Chapter Text
That was close...too close, but oh well he was home free!
Hyde laughed as he jumped through the society's window, just having avoided the police he had accidently led into the Blackfog Bazaar, he did feel bad that he would not be able to enjoy it the rest of the time it was supposed to be in the city, but it would return, a few feds would not stop it from appearing like it always did eventually!
"You got us chased like a wild animal!!!" Henry's voice shouted in his head making Edward wince at the pitch and ignore the mirror which would undoubtedly show his other half's unhappiness
"Oh do shut up...I can't enjoy the Bazaar anymore and I got us out of there" Edward said airily, reaching into a drawer to get into his counterparts clothes so he would not suffocate the other when he switched them back, his fun got cut short but more would come, he just needed to bring the monsters out again whenever he-
Oh, that was new...
The office was trashed, papers strewn everywhere, ingredients and other chemicals out and thrown about like they were trash, the transformation potion had been moved from inside the locked desk to out on top of it, the lock scratched and busted on the drawer it had been hidden in, plus the notes detailing the creation of HJ7 and the journal detailing Hyde's birth were missing.
Who had done this? Why had they done this? How much had they learned by now?
Hyde downed the potion he had stuffed into his jacket just as Henry was about to start in on those questions and the pain nearly distracted the other completely from what their office had become but the wrecked room would not be forgotten long as the last few bits of the ooze dripped out of it's host.
Jekyll ripped out of the clothes of his counterpart, the fabric digging into his flesh like a vice since the other had not bothered to change after seeing the state of the office and quickly put on his own garments before heading out of the office ignoring the shakiness he still possessed from the lingering discomfort of transforming back.
The lodgers had all gone to sleep by this time so the halls were empty, he would only have to concern himself with perhaps a night owl or two, but he did not care, which one could have possibly done this!? Who could have suspected-
No
Only one ....only one ...that one slip up ...in front of her...
---
Frankenstein chewed happily on some brownies that Mr. Doodle had brought her earlier that evening saying they would help keep her energy up and indeed they did, she would make sure to compliment him later, they had given her enough strength to go to that supposed alchemists office and figure out what had happened when her creation was taking a walk.
Henry's journal was a fascinating read indeed, he truly had been delusional in thinking the human soul could be cut up like cake on a plate and separated, poor fool, she almost felt sorry for him...part of her wondered if the potion was a stupid attempt to cure the depression he seemed to have ,if the way he worded things in the earliest pages seemed to point to.
The neat handwriting clashed sharply against messy chicken scratch in the later pages, excited, child-like scrawl, speaking to a mind going faster than the body, no cares in the world, true passion, for everything, she would very much like to meet Mr. Hyde...seemed he would be much better company than Jekyll …less boring and most certainly did not believe in trying to sanitize mad science! Bah!
The door burst open and a disheveled Doctor Jekyll burst in looking wild and she would have joyfully thought mad if he did not have that look directed at her.
Creature was still on their walk, but what did it matter...she could handle this fake easily
"Give...me....my...BOOKS....back!!!" Henry gasped out having ran all the way to Frankenstein's room and up all the stairs, he for once was glad for Hyde's constant roof hopping, it gave him more stamina than he normally would have had, but the trip still left him out of breath and his limbs felt like mush.
Frankenstein just smiled softly
"Oh I will, don't worry though, I have not told anyone about the contents of your journals, very interesting reading I must say, much more interesting than how you play yourself off to be, splitting your soul up to form a completely new personality, a potion to help that form come out, to morph and twist the body into its new shape, very mad of you, I'm almost impressed"
Henry just stomped forward and yanked the journal out of her hands, normally he would have been more gentle, but he was angry, angrier than he had ever been in his life, she had invaded his privacy, learned his darkest secret, a secret he had not even let Lanyon know about despite everything they had been through together.
Now this... witch ...was the first one to find out...
"Seems she has caught onto you doctor, too bad, I was hoping your precious Lanyon would be the first to discover us, his face would be glorious!" Hyde cackled as Henry looked for anything, any way he could possibly get out of this situation, but it was too late, his secret was out and if Frankenstein chose, she could ruin everything he had built, she had already convinced the lodgers not to do the expedition, this information could make them hate him...they already seemed to not like him as much as they did, if they liked him at all...
"You do realize your nothing but a pocket book right? Someone who is funding true science...but useless on your own, you failed in your experiment, but you did succeed in bringing SOMEONE forth who COULD do things properly, perhaps you should let Mr. Hyde out to do a proper job" Frankenstein knew she was being petty, but she was still angry at the others comments about her beloved Elizabeth, she was in no mood to play fair after that...
