July 12th 2021

Hey folks!

It's the first time I'm writing fanfiction and I'm a novice at writing unless I count the short stories I'd written in my childhood!

I'm anxious, not just because of writing but also the grammar issue as I'm not an English speaker, so apologise in advance for any errors.

CW and TW:

This story contains materials that might be difficult and uncomfortable to read.

Violence, abuse, domestic abuse, murder, alcohol abuse/alcoholism, gore and blood, sexism, racism, war, supernatural, incest, sexual content, slavery, rape, underage sexual relationship...

And every other warning in ASOIAF and GWTW that I've forgotten to mention.

Disclaimer: GWTW, ASOIAF and GOT belong to MM, GRRM and HBO, respectively. And I own nothing of GWTW and ASOIAF and the lines I've got from them except this rather strange plot bunny, The Red Queen and The Lioness of Tara is merely mine.

I don't make profit from it.

Prologue

The birth of The Red Queen

Tara Plantation, Clayton County, State of Georgia, the United States, 1876.

Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler or nowadays as she went by the name of O'Hara, was very angry at herself. She was on horseback and coming back from the Fontaines.

While receiving a visit from Hetty Tarleton yesterday, she found out that a fortune teller, a 'gypsy' had taken residence in Mimosa due to her illness that prevented her from traveling. That wasn't something that usually took her attention these days. No, She had so many more important things to do than that. Like Managing Tara and making it like old Tara. She somehow Succeeded to persuade Sue and Will and their children to move out of Tara. Since then they'd settled in Charleston, against all odds. To be sure, she used all of her skills, sweet-talking, bribery and at last, bully. It was a win-win situation, naturally for Sue and Scarlett. Poor Will was forced to do what they'd planned. Scarlett wasn't forced to see Sue regularly and it was mutual. The best of all was that she had the whole of Tara to herself. At last, she had been able to reconstruct and redecorate Tara the way she wanted. Tara was hers and her children's alone. It was still so much work to do though. It was all that fortune teller's fault!

Mammy Jincy.

The moment she heard the name she was anxious to see her and to know what she would again say about her life.

Here she was, she visited her and she was angry at herself that why she wasted her time with that crazy woman in the first place. She told you, you will marry a gentleman with black hair and a long moustache and you married Rhett, said a voice in her head, oh! It was all different, she spoke all about some nonsense things now that Scarlett was sure it wouldn't ever happen, 'you shall be the Red Queen.'

"Fiddle-dee-dee!" raised her voice indignantly with every syllable higher, "as if becoming queen is as easy as changing clothes or riding and jumping fences. 'The Red Queen!'" she mimicked her voice, "she was mocking me!" as Scarlett was talking to herself became distracted. Before she could do anything or slow down her horse, she was before a fence, the horse bolted and Scarlett threw off to the other side of the fence.

"Like Pa," got lost her whisper, in the roar of the horse.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

She was running in the fog again but it was different, this time. There were bodies at the feet of her that were pulling her towards the ground. They were cold like ice. She should keep running. One moment of hesitation, then she would be drowned. She would be like them, dead, moving but dead.

She was running to find someone or something for help. She was hearing a man's voice. It had to be her pa!

"Pa! Pa!" He was near, she could feel it! She just needed to keep going.

"Here, child!" She was a child again, he was playing hide and seek and at the moment she didn't like it one bit. She just wanted to see her pa's face

"Pa! where are you?"

"I'm here, daughter. You will be alright." Someone was touching her face. her father. Will be? She was alright.

"I'm alright," though she was feeling pain all over her body as if a horse or a herd of horses most likely trotted on her, she merely fell off her horse. There was a girl, a beautiful girl with golden hair who was jumping off a very high cliff into the sea, then there was water around her. Scarlett couldn't swim, couldn't breathe, so much water, cold water, she was numb. The strong current of water pushed her forcefully to the rocks. The waves crashed on the rocks, so was she. She was bleeding, dying… someone was calling her.

Jaime! It must be Jaime.

"Cersei! Behave like a lady and as your status. Your lord father will arrive any moment," said an elegant, beautiful woman, yet she was Scarlett, not Cersei, wasn't she?

"But I want to greet pa before others," didn't Scarlett know why she answered this way, but she was sure she should have said those words. She ran and despite hearing her name she didn't look back from her shoulders. Her name? Cersei, Scarlett, it doesn't matter, she will think about it tomorrow. It is so confusing.

