Sansa's POV
My heart hammers wildly as I flee the crypts. Tyrion slamming the door behind us as the smoke swirls around us. "Move Sansa!" The urgency sends me fleeing towards the Weirwood. Bran, Bran would still be there. Right? Tears fill my eyes as I hear the wail of a dragon before the earth shakes under my feet. The dragons have fallen. The dragons ... Jon. Arya. My throat constricts from the emotional turmoil. I break around the corner as Arya skids through a door to find Theon facing us. Arya. On swift feet I come to Theons side, grasping his arm.
"Behind me now Sansa." His voice is hard, but his eyes are tender as they flicker to me. I shake my head sadly at his request, but he huffs shaking my hand off and I kiss his cheek before I approach Arya who stands protectively in front of Bran, Tyrion two steps in front of her. I grasp her to me with shaking arms, hands still clenched around the dagger. My eyes drift to Bran who smiles slightly at me. The sight alarming with the dead approaching.
"Did you use the pointy end sister?" Arya jokes as she lets out a small cry herself.
"I am sorry I couldn't do more to prepare you, to save you from this fright." Bran draws softly as we hear the dead grow closer. Arya laughs darkly before turning to see the serenity on our brother's face.
"Bran?" Arya asks guessingly. Tyrion returns to my side with a slight tilt of the head. Bran knew this would happen.
"Because when you go back, you had to know in your hearts who you are, what is at stake sisters." He holds his hands out for us. I stare at the appendage still choking on the fear and loss. Jon
"Brother, what are you saying?" I barely breath the words.
"I am sending you back, to your youth. With the knowledge of this life, to save us. To set the wrongs right and stop the realm from fading into the dark night." Bran says urging us to take his hands. Tyrion gasps at my side as my world spins with the information.
"SANSA!" It's a distant cry that brings me whirling around as the dead march around the corner.
"JON!" The scream tearing from me in urgency, moving forward but Tyrion is yanking me back.
"FOCUS SISTER." Arya grasps me to her tightly, her voice shaking as she throws my arm at Bran.
"Tell me you accept the duties laid before you." He asks as I bark "Yes". My head turning back to watch Theon rush the dead. My resolve building as warmth spreads through me. With the hope that Jon is coming or the magic that is flaring in my brothers eyes I do not know.
"SANSA!" Jon's voice is closer, and I look to Bran pleading. But he shakes his head with a frown.
"This was always the path laid out for the wolf sisters. The Lone wolf and The Red Wolf of the North." He says as the dead clash with Theon. My heart sinking as I wish for Jon to appear. How was I going to do anything without him? Tyrion laughs darkly at Brans side.
"You may have to assist our friend. Do not die because your soul will not leave this plane." He says cryptically before releasing our hands. My eyes find Tyrion and he nods resolve building in his eyes.
"I'll protect him until the end little wife. Be brave" My throat constricts as I meet Arya's eyes before following her towards Theons clashing metal. I grab a shield from the ground, terrified. My small dagger shaking in my hand as I watch Arya charge without fear. I will not back down now. Taking a deep breath, I rush to Theons side, slamming the shield into the dead before shoving the blade around the shield haphazardly. I wasn't made for battle and my body protests the clash of metal on ice.
The implications as the magic seems to burn into my body making me grunt as the dead push back with the force of a hundred horses. I cry out as my leg is cut around the shield. My breaths are coming to fast, my heart constricting at all the loss but my senses are becoming overwhelmed with magic.
"SANSA!" Arya calls from the other side of Theon as he falls. Her voice waivers and I wonder if she feels the confusion as well. Does the fear or magic burn in my chest? I cry out slamming the shield into another body as a knife pierces my stomach, hot searing pain. I slam the blade forward and feel a body fall. Then Arya is in my vision, blood running down her arm heavily. My brave sister. I will not leave you. My heart lurching as the blood leaves me but I keep pushing against the heavy men made of ice with her, strength entering me at the sight of her ferocity. Jon.
Then the world seems to hear my broken plea as he slams into my other side pushing my shield up higher to protect my head and wielding his sword swiftly at the hoard. "Jon." I cry cutting at another arm coming around the shield. The world is becoming fuzzy and he is leaning heavily into me, face pale, feet staggering under him. My heart breaks as I try to shield him more once a sword pierces his shoulder harshly, but it only leaves me vulnerable as I am cut deep into my chest. Arya slams into my left side as the pain becomes numbing, screaming my name as I fall. Jon collapsing beside me. His dead face is the last thing I see, the ring of my sister's sword is the last thing I hear before the burning fire in my body consumes me.
Then the light is blinding as I feel pain in my hand making me jerk haphazardly to me feet. My mind jumbled as I take in the bewildered face of my mother. Mother? My eyes dart around looking for the flames, the dead and the bodies. Jon. Jon, I choke on the sensations and emotions warring within me.
"Sansa, what's wrong dear?" She questions as my eyes dart to my bloody hand. The needle jammed firmly into it. I pull it free in a daze and stumble from the room disoriented. Gulping in the warm summer air.
"SANSA!" I hear a tired cry from the courtyard. My feet move as if the dead were still upon me. I hurry to my sister where she leans against a wall with my brother and Jon at her side. She doesn't look up as barrel towards them, I let my gaze fall over their concerned faces as she curls in on herself. My heart lurching at Robb and Jon's eyes flying to my oncoming form. I slam into her, pulling her close with the fear still gripping my heart. Jon's dead face, Theons falling body more real than the world moving around me.
"Oh. You fell and I thought I would be alone again." She mumbles into my shoulder making me marvel at her size. My mind halting at the reality we have been plunged into. I take a breath pulling her tighter to me.
"Oh sister, never again. I swear on the Old Gods and the New." I reply trying to sound calm. Not looking at the world around us. Too afraid it won't be real, entirely terrified that it is real.
