A/N: Hope you guys enjoy :)

Chapter Four: Dream A Little Dream

Darkness greeted Arya, pitch black surrounded her, she couldn't see anything. She felt incorporeal, like she wasn't there, her body was just an illusion in this nightmare. That's what this was, just a dream made up of loneliness and empty space, and she was right in the middle of it. Touching her face with her hand Arya felt cold skin beneath her fingertips, she could feel the pressure to her face, but it was muted, more of sensation than anything else, an illusion too.

The darkness wasn't quiet like one might expect it to be, it was loud with rowdy noise. Several voices overlapped each other, talking all at once, she couldn't understand them or distinguish them. But the harder Arya paid attention to the individual words being spoken instead of the stream of noise they provided, the more she could separate the voices and understand what they were saying.

"She told me she was fine Bran; you knew she was lying!" The loudest of the voices boomed, it was furious and biting.

"Jon!" A sugary soft voice exclaimed, their disappointed in the other voice, "We just don't understand why you didn't say anything Bran, why you let Arya pretend nothing was wrong." The voice lowered, not up for confrontation.

"It wouldn't have made a difference; Arya is where she is meant to be." The third voice was drawn out, exasperated, they've explained already, they were tired of talking.

The voices belonged to her siblings, Arya examined around her, hoping to see a pinch of light, anything that would help her escape the darkness that was suffocating her; hearing her siblings and not being able to see them or touch them was a cruel realization.

"Where is that exactly?" This voice was rougher than her sister's but no less sweet, the Dragon Queen, her voice was tinted curiously.

"I can't say, but she is fine." The irritation her younger brother spoke with was lessened with his reassurance of her wellbeing.

"She looks dead! How can you tell me she is fine!" Jon had a hitch in his voice that spoke of the turmoil he felt inside, he was scared, he was hopeless in the situation and he didn't know what to do with that.

"Jon!" Sansa sounded as if she's been apprehending him for hours, trying to reign in the anger and the hurt their older brother felt with no success, "Stop yelling at him." Her sister demanded.

"Jon I'm sorry, I know you want answers, but I can't give them to you, not yet at least. So please just trust me when I say our sister is where she is meant to be and that she is fine, trust me to not put her in any more danger, trust me to do what is best for our family, for our pack." There was no answer from Jon to Bran's words, distantly Arya could hear Bran's wheelchair moving away, the sounds of the wheels left squeaks in their wake.

"How do you expect me to trust you when you speak in riddles Bran, how do I trust you when you're the one who knows what's happening to our sister right now and you're refusing to share that information." Jon tells him before the sounds of Bran's wheelchair completely faded away, he left them.

Arya didn't like the silence that followed Bran's departure.

"Bran loves Arya Jon, you might think you're the only one who cares for her but you're wrong, she's our sister as well, Bran would never do something that he didn't think was right." Sansa said her peace, when no reply came from Jon she sighed and left whatever room they were in, Arya wanted nothing more than to be able to see them with her own eyes.

"I'm sorry Jon," the Dragon Queen tells her brother, she is someone Arya is glad she can't see, there is fake concern pouring from her mouth "There is nothing to be done about your sister though, all you can do now is wait, but there is still a war going on and we must focus our attention on Cersei." Arya scoffed at the direction the Dragon Queen took the conversation.

"My sister is lying frozen, blue in the face, possibly in pain and dying, and your telling me to focus my attention to Queen Cersei?" The livid disbelief rang loud in the darkness.

"I'm okay Jon!" Arya yelled to the void, hoping in some small way Jon would be able to hear her, Arya's heart was breaking from the tremors in his voice.

"Jon! I'm okay!" She yelled louder, her voice echoed back to her, repeating that she was okay.

"He can't hear you." Someone said from behind Arya, she whipped around and was surprised that she could see color, the shadows that overtook the room before were slowly fading away into the deep corners of the void that seemed never ending, with them they took the voices of her brother and the Dragon Queen.

