Jon

The cold air stung Jon's lungs as he sat up from the table he was on. 'Where am I? How did I get here?' Jon could hear someone's raspy breaths in the room he was in. He looked over and saw Davos and Ghost. His direwolf was whimpering and looking as if he was afraid of him. But why?

Jon's gaze fell upon his body and he saw the stab wounds from the knives of the men who betrayed him. He lightly touched one of them and the instant when he felt the gash he quickly pulled away. 'They're real. They killed me!' Jon looked back at Davos and tried to get off the table, but his legs were weak and he collapsed.

Davos removed his cloak and quickly caught Jon before he hit the ground. "Easy, easy." He wrapped Jon in the cloak and helped him sit up on a stool as Melisandre entered the room, looking as shocked as he was. "What do you remember?"

Jon couldn't answer. He was still realizing that he just came back from the dead. His thoughts traced back the blade that stabbed him and it's wielder, Ser Alliser. "They stabbed me" he breathed out as he remembered the final blade that killed him. "Olly… he put a knife in my heart." He remembered the pain he felt within himself when Olly thrusted the steel into his chest. Right now he felt wrong, he couldn't describe how, but he knew he was. "I shouldn't be here."

"The lady brought you back." Davos told him.

Jon's gazed turned to Melisandre as she knelt down in front of him. "Afterwards, after they stabbed you, after you died, where did you go? What did you see?"

Jon tried to think of what did happen, but all he could remember was the nothingness felt right before waking up. "Nothing… there was nothing at all."

"I don't know if the lord gave you your dragon or if they were a gift from the maester, but this is the because of the Lord of Light's power. He let you come back for a reason" she told him. "Stannis was not the prince who was promised, but someone has to be." Jon was still trying to come to terms with coming back alive. Prophecy and Kings had no importance to him now.

"Could you give us a moment?" Davos asked. Melisandre obliged and left the room, Davos closing the door behind her. He pulled up a chair in front of Jon and sat down. "Dragons were born here. That is impossible to believe. And then you were dead, and now you're not. That's completely, fucking mad, seems to me. I can't imagine how it seems to you."

Davos was completely right. Nobody could understand the knowledge of what it's like to die. "I did what I thought was right, and I got murder for it. Now I'm back. Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe we'll never know. What does it matter? You go on, you fight as much as you can and you clean up as much of their shit as you can."

"I thought I knew how to do that. I thought I did but… I failed."

"Good, now go fail again." It wasn't the most encouraging of words, but it was enough to knock some sense into Jon. Davos helped him dress into some fresh clothes and walked with him out to the balcony. Ghost followed next to Jon, being as faithful a companion as he always was.

Jon could see all the men present gathering around in the courtyard, looking at him with disbelief, marvel, and even fear, just as they did when the dragons were born and crawled onto him. He slowly walked down the steps into the training yard and watched as men moved out of his way.

He found himself approached by Tormund, who had all the emotions they had. "They think you're some kind of god. The Man Who Returned From the Dead."

"I'm not a god." Jon immediately shot back at Tormund. The last thing he wanted were people starting to worship him.

"I know that that" Tormund said, wide-eyed, as he got close him. "I saw your pecker. What kind of God would have a pecker that small?"

Jon smiled knowing that Tormund would still make a joke out of this. He was embraced by Tormund tightly and released after his friend heard him grunt from the pain of the stabs.

Jon's gaze found Edd and he immediately walked over, meeting him with a hug. "Well your eyes are still brown." Edd commented. "Is that still you in there?"

"I think so." To be honest, Jon wasn't sure. Is anybody the same person they were after they die and come back to life? He would have to wait and see if he was. "Hold off on burning my body for now."

Edd chuckled at that. "That's funny." He suddenly looked concerned. "Sure that's still you in there?"

Jon laughed with him, glad he didn't change even though he might have.

Before they could continue, a brother above the gates called out to everyone. "Open the gates!" Everyone's attention turned to the gates when they opened. A group of Free Folk entered Castle Black.

They were followed by a horse pulling a wagon, and a giant. Jon recognized the giant. It was Mag the Mighty. He was injured during the assault on the gate and forced to retreat when he failed to lift the gate open in time. He carried something in his right arm.

Jon recognized the wagon and approached the Wildling that led them. The man had an owl perched on his shoulder. "Lord Snow," he said. He looked around and his expression changed. "Why's everyone lookin like they've never seen a giant before?"

Jon looked over at the wagon and saw the cages in the back and that they were empty. "Where did you…"

The Wildling looked up at Mag. The giant approached Jon and lowered his body, revealing what he carried. Jon looked and saw Grenn's body, void of any life. "What happened?"

"I tried to warn him, but I'm afraid my owl can only screech." The Wilding told him.

"You're a warg?"

"Aye, name's Cullug. We came through the Wall at Eastwatch, on our way to join the other Free Folk. I was scouting ahead when I noticed a group of raiders near the Torches. They were waiting to see if your brother crow would enter the castle. I did what I could to keep in from going, but what can you do as an owl?"

"So they trapped him in the Torches?"

"No, I finally managed to get him to see from the ramparts. He was able to get out of the castle, but an arrow knocked him off his wagon. They surrounded him, but he didn't die easy. Killed five of them himself before they brought him down. Six if you include one he ran over with the wagon."