"Sansa what in the world is going on." Arya stiffens at Robbs voice. I hold her to me casting my gaze to him. My brother is so young. He was young when he died. Arya seems to grip me tighter as our bodies become tight with tension. I pull Arya under my arm turning to face Robb fully. My eyes water looking from him to Jon. Pushing it all aside I straighten my shoulders before his dead face fills my mind.
"Robb, could you tell father we need him at the Weirwood. It's important." He looks perplexed as his eyes drift from Arya then back to me.
"Of course, Sister." He turns, setting off at a brisk pace. I lose my place in the world once more as I grasp Jon's hand. Instinct had us reaching for one another often, but the way he stiffens in front of me is like ice running through my veins. This is not my Jon.
"I'm sorry Jon. Will you excuse us." I say stepping around his worried form.
"Lady Sansa, your bleeding." His voice isn't the same, but it hurts as if it was. I flinch at the name and think of the terrible way I have treated him in this life. He holds his hand out to me with a familiar scowl, showing me how my blood smeared his hand.
"It's nothing. I'm…. Jon you can call me Sansa. I am just Sansa." I say sadly as the ache builds in my chest. Arya is silent under my arm but moves swiftly to pull me from the awkward encounter. My eyes closing briefly to the pale face of a much older Jon, his life snuffed out of him. My body gives in and flees the walls into the Godswood once more.
"I just ran this path." I find myself muttering as I slow down, Arya coming to a halt in front of me.
"Bloody hell, he did it. He sent us back. I am in a damn dress and you look so young." Arya exclaims looking over her attire in distaste.
"Aye, and you are a little girl Arya." I deadpan before the mirth falls from us. Silence surrounds us as we stare at one another.
"We will tell father?" Arya asks making me nod.
"He needs to know. I …. we need our father to help us and for the first time in years he is back within our grasp. He is where we should start." I say looking to the sky wondering what time it is.
"He will think us mad Sansa anyone would." She says turning to approach the tree. We walk lazily around each other in thought.
"We have our family Arya. We start with them. Then we will figure the rest out." I say casting my gaze to the familiar Weirwood.
"What has happened that has you two worrying the entire house?" My father's voice drifts over me like a river bringing me to my knees. The sob that breaks free is still for the loss of Jon and Theon, sweet Tyrion, brilliant Bran, for the life we have been granted. It flows from me before I can stop it. His heavy footsteps bring him to my side as Arya's hand lands on my shoulder like a vice, bruising in her grasp.
"Father." Arya says in wonder. My eyes finally open to gaze upon him as his hand lands upon the crown of my head, face filled with worry.
"What's happened. Are you hurt?" His voice is demanding but tinged with fear. My brain stalls as I wonder how to explain all the horrors, we know to him. "Tell me you accept the duties laid before you."
"Bran." I utter stealing my resolve.
"Bran? What has he got to do with this?" He asks the confusion coloring his words.
"Nothing." "He … nothing Father." Arya and I answer at the same time. He stands to his feet looking worried. I stand, willing my tight shoulders to fall, stepping back a few steps to gain space. Arya looks guessingly at me. My gaze falls upon the Weirwood once more words forming in my mind.
"I used to come here as a child, follow you down to rest upon the base of the tree as you cleaned your sword." I say catching my father's eye as I speak.
"Sansa we were here doing that very thing two days ago?" He asks puzzled. My hands shake as I look away from him, willing more strength into my voice.
"Then I was gone for so long, I never thought I would see this tree again. Feel the snow on my face. Once I made it back, I was only here for a moment before being locked away. Sometimes I could gaze the top of the tree from the window of my room. More of a reminder of my family then the walls that trapped me."
"SANSA!" He barks bewildered. I continue with the tale uninterrupted by his worry.
"Once, I fled Winterfell I was so uncertain if I would ever lay eyes upon it again. Still not certain I ever wanted to. But hope was brought back to me, the will to fight for my home, to give something back to what members of my scattered pack still lived." Father is breathing rapidly in front of me know, pacing like a caged animal. "We won it back, and I lived to see my siblings gathered under this tree once more. I died in front of this tree, fighting the dead as they took the realm in the dark night." I stare him down as I did Jon many months ago. Willing him to see the world the way I have seen it. To understand the darkness that I know.
"Are you telling me… what are you saying Sansa. Nothing you say makes any sense child." He grinds out his control slipping, in fear or frustration I am not certain.
"She is trying to tell you that we have been sent back. Sent back years to save our family and the world of man." Arya says, her voice controlled but still off by the young years cast upon her.
"What? Girls. I…" I see the confusion still coursing through him. And I frown at the words I know I must speak to him.
"Why didn't you just tell mother about Jon. She treats him horribly, she taught me to treat him horribly." I say tightly as he rears back away even more perplexed. "My cousin deserves the truth. From a man he trusts. He deserves to know of his mother and his father." I say watching the color drain from his face as he sits heavily upon the wood of the Weirwood.
"Sansa?" He utters horrified.
"We were sent here. You will fall father, mother, Robb. Poor Rickon, died with an arrow in his back." I say as the tears break free.
"Sansa? Arya?" He asks still looking between us his hands now shaking as mine do.
"I watched your head roll in Kings landing father." Arya says darkly standing stiff, like a bow strung to tight about to snap.
"But…. how is this possible?" He whispers more to himself than us. Fear coloring every word.
"We don't know. But we can't waste it father. We were tasked to save… well everything. I mean to see this through until the very end." I plead with him to understand as Arya crosses to lean into my frame. He looks us over with a mixture of fear and confusion. When he pushes himself up from the tree a shock brings him to his knees making us rush forward. His face is pinched in pain, gasps of air exhaling from him harshly.
"Father?" Arya asks shaking his shoulder. He lunges to his feet looking at us horrified as a tear runs down his face.
"Jon was fighting at your side. Just there?" He says to me shoving the tears back and gaining control once more. I nod my head fiercely. Maybe Bran is still helping us.
