DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING

A/N: Once again, a thousand thank yous to Ramzes for stick with me on this story!

DUNCAN

When Duncan of House Targaryen arrived at Lannisport he found a city that looked as if it had been torn asunder. The harbor had been clogged with the broken and crushed hulls of Blackfyre, Lannister and Redwyne ships, the debris were so plentiful that it looked as if one could almost walk across the bay using the various pieces.

The docks were also littered with the dead of the pirates and red cloaks alike who had been torn apart in the early landing when the rogues tried to gain a foothold on land. Much of the city was still aflame despite the best efforts of the city watch to douse them, and the bodies were still being piled up and moved from the streets in a desperate attempt at stopping the spread of disease.

Duncan's father king Aegon watched it all with a grim expression that had not crossed his face in many years and Duncan knew that his thoughts were for the smallfolk that had to live in such destruction. After they had rode down into the city and pushed back the invaders from the homes and merchant quarters the king then commanded that half of his men be put to work in the assistance of clearing the devastation while Duncan drove the rest of the pirates back into their ships and into the waiting jaws of Lord Redwyne's fleet giving the crown a near total victory over the mercenary forces.

Once the city was secured and order restored to the streets a war council was called within the Lannister keep in the centre of the city. Duncan could never quite remember the exact relationship between the Lannisters of Lannisport and the Lannisters of Casterly Rock but whatever the case they all seemed to be very close with one another as Lord Tytos embraced his injured relative once they all arrived in the solar of lord Tymund.

Duncan noted a quiet exchange between lord Tymund's son Tion and Ser Dunk; he had heard that the younger man had saved the huge knight during the battle and for that Duncan was extremely grateful.

As everyone took their seats Aegon immediately turned to lord Tymund and assured the man that the crown would give them their complete support and that he would leave several garrisons of men to help in the rebuilding and reinforcement of the city. After he had finished with the pleasantries he took a deep breath and assumed his 'king' persona and spoke to them in a firm voice.

"My lords, we cannot allow this to go unpunished. The monster Maelys has proven that he cares little for our people and our cities, now he has an army of cutthroats at his beck and call…" Aegon paused and looked at the faces of everyone in the room, a solemn expression on his worn face. "We must end this madness before it can go any further; my lords, we must strike back."

The room was silent after that before Tymund Lannister stood up from his seat. "I will fight with you, with what men I have."

After that it seemed as if the mood had drastically altered and the various lords began rising proudly to proclaim their allegiance. "The Vale is yours my King." said the Hand, Jasper Arryn. "My Stormlords will fight to the very last good-father!" shouted Edric Baratheon in his classic booming voice. "The ships of the Arbour will gladly do their duty." wheezed lord Redwyne, trying to make his voice heard.

Finally all turned to Tytos Lannister who seemed in deep thought, his golden brows furrowed in concentration as he tried to surmise his thoughts into a coherent sentence. Duncan's first thought was that the man was trying to think of an excuse to get himself uninvolved but he surprised everyone when a bright smile graced his chubby face.

"I'm doing the calculations now and I do believe we can have our men ready to mobilise by the weeks end."

Duncan's father seemed to sigh in relief at that and informed the lords that they had best return to their lands and make preparations for the coming days and quickly dismissed them as he returned to seeing the rebuilding efforts and the lords all quickly hurried out to see to their affairs. Duncan wanted nothing more than to do the same and return home as it had been weeks since he last saw Jenny and every day that he didn't get to hear her lovely sing song voice felt like an eternity, but he knew that he was needed by his father's side, now more than ever.

He spent the remainder of the day helping to direct the men trying to douse the fires and had even gotten involved in moving debris with them. Their efforts had been fierce and the men's resolve had not failed them as they struggled to stop the flames from consuming anything else and by the day's end they had successfully put out all the fires. While it had been encouraging, they were also painfully reminded of the damage that had been done to the once beautiful city and all the homes that were lost to the people.

Eventually as night fell he cleaned himself up and went to sup with his father and Ser Dunk as was his custom. While the king sat at the head of the table scouring through maps of the various seas surrounding Westeros, Dunk sat to his right taking up two seats as he rested his wounded leg on a separate chair.