Arya didn't answer back right away, she was never surer that this was a nightmare, there in front of her stood what first appeared to be herself but a step closer revealed to actually be her aunt Lyanna. They were dressed the same in creamed colored tunics with brown leather jackets over them, along with brown leather britches and black boots. Their hair was wild and curly around their faces, big silver eyes scanning one another, taking in the little differences but mostly coming to terms with the wide similarity.

"Hello Arya." Lyanna smiled, untroubled with Arya's presence, the exact opposite of Arya who couldn't wrap her head around who she was seeing.

"Ly-Lyanna?" She spluttered, she took another step closer, one Lyanna mirrored.

"It's wonderful to finally meet you," Lyanna went on unconcerned with the lines in her nieces face that were deepening with every word spoken, "Officially that is." She playfully winked.

"What is this?" Arya sneered, she glanced around the room once more, instead of the darkness, she and Lyanna were in a small room, gloom seemed to stain the air around them, the grey floorboards to the room were unsteady and broken, the only object was a bed with furs on it. Arya's never seen this room before in her life, she doesn't like it here, the walls wallow with grief.

Grief, something she's familiar with but no less accustomed to, she's lost so many people in her young life and this room feels like another loss, it's something Arya doesn't understand.

"Where am I? Why couldn't Jon hear me? Why are you here?" Arya fired off her questions, she was done with the ghost of Lyanna Stark, it seems like a step to far to be haunted by her after Arya's already been compared to her and thrusted into her body. What did Lyanna want from her? They didn't live at the same time, they never even met.

"You are sleeping, Jon couldn't hear you because we are in your dreams," Lyanna calmly explained, she had a gentle smile for Arya, a motherly smile, it was unsettling to see such a thing on a replica of her face, "This room is a memory of mine, something I need to show you so you can understand."

"Then why could I hear him? I didn't fall asleep in Winterfell." Arya said to Lyanna who was walking around the room, touching the walls, pain reflected in her eyes.

"Your body is still in Winterfell, you are lying in bed, frozen for the time being. In sleep your soul tried to connect to your body, the result was what you just experienced." It's a testament of all that Arya has been through that Lyanna's explanation made sense.

"Understand? Understand what?" Arya wasn't ready to think about what her siblings were thinking and feeling, seeing her lying unmoving in her bed, looking like death so she brought the conversation back to Lyanna's statement that she needed to understand.

"Why the old gods sent you to the past." Lyanna stated, she stopped in front of the dirty bed, Arya watched with cautious eyes as her aunt touched the fabric of the furs with delicate movements.

"It wasn't the Night King?" Arya questioned, confusion overtook her face, she was positive it was because of him that she was in her aunt's body, experiencing things from her perspective in a time long before her own.

"Through his own doing with his own ill intentions, no, but he was a player that allowed the old gods to have what they needed to be able to intervene, it was help from his abilities that gave them the strength to send you where you needed to go, it was lucky that he touched your bare skin, had he not then we would not be having this discussion." Lyanna had moved from the bed to step in front of Arya.

"Where I needed to go? You speak in riddles, tell me plainly what is happening." Arya ordered from her aunt, her eyes sparkled with interest, not fully prepared to have Arya ordering things from her, Lyanna's niece reminded her a lot of herself, she was just as forward.

"I made a lot of mistakes, ones I dearly regret now, mistakes that had repercussions far beyond what I could have ever imagined at the time," Lyanna teared up in confession, memories better left buried swirled her mind, "I never meant for anyone to get hurt, I never wanted for my family to pay for my mistakes, to die for them." The tears were silent as they made their way down Lyanna's cheeks.

"Okay," Arya replied uncertainly, uncomfortable with her aunt Lyanna's crying, "What does that have to do with me?" It was understandable that her aunt had regrets, everyone does, Arya for all the torment and agony she suffered through didn't blame Lyanna for being a young girl who got kidnapped and raped by a handsome conniving Prince who believed he had some right to her, as if she were a possession, a material object. She couldn't have possibly fathomed that Prince Rhaegar's actions would have led to the near extinction of the Stark family, though none of that was her aunt's fault.

But none of that had to do with Arya, so it made no sense why her aunt was telling her this, she wasn't a confessional.