"That was our life, the moment we came from just now." Arya says tightly. His response is swift and startling as he yanks us into his chest. The warmth of my father allowing us to grieve the darkness we just escaped, and everything left there.
"My daughters." He mumbles into my hair squeezing us tighter.
"I have missed you." I say into his chest and he laughs a bitter sound. As Arya steps free to look at him once more.
"What should we do now?" I ask as he releases me.
"I don't know child." He says rubbing his tired face still looking at us in awe. "I can see it. The long years in your eyes. Even if I hadn't been given the vision. I wouldn't be able to argue the change in my daughters." He says sadly. Pulling on my long loose hair.
"We should tell the others." Arya says more a question than a statement.
"Not the boys. Let them know happiness. Let them be free of these burdens." I say softly watching the way she thinks my words over before nodding her acceptance. Bran has given enough.
"I will take these burdens daughters. Tell me what I need to do, and it will be done. They will be yours no longer." He implores us as he drops onto one knee in front of us.
"I don't think it's that simple. It was always the path laid before the wolf sisters." I say frowning as my mind goes back to Brans words.
"The Lone wolf and the Red wolf of the North." Arya says looking at me before grasping my hand as if she wasn't in control of the action. I give her a small smile.
"We will fight this together." I say turning to grasp his hand. He shakes his head slightly before rising to pull us close once more.
"I can't imagine. I …. I don't know how to tell them." He says quietly.
"I will. Arya will. Bring them to your solar after the boys are asleep." I say trying to inject as much confidence as I can into my voice. Start small, then build from there.
"Them as in your Mother and Uncle?" He says quizzingly.
"Mother, Benjen, Robb, Jon." Arya answers making father frown.
"I don't know that we should tell Jon." The words hang heavily between us.
"This secret will be out. You can't stop it any more than we could stop the dead." Arya says frankly. Father looks to her with a puckered brow. I find my hand squeezing where the blade had entered with a frown. The emotions are burning under my skin. Pulling my shoulders back I cast my father a tired glance.
"I need to rest. A lot has happened. There is much to go over and discuss but I need a moment to… gather myself." I say as the long night still looms over me despite the sun shining above the trees. My body wars with the emotions of happiness and the total fear that has yet to fade, that probably never would.
Arya yanks me forward into our father once more, who embraces us just as tightly. I breath him in, taking in all the things that had faded over the years.
"I am sorry. For whatever happened. We will make it right." He grinds out.
"I love you father." Arya says before yanking me back with her. I give him a small smile even as his face scrunches in sadness. With a small dip of my head I watch a small smile spread across his face. Arya yanks me around and we walk briskly in silence for a moment. Both breathing heavily.
"I am so lost. This is a gift, but I have no idea what to do with it." Arya says as a smell hits me halting my footsteps. I sigh heavily, truly thinking on what has happened. Taking in the smell of old Nans pies. A night long ago in Castle Black comes to mind bringing that moment of happiness in so many years of despair to the front of my emotions. We are back. We are back. Enjoy it.
"First. We let ourselves be happy Arya. We fight and we be happy." I say pulling her to the kitchen. She follows me with a frown as I tug her into the kitchens wear steaming pies rest on the counter. Old Nan greets us distracted with her task.
"It's not time for pie dears. Off now." She says turning back to a kitchen hand to discuss food rations. I raise a brow at Arya making her eyes widen in disbelief before a large smile blooms on her face.
"I'll get the pie. Grab the spoons little wolf." I whisper and she crosses her arms in disgust at my nickname.
"Little wolf my arse." She says dryly. We are still the same. I smile, happy that I have her with me in the current of emotions that flows around me.
"Well, have you seen yourself sister?" I chuckle eyeing a towel next to the pie.
"Shut it you towering weirdo." She comments making me laugh loudly drawing attention back to us.
"What are you ladies still doing here." Old Nan huffs as I dash forward grabbing the towel and pie. As Arya slings her frame over the table with more grace then she should have grabbing the utensils with a chuckle.
"SORRY NAN!" I yell as we burst through the door, Arya hot on my heels. Peals of laughter flowing over the courtyard we run towards. "I can't believe I am doing this." I laugh out.
"Run faster you bloody idiot." Arya huffs out as Nan slams a door behind us. My heart races as we go to pass Robb and Jon again. Their faces screwed up in bewilderment. I can't stop laughing at my sisters' insults, something that came to be terms of endearment over the years I spent missing her.
My eyes focus on Robb as he starts to smile at us skidding past. "I love you brother." I call through the laughter as Arya makes to pass me on her small legs. I am always following you sister.
"Through the gate Arya, to the hills." I yell watching the courtyard come to a halt. My eyes find Mother standing with Rickon and Bran. My feet slow looking at them, yearning for their deaths to leave my memory.
"Come Red Wolf!" Arya calls noticing my distraction. I take off after her, fleeing to the hills we fall to our knees, laughter still ringing from us. Arya hands me a spoon as I rest the pie between us. We dig into the steaming pie gleefully. The glee seems to leave just as swiftly as it came. The emotions warring between happiness and terror, relief to overwhelmed. Are we here?
"Arya." I say bringing her eyes to me.
"Sister." She says the sound more familiar then the voices that rang out just a few moments ago.
"Want to rest with me sister?" I ask the weight of it all pulling me towards the ground without my consent.
"Maybe in a while. I fear looking away from it all. It will be gone, and all have been a dream." She mumbles around a mouth full of pie.
"We will need to discuss where to start. Figure out our first move sister." I say sleepily. I find myself crying. I breath deeply letting the sound of Arya digging into the pie lull me to sleep.
Jon's POV
Robb approaches me with a hand running over his face. "What do you think that was Stark?" I ask looking at the place Sansa's blood had stained my hand not long ago. Shaking my head softly. I haven't the faintest idea.
