Hello! Here I am, back with another chapter. There are less and less left until the ending! Hopefully soon I will get rid of a lot of work and I will be able to post almost every day like I did in the summer...

So, here is what happens after Aegon is killed. I have been dying to write this chapter. I had pages full of notes of every single tiny little detail that I had planned for this... AND I LOST THE DAMN PAGES! But I remembered most of it, though some bits were changed, but it doesn't matter. Here's the chapter!

The title of the chapter comes from the song World on Fire, by Les Friction.

I am new at writing modern action scenes, but I tried, I swear I did. Please let me know what you think, ok? ;) Now I'm off to do homework.

ENJOY!

Chapter 57: Girl I Will Cover You When The Sky Comes Crashing In.

Sandor broke all the traffic laws that it was possible to break in a single night in less than fifteen minutes, but he didn't care. All he cared about was arriving at the Red Keep mansion, see what was happening, and getting Sansa out of there as soon as possible before some tragedy happened. He had no idea of how he was going to break into the mansion and manage to save her. He had no weapons, just his bare hands to fight with them, and he didn't have a clue of what was going on inside the mansion. He only knew what he heard in the radio, which wasn't much. He was listening closely to what they were saying, and he knew that Myrcella and Tommen had been liberated by the men that had attacked the place. d reveal in their shocked state. Sandor was panicking. He wouldn't feel like that if the people that had attacked the Red Keep mansion were Arya and the Faceless Men, but that wasn't the case. As soon as he heard that the men were wearing golden masks he knew that they were dealing with the Golden Company, and he let out a long list of angry curses while he drove. The Golden Company was formed with many of the deadliest men in the entire world. They were skilled fighters and mercenaries who fought and killed for money and didn't have a code. Getting inside the mansion and getting Sansa out would be the most difficult thing ever, but he had to risk it. He couldn't leave Sansa in there, alone and in danger.

By the time he arrived at the Red Keep mansion that place was complete chaos. The road was blocked by dozens of police cars, and an intense crowd of people had formed in front of the gates of the mansion. The sight was quite impressive, for all those people were gathering together, chanting Aegon's name. Sandor stared at them in shock. Unbelievable. You spend two decades hating that family and now you call that name as if he was your god just because he wants to deliver you the head of your current enemy... Sandor thought while he looked at all those people, and he felt sick. Witnessing that proved him that Westeros was not a safe place to be. In that country the people knew no loyalty; everyone was sold to the highest bidder. But then was would be of Sansa? Would they forget about her and allow Aegon to hurt her just because he was trying to get rid of Joffrey, who had turned from Westeros's most beloved to most hated in a matter of minutes months ago? Maybe they would deem Sansa a worthy sacrifice if that meant the dismiss of Joffrey, and Aegon would bother sparing her like he had spared the younger Baratheons. Sandor would walk into hell willingly if that meant that any harm would be spared from Sansa and his unborn child. He approached the gates to try to get a better view of the mansion and what was happening, but it was difficult because of quantity of people that had gathered there in the last minutes. One would think that they had all gone to the safety of their homes after witnessing men killing all the security at the presidential palace in a matter of seconds, but no, everyone was staying there to get a better look at the spectacle.

He could see some members of the Golden Company on the front lawn of the mansion and others on the roof. They were all wearing golden masks and holding large machine guns in a very intimidating way. Sandor knew that he had no change of successfully breaking into the mansion with those men in there. Even if he had gun he wouldn't make it past halfway the front lawn; he would be shot down and his death would be in vain. He needed to find another way of getting in, and he needed a weapon...

He was trying to think of a plan when suddenly all hell broke loose. All of a sudden a man ran out of the mansion through the front door. He was wearing a golden mask and carrying a machine gun, so it seemed obvious that he was a manner of the Golden Company. That wasn't true. The man shouted a word in a foreign language, but Sandor had been around enough foreigners to recognize the word: "Now!" the man had shouted. A fraction of a second later many of the men wearing golden masks turned around to face other men from the company and they opened fire. The crowd gathered outside the gate Stooped changing Aegon's name and started screaming, terrified, and many ran away while other simply ducked to the ground. Sandor was one of the latter, and he felt shocked and confused as he witnessed the massacre. Half the men that had been outside the mansion were now dead, and those that had opened fire on them had taken off their masks and thrown them to the side. None of them stayed where they were; instead they entered the mansion, and shots started to be heard.

Arya, Sandor thought then, after putting two and two together. He was almost sure that those men that had killed their partners were Faceless Men, it was the only thing that made sense! Arya must have finally kept her promise. If that was the case, then Sandor felt extremely relieved. Things would be much easier if he could count with Arya's and her friends' help.

