Mordred said nothing, but she along with her siblings, Gawain, Agravain, and many great Knights were part of an alliance led by her mother Morgan to overthrow the King's tyranny. This situation was a result of her brash actions and impulsive tendencies.

She'd never really believed it when her mother said that the King was truly formidable in combat and skill, and had still wanted to test her mettle in the face of Britain's oppressive ruler. In fact, the stronger one was, the more Mordred was willing to throw herself against him in hopes to improve.

It worked with Gawain, Lancelot, and her other fellow Knights aiding her mother, but it didn't exactly leave her with the best impression among her 'attacked.'

Without even realizing it, it practically became second nature to fight first, and then question herself later. The stronger the enemy she defeated, the more merit she may accumulate to get her mother to actually praise her rather than just nod.

It wasn't until she'd met Shirou that she began to mellow out, and find what was meant as comfort in company. Her mother was too busy leading the resistance forces, and Agravain would always shoo her away.

The story between her meeting with Shirou was both endearing and heartwarming, but utterly mortifying to the point that Mordred would rather not think about it. Her mother was the cold type, neither too expressive or quick to praise others. In comparison, Shirou was like the sun, warm and bright…someone she realized she didn't want to lose.

The day she brought back Shirou to meet her mother, was also the day her mother looked the proudest at her accomplishment. Riding on this sense of elation, she'd recklessly decided to have a bout with the tyrant King, and here she was now.

Worse yet, Shirou had only tagged along in concern for her, which was all the more reason that she had to do something!

What the hell was going on?!

"Don't touch him! No one touches him!"

Mordred stared in disbelief at how hateful Saber Alter was acting against anyone who even dared step a foot closer to where Saber Alter was steadfastly keeping Shirou in her grip. She was holding him up with an arm slung underneath his shoulder, her other arm pointing her sword out at the ready.

All of this indicated that the scene of the tyrant weeping prior hadn't been an illusion.

Saber Alter's eyes were still puffy, reddened at the sides. One might assume that this made her look weak, but she exhibited a kind of threat that bordered on animalistic. It was almost territorial, savage in that Mordred couldn't shake the image of Saber Alter foregoing all decorum if it meant she'd be able to kill anyone who dared slight her in this instance.

"Go away!" Saber Alter's eyes were blood shot, the dark nature of her magical energy twisting and bending the space around her in a black and reddish hue. "All of you get out of my sight!"

If Saber Alter had been showing restrain before by keeping in her magical energy to contest in a battle of skill, now the notion was thrown out the window.

The crackling sound of flames burning echoed in the chamber despite no fire breaking out anywhere. This was the oppression of the Tyrant King's aura alone that had single-handedly slaughtered the Saxon opposition.

"-Mordred, Leave. Now. She'll really kill you in her present state."

Mordred perked up in alarm when her mother's voice echoed in her mind.

"But Mother, Shirou's…!" Mordred couldn't finish her sentence before a storm of buffeting wind tore throughout the room.

"It was your folly to come too early. Even if you want to rescue him, can you do it on your own? Would dying in vain contribute anything?"

Mordred raised her arms to shield her face, and when she pulled them back, it was to see Saber Alter's sword coated in a malefic torrent of magical energy. There was no regard for anything in Saber Alter's eyes, the output of her sword growing by the second until a towering blade of darkness seemed to be held in her hand.

Was she planning to tear down the entire chamber in one swing?

"-Mordred. LEAVE."

Reluctantly, Mordred retreated quickly with her fellow knights who came with her. She had never heard her mother sound so pressed that she obeyed before she could even realize what she was doing, and that it was her fault that she'd lost Shirou to the tyrant.

Saber Alter didn't stop anyone.

This outcome was exactly what she wanted. Vengeance, emotions, impulses, all that didn't matter right now.

Her attention had long since shifted back onto Shirou, and pushed aside all other distraction.

The forcefulness of her aura soon receded as she clutched him tighter, closer. "I won't let them take you away from me again," she sobbed out when the room was finally emptied.

She pressed her forehead against his own, taking in his scent, his presence after all these years before mouthing out two words.

'Welcome back.'

Saber Alter didn't know how long she spent knelt down on her knees with Shirou resting his head on her lap, but she didn't mind even if she couldn't feel her feet anymore. Her back was arched, her gaze looming down over Shirou, content to just stare at his sleeping face and observing the changes brought about by time.

