Well, this is awkward!
"Wait. Mother? I'm confused now." Shirou said, scratching his head.
"You mean you didn't tell him? Oh my my, what an oversight that turned out to be! I'm so sorry I ruined the surprise for you, Mother!" Mordred mockingly apologized, "I bet it'll be a shock when he finds out that you killed your own daughter. Oops I think I said too much. I did, didn't I?"
"You leave him out of this, you will deal with me!" Arturia raged.
"Oh, you mean like you left my poor dear Auntie Morgan out of it last time? The way you go through loved ones it's a miracle you've managed to keep this one for as long as you have." Mordred taunted, referring to Shirou.
"If you touch even a hair on his head, there will be Hell to pay! And trust me, I will see to it that I collect and quite gladly at that!" Arturia roared.
"And why should I? You killed my Aunt, the most important person in my life, so why shouldn't I make you pay in kind?" Mordred raged in response.
"Enough of this! Have at thee!" Arturia yelled, rushing forward.
They fought for a few minutes and found they were evenly matched and neither gained any ground.
"What's wrong, mother? You didn't have any problem killing me the first time, so why so much trouble this time?" Mordred taunted.
Arturia took advantage of the momentary opening to score a slash across Mordred's midsection. Mordred appeared to consider pressing on when there was a loud crash from the kitchen.
"It appears that your friends managed to recover from their little mishap. It appears now would be the time for me to make my exit. But before I do, allow me to leave you with a warning, Shirou. Don't you turn your back on her, especially since not even her own mother was safe from her murderous clutches." Mordred laughed as she leapt through the destroyed door.
"Arturia, is it true?" Shirou asked, accusingly.
"Yes, she is my daughter. Ashamed as I am to admit it. Everything she said was unfortunately true." Arturia admitted.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Shirou asked.
"I didn't think you would understand, that you would hate me." Arturia admitted, her eyes full of tears.
"Arturia, I'm listening. Please explain, I promise I'll listen." Shirou promised.
"But I don't even know where to start!" Arturia complained.
"Why don't you start from the beginning?" Shirou suggested.
"O-ok. My father was Uther Pendragon and my mother was the Lady Igraine of Cornwall. I was born after they had an affair and my mother died giving birth to me. Don't you understand, Shirou? I was a mistake! My own father didn't even want me! He pushed me off to the only person who would take me, Sir Hector." Arturia cried, collapsing in a pile of tears.
"Arturia, you are not a mistake. You are far from it, Arturia, what your father did is not your fault. Don't punish yourself for the sins of others. If you were truly a mistake then how is it you always manage to make me so happy without even trying?" Shirou asked, pulling Arturia's grieving from into his arms.
"Do you really mean that? Even knowing my terrible secret?" Arturia asked, hopeful.
"Every word, if that's your terrible secret, then perhaps it isn't so terrible after all?" Shirou reassured.
"Perhaps you're right, you don't hate me for hiding it?" Arturia asked.
"No, I can't imagine it was easy to live with it like you did." Shirou promised, "Please continue."
"I grew up under Sir Hector's care and when I came of age at 16 I pulled Caliburn out of the stone and became the King of Britain. I had been ruling for about a year when we received reports of a town being sacked by Saxon raiders. My Knights and I went to investigate the town and found it had been burned to ground with no survivors. No survivors save one, a little girl. I took pity on her, having lost her parents, and I adopted her and raised her like my own daughter." Arturia continued.
"So that's why she called you mother. Ok, I think I get it." Shirou responded.
"I had been ruling Camelot for quite some time and one of my knights brought the issue of my succession to my attention. I was asked to name an heir and I named Bedivere to succeed me. This was the decision that sealed my fate as at this time Mordred came in demanding that I name her as my heir. I refused to do so and she stormed out swearing she would have her birthright. She left, and as I learned later, to gather an army and got help from my half-sister Morgan le Fay." Arturia continued.
"Why would your own sister help in overthrowing your rule?" Shirou asked.
"She blamed me for her mother's death and also refused to acknowledge me as King due to the fact that I was not only illegitimate but also because I was a woman." Arturia explained, "So the two of them assembled an army and marched on Camelot itself and forced battle. I led my army against the rebels and just as it appeared we had taken the field Morgan and Mordred appeared and challenged me to Trial by Combat. It was a ruse and Morgan attempted to slay me right there with her magic. I then killed her and then turned to confront Mordred. We fought each other and I finally killed her but with her last breath she ran me through with her sword and left me with a fatal blow. Soon after Bedivere took me towards Camelot but I instead ordered her to lay me against a tree and return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake, from whom I had received it, and I died soon after her return when I named her the King of Camelot." Arturia finished.
"So, she wasn't technically lying, she just wasn't telling the whole truth." Shirou mused.
"I'm so sorry! I was so afraid you'd hate me for all the things I've done and I didn't want to lose you of all people. Can you ever forgive me?" Arturia begged.
"There's nothing to forgive, I can only imagine how difficult it was even knowing that it had to be done. You had no choice in the matter, it's not your fault." Shirou comforted her.
"You really mean that?" And after a moment, "Please, can you just hold me?"
Shirou wrapped his arms around Arturia without a word and held her close as she sobbed onto his shoulder. At that time Rin walked into the room through the ruined door.
"I hope I'm not interrupting… I am, aren't I?" Rin remarked.
"Just a bit, what is it?" Shirou admitted.
"Well, it isn't horribly important but more importantly is she ok?" Rin asked, referring to Arturia.
