Notes: The first two parts of this were initially in my collection here and slightly edited before being posted here.
Title taken with small change from "Burn" by Astyria.
More ships and stuff may come.
Summary: For most of his life, Crown Prince Jon Baratheon has been the subject of a controversy both infuriating and shameful: That the King-Across-The-Sea, Rhaegar Targaryen who had fled after defeat at the hands of Jon's father, claimed him as his son. Now that Jon has had a child of his own, he must come to terms with a history shrouded in mystery and desperation.
Ships so far: Past Rhaegar/Lyanna, Minor Robert/Lyanna, Past Margaery/Jon.
XxXxX
From the Echoes of Ashes
Chapter One
Jon stared at the babe, feeling sick.
"Your great-grandmother," Margaery rushed to say, gripping their son desperately, "she was a Targaryen. That could-"
He laughed, and the sound was broken, fragile. Madness, he thought, hysteria building, there's madness in my blood.
"It's not that and you know it's not. That- our enemy was right."
For almost all his life the deposed King-Across-the-Sea, the Targaryen that had abducted his mother, had claimed Jon was his son. Nothing his mother said or did, none of his father's assurances, had stopped the lizard's insistence.
And he'd been right the whole time.
"I'm not a Baratheon. He's," Jon looked at their son, tears coming to his eyes, "he's not. By the gods, Marge, when father-when the King finds out-"
They were at Highgarden, the only boon in this situation. Margaery had asked to give birth in the comfort of her childhood home and his father had given them leave, though reluctantly. The midwife and all of the other servants around them were the Tyrell's. They would put the blood of their liege before Robert Baratheon, especially as many still held some loyalty to the Targaryens-one of the reasons Jon had married the sole daughter of the Lord of the Reach to begin with.
Even the maester, he realized in a daze, would be beholden to Margaery's Hightower grandfather.
His father-his supposed father-would not be running through the halls ready to murder the dragonspawn in their midst here.
"I will call for my family," Margaery said, finally, her voice the silk-wrapped steel he had grown to love. "Grandmother and Willas will be able to help us in this. If only it was the hair...we could have dyed the hair..."
But of course, when the rest of the Tyrells arrived, after Margaery cleaned up and the wetnurse fed their son, things became even worse for Jon. They wanted his son on the throne, their blood on the throne, and knew that King Robert would never allow it.
Rhaegar, though, could be persuaded. His eldest son was still his heir, but had only two daughters. He would gladly wed Jon's boy to one of them.
The general mirth in the room made Jon feel sick.
Had his mother lied? he wondered as he blocked out his good-family's plotting. Had she known all along or simply hoped he was Robert's?
His parents had never gotten along well, but they had worked on it. Robert slept around, but was careful of bastards. Lyanna had hobbies that were frowned upon in a highborn woman, but with the king's full consent. They both loved Jon and mourned the fact she couldn't have another child.
Robert had no trueborn children. Only two bastards, as far as Jon knew. Stannis had a daughter. Renly had no children, would never have any children.
The Tyrells were right, this could be the end of Robert's reign.
Jon's stomach lurched and he stood, leaving the room without bothering with excuses. When Rhaegar found out...he could only imagine how much gloating there would be.
From the first moment they'd met, Rhaegar had treated him as though he were a rebellious child. Sometimes perhaps even a fool.
In the brief battles, when none of the Targaryen loyalists would lay a finger on Jon except...except his brother, he supposed, now, feeling sicker still. His older brother, who enjoyed knocking him around but never seriously injuring him. Who would sometimes go so far as to lecture Jon on his footwork or grip right there in the battlefield. Who had always believed their father about Jon's identity.
In the attempts at negotiation, Rhaegar would insist Jon be acknowledged as a Targaryen and given to his 'rightful' family. It would never happen, no negotiator Robert sent, and certainly not Jon Arryn when he attended, would ever agree to such nonsense. Jon was Robert's heir, his only son, and even if he'd had a dozen more Robert would never make such a concession to Rhaegar.
There were books in Essos that called Jon "Aemon Targaryen" and listed him as Rhaegar's youngest son, legitimized by the rightful king, and called Robert his step-father. He'd seen some of them in his travels, full of morbid curiosity that Uncle Stannis or Uncle Benjen could not dissuade him from. The maesters would be so upset that those were the correct ones.
"Jon?"
He turned, realizing he'd made it to a garden and halfway through its small maze without even noticing. And there was Uncle Renly, looking at him in concern.
"Did something happen? Is the babe...?"
