- 280 AC -
In a dark hallway unseen by any eyes, a portal with different color gradients spanning from white to blue appeared in a swirling, rippling pattern. Only a slight, almost unheard hum seemed to come from the portal in the quiet hall. Nothing seemed to be happening for a few seconds, until suddenly what looked like a slim man stepped through the portal.
The man in question had longer dark-red hair that was braided multiple times symmetrically. To the side of his head, there was a triangular piece of metal that shown with a blue line down the middle. His body overall looked thinner, slightly under six feet, and musculature more of a swimmer's hidden by a black shihakusho with an alternate color of blood red for the waist-belt and similarly colored shirt slightly showing underneath the collar. Belted to the waist, a matte black-finish sheathe showing the handle undecorated except for a single symbol; a red spiral encompassed in a circle.
The man was Hanko.
Originally a man from Earth, he died by run-away truck. Before he went to the great beyond, he was visited by a Shinigami from Japanese folklore; who was impersonating a woman. At that time he was informed, due to the way he died, he had options available to him; including reincarnation. He chose the Naruto-verse when he was informed he would be granted boons, or wishes before he went. His wishes included, a working computer with internet from his time on Earth in his mind-scape, being able to understand and write fuinjutsu as computer code, and save the shinigami from extinction by housing it inside a seal on his body similar to a jinchuriki. This marked the beginning of their partnership, and thus he named the Shinigami, 'Shi'.
With that, he was reincarnated as a malnourished Uzumaki in a time before the Hidden Leaf village was founded. He was escorted and trained in Uzushiogakure, the leadership taking note of his extreme prowess in seals and training him in their secret arts. While working with them, he found a special scroll which seemed hidden to everyone but himself. When he opened it, he found the seal for a Universe-Traversing fuinjutsu sequence that was authored by non-other than himself; dated in the future. He decided however before trying anything crazy, he continued to train in that Universe. Events happened which allowed him to travel to and then train with the many different clans in the recently started Hidden Leaf Village. Also having been thrown into life-or-death battles allowed him to find the special ability he had being the host of the last Shinigami. Hanko could now siphon the souls of the recently deceased to gain life-force to use himself. Once he felt at a good enough level with his training, he decided it would be best to leave before the next war started.
Using the Universe-Traversing fuinjutsu sequence, he first traveled to the Universe of Horizon: Zero Dawn. There he met Aloy after the massacre at the Proving and they teamed up. Together they learned the secrets of Zero Dawn and stopped the malfunctioning AI Hades and its thralls, the Shadow Carja. They saved the Carja people along with foiling the malicious plans to destroy the known world. While there, he managed to acquire their futuristic knowledge through a copy of Apollo, their accumulation of human knowledge and achievement. They had originally thought all the knowledge was lost, however Ted Farro being as duplicitous as he was, made a copy stored out of the access of the overall AI 'GAIA' so that he could have his clone monopolize the knowledge in the future of the Earth. Hanko was just glad for this knowledge as he took copies of it. He also managed to acquire the knowledge on creating a Focus network. The Focus device being the little triangle on the side of his head; which is able to display light-images over a user's vision in a semblance of old alternate-reality technology from Earth. The final thing he managed to swipe was a Cauldron. He remembered how that took a lot out of him to store an entire mountain in his mindscape. Before he left, he scoured the lands to convert as many machines to his control as he felt was necessary before storing them away for future use.
Now Hanko had arrived here. He knew which universe he aimed for, but didn't know the year.
Hanko started taking in his surroundings. "Must be in a hidden passage of some kind." he murmured to himself out loud.
Maybe the Red Keep perhaps? Shi spoke to him through his mindscape.
Probably, Hanko thought back to her. Remembering from the TV series, it spoke about the secret passages in the Red Keep.
He started to stroll through the passage which was barely lit by candles at uneven intervals along the way. Finally he came across a small divot inside the wall, big enough for his hand to grasp. With little effort, he pulled and a bit of the wall big enough for a doorway, came out towards him. Noticing the room empty, he quickly went through and closed the secret passage door behind him. Listening at the wooden doorway going out to a main hallway of the keep, he didn't hear anything, so he decided to walk through.