Jon looked over at Grenn one last time, proud that he was as stubborn to die as he was to train. "You have my thanks, but I'm afraid the Night's Watch doesn't have much to offer you."

Cullug slapped Jon on the shoulder. "You saved us from what lies beyond the Wall, there's nothing else we could ask of you."

Jon spirits were lifted when he heard that. But they dropped when he saw the cages in the wagon were empty. He walked over to them, worried the worst had happened.

"What was in them?" Cullug asked.

"You didn't see?" Jon asked, desperation clear in his voice.

"We stopped the wagon when it went on its own, but whatever was in those cages broke free and got away. I searched for a while with my owl, but I couldn't see nothin in the hills."

"Did you look in the skies?"

Cullog was puzzled. "You were transporting birds?"

"No, something far more dangerous." Jon walked back to Edd. "I guess Grenn will be the one burn today."

Edd shook his head, upset that their friend died. "He's one of the best of us to die fightin. I think it dishonorable he has a share a pyre with mutineers."

That reminded Jon, he hadn't seen the officers since he awoke. "Where's Thorne, and the others who had a turn at me?"

"In the Cold Cells."

"Good. Let's go pay them a visit."

Edd cracked a small smirk. "Can't wait to see their faces when he sees you."

Jon chuckled, but he wasn't amused. There were a thousand questions running through his head. He came back to life, but what does that mean for him? When Edd right to question if he was who he used to be? Was what happened truly death?

They were joined by Ser Davos, and Tormund when they went down into the Cold Cells. Jon stayed in the back and out of sight when they arrived.

"Is it time already?" Thorne asked.

Jon stepped into view of all of them and watched as all them were petrified at his living presence.

"T-this…" Bowen Marsh stuttered, "this isn't real. It can't be."

"No, you were dead, for days!" Othell Yarwick exclaimed.

"It's not fair, it's not fair!" Olly screamed.

Ser Alliser hadn't the words. For the first time, Jon witnessed the look of terror upon Ser Alliser Thorne.

Jon wanted to shout at them. He wanted to beat them all bloody. He wanted to keep them in the cells until their skin turned to ice. Instead of any of that, he didn't say anything. He just left.

The pyre meant for Jon was used for Grenn and those who died fighting for Ser Alliser instead. Their bodies were burned before the execution for the mutineers would take place. The flames of the pyre rose higher and burned brighter that morning than they had ever before.

Jon was inside his room after the burning, looking upon his tunic that had that marks of the knives that killed him. There was a knock on his door before it opened.

Edd walked into the room. "It's time."

Jon couldn't wait for those words to be said, but at the same time wished they could be delayed. He stood up and set his ruined leather tunic on the table next to him and retrieved Longclaw. Sometimes, he hated the philosophy his father taught him and his brothers. He had to pass the sentence and he had to swing the sword.

He followed Edd outside to the courtyard, making his way through Free Folk and his Brothers of the Watch. Jon came face to face with the traitors, all lined up standing on barrels with nooses around their necks.

"If you have any last words, now is the time." Jon declared as he faced each one of them.

"You shouldn't be alive." Bowen Marsh said, still terrified of Jon. "It's not right!"

Jon looked straight into his eyes. "Neither was killing me." He walked over to Othell Yarwyck to hear his words.

"My mother is still livin in the White Harbor. Could you write to her? Tell her I died fighting the Wildlings."

Jon said nothing. He wouldn't lie for a traitor, but he would not dishonor a man who served more years than he and faithfully until now. He would only say that he died.

Jon was now facing the only person he wished to die a long time ago. Now he would get to see it happen, but it didn't feel satisfying.

"I had a choice, Lord Commander," Ser Alliser started, "betray you or betray the Night's Watch. Those dragons might have chosen you, but you brought an army of Wildlings into our lands. An army of murderers and raiders. They chose wrong. If had to do it all over, knowing where I'd end up, I'd pray I'd make the right choice again only sooner."

"I'm sure you would Ser Alliser." Jon wanted to say many things to this man, but he would not dishonor himself in front of everyone. He would fall to be like the men about to die.

"I fought. I lost. Now I rest. But you, Lord Snow, you'll be fightin their battles forever." Ser Alliser held his head up as if to be proud of being hanged. But Jon could see through him. As a man of a family bested by the Starks in years past, it angered him greatly that a man with the blood of House Stark would be the one to end his time in the world.

Jon was facing the last one, Olly. He didn't say anything him. Olly only gave Jon a look of anger and disgust. Jon walked away from them all and drew Longclaw from its scabbard. He held it next to the rope that kept the traitors from hanging. He hesitated, he was tired of all the death. 'The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.' Those words his father said that day he executed the deserter had stuck to him ever since. Jon finally swung his blade down and cut the rope. The next thing he heard was the snaps of ropes and gagging of men. He waited until the noises stop before turning around and seeing them all pale faced and dead.

Jon sheathed Longclaw and stood next to Edd. "We should burn the bodies and look for the dragons."

"You should burn them. I'll find the dragons." Jon removed his black cloak and handed it to Edd who took it, looking confused.

"What do you want me to do with this?"

"Wear it. Burn it. Whatever you want. You have Castle Black." Edd's face turned from confused to concerned as Jon walked away from the hanged men. "My watch has ended."