Her Shirou looked older, wiser even with a small stubble of a beard growing in, but was evidently regularly shaved. It was something she remembered Shirou mentioning about the chances of facial hair catching fire while forging weapons. Of course, this wouldn't matter if you were careful, but Shirou had always been one to practice prudence.

She gently ran her hands through his hair, displaying an affection and care that would have stunned any who'd only ever heard of her reputation.

"Wake up already," she whispered desperately, her hands growing clammy, but never once letting go.

As soon as she'd gotten him in her arms, she just never refused to loosen her grip. A certain part of herself still thought that this was all a dream, causing her to react in such a way.

The seconds passed by into minutes, then hours, yet still she remained in place. Irrational as it may sound, but she didn't bother to move him into a different room as all her strength had left her legs in the shock of seeing her Shirou again. No, in fact she was in shock. Still was.

Rather than force herself to move him into another room on shaking legs, laying his head to rest on her lap had been the better choice. This, or she could have called for someone. However, that option was discarded immediately when she considered that someone other than her may take Shirou away to support him.

It was normal procedure for a King to command her subjects, but Saber Alter didn't trust anyone else with Shirou's matters other than herself. It had been so long, that she'd be suspicious of anyone who may or may not take her Shirou away again.

Time continued to pass, until eventually Saber Alter noticed movement over Shirou's features.

T-This was it. Shirou, Shirou. Shirou.

The name kept repeating in her mind as anticipation grew. Even the icy continence of her features softened and mellowed into something tender and precious.

Shirou's eyes slowly fluttered open, bronze-coloured orbs staring into expectant gold, but no answer came for the longest time. Something was obviously wrong, and a pit gradually formed in Saber Alter's heart.

Why wasn't he saying anything? Maybe he was just groggy.

You fool Arturia, you shouldn't have hit his head too hard even if you wanted to knock his helmet off.

Saber Alter opened and closed her mouth, the prospect of apologizing already on the edge of her lips. One should feel honoured to hear her apology as it was truly rare. She never apologized to anyone else before in her reign as King.

Only for her Shirou would she lower herself and her pride, yet it wasn't to be.

"Mordred?" Shirou called out in disorientation.

Mordred? Mordred?

Saber Alter searched in distress for the familiar light of recognition to bloom across Shirou's face, yet that light never came. Instead, he was looking at her as if he were a stranger.

No. Nooooo!

She backed away slowly, burned. The fear of rejection was cutting through her nerves like a heated knife through butter.

"S-Shirou it's me, your Arturia!" She insisted, a hand placed over her heart to covey the depth of her sentiments that simply wouldn't reach. She almost grew hopeful when realization seemed to dawn on her Shirou, only to have that ruthlessly crushed and trampled.

"Y-You're the tyrant King," Shirou accused her with growing clarity, pushing up into a seated position with his arms and backing away even as she reached out to him.

Her outstretched arms met empty air in her grief addled reflexes.

She cradled her head. No, no. Please no.

T-This wasn't happening. It wasn't!

She was breaking down, her mind blanking and body moving on autopilot.

Thud!

-A thud to the back of the neck echoed abruptly, a result of Saber Alter's gathered magical energy prior, and the steel like skin granted to one who bathed in the blood of Dragons. .

Shirou blacked out while Saber Alter looked stiffly at her offending hand which had struck Shirou unconscious in a desperate panic and blindsided him with its speed and suddenness.

"Shirou…" she called out lowly, moving towards him and cradling him again into her arms. This time however, terror and unease were reflected in her complexion.

"W-What's happening?" She croaked out, her voice barely above a whisper while hugging Shirou tightly to her; her face nuzzled near the nape of his neck.

Obviously, there was no response, but Saber Alter knew better.

"Merlin!" She called out in desperation, her voice elevating and hoarse while her eyes darted across the room. "Merlin where are you?! I know you're there watching!"

A swirl of petals drifted in, blowing wind across Saber Alter's face and causing her to purse her eyes at its intensity. When next she focused, Merlin stood before her calmly, yet Saber Alter was far from anywhere near calm.

She mutedly passed Shirou over to Merlin for inspection, pacing back and forth in the meantime, and crowing anxious at the lack of an immediate answer much to Merlin's chagrin.

"W-What did they do to him!?" She pressed, feeling like there a knife stabbed through her chest, or that she was standing on tenterhooks.

"Hypnosis, I assume," Merlin explained the result of a quick diagnosis. "It's hypnosis or something along the same lines of blocking off his memories of you…if I'm analyzing this right."

Merlin laid Shirou on the ground and began to pat him down, searching for something which eventually drew his attention to the back of Shirou's neck. "Ah, so this was the case," he murmured.

