The Adventures of Rickon and Osha
Plot Outline
This fan fiction story is set following the events of Game of Thrones Season 3, Episode 9. It blends elements of the television series Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. The main characters are Rickon Stark, the younger brother of Bran Stark, and Osha, their Wildling guardian. In Episode 9, Rickon, Osha and Shaggydog part company with Bran and travel south of the Wall to seek refuge with Greatjon Umber, the Lord of House Umber and a bannerman of the Stark family. In this story, Rickon discovers his Force talents while Osha experiences flashbacks of a former life. For the purposes of this story, I have made Osha a reincarnation of Nymphadora Tonks, a Harry Potter character. Meanwhile, dark extra-terrestrial forces begin to take an interest in events on Westeros. The Sith Lord Darth Vader dispatches a female Inquisitor, a Dark Side minion, to hunt down and kidnap Rickon. Vader has sensed Rickon's presence in the Force and intends to exploit the boy's Force potential. The Inquisitor is a former Jedi apprentice who survived the Great Jedi Purge. Darth Vader offers the Inquisitor a place as his apprentice in the Sith Order if she succeeds in capturing Rickon alive. Due to the Rule of Two, there can always only be two Sith at any one time: a Master and an Apprentice. Vader plans to kill Emperor Palpatine and become the new Sith Master. But his minion has plans of her own. I also made up the code name Planet 4554647 for George R.R. Martin's world. Note: I don't own any of these characters except for Mara Taral. Her first name "Mara" means bitterness in Hebrew and is a reference to Mara Jade Skywalker, a character from Star Wars Legends, the old Expanded Universe outside of the movies.
Part 1: Rickon and Osha's POV
Rickon dreamt that he was Shaggydog, his pet direwolf. Like his older brother Bran, Rickon had the ability to Warg into animals. This meant that he had the ability to enter their minds, and to perceive all their thoughts, actions, and surroundings. Shaggydog was pursuing a deer through the forest. Dawn was approaching and the sky was turning from dark blue to a light yellow-orange shade. In an attempt to evade its pursuer, the deer tried to leap over a stream. However, the deer miscalculated her jump and crashed onto a pile of rocks, breaking two of her legs. As the deer squirmed in pain, Shaggydog landed in the stream and put the deer out of her misery. While immersed Shaggydog's mind, Rickon could feel the direwolf tear bone apart from flesh. He could taste the chunky strips of flesh and smell the acrid iron scent of blood.
Suddenly, this dream gave way to another dream. Rickon found himself in the main hall of a castle. There had been a great banquet but it had descended into a pandemonium of mayhem and death. There were screams, the fluttering of arrows, and the sound of swords slashing through garment and flesh. The floor was littered with discarded food, shattered crockery, and puddles of blood. In one corner, Rickon saw a pregnant woman in a green dress being stabbed repeatedly through her womb. As Rickon turned round, he saw his elder brother Robb Stark being stabbed through his chest repeatedly by a man, who had been one of his family's bannermen and had even eaten at their table. The air then rang with a loud wail of despair. Rickon then saw his mother slashing the throat of another woman before having her throat slit from behind by a long-haired man in black. The air flowed with the dark, foreboding tune of the Rains of Castamere. Rickon heard himself screaming in despair and ran to cradle his fallen mother. Tears flowed down his cheeks as his heart throbbed.
Before he could reach out to touch his fallen, everything disappeared and Rickon's surroundings turned pitch black. Suddenly, Rickon heard a ragged mechanical sound, like someone taking several deep breaths. Rickon turned around and saw a dark figure towering over him. The mysterious man was dressed like a black knight and wore dark robes. The black knight's helm was curve and rounded, sitting atop a menacing death mask. The man's chest was line with several blue and red buttons which flicked through the darkness. In his right hand, the black knight held a flaming red sword which glowed through the darkness.
"Join me, Rickon. You have lost everything that you have held dear in your life. Your home, your father, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters. Join me and embrace the Dark Side. It is the only way."
Before Rickon could open his mouth to utter a response, he found himself falling feet first into a dark chasm. Rickon awoke and realized it had all just been a dream. He found himself lying at the base of a big willow tree. The grass around him was still covered in dew. It was dawn and the first rays of sunlight were beginning to penetrate the cloudy sky. His guardian Osha lay to his left and was beginning to stir from her sleep. His direwolf Shaggydog had returned with its kill, dragging the dead deer with its mouth. The previous night, they had camped in the middle of a thicket of trees.