Jon stared. He had no idea what the Tyrells had decided on, if they were going to pretend his son had not lived in order to hide him. And Renly...what side would he fall on? He resented both his brothers and had always been good to Jon, and was so close to Loras, but family, blood, would surely come first.
"I...it's...I don't know," he finally decided. "They're seeing to him now."
Watching Renly's face crumple at the thought his child could be dying, Jon desperately wished he could trust him. Maybe he'd find out soon. Maybe he'd find out he hadn't lost everyone.
"Can I...can I ask you a question?"
Renly put on one of his calm masks, the sort he wore at court, and nodded, motioning Jon to come closer. "Of course you can."
He licked his lips, sitting down on the bench beside Renly and cataloging, despite himself, all the differences between them. If he'd looked just a bit less like his mother no one would have ever believed he was Robert's, surely, he was nothing like Renly and the brothers were so alike.
"Have you...heard anything new about the Targaryens?"
At that, Renly's eyes narrowed. "If you're worried that they might try something, if you have an heir-"
"I, yes, and...other things. I just wanted to know. After the last time I went to Essos, father hasn't told me anything."
The last time, a routine trip to speak with the Iron Bank, and a not-so-routine kidnapping attempt. He'd been ready for something , but not for the Sword of the Morning to try to make off with him. Robert had been spitting mad when he'd returned home and told him.
Margaery had just found out she was pregnant and had made him promise to stay put until the baby came, playing the part of dutiful wife.
Renly frowned, thinking. He was on the Small Council, but he rarely bothered attending. Most of what he knew came from going on hunts with the King or gossiping with courtiers.
"Just the usual. They're still slowly conquering Essos from their so-called Valyria and claiming Westeros as theirs. Stannis is worried they'll be making an attempt on the Stepstones soon and we all know Dorne would welcome them with open arms if they did."
Jon nodded. Valyria...the city they'd founded. Restored. If he had to run with his son, if the Tyrells couldn't protect him...he'd go to Dorne and then from there onward to Valyria.
He hated knowing how smug Rhaegar would look when Jon showed up with a purple-eyed babe of his own.
"Thank you, uncle. I should...go check again."
"I'll go with you, Jon."
Renly's arm around his shoulder gave Jon strength, it was all he could do not to fold into his hold, but he managed to pull away. "No, thank you. I...Margaery doesn't like to be seen when she's not at her best."
The appeal to vanity was enough to convince Renly and Jon was stalking back in the direction he came, heart hammering in his chest.
Margaery was still meeting with her family, but their son had been placed in their rooms. He was a tiny thing, with a few strands of dark hair and those horrible eyes.
"What should we call you?" he muttered to the boy, who could only stare up towards him.
They'd been planning on Steffon for a boy, but Jon could hardly do that, now. Rickard, perhaps, would not be a claim to a family he did not have, but...but if the boy were to be a Targaryen king...
He could be like Jon, he supposed, with a name from both sides of the family. But even now that he knew it wasn't a mad lie, he still didn't like that idea for himself, let alone his son. He did not want another child to feel like he was feeling now, so torn over...everything.
"Rickard for now," he muttered, finally. "Or perhaps it should be Torrhen?"
Margaery's mirthless laugh let him know she had entered.
"We're to pretend like he's sickly, that no one can see him."
"It will give us an excuse not to return when we normally would have," Jon agreed, shoulders slumping at the thought of the Red Keep, of home.
"...Willas has a way to send word to King Rhaegar."
"You're always so careful not to call him 'King' at court. Was that just for show?"
" Jon . Have I ever done anything to make you think I'm disloyal to you?"
He looked up, eyes narrowing, searching her words for the Tyrell doublespeak she was so good at. "Have you suspected all along? That you were marrying a dragon, not a stag?"
She hesitated just long enough for him to have his answer, and she knew it. "You wouldn't believe me if I had told you. And what would you have done, if it were some other woman who gave birth to a Targaryen babe? If it was someone like Sansa or Myrcella?"
That, he knew, could have been a disaster.
"Was this just your grandmother's plan or was it Rhaegar's?"
Again, she hesitated, and he felt sick. As crown prince, he was used to people trying to use him, to manipulate him, but he had never suspected it would go this far.
"You are the mother of my child," he said, finally, "but do not think I will forgive you for this."
There were tears in her eyes to match the tears in his, but he could not care. His entire life had been a lie and it seemed like almost everyone around him had known.
XxXxX
Notes:
The changes in the timeline for Robert's Rebellion:
-Rhaegar survives at the Trident
-Rhaegar evacuates his wife and children from the Red Keep to Essos
-Lyanna conceived Jon later than in canon and was found earlier, with Robert among the rebels who first see her