"It has everything to do with you Arya," Lyanna wiped her tears away with the sleeve of the jacket she wore, the leather scratched her smooth skin leaving behind redness, "Watch." Lyanna pointed to the bed, where three figures materialized from nowhere. A woman laid on the bed sweaty and bleeding, her legs up and spread, furs covering her private area so the man that kneeled next to her couldn't see. He was patting the woman's forehead with a piece of cloth, choking out encouraging words. The last person was a handmaid, she kneeled at the woman's legs, keeping them apart with her hands, occasionally looking to the woman to update her on the process.

Arya didn't know what to say when she recognized the woman as her aunt Lyanna and the man as her father. Lyanna was visibly pregnant and in active labor, it was a difficult labor, the pushes she was attempting were leaving her breathless, with each new push a gush of blood would accompany it. Arya watched in bewilderment, she doesn't have a cousin, her father would have mentioned a cousin, she would have grown up with them, what was happening?

Finally, the piercing cries of a newborn baby taking its first breath in the real world filled the room, a collective breath of relief was let out by all the occupants, Arya included. It was a squirmish thing, kicking and flaying it's tiny arms and legs everywhere it could, still purple with fluid all over it. The handmaid did her best to clean the little thing before hurriedly handing him over to Lyanna, who was growing deathly pale in the aftermath of her giving birth.

"It's a boy, a strong healthy baby boy." The handmaid told her, she patted Lyanna's knee before looking to Arya's father and shaking her head with sympathy, Lyanna would not live for much longer, the handmaid left the room with remorse in her bones.

Lyanna hugged her baby to her chest, content to look at his beautiful full head of dark brown hair, almost black and his rose puffed cheeks. He was perfect. Her chest hurt from the raw breaths she was taking, it was to many, her body was tired, she wanted to sleep but she knew if she closed her eyes that would be the last time she saw her son.

"If Robert finds out, he'll kill him, you know he will," Lyanna used what little energy she had to hand her brother her baby, she gripped his hand in hers and forced him to look her in the eyes, "You have to protect him, promise me Ned. Promise me." She begged, the Lyanna next to Arya mouthed the words as well, her eyes transfixed on the scene of her death.

"I promise Lyanna, I'll protect him." Her father swore, he leaned over and pressed a kiss to Lyanna's forehead, wiping her hair from where it stuck to her skin and tugged the strands behind her ears, Lyanna nodded, smiled one last time at her son before she closed her eyes and took her last breath.

"You died in childbirth." Arya said out loud, she was never told how Lyanna passed, never cared enough to ask, she had just assumed it was complications in her kidnapping but nowhere has it ever been mentioned that she was pregnant. What happened to the baby, her cousin?

"Yes, I did." Lyanna stated, it was a painful death, slow and dragged out, but her son was worth it, he was everything to Lyanna and she would die a thousand more deaths if it meant he got to live.

Arya had so many more questions, none of this made sense, this wasn't how the story went, this wasn't real, it couldn't be real. Before she could ask her most pressing questions, her father stood from his kneeling position. He was the same age as he was when she saw him in her room with his brothers telling her goodnight, hardly any significant amount of time passed, but the hard lines and frowns of stress that were a part of the father she knew in the future that were absent in the past are now there. He was carefully cradling the baby, shushing his crying, rocking him well humming under his breath.

"You're going to be just fine, Jon." He whispered into the babies ear, almost too low for Arya to hear.

Jon...Jon...Jon...Jon...Jon...Jon..Jon, her brother's name echoed loudly as the scene faded into the void as the darkness did, her father and baby Jon with it, leaving herself and her aunt Lyanna in an empty room with no clear distinctions to give to clues to where she was.

"Jon is my cousin?" Arya surprised herself, she didn't yell, she didn't demand, the news was shocking to say the least and had Arya not witnessed it firsthand she would have never believed it. Her older brother, her favorite brother, was her cousin. Her father never cheated on her mother, he didn't bring home a bastard baby, he brought home his nephew and claimed him as his own because that was the only way to protect him. Arya had to begrudgingly admit to herself that it made sense, as honorable as her father was, everyone really should have known he would never step out on her mother and bring home the consequence of that indiscretion.

