Now, to Ned in King's Landing. As you can probably guess, things are not going very well for him.


EDDARD IV

Everything around him was in a haze. He had difficulty to focus on something and couldn't see clearly. His head pounded as if someone was knocking on it with a hammer. His right leg was painful, throbbing.

It took him some time before he could see his surroundings more clearly, and before he could remember where he was. He was in a cell. Not one of the black cells under the castle, but a tower cell. He was in a bed, his bandaged leg laying on the smooth covers and several pillows. There was a stick leaning against the small table by the bedside when he looked to his right. He looked at the window. There were bars to it, and the door was heavy with several lockers on the other side. There was a chamber pot not far away. Slowly, with great difficulty, he sat in the bed, then took the stick and tried to stand up. He had no boots, so his right foot came in contact with the raw surface of the floor. He managed to walk to the chamber pot, taking much more time than he usually did. Relieving himself was a difficult task. He had fallen more than once before. With great effort, he managed to do it without slipping this time. Then he went back to the bed, as slowly as before.

They were giving him milk of the poppy, which didn't help him to maintain clear thoughts. From what he saw from the window, he guessed this was a good day, without rain. The climate was still too hot, but that was the least of his concerns right now.

Varys had visited him a few days ago. He wasn't sure when exactly. The milk of the poppy kept him asleep or drowsy most of the time. The only other person he saw was Pycelle, and he didn't talk to him at all. Varys told him that Arya disappeared and that Sansa was kept prisoner by Cersei, and still betrothed to Joffrey. Why did he ever accept to engage his daughter to this boy? From the very beginning, this match was a mistake. You're sentencing your sweet Sansa to a horrible marriage. Tyrion Lannister told him so. The Imp warned him about Joffrey, and he didn't listen. He also told him to not go in the capital, because it would start a war, and he had been right. If Ned hadn't come here, he would never have discovered the truth about the queen and her brother. Tyrion Lannister certainly knew about them, or else he wouldn't have tried to stop him from coming. At the same time, what he said about Joffrey was true.

When he spoke with Cersei Lannister, he asked her if her young brother knew about this. She had snickered. Do you really think I would tell this to the man who murdered my mother the day he came into the world? The Lord of Casterly Rock certainly found out about his siblings another way, or he suspected something at least. Ned had decided to write to Lord Tyrion's wife instead. If he knew, then at least his wife would discover the truth, and if he didn't, she would share the information with him and they would understand why he had to tell the king.

But now Robert was dead. His whole household had been slaughtered, even the servants, those who were not soldiers. Arya was nowhere to be found, probably lost, and Sansa was a prisoner of the Lannisters. What would Cat do when she learned what happened? And Robb who was alone to rule the North. He was only a boy. He thought about Jon. He was at Casterly Rock. The Lannisters could take him. Promise me, Ned. He should have forced the boy to go back in the North, even if this meant going back into the Night's Watch for him. At least, he would be safe there.

He could warn Stannis, that was still something. He would know the truth, and do what was needed to be done. Ned didn't see how he could save the children after that. He might try, but would it work? He lied back. There was nothing else he could do. Lie down. He had no idea what was going on outside, no way to communicate with his family. If they wanted to kill him, then why couldn't they do it now? There were many things he wanted to do, to say, but if he could never do them, then why to keep going on?

The locks of the door began to unlock. Probably Pycelle again. If only he could give Ned too much milk of the poppy. It would be the end of everything. However, when the door opened, it wasn't the old maester who came in.

"Lord Stark," he said.

"Ser Kevan?" The door closed behind him.

"I heard Pycelle is filling you with milk of the poppy. It must make you confused. I'm sorry."

He took a chair nearby and brought to sit next to Ned. "You threw a spear in my leg."

"And I would again. Without that, you would be dead. Jaime would have killed you."

"You chose to fight on his side."

"Jaime is my nephew. He is of the same blood than me. If you were to choose between me and your brother, or your wife, or your son, who would you choose?"