There was no one left in the front lawn, or at least no one that was alive. Sandor took his chance and ran towards the gates of the mansion, and he climbed them and then jumped over them to the other side, entering the mansion's grounds. He ran towards the body of one of the men that had been shot down and he took his machine gun and his handgun. Sandor wasn't a big fan of machine guns, he had always had very strong opinions about them and insisted that they were weapons fit for cowards who did not dare to have a fair fight, but he didn't have time to stick to his beliefs and opinions anymore. He put the strap of the machine gun over his shoulder and then ran towards the mansion. He was about to arrive at the entrance when he heard shots nearby. Sandor decided not to enter the mansion through the main door then, and he chose to go around the building and find another way in that was safer. However, he stopped running when he turned his head to look back and saw Gendry running out of the mansion.

"Gendry!" Sandor shouted, making the young man stop and look at him. Gendry was shocked to see him there, but then he looked relieved. "Where is Sansa?!"

"She's in the bunker!" Gendry shouted, trying to make himself heard over the sound of the gunshots. He looked back at the mansion then, and Sandor could see how worried Gendry was.

"Where's Aegon?"

"He's dead! Arya's inside, she is trying to get Sansa out!" Gendry told him. The sound of gunshots got louder then, and Sandor made a gesture to tell Gendry to get away.

"Leave before someone kills you!"

Gendry looked reluctant to leave, but he obeyed. Sandor watched him run towards the gates and only resumed his way after he had made sure that Gendry had arrived to safety. It took Sandor a couple of seconds to arrive at a back door that the service used, which he found open. It was broken, so is was easy to guess that one of Aegon's men had forced it open to get inside during the first attack. Sandor held his gun up, ready to shoot and kill anyone that posed as a threat. That part of the mansion, the kitchen, was empty, and so he entered the place and walked towards the door to go into the hallway. The sound of gunshots was louder there than it was outside, but Sandor wasn't as scared as he had been before. Now he knew (well, he thought) that Sansa was safe from danger in the bunker, where no one from the Golden Company could get to her or hurt her. Arya was trying to get inside, so Sandor just had to go there and help and everything would be fine...

Those thought evaporated when he was halfway through the hallway, making his way towards the bunker. A man turned the corner at the end of the hallway, and he was wearing a golden mask. The man shouted something in a foreign language that Sandor did not understand and he raised his machine gun and aimed it at Sandor. Sandor had very quick reflexes and he managed to drop to the floor in time to dodge the storm of bullets that were shot his way. Before the mercenary could aim at him again and shoot him, Sandor raised the gun that he had stolen from the man in the front lawn and he pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the mercenary in the chest and the man fell backwards, dead. Sandor couldn't catch a break, though, because at that moment another man appeared behind him at the other end of the hallway. Sandor rolled over and dodged the bullet that hit the floor where he had been lying, but he wasn't quick enough to aim his gun at the man and shoot. He was about to get killed by the man, but then two unmasked people turned the same corner that the first man had turned, they aimed their guns at the second man, and killed him. Sandor looked up to see who his savior was and he was able to breathe with relief when he recognized Arya's friend, Jaqen.

"Get up!" the red and white-haired man urged him, and Sandor did as told. "Move!"

"What's going on?!" Sandor demanded to know while he followed Jaqen and the other Faceless Man.

"We are killing the enemies. Aegon Targaryen and the Golden Company were the ones that targeted Arya to protect Joffrey from her. We infiltrated them."

"Protect Joffrey?! But five seconds ago I saw on TV-!"

"Aegon's plan was very long and we don't have time to discuss it now. All you need to know is that he needed Joffrey alive to kill him in the right moment, and that moment was today. We could have let him do that, but Joffrey's death belongs to the Faceless Men. It's been paid for. And everyone else was in danger. He was going to kill all the hostages until Arya shot him. Tywin Lannister and Jaime Lannister are also dead."

"Tywin and Jaime? Did Aegon kill them?"

"Only Jaime. Arya killed Tywin."

"Wait, so is he dead? Joffrey, is he dead?"

"No. Joffrey is in the bunker."

Sandor felt as if a giant bucket of ice-cold water had been dropped over him, soaking him to his core. He almost stopped running, petrified, and he stared at Jaqen with eyes wide with horror.