"Come have a look at this Duncan." said Aegon without looking up.

The prince didn't have to be asked twice and walked over to his father's left and looked over his shoulder at a particular patch of land that his father was tapping on. A Vague familiarity came to the prince of Dragonflies as he tried to recall his lessons.

"The Step Stones, what of them father?"

"I believe that is where our enemy seeks to land." murmured the older man.

Duncan raised his brow in confusion. "So you don't think they mean to land in one of the Seven Kingdoms? With the reports we've been getting Maelys has more than enough ships to do so."

"Of ships he has plenty, but even if he does try a navel assault they'd be no match for our cavalry forces; a man coming from a ship has little to no defence against a knight on horseback and I think Maelys knows that…..if he can get his men on the Step Stones then he can give them a firm foothold from which to properly launch an invasion from."

"But what of this attack, why would he throw away dozens of good ships and hundreds of men just attack a harbour town in the Westerlands that they knew they couldn't take?" Duncan asked, deeply confused.

It was Dunk who answered the Prince's question. "A diversion, while his men….his pirates harassed us we put all of our concentration here instead of wherever he really wants to strike."

"But where is that?"

Aegon remained deadly silent the whole time, his purple eyes scanning over the map of Westeros, scouring every single possible location until finally they fell on the island capitol of Pyke and he felt a horrible fear rising in the pit of his stomach.

BARRISTAN

They had travelled a day and a night up along the Trident doing their best to avoid any lingering eyes. They spent little time resting yet Barristan did not mind the quickened pace at which they travelled as he knew all too well that it was vital that they reach the North as quickly as possible if the realm was to be saved.

Prince Aemon had mostly been quiet in their travels yet he managed a smile whenever someone addressed him or threw a joke his way and Barristan thought that perhaps the man was putting on a show of normalcy for the sake of his companions. Each night he would instruct whoever kept watch to wake him every two hours, no doubt still fearful of his dreams.

Once they reached the Neck the company was met by seven figures sitting atop horses waiting for them ahead. Barristan instinctively went for his sword only to be surprised to see that one of the figures was none other than the famous knight of Oldtown, Ser Gerold Hightower himself. The large knight led the party over to Aemon and his men, and shook the prince's hand roughly.

"How are you feeling?" he asked in concern as his broad features examined the Targaryen closely. "Alerie has been writing to me…..are you sure you should be out here for all of this?" he asked carefully.

Aemon's face was impassive and the nod he gave wasn't at all reassuring but the big knight seemed to accept it none the less and gestured for his men to come over. The knights he had brought were all Hightower bannermen and Barristan began to feel somewhat out of place as they all chatted away about their home. Barristan couldn't recall the last time he had stayed at Harvest Hall for more than a week at a time since becoming a knight.

That night they all sat together hunched around a camp fire, desperately trying to get warm despite the icy wind that was hitting them without fail.

"Is it always this cold?" asked one of Gerold's knights.

"We're up north Stevron; of course it's always this cold. I hear that they even get summer snows that come up to a man's waist." replied a tall moustached man as he absently tried to light his pipe, sending up ringlets of smoke.

"This is the furthest I've ever travelled from home." admitted Stevron as he clutched his blanket around himself.

Gerold laughed at that and handed the man a skin of wine. "You better get used this cold, we've still got a few more days of travelling yet."

The whole time while the men made jests and traded stories of their home, Aemon sat quietly with his eyes glued to the campfire, as if he was watching a murmmers show within the twisting orange flames. Barristan had seen that look on the prince before, back at Summerhall and it made him anxious, you are a knight he reminded himself you must put that doubt aside and do your duty…

They were awoken at the crack of dawn by Ser Gerold and given only a few moments to break their fast on the dried beef that they had all stocked up on. The taste was quite plain and the meat itself was as hard as boot leather but it quietened their aching stomachs and after having a little ale to wash it down with they were ready to begin another day's ride.