"Hyde is wanted for the fires.." Henry started
"Which someone else set, you just placed the blame on him to keep from looking bad, you claimed it was to prevent the lodgers from being arrested but that is not the truth is it? You just did not want make yourself look bad, like you made a mistake in creating the society, how pathetic" Victoria growled out "who cares what the outside world thinks? Their a bunch of drooling fools who care more about fancy clothing and pretending to be respectable than what lays just beyond the void! I built a body from the ground up! Every vein and fingernail on creature...because I said it should be! People could make themselves so much MORE...But choose not to, going through useless lives and dying with nothing to their name but 'oh they conformed to society' ha!"
"They are the majority, one slip up could lead them to destroy all of us..." Henry almost whispered, Hyde's cackles grew louder in his head.
"We are scientists! We have the power! They can keep their torches and pitchforks! What is that against a LEVIATHAN!? You are a coward! I would very much like to speak to the REAL scientist hiding in your skin...You are NOTHING without him around..."
He can't listen to this...needed...to leave...
Henry hugged his journals to his chest and ran out of the door, not stopping till he was back inside his office and locked the door sliding down the wood frame and sighing as he hit his head on it lightly trying to calm down.
"Oh, that was FUN! She ripped you apart! She's right you know, without me to temper all those nasty little thoughts you would fall apart from the strain! And even with me you can't handle it!" Hyde sneered
"Shut up...I have to try and see what of this mess I can salvage..."
"Why bother? The lodgers already got what they wanted out of you, you bailed them out of jail, but the second they got their mitts on a true explorer into the unknown, they abandoned you, spit on your pathetic attempts to make a party of their labors, to put a cotton ball on a stab wound more or less and even know who knows what they are plotting? They don't need you or Lanyon, they just need your money, that is easily obtainable if you know how to pick locks, and just how did we get found out again? A picked lock!" Hyde explained from the mirror watching as his other selfs face went paler with each word.
"No! They are not like that! Their not petty thieves!" Jekyll argued not wanting to believe any of his lodgers would stoop to such lows!
"Wouldn't they? I'll be generous and give them two months before they turn to crime, one if Frankenstein goes off on her own adventures and leaves them behind, but oh well, what should we care? They abandoned us for her so its there loss" Hyde shrugged grinning as Henry turned to glare at him.
"Then all the more reason for me to protect them! She's a danger to them...she's not good for any of them!"
"It's funny, watching you try to cling to any shred of humanity you can, but it was selfishness and greed that led to my birth, don't try and play the saint, your the farthest thing from it, maybe I should be allowed to take over, what can a few coppers do to me? I already escaped them twice!"
Henry's eyes darted around as he tried to think of any reason not to give into what Hyde wanted, Frankenstein wanted him so badly? She could see just how mad he was then...transforming twice in one night would be a strain on his body but he did not care, he needed to go back down into his mind for a while, needed some peace...
The messy office was hard to navigate through and Jekyll was too upset to really pay attention as broken glass cut into his hands as he grabbed the salt packet from the floor, not noticing it was different salt as he poured it into the beaker.
The colors swirled and instead of a sickly green hue the potion turned a luminous orange, but Henry did not care, his eyes stung with tears, thinking it was just another one of Hyde's hallucinations he downed the new potion, it was salty like the transformation potion, but there was a hint of sweetness, something new.
Wait...
The potion
The salt...not..the right...
The salt had been pink, not ... oh no...
Jekyll tried to scream as pain shot through every part of his body, his head felt like it was splitting open, as if someone had swung down an ax, every nerve was on fire as he writhed on the floor, no sounds came out of his open mouth, just horrid gurgling, Hyde was screaming, why was he screaming? It was ...fading...
Then
Silence
For the first time in what seemed like so many years, his mind, was quiet, no Hyde screeching profanities, insulting, trying to scare him.
Henry lifted his head to the mirror, expecting to see Hyde glaring down at him
Just his own face
Somewhat
His eyes now were Hyde's electric green with a few specks of his old red and a bright blond, almost white, streak was shot down the side of his head from his bangs to behind his ear, the new mop frizzy from rolling around on the ground and his clothes now missing several buttons and orange stains on his waistcoat and pants, he now looked paler too, like he had not seen the sun before.
What...was this. That he was seeing...he felt....whole...Hyde was no longer in his head, he was whole again...
Mirth started to bubble in the doctors chest as a grin, not unlike Hyde's spread across his face,he felt so good and only one word slipped in a raspy voice from pale lips...
"Freeeeeee..."