Lifting the seal off the now dried wax, Tywin Lannister felt the enormity of his current situation and how his life had come to this. In his hand was a scroll naming his heir and the future Lord Of Casterly Rock, and it was someone he swore it would never be. However, that was before his eyes closed after taking a crossbow bolt while sitting on a privy, and opened again at the gate between the heavens and hells.

His joy at seeing his beloved Joanna again was soon crushed when he saw the tears in her eyes. She explained that she had come to say goodbye to him, that he was not meant to go where she was, that he was meant to travel through the gates leading to unknown hells.

He had raged, saying that he was Tywin Lannister, a great man who was entitled to best of this world and the last. Her response however, stopped him mid rant, "You were born a great man in a sense, but did you die a good man?" The shame on her face when she spoke told him all he needed to know of what she thought of him, but she wasn't done.

"I died to give you a most precious gift, and you squandered it." Scenes of his life with Tyrion flashed before his eyes. The child practically begging the only parent he had to even notice him, to care for him enough to put an end to the abuse he suffered from every angle. The young man who drank to numb the pain of watching the first woman who ever loved him "betray" him.

On and on it went before he started seeing visions of what came after his death. The look of abject betrayal when he found out what had really happened to his first wife. He watched as he escaped King Landing in a crate, and had to shove his own shit out of a hole in said crate.

He watched him try to drink himself to death in Pentos, then begin the journey to join the daughter of the mad king. He watched as he was made a slave, and kept his wits about him to gain freedom and rise through the Dragon Queen's ranks eventually being named her hand.

He watched as he struggled with war strategies, and realized that had he taken the time to teach his son such things the man would have been unstoppable. Tyrion was a great politician, but was not a great strategist when it came to war. However, he could see the man had potential there as well.

He watched as he tried to reason with his siblings, trying to save them from themselves, even though one of them didn't deserve it. The look of sadness on his face when they were found together in the rubble of Kings Landing.

He watched how he encouraged Ned Stark's bastard to do what was best for the realm when the Dragon Queen's mind could no longer stand the pain she had been made to endure. The two men had been devastated, both having loved her, but different types of love, still doing what was best for the realm.

The fact that the boy had actually been a hidden Targaryen had astonished him. It made the idea of him ruling even more fitting. Clearly the boy was born for it! No, the truly astonishing thing was that Ned Stark had been able to formulate such a convincing lie.

Of all then rulers he saw vying for the throne in Westeros, before and after his death, those two seemed the best suited. He saw the bastard's reluctance to be king, but also how seriously he took his duty to his people, and not just his lords either. Had he been the one to sit the throne with Tyrion as his hand the realm would have prospered for many years.

However, that was not to be as Jon was sentenced to the Wall for killing the Dragon Queen, and Tyrion was left to serve a boy devoid of human emotion and understanding. All the while, a traumatized girl was left to lead the North.

He personally thought the girl would have made a good ruler back before her marriage to the Bolton Bastard, if only she had been given the proper training. He personally saw how strong and intelligent she was, but her kind heart was hardened by all her suffering. He could also see how her desire to never suffer like she had before fueled her want of power. He found himself wishing that she had never been separated from Tyrion as he would have protected her, and helped her grow into what would have been an ideal Lannister woman. Much like his own dear wife.

It was truly eye opening when he was then shown just what his two golden children had been getting up to. To know that the rumors had been true all along, that the two had been sleeping together, and shared the three children had shook him to his core.

It was the children he had put time and energy into that had been unworthy of the legacy he wanted to build, and the child he thought disgraced him was the one to build the Lannister Legacy into something more than he ever dreamed it could be. And what's more, he did it by making people love and respect him, rather than fear him.

Joanna had called him a heartless bastard when he was made to witness the killing of Elia and her babes. He tried to go to her to offer comfort, but she refused to let him touch her. She told him this was the end, and it was time for him to go. He looked back at her sadly, stepping through the gate.

"Do better this time, My Love!" Her voice rang out, as he passed through.

He had then woken up slumped over the desk in his solar at the Rock, many years younger. He knew he was many years younger once he saw the head of a small boy peak around the door.

"Come in Tyrion, but close the door behind you." He spoke softly to the nine year old boy, his dead's wife's plea ringing in his ears. He motioned to the chair in front of his desk, and wondered how one dealt with an obviously frightened child. "What can I help you with my son?"

The boy's head snapped up, and he was met with a pair of large mismatched eyes. However, calling Tyrion his son as well as his gentled voice seemed to be all the boy needed. "Is Jamie going to be ok father?" The desperate tears in those eyes about broke him.

"Of course your bother is going to be ok, he's a Lannister after all." He spoke with pride for his oldest son. "What would make you think he wasn't?"

"Cersei said Robert Baratheon was going to win this war and order Jamie be killed. She said it would be all my fault because Jamie went to Kings Landing to be a Kingsguard to get away from the shame of having me for a brother." The child was ringing his hands together, and Tywin was at a loss of how to comfort the poor boy.

Glancing around the desk at the maps and charts spread out, he was able to figure out the approximate timeline in the war. "Come here Tyrion, I will show you why your brother will not come to any harm."

Tyrion stood to come around the desk, and when he was close enough Tywin lifted him up and set him on his lap. When he was sure the boy was comfortable, he started going over what everything on the desk was telling him, patiently answering the child's questions. It was fascinating watching how the boy's mind worked, and he regretted never seeing it in his first life.

"There he is," a voice from the door stalled them, and he looked up to see his sister standing there, "I'm sorry brother, I will take young Tyrion from you." The shock in her voice at seeing Tyrion on his lap was plain, and magnified when he waved her off.

"He is fine where he is." Truly, he was enjoying watching his son try to work out different battle plans. Most plans were what one would from a nine year old, but some showed just how much promise as a strategist his son truly had.

His sister walked away flabbergasted, and Tywin went back to teaching his son

That had been weeks ago, and now he was preparing to go to war. Joanna's words still rang through his head. He had to do better, and not just by Tyrion, if he wanted to be with his wife in the afterlife.

"I'm leaving you in charge," He spoke quietly to the woman in the doorway as he ran his fingers through the blond locks of the sleeping child. In the weeks since he had returned he had worked hard to open his heart to the child, and in doing so, found a constant reminder of his wife. This time though, it wasn't the stabbing pain of losing her, but rather, the warmth she brought to his life. Of all his children, Tyrion's nature reminded him most of Joanna, and he wondered how he had missed it his first time around, and if he had killed that side of his child.

"Protect my son for me while I'm gone." He turned to look at his sister, and was comforted by her firm nod in agreement. She would do everything in her power to make sure he was safe.