Saber looked at Mordred with shock and no small amount of horror.
"You were at the battle of Camlann?" she repeated in disbelief.
Arieen...or rather Mordred...calmly stood up and took out one of her preferred swords. She normally didn't bother with Clarent unless she wanted to make a statement.
Waver recognized the image.
Without even thinking about it, he repeated the same prayer Arieen made every morning when she properly woke up, as he had heard it so often. Or at least the shortened version of it.
Mordred kneeled properly and recited the oath. The same oath she had upheld for centuries, even when Camelot became a fading memory.
"A knight is sworn to valor.
His heart knows only virtue.
His blade defends the helpless.
His might upholds the weak.
His words speak only truth.
His wrath undoes the wicked."
Saber looked like she had been struck, hearing someone recite the code without hesitation in her presence. The same code her knights had followed, even unto the end. The way the girl held herself and the way she recited the code told Saber that this was indeed one of her knights. The problem was, she had no idea who it was.
"Truly, a loyal subject," said Gilgamesh, his voice full of approval.
"Now, I have a question to ask of you Saber. Why did you reject Mordred in Camlann and tell them they were unworthy of being king, despite the fact they had tried so hard to earn your approval?"
Saber was rather baffled by the question.
"Mordred was a loyal knight...but they did not have the capacity to be the king. There is also Morgana to consider," said Saber, after a moment. "If Mordred had become king, Morgana would have lead England into ruin by using them as a puppet."
"Even though Mordred had limited to no contact with their mother until that point?"
"The fact they took Clarent from the treasury, despite not being the chosen user is enough," said Saber firmly. "Why bring up Mordred?"
She looked at her father's shade deadpan.
"Really? You mean you still haven't figured it out?" said Mordred flatly. "I know for a fact you sensed something was off at Camlann."
Saber stared at her, hard.
"None of the knights were close enough to see that fight. Those that were nearby were already dead. And I don't remember any of my knights being female or related to the fairy realms."
"Here's a hint. I always headed straight for the nearest tavern the second anyone brought up my mother, and I once gave that uptight Gawain a black eye for trying to pry my tankard from my hands."
A slow dawning horror began to fill Saber's features as she started to put the pieces together.
"You...what is your real name?"
A dark grin filled her features as she calmly stared her father's shade down and took off her glasses.
"I go by Arieen Black, but my original name is Mordred Pendragon."
It was a good thing Saber didn't have anything in her hands, because she would have dropped it.
"Hello dad."
Dead silence.
"Did you seriously call the King of Knights dad?" said Waver incredulous.
"Silence boy. Can you not see that the King of Chaos' words ring true? Why else would Saber react as such?" said Rider.
"Indeed. She most certainly recognizes her progeny, though that begs the question of conception," commented Gilgamesh. This little family drama was highly amusing to watch. Saber's reaction alone was worth it.
"How is this possible? I ran you through with..." started Saber.
"Puh-lease, you make it sound like potions aren't a thing. I drugged up some loser who no one would miss to take my place," said Mordred dismissively. "It was a pain in the ass getting the ingredients, but it was worth it to dose that fool with polyjuice and bewitch him into acting as me."
"Wait...if you are indeed Mordred, then how are you still alive?" said Saber, scrambling for a way to deny that this was indeed her 'child' before her.
"I did introduce myself as the fairy king of chaos. You spend enough time around the wild hunt and you tend to stop being human. I only needed to finish the conversion process to become full fairy," shrugged Mordred.
Saber stared at her dumbfounded.
"If you survived, then why..."
"Why didn't I bother claiming the throne?" she asked smirking. Saber nodded. "Why would I bother trying to claim Camelot when it was guaranteed to blow up in my face in short order?"
"Oh-ho?" said Rider with interest, rubbing his beard. This was getting interesting. Even Gilgamesh was curious as to Mordred's reasoning.
"Let's start with the obvious... There's no way any of the remaining knights loyal to your faction would have agreed to me being the king without a lot of bloodshed," said Mordred flatly.
Saber, rather than dispute this, nodded slightly.
"It was bad enough that people used me as the figurehead for their anger and distrust towards the king. If I took the throne, the chance of a civil war kickstarting was almost guaranteed. All the work and effort the knights put into creating a unified country would have been for nothing, and England would have torn itself apart," said Mordred.
"What of Morgana?" asked Saber.
Mordred made a face.
"She would have made things worse. Do you have any idea what a pain in the ass it was gathering everything I needed without alerting her to my plans?" said Mordred. "Particularly since I was brewing two high level potions at the same time."
"Which potions?" asked Saber, morbidly curious.
"Polyjuice, which transformed one person into another for an hour for every sip taken...and Draught of the Living Death."
"Draught of the Living Death?" repeated Saber.
Mordred's expression was so full of mischief and wickedness.
"Draught of the Living Death...is a potion that traps someone in a false death state. Their physical condition remains unchanged until the counter potion is given. They're basically in a state of magical hibernation," said Mordred carefully.
"Why would you need a potion that would create a magical coma?" asked Rider, curious.
"To fake the king's death until medicine had advanced enough to keep them alive...well, that and until I could throw their ass into some much needed therapy to get rid of that damn martyr complex," said Mordred without hesitation. She glared at Saber. "Do you have any idea how annoying that holier than thou crap you pull is? Trying to get you to do anything fun was like drawing blood from stone!"