Their travels slowed to a crawl as they struggled to make their way North through the Neck. The swamps and various reptiles made some of the men feel uneasy but Ser Gerold had reassured them that as long as they didn't touch anything and kept to themselves that they would be unharmed. Barristan marvelled at the colours of some of the toads that hopped past them into their slimy mud holes, and he thought that such sights were a gift from the seven.

Once the companions had made it North of Moat Cailin Ser Gerold and Prince Aemon informed them that they were to travel west along Flint's finger until they reached the stony shore where a ship would be waiting to take them to Pyke, and hopefully to a hospitable meeting with Quenton Greyjoy and his kin. The young knight didn't like the idea of going into the home of the Ironborn, given their history of savage barbarism to anyone from the mainlands but held steadfast; he knew that Ser Gerold and Prince Aemon would not steer them into certain death.

The days grew colder as they continued to move north and more than once they heard the distant cry of wolves at night. Stevron began coughing quite a bit as they pressed onwards through the open fields; the wind seemed to have brought a chill on the man that wouldn't leave him. Barristan suspected that many of the knights were having a harder time of their travels than they were letting on and for once he was thankful for the strong breezes and heavy rains of the Stormlands that had helped him tolerate the cold somewhat better than most Southerners could.

Finally after much agony they finally came to the stony shore where, just as Ser Gerold had said, a ship was waiting for them. It was only a small vessel, perhaps made for fishing excursions with a crew of no more than four or five people at a time, though judging by the ship's worn appearance and such ventures happened quite some time ago.

As if to answer their collective doubts, Ser Gerold turned to them with a frown. "This was all I could get on such short notice lads, so buck up."

With that the men hitched their horses to a nearby tree and made their way over to the vessel. After reluctantly climbing aboard the wooden deck they were given quite a shock when Barristan stepped on a pile of rags only to hear it yelp in anger. A waif-like man suddenly emerged from underneath the buddle of torn materials and looked up at the knights with an expression of mild annoyance.

When Ser Gerold spotted the scarecrow-like man he stormed over to him with a bristling expression. "I thought the deal was that you would be ready to go as soon as we arrived Jev, where are the others?"

The skinny man just stifled a yarn. "They be sleeping below deck." He replied lazily.

Gerold's eyes narrowed at that and he put a hand down on the smaller man's shoulder and gave a sharp squeeze, jolting the man awake. "Wake them up now, or you don't get paid. We need to be gone within an hour."

Jev began mumbling under his breath but hurried off to wake up his kin while the rest of the knights watched on in bemusement. The was an odd silence for a moment before suddenly the cabin door burst open and a mass of grubby looking men came stumbling out and went to work on the ship while their malnourished leader barked out orders for them. Barristan would have laughed if he hadn't been so stunned by it all.

In less than an hour the ship was on its way out of the coast and heading north. The young knight spent his time largely trying not to be sick all over the deck, though it was a losing battle and after a particularly fierce wave hit the small boat he found that he could no longer contain his bile and hurried over the rails to empty his traitorous stomach.

"Having trouble?" asked the voice of Aemon Targaryen as he walked over to stand beside the retching knight, a sympathetic smile on his pale face.

Barristan struggled to compose himself and stood up straight. "It's just a passing bout of sea sickness my prince."

That warranted a laugh from the Targaryen. "There's no shame in it, my brother Duncan doesn't have a stomach for ships either." His lilac eyes looked off distantly and he smiled at that recollection of a memory back before things had turned sour for him.

"Did you have to travel by sea often my prince?" asked Barristan, trying to take his mind off of his the waves.

"Oh yes, we were expected to visit Dragonstone at least a few times per year. Dreary place but it was the family seat so we had to go, I remember the first time I went there I spent half the time hiding behind my mother because I was afraid of the stone gargoyles and…" Yet something caught the prince's attention and he suddenly stood upright in fear as his eyes remained fixed out onto something in the sea.

The young knight turned to see what the prince was looking at and he caught sight of distant figure on the horizon that was slowly growing closer. It seemed like some form of a ship and for a moment he assumed that it was the Ironborn come to greet them but then he caught sight of the sail; in place of the golden kraken of Greyjoy was a giant red serpent. From beside him Aemon whispered something in a grave tone.

"The serpent is coming."