"Sansa is locked in there with him?" that was probably even worse than if she had been captured by Aegon's men! Maybe Aegon would have let her go, like he had done with Tommen and Myrcella, because she was pregnant and because she was a Stark and the entire country was demanding justice for them. And if not, surely Arya would have been able to get her out by now, just like she had done with Gendry. But if she was in the bunker with Joffrey, God knew what could be happening down there! Sandor knew Joffrey; he didn't handle stress well. He could snap at any second...

"Nothing will happen to Sansa, Clegane," Jaqen tried to assure Sandor, but he was convinced. What did the assassin know? Nothing, he knew nothing, and Sandor would only believe that Sansa was fine when he saw her with his own eyes.

They finally arrived in at the end of the hallway where the bunker was. They weren't alone; Arya Stark and two other Faceless Men were already there, working on how to force the elevator doors open. Sandor didn't even bother trying to tell them that should be impossible. Nothing was impossible for the Faceless Men, and they were fully prepared. While the two men worked on the elevator and the man that was with Jaqen and Sandor joined them, Arya turned around to look at Jaqen. She was surprised when she saw Sandor there.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, frowning. She was aware that he had been fired.

"Did you really think that I was going to stay at home watching TV while your sister is trapped in this hellhole?" he asked rhetorically, and Arya rolled her eyes.

"Great, now we have to take care of you too…" she groaned. She turned her attention back to Jaqen. "Make sure he doesn't get shot, ok?" Arya noticed the way in which Sandor was glaring at her, offended by her total lack of confidence in him, and she raised an eyebrow. "One of the most skilled assassins in the world was shot in the back of the head and his brains are now all over the floor. Do you really think you will be any harder to kill if any of these sons of whores try it?"

"I don't need a babysitter, I just want your sister out of here, safe and sound."

"And she will want you to be alive when we get her out of here! So shut up and do as I say!"

Sandor wanted to protest, but he chose not to. He couldn't argue with the only person that wanted the same as him, to get Sansa out of there alive and well! If that meant having to put up with Arya's orders then so be it. None of that would matter one they got out of there. Besides, Arya knew what she was ding, didn't she? She had managed to infiltrate the Golden Company and kill Aegon Targaryen, and she was still alive. Sandor had to trust her. He did trust her, but he was anxious and scared.

They were all startled when they heard shots right above them, in the second floor of the mansion, and people shouting and running. Sandor looked behind them to make sure that there wasn't anyone in the hallway where they were, and he was relieved when he saw that they were alone… for now. Arya looked at the three men working on the elevator.

"How much longer?!" she asked, a bit impatiently.

"We are almost done," said one of them.

"Well, do it faster!" Arya urged them, and they kept trying to open the elevator doors. Sandor was starting to really believe that it was hopeless when suddenly they heard a very loud noise from within the elevator, like a very loud "CLICK!", and one of the men put his hands on the doors and pushed them apart, revealing the elevator shaft. Sandor noticed then that there were four harnesses on the floor connected to ropes with hooks on one ending. Arya picked them and gave them to Jaqen. "Find an anchor."

Jaqen H'ghad followed Arya's orders and left. While he was gone Arya and two of the Faceless Men out on three of the harnesses, leaving one on the floor. Sandor stared at it, but Arya shook her head. "No, you are not coming," she said before he could even open his mouth. Sandor wanted to protest, but just like before, Arya didn't allow him to. "I said no! You haven't been trained, Clegane!"

"You are going to deal with Joffrey down there," he reminded her. "You didn't do a great job killing him the last time!"

Arya scoffed while she glared at him. "And whose fault was that?" she spat. "Besides, you've had more chances to break his pathetic little neck, and I see he's still alive and well!"

Sandor had to bite his tongue not to snap at the Stark girl. It would be smart, getting in a fight with her at that moment. They could quarrel all day long after that awful night was over. Jaqen came back then.

"I found anchors."

"Are they secure?"

"Yes."

"Good. Guys, go!"

While Jaqen H'ghar put on his harness, the two other men that had put on the harnesses pulled from the ropes to make sure that it was safe to go down the elevator shaft with them, and once they were sure of that they started descending. Sandor approached the open elevator doors and looked down the shaft and watched the two men descending. The bunker was several hundred feet away from there, but he could see the elevator at the bottom. How where they going to access the bunker if the elevator blocked the entrance and there was no way into it? Sandor was wondering about that when suddenly the answer came. He could really see well because of the darkness, but he could see the two men taking something small out of their pockets and throwing it to the elevator. Those small things hit the top of the elevator, lit up, made a beeping noise... And then there was a small explosion. Very small, but enough to throw Sandor back from the elevator doors. Jaqen pulled him away from there and then he and Arya joined the other two Faceless Men inside the elevator shaft. A whole big enough to fit a big person through had been opened by the small explosions. One of the Faceless Men stayed in the hallway with Sandor, aiming his machine gun at the other end of the hallway in case any enemies approached. Sandor couldn't tear his gaze off the bottom of the elevator shaft. The others had already disappeared inside the elevator and were probably now accessing the bunker. Sandor didn't know what was going down there, or if Arya was going to be successfully. He never prayed, but this time he did pray so that everything would be all right. He was so close to getting Sansa back...