"I loved Rhaegar, time has twisted my story with him, he never kidnapped me nor did he ever rape me. I went with him of my own free will, I wanted a life with him, children eventually, Jon came a bit earlier than expected," Lyanna told her, "We got married in secret, he annulled his marriage to Elia, we were meant to be happy together, raising our child."

Shaking her head to clear it, Arya tried to process all the new information she was getting handed. None of this is how history foretold it, they said Rhaegar kidnapped and raped Lyanna, her father never contradicted the story and now Arya is learning they were in love, expecting a child, a child that was Jon. Her poor brother who grew up believing he was a bastard, a brother that got unnecessary hate from society and in his own home for the circumstances in which he was born, his entire life revolved around something that wasn't even fact.

"I don't know what to say," and she didn't, this was too much, how was she meant to react, "but I still don't understand what it has to do with me?" For all the information Lyanna was telling her she still had yet to explain what any of it had to do with Arya, what her purpose in the whole thing was.

"As I said Arya, I made mistakes, ones I regret with every fiber of my being, loving Rhaegar and giving birth to Jon aren't one of them but the ones that I do regret? The mistakes that you and your siblings, my brother and his wife, Rhaegar's sister and brother, and countless others paid for, those ones...well someone needs to change them, someone needs to make it right." Lyanna answered evenly, her lips pursed in a fine line.

"And by someone...you mean me?" She pointed to herself; her mouth open in doubt. What could she possibly do that would change all that has been done? She was but one girl, Lyanna and the old gods are mistaken.

"Why not you?" Lyanna rhetorically asked, her niece is fearless, willful, adaptable and she believes in fairness, in righting wrongs. She has wolf blood running through her veins, Lyanna couldn't think of better person to stand against fate and tell it to go fuck itself.

"I need to go home; I can't stay in the past. I don't belong there!" She shrieked at her aunt in determination to get her to realize that Arya doesn't belong in the past, she's meant to be with her siblings.

"I'm sorry Arya, what is done cannot be changed, I can't send you back." The edges of Lyanna's figure started to blur, she was slowly disappearing before Arya's eyes.

"What's happening?" She reached out for Lyanna, trying to grab hold of her hand, everything around her was melting away.

"You're wakin-"

Arya shot up in her bed with a gasp, she frantically searched the room for her aunt, expecting to see her figure somewhere, lurking and going in circles with her speech but there was no one else in the room. She fell back on the bed, the furs around her scrunched up and made a ball that Arya kicked with her foot, she ran hands down her face, closing her eyes. She could remember snippets of her dream, most of it gone when she woke up, she tried her best to conjure up the images of her dream, but luck wasn't on her side that night. She could picture Lyanna in her brown leather and black boots that matched Arya's own but mostly she could hear voices.

"Trust me to do what is best for our family, for our pack."

"Bran would never do something he didn't think was right."

"There is still a war going on."

"Why the old gods sent you to the past."

"I made a lot of mistakes."

"I loved Rhaegar, I wanted a life with him."

"Someone needs to make it right."

She lets out a loud groan, turning on her stomach, she presses her face into the pillows below her. She's forgetting something, it's frustrating to know that she's not remembering her full dream. She knows she heard her siblings and the Dragon Queen talking, arguing but she couldn't recall the whole conversation. She remembers her aunt Lyanna telling her the Night King was not responsible for her adventure to the past, the old gods were, that they want her to fix something...everything?

Lyanna told her she made mistakes, Arya can't recall what mistakes but the thing that stuck out the most was that Lyanna told her she loved Prince Rhaegar and she wanted a life with him. You don't love someone who kidnapped and raped you.

If that dream was real, if Lyanna really did visit her from beyond the grave then that meant Rhaegar and her aunt were in love, that would mean the story of Lyanna Stark is false and Arya had no idea what to do with that information.

A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed, feel free to drop a review :)

For anyone curious, Arya doesn't remember that Lyanna revealed Jon to be her cousin and not her brother.