It was hopeless, impossible. But he held onto his wish. His ever distant ideal. He would hold his beloved again.
Fate-In Time
(AO3 link) by Parcasious is a Fate/stay night fic that follows Shirou Emiya years after the Fifth Holy Grail War, when he finds himself inexplicably sent back to medieval Britain where he meets a young Arturia Pendragon before she drew the sword in the stone. From there on, Shirou does everything in his power to avert Arturia's fate and Camelot's downfall.
Currently at 101 chapters and is now complete.
It has a spinoff called Fate-In Time: Chaldea Alternative Records.
The author has also released A Different Kind of War, a Massive Multiplayer Crossover of many of their fics where the casts of each fic plus the cast of the original Fate/stay night are gathered and go to war in a Singularity.
Tropes present in Fate-In Time:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Shirou's hand-forged weapons. It's worth mentioning that magical weapons, especially the weapons that Shirou makes throughout the story, tend to be better then their unmagical counterparts.
- A-Cup Angst: During Arturia's confrontation with Cywyrd in his throne room, the female nobles in the room were jealous of Arturia's chest, which was enormous.
- Altar the Speed: Shirou places the date of his and Arturia's wedding to tomorrow night after they arrived at Camelot.
- Alternate Timeline: Thanks to Shirou's appearance, the original timeline has changed by a lot.
- Appeal to Tradition: Duke Wellington and a few other nobles insist on Shirou marrying Morgana, because it's tradition that Shirou must marry the older sibling. Both Arturia and Shirou doesn't like this and they reject their idea in their own ways.
- Artificial Human: Mordred. (Which should be a given, considering it's the Nasuverse here.)
- Bash Brothers: Every member of the Knights of the Round Table applies.
- Battle Discretion Shot: The two times of Arturia beating up Merlin were done like this.
- Berserk Button: Don't mention Shirou's supposed death in front of Arturia, badmouth him, or mention her sister in front of her as well.
- Palamid gets mad when someone calls him a woman.
- Never hurt or insult Arturia in front of Shirou.
- Never hurt Artus and Annabel in front of Shirou and Arturia, or else you'll end up in a fate worse than death. And Morgana is about to learn that.
- Big Damn Heroes: Shirou pulls this off after a Saxon was almost about to stab Arturia in the head.
- Big Eater: Arturia when it comes to Shirou's food.
- Bitch Slap: Arturia gives one to Duke Wellington.
- Book Burning: Subverted. Mordred tries to burn the study materials Merlin gave her. It failed because Merlin made the books immune to physical and magical damage.
- Break the Haughty: Shirou does this in front of the Barthomeloi elder by showing off his Reality Marble. Emily also pulls this off in front of her half-siblings.
- Bucket Helmet: During his meeting with Guinevere, Lancelot grabs a nearby bucket and put it on his head to cover up the embarrassment he's going through at the moment. Guinevere finds it hilarious.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: During the finals of the young blade's competition, Petris cheats by poisoning the air in the arena. Arturia isn't affected badly, but the son of Wolfred is stabbed in the hand during this. Shirou then proceeds to beat Petris with a reinforced stick in ten moves.
- Civil War:
- The Saxton Civil War, in which it was Natalie vs. Horsa.
- Later on, there was the civil war in Camelot, which was Shirou, Arturia, and his friends vs Morgana and her supporters.
- Classified Information: Arturia's true gender, as well as Shirou's Reality Marble.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Even though Shirou is in love with Arturia, he unknowingly attracted both Emily and Mordred.
- Lancelot doesn't know a thing about love, and yet he attracted Guinevere, Gareth, and to a certain extent, Guinevere's maids.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Arturia whenever some other girl is with Shirou.
- Cool Big Sis: Mordred to Artus and Annabel.
- Daydream Surprise: Arturia has a daydream of her wedding with Shirou as she imagined the castle reception hall decorated with roses and soft silk with everyone watching the moment. She snaps back to reality after finding out that Gawain was staring at her this whole time.
- Death Seeker: Arturia, during the five years when she had lost Shirou.
- Decoy Leader: Mordred becomes one after Shirou tells her to go back to Camelot.
- Despair Event Horizon: Arturia experiences this when she sees Morgana killing Shirou, only to find out five years later that he didn't actually die.
