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.

He stood up, balancing lightly on the beam at the top of the wooden swing, staring hard.

What are you waiting for? Let's go!

"Something's wrong…" Jekyll slipped to the ground and prowled over to the slowly moving wagon. A breeze lifted his hair with a passing shadow in the night and he looked up sharply. He could just pick up the spirit origin of the Servant secretly passing by. A Servant…. and his Master.

His breath hissed between his teeth as his spine arched and Hyde reached toward the sky. Jekyll staggered away, nearly running into an oblivious human soldier. Silently he told his other self, "No, no, no, you fool! It's too late to chase, and too dangerous, too. We need to wait."

Leave her to them even longer? Why the fuck did I bring you back again? And once again Hyde tried to seize control.

"Wait! We'll wait until they leave her alone, and then free her and take her away. That way there's no risk to her, Hyde!"

He could feel Hyde's phantasmal fingers around his throat and his stream of rhetoric quickened as he desperately tried to maintain the Presence Concealment that hid them. "They're keeping her for some reason, but if they realize they're going to lose her, they could slit her throat—"

We slit theirs first. Easy.

"Not easy! There's two Servants here and those Knights or whatever, too. We still don't know enough about our enemy, Hyde!"

The phantasmal fingers loosened, and Jekyll rushed on. "Let's go find where they've taken her. Slowly. Carefully. They've kept her this long, they're not going to kill her now unless we give them a reason."

Slowly, Hyde allowed Jekyll full control of their body again, and Jekyll crept toward the keep and within. The inside was notably more active than the outside, with several small groups of men conferring in the great hall and moving up and down the stairs. Magical lights floated along the walls, more than Serendipity's army ever bothered with. Jekyll had to be far more careful and conscious of his own magics while stealthing under them, because Hyde made his shadow sometimes visible even when he was not.

It took him too long to finish looking around the Hall and prowling through the upper floors, seeking any sign of Serendipity. By the time he made it to the basement, Hyde's constant attempt to break free felt like the fingers of dozens of dolls scratching all over his skin.

"Well, that didn't work. We'll try again later," said a voice.

Two guards stood at the ends of the hall, while two more men in the same drab, functional outfits but with an obvious air of command emerged from the portal room. Lord Snow, the commander, and his colleague Kokine, his… aide? Family member? Jekyll didn't know, except there was a familiar tension between them he'd wondered if he could exploit.

Two scents Hyde knew very well wafted with them.

But instead of smelling them, Jekyll concentrated harder on the commander and his aide, running through all he'd managed to learn about their strengths and weaknesses.

"We'll have to give her a reason to wish for a savior," said Kokine as they moved toward the stairs and the stealthed Jekyll.

They were the wrong scents for Hyde to smell together.

His nostrils flared, and two familiar scents painted pictures in his mind.

Serendipity.

And blood.

It took psychic endurance Jekyll hadn't known he had to slide past the commander rather than letting Hyde do what he wanted to do. But he managed to maintain his persona integrity and his presence concealment until he flung himself into the portal room. There, what he saw knocked him down into the darkness and loosed Hyde on the world.

But Hyde froze, staring with wide eyes.

Serendipity's skin was so soft. He'd always appreciated how soft it was. He liked the tiny hairs that lifted under his breath and fell away at the stroke of a blade.

Yes, her skin was soft, pliant and warm, exactly the opposite of his knives. Hyde had dedicated significant thought to what would happen to his Master if he stroked his cold, hard, sharp knife along her skin. Not the restrained way she let the magus do, tiny nicks that barely bled, but long slices that let every inch of his blade taste her blood.

He'd thought a lot about it. But Hyde knew from experience that doing that to Master would end his fun before he was anywhere near done. So he didn't do it. He stroked her skin, oh yes, but with his fingers and his nails and his tongue. It helped that he liked Serendipity. He'd licked along her pulse and tasted an edge he wasn't sure he wanted to cross.

Not yet.

Not yet, not yet, NOT YET AND NOW SOMEBODY HAD GOTTEN TO HER FIRST!

A blanket underneath her, Serendipity slumped unconscious against the wall where Ritsu had once slept. Blood trickled down the back of her left arm from a slanting cut in her soft skin. She was still wearing the remains of the nightwear Merlin had made her, although it had been torn in places that let tantalizing glimpses of skin through.

Hyde lunged toward her and then pulled himself back violently when he was within a handspan of grabbing her up. His breath hissed through his teeth and he tilted his head sharply to one side as he inspected the woman. Was she injured elsewhere? He couldn't tell just from looking. It mattered a lot.

Gnawing on one knuckle, he settled onto his heels to watch her and wait. He needed Jekyll to climb back up from the pit where he'd been flung by Hyde's seizure of the front. Because if Hyde wanted to cut Serendipity on his own, he needed two things. The first was to get her away from here, away from everybody who might interfere, and the second was for her to still be alive and capable of thought.

His good half couldn't handle any of that, but just a little of Jekyll was all Hyde needed to be much more effective. As soon as the doctor started to recover a shadow of awareness, Hyde reached down into his persona and dragged up the medical knowledge he needed to inspect her and the bleeding heart he needed to put off cutting Serendipity until later. Then he knelt next to his Master and put his hands all over her.