Now in a hallway with stairs at both ends, he decided to start going down. Once a floor below, it was eerie to him that he still hadn't come upon anyone yet.
There could be a large event going on right now. Try seeing if you can get a look outside.
Hanko concurred, and searched to find a window. To understand the surrounding lands around the keep.
It didn't take long to find a room with a door ajar. Peering in quickly, he noticed an opening to the outside without glass. He took that opportunity to go inside the room and look out the opening to the surroundings beyond.
The first thing he noticed was how high up he still was. The next thing that took precedence from his viewpoint was the columns of smoke coming from the city below the castle. Faint screams could be heard as it looked like there were crowds of people in the streets being intercepted by armored men wearing red and yellow armor, before being massacred out in the open, with very few men wearing golden cloaks interceding in fights. In between the streets he would catch sight of the same banner with a golden lion embossed on it.
His mind immediately began processing the scene in front of him before he came to an immediate conclusion.
This is King's Landing being sacked.
It didn't take long for him to reflect on what he knew of the events that occurred in the series. In a flash, his expression turned to rage as he remembered the crimes of a certain Lannister lapdog during this time. A certain mountain of a man.
Hanko quickly crossed his fingers together.
Shadowclone Jutsu!
In puffs of smoke, 20 differing clones were created in the room, using transformation jutsu to hide they were all the same person. They took on the forms of dirty small-folk.
"You know the plan," Hanko spoke. As they came from him, they would know his thoughts before he created them. He pointed out one of the clones. "You will be the one to go outside the city." The clone nodded before they all scattered in a flash. The plan was for the rest of the clones to search for Elia Martell and her children, while the single clone made a hirashin mark for their escape outside the city.
As he was running through the stone passageways, he went in and out of rooms quickly, opening doors. Some of them were barricaded, so he only took a moment to listen at the door before moving on, as he knew there would be sounds of a struggle inside if it was the room he was looking for.
He received a few signals from clones that dispelled as some either got surprise-attacked by some gold-cloaks and guards, while others were surrounded and couldn't escape in the confined space without giving away any special powers.
Not long later, he did get a signal from a dispelled clone and a hirashin the clone placed so he immediately teleported.
He was now at a hallway corner. Waiting for some clones to spawn behind him, he quickly removed the hirashin seal evidence that brought him there. He could already hear screaming going on around the corner. Hanko quickly peaked over to confirm there was a person standing outside a doorway standing guard.
Spawning a kunai from his seal-storage on his arm, he aimed it at the guard. The guard was able to spot something coming at him from the corner of his eyes and ducked the kunai. Hanko had already shushined in front of the guard. One kick to the helmet of the hunched over guard allowed him to disorient the guard without too much noise. Swiftly grabbing the dropped kunai, he quickly stabbed into the opening of the armor at the neck. Not waiting to see the results of his stabbing, he then immediately shock-kicked the door and looked in to assess the situation.
- Elia's Perspective a minute prior -
Fear, fear is all I am feeling. When I first heard the door, I thought that the guard had come around to protect us or inform us of the besieging armies being broken. Instead when I saw Ser Amory Lorch and Ser Gregor Clegane at the doorway with fresh blood on their armor, my fright took over me. I held onto my children tightly, both Aegon and Rhaenys also shaking in fear, empathic of my own emotions. Then the Mountain made his way into the room, Amory hanging back and closing the door.
"It's been a while since I've had some cunt, now I get some royal cunt!" The mountain proclaimed with a sinister visage.
Aegon and Rhaenys started crying loudly at this point.
"Shut them up cunt!" the command came as the mountain came directly in front of us and smacked me hard across the face with his metal gauntlet. Oh by the gods it hurt so bad, stunning me. It took a couple seconds to realize that I no longer heard Aegon crying, and when I turned to look at where he once was, I noticed he was already across the room, eyes open and unmoving.