"Did you hear Arya, Jon?" He asks quietly. I nod my head wondering what could be happening in the woods our father had took to with the girls a while ago.
"She thought she was alone again. But she has never been alone." I say looking at him.
"They can't stand one another. Truly an odd occurrence. Mother says Sansa stabbed a needle clean into her hand then walked away in a trance before thundering to Arya." He whispers making me frown at my hand once more. While Sansa and I have never been close watching Arya dissolve into sadness in seconds had been terrifying.
My stomach sinks more watching the two of them dart around the corner. The laughter not a foreign sound to our home but something was different. They were different. Watching them move together as the kitchen hand yells for them to come back. Watching the way Sansa's eyes sweep over us makes my heart thunder. She calls her love for Robb, twisting the knife that never seems to leave me. The reminder her mother and Sansa never leave unsaid. But her words from earlier so different from the girl I have known. "It's nothing. I'm…. Jon you can call me Sansa. I am just Sansa."
"Run faster you bloody idiot!" Arya calls out making her sister laugh. Something truly has changed, something is in the air surrounding the castle as the sisters move through it, like the wind itself can't catch them, as if their very beings are forcing nature itself back. Together they flee the walls as I turn to see our father approach more despair upon his face than I have witnessed before. Something terrible was happening, the hairs on my neck raise as he smiles sadly at their retreating forms before scrubbing his face harshly. All signs of his emotions gone with the action, but his eyes fall upon us heavily. My heart thunders as he looks upon me for a long time before approaching.
"What was that all about. Have they taken leave of their senses?" Robb asks and his father shakes his head slowly before grasping our shoulders.
"Go up and keep an eye on them. Do not bother them just be sure no harm comes to them." He says tightly. His hands heavy with something unknown to us as they tighten briefly before releasing us.
"Father?" Robb asks once more.
"Do as I say. Nothing is to touch them Robb, Jon, do you understand?" He looks us over and we nod together, my breaths becoming deep in worry as I watch him cross to Catelyn with quick feet. We turn walking swiftly to the stairs. We watch silently as they run together for some time before they finally fall to the ground.
"Something is amiss Jon." Robb whispers.
"It's as if they are not themselves." I say making him turn to look at me. I continue watching as Sansa seems to collapse upon the ground exhausted. Something the young princess of Winterfell would never have done. Robb takes a sharp breath beside me.
"What could cause such a thing?" He asks no doubt wondering at the way Sansa sleeps upon the ground. I stay silent having no answers. Arya waves at us after a while, no doubt wanting us to know she can see us. Robb waves back as we watch her grasp her sisters' hand and rest beside her, legs crossed looking upon the sky.
"Who has hurt them?" I utter making Robb turn to me swiftly. Sadness sweeping through me at the thought.
"Why would you say that Jon?" I shrug a shoulder watching over them still. Arya wouldn't hold her sisters hand any day if someone had told her she must.
"The look in their eyes. It's not… without pain." I utter quietly. Pain that makes no sense for the girls I have been raised beside. We fall into silence once more. Time moves slowly as we take turns pacing the battlement. Rage and fear burning through each of us at the odd occurrences of the day. Occasionally one of us let out a huff or growl but no more words are spoken. Then Sansa rises slowly. We watch her slow movements, pacing much like we have been, like a wolf around its pack as she circles her sister. "Come Red Wolf!" Arya had called out.
"The Red Wolf?" Robb says quietly, obviously thinking of the same thing I had. "I have never heard her call Sansa anything but cruel names." He says watching Arya wave an arm at the castle. Clearly, they have been talking, the words lost to us.
"You mean like a Bloody Idiot." I recall the other name she had called her sister. We both stop stare as Arya rises and circles her sister. We watch, torn between fascination and fear as they talk. Sometimes Sansa throws her arms out in sweeping movements as an argument seems to be occurring. Arya chucks something angrily at some point whirling on her sister in rage.
"What is happening." I utter again, wondering for the thousandth time this day.
"You will know soon enough. Jon, I need to see you for a moment." I look over my shoulder as fathers voice rings out from behind us. I swallow deep worrying if this is the moment I will be sent from Winterfell. Lady Catelyn and Sansa's dislike has always stung but if Arya had somehow had a hand in this development…. It was hard to swallow as I looked to them once more. They were approaching now. Even their walk was different, Sansa's arms behind her, head held high. With strength that didn't belong to her. Arya walked much the same, but her feet were lighter, like a cat moving along the hills. They are not themselves.
"Yes. Father." I say turning to follow him. Ed grasps Robbs shoulder tightly.
"See that they make it to their rooms without bother Robb. You will meet with the family in my solar once the castle sleeps. Your sisters will…. Explain then." He doesn't like the sad look that crosses his father's face as he watches the girls descend the hill. His thoughts were correct. Something had hurt one of them, or both? I think in horror as I turn my back on them once more feeling ill.
"Yes, father." Robb whispers never letting his gaze leave his sisters. I watch his jaw tick. Whatever it was, he and I would make them pay. My blood burns as I follow him on tight legs. Father walks swiftly to the Weirwood, sitting amongst the roots heavily. Letting his hand stray to the tree for a moment before pulling it away with a huff puzzling me more.
"I have always promised to tell you of your mother." Father whispers making me step back. Fears of being sent away rising in my heart. I remain silent watching him gather himself before he looks at me, tired, worried and some form of relief upon his face. M
"I loved your mother, more than I have loved any other woman." I take a deep breath pondering his words.
"Jon. Your mother…. your mother was my sister. She laid dying when I found her. Made me promise to protect her son as if he were my own." He says rising to pull me down in the roots of the tree with him when my knees buckle. I take heavy breaths as the silence stretches out before us. Aunt Lyanna? Lyanna was my mother… that meant…. My father wasn't my father. My heart constricts under the knowledge. My uncle. I look to him to find his eyes trained on my face, moving about with worry.
