Hello everybody!
This is my second cross-over fic of both TVD and ASOIAF. It actually crosses paths with both the Originals and Game of Thrones (yeah, the TV show) as well.
I note that in this universe Westeros and Essos are actually a part of our own world, I did this so I could mention some references in the story, like when Damon thinks of Shakespeare.
I need to add that the idea of this fic actually came to me while reading A Red Sun Rises in AO3, and I recomman you to read it as well. It is a great fic.
And finally the disclaimer: I don't own any characters of ASOIAF or TVD, they all belong to George R. R. Martin, Julie Plec and L. J. Smith -well, except for Nymeria and a few other minor characters.
Enjoy!
Damon:
At first Damon thought it was how the other side worked, or better to say how a world without the other side worked. But he opened his eyes to find himself alive, at least half alive, he had not been truly alive for the past century and half. Beside him laid Elena, or wait... Was she really Elena? She did not look like her that much. Kathrine. Damon thought.
If he was sure he was alive now he was sure that he was dead. Like dead-dead, fully and completely dead. Because Kathrine had died weeks ago, they had made sure of that.
Nonetheless, the older vampire woke up with a start and looked at Damon like he was some sort of a ghost. Which he probably was.
"Where the hell are we?" She asked.
Damon looked around one more time, they were surely in a forest, and he could even smell a stag somewhere not far away. The question was which forest where they in? As much as he could see it was just that, forest with no sign of civilization.
"I have no idea." He answered her, but it was more to himself.
They made no questions about why they were together, none of eager to talk about the other one. It was better to keep their chatter out of the things that were related to themselves rather than the world around them.
The first thing that came to his mind after that was, "I'm starving." He declared.
"You can't starve. But yes, I need blood too." Kathrine corrected him.
"Whatever, I think I can do with a stag for now." He decided. He was that much hungry.
So they went after the stag they had felt earlier and brought it down. Damon took no more than a sip. He was so wrong, he preferred mummifying rather than drinking stag. How could Stefan tolerate this?
"Wait a moment," Kathrine stopped drinking, "If we are really dead..."
She did not need to complete her sentence, if they were really dead, they would not be hungry. And there would be no stag around them.
"We're not dead then." Damon said. But something stopped him from musing any further, the sound of hooves filled the air and a few moments later, three riders came into view.
Another question popped to his mind which he shared in low tone with Kathrine, "Forget about where,when the hell are we?"
The riders were dressed in utterly old fashioned riding outfits. There was a girl and two boys, each riding huge destriers. Every bit of them was medieval, but what took Damon's attention was their coat of arms. The boy with silver hair wore all black and there was a three headed dragon on his jerkin. The girl and the other boy were both dark haired and had a dragon and a direwolf halved in the middle of their sigil.
That discovery made Damon wondering whether it was some sort of a movie studio or screen recording. Whenever they were, those sigils were just for décor, they could not really exist.
All those musings left them there with no idea of what to say and no time to disappear into the woods. Damon did not care, if anything went wrong, they could always eat the passengers.
And then he looked at their faces. There was nothing wrong with the dark haired ones, but rather the silver haired one. He was Klaus, or he looked like him, only his hair and eye color were different and he looked a bit younger, as well. His eyes were a deep violet, unless Klaus wore contact lenses, this was his doppelgänger.
"Good morn, good folks." The sentence which was said by Klaus' look-alike sounded hilariously like a script from Shakespeare.
"Good morning to you, my lords." Kathrine curtsied to the riders, collecting herself from her earlier shock by the appearance of the man. This was her Katerina side, the old fashioned lady. Good, because Damon did not know what to say.
Before Klaus-like lord could hold the reins of his horse into place, Kathrine remembered a question of theirs.
"I apologize, my lord, but I suppose we're lost. Where's the closest village?" She asked.
This time the girl answered them, "You're far from the road, but there's no village around but King's Landing itself."
King's Landing. At least they were still in Westeros, evidently they had had a time jump.
