His violet eyes were locked on the Usurper's stormy blue ones; they screamed loss, rejection and fury at the black armored man before him. But in Robert Barheon's heart, and though he would never admit it, he knew that the woman he loved, Lyanna Stark, went with the Dragon instead of the Stag.
The man shouted a war cry, but Rhaegar Targaryen did not hear it. Only the deafening beat of his heart and the blood pumping through his veins.
The Stag of Storm's End rushed the Dragon Prince, who held his dripping red sword before him to intercept the large war hammer that the other carried. But the hammer's swing was to wild, and he was nearly hit by the iron death that was the tip.
"You raped her!" Robert shouted at him, tears streaming down his face in fustration, desperation and sadness. "You stole her from me and raped her!"
He heard that, and his heart skipped a beat. That's what they say about me? He thought.
Robert swung his war hammer at him again, but this time Rhaegar caught it with his dragon decorated shield. He felt the pain in his arm where the metal had dented, but ignored it. In the few seconds that the Stag was lifting his hammer away, the Dragon Prince struck, slicing the man's leg with his long sword. Rhaegar advanced, causing Robert to limp back.
"I didn't and you know it!" he shouted. "She is everything to me! And after this tantrum of yours, I'm going to marry her!"
"It's not right! What of Elia? What about her and your two children?" Robert moved again, swinging his hammer wildly but missing. "Lyanna disserves to share her heart with someone who isn't sharing with another woman!" He tried to strike again, but the Prince ducked.
"Oh, and you're any better? Lyanna told me of the bastard you sired in the Vale!"
They were in the river now, their amour making them sink in the mud.
Rhaegar trusted his blade foreword catching the other in the upper of his right arm. Robert hissed in pain and glared at the Prince. "I'll kill you Rhaegar!"
The silver haired man drew his sword to the taller's neck. "No, Robert, not before I kill you." He poised the blade to take Robert's windpipe. "The Stag is the Dragon's prey, not the other way around."
But that was when the massive hammer hit him in the chest. It was pain as he had never felt before; his lungs were blazing hotter than the dragon flames he had read about in times past. His wide violet eyes looked to the stormy blue of the Usurper's face. Nothing but satisfaction lay in them.
He fell to his knees and looked down at his breastplate. The rubies that had made up the sigil of his House had spilled to the dark waters below. The black metal was torn and he could see the blood oozing from the cracks, the white of bone and the pink of muscles.
He looked up again as he fell in what seemed slow motion to the shallow water. There was a woman.
She wore nearly nothing but for a shortened silver breastplate, arm and shin guards. A long, pale blue cloth fell from her hips from a silver, armored belt. She wore a winged helm that spilled long golden locks. Her eyes were the deepest blue, more blue than the Tully eyes of the blue shores of the Sapphire Island. She had pale skin and lips as red as blood. Wings sprouted from her back as white as the Measter's ravens.
She held him up with a decivingly strong arm. Rhaegar saw as a ghostly from of himself fall, then felt as the woman's red lips touched his own, then there was nothing.
~
She was screaming. No pain had ever been worse. The child was fighting his way out like the Dire-wolves of Winterfell. There was blood. Pools of it on her bed. She screamed again as she heard the clang of sword on sword outside the tower. She pushed again, and finally the child came out, covered in blood as he was.
A boy. She swelled with pride at him. She reached for him and held him, trying to quiet the screaming child. He had her hair; the tiny mop of it on top of his head was dark brown. When he opened his eyes, she almost thought gray, but then she saw the hint of violet that were the boy's fathers.
She smiled as he grew quiet.
There was a clatter at the door. Her icy gray eyes turned to her brother and his close friend as he stood, shocked in the doorway. "Ly- Lyanna..." he whispered.
"Promise me Ned..." she muttered, eyes drooping and clouded. Her voice dropped to a barely audible whisper. "Promise me Ned, promise that..."
"Lyanna, don't!"
Tears began to stream down her face. "He's gone. Promise me Ned..."
"I-I will." Tears were flooding from Eddard's eyes.
She smiled and went limp, the baby in her arms cried as she dropped a blackened rose.
Holland was quiet as he watched the exchange between brother and sister. "We need to find him a wet nurse." He said with his blank green eyes.
Ned nodded and picked the new born up and wrapped him in his bloodstained cloak. "To Starfall."