"He attacked us, without provocation."

"Without provocation? You threatened to tell the truth to Robert, which would have resulted in children dying. Do you really consider this to not be a provocation? I'm not saying Jaime and Cersei did right, but you should have expected such a reaction."

He looked at the knight for a moment. He had come to trust this man, to rely on him. "You know it. You knew it the whole time." Ser Kevan said nothing, but his expression told everything. "You've been lying to me the whole time, getting me to trust you, stopping me from discovering the truth."

"Not entirely, my lord. I tried to stop you from discovering the truth concerning my nephew and my niece, but I didn't try to hide anything from you concerning Jon Arryn's death. There was nothing to hide there. I didn't discover who killed him."

"He discovered the truth. Ser Jaime and the queen killed him to silence him."

"I'm afraid you're wrong, Lord Stark."

"He discovered the truth, and he was about to tell Robert. They killed him not long after, with a poison called the tears of Lys."

Ser Kevan frowned for a moment, but the frown disappeared very quickly. "I talked to Cersei and Jaime about this, and they claim they have nothing to see with Jon Arryn's passing."

"Do you really think they're telling you the truth?"

The knight sighed. "I think they are. From what they told me, Jon Arryn did talk to Cersei about his discoveries, and he was going to tell the king. The disease that killed him struck not long after. However, they're not the ones who killed him. They had thought about it, but Jon Arryn died before they could do anything."

"That makes no sense."

"I don't see any reason for them to lie about it, where we are now. I'm afraid your friend was killed by someone, or something else. I don't know. My inquiry gave nothing, and it seems the person who could have poisoned the Hand died."

"Ser Hugh of the Vale." The knight nodded. Ned thought about it for a moment. If the Lannisters weren't behind Jon Arryn's death, then who did it? "How do I know you're telling me the truth? You turned on me. You helped the Kingslayer and the queen to slaughter my people."

"I have nothing to see with that. Cersei and Jaime were the minds behind this. Actually, I think Cersei was the mind. Jaime only followed her. I was unaware of their plans until they put them into execution. You admitted while you discussed with Jaime that you made threats against Cersei and her children, and when you fought, I sided with my family. What were you expecting me to do? To turn against my own blood? Jaime is my nephew, the son of my brother. If you saw your son fighting with someone, in danger to be killed, would you fight for his opponent?"

Ned waited a moment before he replied. "They committed crimes. They committed treason against the Crown."

"They did, but they are still my family. You may think that we are without honor, Lord Stark, but a Lannister never turns his back on his kin."

"Have you tried nothing to stop that from happening?"

"Have you tried to stop your son Bran from climbing to walls? You know how difficult it can be, and you were his father. I'm not Cersei and Jaime's father, and I wasn't in King's Landing until very recently."

"They pushed my son from a tower, they tried to murder him, and they even sent an assassin against him."

"I'm terribly sorry. What they did was horrible, but it's done. We cannot go back."

"You're defending them?"

"Wouldn't you defend your children if some of them acted like Jaime and Cersei? Their mother discovered the truth about them when they were ten. She surprised them doing things together in a bath, things that a brother and a sister should never do together. She moved Cersei's rooms to the other side of Casterly Rock after that and posted a guard before her door. She died before she could tell Tywin about it."

"So your brother ignored it?"

Kevan Lannister gave a long sigh again. "I think he probably knew it, somewhere, but he denied it, even to himself. I think he didn't want to believe it. His legacy was everything that mattered for him, the future of House Lannister was all that mattered. I was there when Cersei and Jaime were presented to him at their birth. My brother seldom smiled, but he smiled that day. To think that his two golden children… He couldn't allow himself to believe that. Could you, if you had been at his place?"

