EDDARD

He watched the head of the black brother he had just decapitated roll on the ground, away from him. He could smell the blood in the air as the head left a red trail in its wake in the summer snow.

Maybe somethings were always meant to be and would never change, no matter if the gods were helping you or not.

The man had said the same things as he had in his last life, only this time, Ned believed every word that he said, but that was not enough to buy the man life, as he was a deserter, and as a deserter he had to die.

The North and the Wall was now getting stronger than it had been in years, with all the restorations that had been implemented in the last few years since Ned, Jon and Sansa had come back to their younger bodies, but there was still work to be done.

But Ned knew that it was very soon that they would need to raise their banners and march on to war, against the man he had once called friend.

The lord of Winterfell handed Theon Greyjoy the great sword Ice, so that it could be sheathed and taken back home and cleaned, then he turned to his children who had attended the execution.

Even though he had been executing the same man for the same crime, there were differences this time. This time Jon wasn't there with them, but Sansa and Arya were in his place, both looking strange to his eyes in their jerkins and trousers, and Ned´s elder daughter had taken up Jon´s task of encouraging Bran.

His wife had been outraged when Ned had started to take Sansa and later Arya to attend executions, but maybe one day they would have to do this for themselves as they were of the North, or the very least have to watch as someone followed their orders.

Though he had to admit, he found it hard to imagine that one day one of his little girls would be ordering someone to death.

He ordered the men to burn the body before he made his way to where the children were standing. Sansa sent him one of her now rare smiles, as she steered her sister away so that he could talk to Bran alone.

Ever since Jon had left for Queenscrown, Ned elder daughter had seemed a lot more somber and serious, and her once lively and bright smiles had dimmed, much to his and his wife´s concern. Not for the first time, Ned had to wonder if Sansa had feelings for Jon.

He had to admit that it felt strange to think about that Sansa could have feelings for her cousin as they had been raised as siblings, but when they had been children they had never been close, and Sansa had done everything to distance herself from the bastard of Winterfell.

But when he really thought about why Sansa was so sad and despondent after Jon had left for his new lordship, it was the only thing that made sense to him.

Ned had to admit that if there was anyone that he felt was worthy of his little girl, Jon was the only one he could think of that came closest. He was sure that if Jon and Sansa would marry that Jon would treat Sansa well and with all the respect and dignity she deserved, and he would be faithful to her.

He pulled himself from the thoughts of Jon and Sansa, it was too early to think of such things now, as the world believed them to be half siblings, and he made his way to his second youngest child, who was shifting from one foot to the other in nervousness. "Are you alright Bran?" He asked the boy who had been named after his own brother but was so different in every way that counted from Ned´s wild older sibling.

The red headed boy nodded. "I am fine." Ned could see that the boy was trying to put on a brave face.

"Do you know why I did it?" Ned asked the boy, who frowned at the question.

"Because he is a deserter of the Night´s watch?" Bran´s answer came out more of a question than an actual answer, and Ned had to fight a smile.

"But do you know why I had to be the one to do it?"

This made Bran´s frown deepen. "Because our way is the old way."

Ned reached out and placed his hand on the boy´s shoulder. "A man who passes the sentence should swing the sword, and he owes it to the man to look him in the eyes and hear his last words, and if he cannot, then perhaps that man does not deserve to die."

He looked into his son´s blue eyes. "Do you understand?" The nine-year old boy nodded at him, before they turned and started to walk towards the horses.

Bran looked up at him for a moment before he asked. "Does Jon do his own beheading as well?" It seemed that the five years that Bran hadn't seen Jon, hadn't made him any less impressed with his cousin and his achievements.

"Aye, he does." Ned answered his son with a smile. "Like us, Jon is of the North and holds true to the old ways."

Bran smiled at his words. "Do you think that I will be as good a lord as him?" Ned laughed and ruffled his auburn hair.

"I am sure if you study hard and are good and kind to your people, you will be just fine." With those words, they mounted their horses and rode on, but Ned kept his eyes on the edge of the trees and on the road in front of him, he knew that if everything was the same as before, they would find the dead stag on the road, and six direwolf pups in need of rescue.

