THE COMING OF WINTER

While the Pack will live, the Lone Wolf dies in the Winter

PROLOGUE

Westeros; The Tower of Joy; Eighteen years ago

He found her on a bed of blood. She had grown paler and thinner in these past few months. He leaned over her, his heart heavy with defeat. This war, these deaths, all this bloodshed, it had all been to see her free again.
That, he reminded himself, and to defeat a Mad King. But all that didn't matter. She was dying now and there was nothing he could do about it. It was his fault, of course. He should have believed her, when she told him that Winter was Coming. That there would soon be dark magic from other worlds controlling all that was happening in the Realm. That everyone was in danger. And he should have told everyone the truth. She was dying because of him. This was his fault. The entire war was his fault. He leaned in toward, though he could barely look her in the face. She had grown paler and thinner these past months. She opened one blue eye, it was clouded over like the sky after it had rained.

"Eddard." Her voice was as soft as the winter's wind.

"Lyanna." He leaned down close and held his sister's hand.
"You came."
"Of course I came." His voice sounded strangled, "It's alright, Lya. I'm here. I came for you just like I said I would. Everything is going to be alright." Though he couldn't be sure whether it was true or not.

"You were right. Brandon is dead and father and the Prince's family too." His voice caught in his throat, "Everything you said you saw was right."

"Don't speak of that now, Neddie " She whispered, "I have something else to tell you."

"No Lya," his voice was shaking, "Don't speak. Just breathe"

"In three days a time Queen Rhaella will give birth" She didn't listen, but of course she never did. "to a daughter. Every bit as bold as Aegon the Conqueror, but with a Stark's heart. And you will be blessed with two sons. A warrior with a Wolf's heart and a young king so great one day the savage Dothraki will hail him as their Stallion that Mounts the World. They are the Blessed Ones, The Children of Ice and Fire and the magic of both our families will be reborn in them. The Dragons and the Wolves will choose them to wield the great Ice Magic of the First Men and the powerful Fire Magic of Old Valyria to save the Realm, or to destroy it when Winter comes and a Mad King sits the Iron Throne. When the Wrath of the Mad Dragon has destroyed of all his blood, until one egg remains including he, himself. And when the Wolf Pack has diminished to five cubs because the Lead Wolf followed the Proud Stag into the forbidden grove. When the Stag's arrogance and the Lion's lust for power have brought about a War of Five Kings. That is when the Serpent from the Old Lands will strike. And the Walkers will travel South to claim the World. And the Swan and the Bloodraven will arrive in the North. That's when the Dragons and the Wolves that were supposedly gone from the World will rise from the ashes to claim their land. By the Dragon's claw and the Direwolf's paw the Kingdoms shall rise or fall. If the West falls soon the East shall follow and if the Rose pierces the Dragon's armor the Serpent will soon seep in."

"Lya I…" he began.

"You will make sure that it is by your children's hands and Rhaegar's sister's hands that the Kingdoms rise and prosper." Her voice was shaking, "…..Promise me, Ned."

And then her head feel back and she was gone.

Footnote: Please read and review. FYI: In this story anyway, the Blessed Ones/The Children of Ice and Fire is an Old Gods name for the Prince(s) that was(ere) Promised/Azhor Azhai/The Three Heads of the Dragon. The Prince(s) that was(were) Promise/The Three Heads of the Dragon is a the Seven Name (the earlier Targaryens worshipped the Seven right) and Azhor Azhai is R'Hollor name. For Game of Thrones the begininng of this story is about a month or two after the Red Wedding and right before the Purple Wedding so yeah, despite what I just wrote Robb's not going to be the third head of the Dragon, he's just a Red Herring (no black comedy pun intended and no, that's not the last in this story he's going to be one for his second youngest brother Bran. Also that thing with the Dothraki calling him the Stallion that Mounts the World, despite what Lyanna says she saw there's of course a prophecy twist for that. It should be fairly obvious that the other two are of course Dany and Jon and speaking of the latter I'm fully aware I just made it perfectly clear that whether I believe a certain fan theory (that I for the record only recently learned was so damn obvious in the books) it's sure as hell not true here. This is because I figured out a theory of my own (again before I learned that GRRM was so damn blatant in pointing to that one fan theory) since I'm probably going to have to show the flashback revealing it sooner or later spoiler alert: Jon Snow's mother is someone who appeared out of nowhere after there was no chance of her ever having any interaction with Ned Stark, has no backstory, and would probably look at least a little bit like Catelyn if Ned went on an uncharacteristic drinking binge. (Now see if you can figure it out before I outright reveal it.) Rhaegar and Lyanna's relationship will be platonic and based on common interests (like the power I just gave her), but that's all it will be. I know at least some people will complain, but I figured since Dany tends to get compared to Rhaegar and Arya tends to get compared to Lyanna, does the following sequence not sound all that unlikely: Rhaegar gave Lyanna the wreath at Harrenhal just to make some kind of point and the supposed "kidnapping/rape/running off together" was just Lyanna trying to teach Robert a lesson about his womanizing ways (which he tragically failed to learn) I also figured out a twist not just for Dany but for a good portion of her dead family as well involving Maester Aemon, her mother, and Craster, but I won't go into that just yet.
For Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, it takes place after "The New Neverland" and most of "Going Home" but with a different ending so everyone's still in Storybrooke and Rumple and Pan are still alive but no one knows where the hell the latter is (one of the things he's going to be doing in this story is try to rebuild the Lost Boys from Westreros' ridiculously large orphan populace). The Swan naturally is Emma and I think I'll use it for Snow's animal motif as well and that I will use a sheepdog for Henry and Charming, a unicorn for Regina, maybe a mouse for Rumple and Neal, a normal wolf for Red (if that's not possible maybe a fox or a wolf on two legs) and a white rabbit for Alice, but I would like some help for the other major Once characters in the story; Mulan, Belle, Aurora, Hook, Philip, and Robin Hood from regular Once and Cyrus, the Knave and The Red Queen from Wonderland. The Serpent is quite obviously Jafar and I think I will use a monkey for Peter Pan (mostly because every existing incarnation of him spends a lot of time acting like one). One thing I will say about the Rose piercing the Dragon's armor is that it is not what the line quite obviously made you think: Blue Winter Roses. Need I remind you there's a slightly less obvious one in the current timeline and a really obscure one (though I would have to stay up all night to think of how I could do that one) in Storybrooke. Rule of prophecy people, it's never the most obvious one.
When you read the regular chapters of this story, I would prefer you kind of imagined it like you're watching an episode of Once or Wonderland (though being a crossover with Game of Thrones I'm well aware it's kind of inevitable that there will be one or two things that probably wouldn't get past ABC's censors), meaning that inevitably each chapter will have its flashback arc. However like how the Ice and Fire books are written there will be viewpoint moments however rather than viewpoint chapters they will viewpoint passages (except in the flashback arcs all flashback arcs have one viewpoint character and they mostly focus on Ned, Rhaegar, Lyanna, Cat, Elia and Robert). I was going to write them in third person like they are in the books, but after seeing how good the alternating first person in my other Once crossover story (with Lord of the Rings) Ballad of the Ten Rings, and thought over how quite a few characters (from all three series) would sound in the first person (you know like Tyrion where every other lines a snarky remark and every third word's a foul curse) I reconsidered so I would like any opinions anyone has on that.