"Uncle?" I ask quietly. He nods slowly a small smile pulling at his mouth. Who was my father then… the rape? My stomach sours farther at the thought.
"Jon. Your lineage will be the death of you. That's why I took you as my own. I would have done anything for my sister. As I will do anything for her son." He grasps my shoulder tightly. That answers my other question. I am a dragon. Not a wolf. My heart despairs before it occurs to me. I am both, Wolf and dragon. From a dragon that stole my mother and forced himself upon her.
"Do you understand Jon?" He asks quietly.
"Yes." I breath still reeling from the news. The days oddity's slipping around my mind with new information. My mind stalls wondering if the girls had known this. Was this…. did me not being their brother make things different? Sansa seemed more caring.
"Why tell me now? After all this time?" I find myself saying desperately.
"I was …. It is to be known. You have the right to know Jon. I am sorry it took so long to tell you." He mumbles making me frown.
"May I have time to myself." I whisper looking to the still waters in front of me. Struggling to breath under the information. Everything is changing.
"Of course, Jon. You …. If you do not feel up to meeting tonight, I will understand. I will explain it to you tomorrow." Ed rests his hand upon my head for a moment making me think over the laughter that rung from Sansa and Arya. "I do love you Jon." I don't answer as he leaves me in the Godswood. My mind reeling, not knowing even more startling information awaited me in the dark of the night.
Sansa's POV
"We cannot simply kill everyone on your list Arya! That will just be a murder spree and not solve the bigger problems!" I shout at her in exasperation.
"Cut the damn head of the snake off Sansa! Be done before it began!" She yells throwing a rock. I breath deep stepping back to gain focus.
"We start simple Arya. Let's pick what must be done first. If, and I mean if, it all starts to play out the same you can use my very damn face to storm Kings Landing and kill them all. But now we must move, with purpose. Towards our packs survival but also for the realms Arya." I beg tiredly. She huffs before turning towards me sharply.
"We make new list. A list of the big players and we decide if we can change the fates then." She grinds out making me smile at her.
"Yes. That would do sister." I say my mind coming stuck on the very first death for us. "Jon Arryn." I say looking to her.
"Yes. What would we do with him? Wont he be dead soon?" She asks. Making me nod.
"We could, send word, from a loyal friend that he heard troubling news. Explain the Littlefinger and Lysa conspire for his death. Tell him what to look for. Stop this death, stop the trip to Kings Landing. Then…. Well I don't know." I say looking towards the sky.
"Would he believe it though. Believe she would do such a thing."
"I do not know Arya. It seems like a logical first step." I answer bending to pick up the pie pan from the ground.
"What about everyone else. Jon Arryn wasn't even on my damn list Sansa." She huffs making me smile.
"Sister. Let's start here. This night we will have to bring others into the fold, and I am still weary from the long night." I answer as she hugs me.
"Yes, Red Wolf." She humors making me shake my head.
"The gods still should have called you the Little wolf." I answer finding her humor contagious. My mind drifts over our younger years, Arya's free spirit is something I have longed envied. Running the hills wild this afternoon made me realize all I missed being raised as Lady.
"Aye, you should have been named the Wolf with no claws. You really had no idea how to wield that blade." She laughs as we start down the hill. Grasping the plate behind me, one hand clenched around my wrist tightly at the pale image of Jon's face.
"It's not as if I was taught to fight Arya. I was raised to be a Lady and they did a good job of that and nothing else." I reply unable to contain my bitterness.
"Maybe that needs to change sister." She says all humor gone from her. I look her over for a moment, my tiny sister, my assassin sister in the body of a child of ten and two. How cruel time was.
"Perhaps." I reply quietly. We move through the gate, to my rooms swiftly. Not stopping to take in our surroundings. We both still seem ill at ease within these old walls, that have yet to see the horrors we know. Or maybe it is our small frames that carry too much burden?
"I need out of this dress Sansa." Arya clips making me nod. I look over my own silk gown. The feel bringing forth the childish dreams I once carried. Souring my stomach.
"Let's make ourselves more comfortable sister." I say stepping to my sewing desk looking over the material. "Could you get a pair of Brans breeches without disruption."
"Did I feed Lord Frey his sons in a pie?" She asks hauntingly making me shake my head. And I thought feeding Ramsey to the hounds was brutal.
"Be quick then." I answer moving to my wardrobe, looking though the dresses I begged for but no longer can stand to gaze upon. Pulling a dress free, I find what I can within my room and get to work. Arya returns needing little work for the breeches to fit. I alter one of her dresses she has brought into a shirt more the style of the fighter I have come to know. The sky grows dark and we remain in companionable silence while I finish the dress. Arya having acquired small knives at some point flinging them harshly at the wood around the hearth.
"Didn't you have one like that?" Arya asks coming to rest beside me.
"Yes, I…. this was the first time I felt myself in so long. It's symbolic to me I guess." I find myself sharing and she hums. Being thrust through time seems to have forged a stronger bond to my sister then I would have ever dreamed of us having. Even as we faced the dead together.
"I miss needle at my side." She says making me frown.
"We can commission it ourselves. If Jon has not already." I say hating the tinge of sadness in her voice.
"It's odd that for my entire life I felt so at odds with you. Now I can't stand to be parted from your towering arse." She says making my eyes tear as a smile pulls at my face.
"I love you Arya." I say rising to pull the dress on. She huffs at the words but her body eases from its discomfort easily. I will tell them all the things I didn't get to last time. I look over my young body with a sigh.
"I …. It doesn't look to be my body anymore. To small, no scars. This is odd sister." I huff out and she laughs dryly.
"Hey, you look more like you then I did. At least you have had your damn moons blood Sansa." I nod mutely at her. We laugh looking to one another as I wring my hands in worry. Telling them means making more steps, deciding more fates.
"We will be successful sister." Arya calls from the window determination in her tone.