He heard movement at the other end of the hallway then. He turned around to look at whoever was there, but the Faceless Man had already shot the Golden Company mercenary that had just appeared. The man in the golden mask hadn't died without throwing a little souvenir at them before, though...

"Grenade!" Sandor shouted, and he ran for cover. The Faceless Man wasn't so fast, and the grenade exploded.

After entering the elevator, breaking into the bunker was an easy task. It was a very outdated bunker, and the Faceless Men had no problem entering it. Had it been more modern then they might have found a problem, and Arya thanked all the gods that wasn't the case. All four of them irrupted all at once into the place where Joffrey and Sansa had gone to hide immediately after the attack started. Arya knew that Rickon was also in there, and probably some of the bodyguards. She have orders to kill the bodyguards, no matter who the were, and to hold Joffrey until she could deal with him. She didn't want to just shoot and kill him, no. She wanted to look at him in the eye and take pleasure in the fact that that little shot was finally going to pay for all that he had done to her family. She wanted to see the fear and the hatred in his eyes. She wanted to have the satisfaction of letting him know that his life was over; she wanted him to suffer like her father and her mother and her sister-in-law and her friend had suffered before they were murdered by him.

But she would have to leave Joffrey for the end. Her priority at that moment were her siblings, specially Sansa. Arya had been shocked when she had found out that her sister was pregnant, and she had been scared that the child was Joffrey's. She was relieved when she found out that the father was Sandor, and Joffrey was lucky that that was the case. She would have skinned him alive and cut off his dick and shoved it in his own face if the child had been his son.

As soon as they all entered the bunker, Arya took a look around to see how bad the situation was, and she was shocked. The first thing that he noticed was Boros struggling with Joffrey, trying to take a gun away from him. Sansa was on the other side of the room, sitting on the floor, crying in both emotional and physical pain, and on her lap was lying Rickon, with blood dying his clothes red and a bullet wound on his chest. He was very still, and his eyes were closed...

"Rickon!" Arya gasped, horrified. She had expected many things when she broke into that bunker, but she didn't expect that, not in a million years. She had come to save her siblings... Instead she had arrived in time to watch her brother die.

Sansa noticed the arrival of the Faceless Men then, and she looked up from Rickon's body and locked her eyes on Arya's. Sansa seemed confused at first. How could she not? She hadn't seen her sister in years, and now there she was, breaking into the presidential bunker right when it seemed that all was lost. Sansa wasn't really sure if all that was real, or if her exhausted and traumatized mind was making up a twisted fantasy to help her escape from her imminent doom.

"Arya...?"

Arya didn't reply. She tore her gaze away from her sister and from the fallen body of her brother and she turned her attention to Joffrey. The man had stopped struggling with his bodyguard for the control of the gun and was now staring at them almost as confused as Sansa and even more horrified. Boros took the gun away from him for good then and he aimed it at Arya. Jaqen raised his own weapon and shot Boros one single time. The bullet buried itself perfectly between Boros's eyes, and the man fell backwards to the floor, dead. One of the Faceless Men was about to shoot Joffrey too, but Arya stopped him.

"No!" she shouted. "He's mine."

She approached Joffrey. She found out in that moment that she couldn't wait another second. She had been waiting for that moment for years. Joffrey's eyes were already full of fear and horror. That was what she wanted, wasn't it? She wanted him to know that his life was over. Well, she could finally take the life that she had paid for, the life that was owed to her. When he saw that his sister-in-law, whom he hadn't seen since before he had mercilessly killed her father, was pointing a gun at him with the full intention of killing him, Joffrey cowardly backed away towards the wall like a scared little animal that was being hunted. Like a deer stalked by dogs. Arya scoffed. She was thinking of what to say to him before pulling the trigger when suddenly they all heard an explosion coming from above them, from the mansion. Arya was distracted from her task, and she turned her attention to the elevator. Jaqen approached it and looked up to see what was going on.

"I hear shots," he told them then. "They are fighting. We should get out of here before they drop a grenade or block the way or one of them comes down here."

Arya cursed under her breath. Couldn't she just kill Joffrey in peace?! But Jaqen was right, they did have to get out of there. "Fine, get them out," she said, meaning Sansa and Joffrey.