He only half listened to the men around him chat, and he could see that Robb and Arya were teasing each other mercilessly, until Arya challenged her brother to a race and spurred her horse into a gallop with a laugh.

In his last life it had been Robb and Jon who had raced on a head, and found the direwolf, but it seemed that Arya had taken Jon´s place this time.

It didn't take long until Arya rode back to them, yelling that they had found something. Sansa glanced at him from her horse, and his heart warmed seeing the excitement in her eyes of the prospect of having her wolf cub again.

They all hurriedly rode forward until they came to were Robb was looking over the carcass of a large stag that had clearly been dead for hours now. He could hear the guards and Theon talk around him, but he tuned it out as he dismounted his horse.

Ned took a quick look over the dead stag, and he was reminded of the words of his wife in other life, that the dead stag and direwolf had been signs from the gods, and it was only now that he truly believed them and that they had been a warning sent from the old gods.

He turned and walked toward where he knew that the dead direwolf had lain with her pups, and he could hear everyone dismount behind him, and there were some who followed him.

In their last life they had found a dead direwolf with five pups trying to drink from her, and one that had wandered off.

But lying there in the clearing, was a living, full grown direwolf, staring at him with her golden eyes, giving him the shock of a lifetime and making him almost stumble from sheer astonishment.

He heard a gasp behind him, and he tried to keep Arya from approaching any closer. "Arya stay back." He ordered and moved her behind him, and he heard the unmistakable sound of swords being drawn from their sheaths, and but gestured them to stay away.

The large she-wolf stared at him with her piercing eyes but made no move against him nor did she send him a growl or a snarl.

She stared at him, while five of her pups were searching for her teats then she lowered her large head to the ground and let out a small whine.

It was hard to explain the feeling that washed over him as he stared into the eyes of the wolf, and he knew in his gut that she wasn't going to harm him, nor his children.

Had the old gods really sent her to him and his children?

He took a step forward, and he heard Jory call out to him. "No, my lord she will kill you." But he ignored the man and continued towards the direwolf.

She didn't move as he approached her and just continued looking at him with her knowing eyes as he knelt by her head in the summer snow. Ned reached out his hand and she sniffed at it before licking it, letting him know that it was alright to pet her.

It was then when he noticed that her hind leg was injured, and it was clearly causing her pain. He leaned a little closer to the injury and examined it closely. It wasn't serious, but it would need tending to, and without cleaning it would surely fester.

"Father?" He spotted Arya inching closer with the look of uncontrolled curiosity on her face. He turned to look at her, and he could feel it in the back of his mind that the she-wolf didn't mind her presence.

He beaconed her over. "Come on, it is alright, she won't hurt you." Arya knelt beside him and slowly reached her hand closer to the wolf´s head to let her sniff at it.

Like with Ned, the she-wolf licked her hand, making Arya giggle. Now it was Bran´s turn to inch closer as he stared in awe of the direwolf.

"Can I pet her too?" Bran asked as he stared at the large wolf, and Ned gestured him forward. The she-wolf seemed to relish the attention she was getting, and Arya dug her small hand into her pocket and pulled out a dried piece of meat and handed it to the direwolf, which she happily gulped down.

"Can we keep her father?" Bran asked and turned his big blue eyes at him.

Ned looked into the eyes of the she-wolf once again as he spoke to Bran. "She is a direwolf Bran, and direwolves belong to themselves." The lord of the Dreadfort looked like he wanted to say something as Ned continued. "But we cannot in good conscience let the sigil of our house die out here along with her pups."

This seemed to make the boy very happy as he threw himself at his neck and laughed happily. "So, she will come with us to Winterfell?"

Ned confirmed his words as Arya turned to her father. "Can each one of us have a pup?"

He looked into the eyes of his begging children. "Aye, but you have to understand, that a direwolf is no mutt that can be kicked around, they are fierce beasts that will be faithful to you, if you are faithful to them." He fell silent for a few moments before he added. "And you will train them and take care of them, and if they die, you will bury them yourselves."