"I am happy you are with me." I say softly as there is a knock at the door. My father pushes it open taking us both in. His steps faltering slightly as he enters. My heart shuttering at his appearance.
"You look like a Northerner Sansa." He comments with a small smile. His hand resting on my head once more.
"I am a northerner Father." I comment softly making him frown. My internal compass no longer wants for sun and silks.
"Yes, yes." He looks to Arya smiling. "Your mother will not like that." He laughs out. Shoving his hand through his hair.
"No. She never did care for my boyish ways." I see the way Arya speaks in past tense makes his shoulders tighten.
"Your mother should be in the solar soon. I have told Jon. Your mother and uncle have also been told of Jon." He comments dryly walking towards the door.
"We will be along shortly father." I say my heart racing. He looks back at me with a small smile. I give him a small nod as he disappears through the door on heavy feet.
"Maybe we shouldn't have forced his hand." Arya comments making me shake my head.
"Jon deserves happiness. To know he is more than a bastard." I say straightening my shoulders to look at her. "Are you ready sister?" I ask the nerves evident in my voice.
"We have faced worst things Sansa." She says taking my hand. I squeeze it tightly before tucking it in my elbow and pulling my emotions back from the surface. With determined steps we walk towards the family. The only joy I will gain from this news hitting them is the ability to look upon them freely.
Jon's POV
Despite the late hour I find myself being the first in the solar. I had considered not coming but the day's events plague me as much as my fathers…. uncles' words. I wait in silence until Uncle Benjen enters the room his eyes looking upon me warmly. He moves to me quickly making me rise from me seat. He pulls me close before pushing me back to search my face. He has always been my favorite adult. But something has shifted within his gaze, its softer somehow.
"You look like your mother." His words steal the air from my lungs. Making me pull free.
"You didn't know?" I whisper. He shakes his head sadly but pulls me close once more.
"We will keep you safe nephew." He swears making my shoulders relax. "Now, I wonder what is of such importance for the family. It seems the gods knew where I was needed for me to have come from the wall when I did." I take steadying breathes as Robb and Eddard enter the room. My mind constantly changing what I call him.
"Jon are you okay?" Robb asks after looking upon me. I nod as Catelyn enters the room looking disheveled but her eyes lock onto mine before darting away. What do you think of me now?
"What have my daughters been up to Ned? What is the meaning of this?" She nearly growls throwing herself into a chair pulling the attention to her.
"Yes bother, I am quite curious myself." Benjen states as Ned wavers on his feet a hand grasping his neck tightly.
"They will tell you. I do not have the words. But… you must listen. You must understand." He answers quietly.
"Oh, for the sake of the Seven Ned just tell us." Catelyn begs but the door opens a moment later. They carry themselves the same as they had on the hill. Benjens' body tenses beside me after seeing it himself, their change glaringly obvious.
"Girls." Ned says lowly as they come to stand in front of us. Their eyes raking over everyone before Sansa steps back to close the door. The finality of the way she lets her hands rest upon the wood at its closing making all the fear come rushing back from this afternoon. Arya shuffles on her feet with a serious gaze upon us.
"What is happening to my daughters." Catelyn asks tightly. The words bring Sansa whirling to look at her. She seems to push emotions under the surface, something so foreign to the girl I have seen.
"We have to tell you things. Things that will be hard to hear but we must tell you them all the same. We need our pack. We need out family to carry out our duty." Arya says curtly looking over us making my heart stammer. This was not my sister speaking as if she were emotionless.
"Duty? What in the world?" Robb blurts out but Sansa stops his words with a look. They are not themselves. She turns her gaze to the window as if our gaze pains her.
"We have been given a gift. From the Gods, from the magic of the land. We …. we have been sent back. Sent back through time itself to make wrongs right. To save the realm of man from the Dark Night." Sansas words hang in the air with such weight it seems to stall time itself as I watch her grasp her hands tightly in front of her. No one speaks as she finally looks us over. Sent back?
"We have to plan, makes changes to save our family. To save everyone. We will start with the death of Jon Arryn." Arya says curtly.
"What do you mean Jon's death?" Father… Ned asks in confusion. Sent back through time? My mind still struggling with the information.
"You mean to entertain this Ned?" Catelyn grinds out rising to her feet. Sansa looks to her mother then her father. Her stone face not giving away her anxiety as her hands do.
"Aunt Lysa will conspire with Littlefinger to kill Jon Arryn. She will put tears of lyse in his wine. This will start a chain of events that lead to the Fall of House Stark." Sansa utters quietly. My mind is still turning over the ramifications of being sent back as the words sink into my stomach.The Fall of House Stark. An angry gasp tears from Catelyn as she strikes Sansa bringing us all a step closer.
"ENOUGH CHILD. You have forgotten yourself. My sister nor Petyr would do such a thing. I will hear no more of this nonsense. What are you entertaining Ned?" Catelyn whirls angrily on her husband. The emotions that cross Sansa's face before she steps silently out the door her sister following hastily make the air leave me rapidly. They are not without pain.
"I AM ENTERTAINING NOTHING." Ned bellows at his wife stepping towards her, bringing Benjen to his brothers' side quickly as if he feared what Ned would do. My throat constricts as everything they have said stumbles around my mind. I stand in utter confusion watching the tension swirling before the solar door slams open. Arya flings her hand quickly a blade slamming into the tapestry over my head with a sounding thud. All movement stops as the heavy clothe billows to the floor, Catelyn's hand flying to her mouth. A second blade flies past her head to land harshly in the wood behind her mother.
"Arya." Ned whispers in shock. I step forward with heavily breaths. Sister?
