The Thirsty Girl's Guide To Summoning (Fate/Isekai)

Chapter 55: The Dark Way

Jekyll perched on the swing Merlin had conjured in the castle courtyard, his arms around his knees, silent and unseen in the deepest part of the night. The castle had settled into something resembling a routine over the past few hours as soldiers divided into shifts so the ones not on patrol in the forest or attending to integral castle-conquering-tasks could rest.

Serendipity's Servants had done so much to fortify the castle again, and it all had been meaningless. But Jekyll couldn't worry about that now.

The Assassin was waiting. He was certain they'd be bringing his kidnapped Master into the castle eventually, and when they did—

Finders keepers, whispered Hyde, with a crimson thought cast toward Merlin.

Jekyll disagreed with Hyde there, as he did on almost everything. In fact, the only thing they agreed on right now was the necessity of rescuing Serendipity as soon as possible. After the rescue, Hyde had his dream reward all planned out, in exhaustive and uncomfortable detail. Jekyll, on the other hand... well, he didn't know. His feelings toward his summoner could best be described as complicated.

She'd empowered Hyde by her naming of him. Jekyll was used to controlling the transition. Sometimes he even needed an alchemical concoction to trigger it. But with Serendipity, Hyde could come out almost at will. It took all of Jekyll's strength to hold him back, and he disliked that enormously. He'd always believed fundamentally in the triumph of virtue over vice. That was the way the world was supposed to work, and why Hyde existed in the first place: as a part of him he could bind and lock away. What did it say that she flipped that relationship upside down?

And yet he craved her too, as much as Hyde did. He knew part of it was simply the summoning magic—but when he'd woken from that cursed dream to find Serendipity in his arms, clinging to him, her breasts pressed against his chest through their disarrayed clothing, and his hand dipping between her legs—

Jekyll dropped his head into his hands, his breath quickening. He'd almost kept going. He'd wanted to keep going. But he'd indubitably been Jekyll.

I wish you had, grumbled Hyde. Better you than him. At least if it'd been you I could enjoy the memories.

"Shut up," muttered Jekyll, and his other half obliged him, allowing him to contemplate Serendipity in silence. He had to save her. She was his Master; it was unthinkable that he wouldn't. And... he appreciated both her persistence and her patience. She trusted him, even as he held a distance between them. She'd never tried to evoke Hyde—although really why would she when Hyde took control at the slightest hint of her need?

That's right, said Hyde smugly. She likes me. She told me I was hers.

"And you'd still destroy her eventually." Jekyll's words were subvocalized rather than spoken.

Hah! said Hyde, which did nothing at all to dispute the fact that the Berserker had set up a scenario to return Jekyll to the front for precisely that reason. But he went on, Yeah, you can think that but you felt her skin too. Her heat. She wanted us so bad.

"You'd hurt her," whispered Jekyll, remembering how in another life he'd woken over and over to bloody hands.

If I wasn't here, you'd be the one hurting her, pointed out the other. Gah, why are goody-two-shoes so pathetically indecisive? Jekyll's body twitched, but he clenched his fists and kept control.

"It's not time yet," he hissed to himself.

But only a moment later, there came the clattering of yet another wagon beyond the gate of the castle. It was, Jekyll saw, a covered wagon. Perfect for transporting kidnapped young women in. But the way the weight was distributed on the axels gave him pause.