He then picked up one of the dark furred direwolf pups and handed Bran one that looked the most like the one that had been his, in their last life, as the she-wolf watched calmly on the proceedings.

When all his children had picked out their pups, and Ned had taken the black one into his arms for Rickon, Arya spoke up. "But what about Jon? He should have one too."

Ned frowned and looked around him as he tried to spot the albino pup that Jon had gotten last time. But it was then when Sansa´s pup started to grow restless, and the little she-wolf tried to get at something in the south side of the clearing.

Sansa walked over to where the little wolf was trying to go, and every eye in the clearing followed her as she knelt into the snow.

When she stood back up and turned to face them, she had the largest smile on her face, as the two pups snugged together in her arms.

"I found Jon´s pup." She said with a smile as she approached them.

As everyone stared at the unbelievable find, Arya spoke up once again. "Do direwolves just pop up like daisies in this clearing?"

VARYS

The ship rocked back and forth as Varys sat in the cabin, he was sharing with three other people. The two of said people were Tommen and Myrcella Waters, who were Cersei Lannister´s bastards that had been fathered by her brother, Ser Jaime Lannister.

Varys rubbed his hairless chin as he sat by the small desk and glanced at the two sleeping figures of the children. He knew that when Robert had gotten the letter, telling him of the affair that Cersei had with her brother, he had to take the children out of the city and to safety when he left the capital.

He knew that when Robert found out about Cersei and her brother that it would no longer be safe for him in the Red Keep, as Robert no doubt thought that the spy master had failed him one too many times.

But he couldn't bring himself to leave the children in King´s Landing, Varys knew that Robert was quite capable of executing them for the crimes of his wife, as he had proven when he had gloated over the dead bodies of Aegon and Rhaenys Targaryen, when Tywin Lannister presented their mutilated corpses to him as a coronation present.

He watched as little Tommen clutched his little kitten closer to him in his sleep, as his dyed mud brown hair fell into his eyes, and he was glad that he had saved the poor children. They didn't deserve the cruelties that Robert would no doubt inflict on them.

Little Myrcella hugged her little brother close in her sleep and buried her tear streaked face into his hair. The fact that they had to cut her hair short and dye it a dull brown had made the little girl cry silently, but she had suffered the loss of her hair with more dignity that he had expected.

While he hadn´t intended for Robert to find out just yet about the infidelities of his wife, things weren't as horrible as they seemed, the North was now stronger than ever, and the King´s dragons must be quite large at this point, so now that Robert had found out that Cersei´s children weren't his, a wedge had been driven between him and the Lannisters, making him even more financially unstable.

Especially now that it was becoming more and more clear to everyone that Littlefinger had been stealing from the crown even though there was still no word on the books so that they could confirm it.

Every time he thought of those damned books he could feel the annoyance bubble in his gut, he desperately needed them, as he knew that there had to be some proof that Littlefinger had been stealing in them, why else would he hide them so well.

As he thought of Littlefinger, Varys grew sure of that it had been him that had sent Robert the letter, claiming, rightfully so, that Cersei had been having an affair.

It fit with his method of creating chaos so that he could profit on it and leaving Robert without a son to inherit the Kingdoms would certainly do so.

Was this all an attempt to try and get back into Robert´s good graces? It could be, as the man who had exposed such treason would be well rewarded.

But Littlefinger had also had an affair with Lysa Arryn, and fathered a bastard on her, which would most likely be a strike against him with Robert who loved Jon Arryn. But maybe this would be enough to earn the man a clean slate with the Stag King.

He looked up as the door was opened and the fourth and final inhabitant of the room entered and closed the door behind them.

The tall man pulled the hood away from his lined face and looked at the two children that were sleeping peacefully on the bed. "I haven't murdered them, that is Robert´s game." Varys said to the man.

While Robert hadn´t actually murdered children yet, the fat man was comfortable with taking much joy in the suffering of innocents and ordering children dead for his own gain.

And that was just as bad as doing the act himself.

Ser Barristan Selmy´s blue eyes fixed him a look, and Varys thought to himself that the man looked strange without white cloak and armor. "I never said you did." The knight couldn't be more different from Varys in all respects, but the spy master still liked and respected the man.