"Aunty Osha," cried Rickon, with tears streaming down his face. "I saw Mum and my big brother. They're dead. There was a big scary knight!"
"It's allright, my little lord," spoke Osha gently. "It was only a bad dream."
Kneeling down, she gave Rickon a bear hug.
"It's allright little one, I will keep you safe."
After breakfasting on bread and roasted squirrel, Osha, Rickon, and Shaggydog continued their journey to the Last Hearth, the holdfast of Lord Greatjon Umber, one of the Stark family's bannermen. The Last Hearth lay south of the Gift, east of the King's Road, and north of the Last River.
"Are you allright, Aunty?," asked Rickon, who had noticed Osha's pale and weary expression.
"I'm okay, little one," replied Osha, who winked a smile to hide her troubled countenance "Just catching a breath, I'm not as young as you."
Osha was lying. In fact, she had also experienced a troubling dream. In that dream, Osha had found herself in the middle of a climactic battle in an old castle. People were hurling spells at each other. The air rang with shouts and screams. Osha felt a trickle of blood flowing down her face onto her bruised lips. Her clothes were hanging in tatters and her body was lacerated with scrapes and bruises. Osha found herself lying on the hard stony floor. She found herself staring up into the merciless eyes of a pale woman dressed in black with long, curly hair. The mysterious woman held a black wand in her hand.
"You pathetic little half-blood," snarled the dark-clad woman. "You should have joined us rather than those traitors and mudbloods."
In her dream Osha tried to mouth a response but found that she could not muster the strength to do so. Blood gushed from a dozen cuts and bruises. Osha tried to move her arms and legs but felt nothing.
The dark-clad woman continued. "So here lies Nymphadora Lupin. Friend of Mudbloods and traitors."
The woman then lifted her wand and uttered the phrase Avada Kedavara. Instantly, Osha felt the life drain out of her body. She found herself enveloped in a bright ray of light. As she faded into nothingness, Osha saw her life flash by, not as a Wildling but another life in a strange world of witches, wizards, and cars. In the flashback, Osha saw glimpses of herself attending a school for wizards and witches, joining a secret Order in a great struggle against a Dark Lord, falling in love and marrying a hairy man, giving birth to a child, and fighting to protect a very special boy. Everything prior to the great battle within the castle.
As Osha watched her life flash by, she quickly realised that she had been someone else in her past. A woman named Nymphadora Lupin, and also known by the nickname Tonks. What was this life? How did she end up in another world? Most importantly, what was she doing here?
With great difficulty, Osha put her thoughts about her past life aside. She had to put on a strong face for the sake of the little one, she thought. He had already suffered so much. Firstly, the loss of his father and the imprisonment of his sisters. Then the loss of his home, his older brother, and finally his mother. It had been very difficult for Rickon to part with his older brother Bran Stark, who was traveling north on a foolhardy journey with the Meera and Jojen Reed to find the mysterious three-eyed raven. But it was for his own good, with his family scattered, it was imperative that she bring him somewhere safe. Especially anywhere south of the Wall. Osha dreaded the very thought of going North, knowing the insidious, creeping threat which had claimed the life of her husband.
Part 2: Mara Taral's POV
In the depths of space, a dagger-shaped spaceship approached a star system in the depths of the Unknown Regions. This spaceship was the Star Destroyer Chimaera and it was carrying a special passenger. The Inquisitor Mara Taral was a Dark Side-wielding agent of the Sith. Following the end of the Clone Wars and the Great Jedi Purge, the galaxy had come under the domination of the Sith and their Galactic Empire. Under the Rule of Two, the Sith consisted of only two members: a master, and an apprentice. One to hold power and the other to crave it. However, the Sith also had an army of Force-sensitive Dark Siders to do their bidding. These Dark Siders were put to work hunting and rooting out the last remnants of the Jedi Order. Mara was only one in a mighty army of Inquisitors. She was a pale-skinned human woman with long, black curly hair which dropped down to her shoulders.