"We can guide you back there, of course if you do not mind being a bit late." The first boy spoke up.
Kathrine seized the chance, they would not lose their snack just like that, "If it does not bothers my lords."
The girl laughed pleasantly, "Of course it does not. Does it, Jon?" She asked the other boy, who was not paying attention at all.
"What? Oh...surely it doesn't." The boy, Jon, replied distantly.
With the silvery lord's invitation, Damon climbed his horse and sat behind him while Kathrine was seated behind the girl.
"You were lucky that we often ride off the route, you could have been lost easily, a good pry for bandits." Klaus-like one said.
Damon suppressed a smirk, bandits would become their dinner. Of course after showing them the right way.
"Anyway, I don't believe we know your names." The girl said.
"I'm Kathrine, my lady, Kathrine Pierce." It was good that she did not use her 'Petrova' name, it sounded weird to Damon.
"And I'm Damon," he paused for a second, he could not just say Targaryen, because these guys were obviously Targaryens, "Damon Salvatore." He used his mother's maiden name, it was the first to pop into his mind.
"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, good ser, my lady," Klaus-like one said -Damon hoped he would introduce himself otherwise Damon might call him by that name- he turned his head so he would see Kathrine, "I'm Aegon Targaryen and these are my siblings, Aemon and Visenya."
Damon changed his mind about Kathrine's real name, it was very easy to pronounce. Of course he had heard of Targaryen names, but the boy's accent when he said those names was just too much.
"Brother, you should stop calling us by those names." Visenya argued.
"Oh, sure. Let me correct myself, their preferred names are Nymeria and Jon." Aegon grinned.
The girl's name stayed at the same level of oddness but the boy's one was a whole lot simpler. Damon stopped in the middle of that thought, the names, Nymeria and Visenya, Jon and Aemon, and an Aegon to go on with. He barely managed not to gasp, this was an old tale her mother used to tell him when he was a child. He had been so dumb not to notice it earlier, their sigils was enough to know.
Behind Nymeria, Kathrine became tense as well, clearly recalling the same thing. Damon cursed his memory of his childhood. He could do well to remember more. He needed to remember that story if they were to live with it. He could only remember scary frozen monsters and loads of violent wars, a few big wolves and some dragons. Those did not helped that much. Not really.
They soon stopped in a semi-clearing and dismounted their horses. Vampire or not, Damon had some problems with horse-riding, it hurt too much for his taste and sitting with yet another person on the back of some war horse did no help.
"I hope you are not in hurry, because we would be here for quite some time." Nymeria said.
"There is no problem, unless it is going to take more than a day." Damon tried his best to use a more formal tone. He was not sure whether they were royalty or just lords and lady. His memories of those stories were so distant.
Aegon grinned, "It would not be that long, I assure you we will get back as soon as the sun sets or even before that. Just enough for our royal father to calm down a bit." He stole a look to Jon who was brooding. Nymeria frowned at Aegon's words, like it was something that he was not supposed to say. Nevertheless the statement made Damon make a conclusion that they were royalty.
Neither Damon nor Kathrine did not press the matter. Instead they watched as Aegon took out a skin of wine and it circled among them, each taking a sip, even Jon the Brooder took a sip or two. Before that day, Damon thought that Stefan was the most brooding person in the whole history, Jon outbeat him.
They started talking and it was time to form a background story for themselves. Kathrine took the responsibility of that part.
"We come from a village far from here. There was some events..." She made an 'I don't want to talk anymore of it' face.
It must have worked, because Nymeria nodded in an understanding way. Jon looked sympathetic. Damon supposed that he had had some experiences with that sort of things.
Aegon shifted awkwardly, "Let's do something." He got up from where he sat on a fallen branch.
Nymeria made a mischievous grin and got to her feet, but stopped midair, "They may not like it." She probably meant them.
"Oh, please go on." Kathrine said nicely.
"See? They don't have a problem." Aegon grinned.
At any rate, Damon had no idea what the siblings were up to until Jon's hand moved to the hilt of his sword.