I started crying out, uncontrollably at the loss of my boy, my sweet little boy. The thought of the mountain right there and possibly hitting me again for my wails of sorrow not coming to mind as I mourned for the loss of my boy. The mountain made to move again and before I could come to the present, he took Rhaenys from beside me and threw her across the room. I screamed, not able to even follow the path of her movement in the air before the mountain was baring over me with unmatched sinister lust in his expression.
I continued to scream out as he tore at my clothing.
"Shut your mouth whore!" the mountain demanded.
I had no way out, pinned against the bed and the wall. Fighting his hands from tearing my clothing further, he hit me instead to stun me with his gauntleted hands. He then proceeded to continue tearing at my clothes until I was exposed in my private areas.
With me pinned, stunned, and exposed; he then started going to unclasping his leg armor. My fear overtaking me so much that I couldn't scream anymore. I didn't want this. I couldn't escape, and couldn't think of anything else as I was immobilized by my own fear. My end and my doom drawing ever closer.
Then suddenly, the door slammed open, giving me a slight reprieve of the mountain's visage and hope as he turned to face the intruder. The intruder in question looked an oddly thin man with androgenous features, the man's dark red hair was longer, almost like a woman's but braided in such a way that he could almost be mistaken for a wildling I heard stories about. Even more odd was the robes he was wearing. If it wasn't for the colors, I could have sworn he raided Vary's closet with the way they looked. One thing that seemed strange was a triangle-shaped piece of metal that was sitting on the side of his head, above his ear.
The mountain turned now to face the intruder. The slight hope previously felt now lost as I glanced at the intruder's size and knew someone that short and thin couldn't have any hope to face the mountain; a giant, muscular monster of a man. It was with those thoughts that turned to surprise when I took in the next actions of both.
The mountain, still wearing all his armor, started quick-drawing his sword. The smaller man quickly crossed the room, at the epitome of speed, and not heeding the mountain's armor, punched out to the giant's midsection. I was expecting his hand to break, hearing the grimacing sound of breaking bones. However instead I heard the sound of a hammer against metal, followed by the mountain leaving the ground and hitting the far wall with a crash of armor against a stone-wall. A groan could be heard as the giant tried to stand up to face this astonishing foe, however before he could get too far up from the ground, the red-haired man seemingly teleported again in front of the giant before giving a swift punch against the mountain's helmet. The sound like a gong would have almost been funny if not for the circumstances. With the last hit, the mountain stayed unmoving.
I continued to watch the man in newfound fear. The man was unnatural in some way as no one of his size would be able to pull off the feats of strength and speed he already displayed. I also did not know what the man could possibly want, beating the mountain like he did. Was he coming to my aid, or was he beating the mountain out of the way to take his place. My thoughts slowly started to get worse and my fears grew as to what would happen next.
- 3rd person perspective -
Hanko activated his seal-storage to spawn a larger scroll, not paying attention to Elia as her eyes went wide at the blatant display of 'magical arts'. He swiftly unrolled part of the scroll and then laying on the ground, dragged Ser Gregor Clegane's unconscious body over top of it before making a tiger seal. Clegane's form disappeared.
He then went to Aegon's body. The action unregistered to Elia's mind as she was still unable to grasp the full meaning of what she was seeing. Hanko showed care when reaching out and lifting her baby's body. Carefully lifting him up, Hanko put Aegon's body on another part of the scroll, and then made another tiger seal to have Aegon's body disappear inside the scroll.
Quickly re-sealing the large scroll away, he started making his way towards Rhaenys when Elia seemed to come to her senses and moved to get in front of Rhaenys' body to block his way.
"What are you going to do to my daughter?!" She demanded.
Hanko gave her a once over before quickly going back to her eyes. Her tanned skin still exposed directly to the air for all to see. Just with the glance alone he could understand at the very least the beauty of the royal princess. This was even with the tear-tracks smearing her makeup and fresh bruises that shown through said makeup.
He could tell she was acting as a tigress in protection of her cub. He didn't take offense as he knew for anyone like Elia seeing what she did and then to fear it would happen again to someone else you love; it would make anyone worried.
"I'm going to see if she is okay. I can only spend a short time to heal her as we need to get out of here."