"What? No, I-I can't leave him!" Sansa exclaimed, alarmed and holding Rickon tightly in her arms. She wasn't willing to let him go, even when Jaqen tried to help her up. "No! I won't leave him!"

"We have to, Sansa, we will come back for him when it's safer!" Arya tried to calm her down, but it didn't work.

"No! I won't leave him! He's my brother, I can't leave him!" Jaqen was getting ready to force Sansa to stand up and drag her out of there if need be, when the unimaginable happened. Rickon's eyes opened widely, he gasped, and his chest rose when his lungs were filled with air. He was alive. Sansa cried and held him as if he was made of glass and about to break. She couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing, and neither could Arya. Rickon was alive! "Rickon! Oh my God, Rickon!"

"Move him carefully!" Jaqen asked for help from one of the other Faceless Men. Both of them took Rickon from Sansa's arms and carried him with care away from the bunker. The other Faceless Man carried Sansa, and Arya approached Joffrey.

"I'll deal with you later," she muttered right before hitting him in the back of the head with her gun and knocking him out.

Leaving the bunker was no easy task, but they managed. Between Arya, Jaqen, and the two other men they succeeded in freeing Sansa, Rickon, and the unconscious Joffrey. They weren't met by a very we,coming scene, though. As soon as the stepped out into the hallway they saw that there had indeed been an explosion there, and they found the Faceless a man that they had left there dead on the floor, and a few feet away Sandor was wrestling on the floor with a man from the Golden Company. Not far from them there was the dead body of another man from the enemy side. Sandor was bigger than the man that he was wrestling, and stronger, but the man in the golden mask wasn't weak. Jaqen shot and killed the man and Sandor kicked him away from him and then stood up on his feet. He looked at Sansa then, who was being held by one of the men.

Sandor and Sansa stared at each other for a couple of long second, each taking in the sight of the other, not believing that they were finally together again. Arya could almost see sparks flying between both of them, and she realized that in that moment the entire world could go to hell and neither the former bodyguard nor her sister would give a damn. They were the only thing that existed for each other at that moment.

"Sandor!" Sansa exclaimed, letting go of the man that had helped her and stepping towards Sandor. Sandor closed the space between them and held her in his arms and hugged him tightly, being careful of her enormous round belly.

"I'm here, little bird, I'm here..." he assured her. In that moment Sansa sobbed in pain, and Sandor looked at her alarmed, thinking that she was hurt.

"The baby," she explained. "He's coming."

"Let's get you out of here..." Sandor picked Sansa up in his arms and started carrying her away. The two other Faceless Men took Rickon and carefully carried him while they followed Sandor. Arya and Jaqen didn't move, though, and Sandor noticed. He stopped walking and looked at them, and then he noticed the unconscious Joffrey that they had left on the floor. His expression darkened. "Are you going to kill him now?"

"We will wake him up first," Arya told him, and Sandor nodded with approval.

"Good," he resumed walking again, but he stopped once more. "Thank you."

Arya was surprised, but she smiled a little bit. "Thank you, Hound. Take care of my sister."

"Arya, come with us," Her sister begged her. "This place is dangerous, leave!"

"I'll be right behind you," Arya promised, and then everyone left. There were shots that could be heard from other places in the mansion, which meant that there were still men from the Golden Company left there. Arya felt uneasy, for she was worried that something would happen to her siblings on the way out. It was a miracle that Rickon was alive, and she didn't want that miracle to go to waste. She couldn't lose anyone else from her family...

...and it was all because of Joffrey. He had started that. That psychotic, inhuman sociopath deserved to burn in hell for what he had done.

"Are you going to wake him up?" Jaqen asked her, and Arya nodded softly while she glared at Joffrey's unconscious form with hatred. "You should do it quickly, they are all over the place. Just like a plague of insects..."

"Aegon wanted to make a grand entrance, he wasn't going to come with few men," Arya scoffed. Her expression softened then, and she looked at Jaqen. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For this. For everything. For helping me."

Jaqen was surprised. He wasn't used to Arya talking like that, and Arya wasn't used to being emotional. But she really felt the need to let him know that she was infinitely thankful to him. Yes, maybe he had helped in keeping her locked up for a year, but it was for her own good, and nothing would ever make her forget the moths spent in India. She couldn't have had a better friend by her side during those hard days, and the same could be said from the time when he gave her the support that she needed after her father was killed. Arya felt that she needed to let him know how she felt about that.