He drew a very fine castle forged blade with his own coat of arms as its hilt. His act was soon followed by his sister and brother, each drawing their own swords. They wanted to swordfight.
It gave Damon relief to know that at least this girl was not one of those super ladies who would sit in a room all day and embroider something. He watched with amusement as Nymeria managed to disarm Aegon and moved to engage with her less-fun brother. Damon was surprised that the boy really knew what he was doing, he disarmed his sister in less than three simple moves, "You should try harder, sister." He beamed at her while he helped her back to her feet. It was the first time that he actually spoke with his own will.
Nym made a low growl, "No matter how much I try, you are always trying harder." She said.
Aegon looked at Damon, "Do you want a turn, Damon?" He offered Damon his sword.
"It would be a pleasure, Prince Aegon." He smirked and took his sword.
It felt well-balanced but Damon did not have much of a practice with swords, except for some basic trainings back in the days when he was human and serving in the military. Prince Brooding -which was the name he had given to Jon in his mind- held up his sword, ready to defend himself.
Even though Damon had always been told to not to strike first, he could not wait, it was not important at all. He would win anyway, he was a vampire. Knowing that, he made the first move and lunged to Jon's left, where his defenses was down. Jon easily blocked the blow and took one small step forward, trying to get Damon in the lower body. Had he not been a vampire, he would have been gutted with that blow, but he managed to move his sword and block his way just in time. He would not let this boy win. He charged once more at Jon, this time pretending to mean the sword for his left side but he changed the direction in the last second.
Apparently it was not truly the last second, Jon blocked that easily as well and made another move that could have cost Damon his head if Jon had really meant to harm Damon. He threw himself back to avoid the blow and gave Jon another moment to lunge before he could get back to his feet.
"Go easy on him, brother." Damon heard Aegon say.
If this was Jon's hard work, then was no worry, it would take some time before he was disarmed. Damon managed to strike Jon in the shoulder because of that comforting thought, of course the sword made no more damage than a mere cut. Jon did not even flinch, his attacks became more calculated and he did not give any more opening to Damon. Unlike Damon had expected, the boy had not became tense or angry. It was bad, Jon was turning out to be rather a well-trained swordsman.
He had spent too much time musing over Jon that he had given the boy an opening. Jon locked his sword in Damon's one and pushed it out of his hand, causing it to fall to the ground. Then in one swift move, he had the tip of his sword pointed to Damon's heart, "Surrender." Jon commanded him.
Damon could see Kathrine smirking at his defeat, he could not take it. So without a second thought, he grabbed Jon's sword and felt it cut his palms as he drew it to himself. Jon was smart enough to let go of his sword instead of being dragged with it. As Damon had suspected, the boy had another weapon with himself, which was a dagger. It could not help him, of course. But he took it out anyway and lunged forward at Damon. Damon expected nothing from the dagger. It turned out to be the understatement of the year, Jon was too fast in his movements -not as fast as a vampire, but close enough- and Damon was too optimistic. He had counted on a last minute defense, but Jon had never wanted to plunge his dagger to Damon's skin. A light touch and Damon felt he was on fire, he saw his jacket smoking from a real little heat. The dagger in Jon's hand, now shone with red veins in it. The guy was a Targaryen for sure.
He had let go of Jon's sword without even knowing. Now the look on Kathrine's face was simply acceptable for Damon as a sign of his defeat. He could not deny the fact that Jon was better than even a vampire -of course with his tricks, otherwise Damon would have won the match.
"It was a good fight, Salvatore." Jon said as he sheathed his dagger and Damon handed him back his sword.
"Not so fair, though. You cheated, my prince." Damon said, trying not to look at Kathrine's direction. The vampire was probably laughing her guts out, but in silence.
"You should have surrendered." There was a playful glint in the boy's eyes. Damon wanted to drain the boy's blood at that moment.
"Worry not, you are not the first person that loses to my brother in such way, nor will you be the last." Aegon assured him.
Damon intended to make it the last. But with a second thought he decided to wait, he could not simply kill a prince and get away with it nor could he compel his way to get away with such crime.