"I am the Lone wolf. The Lone wolf of Winterfell. You may look upon me and see a child, your child, you may look upon Sansa and see the silly daydreams she has had until this very day. BUT WE ARE NOT YOUR CHILDREN!" Arya shouts at her mother, face harsh as the words send Catelyn rearing back into her seat. "We are. We are Starks, but we are not the children you put to bed last night." She breaths heavily looking over the room before sneering in anger once more, something dark shining within her eyes that quickens my heart beat.
"She would save you the gory details. But you have me, I don't care to share the gory details if it's necessary. I come from the masters of bravos, the House of Black and White gave me all the skills of the faceless men. I escaped my fate into Westeros, disguised as a boy. I took my life and lived it as I pleased. I yearned for vengeance and I had it. I have been taking lives since my 10 and 4 names day. I lived through more than you could understand. My sister sadly lived through more." She grinds out.
"Arya, enough child." Ned seems to plead the control clearly slipping from him. Taking lives?
"No. You will know. You will know that you caused my sister, your daughter to whisper just now." She glares making Benjen step closer to her. "The indignant anger, I was property again and it was so like Ramsay." Those were the words she said mother." Arya's anger bubbling under the surface as she flings something from the desk harshly. The clang of metal against the wall making us jump.
"Arya." I whisper and her gaze lingers on me before turning back to her father then to her mother making tears rise in my eyes at all you could see there.
"Sansa never was lucky enough to take her life into her hands until long after your deaths. She was made to stand next to father as they cut his head from his shoulders. The last time I saw my sister was as they were throwing her to the ground next to his headless body. She was stripped bare and beaten in front of the Court in Kings landing every time Robb won a battle." Her chest heaves, the barely contained anger seeping from her with every word. "She was forced into a marriage with an imp, only to be fooled into running with a man she thought would be her savior. A man who took her and pawed at her skirts because of his love for you mother. A man who's' throat I slit for all he did. A man who stole Sansa from one horror and SOLD HER LIKE OLD SKINS TO THE MAN THAT CUT ROBBS HEAD FROM HIS SHOULDERS." Her voice rises making Catelyn sob loudly as Ned falls against the wall.
My heart is pounding harshly. My eyes find Benjens for a moment, enough to register the abject horror on his face. "My sisters second husband Ramsey." I watch in horror as Arya paces angrily in front of the desk with every word. "was a monster amongst monsters. He liked to hunt men like foxes in the Godswood. The very walls we stand in were his, I never saw Sansa in those years. But I witnessed the scars, the lost flesh, heard the whispers of how these walls would ring with her screams. He flayed his own men publicly. What do you think he did with his wife?" Robb is retching on the floor my mind numbly registers as I realize I have already collapsed to my knees beside him.
"That man that sold her was none other than Lord Petyr Baelish." She grinds out as if it is painful.
"ARYA!" Ned's shout draws her shaking form back a step making me sag in horror. I wipe my face to feel the tears on my cheeks. Ned approaches her with a sad face kneeling with shaking hands raised. Clearly uncertain of how to handle the girl before him.
"Enough, I will handle this. Go to your sister. Please." He whispers brokenly. Robb drags himself to his feet as she marches around the desk to retrieve the small knife and whirls from the room without a word. Heavy breathing is all that remains after the words are out there.
"Brother?" Benjen brings his brothers attention to him. "What…. How?" He asks watching Ned rise to look at us. Clearly Benjen doesn't doubt any of it. How could you with the way they acted, with Arya's dark words still humming through the walls.
"I don't know. They speak the truth. I know…. I know how it sounds. But the Gods showed me. Today as we were at the Weirwood." He drops his weight against the doors again exhausted, face contorted in pain.
"What did they show you?" Benjen implores coming to his brothers' side.
"The dead marching on the Godswood. Winterfell burning. Arya…. Arya wielding a sword swifter than any knight I have seen. Sansa struggling under the weight of a shield with Jon at her side. Grown, older than Robb is now. They were fighting the dead and losing. They were dying. Just this morning they were dying in a battle with the dead before being plunged through time back to us." He whispers so softly you could barely register the words.
"When Sansa spoke… she spoke to me of only the Weirdwood." Ned grinds out the horror coloring his words. "I didn't see all the things she left unsaid. She told me she fled Winterfell, found hope again and won it back. They took back the North, brought the children back together only to lose it in the long Night." Father wipes at his face harshly. "The dead are coming. Our deaths are coming. They have seen our demise; they feel it in their bones. I feel it in mine when I truly gaze upon them. The long years are with them, they are not…. they are my daughters and they are not." He says wiping his face free of tears and standing to his full height.
"What a cruel fate." Benjen whispers to no one looking at the door his niece had ran through.
"They were not themselves." Robb utters making me look to him. His eyes wild. "They had been hurt. You knew when you looked at them." His voice breaking as the words leave his mouth. It makes my body shake as Ned clears his throat.
"They have been given a chance to change that. We will come together now; we will take this chance and change it." Benjen declares loudly, bringing Ned's gaze to him. I pull Robb closer to the pair as Catelyn remains silently crying in her seat.
"We are the Starks of Winterfell. We cannot take these horrors from them, but we can save them from them this time." He looks us over the urgency bringing Robb and I shoulder to shoulder. Our blood pumping through us ready for battle. My own worries of my mother and lineage fading with all that is laid ahead. Fighting the dead.
"We should rest. There will be tomorrow to come together again. My daughters with us." Ned says looking to Catelyn. Benjen pulls us from the room as Catelyn begs forgiveness still lost to the brutal truth her daughter yelled at her.
"My beautiful girls. My daughters, left alone to fade in the world." She cries harder.
"They didn't fade though Cat. I saw it, Arya was fierce and talented. Sansa…. Sansa's hair will be as red as the Weirwood, she will be taller than her brother with unyielding shoulders even as the dead's sword pierced her flesh. They didn't fade, they were the last standing." Eds voice fades as Benjens feet slow at the words before propelling us forward, our steps heavy. Sluggish with the information. Sansa struggling under the weight of a shield with Jon at her side. I was with them in the end. Where was I when they were being tortured? My fist tightens beside me at the thought.