For a moment, Ned tried to imagine himself at the place of Tywin Lannister. He tried to imagine that he discovered that Robb and Sansa, or Arya and Bran, were sleeping together. He tried to imagine what he would have done. He wouldn't have told anyone, for sure. He would have tried to stop it. He would have done everything to hide this, to get them as far away from each other as he could. He thought about how Cat would feel if this had happened to their children. For a moment, he thought he understood why Tywin Lannister denied the facts.

"They killed Robert."

"Something regrettable. Robert wasn't a good king, but he didn't deserve to die. Of course, if you hadn't revealed Cersei's secrets, none of that would have happened."

"Her sons have no right on the Iron Throne. Stannnis Baratheon is Robert's true heir."

"So you say. But to the rest of the Seven Kingdoms right now, you are a traitor who tried to seize the Iron Throne from Joffrey and who tried to proclaim himself king."

"That's an outright lie!"

"Lie or not, that's what most of the lords and knights were told. Ravens were sent all over the Seven Kingdoms with this message. The one sent at Winterfell was written by your own daughter Sansa under Cersei's dictation. For most of the realm, you are a traitor right now, Lord Stark."

"It doesn't change the truth."

"It changes what people believe to be the truth. What proof do you have of Joffrey being not Robert's son? A book?"

"Stannis knows, and so will Margaery Tyrell soon."

"Stannis is only one man, and many know that he despised his brother. It will be easy for Cersei to represent him as a jealous brother trying to snatch away the throne from his elder brother's son. As for Lady Margaery, I sent a raven to Tyrion warning him about this. The way I know him, he will stop your messenger before he reaches his wife, and she will never read your words."

"Tyrion Lannister is aware as well? He knew about his brother and his sister?"

"Tyrion is no fool. He is the most cunning and intelligent among his father's children. I wouldn't be surprised if he's known it for years."

Ned looked away, at the walls. "He told me to not come here. He said it could get me killed, and start a war. He even warned me that Joffrey wouldn't be a good husband for Sansa."

"And everything he told you was true. You should have listened to him."

"I did my duty," Ned retorted.

Ser Kevan nodded, his eyes down, for a moment. "You should never have revealed the truth about Cersei's children."

"They have no right on the throne."

"And do you think Robert had more rights on it? Do you really think we chose him because he had some Targaryen among his ancestors? The people agreed for him to be the king because they saw it as the best choice, or the lesser evil, after the Mad King died. The Targaryens built the Iron Throne, and they conquered the Seven Kingdoms. They had no right by birth on it at the beginning. It's not birth that determines who is the king."

"Then what determines it?"

"Blood. Fire and Blood. These are the words of House Targaryen, and this is how they created the realm. With fire and blood. That's how Robert became king as well, and that's how people remain king. Do you think Tywin would have remained Lord of Casterly Rock if he hadn't put down the rebellions of the Reynes and the Tarbecks? Do you think your own house would rule the North right now if you hadn't defeated the Boltons and all your enemies in successive wars? The person who is king is the person that the people accept as their king. They might accept him as their king for a time because of his birth, but in the end, that's not what decides who is king and who is not. Or else you would never have rebelled against the Mad King."

"The Mad King murdered my father and my brother."

"Yes, and I would have rebelled against him just like you did at the time, if I had been you. However, Joffrey did nothing against you. He didn't kill anybody you loved. His only crime is to not have Robert as a father."

"He is not the rightful heir."

Kevan Lannister gave another long sigh. "You could have kept the secret hidden, and no one would have known. Now that you revealed it, the realm is on the brink of war. The Seven Kingdoms will suffer, and your family will be in danger, all that because you revealed a secret that was necessary for keeping the peace."

"I'm not a coward who hides, Ser Kevan. I'm not Varys or Littlefinger. I gave a chance to Cersei to run away with her children, to save them."

"And she should have accepted. But you should have known that she would refuse. You spent months here. You had time to see what kind of person she was."

"I gave her a chance."

"Did you really think she would take it?" Ned didn't answer. He had to give Cersei Lannister this chance, for the sake of her children. Did he truly believe there was a chance that she would accept? He didn't know, but he had to try. "You blame my brother easily for killing the Targaryen children, Lord Stark, and yet you had no hesitation to give Stannis an information that could only lead to the death of children."

