Fate/ Dire Paradox (Jeanne Alter X Male Reader)

Chapter 19

My eyes suddenly open as I feel something touch my shoulder, I lift myself quickly only to calm myself as I see Jeanne arch her eyebrow at my sudden movements, "Oh... sorry I thought something got into the room."

"You really are a light sleeper, Master."

I nod, "I have to, only the dead sleep comfortably."

"In more ways than one," she says, "You don't have to be on guard with me around, it's almost like you don't trust my protection."

I shake my head, "It's just instincts," I then get out of bed, "Besides I already said that my life is pretty much in your hands. Well.. why'd you wake me?" I notice that it is dark out.

"You have a visitor waiting outside, I would chase them away but the situation has escalated."

"Great," I follow her outside only to see Kadoc, Shirou and Rin stand near each other with all of their servants.

As I reach them Kadoc asks, "I am under the impression that these Masters are conditional allies."

I nod, "Sort of," I then turn to the two of them, "Rin? Shirou? Something happen for you to search for me?"

Shirou then says, "We have had an encounter with Rider and there are also a lot of people being hurt in the process - people disappearing from the school."

I tilt my head as to think, "You think someone of our timeline must be doing something?" I then shake my head, "Doubtful," I then gesture to Kadoc's servant, "This is the Caster of our timeline, this might just be because the Caster from your Grail is busy gathering energies."

Then Rin adds, "We had suspicions but we need to make sure if they didn't have two Casters on their side... we were approached by a woman trying to ask us for information."

We are waiting around to long, we need to deal with them.

 I agree.

"I will make preparations to act on it," I then look at them, "It would be smart of you to side with them, however-"

Rin's servant, Archer, then appears with a chuckle, "Even he knows that the odds are against him."

I then continue, "Siding with me is not beneficial either as it will only give you more enemies," I then lower my gaze.

"And they will use us to get you."

Jeanne then laughs, "They won't do that. They know that nothing will get to us and in the end, we only really care about ourselves."

"Which is why working alongside me isn't something you would like to do."

Kadoc then says, "You aren't really making me feel comfortable with our situation."

I then sigh, "Your situation is different, the Masters from this timeline would work with them to take out both Rin and Shirou but our enemies don't care about them in the slightest. In the end, they want to use me to get back to their timeline."

Kadoc then says, "Even if they know they can't get you to do that."

"Pain is a great motivator," I say, "Kadoc we need to plan on what to do going forward and as for you two - you should go on with what you do normally and try to avoid all contact with us."

Saber then nods, "Shirou, this would be for the best."

He rubs the back of his head, "This is all getting out of hand really quickly."

I then narrow my eyes at the Saber, then returning my gaze at Shirou, "Trust her. Servants became heroic spirits for a reason and nine out of ten times know what is better," I then look at Jeanne, "If you would excuse me."

***   ***   ***

The two of us left them behind a few hours ago - right now some much-needed recon needs to happen so that we can understand the situation more clearly. Though I won't be leaving her side in fear that they get more desperate to fight us.

Against Karashima the only problem is Saber, I overpower him and along with Jeanne, we can put them in the ground.

I have no idea how a fight against Berserker would go. But now that I think about it...

Rider. Archer. Assassin. Lancer.

They are dead.

That leaves Saber, Caster, and Berserker.

We sure saved the worst for last. As of now, I trust both Caster and her Master but the main problem lies between Saber and Berserker. If it is a fight for territory then we win without breaking a sweat but they know that.

They will expect us to come to them. To fight us on equal ground and no one wants to fight a Berserker on equal footing. 

"What will we do?" she asks, "We managed to limit the number of people depending on us which is great and all but we still have them to worry about."

I sigh, "I have no idea what to do next. If we were to side with those two, it would change everything significantly - because I only just considered that there are only four duo's left from our timeline."

"Should we go to them?"

I shake my head, "Not yet. I only recently got away with my life."

"Oh? Now suddenly you can make a decision that doesn't involve throwing your life at the enemy, I must say I am impressed."

I roll my eyes, "Shut up. Well," I then turn to her, "We should act before they do decide to use Caster's powers against us."

"So just kill them, I am liking the plan."

"It never really changed," I say as I glance back at the city below us, "And maybe we should try not to bring the entire city down with us."

"We should worry about us first, then you can pretend like we are the good guys."

I chuckle, "I never once said that I am a good guy, now did I?"

"I wouldn't have liked you if you were one."

"A confession? From you?" I arch my brow as her eyes widen as she realized what she said.

"With the consideration that you aren't dead after the things you pull with me, yeah."

"Nice save," I smile at her, "I was actually starting to sense some genuine feelings coming from you."

"Master..."

I shake my head, "Let's get going. We still have to finish up and I am still tired."

"Right..."

I didn't really want to hear what you had to say, honestly I am to scared that you would just bring my hopes up just to stomp it like you usually do. I know better than that... I know better than setting myself to fail doing the same thing I did last time.