"What makes you think that we will go with you?!" Elia stated. "Let alone that we can get out of here."
Some shuffling feet came to the doorway and before Elia could fear for the worse, her gaze fell upon what looked like a small-folk.
"We have company incoming, you have to go." one of the clones informed Hanko.
"I understand, one of you pick up the little girl."
"You are not laying a hand on my daughter sorcerer." Elia told him as her eyes darted along the group members of small-folk that appeared before her.
"Look," Hanko interjected. He decided to spawn an older black shihakusho with white trimming from his seal-storage and threw it at her to cover herself up. "As they said, we don't have much time. I know you don't know me, but if I wasn't here to help, what would have happened to you?" He could see Elia's misgivings easily in her expression but he continued. "I could have done something already for your daughter to heal her head-trauma, but you already prevented that which could make things worse for her in the future. I'll let that one slide. I could have had it easy just ignoring the stuff going on around me, and not have to worry about being caught, but instead I came to save you from the most notoriously belligerent knight of the realm. I risk the exposure of my powers to come here and help you and this is the thanks I get?" Now he had her frowning in chagrin. He of course wasn't truly upset, but he knew this bit of shame manipulation would be the only way to get his way the quickest.
Many things happened simultaneously. First was the sound of armored bodies coming their direction. The next was the other clones running out to the hallway to prevent the guards from arriving, one clone staying behind to pick up Rhaenys. The third thing was memories from one dispelling clone that placed a hirashin right outside the city going south.
"We don't have any more time," Hanko urged. Noticing Elia put on the shihakusho already, he quickly grabbed onto Elia's wrist, much to her surprise. Her attention left her daughter as she tried to fight off Hanko. His grip strong as ever however did not allow her to break away before he activated the hiraishin and vanished to the newly created seal.
- At the edge of the Kingswood -
With a swishing sound, both Hanko and Elia appeared at the location of the Hiraishin seal directly south of King's Landing. Now completing the teleport, Hanko let go of Elia as she stumbled back in escape. Shortly after, his clone appeared holding Rhaenys on his back.
Elia stumbled towards her daughter in worry as the clone decided to give her Rhaenys before making his way to the real Hanko. Elia looked quickly between the two unknown men, now both seemingly sorcerers in her eyes, and her daughter in worry at her condition.
"I was able to loot the corpse of Lorch at the door, seems he had a coin pouch on him with enough coin to get by for a little bit."
Hanko was thankful for the coin purse the clone handed him. He didn't think to secure some cash with all that was happening.
"Thank you, we are out in the open at the moment. I would appreciate it if you could search for some shelter further south in the forest."
The clone nodded before it disappeared in a shushin further south.
I'm not watching for a few minutes and suddenly I find you on the run with royalty? Shi spoke within his mindscape with cheekiness coming through the connection.
Well it's not like I had much of a choice in the matter.
You technically did, however as usual, you decided that playing hero is more important than leaving things lie and having more accurate knowledge of the future.
You know why I couldn't just let her get raped, and all of them get murdered.
… Shi sighed in his mind. I understand, however it's now made a mess of things; I'm just advising you as to why it was a bad idea. I hate to ask, but what is your next course of action?
A tour of Dorne. We have to find Lyanna Stark and prevent her death.
WHY?! Shi exasperatedly yelled. You trying to change the fate of Jon Snow or something?
What can I say, he was my favorite character in the Game of Thrones.
You do realize that he was nurtured in a harsh and unforgiving environment that made his personality the way it was in the show and books. What do you think will happen if you change his circumstances by keeping his mother alive? Hell, what do you think will happen to the Seven Kingdoms if you keep her alive?
What if the Seven Kingdoms think she is still dead? Hanko offered. I'm coming up with a plan as I go, but I think it might work all the same.
...As you know I'll always work with you. I'm just pessimistic that you will do something stupid and we won't survive long enough to have more fun.
And I appreciate that. I look at it this way, I will try to help them out the best I can. If it all goes sideways, we can at the very least escape.
That is true.
For now, I have to figure out where we are.