"A king needs to set an example," said Saber.
"No, what the king should have done was lighten up every once in a while, not act like a damn statue," countered Mordred. "Why did you think so many turned against you? Your reaction to Lancelot and Guinevere's betrayal made a lot of knights question whether you even gave a damn about them at all. Do you have any idea how much whining I had to hear whenever you weren't around?"
"What?" said Saber, dumbstruck.
"Seriously, all they needed was a figurehead before the whole pot boiled over," said Mordred dismissively. "You were so unapproachable and cold to them that they doubted whether you saw them as people or just pawns."
"Then why didn't you leave?" asked Waver. This was beyond interesting, hearing things from Mordred's standpoint.
Mordred rolled her eyes.
"The battle of Camlann is a fixed point in history. There was no way to change it without causing massive and dangerous ripple effects. Since I had some foreknowledge of what would happen, I decided to tweak things so that the result stayed similar enough that it wouldn't actually do damage to history," explained Mordred. "So I faked my death and managed to get to Arturia in time to fake hers as well."
"Wait...you faked my death?!" said Saber, staring at her in shock.
"Uh yeah? Why did you think I went to all that trouble to brew a potion to induce a magical coma? Bedivere was absolutely heartbroken when he came back after giving back the sword to Nimue. Coincidentally we had a chat about that, and when she found out you were just sleeping, she said that when I finally did wake you up she'll give it back," said Mordred cheerfully. "Your real body is still out cold in the borders of the fairy realms on the island I claimed as my kingdom."
Dead silence.
Waver stared at his roommate and friend in disbelief.
"You're telling me the actual King Arthur is still asleep and that you can wake them up at any time?" said Waver.
"I was usually too drunk or too busy to wake her up before," shrugged Mordred.
"That...sounds entirely too plausible," said Waver. Especially with how often Mordred...or rather Arieen came home drunk off her ass.
Rider decided was a change of subject was in order...if only to give Saber a chance to digest the fact that she was apparently still alive.
"So Mordred, what would you wish for if you had a chance to make one on the grail?" asked Rider.
Mordred blinked, but grinned as she sat down next to Rider.
"Honestly? If I had the chance I'd love to try and pull Caliburn from the stone. If only to prove to someone once and for all I was actually worthy."
Saber took the dig for what it was...apparently she had earned it.
"What about you?" asked Mordred.
"Reincarnation," admitted Rider embarrassed.
"Huh?" said the other Servants.
"Wait, didn't you say you want to go back to conquering?" said Waver.
"Where's the fun in that?" said Mordred. "At the end of the day he's still dependent on you in this form. Reincarnation means he could start fresh!"
"Exactly!" said Rider enthusiastically, seeing as how she got it. "With a new body, I could enjoy this world to the fullest once more! What of you Saber? What would you wish for?"
"The salvation of England," said Saber, still in shock her physical body was apparently alive.
"And here we go again with her damn martyr complex," groaned Mordred. She gave Archer a Look, and he cheerfully filled her cup.
This was vastly more entertaining than he had anticipated. The family drama alone more than made up accepting Rider's invitation to a meeting of kings.
Saber glared at Mordred.
"I do not have a martyr complex!"
"Please, explain your reasoning then," said Mordred flatly.
Hearing Saber speak of how she wished to undo Camelot and everything else pissed Mordred off immensely.
"That does it...I'm converting your living body into a damn fairy and forcing you to undergo therapy," she growled. "I told you, the battle of Camlann is a fixed point in history. Even if you did somehow managed to undo everything in your legend, it would cause so many ripples that someone will undoubtedly go back and put things right. All your wish would cause is an untold amount of suffering and pain."
"What would you have me do then?" said Saber. "My kingdom fell!"
"Kingdoms fall all the bloody time, you half-witted bint!" shouted Mordred. "What the bloody hell made yours so special?"
Saber looked as if Mordred had struck her.
"What?"
"Your kingdom and it's legacy are over. That's a fact. Even if you did undo everything, what purpose would it ultimately serve? Camelot is gone, but England, the country you unified remains. Hell, it's one of the largest super powers in the world right now and the colony it created was so impressive that even Rider found it's leader a credible threat to his plans of conquering!" said Mordred heatedly. She glared at Saber. "It seems to me that if anyone is unworthy of being a king here, it's you."
Before Saber could reply, Assassin showed up. Rider was less than amused by this and was more than happy to deal with them permanently while making his own statement to Saber.
"So...you're really Mordred, the son of King Arthur," said Waver when they got home later that night.
"Mordred died in Camlann. I'm just Arieen now...have been for centuries."
"Is it bad that I can actually believe that?" said Waver tiredly. "Wait, what about Herne? Our neighbor?"
"My left hand and he's an incarnation of Robin Hood," said Mordred promptly. "He was given a choice between dying as a human or leaving and becoming a fairy and he chose fairy."
"What about..."
"Scathach, the Queen of the Land of Shadows and the one who taught Cu Cuhainn himself," said Mordred.
Rider slapped Waver on the back with a boisterous laugh.
"You have been in the company of greats!"