"What's the case?" Arturia was by Merlin's side in an instant. Her nerves were high-strung, and her demeanor appeared almost frail.

Merlin then revealed a small marking at the back of Shirou's neck hidden behind several strands of his hair.

Saber Alter stared mutedly at the symbol Merlin had pointed out.

Magecraft, she was versed in it, but she'd never devoted herself to the craft like her older sister did.

This was too far out of her field to decipher. Fortunately, she wouldn't have to with someone like Merlin as her advisor. "Don't overreact, but I'm going to be frank Arturia."

Saber Alter thought she could prepare herself for anything Merlin could say, but this piece of news chilled her to the bone.

"Morgan got to him first," Merlin said bluntly.

Little did Saber Alter know, but in pushing others away and ruling the country on her own, Mordred who should have eventually brought Shirou to the original Arturia had no such intention anymore.

It should also be pointed out that the relationship between Morgan and her children in Saber Alter's world was more amiable than the original after Saber Alter's reputation took a plunge for the worst.

Hence, Saber Alter had no clue just when Shirou and Mordred met up, and how long Mordred or Morgan had been misleading him. No manipulating him. Worse yet, her current image as a tyrant would surely have been used against her to delude Shirou further.

She knew Shirou's sense of righteousness better than anyone, and she'd done things in her name that she was far from proud of in her pursuit of revenge against Morgan. If Morgan had sealed away Shirou's memories of her, then…!

Saber Alter nearly wailed at the thought.

Saber Alter had shrouded herself in a heinous light, while in hindsight, Morgan was heading the resistance against her.

In this scenario, what had happened was that those that had used to be on her side, once captivated by her righteousness and valor, no longer supported her. She was the murderous villain, and instead of Mordred finding her Shirou and bringing him to Saber Alter, he'd been brought to Morgan, the force of good.

No. No it can't be like this.

Saber Alter looked down at herself, at her trembling body, and the realization that something was breaking inside her. Her mouth dried, her chest constricting, making it difficult to breath properly.

Shirou was all that she had left. The only one she'd allowed past her walled defences after she was certain of his devotion to her. Hard as it was to admit openly, she had been happy. Together, they would lead Britain to an age of prosperity that she alone may not have been able to accomplish. She'd already reciprocated his feelings for her through action, and now as if to play with her last shreds of rationality, Morgan was trying to turn her Shirou against her?!

This trump card was devastating.

She felt cursed, regretful; that her venting and lashing out in anger over the years was just another means to drive another who truly cared for her away from her.

It was always, always the same.

Always making the same mistakes. Always alone.

Never once realizing what she had until it's gone. She was more a heartless King adherent to her own laws than any Ruler.

The pitter patter of droplets impacting the ground drew her attention, and she tentatively wiped her face to see her palms glistening from shed tears. She was crying.

It wasn't until a small cloth dabbed over her cheeks that she remembered that she wasn't alone. Merlin stood by her, a solemness in his features.

She stared at Merlin, and Merlin stared back, neither blaming or reproachful.

"Merlin," Saber Alter spoke softer than she had ever spoken before, inching closer to Merlin and grasping onto his clothes in pitiful dismay and misery, her hands exerting little strength if any. It was almost disconcerting in her disquiet forlorn action so different from her bullheaded stubbornness.

"Fix him." She pleaded, having no need to specify whom she was referring to. She clutched weakly at Merlin's white cloak, burying her face into the groove of her teacher's shoulder in a bid to regain her composure, but failing each time she glanced at Shirou. "Fix him. You have to fix him."

Meanwhile, Merlin quietly observed Saber Alter.

This was her first heartfelt request she'd ever made to him in years, and yet how was he supposed to cure an unconscious patient if it couldn't be vocalized whether a method worked or not?

"Please," Saber Alter croaked out, preventing Merlin from even bothering to point this statement out.

Merlin carefully decided that it was best not to mention that he wasn't the one who knocked Shirou out in this instance.

For a moment as he regarded Saber Alter, her guise of a tyrant was gone. She looked feeble in her misery, defeated in her anguish. The desperate hope clinging onto her eyes which she pinned on him was perhaps the last vestiges of emotion she had left after closing herself off for so many years.

He sighed.

"I'll see what I can do," was all that Merlin could say.

Even he couldn't promise things for certain, but for Saber Alter's sake, he was going to damn well try if it meant she would turn back to how she was before. On the other hand, he truly feared what she would become if this failed…

Nothing was scarier than a person with nothing left to lose.