"She could have ridden away."

"She didn't. And now that Stannis knows, he will do everything he can to kill them all, Joffrey, Tommen and Myrcella."

Stannis Baratheon was a hard man. A just man, but a hard man as well. It was true that he wouldn't let the children of the queen live after this. He looked at Ser Kevan straight in the eyes.

"Everyone told me since I arrived, that your nephew, Lord Tyrion, is the real king of the Seven Kingdoms and has more power than everybody else."

"It's the case. The Crown is supported by House Lannister and House Tyrell through our alliance."

"What does Lord Tyrion think of all this business between his brother and his sister?"

"He disapproves, I'm quite sure of that, just like me. But there wasn't much we could do against it. Cersei is the queen and Jaime is a kingsguard. It was difficult to find a way to keep them away from each other."

"Tell him to find a way out of this. Tell him to send his brother to the Wall, to join the Night's Watch, and to send Cersei among the Silent Sisters. And tell him to send the children far away in Essos, somewhere Stannis cannot reach them."

"He will not accept. Stannis would chase them wherever they go. They will always be a threat to his rule, and so their children will be. Tyrion will never let Stannis hurt his nephews and his niece, especially not Tommen and Myrcella. There will be war Lord Stark now, whatever happens."

Ned breathed deeply and looked aside. He had failed. His king was dead, and now the Lannisters held the Iron Throne. "Why have you come here, ser? To tell me everything I've done wrong?"

"No, my lord." Ser Kevan leaned back into his chair. "I think you ought to know how things are going. First, your daughter Sansa is well. No one hurt her. I'm afraid we haven't found the Lady Arya, but we're still looking for her. Our men received clear orders to not hurt her when they find her, and even Cersei knows better than to cause her any harm. My nephew is probably heading for King's Landing as we speak, and reports from the North told us that your son is gathering his bannermen to save you."

"Robb? He's just a boy."

"Boys have led armies before. Your son is older than Daeron Targaryen when he conquered Dorne. How old were you when you marched to war against the Mad King?"

"Aye," Ned slowly recognized.

"In fact, Lord Stark, I came here to bring you a proposition. This is something I brought up as a solution to our current problems and that could save many lives."

"What is it?"

"For now, officially, you tried to take the Iron Throne and betrayed your king. I know that you are a man of honor, and so does Cersei. I propose that you recognize the official version. Confess that you tried to steal the throne from Joffrey, acknowledge him as your true king. In exchange, we will allow you to go to the Wall and join the Night's Watch. Your son Robb will bend the knee before Joffrey and will be recognized as Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North. Your youngest daughter Arya will be sent back to Winterfell when we find her and Sansa's betrothal with Joffrey will be maintained to ensure the peace between our families. When she comes of age, she will be queen."

Ned couldn't believe it. Did this man truly believe that he would accept something like that? "You want me to serve the woman who murdered my king, who butchered my men, who crippled my son?"

"I want you to serve the realm, Lord Stark! Have you forgotten? This is why you came to King's Landing." Ser Kevan had stood up and was pacing the room now. "We are almost at war, and you could stop that from happening. You can't stop Stannis, but you can prevent the conflict from escalating further. You can prevent all our houses from bleeding."

"I grew up with soldiers. You think I'm not ready to fight for what I believe?"

"You won't be fighting, Lord Stark. Your sons will be fighting. Should I remind you that we have one of your daughters, and that we will likely have the other one soon, and that while we don't have her, she's somewhere out there, in danger? And what about your bastard son at Casterly Rock? Do you really want to put your whole family in danger? Have you ever visited the Reach? The Westerlands? Highgarden? Casterly Rock? Oldtown? The Arbor? The Golden Tooth?"

"No."

