Gawain was not pleased by Mordred's strange behaviors. It was astonishing how a knight of her personality would be traveling alone without soldiers and in the path away from assigned duties. Her new attire was equally as shocking as it contrasted too greatly with her usual armor. She could perchance crave to increase her stature and presence and modified her armor to fit her needs. In addition to her armor, her speech was more blunt and ill-suited for a knight of her status. It was not his place to question her reason, but he would state his objections if it hindered her performance.
He strolled in the halls of Camelot trying to reach the throne room. His thoughts were interrupted when he saw Mordred walking to his front…in her usual garms. Why would she suddenly change back when so much emphasis was placed in her new appearance during their travels back to Camelot? Though she made no comments of her attire, the slight motions and comfort Mordred exuded when sporting the armor conveyed her utmost trust in the protection the armor imparted.
For Gawain, her sudden switch back to her older looks was intriguing. Mordred was not one to peacefully accept criticism from people other than the king. If he was to question her strange interests, he must do so under the pretense of their king.
What he never expected was to see two Mordred inside a room. The older Mordred he met on his travels, wore the unusual garms and was currently subduing the normal version of Mordred.
How could there be two of the same person? Gawain did not know the answer. He moved away from the doorway and rubbed his eyes, hoping that the sight he saw was a mistimed hallucination. He peeked into the room for a second time and glimpsed at the older Mordred staring at him. Gawain hid himself again due to his confusion rather than any other emotions.
Another Mordred could not exist…King Artoria only called upon one Mordred. Yet, the two individuals, even with the differences in age, size, and knight armor, were indeed the same person.
He kept racking his brain over this predicament, all until a pair of arms crashed through the walls behind him and the hands plated in black metal loomed over his head.
After unintentionally knocking out my other self, Gawain just had to witness the aftermath of my deeds.
'Kill', an ominous thought drifted in my head. It was not the usual advice I was generally given; this one felt out of place. Perhaps it was the influence of the Mad Enchantment However, I was not one to complain. Gawain must be silenced before he could alert the entire fortress of my intrusion.
'Subdue him.' A familiar voice stated. I released the rope that was supposed to restrain the original Mordred and thrusted my arms into the thin wooden barrier shared between the room and the hall. My hands easily smashed through the wood and felt a humanoid head inside my grip. With one power pull, Gawain crashed into the room and a human shaped hole formed on the wall.
Gawain fell onto his back, dazed by my sudden attack. Swiftly, I slammed my body onto his chest and used my body weight to refrain the knight from standing back up.
Our eyes met right before my fist kissed his face. The strike did nothing but bruise his cheek; he was fully awake and struggled to remove me from above him as I pummeled his playboy face.
"Release me doppelganger." He screamed in between my beatdown.
"Go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep." I desperately repeated. The more he stayed conscious, the likelihood of my cover getting decimated increased.
My focus was solely on silencing this annoying pest, which made me ignorant of the other combatant in the room. The original Mordred woke up and wrapped her arm around my neck. The sudden lack of air passing into my lungs caused me to halt my attack. Gawain found his opening and pushed off his chest. The two Mordreds fell onto the ground, punching and kicking at every moment we got. I was able to escape her chokehold by bashing my right arm into her abdomen.
"Who the hell are you!?" The original got herself off the floor and angrily demanded. I stood before her and readied myself for another skirmish.
"You from another reality." I truthfully answered.
"Bullshit." She rushed forward and I followed suit. We collided as our hands met in a death grip.
"Get out of the way, Mordred." Gawain warned and raised his sword. We both turned our heads at the male knight with confusion in our eyes.
"Who?" We spoke in unison, while still trying to overpower the other.
"The traitorous one." He answered, which did nothing to differentiate the two Mordreds.
"You wanna die!" We shouted in response. Though we were still trying to kill each other, our anger was partially redirected towards the asshole Gawain. Gawain ignored our threat and his blade glowed, signaling the activation of his Noble Phantasm.
'KILL!' 'Escape.' Conflicting advice resounded in my mind, overlapping each other.
The original Mordred, who had seen Gawain use his NP many times, recognized the signs much earlier than I heard; she kicked the ground and propelled herself out of my grasp. I lost my balance at the sudden loss of force. My attempt to escape Gawain's NP was too late as the beam of energy crashed into my body. His attack blew me through multiple walls of wood and stone before tumbling onto a red carpet. A marble pillar completely stopped my momentum at the cost of the pillar detaching itself from its position. The broken pillar and the piece of the ceiling supported by it came crashing down on my immobile body. A sharp piece of marble slid past my face and a familiar lightness was felt on my left side.
I was only revived for a few days and I already lost a limb. This must be a new world record.
Mordred Alter's eyes snapped open to see herself in a place filled with endless white space and walls.
"Welcome back…I guess." A familiar voice echoed in the white space. Mordred turned to the source to see her other half floating towards her.
"What's the occasion?" Mordred Alter questioned. " Did we not have an agreement from last time?"
The red orb shook in confusion. "I am not sure myself. Though if I had to guess, it might be because of that."
"EXTERMINATION!" An ominous screech rippled across the space. Black veins engulfed the white walls, creating a place devoid of light. Mordred Alter tranced her eyes from the black tendrils to the center of the void. Protruding from it was a circular black and red eye…A demon god eye.
Mordred Alter whistled in awe. "That can't be good. We actually got a real parasite this time."
Research institute in Britain
"Yoooo." Alexan Burin bursted into the lab used by one of his best friends and benefactor Mund Macton. "I bought some delicious Chinese food from a local family restaurant."
The gentlemen placed the plates of food onto an empty table and walked towards the professor. The old researcher was closely examining photos on his desktop, but made head jesters to acknowledge Alexan's presence.
"They make some killer chicken wings, Mund. You should take a break and try them out." Alexan encouraged when his friend made no movements to stop his intense studies. Curious on what Dr. Macton was so concentrated on, Alexan moved closer to the professor.
"What do you see in these X-rays, Alexan?" Dr. Macton whispered, as if he was afraid of scaring away the items present on the computer screen.
"You know I'm not a scholar like you and Jon." Alexan scratched his head at Dr. Macton's strange request.
"An outsider's perspective is always welcome." Dr. Macton softly replied. "Especially for something like this."
The old professor moved aside to give room for the middle-aged man to see the images on the screen. The many monitors showed different perspectives of both X-rays and physical on-site photos of the corpse of Mordred. The first detail that caught his attention were the strange fractures on the bones of both arms, shoulder blades, and chest…No they were not fractures; it was more accurate to say that they were cuts formed by a sharp blade, perhaps a sword.
Dr. Macton noticed his friend's attention to be on those strange features and tapped on one of those photos on the screen. "From what we can see and hypothesis from expert opinions other than myself, Mordred was impaled by a long sword and had her arms cut off before she met her end."
"However, that's not what baffled everyone who had seen these images." Dr. Macton explained and pointed at Mordred's chest region. Alexan took a closer look at her skeletal remains. The sight shocked him to his very core. Upon the screen was an entanglement of twisted and intertwined bones, as if the bones had melted together like molten lava. A strange component of the chest stood out from the already bizarre features. In the area where Dr. Macton assumed to be where a sword had impaled Mordred were the remains of an arm. The position of the fingertips was prevalent signs of the limb clawing its way into the corpse when it still held flesh. Most pieces of the arm had fused into the chest region; the bones of the limb were being absorbed and repurposed. The thing on Mordred's chest was unholy, something that should not exist.
"What the hell." Alexan could not help but stare in horror at the amalgamation of bones inside the supposed former king Britain and daughter of King Arthur.