- The Dreaded:
- Shirou is this after helping wipe out the Saxons. Later, he becomes this to the monsters from the Reverse Side of the World, because of his swords which killed legendary monsters in the past.
- Not only that, but Morgana fears him as well.
- Also, Agatha fears the Cath Palug, which Merlin has as a pet.
- The nobles in Camelot now fear Arturia after what she did to Duke Wellington and a few other nobles.
- Driven by Envy: The reason why Morgana wants to make Arturia's life miserable is because of her jealously over the fact that King Uther chose Arturia as his heir.
- Driven to Suicide: Arturia is so devastated by Shirou's disappearance that she welcomes death after being exhausted and impaled by four swords, rather than using the defensive and regenerative abilities of her scabbard, Avalon, to save herself.
- Dual Wielding: Shirou with Kanshou and Bakuya. Also shown when he wields both Mjolnir and Gungnir.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Palamid, and a particularly beautiful one at that. This annoys him to no end.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Shirou when he's able to see Arturia again, though Shirou now has the job of changing Arturia's fate to a happier one. Considering the fact that this is the start of the Dark Ages, where Nomadic Eastern tribes such as the Alans and Huns are raping, burning, and pillaging their way though Europe, the Saxons, Jutes, Picts, and Angles are all invading Brittan, and Rome ain't gonna help them no more, he's got his work cut out for him.
- Entertainingly Wrong:
- Various characters come to the conclusion that Shirou is descended from certain legendary heroes because of him wielding their weaponry. His father was a fire Elemental and his mother an Ashton.
- Morgana thought that Shirou is chivalrous, kind and honor bound. Following those virtues for of sake of being a knight. She had no idea how ruthless he can be or lengths he is willing to go until her plan set him off.
- Everybody Hates Mathematics: Mordred not only hates math, but also hates literature as well.
- Evil Plan: Morgana's plan was to make Arturia's life a living hell.
- Faking Amnesia: For a short while, even after having his memory restored, Shirou pretends having amnesia in order to make Arturia and Mordred to get along.
- Family Man: Sir Ector to Arturia and Kay.
- Foreshadowing: Early on, a Phantasmal Beast notes that the supposedly dead Ashton family has two members who survived. One of them is Shirou. Later it turns out Mordred is also an Ashton, for unknown reasons.
- For Want Of A Nail: Shirou's presence in the past changes a lot of things.
- One of the things changed is when Arturia puls the Sword out of the Stone, as Shirou's changes to the timeline allow her two more years to train before she does.
- Arturia seeing The Sword in the Stone react to Shirou, indicating that he is also worthy, leads her to realize of an alternate way to rule the Kingdom as a Queen with Shirou as her King, which makes it even more heartbreaking when she sees Shirou being killed in front of her eyes, unaware of the fact that he actually managed to survive Morgana's attempt. When Shirou returns, after a brief period of indecisiveness, decides to reveal her true gender, consequences be damned.
- Because of Shirou, the meeting between Lancelot and Guinevere ends in a different way. When Shirou is staying at Guinevere's private estate, Lancelot decided to secretly bring him back to Arturia. The problem was that he didn't know which house he was staying at, so he chose the biggest one. However, the house he chose happened to be Guinevere's, and he accidentally saw Guinevere while climbing up the balcony. As soon as he saw her, he then placed a bucket on his head, making her laugh. When the maids were arriving, Guinevere hid him under the bed. Therefore, the meeting between Guinevere and Lancelot did not end with tragedy. Instead, it leads to Guinevere trying to claim Lancelot without anything holding her back.
- Gender Reveal:
- In-Universe, Arturia tells Shirou her true gender as a symbol of trust. Of course, Shirou already knew that.
- Later on, Arturia reveals her true gender to nobles of her kingdom as she no longer had a need to hide it with Shirou's return.
- Giving Radio to the Romans: Shirou brings back more modern inventions and concepts with him when he goes back in time.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Shirou's mother is human, while his father is a fire elemental.
- Honorary Aunt: Agatha claims herself and Vivian to be Shirou's aunts.
- Hypocrisy Nod: Shirou is well aware that telling Arturia and Mordred that he would help them bear their burdens when they don't because they don't want to trouble him is hypocritical, coming from him.
