Author Note

Hello there and welcome to another chapter of Fate: Sword and Arrow.

Fate: Sword and Arrow

Part II – Fate Aprocrypha

Chapter 17 – Mordred Pendragon

The Battle of Camlann was considered the end of King Arthur's rule.

It was a battle of amazing proportions and many noble warriors perished that day. However, it was merely the ultimate consequence of many events that happened seemingly all at once. When news reached the kingdom about Lancelot and Queen Guinevere's betrayal, Camelot became a pandemonium. Obviously, there were members inside her castle who wished to see the kingdom burn. Her sister obviously a top favorite and her son, a top second. Sir Agravain. It was him who found out about Lancelot's affair and used it to his advantage in order to stir chaos. It was because of his actions, that Arturia was not able to quell the flames inside Camelot, despite her never blaming Lancelot nor her queen for the affair.

Arturia had respected Guinevere's sacrifice after all.

Because of the unrest, soon a civil war erupted in the kingdom, forcing Arturia to take on arms once more as those who were still loyal to her faced against those who no longer wished for her to be king.

The Battle of Camlann ended up being more brutal than she realized, with thousand mangled corpses of fighters filling up the hill as if they were a part of scenery. And it looked like one person was responsible for all the killing. Swinging her gigantic sword in all its silver glory and dressed in a silver armor from head to toe, Mordred Pendragon, the Knight of Treachery, son of Morgan Le Fey and Arturia Pendragon, though the latter never once consented to such a birth, slayed every one she encountered with as much viciousness as if she was slaying Arturia herself.

"WHERE IS KING ARTHUR?" The knight of treachery screamed right after gutting another fighter. "WHERE IS THE KING OF KNIGHTS?"

Despite the heavy fighting, Mordred could not help but use her sword as a clutch, though her anger overcame any notion of fatigue at the moment. The reason was simple. She went too far. Too far to simply back off now to simply walk away and be back to how things were. She had betrayed the king and killed too many. Just by looking down the hill, she could see the trail of blood by her own hands. Her armor became too heavy as she coughed. She was out of breath, though right now the only path was forward…forward in her goal. From her back, a figure stood with her sword drawn as the sun was just setting for the day. The King's eyes were covered by her hair, so no emotion could be seen in her visage as she stared at her 'son', butchering her army like they were nothing.

Mordred soon turned and saw the source of her hatred. Despite it all, Mordred cursed at the majestic figure of her father.

Arturia's armor was shining as if the king had just joined this civil war.

"How's that? How's that, King Arthur?" Mordred was using her arms, while showing the carnage that stood behind her. She was taking responsibility for everything and she wanted her father to know that. "Your Kingdom is now over! This is retribution for not giving the throne to me." Arturia, though, did not respond. How could she…Mordred wanted to fight her, not talk. And frankly, Arturia had no words in her head, aside from blaming herself for everything that has happened. If she had not taken out the sword from the stone, then her kingdom would not have suffered like this. If she had not taken the sword from the stone, then her friends Lancelot and Guinevere would not suffer like they did. If she had not taken the sword from the stone, then her sister would not feel threatened by her and use her vile means to 'birth' Mordred.

It was all her fault that the kingdom was in ruins right now.

Mordred stiffened when she saw the king position Excalibur in front of her, ready to fight the Knight of Treachery.

"Is that hatred? Am I that detestable to you? You detest me, the child of a witch? ANSWER ME!" Mordred screamed as she charged against Arturia who simply stood in place and parried Excalibur against Clarent, though Clarent emerged victorious as Arturia could not hold Excalibur in her hand. The sword of the king flew and landed roughly on the ground close to the dead. Its metal struck on the ground echoing throughout the now silenced clearing. A couple minutes earlier, this land was filled with angry shouts, weapons clashing, flesh being cut, and blood being spilled. Now, a heavy silence erupted between father and son. Arturia could not help but sigh in dismay as she stood facing her son. She knew one thing in this entire mess to be true.

"I haver never found you detestable…" Arturia willed now Rhongomyniad in her arms. "I did not give you the throne…" When Mordred realized it, the holy lance had already pierced her stomach, dealing a fatal injury. "…because you were not fit to be king." Arturia's tone was devoid of any emotion as she watched Mordred's helmet explode, showing her son in all his once glory, a mirror image of Arturia herself. Mordred's eyes suddenly lost focus as she could feel her life draining away at the blow. Despite it all, this was perhaps the only chance she had as the king was inches from her position. The King had lost Avalon and could now receive a mortal wound. A last source of strength surged as her fist took a hold of Clarent and stroke Arturia's stomach.

"F…ather!"