"Then you know nothing, Lord Stark. Together, Casterly Rock and Highgarden can raise more men and more ships than all the other kingdoms combined. They will support Joffrey, you can be sure of that. How many men can your son raise? Twenty thousand? Maybe more? What do you think he will do when he faces an army of a hundred thousand? Are you ready to sacrifice the life of your family? Aren't their lives worth anything to you?"

Ned stayed silent after that. He remained silent for a very long time. "I think you've said everything that you needed to say."

"Very well." Ser Kevan seemed tired as he brought back the chair to its original place. Then he turned to face Ned. "Think about my proposition, Lord Stark. If you care about your children's life, I suggest you think about it carefully, and quickly. This is the best I can do for you. I don't have much power left."

"What do you mean? You don't have much power left?"

The knight had started to walk to the door, and he turned to look back at Ned. "After the slaughtering of your men, I tried to take back the control of the situation. Tyrion gave the order to the red cloaks to follow my orders if a situation like this one happened. I tried to control Cersei, to prevent things from getting worse. However, the next day, the Red Keep was flooded with Janos Slynt's gold cloaks."

"The gold cloaks?"

"They obey Cersei. She managed to secure their help."

"How? You are Master of Laws. The City Watch is supposed to obey you."

"As I told you once, my lord, the gold cloaks are led by their commander, Janos Slynt. He is a corrupted man, and his officers are just as corrupted as he is, along with most of his men. Cersei must have given him something to buy his loyalty. My two hundred red cloaks are no match for their two thousand men."

Ned tried to see any lie on the man's face, and again he couldn't see any. Was he betrayed by his niece just like she turned against Ned? "I advised you while you were Hand, my lord. I advise you again to accept my offer. The next to bring you one might not be as honest as I am. Very few people can be trusted in this city. Accept my offer and quickly, while you still can. I may not be here for long, and I don't want you to die."

Ser Kevan Lannister, brother of Tywin Lannister, walked away on this. Was he trying to fool Ned, or did he really want to help him? Why did the Lannisters always seem trying to help him while working against him at the same time? The North was much simpler. Maybe Lord Tyrion and Ser Kevan were right and he should never have left Winterfell.

There were so many things to consider. Duty and honor demanded that Ned support Stannis Baratheon, the true heir of the Seven Kingdoms, if only in Robert's memory. He couldn't allow a woman like Cersei Lannister to hold the Iron Throne, or her children to sit on it. On the other side, there was Sansa, and Arya, and Jon. He had to think about them. Promise me, Ned.

He wished he had Catelyn with him. They could talk about this together at least. He was glad that she wasn't here, since she would face the same dangers than him if she was, but he wished he could discuss about it with someone. He couldn't, so he would have to take the decision himself. He had ridden to war against a king once. Back then, it had seemed so simple. He was heartbroken to learn about his father and Bran's deaths, but he had to avenge them, and to save his sister. Now, however, it was different. He had gone to war, twice, and each time he won. But seventeen years ago, he was a young man who hadn't experienced war yet and who only thought about avenging his father and saving his sister. In the end, it hadn't mattered. If only Robert had known the truth, how futile his war had been. Lyanna died. They couldn't save her. What if the same happened to Arya, or Sansa? What if Robb died on the battlefields? And what about Jon? He made a promise, a promise he swore to keep, a promise he did everything to honor.

He's spent half his life fighting Robert's wars. He owes him nothing. Your father and brother rode south once on a king's demand. Ned knew what had happened to them, and yet he came. But he had no choice. Robert had asked him to help him. That's what men always say when honor calls. That's what you tell your families, tell yourselves. You do have a choice, and you've made it. He knew very well what Cat would tell him to do. But could he do that?

Pycelle visited him later in the day, changing his bandages and giving him some more milk of the poppy. Ned didn't drink all the vial that Pycelle gave him, to keep his thoughts clear when he would wake up, but he fell into a deep slumber all the same.

He was in King's Landing, eighteen years ago. Robert just arrived with the bulk of their army. The city had fallen He was still limping from his injuries, but that didn't stop him from boasting and roaring, or laughing.