Mara Taral was a Nightsister, a clan of Force-sensitive Dark Siders who resided on the remote planet of Dathomir. In the last days of the Old Republic, Mara had been talent scouted by agents of the Emperor, who was then still Supreme Chancellor and known under the name Darth Sidious. For the past ten years, Mara had hunted Jedi, rebels, and separatists. Her Force powers and lightsaber combat skills had gained her the attention of Darth Vader, the Sith apprentice of Emperor Palpatine. She had become his "hatchet woman" and he would send her on the most challenging and dangerous missions. He favoured her over the other Inquisitors, particularly that gaunt and arrogant Pa'uan.
Mara entered her meditation chamber. While enjoying a well-deserved cup of tea, Mara had received word that her mentor was seeking an audience with her via hologram. Darth Vader had sent her on a top secret mission to recover a Force-sensitive child on a remote world in the depths of the Unknown Regions. According to Imperial Intelligence reports, this planet, known as Planet 4554647, was a primitive backwater that was home to several feudalistic human civilizations. Planet 4554647's human inhabitants had not yet reached their industrial age or developed interstellar travel yet. The planet's human inhabitants were still divided into various feudal kingdoms and city states which squabbled like spoilt younglings. It was speculated that these humans were the descendants of an ancient lost human colony, which had become cut off from the wider galaxy. Planet 4554647 had at least three continents called Westeros, Essos, and Sothoryos. Imperial Intelligence had recently taken interest in events on the continent of Westeros, a long, narrow landmass that was separated from Essos by a small sea. Unlike the other continents, the inhabitants of Westeros that lay south of the wall had united themselves into one kingdom. Until recently, they had been ruled by a certain King named Robert Baratheon. The death of King Robert had thrown Westeros into the throes of a devastating civil war. While the Empire had little interest in Planet 4554647, it was known to be the home of several Force-sensitive individuals. Some of these had the power to see visions or to conjure magic. While others had the power to enter the minds of animals.
Kneeling down, Mara Taral gazed into the glittering blue figure of Darth Vader in the middle of the hologram projector.
"My Lord, we are approaching Planet 4554647," reported Mara "As you have commanded."
"Yes, I have also felt their presence glowing in the Force," replied Darth Vader. "The Emperor has ordered us to seek the Children of the Force. They must not become Jedi. They will be made to serve the Sith. If they refuse to join us, they must die. "
"What would you have me do on Planet 4554647?," Mara asked.
"I want you to bring me Rickon, the youngest of the Starks," Darth Vader's voice boomed. "I have sensed that this young one is strong in the Force. If he could be turned, he would make a powerful asset. But if he cannot be turned, he will die."
"Yes, another opportunity to advance the New Order," said Mara sarcastically "What's in store for me?"
"If you succeed, I will make you my Sith Apprentice," replied Darth Vader "And together we will overthrow the Emperor and rule the Galaxy."
"This…this is a great offer," Mara stammered, half excited and half shocked. "But what you are suggesting is treason…Are you sure our communications are secure?"
"We are on the most secure communications line in the galaxy," said Darth Vader "It is encrypted in the most advanced code in the galaxy. It has been developed specifically to counter the growing Rebellion."
Darth Vader continued: "I sense your burning ambitions and desire for power. This will be your final challenge to see whether you are worthy to wear the mantle of the Sith."
"Yes," said Mara "I will not fail you on this test."
The hologram of Darth Vader flickered for a moment before vanishing, completing their conversation. Mara savoured the new opportunity which had presented itself. She saw this trip to Planet 4554647 to kidnap or kill Rickon as an opportunity to join the vaunted Sith Order. However, she had her own plans of achieving that goal. After capturing or killing Rickon, she planned to lure Darth Vader to Planet 4554647 and then kill him. She would then take his place as the Emperor's apprentice. Avarice and back-stabbing was part of the Sith way. A thousand years ago, the Sith had almost destroyed each other through their own greed and ambition. Darth Bane had managed to eliminate this problem by reforming the Sith Order into an organization consisting of two people, instead of the thousands. This made the Sith more cohesive and less vulnerable to internal infighting.
Endnotes
My apologies for changing Rickon and Osha's intended destination from the Isle of Skargos to The Last Hearth. The TV series deviates from the books and I got my facts mixed up. Since this story follows the TV series, the destination will be The Last Hearth.