Jekyll tried frantically to limit Hyde, not for Serendipity's sake, but for his own. But Hyde was sliding past the edge of self-control while utterly convinced each even more questionable idea was better than the previous one. Soon there'd be no pulling him back, and when he got Serendipity away from these threats—

Hyde ran his fingers over Serendipity's legs and hips, tracing the curve of her ass as he pulled her forward. She flopped limply toward him in that way he hated. Impatiently, he shook her a little to wake her up. It had no effect, so he leaned her against hir shoulder to check her head for injuries. No… he didn't think she was unconscious due to wounds. Magic. Fucking magic.

He licked her ear experimentally, and then looked closely at the cut on her arm. The crimson blood still welled slowly from the thin slice. Whoever had marked her had a very sharp knife. His tongue flicked out and the iron taste of her blood exploded in his mouth. Magical energy surged through him, tingling through his limbs.

Hunger swept over him. Then he was kissing her mouth, pushing apart her lips and licking within, starving for her taste. She made a little sound, shifting her weight. He stroked her hair, squeezed her breast—

Jekyll did everything he could to invoke the Mystic Code Merlin had given Hyde when he'd returned. But he just wasn't strong enough to fight past the tide of Hyde's emotions. Even from his backseat view, Serendipity felt too good. He needed her. How could he stop?

But he had to. He had to. He had to. This was wrong, and worse than wrong.

Stopstopstop…

Not here!

That got through to Hyde. Reluctantly, he let Serendipity go, lowering her to the blanket. He'd have to kill some people first before he could get his Master away to someplace where he could indulge himself. As he rose to his feet, he stretched. With the taste of her blood buzzing through him, even more empowering than her mouth, it would be easy. He'd be unstoppable.

He loped to the portal room entrance, darted down the hall and drew his knife across the throat of one of the guards so hard it nearly decapitated him. Blood sprayed over Hyde but he didn't bother appreciating the beatiful crimson arc. Instead he dashed to the other guard at the stairs and sliced that one at the throat and then the gut.

Pleasure surged through him at the glimpse of organs through sliced leather armor and flesh, and he swallowed hard. Then he bolted upstairs to finish clearing a path. There were Servants somewhere, but he'd be fine. He'd win. And then he'd take Serendipity away… take her away and do everything he'd dreamt with her. To her.

Jekyll watched, helpless and appalled, as Hyde cut his way through soldiers. The sight of Serendipity bleeding had been far, far too much for him. Even now, the sight and taste of her blood dominated his thoughts. He killed with an absent-minded ease while remaining fixated on that awful, horrible, beautiful moment.

He'd tasted the salt of tears on her face when he'd licked her, but she hadn't screamed when they cut her. He would have heard that. She was so brave. But Hyde really, really wanted to make her scream. He had all sorts of ideas. Even if she was brave, some of them would work.

No.

No, Jekyll couldn't bear it! He couldn't watch Hyde do that. He couldn't let Hyde win. So he threw himself over and over again at the steel will keeping him down.

Blood slicked Hyde's hands and soaked into his shirt. Two ghosts moved around him, but it didn't matter what they did to his senses. He was faster, so much faster than they were. She was waiting for him downstairs. She'd promised him he could have exactly what he wanted.

She didn't! I know she didn't promise this—

God, Jekyll was annoying, especially since Hyde knew Jekyll only wanted her for himself. He'd get her away and then show Jekyll everything he pretended not to want to see.

Hyde spun and slashed. The Great Hall was full of the ghosts and the dead, but the ghosts were a handicap to extracting his Master. He snickered as he realized they thought they'd trapped him. They thought they'd lured him in, but they'd given him her blood, her mouth, her body: everything he needed to overcome monsters far worse than this—

No! Please, we must stop—

Something heavy and empty at the same time tried to enfold Hyde, but he sidestepped, grinning. They wanted to catch him in their own magic, but he was untouchable—

A small, wretched, groggy voice whispered in his mind, Hyde?

Serendipity called for him, and this time, instead of empowering the fiend Hyde, it froze him. Her tiny voice brought back her fingers, pushing away his face, and her arms around his chest. For the first time, the particular madness triggered by her wounds flickered.

Jekyll, trying too hard to regain control to pay attention to anything else, lurched forward, knocking the paralyzed Hyde aside. He stood, blinking in the brightness of the Great Hall as two absences moved around him.

Something heavy and empty at the same time slammed into him, and took away the world.

.

.

.

It was only some time later that Jekyll realized what surrounded him was… nothing. They were in a cage where they couldn't see the walls, and Jekyll could barely imagine the idea of escape. But it took a while before he realized the truth because first he had to deal with Hyde, who was very, very angry indeed.


Author's Note

Hello, wonderful patient readers!

This is a week later than it was meant to be, because I spent too much of the last week with my nose pressed to the window on current events (and for posterity's sake I explain this means the coronavirus pandemic unfolding). But now I am housebound for weeks and I fully intend to spend it writing amusing distractions for people in need of them.

To that end:
I am on Twitter! (username: chrysoula) Feel free to follow me and talk to me about Fate or fanfiction or whatever. I find I'm craving that kind of thing already. It's impressive how social distancing can make even an introvert like me want to reach out! I'm also thinking of reactivating a long disused Tumblr account...? Hm...

Anyhow, I love hearing from readers, even if it's incoherent, and reader thoughts can really inspire and motivate me.

Thank you for reading!