Jaqen smiled. It was odd to see him smile, specially in such a place. The background sound was of shots, there were bodies and blood everywhere... It wasn't precisely the place where someone could smile in a friendly way. But Jaqen did it.

"You are welcome, lovely girl."

Arya returned her attention to Joffrey, who was still unconscious. She was thinking of what she could say to him when he woke up, what finals words she could deliver to him. Maybe 'the Starks send their regards' would be the most appropriate thing to say in that situation. Arya was still thinking about him when a bullet grazed her arm. She gasped, more in surprise than pain, and she turned around at the same time that Jaqen did. They weren't expecting to find Gregor Clegane standing right behind them. Arya froze when she saw him. She was tiny, not even in her wildest dreams could she fight against someone of that size! He would break her in tiny little pieces!

Jaqen raised his gun and tried to shoot Clegane, but he was met with the horror of being out of bullets. Gregor Clegane grinned; the expression on his face was one that made Arya feel chills run down her spine. He really did look like a monster taken out from a horror tale. Gregor was already aiming his gun at her again, ready to shoot, but Jaqen let out an enraged yell and threw himself at the giant man. Arya gasped when she saw her friend crashing against Clegane, with enough force to throw him back a few steps but not enough to throw him off his feet and unto the floor. Gregor grabbed Jaqen and tried pushing him away, but Jaqen didn't let go of him. The Faceless Man had been marterfully trained in all sorts of physical combat and was graceful and fast as a shadow, but fighting against Gregor Clegane wasn't an easy deed. Besides, Jaqen was a man that preferred to take advantage on the element of surprise and use weapons and poisons to defeat his enemies ad kill the victims that he had been assigned. Few times had Arya actually seen him physically fighting against someone else without weapons. If Jaqen had a weapon Gregor wouldn't stand a chance. Actually, the moment that Jaqen pulled out a knife from one of his pockets Arya seriously thought that Gregor was done for. Jaqen furiously slashed and stabbed Gregor Clegane with a speed almost impossible to achieve by any other person, and the giant man ended up covered in deep gashes and wound that bled and stained his clothes and the floor underneath with blood. The angry red color was bright as rubies in the darkness that had taken over the Red Keep mansion after night fell outside and the attack happened. But Clegane, instead of being weakened by Jaqen's attack, seemed to be infuriated and become more aggressive.

There was something majestic and hypnotic about watching those two men fight. Arya felt like she was watching two beings in the wild: the hunter and the beast. Jaqen moved too swiftly for Gregor's big and clumsy form to get a proper hold on him, and he kept hurting Clegane over and over again, slowly bringing him down. Gregor, on the ther hand, was nature's manifestation in human form of pure brute strength. He was savage. He sought to destroy in a chaotic way, there was nothing organized about his movements, there was just blood thirst and the deep desire to kill. Arya was too petrified to actually react and go help her friend. She tried at one point, though, but Jaqen shot her one quick glance warning her not to come close, and she obeyed him. After that brief warning Jaqen continued fighting Gregor, trying to bring him down. Gregor was severely wounded by then, and any other person would have collapsed, but not him. Arya was starting to wonder if he was even human.

"Jaqen, watch out!" she screamed at her friend. Jaqen barely dodged Gregor's fist before it hit his stomach. She would have shot Gregor, but she had dropped her gun n the way up from the bunker so that she was able to carry the unconscious Joffrey to the first floor of the mansion. Feeling scared, she looked around for a weapon, any weapon. She found a gun not far from where the dead Faceless Man had fallen after the grenade explosion. Arya ran towards it, dead set on blowing Gregor's brains all over the place. She took one quick look at the two fighting men. Jaqen had grabbed and twisted Gregor's hand, breaking his wrist. The bone cracked and Grendor yelled in pain. Jaqen then tried to stab the bodyguard in the chest, but with his healthy hand the man stopped him. Arya looked away from them. She had almost reached the gun...

A new shout was heard then, and a flying object crossed the hallway and sank itself in the wall in front if Arya. She gasped, startled, and recognized the knife that Jaqen had been holding. She turned around again immediately in time to see Gregor putting his arm around Jaqen's neck in a chokehold. Jaqen was very strong, but Gregor was stronger. Arya stared in shock, unable to fully comprehend what was really happening at that moment, and in that instant Jaqen's eyes met with hers. She was able to see his apology in the way that he looked at her, and before neither could say or do anything Gregor's healthy hand had grabbed Jaqen's head and quickly and violently twisted it. A terrible snapping noise filled the hallway and reverberated in Arya's ears as Jaqen's neck broke, and his lifeless body fell to the ground once Clegane let go it him.

"NO!" Arya screamed.