- It's Quiet… Too Quiet: You would think that Morgana would come after Arturia during her pregnancy, but during that whole time, she didn't. This prompts Shirou to think that she's up to something with boundary theory.
- I Want Grandkids: Ever since Shirou accepted Arturia's marriage proposal, Sir Ector wants to see some grandkids.
- Journey to Find Oneself: Subverted. Arturia goes on one after having doubts from seeing Shirou being worthy of Caliburn. However, Shirou accompanies her.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Merlin receives one after interrupting Shirou and Arturia twice. The end result was not pretty for him, either time.
- Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Shirou and Gawain does this in their duel because Gawain wants to make sure that Shirou can protect Arturia.
- Lightning Bruiser: Gawain hits like a gorilla, but isn't slow.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Subverted. Guinevere is in love with Lancelot so much that she thought of abandoning her self-image and stripping in front of him.
- Loyal Animal Companion: Efreet is loyal to the Ashton family.
- Mage Marksman: Shirou and Tristan. Shirou uses magic swords instead of arrows with his bow while Tristan using Failnaught, a magic bow.
- Magically-Binding Contract: Merlin receives one after receiving Arturia's anger for interrupting her twice.
- Magic Knight: Shirou, being punted back into the time of Arthurian Legends, and Knighted by Arturia herself, can be classified as the "Magic Knight" of the Round Table.
- Magic Mirror: Agatha gives one to Shirou and Arturia so they can see their children even if they're not there.
- Mama Bear: Don't do anything to Artus and Annabel. Arturia is very protective of them.
- Master Swordsman: Shirou is this even when regressed to a young body, capable of defeating even knights.
- The Matchmaker: Arturia plays this role for Lancelot and Guinevere.
- Moment Killer: Merlin pulls this off when Shirou and Arturia were about to have sex...TWICE.
- My Future Self and Me: Under Alaya's orders, EMIYA ends up in Camelot to find the disruption of the original timeline, which was his past self.
- Mysterious Parent: Lord Ashton.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Arturia does this to Merlin after he interrupted her and Shirou again. Later on, Arturia pulls this off to four nobles and Duke Wellington after Duke Wellingtion insists on Shirou marrying Morgana. Luckily, Merlin stopped her before she could cause any more damage. However, he ends up in the same situation like what happened in Gwent.
- Not Quite Dead:
- Shirou is seemingly killed off by Morgana, only to be revealed that he survived with amnesia.
- Again, after being stabbed by Mordred, he still lives because Agatha was pumping blood to Shirou through the usage of the Ashton Anchor's energy, much to Morgana's dismay and Arturia's and Mordred's relief.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Shirou bitterly realizes that he, Arturia, and Mordred are quote "capable stubborn bastards" which leads to them refusing to ask for aid when it would be more than reasonable to do so. The knowledge that both would refuse his help because they didn't want to trouble him, something he himself would do, makes him wonder if this is what Rin and the others had to go through with him.
- Older Than They Look: In the adolescence arc, Shirou is actually an adult despite looking like a kid. This gets fixed over time though.
- One-Man Army: Shirou and his ever-growing arsenal of Noble Phantasms, Mystic Codes of the bladed/weapon variety, and mundane swords would have little trouble turning most opponents into mincemeat.
- Only the Chosen May Wield:
- Subverted. Shirou is also capable of pulling Caliburn out of the stone, but decides that he is not the one to wield it.
- Later on, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Shirou is the only one capable of wielding Mjolnir.
- Only the Worthy May Pass: Gawain pulls this off to test Shirou to see if he is worthy to marry Arturia.
- Punched Across the Room: Shirou pulls this off towards a representative of a duke's son who was insulting Arturia.
- Real Men Cook: Shirou, naturally.
- Really Royalty Reveal: Turns out that Shirou is descended from the Ashtons, a family that specializes in subduing Phantasmal Beasts. What's more, his father is Duke Ashton, a fire elemental.
- At the end of the battle in the Vernier estate, it was revealed that Emily was a Barthomeloi.
- Turns out that Gerrad of the Swift Wind is actually the second son of the Fraga family.
- Red Baron: Shirou is called the Wizard of Swords.
- Red Oni,Blue Oni: Agatha is the red oni to Vivian, while Vivian is the blue oni to Agatha.
- Respected by the Respected: Even though he doesn't show it, Agravain has respect for Shirou for Camelot's development.
- Running Gag:
- Arturia's alter form pops out sometimes.
- Efreet likes to spit fire on Mordred's butt.
- Merlin's fear of Arturia, well deserved.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Merlin, Efret, Artus, and Annabel were sealed away in Avalon because of Morgana.
- Stunned Silence:
- Arturia after finding out that Mordred found Shirou, followed up by finding out that he has amnesia, and lastly being told that Shirou was acting as Mordred's knight. Later on, she experiences this again after finding out that Cywyrd plans on getting Guinevere to marry Shirou.
- Gawain after seeing Arturia and Mordred getting along with each other. He even wonders if Shirou's magic had anything to do with it.
- Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard: Subverted. Merlin thought of this when Duke Wellington insists on telling Arturia his proposal of Shirou marrying Morgana.
- Sword over Head: Subverted. Shirou projects a giant sword of Damocles and hovers it over Camelot just to threaten Morgana.
- There Is Only One Bed: Played with. During Shirou, Arturia, and Mordred's time in House Barthomeloi, they had to share two beds together.
- Time Skip: After Shirou and Arturia's encounter with the beast, the story jumps into their adolescence years.
- After the battle in the Vernier estate, the story shifts into the Sword in the Stone event, which takes place several years later.
- After the end of the first arc, the story shifts into five years later, where Arturia is going through her Despair Event Horizon and Shirou has lost his memory.
- After Arturia and Shirou's wedding, the story's next arc jumps least a year into Shirou's reign, where the royal family has expanded with the addition of the newborn twins.
- Time Travel: The premise of this story. Shirou winds up back in time to interact with Saber's younger self before she claimed Caliburn.
- Trauma Button: Thanks to Morgan's failed attempt of killing Shirou, Arturia has a trauma of Shirou's suppposed death. She does get a lot better after Shirou returns, but it's still there.
- Whenever Morgana is mentioned in front of Mordred, Mordred gets scared. Luckily, Shirou is there to help her.
- Merlin now has a trauma of an angry Arturia after the two times he cockblocked her.
- Undying Loyalty: Shirou towards Arturia. He would even go against his own morals, if it meant following her or doing something for her benefit.
- Unexpected Successor: Subverted. Shirou became the king of Camelot because of Arturia revealing her gender, Merlin revealing to the nobles that Shirou was actually worthy to wield Caliburn first, and Shirou wielding Caliburn.
- Unknown Rival: Merlin is jealous of how effortlessly Shirou is able to charm women. Shirou doesn't notice this at all. It's almost as though he's the protaganist for an anime plot, oh wait—.
- Even though she doesn't admit it, Emily is jealous at Arturia for capturing Shirou's heart. Ironically, in their childhood, Arturia was jealous of Emily for spending time with Shirou.
- Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born: Following their marriage, Arturia and Shirou have twins, a boy and a girl.
- Unstoppable Rage:
- Shirou goes through this after seeing Arturia badly hurt.
- Mordred goes into one after seeing Shirou's supposed death.
- Wacky Marriage Proposal: Arturia proposes to Shirou after the battle against Hengist was over.
- We Can Rule Together: Subverted. Morgana offers Shirou to leave Arturia in exchange for riches and land. Naturally, Shirou refuses.
- Wham Line: Arturia storms into Cywyrd's castle and asks Cywyrd, "Where is my man?"
- Later on, after the battle between Shirou and Hengist and his army were over, Arturia gives Shirou a kiss on the lips and tells him, "I love you. Please marry me."
- Shirou tells the nobles who supported the idea of him marrying Morgana, "I love Arturia Pendragon."
- Agatha tells Shirou and Arturia the words, "Vivian pads her chest." Afterwards, Vivian tells Lancelot these four words: "Slaughter Shameless Shadow Bitch."
- Witch Hunt: During the civil war in Camelot, Shirou was on the hunt for the magi that supported Morgana.
- You're Insane!: Mordred tells this to Shirou after he plans on dueling Hengist to save Sir Ector, knowing that even if he wins, he'll have to fight the Saxon army as well.
- You Just Had to Say It: Duke Wellington insists on getting Shirou to marry Morgana in front of Arturia. The end result was not pretty for him.