Bonnie:
It was cold, like, very cold. Bonnie shivered in her jacket and opened her eyes lazily, but the cold wind stung her eyes, so she just shut them again instantly.
Wait a minute. She thought to herself and a second later she jerked fully awake. All around her was snow and tall, dark trees. Next to her lay Jeremy. So either she was not dead or Jeremy had died.
A moment later Jeremy woke up as well, looking wildly around himself until he stopped his gaze on Bonnie.
"Where are we?" He asked her.
"I've got no idea." Bonnie replied.
"The spell...Liv's spell. It must've gone wrong at some point." Jeremy concluded as he tried to get up and warm himself using his own arms
.
Bonnie found a semi-dry branch and cast a fire spell on it. At least it could warm their hands. Another relief was that she could actually do magic. She realized that after a second.
"We need to find..." Shelter, Bonnie wanted to say, but a group of riders stopped her from saying anything at all.
"Um...they don't look like modern people." Jeremy said.
And they did not, they were half a dozen men all wrapped in furs and heavy cloaks, riding huge stallions and coming their way. Bonnie decided that they did not look like Eskimo, so they could not be in North Pole.
They stopped as they reached them. Their leader was a man with dark brown hair and beard, he looked down at them, "What is your business here, folks?" He asked them.
Jeremy took the responsibility to talk, although he looked equally dazed from the horsemen, "We're lost, my lord."
Bonnie wondered where he had gotten that 'my lord' thing, but it seemed appropriate.
"We lost the road. Please, my lord, we need shelter." Jeremy did a little puppy eye thing just to add more effect.
The leader nodded at his men, "Give these folks horses, we will ride back to Winterfell." He announced.
Bonnie narrowed her eyes at the mention of the place, Winterfell was the name of the old ruins near Mystic Falls, they were certainly back in time, but not so far away in distance.
"So, what do two wanderers like you seek in the North?" Another whiskery man asked, he was older, to be sure.
"We go where there is work." Bonnie said. She realized that she had not added any proper title to her sentence and it was too late, anyway she did not know who this man was, maybe a lord or just some knight.
"And what would your names be?" Their leader spoke up once more.
"I'm Jeremy Gilbert, my lord, and this is my friend, Bonnie Bennett." Jeremy said.
"Do you know who I am?" The man asked them. They were surely in an awkward situation.
Bonnie looked at the riders, they bore no sigil save for all of them had some grey color here or there. There was no other indication to help.
"I'm sorry my lord, but I'm afraid we don't." Since when had Jeremy became so polite and formal?
"Well, I am Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and the North." The man said, kinder this time.
So he was a Stark. Bonnie should have guessed when he had said Winterfell, but she had never supposed that Starks actually did exist. Did this mean that real Targaryens -not Blackfyre descendants like Damon and Stefan who were just named Targaryen- existed as well?
"I'm sorry my lord, we should have known you." Jeremy used his formal voice once more, he was really good at it.
Did he read fantasy books like Lord of the Rings? Bonnie wondered.
"There is naught to be sorry about, Jeremy Gilbert," he nodded knowingly, "Although I do wonder how such a well-spoken couple are not wandering in the woods like this without even knowing where they are."
They really needed some story as soon as possible. Bonnie sought to that part, "We are not Westerosi, my lord," they were, but they did not belong to that particular timeline, "We come from a village far from Westeros."
That should have been enough. Lord Eddard did not sounded like the type that would ask too many a question, and thankfully he did not.
Kathrine:
Aegon was nothing like Klaus, at least when it came to paranoia and madness. Kathrine was thankful for that. The first time she had met Aegon back in the woods, she had been too afraid to notice that he could not have been Klaus.
Nonetheless, she could not stop marveling at how this thing was even possible. Aegon was not really a doppelgänger, he could never be one according to what Qetsiyah had said. And he had more differences with Klaus than just hair and eye color. He was leaner and even a tad more handsome than Klaus. But as far as Kathrine knew, Klaus had no relations with Targaryens. The prince, on the other hand, was a pure Targaryen, though his mother was northerner.