This was the last scene that Arturia let her dream as she woke up frightened and sweaty. Her hands unconsciously went to the part of the stomach where Mordred dealt what would be the killing blow. Shirou was by her side immediately, holding her as she regained her breathing.

"Shirou…" Despite the pain of that memory, Arturia was worried that her husband did not rest enough, and she ended up waking him up prematurely.

"You were having a nightmare, Turia. Was it about Mordred?"

Shirou saw her hand reaching for her side stomach. She nodded rubbing her face with both her hands as he offered her a glass of water. Shirou had visualized this dream when they were master and servant, though after she became human, this was probably the second time and in both times, she would wake up all sweaty, out of breath and holding her side stomach as if the mortal wound was still there. Arturia drank the entire glass and then gave it back to her husband. Dressed in her night gown, she got up from the bed and took a look in a mirror. Her focus was on her side stomach. The image of Clarent buried in there was quite vivid until this day.

Arturia had a different view than many about dreams.

To many, many times it meant nothing. Just some random thought or memory that appears without any meaning whatsoever. To her, though, her dreams had meaning.

It was her dream about the Lady of the Lake that made her go there and collect her weapons, after all. Now, this dream…what did it mean?

Shirou soon appeared behind her and enveloped her in a comforting hug. With that, Arturia blacked out her troubled mind as her hands caressed Shirou's loving arms. As their bodies intertwined in the night as she turned and hugged him, before kissing him. This was a time of need as much as it was a time of love. She needed his warmth right now as much as she basked on it on a daily basis. Their shared kiss soon turned into a make-out session for a while, before they broke the kiss as Shirou hugged her dearly. Arturia's breathing and her heartbeat became more tranquil as she rested her head on his chest, deciding to mentally dance at the rhythm of his own heartbeat.

"Why did I dream about that day…" Shirou knew that when his wife dreamed, there was a reason for it. She told him that she rarely dreamed.

"I don't know Turia, was the Battle of Camlann?"

"Yes, I remember that day so vividly. I could feel my son's pained voice as she slain my army like they were nothing." It was also the last time Arturia had used her holy lance. "She always wanted recognition from me, she wanted the throne as my son. But I could not recognize her as my son." Shirou remembered Arturia telling him about how exactly Mordred came to the land of the living and he became appalled at it. "She was a valiant knight and had the respect of her subjects, but…she just did not have what it took to become king." At this point, Arturia started rambling and Shirou quietly pushed her back to bed and lied down next to her, still holding her.

"Let's try to sleep some more, Turia. Maybe your answer will come in time." She nodded, as this usually tend to happen. She took some deep breaths as she adjusted the sheets to cover her body.

"Sorry for wakening you Shirou…how are you feeling?" He gave her a couple of deep kisses on her neck, earning a deep and content smile at the tingling feeling those kisses gave her.

"You don't need to apologize Turia. I'm feeling much better, couple more hours of rest and I will be fully recovered."

===Next morning===

Next morning, the couple and Lancelot decided to have breakfast in the city.

It was a nice change of pace, more of an attempt to ease the tension somewhat. The battle reached an armistice of sorts for a couple of days as no doubt the Yggdmillenia and Ruler would find a way to take the battle once more towards Semiramis's fortress. The Grail was there after all and the remaining red servants would not leave the fortress to face the other servants. The last time they were able to reach the fortress was because of the typhoon that was lifting rocks big enough for them to stand on. Now, the fortress was up in the air and they needed to find a suitable transportation that would take them there. Shirou and Arturia were sitting together and Lancelot, dressed in some of Shirou's own casual clothing, took a seat on their opposite side.

They were discussing Arturia's last dream about Mordred.

At least, Shirou and Arturia were since Lancelot opted to sit this one out. He was not a part of the civil war, as he rescued his beloved Guinevere and escaped together.

Most of the knights did in the end, with the exception of perhaps Sir Bedivere, who stayed loyal until the end.

Still, based on his king's description, Sir Lancelot could picture the Knight of Treachery behaving like that. He always wondered how someone could have showed out of the blue like that, demanding recognition from the king. Though, he stayed silent in his criticism, seeing as it was his actions that started that mess. The table was startled at hearing something trembling as Shirou answered his phone. The medic magus had left a message for Waver, saying he needed to report on the latest events as well as forward a special request, albeit a very expensive one, but necessary if he was to stop the fake priest from having access to the Grail.

"Lord El-Melloi II, how is the weather like in old London?"

"Humpf, it's always cloudy here. I take it you have a report for me, it has been a while since we last spoke. Last time you had taken care of Assassin of Black."