"So, I hear Aerys is dead. Good riddance. You did it?" he asked Ned as they entered the Great Hall.

"No, he was already dead when we arrived. Murdered by Ser Jaime Lannister."

"Really? Jaime Lannister?" He exploded in a laugh that made him cough. "Maybe the Lannisters were not as useless as we thought. I heard they took the city."

"They sacked it," Ned specified. "Thousands of people were killed, they raped women beyond count."

"Still honorable, Ned. This is a sad thing, but this is war, and there's nothing we can do against it."

"True enough." Before Ned could react to this, Ser Jaime Lannister came out from behind a column and stood before them. "There's nothing anyone can do once my father decides he is an enemy. Too bad Aerys didn't realize it in time. He might still be alive."

"What do you want?" Ned asked with hostility. This arrogant man murdered the king he swore to serve.

"I came to pay my respects to the king. Your Grace." The Kingslayer bowed before Robert.

"So tell me, is that true? You killed Aerys?" Ned's friend asked the knight, and the knight in question shrugged.

"I think everyone knows it, now."

"How did you kill him?"

"I shove my sword into his back, and then I slit his throat."

Jaime Lannister looked at Robert with a defying expression, and Robert stared at him in return. Ned waited for his friend to do something. He simply laughed. "Don't make it a habit."

Ned looked at Robert with rounded eyes. Did he hear well? The heavy doors opened behind them at this moment. A group of men in red armors and red cloaks arrived. At the head of them was Tywin Lannister, the Lord of Casterly Rock. His blond hair were beginning to turn grey, but his gaze was as hard as steel. Next to him stood his brother, Ser Kevan.

"Your Grace." He said the words to Robert on a respectful tone as he bowed, though his expression remained as hard as before.

"Father." It was Ser Jaime who said that, but his father barely acknowledged his presence. His attention was on Robert.

"You are late, Lord Tywin," Robert said.

"I beg your forgiveness for not welcoming you as soon as you arrived, but the city is still in chaos after the battle." Ned would call it a butchery rather than a battle.

"I wasn't talking about this. I was talking about the war. You took your time to join us."

"We needed time to gather our forces, and we were waiting for the most opportune moment to help you, your Grace. Without our armies' convenient intervention, you would have needed a long siege to take the city. King's Landing would have fallen in time, for sure, but it might have taken months for you to take it, while we seized it within a single day. Now your army is free to save Lord Stannis at Storm's End."

Ned couldn't believe what he heard. The man was lying to the face of the man he called king. He joined them only because the Mad King had no chance of winning anymore. If they had been defeated, he would have continued to swear fealty to Aerys just like he did a moment ago to Robert.

"Still, I could call you the Late Lord Tywin Lannister if I wanted to. You only joined the fight in its final hours," Robert said.

Tywin Lannister's gaze turned harder than before, as unlikely as it seemed. Ned didn't believe the man could be colder than he already was, but it seemed he could.

"We may have joined the fight in its last hours, but the fact remains that we gave you the victory you needed. It is customary to present a gift when you swear fealty to your king. Please accept this as a token of fealty."

Two men came forward, each one holding something wrapped into a red cloak. When they laid it in front of Robert's feet and that Ned saw what was inside, he couldn't contain a gasp of horror. The two small bodies wrapped in the Lannister cloaks were covered with blood. The girl was covered with scars from sword's blows, while the baby next to her was barely recognizable, his head ruined, smashed, brain parts coming from it. Ned had heard the rumors about what happened to Rhaenys and Aegon, but he didn't see their bodies up to now. His men had been searching for them, without success. Now he knew why. Tywin Lannister hid them, to show them to Robert when he would arrive.

"Well, that makes two less people to kill."

For a moment, Ned wasn't sure if he heard well. Was it Robert who really said that? Was that really his voice that he heard? He looked to his friend, to the new king, and realized to his great horror that he was smiling. Ned looked back at the scene of horror before him, to the small bodies covered with the red of the cloaks to better hide their blood, then he looked again at Robert. He was still smiling. He didn't imagine anything.

"Robert… This is… This is murder!" That was all he could say.

"You should show some respect when you speak to your king, Lord Stark, and address him as his Grace," Tywin Lannister retorted.

"Enough, Lannister. I am the king. Ned has the right to call me however he likes." After reprimanding Lord Tywin, Robert turned towards Ned. "That kind of things happen in war, Ned. This is no crime to kill someone on the battlefield. This is war."

"They were no more than babes. Your daughter Mya back at the Eyrie is no older."

Robert looked at the children, disdain plain on his face. "I see no babes. Only dragonspawn." Robert averted his head to look into the eyes of Tywin Lannister. "I thank you, Lord Tywin. Your gift is appreciated."

It took everything Ned had to not explode from rage, but later, when they were alone in the small council chamber with Jon Arryn, he let go all his anger.

"What Tywin Lannister did is an atrocity!"

"Ned, calm down. I think we all agree that the death of these children is a horrible thing," Jon said.

"A horrible thing?! I'm going to tell you what was horrible!" Robert roared. "It was horrible how the Mad King roasted Ned's father alive! It was horrible how he forced his brother to strangle himself as he tried to rescue him! It was horrible how Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna and raped her! Do you wonder how many times he raped her before I killed him?"

"These children didn't kill my brother and father, they didn't kidnap Lyanna," Ned opposed.

"Their father and their grandfather did it. They were Targaryens…"

"They were children!" Ned shouted like he never did in his life. "Have you looked at them? Have you really looked at them, Robert?"

Robert's face was hard, almost as hard as Tywin Lannister's face. "I saw Rhaegar's children. I saw dragonspawn. Nothing more."

Ned couldn't believe what he was hearing, once again. He never thought his friend, his friend for years as they grew up together at the Eyrie, was saying it. "Look, you are both tired," Jon Arryn began to say. "We should retire and rest a little, and we'll continue this conversation later."

"No." Ned refused to rest. He looked at Robert. "I followed you to war without doubts, to avenge my family, and to save my sister. I didn't wage war against the Mad King to see you do the same crimes than he did."

"Be careful, Ned," Robert warned him.

"I will not be a part of this. The blood of innocents will not be on my hands. Sully your honor without me."

And on that, Ned left the room. When he slammed the door behind him, he woke up. He hadn't dreamed of that day for a very long time. He's spent half his life fighting Robert's wars. He owes him nothing. Cat's voice resonated again. Another voice joined her. Promise me, Ned. He remembered something he told Jon before he left for the Wall. The next time we see each other, we'll talk about your mother. I promise. Could he ever see Jon again? If he died, he could never tell him. Mark my words, Lord Stark. One day, you will regret accepting Robert's demands. The voice of the Lord of Casterly Rock was joined by the voice of another Lannister. Are you ready to sacrifice the life of your family? Aren't their lives worth anything to you? A man of honor would say he had to serve the king, no matter the cost. But Ned knew that was impossible. He couldn't let his family die. He couldn't die knowing that Sansa, Jon, Arya, Robb and Catelyn were all in danger. You do have a choice, and you've made it. Yes, Catelyn was right. He had a choice, and he made it.


I forgot to do it for the last chapter I uploaded, so now I won't forget it. "A Rose and a Lion" exceeded the line of 1,000 followers, and now has more than 850 favourites and about 750 reviews. I'm always blown away by the popularity this fanfiction reached. Thank you all for reading this fic and for giving me a reason to keep writing it.

I wrote the dream where Ned remembers the killing of the Targaryen children to mirror the scene between Robb and Rickard Karstark after Martyn and Willem were killed. And of course, in each situation, the person to who they spoke had lost someone they loved and didn't care to see innocents dying to avenge them.

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Next chapter : Sansa