Aegon, Jon and Nymeria had brought them to Red Keep with themselves, stating that they could stay with them and be their companions. Personally, Kathrine had no problem with it. It was that or they had to stay in the filthy streets of Kings Landing and compel their way to get some gold and somewhere to sleep in. Kathrine hated that sort of lifestyle.
Now they had been in the luxury of a castle for almost a day. She had not seen anyone of special importance since her arrival other than the princess and the two princes.
She had been honored by the personal handmaid of Nymeria to tend to her works. Kathrine was glad to have a hot bath in her room just the way she had been used to for some centuries till the twentieth century. It felt like a nostalgia in some sorts.
As Lyla helped her into her dress, Kathrine tried to compel her to get some information. It did not work. She tried it multiple times and nothing happened. She was sure that the girl was not on vervain, yet her compulsion had no effect.
She quickly dressed and left her hair loose on her shoulders in a rush to share her experiment with Damon.
"I know," Damon responded to the news, "I tried it with the servant that brought me lunch. It doesn't work."
"So what the hell should we do? I can't live like this!" Kathrine was frustrated. Over the centuries she had compelled her way amongst people, she could not just forget everything about it.
"So are we trapped here?" She said after she got no answer from Damon to her first question.
"I don't even know whether we're dead or alive." Damon frowned at her.
"We must be alive. Being dead is...different. You don't feel hunger or pain." Kathrine said.
"Ah, I forgot you are an expert." Damon smirked.
"Shut up, Damon Targaryen. And I see the only thing that you're an expert at is losing from broody princes."
"You were killed by a broody vampire who you loved." Damon reminded her.
She wanted to answer with something like how she was killed by multiple -at least two- people, but sound of footsteps stopped her.
Three men were coming their way, two of them wore white armor and white cloaks, but the one in the middle wore a black velvet doublet with Targaryen dragon on it. His silvery hair followed to his shoulders and his dark violet eyes glittered madly. He was surely the king himself, the very same man that the Targaryen siblings had been running from the last day when they found Damon and Kathrine.
She made a prefect curtsy as she stepped out of his way. He did not look mad or fearsome at all, except for his eyes. But if those old wives' tales were true, he had not been mad in the first place, he had been rather the glorious and gentle prince of Dragonstone who had fought a war to stay with his beloved Stark girl rather than his first Dornish wife. But Kathrine did not believe in those stories that much, they said that the king -whatsoever his name was- had been gravely disfigured in his battle with something Baratheon -Robett, maybe- but the man Kathrine saw was handsome without a doubt.
The king, however, paid no attention to her curtsy or her existence at all, and continued his way. When they finally passed them, Kathrine and Damon made their way to the gardens around the vast castle.
"We need to get close to the royal family." She said in a low voice when they were safely in the gardens. It was unlikely that anyone could hear them without being heard by a pair of vampires, but she did it just in case.
"Why so? Are you going to rule this place?" Damon asked her.
"Maybe, who knows," she smiled, "But, anyway, we are probably trapped in this timeline for quite some time. We will be needing entertainment and power."
"If entertainment means Bourbon, then yes, we need it." Damon joked.
"I mean it, Damon." She frowned.
"Of course you do, what is Kathrine Pierce without her plots and schemes?" Damon was back to his arrogant self that had entertained Kathrine back at 1864.
"Back to the topic; we need to remain close to Targaryens."
"Yes, you can offer the princess to be her lady-in-waiting, if that's what they call them. And I can become a companion of both princes, while Jon is insufferably like Stefan, Aegon seems quite good for my taste." Damon said.
"I suppose his Klaus-like face doesn't bother you, then." Kathrine said. Nonetheless, what Damon had said, had been her plan more or less.
"Does it bother you? I mean, you're afraid of Klaus." Damon smirked at her angry face.
"Don't go too far, Damon Salvatore." She emphasized on his new-made last name.