Gregor didn't even see her coming. Arya wasn't even conscious of her actions as she took Jaqen's knife from the wall and ran towards Gregor. He was tired from the fight that had just ended and didn't react in time. Arya was way too short next to him, so she stabbed him in the back and, just as if she was on a mountainside, she took impulse with the help of the knife and climbed the man's back until she was sitting on his shoulders. Gregor screaming when he felt the agonizing pain of the knife stabbing him between the ribs and the flesh tearing when Arya used the knife to climb. He tried to shake her off, but Arya was already seating on his shoulders with her legs in a chokehold around his neck. Gregor couldn't breathe; now Arya had all the advantage.

"This is for my friend, you son of a bitch!" she screamed at him, feeling hot salty tears streaming down her face as she started to repeatedly stab the man in the neck with Jaqen's knife. Gregor screamed and screamed some more with each stab that he received, and after a couple of them Arya put the knife on his neck and sliced his throat. He dropped to the ground with Arya still on his shoulders, but she was ready and she rolled away from him and got back up on her feet. She was breathing hard, and she felt that at any moment her heart would tear itself off her chest.

She watched Gregor's dead body for what felt like eternity. His mauled neck didn't cease to spill blood, creating a red pond that was getting bigger and bigger until it touched Arya's shoes. She didn't even notice. After she tore her gaze from the monster that she had just brutally killed she set her eyes on Jaqen, her friend. Looking at him caused her a great deal of pain, but she did it anyways. Hesitantly, she walked over to where he was and she knelt down on the floor by his side. She picked him up carefully and out him over her lap. Jaqen had his eyes closed, and for a moment it looked as if he was sleeping. Arya ran her hands through his white and red hair, and a single tear full of pain and sorrow fell from her eye. She didn't say anything, she just leaned in closer to her friend and touched his forehead with hers, and she stayed like that while she held him tightly, just like her sister had held Rickon earlier in the bunker when he had been shot. The difference was that Jaqen wasn't coming back like her brother had.

"Valar Morghulis..." Arya murmured softly, saying the words that Jaqen had taught her many years ago, when she needed them the most. 'All men must die'. Indeed they must, Arya thought bitterly.

She heard a noise behind her then, a low groan and slow movement. She separated from Jaqen's body and laid him down on the floor with care, and then she turned her head around to see what was happening. Joffrey had finally woken up and he had gotten up on his feet. He looked stunned, and he didn't eve notice Gregor's body or Arya kneeling down on the floor near him. He just started walking slowly, tottering. From the looks of it he might have a concussion.

Arya didn't react immediately. She took her time, and she watched Joffrey as he tried to get away from there and escape towards the exit of the mansion. When Joffrey was a few feet away she moved away from Jaqen, stood up, picked up the fun she had dropped before, and aimed it at Joffrey. Joffrey might have heard something, because in that moment he stopped walking and he slowly turned around. His eyes went wide with horror when he saw that Arya was still there, and that she was going to kill him.

"Please..." she heard Joffrey begging then. "Please don't..."

She felt a wave of rage running through her. "Please? Please?! Did you listen to my sister when she begged you for anything?! Did you spare my family when she asked you to please don't harm them?!"

"I will let you go," he said. The desperation and the terror in his voice made Arya feel poisonous satisfaction deep inside of her. There was nothing like seeing your worst enemy begging for his life. But it wasn't going to being her loved ones back. Revenge was, after all, bittersweet. "I will let all go. I swear I won't look for you, I won't hunt you... You can leave your life in piece, just like you all wanted!"

"You have no power anymore, Joffrey," Arya spat. "My family is already free from you. But I won't let you go," her whole body was shaking, but her hand was steady and her aim was perfect. She wouldn't miss that shot. "You have a debt to pay. And what is it that you Lannisters say? 'A Lannister always pays his debts.'"

Joffrey knew that he was going to die; Arya could see it in his eyes. He was terrified. Arya already had her finger on the trigger, and she was about to pull it and rid the world of Joffrey Baratheon forever... But, yet again, she was stopped by someone else.

She heard someone shouting at the end of the hallway and she looked to see what was going on. A Faceless Man had just appeared there, and it looked like he had come running from the second floor of the mansion. He was there to warn Arya of something.

"They have a bomb!" he shouted to her in Braavosi, and then he ran away to find cover. For a couple of seconds Arya didn't react, but then she did.