Now she had to get out of this fog. The fog was sticking to her skin like glue. Or was it Sweat and her damp nightgown that had stuck to her? Someone was cleaning her with a damp cloth. She was pushing but she didn't know why.

"My queen! It's a prince!" exclaimed an old man, with a ridiculous chain about his neck.

She'd given birth. It had to be her prince, the only child she'd wanted but had never lived. she miscarried it. A red stain at the foot of the stairs and she was now in heaven and gave birth to him.

"Give him to me. I want to see him."

The ridiculous man gave her son to him.

"Jeffrey," it wasn't the name she'd chosen but it suited the golden babe well. He was like her, like Jaime, like a true Lannister. She'd hoped he would become like Rhett but the child was more Ashley than Rhett and she.

"My Queen, the King shall be pleased by the news."

How does she become the Queen?

"You'll never wed the prince, you'll wed the king."

Someone heavy with elephant size and reeking of foul whiskey was on her, was doing relation with her. It was the worst she had had with any of her husbands.

"Lyanna…Lyanna" he whispered faintly near her ear.

Another woman. How dare he? she would get back at him.

She was smirking. Her mirror was before her. He was smirking, just the same.

The king was dead.

"Queen regent!"

"You'll be queen, for a time. Then comes another, younger, more beautiful, to cast you down and take all you hold dear."

A young silver-blonde girl was on top of a monster, not a monster, a dragon. She was flying, her dragon was firing.

The king's landing had burned down to ashes. The wind was carrying dust, They are all gone with the wind.

She was dying with her mirror before her. They were going from this world together.

"We shared a womb. We came into this world together, we belong together."

"My son saw you with him." said a long face man to her

"Do you love your children?"

"With all my heart."

"As do I."

"And they're all Jaime's."

"Thank the Gods for that."

"The king will have twenty children and you will have three. Gold will be their crowns… gold their shrouds."

Joffrey, Tommen, Myrcella, all her three children were dead. But Wade and Ella were alive. They weren't golden. Joffrey, Tommen and Myrcella were golden the same as she. She wasn't golden, she was ebony, she was black like a starless night, and they were like AshIey, even the stairs' prince. Everyone would know!

The gossips! How could she manage to keep the gossip down when the babe was all Ashley? Did she have relation with Ashley?

She was with a man. The act was obvious but the position was scandalous, unladylike. She was on her knees and her hands and the man was behind. She was moving with his movement in harmony. Even that night with Rhett wasn't this scandalous.

"Cersei, Cersei," she knew this voice anywhere! He was calling her like a prayer.

She was feeling tenderness, joy, fun, the fun that Rhett had promised, yet never came. She looked back.

He was Her twin. Her other half. She hadn't known she had a twin.

The babe, It wasn't Ashley's, It was Jaime's. Who is Jaime? Anyway, it didn't matter, it wasn't Rhett's babe. They would force her to walk around Atlanta so people could insult her. Not Atlanta, the king's landing.

She was walking with a thin rag as her dress. The people were looking at her with disdain and hatred. They shredded her rag dress to pieces. She was naked. She was walking naked. They were groping her. Mother of God! She was ashamed. This was the walk of shame. No! She wasn't ashamed, She didn't do anything wrong. Remember them, she held her chin higher, get your revenge later, she would get through this and rebirth stronger than ever.

Rebirth.

"You shall be the Red Queen."

"Others are coming!"

"You are our only hope, daughter of winds."

"Others get families. families become Others."

Murmurs went louder. It was irritating. Her head was pounding.

"You are our chance."

"Your hands are red."

"Stop!" bellowed she.

All of a sudden they silenced but there were voices of footsteps. she spun around. Others were around her, they were cold, icy, she could feel their chill from distance. They shouldn't touch anyone, consequences were dead. There was a man with an irritating smirk on his face and with blue eyes, blue like Bonnie Blue Flag. He didn't deserve that colour for his eyes. Scarlett had so wanted to scratch his eyes out, literally. They were coming closer. She looked down, there was a pistol in her hand. The pistol that she killed that Yankee soldier with it. She held it straight towards the blue man and pulled the trigger.

Nothing.

He was laughing. A chilling sound in this Infinite winter.

she walked towards the icy blue man. She circled her hands about his neck, white as chalk. He was choking and all over his body was stained with the red colour. She was immune to the blue man's touch.

He was red. He had bled. He had died.

She was rebirthed.

PS: I hope you've enjoyed it. Reviews are appreciated.

Wish you joy and happiness of the world, Vis o Rāmin