"How is our cargo doing?" Varys wanted to change the subject to something safer.

The knight of the King´s guard shot him another look, this one more pointed. "Did you have to put lord Tyrion in a crate?"

"Yes." No, he hadn´t, but the small man had betrayed Varys to the Dragon Queen in another life, and Varys wasn't above petty revenge, even if the man didn't know he had betrayed him. "Lord Tyrion has very distinctive features that are hard to disguise."

Varys would have been able to disguise the man as a child as he was just a little taller than Tommen and Myrcella, and Varys doubted that the sailors would have raised an eyebrow at him if he kept his hood on, but this was much more fun for Varys.

The older man sat down on a chair next to Varys. "So, what is he like? The rightful King?" Barristan asked in a low but and excited voice and glanced around him to make sure that no one was hiding in a corner and listening in on their conversation.

"He is a lot like Rhaegar in many ways, but he also takes after his mother." Varys said with a small smile, when Varys had told the other man of the true King and Rhaegar´s son, the older man had almost taken of his head in his anger.

He had thought that Varys had been lying, but when Varys had managed to explain how Rhaegar had married Lyanna and they had run away together, the knight had been willing to listen.

"In what ways is he alike the prince? Aside from being a skilled swordsman?" There was a hunger in the older man´s eyes, hunger for knowing more about the rightful King and the last child of the man he had admired so much.

"He is a good man," Varys said thoughtfully. "and he doesn't want power for power´s sake, rather he wants to be able to do something good with it." That was always the feeling that Jon Targaryen had left him with when they met.

The rightful King was a good and capable leader, even when men had thought him to be a bastard, they had preferred him to those of trueborn blood.

"But," Varys spoke up again, making Ser Barristan look at him. "he is also stubborn like his father, and he is a very serious young man, but he seems to be a lot more grounded than Rhaegar and he isn't obsessed with prophecies."

Ser Barristan looked sad when he mentioned prophecies. "Rhaegar would have been a good King." He said sadly and looked into his lap.

Varys agreed that Rhaegar would have made a good King, not great but good. People often looked wistfully into the past and wondered what could have been if Rhaegar had been King instead of Robert, and Varys agreed that the dragon prince would have been better than Fat King Robert and the Mad King Aerys, but being worse than those two was probably very hard.

The Mad King burned people alive for his own amusement, and the Fat King was drinking, eating and whoring himself to death.

But if you compared Rhaegar to the actual good Kings that Westeros had, Varys doubted that the dragon prince would have been as good as them, the man was to obsessed over prophecies and making them come true to be all that effective as a King. Not to mention the lapse in judgement he had shown when he had run away with Lyanna Stark.

But Varys decided not to open that discussion now, it didn't do anything to dwell on the past and what could have been. So, he changed the subject. "So, what did the captain say? When will we arrive in White Harbor?"

Ser Barristan pulled himself out of reminiscing about Rhaegar and the family he had served with such pride. "If the winds hold, around two weeks" Varys nodded, when they arrived in White Harbor, they would have to travel from there on horseback to Winterfell and remain in hiding until it was time for King Jon to announce his existence.

Until then they would have to lay low.

JON ARRYN

Jon hurried to the chambers of the King as fast as he aging body allowed him, and he was sure that he had terrified more than one servant with the look of anger on his face alone.

He could feel his blood boil at Robert actions, how could the man have done this? This was madness. This was something he had expected of the mad King, and not the man he had raised in the Eyrie all those years ago.

He had hurried to the dungeons to see Jaime Lannister after the small council meeting had been concluded and what he had seen had brought dread and terror to his stomach, and he had known that he had to talk to Robert about this.

This could not be allowed to stand, when Tywin found out about this, there would be hell to pay. It was bad enough that Robert had imprisoned Cersei and her son Joffrey Waters in the black cells, but this was going way beyond any line of decency.

The hand of Robert Baratheon arrived at the King´s solar, and he could see the tired face of Ser Arys guarding the door. When the King´s guard saw him, he immediately went to inform Robert of his arrival.