"Oh, shit!" she cursed. Joffrey looked at her confused, because he didn't understand what was going on. Arya lowered her gun and looked down at the floor. The harnesses that they had used earlier were still there, and she kicked one to throw it down the elevator shaft. The rope was still hooked to an anchor point, so the harness was left hanging down the elevator shaft. She was going to shoot Joffrey then, but she heard shouting and running upstairs. She didn't have time.

After letting out a frustrated yell and dropping her gun she glared at Joffrey with hate one last time, and then she turned around and ran towards the open elevator doors. She jumped inside, feeling her belly twist as gravity worked on her and she started falling down the elevator shaft. She grabbed the rope of the harness with her hand then, stopping her fall. She was wearing gloves, so the rope didn't burn her hand, but she did grunt in pain when she hit the wall of the elevator shaft with her body. She didn't let go of the rope, though.

Meanwhile, in the hallway, Joffrey was confused by what had just happened. He was in shock, but he wasn't stupid. He knew that something bad was going on, so he tried to run.

The people had shouted with joy when they saw the Starks being carried outside the mansion, and they all waited for them to arrive at the mansion's gates. They were making slow progress, because carrying a pregnant woman in labor and a man that had been shit in the chest and was bleeding out wasn't an easy task.

Gendry was among the crowd, and as soon as he saw all of them he went back inside the mansion's ground and ran to join them and help. Sandor was carrying Sansa with no problem, so Gendry tried to help the Faceless Men that were carrying Rickon.

"Thank God you are alive!" he exclaimed when he saw Sansa, though he did become pale when he saw Rickon. "What happened?!"

"Joffrey happened," Sandor explained.

"Where is Arya?" the young man asked, worried about his girlfriend. "I thought she would come with you!"

"She stayed behind with Jaqen and Joffrey. She'll be out in a minute."

Gendry understood, and he proceeded to try to help the Faceless Men. They hadn't given even four steps forward when all of a sudden all hell broke loose. In less that a second, the entire mansion exploded and blew up in flames and tiny pieces that flew up to the skies and lit them up like fireworks. Due to the force of the explosion, almost everyone fell to the ground. Sandor turned around and fell on his back, luckily preventing Sansa from hitting her belly. She cried in pain from the harsh movement, and then she cried when she saw the destruction that was in front of her. Her cry was muted by the screams of the crowd outside the gates.

What little was left standing of the mansion was on fire. Angry, vicious fire that devoured everything on it's path. Sandor stared at it in terror, feeling as afraid of fire as always. But this time it was worse. Arya had been inside the mansion still...

"Arya!" they heard Gendry scream. The man had fallen to the ground just like the rest of them, but he had jumped on his feet immediately and he was running towards the burning ruins of the mansion. "Arya! ARYA!"

Sandor left Sansa alone for just a second to run after Gendry, since it seemed that no one else was going to stop him from doing something stupid. He caught up with Gendry and grabbed him, stopping him from approaching the mansion any further, and he pulled him away from it. Gendry struggled and fought back, but Sandor was stronger.

"ARYA! No, please!"

"She's gone!" Sandor knew that those weren't the words that Gendry wanted to hear, but he needed to understand. They even hurt him to say them. Sansa didn't deserve to lose someone else, and certainly not like that. "She's gone, Gendry. We have to get out of here."

"No!" Gendry screamed, but Sandor didn't listen to him. He started pulling Gendry away from the mansion and, in that moment, something happened that left the all in shock.

Someone came running out of the mansion. They figured that it was a someone because of the inhuman screams that were coming out of him, because he was completely covered from head to toe in flames. Fire, fire everywhere. The person twisted and screamed and ran in every direction, unable to see where he was going. The fire melted his flesh and made him feel an unbearable agony.

Sandor almost felt pity for him. Almost.

The flames would have killed the man, had he not arrived at the fountain in front of the mansion- which had been left untouched- tripped, and fallen into the water. The flames were out out, and smoke and steam rose from the water. A couple of people ran to help the man out of the fountain. Merely touching him provoked him agonizing pain and made him scream, but they managed to pull him out.

The man was more monster than human. His clothes had melted in with his twisted flesh. The hair was gone, and he was horribly scarred beyond recognition. Such was the horror of looking at him, that in comparison Sandor's wounds were nothing but a mere sunburn after a long day in the beach. The people that were tending to the man and calling an ambulance didn't seen to recognize him, or maybe they thought that leaving him there to his own luck would turn them into worse monsters than him. But Sandor had spent enough years with him to know him even if there wasn't anything left of him to recognize him. He was one lucky bastard... Two different groups of the best mercenaries and assassins in the world had come after him that night, and everybody had died either trying to get to him or in the explosion that had just destroyed everything... And there he was.

Against all odds, Joffrey had survived.