrassing. And whatever I could try, I know, and you know, it wouldn't work."

"What if I took a lover?" Chase asks, and Jack chokes with his saliva.

"And? How does that involve me?" Jack says, fully knowing that he can be more than a little irrational when jealous. He had done pretty over the top things for attention.

But he has grown up; he is no longer the arrogant trigger happy kid.

"I guess I would warn them of the high maintenance, emotional riddle, war beast they are seeing and wait for their eventual failure."

Chase hums at Jack's answer. Both men know that that was a lie, but neither wants to continue that conversation.

"It could happen. The right circumstances to force you to attack with intent."

"Eh? I just don't see it." Jack lies. The teen is a millennium younger than Chase, but with experience enough to know that things could change out of his control and that he doesn't understand himself enough yet to swear he would never do certain things, even if he is being forced.

After all, in an alternate timeline, Jack took over the world and held Chase Young as his prisoner.

"It could happen, Spicer. In the next ten, twenty, forty, sixty, a hundred years, you don't know what time will bring you."

Jack barks out one of his loud laughs.

"How long do you think I'm gonna live? I don't even know if I want to make it to my fifties. Remember normal people of my socioeconomics and gender only live to their seventies, more or less."

"You are not normal, Jack. I will congratulate you when you become one hundred."

Jack stops as he takes in Chase being kind to him. The teen sighs and wonders if in one hundred years he when his love for this creature end, and until then, how much his he willing to do for Chase Young.

"So, you want me to kill you?" Jack parrots.

"That's what I said."

"When? How?"

"That's your problem."

"This is a game. This a fucking game to you?" Jack says more than a little irritated at Chase's need to play with people.

"Strategy," the man answers unaffected by Jack's glare.

"Ahh!" The teen sits down and lets his head hang between his knees. Chase looks at the teen's back; there is tension in his muscles but also control. Jack becomes oddly still when he is thinking. When Jack visualizes something that doesn't exist yet, something Jack will create; Jack can't move. He needs silence and focuses that the young man typically lacks.

"Stop that," Jack says almost softly. "It gives me the creeps." Chase turns his eyes away from Jack, allowing him to concentrate, and questions when he granted Jack permission to talk so casually to him.

"I don't have all day." Chase states.

"You are immortal!"

"So? I have things to do." Jack refrains himself from saying 'No if you did then you wouldn't have asked me to fucking entertain you!' but the young man decided that he preferred his life over his freedom to whine.

"I guess I would use the sky." Jack starts without any of his characteristic enthusiasm.

"Mmm." The noise was small, but it is pack with a loud and clear 'I'm judging you.'

"What?" Jack snaps.

"It's predictable," Chase says looking bored.

"I have not even started yet!"

"And it's already predictable." Jack crosses his arms, and Chase knows it's his silent way to ask to continue - 'please, explain further before I start insulting you, and it ends ugly for me because you can't take anything.'

"You don't know how high I can fly or transport, and you are choosing to believe that it is not higher than your machines. Because the attacks are aerial, you imagine that my warriors won't be able to aid me or that they won't know how to. And, lastly, you think you would be safe if you are as far away from the actual conflict as you can be." Chase finishes and observes as Jack's pale face becomes pink from embarrassment.

"It's not a bad idea in theory, but it is predictable. I want more from you."

"Well, you know that you are called a warlord for a reason, right?" Jack tries, but it only makes Chase chuckle.

"Jack." The teen looks at the inhuman eyes of his idol. "Surprise me."