[AN: All I'll say about her identity is that the person who becomes Rhaenys in this Plot Bunny is not Carl or a female version of him. That is all.]
She felt a strong squeezing sensation gripping her head. It was squeezing, letting off, squeezing again, then letting off once more. She totally would have fought harder, but her whole body felt like it was wrapped up in a tight warm and wet blanket, and she had no strength.
After an indeterminate amount of time, she finally slipped out of the painful squeeze and felt incredible relief as the pressure on her whole body was gone. That's when the cold hit her. It was so chilly across her whole wet body that she cried out, wailing like she was a newborn.
Which of course she was.
While she was being cleaned up and then dried and wrapped up, she was wondering what her new name would be. Hop-chan, the cousin of Jump-chan, had told her that her name and identity from before would be suppressed until after this world was finished.
She knew a lot of facts about life, about modern society, science, maths, literature, etc. Everything she would have gotten from an education in a public school. But any personal information about herself, her family, or anything else had been completely suppressed.
Hop-chan had also told her that she wouldn't get to choose who she came to Planetos as, that Hop-chan would choose for her.
'At least I got to fill out the Generic ASOIAF Jump Document and pick my own perks, items, and powers,' she thought.
Her body was being lifted and carried somewhere. She was then laid in a warm embrace that she could feel love radiating from.
Looking up, she stared into the wan and weary face of a gorgeous brown haired black eyed woman. She immediately knew it was her mother in this world.
"Your name will be Rhaenys Targaryen. My, you're such a little cutie," Rhaenys' mother cooed at her, so she smiled back at her.
Rhaenys then felt hunger gripping her, and she frowned. Her stomach gurgled.
"It's sounds like she needs to feed, Princess Elia."
Rhaenys tried to look over at the man's voice, but couldn't see anything because he was behind her.
"I know you're tired, Princess Elia, but it's important that the first feeding is from the mother. It'll help the little princess be healthy, and encourage the bond between mother and daughter. After that the wet nurse can help you feed her."
"I know, Maester Tascer. Thank you for your assistance today; why don't you depart the room, and give me some time alone with my daughter."
Even Rhaenys, as new as she was to this world, could hear that it wasn't a question but a softly worded command.
"As you wish, Princess. I'll be outside should you need my medical services."
After hearing the door close, Princess Elia started breastfeeding Rhaenys. Despite having the memories of an adult, she knew it was the only way to eat for now and stay alive. So Rhaenys gave in with grace and the minimum amount of embarrassment.
She was soothed by the soft tune that her mother was humming. It was lovely and helped her stay calm. It didn't take long at all to fill up her newborn stomach, and she was soon falling asleep, tired out by the exhaustion of being born.
Before she nodded off, though, she wondered where her father was. Had he poked his head in but departed soon after? How odd…
Over the next few months Rhaenys never did see her father. But she did learn quite a bit about her new circumstances. For one, her father was Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, heir to the Mad King Aerys.
Another thing of note was that her mother was Princess Elia Martell, the sister of Prince Doran of Dorne. She had a very high and noble standing in this world.
But she was also utterly bored of being a baby. She really couldn't do much other than eat, sleep, and poop.
'It's a good thing I got that perk to give me the Harry Potter magic,' Daenerys thought to herself often.
You are a witch of the Potterverse, fully-trained to the highest standard in every subject (core or otherwise) offered by a magical school, with a particular specialty in a single field - perhaps you're a Transfiguration master on the level of Dumbledore or McGonagall, or a potioneer to rival Snape, or an Alchemist with the potential to be the next Flamel.
Comes with a perfectly-matched wand, a surprising facility in wandless magic, and a knack for developing new spells. For clarity, this makes you by default an inexhaustible canon-Potterverse witch rather than having any fanon magical cores going on, though if you're also a Mage I'm sure you could come up with all kinds of interesting tricks. If you wish, you can instead take a fanon Potterverse system.
For purposes of this Power, Ancient Runes are by default used in warding and enchanting, as this is never clarified in canon.
As a result of that perk she had a lot of memories and training banging around up in her head, including Occlumency. So in her copious spare time she practiced her mind magics, organizing her mind and setting up defenses.
A benefit of Occlumency was an eidetic memory, so she was able to spend time in her mind palace at times re-watching old movies and tv shows, video games, and re-reading books she had read before. It at least kept her entertained when she wasn't reviewing the magical training that was implanted in her mind.
Her specialty in Potterverse magic was alchemy, so she was eager to grow up and have fun with that. Provided of course that she lived past the age of three.
She was born on the first day of the fourth month of 280 AC. She knew a bit of the background of Westeros from the online wikis and talk about the series. So she knew that Robert's Rebellion will start in 282 AC after her mad grandfather, King Aerys, burns Lord Rickard Stark to death while his heir Brandon Stark strangles himself on a noose trying to get lose to help his father.
King Aerys would then go on to demand the heads of Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark, and Jon Arryn, their mentor, would be entirely unwilling to do so.
And all of that started because her 23 year old father was chasing a prophecy and kidnapped a 14 or 15 year old girl, Lyanna Stark, to bear him another son so he could fulfill some prophecy about a dragon that had three heads, or a promised prince, or something about ice and fire.
Rhaenys was completely unsure about the specifics of the prophecy her dead-beat dad was so obsessed with because she hadn't paid that much attention to the show, and was left a bit confused about the matter. But she knew her father was a scumbag because she still hadn't seen him after several months of being alive.
She knew from listening to the gossip of the people around her that he wasn't at war or anything. He had apparently taken one look at her, and her Dornish coloring rather than Targaryen coloring, and had departed from Dragonstone to return to court in King's Landing, or whatever else he was doing.
Probably playing mournful tunes while looking pretty to get all the poor dumb maids to sigh after him.
Yeah, Rhaenys didn't like her dad much. See exhibits above about why he was a scumbag.
Her mother, on the other hand, was very loving, gentle, and kind. Her mother made time to play with her every day, no matter the fact that she was a bit weak and sickly. Apparently her mother had been born premature and never really gained a robust physique. So childbirth had been hard on her.
Rhaenys, unlike her mother, was the picture of a very, very healthy baby. It must have been that one perk, The Seed Is Strong.
The Seed Is Strong, very strong. You have the blood of kings and heroes in you now, and it runs true in all forms. You have any and all powers ever possessed by any of your ancestors, even the ones that were not supposed to be inheritable.
In addition, you are, in general, quite possibly the most perfect, the strongest specimen of your kind that exists in the world. As a human you become a Post-Olympian, a magnificent specimen of a person with strength, beauty, flexibility and all other attributes pushed as high as can be.
In future jumps too, if and when you become some other species, race or whatnot, you always emerge as equal to the absolute greatest of the kind that has ever been seen, if not greater still.
That perk would also explain how Rhaenys felt so much smarter and quicker of wit, even as a five month old, than she ever had in her past life. All her attributes were pushed to the max. She was the female baby equivalent of Captain America, or so she supposed.
She was super excited now that she was five months old. She figured she only had another month to go until she could go ahead and start crawling. She was planning on walking her first steps at eight months. It was pretty early for the development of human babies, but she couldn't wait in order to pass herself off as more average.
'Eh…five months, six months. Why don't I go ahead and start "trying" to crawl now.' Rhaenys put her plan into action and over the next month continued ramping up her rocking around and graduated to crawling. Finally! Freedom of movement! (Even if she still had a diaper…)
After six months of this new life with her doting mother and servants to take care of her every need, she found out that they were summoned back to King's Landing to appear at court. Her mother was to present her to her grandfather, King Aerys.
So they boarded a boat and sailed a couple days through the Blackwater Bay and docked at King's Landing.
Rhaenys, held in her mother's arms, wrinkled her nose at the smell that was lingering in the air the closer they got to King's Landing. They could smell the city from two hours away, and the smell only got worse closer they got.
"I know, I know, my little sunshine. The smell is abominable. But, it's what we have to put up with. Bear with it and please don't cry." Rhaenys' mother mumbled while rocking her.
Despite the indignation she felt, 'when did I ever cry?', and ignoring the fact that she had in fact cried on several occasions, mostly having to do with changing her diapers, Rhaenys didn't want to stress her mother out.
If it weren't for the fact that she was still too young to chance doing magic, she would have used some of the Potterverse healing spells she knew to help her mother recover better. She was a bit too dainty and frail of health for Rhaenys' liking.
At least there was a carriage for them to ride in from the docks to the Red Keep. It was kind of funny to her when the knights around them called them "wheel houses", at least until she started wondering why they were called carriages in her past life. What language did the word come from?
'Damned etymology of words. And now I don't even have google to answer the bloody question of what language carriage comes from. And I only remember the word I was looking for was etymology, not entomology due to my improved memory…'
They eventually arrived at the Red Keep and entered, before climbing many stairs. Rhaenys was being carried by the wet nurse, rather than strain her mother's body, so she had plenty of chance to look around at the hallways and people wandering around.
'Huh, all the servants seem to want to disappear into the woodwork. They seem very tense. Guess that's what happens when you work in the castle of the Mad King.'
They didn't even get a chance to go to their apartments before they were ushered into the throne room. The room looked like it was built to focus attention on the throne that rested on a raised dais. It looked like a very uncomfortable throne with a fan of blades coming out of the back of the chair. A show of force that basically said, "Yeah, we stole your kingdoms by force, we stole your swords to remind you that you were helpless against us, and there's nothing you can do about it."
'Even though I'm a Targaryen now, and I recognize that it's good propaganda to label Robert Baratheon as an Usurper in the future, I'm at least honest enough to recognize that Robert didn't do anything the Targaryens didn't already do. Become king through force of arms. And hey, his grandmother was a Targaryen, so it's not like there wasn't some legitimacy to his claim.'
Of course she would never say that out loud in the future for anyone to repeat. She wouldn't want to decrease her claim on any lands or whatever.
'Come to think of it now,' Rhaenys thought, 'as much as I always hated the Ironborn and wondered why anyone in their right mind wouldn't have destroyed them, especially after yet another failed rebellion, except for the fact that old GRRM had a fetish for villains surviving and thriving, the Ironborn were the only group that eventually had the balls to try to take back their kingdom from Robert. Everyone else may have called Robert an Usurper, but they were still little bitches that capitulated to him. Whining little annoying words because they couldn't do anything else.'
Her attention was brought from thinking about meta-knowledge, to focusing on the king on the throne. He…did not look good. His long silvery-white hair was more dirty and oil than hair. His beard was scraggly and not well kept. His eyes were bloodshot with dark bags under them. His skin was unhealthy, and his fingernails had not been clipped in who knows how long. Very unhygienic.
"Your Majesty," a tall silver haired man bowed to the king from beside Rhaenys' mother, "may I present your granddaughter, the princess Rhaenys Targaryen."
'Oh, look. It's the deadbeat father.' Rhaenys deadpanned in her mind while she was taken from the wet nurse by her mother and brought forward to show off to her grandfather. The old man got a disgusted look on his face at the sight of her, though.
"She smells…Dornish." King Aerys spat with quite a bit of disdain and disgust packed in the word "Dornish". He then waved her off, indicating that he wasn't going to touch the Dornish-infected princess.
A middle aged looking woman came forward from the side and greeted her mother cheerfully, though. Rhaenys noticed she had the Targaryen coloring, though she too was frail looking.
"Oh, dear. You look like you could use a rest, and I could definitely use some time with my first granddaughter. Let me get a look at you."
Rhaenys obligingly burbled and smiled at her grandmum. At least she had the right idea of being happy for her presence, unlike the stupid king, no matter the fact that she had dark brown hair like her Dornish mother, rather than the silver hair of a Targaryen.
After a small bit of time, Princess Elia, Queen Rhaella, Rhaenys, and a pack of guards and servants left the throne room and went to the Queen's chambers. Her mum and grandmum began chatting cheerfully while her grandmum played with her. Even though it was something an actual adult would avoid if they could, Rhaenys had plenty of experience playing the baby and had some fun with it.
She was even able to split her mind's attention into two, so one side focused on the people around her and what they were gossiping about and kept her acting like a baby, the other side sunk into remembrances of books she had read, spells she had learned, and future plans for magical greenhouses, potions, and alchemy research, among other things.
It was just an awesome ability that helped her keep from going mad!
After a couple hours, a cute little four year old kid came around, apparently having woken up from his nap, and climbed onto her grandmum's lap to look at her.
"Who's the weird looking baby?" The silvery haired toddler asked in a rude and jealous voice, as if he couldn't believe this strange and ugly baby was taking his mother's attention away from him.
"This is your niece, Rhaenys. Say hello, Viserys." Her grandmum said.
"She doesn't look like she's related to us. She's got brown hair!" Viserys said with a pout, causing Rhaenys to roll her eyes at the little brat.
"Just because she looks more like her mother more than her father doesn't mean she's not the daughter of your older brother, Viserys," Rhaella patiently explained.
"Oh…" Viserys said, before growing bored and going to find some toys to play with.
"Boys…" Rhaella intoned in a jokingly long-suffering tone. "His brother was the same way growing up…"
'In that case maybe I'll give him some slack while he grows up,' Rhaenys thought. 'But if he starts turning out like the Viserys of the show, ranting about waking the dragon while abusing his younger sister, then I'm going to take extreme corrective action.'
Rhaenys then slipped into her split mind mode again and entertained her more adult self while indulging in acting like a kid. It was actually pretty fun.
It took a while for Rhaenys to get used to life in the Red Keep. The worst aspect she had to get used to was how very fearful the servants were of being noticed by the Mad King. It also wore on her mother, the constant need to be on her toes and wary of bringing the wrong kind of attention to her.
It was only with the contrast in behavior of her mother that Rhaenys realized that even in Dragonstone Keep, where her mother was much more relaxed than she was in the Red Keep, she hadn't ever seemed truly happy.
Occasionally her mother would reminisce of her time in Dorne growing up with her brothers. She would paint a beautiful picture in the mind of the water gardens she would play in, the mischief of her younger brother Oberyn and the way their older brother Doran would look after them.
As time slipped by, day by day, Rhaenys graduated from crawling to walking. She had fun with the excitement her mother showed when she took her first toddling steps.
Even though she was an adult in mind, with vague memories of a life lived before, minus all the personal details, it was hard not to enjoy the company of someone who was so very cheerful and happy to be with her. Every detail of her life, from what she ate, to what toys she played with, her mother was so very joyful about knowing it all and celebrating it.
It had the unintended consequence of lowering the status of her father even further, if that was possible. The supposed beloved prince in everyone's mind, the hope for everyone to have a sane ruler after his father's insanity, was an absentee dad and a shit husband.
He would only ever show up, "do his duty" by bedding his wife, and disappear again, to do whatever he was up to. Rhaenys didn't know, since the prick never stayed long enough to talk with her mother or play with her.
Rhaenys' first birthday came, and she finally got to meet her uncle Oberyn and his four daughters. Obara Sand was nine name days old, and Nymeria Sand was seven, Tyene was four, and Sarella Sand was one. So Sarella and Rhaenys celebrated their first name day together.
It was even fun enough for her, having small children to play with, that Rhaenys could ignore the insult to her mother that old Rhaegar never showed up.
After a month of spending time with them, Oberyn and his children departed to return to Sunspear, the capital of Dorne. It had been a fun time, playing with her cousins like that.
It made the stark contrast of how boring and tedious life in the Red Keep was, once her relatives departed. But Rhaenys always had an internal library of media to keep her amused, so she wasn't too bothered overall.
A couple months after her birthday, her mother began to show, she was pregnant again. Rhaenys knew a baby would be coming soon, due to meta-knowledge. It would be her younger brother Aegon.
That was also the time that the court moved out. They were going to Harrenhal in the Riverlands. There was to be a huge tourney, and the King had decided they would all go.
It took a long time to travel, since there were so many people of the court. And they had to set up luxurious tents every evening for the nobles. So a journey that should have taken only a couple weeks, lasted for nearly two months.
Rhaenys did not like the travel conditions her mother was put through. Not only was she frail of health, but she was currently pregnant. She did try many times to reach out to the magic she knew she had, to try to form spells to ease her mother's discomfort. But she was still too young to have control over her magic.
The whole trip was an exercise in frustration. But stiff upper lip and put on a good show for everyone was the order of the day (months), so Rhaenys could only stay obedient and not be a burden on her mother. No matter how boring it was to be shut into a wheel house for hours every day and not allowed to run around.
She completely understood her situation, even if she didn't like it. She was a one year old toddler. If she didn't accidentally get stepped on by a person or horse, she was liable to be kidnapped. But still, it grated on her to be so chained up in one place.
The weeks long tourney began, and Rhaenys at least had something interesting to watch. Occasionally. It wasn't like the jousting portion of the tourney was rapid fire, knight after knight. There was a lot of prep time in between jousts for the next set of knight to get armored up.
It actually leant itself well to everyone drinking and gossiping and plotting. Rhaenys rolled her eyes at the whole situation, feeling disdain for them. It made sense, though. They didn't have the internet to keep them amused, so they had to do something or they would end up killing someone in their boredom.
Rhaenys at least was able to sit down in a play pen and pretend to be a child occasionally while watching movies in her mind.
She was sitting with her mother for the final of the tourney, the joust. It was a match between the deadbeat and Ser Arthur Dayne. Oh, did she forget to pay attention to the deadbeat? Nope. It was deliberate on her part. If he couldn't be bothered to act like a dad to her, then he was dead to her.
Rhaenys of course rolled her eyes when her father won. Ser Arthur Dayne was said to be one of the finest knights in the land, while her father spent a lot of time on poetry, music, and prophecies. Of course she wasn't going to believe that he was just such a magnificent paragon of total masculinity that he happened to beat the best knight there was when he barely practiced. It had to be his friend subconsciously holding back that allowed him to win.
Her eyes narrowed in anger when she saw that the deadbeat continue true to form. The winner of the Tourney was given a crown of winter roses to give to their woman and crown her as the Queen of Love and Beauty. And the deadbeat passed by mother to lay it in Lyanna Stark's lap. Her deadbeat dad was hitting on a 14 year old girl in front of his wife and the entire kingdom!
The bastard!
Rhaenys looked up at her mother and frowned in worry. She didn't look good at all. In fact, she looked very pale and close to collapse.
No! She wouldn't have it!
Rhaenys reached for her magic, she snarled inside, 'You WILL do as I tell you! You are MY magic, to do with as I please!'
And her magic came, haltingly and in spurts, but it came. She directed it to perform a general healing spell at her mother. Rhaenys smiled as she saw the spell settle in and regulate her mother's abnormal state of health, due to the shock and insult she had just been dealt.
It was the last sight she saw before Rhaenys collapsed in utter exhaustion from forcing her magic beyond what it had matured to accomplish.
Opening her eyes, Rhaenys saw the inside of their tent. She sighed as she realized that she had seriously overdrafted on her magic. Sending her consciousness inside her, she saw that her magic was replenishing itself, but that it felt tender.
While her Potter-verse magic didn't give her an internal battery of energy to work with, she was still far too young to control that brand of magic. But the Mage perk she got had given her the magical energy needed to cast a healing spell, even if injured her in the process.
Within you, there is a replenishing well of power that you can draw from to fuel your magic in place of blood and lives. It is only enough for simple tricks, at first, at least with this alone, but it will grow with time and practice. Whatever magic you seek to learn, here or elsewhere, you will always have at least the potential, and this reservoir can be turned to any working with equal ease, be it great or small. Moreover, should you wish to employ magics with certain inherent downsides such as Necromancy, or limitations such as requiring foci or incantations, or being impossible to cast in armour, sufficient skill and knowledge may eliminate these flaws at a commensurate cost in power - and even that will shrink as your mastery grows.
The spell she used usually required a wand and an adult's long trained ability to shape the magic. She had neither, so she had to suffer the consequences. If it didn't concern her mother and the baby's health, she would never have attempted to do such a reckless thing.
It would have been a complete tragedy if her mother fell ill due to the deadbeat's actions and miscarried. It would have probably been a touch and go matter whether or not her mother could have survived that ordeal in her then current state.
Speaking of her mother, where was she?
"Mama!" Rhaenys called out.
"Oh, thank goodness you're awake, my sweet Rhae."
Rhaenys sighed in relief to see her mother looking so healthy as she ducked into the partitioned part of the tent they had been sleeping in.
"Mama, hug!" Rhaenys acted cute and held out her hands for her mother. Her mother was never stingy with the hugs, so she spent some time in her mother's arms, feeling good about what she did, even if she felt really sore inside due to the overdrafting of her magic.
"Oh, I was so worried about you when you collapsed, my little princess. Don't do that to me again."
"Hmm." Rhaenys nodded while mentally rolling her eyes at her mother. 'Don't you do that to me again either, mother! You gave me a huge scare!'
She spent the next while hugging her mother and feeling good that she and the baby were okay. No thanks to the disregard of a certain deadbeat.
The other competitions of the tourney had already completed, so with the end of the jousting event, the tourney was over and everyone began leaving. The camp grounds broke apart and everyone went their own way.
Rhaenys and her mother along with a retinue followed along with the rest of the royal retinue. She was constantly irritated at the slow pace they were forced to take. It was getting closer and closer to her mother's due date, and they were stuck on the dirty, dusty, road, riding in an uncomfortable wheel house that didn't help her pregnancy any. Especially with her weak physique from birth, Rhaenys' mother suffered.
And of course that deadbeat never stopped by to check on her, only relied on the reports of the Maester to know how she was doing.
Eventually after a month and a half they arrived back in King's Landing. But Rhaenys and her mother's journey wasn't complete. They immediately boarded a ship to travel to Dragonstone, the seat of Prince Rhaegar the deadbeat. It was only proper that his heir be born there.
Thankfully the passage by ship was only a couple days long, even if being at sea in such miserable conditions didn't help her mother very much. But they were finally at a place they could stop and rest. Her mother finally didn't have to ride in a wheel house or sail on a ship. She could sleep in a bed, with all the comforts available in a medieval setting.
Which were absolutely abysmal in her mind.
'If only I were a few years older! I could use my skills in potions and healing to help mother get healthier!' Rhaenys decried living in this medieval shithole. She really wished she had access to all that Hop-chan promised her. The warehouse alone would be a boon, with its medical bay that could heal anything.
A week passed while her mother only barely recovered a little bit of strength and health from the long travels.
'Damn the Mad King and the Deadbeat Prince that forced us to travel with them! We should never have been forced to go to that damned tourney!'
The longer Rhaenys was forced to watch her mother struggle, the more she hated the men in her family for their uselessness. She didn't care what kind of loyalty and love the Deadbeat Prince engendered among his kingsguard friends, he failed to take care of his family properly and so he was useless as a father and husband.
And then it was time for her mother to give birth. It was a tough time for Rhaenys. Her magic was still healing up from the strain she put on it a couple months ago at the tourney of Harrenhal. She didn't dare use it now. But could she bear to not use it for her mother if she was on the verge of dying in childbirth? After hearing those pained screams from her, and how they grew weaker by the minute, Rhaenys couldn't wait any longer.
She decided that even if she did long lasting harm to herself and her ability to do magic, she had to act! So she snuck into the birthing room and used all her feelings of rage, hopelessness, fear, love, and longing; she mingled all that emotion together in her mind and forced her magic out in a healing spell for her mother. Her mother would survive!
She collapsed once more into unconsciousness.
Rhaenys didn't know how long it had been since she passed out again. But she knew she had terrible dreams while she was unconscious. Horrible dreams of evil men with swords killing her and her mother and brother.
She wondered if that was an aspect of the greensight or the dragon dreams that was a form of precognition, seeing the future. The Mage perk was supposed to give her great potential in all the magic styles of this world, and all future magic in world she went to if she continued on this Jumpchain adventure.
At least, that's what Hop-chan had explained to her about the Jumpchain, that she would have the chance at the end of her missions in this world to decided whether she would stay here, go back to the home she didn't currently remember, or if she could continue on her Jumpchain to another world.
At this particular moment, if she had to decide, she would choose to take her mother and brother and leave this world behind, no questions.
Since she was stuck here in this world for who knows how many years, Rhaenys really needed to make the best of it. And that included making sure that she, her brother, and mother didn't die when King's Landing was sacked by the Lannisters.
But how could she, a one and a half year old, prepare for that deadly moment?
Ignore how much she was able to make of her current circumstance and enjoy playing as a toddler. The fact of the matter was that ever since she discovered just who she was in this world, she had been worried about her fate. It was a gruesome death, to be stabbed fifty times, her young brother being bashed head-first into the wall, and her mother raped then murdered.
It was a big reason why she spent so much time distracting herself by reviewing the Potter-verse witch training she had, or re-watching tv shows she had seen in the past, or books she had read. She was trying not to dwell on the horrible fate that she was determined to avoid, so as to actually enjoy the time she had if the worst occurred.
She hoped that she would be able to make a difference with her magic in the critical moments. It was really the only hope she had, since no one would listen to a baby and change what they were going to do that would lead to war.
And she was well aware that things wouldn't necessarily go the way of the "canon plot", since she had already twice overexerted her magic to make her mother healthier than she would have been. There was no guarantee that if she hadn't done that then her mother would have survived just fine. And even if her mother had been fine back at the tournament, her baby brother might have been miscarried, thus changing the future even more.
Getting up from her bed, Rhaenys shook her head and did her best to throw all those complicated thoughts to the back of her mind. She didn't need to worry about them like a dog with a bone.
Leaving her room by way of using a stool to reach the door handle, Rhaenys made her way to where her mother would be. Hearing voices, she paused around the corner to listen in, seeing as how she recognized one of them as the deadbeat.
"And you're sure of your conclusion, Maester Tascer?" Deadbeat asked.
"Yes, your Highness. Before she gave birth to the prince, there was always the possibility of this being the last time she could give birth. But after examining her just now, it's evident that she is no longer capable of bearing another child."
"Very well. Thank you for your efforts, maester."
"Your highness."
Rhaenys threw that tidbit of information to the back of her mind while she heard the deadbeat stride away with purposeful steps. Turning the corner, she saw Maester Tascer standing there with a sad look on his face that disappeared once he spotted her.
"Hello there, princess. Come to see your mother and brother?"
"Yes, mester. They okay?" Rhaenys asked in her light voice.
"Yes, they are doing very well. Come, I'll show you in."
"Mama!" Rhaenys called out when she saw her mother and brother lying in bed.
"Hey, there, princess. This is your brother, Aegon. Say hello."
"He's funny looking," Rhaenys said, looking at the wrinkled sleeping baby. Apparently she hadn't been unconscious for very long.
"That's what all babies look like when they're first born. You looked like that too." Rhaenys laughed when her mother gently teased her.
She gazed down at her little baby brother and smiled. He was a cute old looking baby, all wrinkly faced. Rhaenys knew she had step up and protect her family. The deadbeat wasn't going to be able to help them at all, let alone he was never around anyway.
Even now, he only looked in at little Aegon before departing once more to continue being a deadbeat after finding out her mother wouldn't be able to give him another baby. It was one thing to be busy with the affairs of the realm. And it was an entirely different thing to never be there for one's family.
Rhaenys spent time watching over her mother and brother for a while, but they were both exhausted from the birthing and were asleep soon after. She went back to her room and sat down to meditate.
Looking inward, she saw that her inner core was once more depleted and felt like it had been overused. She really needed to let it rest and heal fully now. There would be no testing her magic until she grew older and was more stable.
Giving a great put upon sigh, she called for a servant to bring her dinner. She was famished, and eating would probably help her regain her reserves and magic quicker. If only she could grow up faster…
Her brother was born on the 31st day of the tenth month, what in another world would be Halloween. Rhaenys, her mother, and Aegon remained at Dragonstone for six months while little baby Aegon grew old enough to travel. Rhaegar, as was his apparent habit, left a day after Aegon as born to go do this Prince-ly thing.
Aegon's eyes were originally blue after birth, but over the six months they stayed on Dragonstone, they darkened to the purple that was typical of a Targaryen. His hair that grew in was also the silvery color of his father. But despite how much he resembled a baby deadbeat, Rhaenys loved him all the same. Unlike some other members of her family, she wouldn't stoop to discriminating against him for his coloring.
She still held a grudge against some members of her Targaryen family for disliking her just because she looked like her beautiful mother. Just goes to show they didn't know what they were on about.
With a Ptui! sound, she mocked spitting to the side, indicating what she thought of those members of her family that were far too enamored with their Targaryen heritage and being royalty to the point that they married brother to sister in order to keep their bloodline pure.
'Pure inbred, is more like it. It's probably where the madness comes from.'
Rhaenys' was still less than two years old, so much of her time was spent playing near her mother and brother while mentally being much more active. Sometimes she sighed inside at the fact that she would probably have to wait another few years before being taught to read and getting access to the library books to add new material to her mental library.
From what she was understand of her mother's explanation of the weather when the air turned cold in the middle of the first month of 282 AC, Winter had officially started once more. They had had two years of Summer, so the conventional wisdom was that they would have two years of winter. And that was generally true, but not always.
They wouldn't have to worry too much, since it didn't get that cold during the winter as far south as they were. It was the North that got really bad and needed to import food to survive. Where they were in the south, while it was cold, it wasn't really that bad. They could even still grow crops in the winter, so the chances of them starving were minimal, but it was something to be wary of.
And even further down south in Dorne it would be pleasantly warm in the winter. Mother confided in her that to the people who were used to the blazing hot summers in the deserts of Dorne, winter there felt cold to them, comparatively, even if a Northman would be blistering hot.
It wasn't too much longer when Rhaenys overheard some of the servants gossiping about the happenings in other parts of the Kingdom. News that sent chills down her spine as she realized that the war was beginning, and the inevitable march to her death began.
At the end of the first month, they got news that Rhaegar, her deadbeat dad, had kidnapped Lyanna Stark, the 15 year old daughter of Lord Rickard Stark. Mother didn't take that news very well, seeing it as a huge insult to her as his wife and woman, a Princess of Dorne, and the future Queen of the Kingdom.
She didn't need any healing, thankfully. Rhaenys didn't know if she could spare any magical power for healing, since she was set on healing her inner core. It was healing, albeit slowly. Maybe once it was no longer damaged from overuse, she could start using small spells like the lumos to begin growing her magic into something useful.
Shortly after word spread of Rhaegar kidnapping Lyanna, word came from King's Landing that Brandon Stark had arrived in King's Landing in a fury, demanding that Prince Rhaegar return his sister, "or else".
The King had him thrown in prison, awaiting trial. And everyone knew that the only outcome of that farce of a trial would be his death. No one was willing to stand up for him and bring the Mad King's attention to them. Brandon's father, Lord Rickard, sailed to King's Landing as soon as he got the news to do what he could for his son.
And when Lord Rickard couldn't get his son free any other way, he demanded a Trial by Combat. The Mad Grandfather King agreed, and used wildfire as Lord Rickard's opponent. Needless to say, the aftermath of killing both Lord Rickard and Brandon Stark was the same as Rhaenys knew it would be, from what she knew of the plot. Rebellion.
When the fourth month and her birthday came, the only family members present on Dragonstone to celebrate her second name day was her mother and five month old brother. Her uncle Oberyn was too busy with the looming war to be able to come to Dragonstone. Her cousins were to remain safely in Dorne until such time as the war was over. There was no sense in giving over hostages to any enemies.
By the end of the fourth month it was time for them to go back to King's Landing, because Aegon turned six months. Even more so, the Mad King demanded Princess Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon to come so that he would have a hostage against Dorne, to ensure they didn't consider joining the rebels.
There were many more escort ships during that trip from Dragonstone to King's Landing than they had before. It was yet another change from the norm that let Rhaenys know just how different and serious things were getting.
King Aerys seemed to be pleased with the Targaryen look of Aegon when they finally presented him in court. Rhaenys observed that even with a baby heir that he approved of, he didn't have any idea of how to show paternal love.
Gramma Queen Rhaella, on the other hand, loved having a new grandchild to dote on. The poor thin woman, who looked like she was occasionally beaten behind closed doors by her husband, seemed to latch onto anything that could raise her spirits.
Rhaenys couldn't blame her. Her poor grandmother had to live with the Mad King. It couldn't be easy.
Six year old Viserys, on the other hand, was hardly any better than he had been when he was four. He was spoiled rotten and used to getting his own way. Of course Rhaenys was somewhat the same way, but she was four years younger than him. She would need to do some growing up and maybe even getting control of her magic before she could truly put him in his place.
Time seemed to drag on for Rhaenys as she lived in the Red Keep. She spent most of her time with her mother, grandmother, Aegon, and Viserys. She spent plenty of time playing with her brother and ignored Viserys whenever he was being a poopoo-head. Which was often.
It was even pretty funny when she called him that to his face, he got so upset. Thankfully grandma was there to stop him from getting too physical or else she would have had to find out just how strong a female baby Captain America was compared to a normal six year old.
There was always later to test it out.
Since the servants didn't think she would actually remember much, they ended up talking freely around her, so she heard a lot of the gossip and news that reached court.
She knew that her father was missing, along with a few of the Kingsguard with him. Too bad she didn't have full control of her magic, she could have put a tracking charm on him and gone to chastise him severely for kidnapping a 15 year old and starting a war.
Rhaenys didn't even care if Lyanna Stark had truly been so disillusioned with being betrothed to Robert that she decided to go with Prince Deadbeat willingly, as was suggested by some theories and hints back in her old world. Her deadbeat dad was royalty, the heir of the king, and a 23 year old man. Taking Lyanna was wrong, no matter what. What did he truly expect to happen when he kidnapped the underage daughter of one of the Lord Paramounts?
Not to mention the seething hatred she imagined her Dornish uncles had for him, seeing how much he disgraced their sister, Rhaenys' mother. It was bad enough when he crowned Lyanna as his Queen of Love and Beauty at the Harrenhal Tournament. But now he did something so monumentally stupid while violating their wedding vows? And he did it when his wife was recovering from giving him a son?
There was a reason Rhaenys didn't call him anything other than deadbeat inside her own head, even if she wouldn't call him that to his face or where anybody could overhear and report her to the mad king.
In the middle of the fifth month, news came to King's Landing that Lord Robert Baratheon and Jon Arryn's forces in the Vale had smashed the blockade at Gulltown. Robert had slain Lord Marq Grafton, the Lord of Gulltown, and had sailed for Storms End to raise his own banners for war.
There were also rumors that Lord Eddard Stark had made it to the North and was gathering his banners. Along with Lord Jon Arryn gathering his forces in the Vale, and Lord Hoster Tully gathering his forces in the Riverlands, the rebellion was gathering steam.
The Tyrells in the Reach were gathering their banners to go to war for the Targaryens. And the Hand of the King, Lord Owen Merryweather, was gathering raising the banners in the Crownlands to support the King.
Weeks and months would go by with nothing more than skirmishes being fought, banners being gathered by both sides, and plans being made.
Then in the middle of the seventh month Lord Robert fought three engagements in the Stormlands against Lords Grandison, Cafferen, and Fell. Lord Robert won all three and gained hostages that ended the infighting among the Stormlanders.
By the beginning of the ninth month, word had come that the hostages that Robert had taken had joined his banners, and they were marching to join up with the rest of the rebel forces from the North, the Vale, and the Riverlands.
Still held in the Red Keep as hostages to the Dornish's good behavior, Rhaenys, her mother, grandmother, and Viserys celebrated Aegon's first name day. He was a whole year old, and had been crawling for a couple months now. He was just starting to walk. It was adorable to Rhaenys.
Naturally things were all good, being stuck in the Red Keep. There were always guards around to keep an eye on her and her mother, to ensure that they didn't somehow slip away from the castle. Must keep an eye on the hostages, after all.
She also started having a nightmare at around that time. It wasn't like the dragon dream of seeing a possible future where she saw her family and herself being killed. It was a dream of how she died in her last life. It was very indistinct with only a few things clear to her.
In the dream, she was falling, falling, falling, from a great height. She vaguely remembered seeing a figure reaching out for her, trying to catch her. The shadowy figure was someone that she knew she loved, and who loved her, even if she couldn't remember any more details out of the dream. But he wasn't able to reach her, and she fell to her death.
Even those details would fade away and become hard to remember when she woke up, except that she cemented them in her mind with her occlumency skills.
When she had those dreams, those nightmares, she considered the idea of going back to her world when she had finished her missions here. She knew there was someone waiting back there for her, paused in time at the moment of her death.
But…how could she leave her mother and brother in this life behind? Especially when she didn't even remember her life back there?
It was something that she knew she would have to make a decision on, eventually. But that decision was very distant, so she put it to the back of her mind for now.
In the eleventh month news came of Lord Mace Tyrell's victory against Lord Robert, that they had ambushed him and made him bleed. There was a sense of celebration at that news, since everyone thought it was the turning point of the war. They assumed the rebels would be routed soon enough and life would get back to normal.
But then word came that Lord Robert escaped any further ambushes and entrapments and continued heading north through the Reach and into the Riverlands. Lord Mace, instead of chasing after Lord Robert, continued east to lay siege to Storm's End, which was held by Lord Robert's brother, Lord Stannis Baratheon.
After some time, there was another time of rejoicing at the end of the first month of 283 AC when it was heard that Lord Jon Connington, the new Hand of the King after Lord Owen Merryweather proved ineffective, had trapped Lord Robert around the Stoney Sept and was on the verge of capturing him.
At least until a reversal once more occurred. