Chapter Text
Sansa watched as her home was overrun by the White Walkers. The Queen in the North, forced to flee, cursed herself. She thought that it was over, that everything was over… but in reality nothing was over. Not even her little family feud. No, she thought as she bit her lips and made her horse run faster. It won´t be over, not until her damn cousin was dead and buried, along with his entire brood. As she escaped for the Neck and towards her brother, she saw the traces of the destruction this small feud had caused. So much time wondering if she would die by Fire only to be overran by Ice. At least she didn´t have to fear a rain of fire anymore, she thought as she and her guards crossed the burned remains of Hornwood. Unfortunately, as she was crossing Hornwood Lands, she was set up by a group of wights. She screamed as one of the undead creatures dragged her down from her horse. She grabbed her knife and tried to stab them, but more and more approached. Some grabbed her from behind, others from the front. Sansa felt bites all over herself, some breaking her skin. She was Queen in the North, a true Queen, she couldn´t die like this, she couldn´t die like this, she couldn´t die like…
Much later, at the other side of the sea, the other part of the small family feud was watching everything burn around him. Or not everything. There was sizable portion of the city that was covered by ice. Even the wind was frozen and hurt his lungs to breath. It reminded him of his youth… if only he were still that young. His battle time had long since passed when he saw them again. It was the children´s turn… them and their dragons. If only that was enough.
“Greetings, grandfather” someone saluted. The old man smiled when he saw that at least he was alive. He had feared that he was the last one standing…
“I have returned.”
“I was afraid for you when I saw Caraxes struck by that javelin.”
“I was fast enough to dodge them” the young man said, approaching him. The older one allowed him to hug him. “I was so afraid to having lost ever…” the pain in his abdomen told him there was something wrong. He pushed his grandson away to discover a dagger in his belly. “Wh… why?”
“He… he said I could live… he said I could live if I… if I killed you…” so that was it. “Besides, I could have the throne. A throne that should have been mine since a long time ago, not yours, grandfather. You have reigned long enough.”
“I… I never tried to have what is yours… I only… needed more time” it was true. He was tired, tired of ruling, tired of filling a void until youngsters were ready. He didn´t have anything against supporting them from the back, but… he was so tired. But the Long Night was no time to have a youngster ruling.
“Just until this is over.”
“Well, it´s already over and with it my reign begins. As soon as my ally…” he started coughing blood and his skin seemed to be freezing. “Wha… what is happening? What…?”
“Foolish boy, the Night King doesn´t have more allies than the ones he makes himself” the man coughed blood himself. Then let go of his abdomen and, in pain, walked to the boy, embracing him. “I should have taught you that better.”
“Grandfather… what…”
“Shhhh, it´s alright” the man caressed his head, as darkness encased them. There wasn´t any hope anymore. Volantis was the only place that remained, but now… now the World of the Living was lost. Or perhaps… “Everything is going to be okay.”
“How… how could…” the boy asked as he died.
“As my grandfather said” the last man standing said, looking at a green pool of liquid, then at a dragon with only one wing that was miraculously still alive, but barely. “That the invaders only conquer ashes. DRACARYS!!!”
Green flames erupted, consuming everything that was around them. He only felt them for a second, an entire second in agony. Then it was over. Darkness. Or so he thought. Because suddenly something pulled him out of what seemed his last resting place. Invisible chains dragged him towards the unknown. Or perhaps not so unknown. The place he ended up looked a lot like the Godswood in Winterfell. And when he looked around, known faces showed up. The faces he had grown up with, of people he had once called family. A family he had turned his back to long ago.
“What are you…”
WHAT A DISASTER YOU HAVE DONE… HOUSE STARK, THE PACK THAT SHOULD REMAIN UNITED AND LEAD DURING WINTER… BACKSTABBERS, GREED BLINDED, HONOUR BLINDED FOOLS. WHAT A DISASTER YOU HAVE DONE.
They all were listening, specially him. Anything was better than looking at the others there.
LEARN TO BE A FAMILY… LEARN TO BE PACK… AND RETURN WHEN DAWN HAS COME AGAIN TO THE LAND OF THE LIVING…
There was a blinding flash and suddenly they were no longer there…
-Winterfell-
Lord Eddard Stark opened his eyes, gasping as he jumped from the bed. By his side, his wife fall from the bed and crawled around on the floor, which was not usual in her. Ned and Catelyn looked at one another without understand. The last thing he remembered was his head getting cut off and then he was in that godswood… the last she remembered was that her throat was cut open by the Freys. But… they both kind of remembered the voice in the godswood that told them… to learn to become pack.
“Cat…”
“Ned” she finally got up from the floor. “Where…”
Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
“My Lord!! My Lady!!” the voice of Jory Cassel, long dead Jory Cassel, made Ned´s heart twist with guilt. “I´m sorry for bothering you so early in the morning, but your children and ward are fighting all over the family wing!!”
“What?”
Ned cursed and got dressed as quickly as he could. He was out of the room before his wife finished putting on her dress, walking towards where his children´s rooms were located. The sound of the pandemonium they were making reached him before he even managed to reach their rooms. Once there, he found an image even worse than he imagined. Robb had Theon by the sleeping wear, the ironborn not doing anything to defend himself as he was manhandled like a ragdoll by his eldest. Arya and Sansa were yelling at each other at the top of their voices, while Rickon jumped around his siblings, telling them something in a strange language and yelling about abandonment. Bran was between them trying to break the fights without much success. And Jon… Jon was by the end of the hallway. His room was the tiniest, coldest one in the family wing, far away from the ones of his siblings. That didn´t mean that they were not close, they were close… as long as he was aware of… so why was Jon merely watching from the side and not stopping his siblings?
“Okay, alright, break it up, all of you” Ned ordered, pulling Robb from Theon and putting himself between Sansa and Arya before their fights could end up in bloodshed. Be a pack, he reminded himself mentally, be a family.
“I will get rid of this traitor first!!”
“At least let me land a punch on her!!”
“The same!!”
“I don´t have to hear you, you abandoned me!!”
“It would be better if…”
Be a pack, an exasperated Eddard reminded himself, be a pack.
“We are going to break our fasts TOGETHER in my solar in half an hour” he said, giving each of the children one firm look. All of them returned it, apparently in protest. Theon was the only one that got straight as a rod. “I want to see you there, presentable and in your best behavior by then. Do you hear me?”
“I won´t break my fast with that…”
“I don´t care, Robb, nor I care for anything that any of you have to say. Half an hour” he turned back. He would give them an opportunity, after that, he was ready to start dishing up punishments.
“Alright, all, settle down” Jon joined him in an effort to calm everything down. Ned was about to thank him when he noticed something… artificial in the smile he was wearing. Something… strange. “You already heard Father, let´s get ready for the day.”
Ned watched Jon, trying to find out what was different with him. Sansa and Arya, even if they were angry at each other, shared a look by his side. They apparently agreed. Anyway, he didn´t think he would find out now, so he left to tell his wife that they were breaking their fast with only the children in his private solar. Catelyn nodded, wanting to hug her children and talk with each of them. She told him what Theon Greyjoy had done… what she thought he had done. Hand in hand, they walked to the Lord´s solar, finding the children there.
“Alright, we are all here” Robb said, crossing his arms. If he didn´t, he might kill Theon, who seemed to be trying to melt with the wall. “We have much to talk about”
“Yes, we…” Catelyn stopped when she noticed someone else in the room. “What is he doing here?!”
“I was also invited to this family meal, Lady Stark” Jon answered, a confidence in him that wasn´t there when they last saw him. Sansa and Arya narrowed their eyes in suspicion once more. “Or not?”
“Yes, you were” Ned clarified with a firm voice, then sat down on his chair. “All of us have much to talk about, Catelyn. So let´s begin”
Eddard was the first to tell his history. As the one who died first, his was a shorter history. It began with him in King´s Landing, trying to curve Robert´s spending and investigating the murder of Jon Arryn. He told them how he discovered that Queen Cersei´s children were not the King´s and what he planned to do so Robert didn´t hurt any child this time… but the King died before he could tell him the secret and he was double crossed by Littlefinger. Robb picked up the tale, glaring at Theon when he reached the moment of his treason.
“I didn´t do it” Theon explained, his gaze low. Nothing like the cocky ward Ned had meet. He almost seemed… submissive. And he ate so little that Ned almost felt pity for him. Even after what Cat and Robb told him about him. “I… I mean… I took Winterfell, but I didn´t kill Bran and Rickon. I… they escaped, so I found two boys their ages and…”
“That doesn´t excuse you, you traitor” the eldest Stark son glared at the one that yesterday was his best friend… apart from Jon. A Jon that was too calm to having just heard that history. “When I…”
“Robb” Lord Stark stopped him. “I think we should all calm down for a moment. Continue with your history.”
So Robb and Catelyn told him how they kept winning battles but losing the war, his marriage to the Westerling girl and how they were betrayed by the Freys and the Boltons. Sansa took the history from there and told him about Joffrey, her forced marriage to Tyrion and how she had to escape King´s Landing with Littlefinger. Then how she hid in the Vale as Alayne Stone, Baelish´s bastard daughter, and how his hands and eyes kept wandering over her. Then about how she went to Jon to try and reclaim their home with an army of wildlings and knights of the Vale. Arya told them about her travels with Yoren and the Hound… and mentioned her training in the House of Black and White. Bran and Rickon merely mentioned where they had been. Jon remained silent.
“The problem is, that even if we manage to defeat the Lannisters, we are still going to die” Sansa finally expressed. “The Long Night is coming from beyond the Wall and with it the dead. And if we don´t beat them…”
“You certainly didn´t expect us to…” Robb started.
“I have been there, Robb, been there and saw the horror of the Long Night. I have fought the Night King and been killed by his army. I assure you, the White Walkers are no horror history to terrify children into behaving, but another cold, hard truth.”
“Then… we should prepare for the too” Ned shook his head. With reason the Old Gods saw fit to turn back time and give them an advantage. “There is no option. When we get out, I´m telling Jory to prepare men and horses.”
“What are you going to do?” Bran asked.
“I´m ridding south hard and preventing Jon Arryn. We will apprehend the poisoner and make him or her confess that Cersei Lannister made him put the poison in his cup after he find out the truth about his children. I know that will also put the children in danger, but…”
“That´s stupid”
“What?!”
“Think a little, even if you kill your horse, you won´t reach Jon Arryn in time.”
“Even so…”
“Besides, it wasn´t Cersei Lannister that poisoned the Hand” Sansa seconded her brother, earning a surprised gaze from nearly everyone in the room. “And he won´t believe you if you told him who the real poisoner is.”
“Who?”
“Lysa Arryn, she dropped the poison in his cup when he was dinning” Catelyn put her hands on her mouth. “She did it at the orders of Petyr Baelish, her lover with whom she was obsessed for years. He used her to stir chaos and try to gain more power. Chaos is a ladder, he used to tell me that…”
“We could simply say it was Baelish…”
“He won´t believe you either” Brandon again tried to make him see reason. “We should focus on the Long Night.”
“The Wall will hold for a while, we need to focus on keeping the Realm together so the whole Realm face it when the time arrives.”
“But someone should go to the Wall anyway. Someone who knows what is going to come” Catelyn´s eyes landed on Jon Snow. “The bastard should go back to the Wall. He can become Lord Commander again when the Old Bear passed and prepare them for the Long Night, he has done it before.”
Surprisingly for many of them, Jon started to laugh at that statement. They were speechless as he cleaned his eyes from tears too.
“I´m sorry, it´s just that… what a funny joke” the boy continued to say as he tried not to laugh anymore. Then focused on Catelyn, who was red of fury. “Me? Going back to the Watch? NEVER” he made a movement with his hand that he didn´t recognize. “Even if you try to condemn me to that, I´m not going back.”
“Jon…”
“I thought that… it´s you, no?” Sansa glared at him with something akin to hatred. Jon´s hands again moved in a strange way. “Quit that!! You don´t have that damn thing anymore!!”
“Sorry, habits die hard” he explained, lowering his hand. Then he got up. “But that doesn´t change anything. I´m not going to the Wall, I´m not swearing any oath, much less for this family” he walked to the doors, but before getting out, he turned to them. “I´m not making the same mistakes again.”
Ned watched as his son walked out, surprised and concerned. That feeling didn´t evaporate. In fact, it got worse. Specially when he saw how Jon´s fighting style had changed to one that one would expect of someone fighting from over a big horse or something like that. Also when he realized how well Sansa can lie now or Bran´s visits to the Godswood. Theon also worried him. He had stopped going to the brothels and seemed to be submissive to everyone around. When he finally asked, the Greyjoy simply said that he was… well trained by the Boltons. He shivered just by thinking about that. One day, he caught Jon and Arya talking in a deserted passage.
“I know you hate me and you have reasons to hate me” she continued saying. “But I… I´m sorry and I want to… want you to forgive me…”
“And you thought that simply apologizing everything would be fine?” Jon answered, his eyes a mockery of what he used to look at her before. “That I would pat you in the head” he did so “and call you little sister?” a complete mockery of their former relationship. “Give up, Arya Stark. As I would never forgive you for the pain you have put me through. Not you nor this family.”
Ned gulped. Jon sounded so… so cold. What had happened while he was gone? What had happened to his family? It was so… concerning…
-In King´s Landing-
Jaime opened his eyes as he screamed. The last thing he remembered was the collapsing tunnel under the Red Keep where he had been buried alive with his sister, and then being forced to see how things developed in Westeros, the Starks usurping the Targaryens and everything… and his little brother was in the middle of everything. He would strangle Tyrion if he had him in front of him right now, specially because of what he did to Daenerys. Without the dragons, Westeros was lost to the Walker. And when they got involved, it was already too late to change turns. Winter had come… and with it death. And Brienne, his Brienne…
But that was not all. He also remembered a person in armor showing himself to him and telling him to do better this time.
“Are you alright, Ser Jaime?” Barristan asked as he went down to have breakfast with his brothers of the Kingsguard. “You look a little pale today.”
“I´m fine, don´t worry” he answered quickly and sat down, serving himself bacon. “I just woke up feeling a little cold…”
“You schedule to watch the Queen today, so…”
“Oh, no, I don´t think so” Jaime interjected. “Ser Mandon, can we change? You guard my sister and I my niece?” the man simply nodded. “Thank you”
Barristan looked at him as if he had grown a second head. Jaime didn´t care. He had returned to his sister, yes, but after everything she had done… well, he was fed up with Cersei. With Tyrion too. His siblings had left the Realm in a truly pathetic state because of their selfishness, so he didn´t really have the wish to talk to either of them. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side. He found Tyrion playing cyvasse with Myrcella when he arrived to his shift.
“Oh, brother, glad you joined us” the dwarf saluted, earning a frown from his older brother. “Do you want to play cyvasse? I was teaching our niece.”
“Against you? No, thank you” Jaime wanted nothing more than grab his daughter and ran away from there, but his brother didn´t seem to want him to leave. “Princess, good morning. Is there anywhere you want to go?”
“No, thank you, uncle. I´m having fun here”
The rest of his shift was so tense that it could be cut with a knife. And when it was finally over, his brother decided to follow him. Jaime was starting to get angry when Tyrion finally said…
“So you finally decided to leave Cersei for Brienne, eh?” he stopped cold. “Not that I blame you, she spells disaster…”
“Like you?”
“You hurt me, brother, and here I thought we were getting on okay again.”
“That was until you decided to usurp the Targaryens and set up the Kingdom to be destroyed by the Long Night” the knight answered, glaring at his brother. “It was you who convinced Jon Snow to kill Daenerys Targaryen and who sound those bells.”
“Brother, you are not seeing the…”
“No, I have it clear. You don´t care about anyone else, but you, Tyrion. You are just like Cersei and I was blind to think otherwise. I won´t follow either of you again.”
“Too bad, because I have a plan to stop the Long Night… and that involved the Targaryens. No usurpation, of course, that was a mistake!!” he held his hands up. “A way for all of us to survive and to defeat the Long Night.”
“Unless Daenerys Targaryen or Jon Snow already know about you, then your plan would mean nothing.”
“I hope they don´t, because I don´t have the wish to end up my days as a dragon´s meal” the dwarf continued. “By the way, who brought you here?”
“What do you mean?”
“We were brought to the past by the Gods, the Seven to be precise. The Crone was the one who visited me… and I guess the Warrior was the one that came to you. What did he say?”
“Not much, only to do better” Jaime frowned. “And who are the other ones? It could be anyone. Brienne could be the Maiden… she wasn´t a maid when she died, but…”
“Well, you should know” Tyrion continued. “The Smith could be Gendry, he didn´t stop being one even when he was made a Lord. And the Stranger… Arya Stark?” he frowned. “The Mother and Father…”
“Daenerys and Jon Snow?”
“I certainly hope not!! The both of them are bad news!!” the younger Lannister crossed his arms. “Daenerys burned King´s Landing… and Jon Snow, once he embraced his Targaryen heritage, also continued with the honorable family tradition of burning it all. They were certainly one for the other.”
“And you have something to do with that, no?” Jaime glared at his brother. “Very well, guess I don´t have any other option but going on with your plan, as I don´t have my own. But try to double cross me and…”
“Jaime, Jaime, in all of Westeros, you are the only person I would never double cross” they stared at each other. “Alright, doubt me if you want, only follow my lead. The first thing we have to do is try and strike Baelish from the board. Before he had the chance to take out Jon Arryn. In case we fail… let´s pin the murder on Pycelle and make sure Eddard Stark remains with his little family in the North.”
“What?”
“Come on, brother, don´t tell me you don´t see the sense in that” Tyrion continued. “Eddard Stark is needed in the North preparing his frozen little Kingdom to become a first line of defense against the ice monsters, not here in the south playing politics.”
“No, I… I know that Lord Stark is needed in the North, but why pin the murder on Pycelle if we don´t catch Lysa Arryn and Littlefinger? He is Father´s man, yes, but…”
“Because he is Cersei´s man in the absence of Father and I don´t want him spying on us in the meantime” the dwarf said. “And you have to understand that the last thing you fucking have do when we visit Winterfel, because we will fucking do that, is to be in that Tower with fucking Cersei…”
“That without saying” he sighed. “What about the others?”
“We will cross that bridge when we came to it. Or burn it, in case they don´t understand.”
-Back in the North-
The arrival of House Glover gave him a little respite from having to share space with the Starks. He guessed that it came with knowing who he was this time, with knowing that his sigil wasn´t covered in fur but in scales. That the fire that burned in him wasn´t the ice in their veins. He was the dragon hidden between the wolves, after all, and he wasn´t going to cower against them or bow his head. He will answer with fire and blood. Anyway, it was a blessing being invisible to most of the population in Winterfell, he could do whatever he want. Even recovering a small piece of his family history, something that belonged to the only Stark he still considered a family… one long gone.
“My Prince?” a voice coming from behind make him stop. He looked behind himself and saw little Larence Snow… or was he truly Larence Snow?
“Larence” the boy went to his knees. “You came with the Glovers, no?”
“Larence Saeragyon of the Fourteen Knights of the flame salutes the Prince Regent” he said, putting his sword on the ground. “And offers him sword to him again, in hopes to right his mistakes of the past.”
“Don´t worry about that, there was no much we could have done when the Long Night came to us. But now…” the dragon put a hand on his shoulder. “there are many things that could be avoided.”
“My Prince…”
“Don´t worry, my friend, soon our own plans are going to be set into motion. I will right the wrongs that committed against us. And when that happens, I promise you that you will return to your Helaena… just like I will return to my own wife´s arms.”
Jon smiled, covering his face with the fan he had pilfered from his mother´s belongings on the Broken Tower. Valyrian steel shone in it, the rubies that decorated it too. An ancient Valyrian relic from House Targaryen… just like the dragons. He wondered for a second if the North knew what a diamond they lost when they got rid of him, just like with his loyal Larence. Well, he guessed he would leave them to find out later. Once his plans were set into motion. Once his flames were reunited again…
-In Pentos-
A girl´s eyes opened, fire still in her eyes as she left the presence of the Red God. She put a hand over her chest, as to cover the injury that had finished her life. She remembered the weight of her daughter in her arms… a daughter that wasn´t even born yet but she couldn´t forget… just like her other children. Her children were not there… but her love was. And soon, soon they would be reunited. She could feel it in her chest. For now, she had to focus on leaving that place. She refused to be sold like a broodmare again, that little girl had died a long time ago. The woman that was born when she died was someone stronger, someone she knew could survive and thrive.
“I´m Daenerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons and Breaker of Chains” she smirked. “And will recover everything that belonged to me.” She got out of bed. “Now… where are my children?”