Saber Alter woke with a start, her heart beating heavily, her breaths deep as if anxious and suffering from a nightmare.

Wait-wait she wasn't done, go back!

She immediately tried to close her eyes and sleep, but her agitation was just too much to allow her to calm down at all. Her Shirou was back within her arms again, and her body had to choose this very moment to wake up just when she got Merlin to take action.

She shuddered, arms crossing together and fingers digging into the skin of her bicep in agitation. Shivers prickled across her skin, causing hairs to rise. It felt like someone was chocking her slowly, not enough to kill, but enough to agonize and torment.

Obviously, she was frustrated, and more than a bit pitiful in her actions as she actually considered knocking herself out if it meant being able to sleep more and returning to her alternative record.

Without warning, she banged her head on a tree, but her constitution as a Servant practically meant that the action was meaningless unless the impact was delivered by a heavier hand. Her eyes glanced down to her own fists before she slumped her shoulders and sighed. Impatience was going to get her nowhere at this point. Besides, it wasn't as if her alternative record played unless she was there anyway.

Pieces of tree bark and debris fell from her slightly bruised forehead, but she hardly noticed as she cradled her hands to her temples while leaning her back on the tree. Her legs felt weak, her body sliding down the side of the tree until it was seated by the roots.

She pulled her thighs to her chest and then promptly wrapped her arms around her knees where she buried her face in just to think. No, not even to think- more like to ward the thought of being a cause in driving her own Shirou away from her.

Was this retribution? Karma?

Would she have been able to prevent all this? After all, there was the advantage of seeing a day ahead of the younger Arturia's life to prepare for anything in advance.

Who was she kidding though?

Saber Alter lamented scornfully. Even if she could see things in advance, it didn't mean that it would be of much help due to the divergence of each timeline. At most, it was more like a preview that could happen.

In Saber Alter's case, the timeline had diverged so far that viewing what happened to her younger self was practically meaningless.

Suddenly, her ears perked up from the sound of rustling twigs and depressing dirt from footsteps.

Even without looking up, Saber Alter could surmise what had happened.

Ever since the group of Arturias had split between those that had lost their Shirou, and those that still had their Shirous, Saber Alter's proximity to her Lancer and Saber counterparts was closer. Her odd actions had evidently been observed by them, and they knew themselves well enough that they wouldn't react like this from just some random nightmare.

She glanced up from where she sat and saw Lancer Alter peering down at her. Further away, Saber Arturia was staring impassively from a distance within hearing range.

"You look like something happened?" Lancer Alter inquired. Her demeanor was subdued, almost forceful ever since she'd lost her Shirou. At the very least, she treated Saber Alter a little better than the others since the two were the most relatable.

For Saber Alter, who else could she possibly confide in but a counterpart of herself likely experiencing the same situation?

"I found my Shirou," Saber Alter said ever so softly.

Suddenly, the ever-indifferent Saber Arturia was glancing over, but that reaction paled in comparison to Lancer Alter's who froze in place at the admission.

Uncaring for how the other two were reacting, Saber Alter continued as if just wanting to get the matter off of her chest.

"He was with Mordred," she stared hard at her own hands before clenching them tightly. "The blast didn't kill him. He was alive all this time, and not once did I ever try searching for him."

Saber Alter grimaced, equal parts regretful and grief stricken as she unveiled her next revelation.

"Morgan found him first and did something to him," Saber Alter's voice broke, coming out as more of a croak than anything composed. Her eyes met with the dilated pupils of her counterparts. "H-He can't remember me, and it might be the same for you two as well."

Silence.

"Morgan's trying to turn him against us. What would you two do if your Shirous suddenly became an enemy?" Saber Alter laughed hollowly, more in self reproach than anything else.

She was no longer looking at either her Saber or Lancer variants. Instead, with furrowed brows, she was biting down on her lips while falling into a muted silence.

She didn't want to talk anymore, unmindful of what impact her words had had. As far as she was concerned, they'd asked, and she'd answered.

Closing her eyes, and forcing herself to somehow fall back asleep was priority.

'Come back to me.'

The words kept repeating.

'Please, you have to come back to me.'

Thanks for Reading!

Name of each Alternative Record: (Not in any specific order, try to get guess who's who.)

1) Realm of Dark Knight

2) Realm of Lost King

3) Flowers of the Lilies

4) Realm of Forsaken

5) Realm of True Dream

Next update: Fate Legend.

P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious

Book links:

Fatedlegacydark. ca

The Lonely Peak

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