When Jon entered the solar, he could see that Robert had graduated from wine to the Northern Dragon-water that had been becoming very popular in the last few years. "Ah, Jon you are here, we need to talk."

Jon nodded and took a seat. "Yes, I am afraid we do." Robert opened his mouth to say something, but Jon decided to press his luck by interrupting whatever he had to say. "What on earth did you do to Jaime Lannister?"

Jon made sure that Robert could hear the shock and outrage in his voice. "That fuck was fucking my wife, his own sister. He got what was coming for him."

"Robert," Jon stared at the man in front of him, even after all the mistakes the man had made in the last years running the Seven Kingdoms, this one should have been easy to avoid. "You beat his face to a pulp and broke his sword hand so badly that he will never use it again, the maester even had to remove a finger."

Robert growled lowly. "That is not nearly enough for what he and the whore did to me." He took a swing of the Dragon-water. "I have no sons Jon, no sons to inherit my Kingdoms after I am gone."

The man he had raised in the Eyrie sounded so sad as he said that, and Jon almost felt sorry for him. "Robert, we needed Jaime Lannister whole so that Tywin couldn't make a move against us."

But the King just snorted. "I didn't geld him, even though I wanted too, and that is the only part that Tywin really wants, so that the Kingslayer can sire some heirs to continue Tywin´s damned legacy." He let out a laugh at his own joke.

"Robert you have imprisoned his favorite son, are setting aside his daughter and declared the children bastards, Tywin will go to war for less." He tried to make Robert see reason, but the bigger man just waved his hand in dismissal.

"Not even the old lion can win a war against all the other Kingdoms, we shall smash him, but in the meantime, I have to find a new wife." Jon was surprised that the man was actually bringing this up by himself, Jon would have thought that he would have to persuade Robert with a lot more difficulty. "I need to get Mace Tyrell of my back, as he and Renly are always showing me a likeness of his daughter and trying to get me to marry her."

Jon could have slapped himself, of course that was the reason Robert was starting so early to look for a new bride, and not drowning his sorrows in a new whore. "Well, lady Margaery is not a bad choice, she does bring the Reach which is very beneficial for you, but I think you should look North for a bride, like lord Arnolf Karstark´s daughter Eddara, who is twenty years old and unmarried."

Robert stared at him for a moment before letting out a booming laugh. "Why on earth would I marry a Karstark, when there is a Stark I could marry?"

Jon could feel something akin to a stone settle in his stomach when Robert said those words. "Robert, Ned has no living sisters and his elder daughter is only thirteen years old."

"And what of it? Your wife was sixteen when you married her when you were around sixty." Jon rubbed his forehead in frustration.

"Robert, my marriage to Lysa hasn't exactly been what you would call a happy one."

But Robert just took another swing of the Dragon-water. "All girls dream of becoming Queens, and that should make her happy and I need to have trueborn sons, and Serena Stark will give them to me, like her aunt would have if the gods would have been kinder."

"Her name is Sansa, and Ned had already told me that he is going to marry her to some Northern lord." Jon tried to dissuade Robert from this ridiculous notion of Robert marrying Ned´s daughter.

Ned would never agree to marry his little girl to Robert, Ned had realized what his old friend was, and there was no way that Ned would let his little girl suffer a fate like being married to a man old enough to be her father, who spent all his time drinking and whoring.

"Why on earth would he do that, when he can marry her to the King of the Seven Kingdoms?" Robert asked the question like Ned would find it an honor to marry his little girl to his old friend.

"Robert, the girl is thirteen years old and not ready to have children, and you need children now." Jon hoped that his would work to deter him from the notion of marrying Sansa Stark, the girl deserved better than marry a man who would drink and whore himself to an early grave and would only use her as an replacement for her dead aunt.

Robert snorted into his cup. "Send Ned a letter that I will be marrying his daughter, that should make the Northern lords happy, to know that Ned´s girl will be becoming the Queen."

While Sansa Stark would be a good Queen for the realm and many of the Northern lord would be a happier having a Northern Queen but being married to a man so much older than her would not be good for the girl.