"Well, she was forced to face some of the skeletons in her closet. I don't think she was completely prepared to deal with them." Shirou admitted.
"Ok, then who was that charming young lady who dropped the roof on us then?" Rin asked.
"That would be Mordred, my daughter." Arturia responded, her voice hardly a whisper.
"Uh, daughter?" Rin asked.
"Yes, my adopted daughter but still my daughter. It's a long story." Arturia expanded.
"And she's still pissed that you not only refused to give your throne to her but killed her to boot?" Rin asked.
"Yes, how did you…?" Arturia asked, shocked.
"I did some digging on the servants we know about and on you to see who exactly we're dealing with and that's what I came up with on her." Rin explained.
"What? You mean my secret isn't so secret, how am I supposed to face people outside or even show my face in public?" Arturia panicked.
"You mean besides the fact that every thinks King Arthur is a fairy tale and that he was a man?" Rin said, sarcastically.
"Well, I suppose you have a point. Hey, wait a minute, since when did you get so sarcastic?" Arturia asked.
"Since just now?" Rin responded, confused.
"Careful, Rin! Keep this up and you'll be just like Archer." Shirou joked, somewhat seriously.
"Why, you…" Rin raged.
"So, um exactly what is it you came in here to tell us?" Shirou asked, changing the subject.
"Well, I had Archer follow our friend Mordred and you might be interested to know that she headed straight for Kotomine church." Rin shared.
"Why do I smell a trap?" Shirou asked.
"Probably because it's a rather obvious one, I seriously doubt that Kotomine would choose there as his hideout. If he did he is either very foolhardy or very stupid since he has to know that's the first place we'd look." Rin agreed.
"So where do we go from here?" Shirou asked.
"Right now, we wait. Archer is going to poke around the church to see what he can turn up and until then we need to get you back up and about. We can't have you remaining like this since it'll leave you as a far too inviting target. Hold still." Rin ordered as she pulled out a few gems.
"What are you doing?" Shirou asked.
"I'm using the mana in these gems to heal you the rest of the way so you'll at least be able to run if not fight the next time we're attacked. You're body has mostly managed to heal itself rather quickly, probably a side effect from having Arturia's Scabbard inside you for so long. The mana in these gems will allow your body to heal itself the rest of the way." Rin explained.
With that said Rin placed the gems in a circle around where Shirou lay and started chanting. After a little bit Rin stopped chanting opened her eyes.
"That should do it. How are you feeling now?" Rin asked, her tone all business.
"Well, I feel a little better but there still remains the test, doesn't there?" Shirou responded.
Shirou, with Arturia supporting him, slowly made his way up from the bed and then made a few slow steps towards the door and speed up noticing that he had little trouble walking.
"I feel almost good as new. Thanks, Rin." Shirou commented.
"No need to thank me, just doing my job of keeping you alive." Rin responded, leaving unspoken the implication that she was doing what he wouldn't.
"What's our next move?" Shirou asked.
"Well, we head to the kitchen and Archer will be able to tell us exactly what we're going to be dealing with when we attack Kotomine Church." Rin responded.
"Wait, I thought we agreed that it was most likely a trap. So why even bother going?" Arturia asked.
"Yes, I did say that but we also can't ignore it completely. It is far too dangerous for us to leave Kotomine and his servants with a safe haven. We need to deal with it before he decides to strengthen its defenses." Rin explained.
As if on a cue Archer walked through the kitchen door and took the remaining empty seat and started sharing what he had learned.
"So far it appears that only Mordred is at Kotomine church as well as one other but I was unable to confirm it. The church has many more protections on it than the ones at Ryudo temple. The defenses on the church will not only drain the power of any servant that passes the boundaries of the church but will also trap them there. Needless to say, it would be suicide for us to try to enter the church. Our best option appears to be to try to lure Mordred out." Archer explained, "There is also something odd."
"Odd? What do you mean?" Rin asked.
"Well, I noticed that there almost appeared to be a second Mordred. There was a second servant there wearing an identical suit of armor to the one worn by Mordred. I believe that Kotomine is trying to confuse us." Archer said.
"Confuse us? As in how?" Shirou asked, confused.
"If you'll recall, one of the servants is The Black Knight who is the Lancer servant. Since we do not know his true identity, I think Kotomine is trying to keep us wondering whether the servant in black is the Saber or Lancer servant hoping we won't be able to tell the difference." Archer revealed.
"But we already know that we were attacked by Mordred, this plan of his failed, didn't it?" Shirou asked.
"We know that we were attacked by Mordred this time but what about the next time a knight in black attacks us, how are we going to know if it's Mordred or the real Black Knight?" Rin pointed out, "Arturia, can you tell us anything that might help us, since you have the most experience with these two?"
"Okay. As you may have noticed Mordred's main quality is hubris. She is easy to taunt, easy to fool and easy to trick. The Black Knight is a completely different story. The Knight takes his oath seriously. He will not attack someone who is unarmed nor will he fight anyone except in a duel. Once a duel starts finishing it is all that matters, he will not abandon it for any reason even if he has to violate his orders to do so. For example, when I fought him he took this to the point that he even offered his own tent to my squire to make sure the squire remained unharmed. In short, if a knight in black attempts to attack Shirou we can be pretty sure that we're fighting Mordred."
"Well, that does make things easier and I think we have a good plan now." Rin revealed.
"Wait, you aren't seriously considering attacking Kotomine church are you?" Shirou asked, worried.
"No, we aren't. We are going after Mordred." Rin stated.
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And there we are, I do hope you enjoyed it.