"I need to speak to Robb son. Unless you would like to tell him." Benjen declares making my mind shuffle to the news I heard this day. I shake my head slowly walking away like the life has been sucked from me. I can't bare anything else on this day. I stumble to my rooms halting when I see a flash of red climbing the stairs. Sansa. Energy surges through me as Arya's words drift over me. But I witnessed the scars, the lost flesh, heard the whispers of how these walls would ring with her screams. As the way Sansa spoke to me this day muddles so many emotions, emotions that I haven't felt in my life. With quick feet I go to follow her.
Jon's POV
"I am sorry." Arya says once more.
"You had no right Arya. They didn't… no one needed to know those things." I growl out. My stomaching turning to acid quickly. Not my ruin, they needn't hear it.
"Sansa." I hold up a hand. Fighting for breath.
"I need to walk sister." I utter softly leaving the room in a flurry. Worry coursing through me wondering how my mother would look upon me now. Would she ever see me? I push the thoughts from my mind climbing up the stairs two at a time. I pace the battlement trying to reign in the multitude of problems laid before us. Pushing the ache Arya's words left upon me. I hear the steps of another and whirl to find Jon looking at me. His eyes are tight, the words of Arya no doubt running through his mind.
Horrified I watch him drop to his knee in front of me. "I won't ever let anyone touch you again. I promise I will protect you." He vows darkly making the air leave me. The words ringing through time to a man very much the one in front of me and not at the same time. His eyes stare at the ground making me smile all the same.
"Jon is Jon." I murmur coming to my knees in front of him. He finally looks at me, the air leaving us as it once had so long ago in Castle Black. I give him a small smile and watch mesmerized as his lips pull for only a moment into a half smile as it always did when we spoke. It gives me the strength I need to gather myself.
"Those are not the first time you spoke those words to me." I say reaching forward to grasp his hand. He watches our hands puzzled for a moment making me release it. "I am sorry. You are my Jon and not at the same time." I say making him scowl more. He was always this brooding I muse to myself.
"I …. I was fighting beside you. That's what he said." The "he" Jon refers to is no doubt my father.
"Yes." The word hangs between us as the moon casts shadows across our faces. He stares imploring me to tell him more. "When hope is taken from me you appear Jon. You may never have been my brother, but you are my pack. Pack is more than blood Jon. It's the people you chose to keep, to protect and love. You are my pack, even if I never acted it for one moment before this day. I am sorry for that." I declare with more urgency then I asked for his forgiveness last time. His brow puckers as his eyes mist before sniffing it away.
"Sansa." He whispers reaching forward to grab my hand himself this time, slowly as if he was incertain. We remain there in silence for some time. I look him over, taking in all the quiet sounds of our home. Exhaustion fills me suddenly. Jon always did make me feel safe. This isn't my Jon.
"When I have rested, when you have rested." I joke pushing his hair from his face to look at his tired eyes. "We will discuss what I know of your Aunt and what you will want from this life Jon. I will settle for nothing less than your happiness." I declare to him, hating who I was to him as a child. Of the uncertainty that I can see in him now. I hug him to me fiercely willing to never think of is dead eyes again. He pulls me close making me sigh contently. Though his body is stiff it's still comforting to have him at my side. Jon is Jon.
I pull free to brace my hands on his shoulders once more. He grasps my waist lifting us both our feet making me frown before looking myself over once more. "I forget I am not grown now." I huff dramatically. "Poor Arya though." I muse with a smile turning from him. He comes to walk beside me a frown on his face. I glance at him from the corner of my eye. He stiffens, taking two fast steps in front of me but its only Robb rounding a corner fiercely. His eyes a storm halting as he sees the smile upon my face. Before he yanks me to him in a tight hug. I hold him to me the tears lining my eyes.
"You yelled out you loved me, and I thought you were losing your senses." He says softly.
"I haven't lost them. I missed you all these years." I answer making him squeeze me tighter.
"I'm sorry Sansa." He utters into my neck making me rub his back. "Robb. None of that. She shouldn't have told you. Don't worry now. We will be safe, all of us, I will protect you brother." I make another oath to my pack. Robb pulls back to look at me as I wipe his face with my sleeve making him frown.
"I'll protect you sister, both of you. All of us." He declares the storm still raging within him.
"When the snow falls and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives." I murmur into the night. Pulling Jon closer I watch Robb give Jon the same bone crushing hug. When they separate Jon looks at me closely.
"I thought Arya was the Lone Wolf? She seems to be alive." He jokes quietly making us chuckle. I smile thanking him for the shift in mood.
"Well, that Lone wolf still needs her pack. Despite being more talented with a sword than Brienne." I say walking closer to the room Arya seems content to share with me.
"Brienne?" Robb asks making me frown at the tightness in his voice. I suppose this has all been rather unsettling. Gods, I'm still unsettled.
"She was my sworn shield after I became a Stark once more." I utter missing her already. "She protected me as I fled Winterfell." I say looking at the worn wood that I remember burning not long ago. I think back on Arya's words from earlier. Brienne wasn't here, maybe just maybe learning to fight wouldn't be a bad idea. I look at my own hand for a moment. Before the door is ripped open, the fire light spilling onto the three of us in the hallway.
"She was taller than father. Not a beauty but people coward from her fierce nature." She says taking a bite of an apple. She steps back with calculating eyes allowing me to enter. Jon yanks Arya into a hug that she mildly protests before being passed to Robb. My door is pushed shut with the four of us inside. I walk towards the bed with heavy feet. Sleep. I need more of it.
"You are welcome to stay brother; Jon. Arya I suspect your sharing my bed?" I call as Arya huffs before a small yes crosses the space between us. The day weighing me down onto the familiar comfort once more. I fall asleep easily to the voices of Robb, Jon and Arya talking quietly to each other.