Shirou then explained everything that happened since his fight with the Assassin of Black, covering the entire attack on the Yddgmillenia Castle until their adventure inside Semiramis' fortress. Waver was hearing everything with a simple 'I see', while having trouble processing everything. The fact that the overseer of the War and also leader of the Red Faction was actually a servant who had planned many things in advance, without no one being the wiser, was most troubling. The relationship between the Church and the Association was clouded at best. There were activities they shared like the Association's Enforcers and the Church's Burial Agency. Also, the Grail Wars were a subject in common as the Church would usually be the overseer and then report back to the Association.

The reports he received from Shirou Kotomine did not contain any of Shirou's reports and now Waver knew why.

Another troubling subject was that Shirou had another servant on his body count. Waver always thought that being Kiritsugu's son, then Shirou would follow in behavior. No magus would ever do something so foolish like face a servant and expect to survive. And here he was hearing one saying that he beat not one, but two servants already. Shirou's file from Tohsaka Rin said that he had an overspecialization on projection, reinforcement, and healing mage craft, which explained such battle expertise. No doubt, he would be a nice addition to the Enforcer's division, had Shirou not already expressed that he has no inclination about joining the Association.

"And that's about it so far. Ruler had asked me to join forces with the Yggdmillenia against the fake priest, but I declined."

"Yeah, join the enemy…a wonderful idea." Shirou laughed at the sarcasm.

"Yeah, so that left me with a small problem, which I'm sure I could depend on the Assocation's never ending funds for."

The medic could hear Waver murmuring a lot of complains to what he said.

"Never ending funds…I will simply decline to comment…your expenditure is already quite high, what is it that you need?"

"In order to reach the fortress, we would require a suitable transportation. I trust that you can make the necessary arrangements."

"Huh, give me a couple of hours…I will be sending you a message indicating where and when you need to go."

"I appreciate it…"

With that, Shirou hang up as their breakfast arrived. A funny scene with their food being served by two waiters, because of the amount of food that he and his wife ordered. Arturia was always a glutton but Shirou needed more strength to regain his energy. Lancelot had no need to eat as he was receiving mana from Shirou and the Grail. He could not help but sweat drop as he saw the couple dig in like the world was about to end.

===Next day===

Shirou, Arturia and Lancelot had just parked their car close to what appeared to be an air force base.

All three of them wore their battle outfits as tonight they would march towards the Semiramis' fortress using the transportation in this base. Hours ago, Shirou had received a message from Waver, telling them to come here. Apparently, there was no one around as they walked, until they reached the gates of the base. And no one was nearby, however that was by design. Waver said that he would take care of the local there, so that they would be undisturbed. Probably, a magus from the Association hypnotized everyone here and kidnapped them for the day. Shirou did not bother to know what exactly happened as they reached the base's hangars.

"We are to reach Hangar 2. Oh, is that one." As Shirou opened the door to the hangar, they saw the aircraft they would embark on. It was a stealth Black Sea Harrier aircraft.

The medic smiled as he saw the giddy eyes of Arturia.

As a servant, she had the skills to pilot this machinery, though she was not a servant anymore.

"Lancelot, I trust that you can ride this mount…" The servant nodded as Shirou observed the machinery in front of him.

Waver did express, however, that this aircraft in specific required some maintenance.

"Certainly Shirou…"

"Is it safe to use this though? You did say that it required a lot of repairs." Arturia was also passing her hand through the metal core of the aircraft. A part of her was giddy in excitement in flying, similar to her bike, but another part of her became scared in case of an accident. She was especially afraid after seeing some accidents with airplanes on the television.

"Let's see…" Trace On…

When Shirou activated his tracing magic, he was able to see the majestic aircraft's millions of parts, wires, engines, everything. He could see where exactly the problem was as he scanned the aircraft. When he opened his eyes, he looked around the hangar and saw a trail full of tools and even spare parts for him to use. Now Shirou became giddy in excitement. The last time he had to fix something was his wife's motorcycle. Lancelot and Arturia saw as Shirou marched towards the trail of tools and immediately went to work. Arturia, knowing that look on his face, could only sigh in content as she saw a couch next to her to sit on. Her husband was already engrossed in fine-tuning the aircraft to the point that he forgot about Arturia and Lancelot's presence.

"You can dematerialize Sir Lancelot, it's going to take a while here." The servant looked at the scene and nodded at his master.

Arturia just settled into watching her husband work as her memories returned to the Battle of Camlann. The sounds of Shirou's work with his tools made her remember the sound of metal clashing against metal. Back then, all that she could think about was how the structure of her kingdom began to fall little by little. Everything was like a deck of cards…her kingdom…the one that she sacrificed so much for…had frail structures at best. At the time she pulled the sword from the stone, there were battle everywhere…she and her knights worked to unify the kingdom, though to believe that a mere affair going public was enough for everything to fall so easily like that. Arturia knew that there were people in her kingdom who worked against her reign and used their own authority to ruin her reign.

'Is this why I had that dream? To ponder about the true reason of the kingdom's downfall? Then why the only image in it was my fight with Mordred?'

"Arturia, can you please pass me the screwdriver there, next to you?" The wife had woken up from her inner pondering and obliged to her husband's request.

"Thank you…are you thinking about Mordred?"

"Yeah, her and everything else…though most about her."

Shirou accepted the tool and went back to work.

"One thing that you never mentioned to me was about her as one of your knights..." Arturia drew a sharp breath at that.

"When she first showed up, claiming to be my son, I was appalled by it. When the truth came out, I wanted nothing more than to castrate Merlin for his carelessness. You asked me about her as a knight. She was created after me, so her skills were similar, though her technique lacked the usual finesse befitting of a knight. There was great anger in her swings, that I could tell. She wanted recognition from me as her father...she wanted the throne. But still today, there was one decision I never regretted making. A king should not rule based on emotion; a king should rule above it."

Arturia looked up at Shirou as he was focusing on the aircraft's turbine.

"Why couldn't you at least recognize her as your son?"

Shirou saw her taking a long breath and look away, clearly troubled in accepting the answer to his question.

"Being king at the time was a tough assignment Shirou, especially being a woman. And a king needed to produce an heir, who would later inherit the throne. Everyone practically demanded it at some point."

"You don't need to explain that Arturia. To this day, I shudder at the image of you having an... appendage"

She laughed at the memory of the first time she explained to him what happened that allowed her the capability to produce an heir. Shirou had lost all color in his face and began to stutter while pointing down at her waist region. Well, it was atrocious to her as well. She remembered how much convincing she needed to even consent to Merlin's little plan. Though at least it would be an heir with the queen, not with her treacherous sister.

"If producing an heir was necessary, then it should have been with my queen at the very least. However, yes, in the end of the day, she was my son even if I never recognized her as such. She did not ask to be born...the real guilty was Morgan."

"That's true." Shirou said between exertions as he tightened the last corkscrew necessary to close the metal plaque that protected the turbine.

"In the end, all she ever wanted was my acknowledgment as her father and I knew that at the time." Arturia took some hair from her forehead as she sighed in dismay at the memory. "I just could not overcome Morgan's actions."

"As I recall you explained that Morgan had never accepted you as king. She made everything possible to tamper with your kingdom. It's understandable that you would feel this way." Arturia smiled at him for being so considerate to her, despite her knowing that she should have done more to resolve the situation. In the end, no matter what happened, no matter what she said or did not say, Shirou would never let her think that she was in the wrong about the choices she had to make as King. And she loved him for that.

"Indeed. Ever since the sword had chosen me, Morgan has done many atrocious actions towards the kingdom and myself. She was the eldest, hence she believed that she should rule instead. Her actions became my responsibility to handle as everything she did was to spite me".

"And Mordred was the last straw, then."

By now Shirou had finished the repairs and was pumping fuel to their transportation.

"When she rebelled and started the Battle of Camlann, yes."

A silence then followed as Shirou used his magic to make a final check up on the plane to see if he missed something.

Arturia however kept mulling over the dating question still left unanswered.

Why did she dream about Mordred in the first place?

Shirou released the fuel line from the plane and then casually walked towards his over-thinking wife. He could see that her eyes had lost focus for a while, no doubt reliving some painful memories of her life as King. There were times when she went back to doubting her reign as king and he learned to recognize that expression all too clearly. He kneeled in front of her and grabbed her hands warmly, kissing it softly. The act alone earned a content smile from his wife. Their eyes met as both smiled at one another. Shirou did this to show her that he was there by her side and Arturia accepted it with as much love as she could muster for the man who swept her off her feet and rescued her from her own dark abyss

…the same one that she was dreading to get into once more.

"Do not worry about the past my liege, whatever it is that you must find out, I will be here with you every step of the way." The endearing addressing was often used in humorous situation, but also in tender moments like these.

"Thank you, my knight…"

===Airport===

While Shirou fixed their transportation, the black faction followed by Ruler entered the city airport terminal. The terminal was empty as they did not want to be disturbed.

They also needed a plane to take them towards the platform, after all.

Author Note

I know this chapter is a bit shorter than the others. I just wanted to focus on Mordred and Arturia's dream as well as a small interlude until the final battles begins. There will be another scene about Mordred in the epilogue as I will review what I have planned. Once again, thanks everyone for the support and fell free to comment about it with your reviews.

Next chapter should be up by next week.

See ya.