The girl was bright and intelligent, and those qualities would be wasted on a man such as Robert.

Not to mention that Ned would be furious that Robert would be trying to marry his little girl.

"Robert I don't think that this is a good idea, you refused to help Ned when he asked for it in restoring the castles on the Wall that defend the realm, and now you are demanding his daughter as well." Jon tried to reason with the younger man.

But his words just made the man in front of him turn red in the face with anger. "And Ned and the Northern lords haven't been paying the crown taxes for almost six years now, and I have looked the other way." He drank more Dragon-water and stared at Jon with fury in his eyes. "As for his daughter, Ned will be honored that I will be making her Queen, and his grandson will be a King one day, what more could he want?"

Jon opened his mouth to tried once again to reason with Robert, but the man interrupted him. "Enough, I have made up my mind, if I cannot marry a son to Ned´s daughter, I will just marry her myself, send the letter Jon."

The hand of the King stared at the man in front of him, he had a hard time believing that he had raised this man himself. How could he have failed Robert so? How could he have failed the Kingdoms so?

"Now," Robert spoke up in his booming voice, effectively bringing Jon out if his depressing thoughts. "It is time to call the banners, Tywin will be marching on us as soon as he hears that I have set his whore of a daughter aside."

Jon nodded, feeling his years like never before. "Yes, I will be traveling with Lysa and Alys to the Vale in two days' time, and I will be summoning my lords and prepare them for war."

"Oh, piss on that." Robert frowned at the man who had raised him. "Send a letter to Lord Royce, and get him to raise the banners, stay here with me while the knights of the Vale march south."

"No, I can´t Robert," Jon had not sounded so firm to the younger man in years now. "I cannot show such favoritism to one of my lords, I need to do this myself, and I intend to escort Lysa and Alys to the Eyrie myself, where they will be safe until this all blows over."

Robert let out a sigh. "Fine then, just be quick about it and make sure to write to Ned and Hoster to start marching south as well, we need to crush Tywin once and for all."

Jon agreed to write to his good brother and good father, but he wasn't sure if they would answer the call. Ned would be furious that Robert was calling him to a war once again and demanding his teenage daughter for a bride, especially after everything that had passed between them in the last few years.

But Hoster would be over the moon to know that his granddaughter would be a Queen and most likely given his actions, he wouldn't care much about her being so young and Robert so old.

"But what about your brother, Renly?" Jon asked as he rubbed the back of his head.

Robert let out a groan. "What about him?" The King never liked talking to or about his brothers, but if Robert was going to march of to a war, it would be better for him to make sure that Tywin couldn't move.

"You could marry him to lady Margaery and tie the Reach to you that way." If Robert asked lord Mace to marry his daughter to lord Renly, there was no way for him to refuse, as he clearly thought that she was old enough to wed, as the man had been shamelessly trying to marry her of to Robert, who was even older than Renly.

Robert let a laugh. "Yes, that will make the man shut up about his precious little flower, and maybe it will be good for Renly to finally marry, and he seems to like the girl as he is always with her likeness around."

Jon let out a small smile. "I will tell lord Tyrell then." He was relieved that Robert was on board with this idea, because then Tywin wouldn't be able to try to marry the girl to one of his own lords, or even Jaime if he ever got him back. The last thing they needed was for the Westerlands and the Reach to join together.

As he turned around and left the solar when their talks were concluded, he could feel the same feeling in his chest as when the rebellion broke out in earnest.

I know someone is not going to be happy that Robert is demanding to marry Sansa himself, but to me it feels very in character for him, as he clearly knew what Joffrey was, because in the books it is said that he once found Joffrey skinning a cat and Robert hit him so hard that some of his baby teeth fell out, so he must have known of this inclination that Joffrey had to hurt others, but he still insisted on betrothing Sansa, the daughter of his best friend to Joffrey. So, he isn´t really all that interested in Sansa´s wellfare.

Also this is all based on medieval Europe, where it was not that strange for a middle aged man to marry teenage girls.

But i hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and once again thank you all for your wonderful comments.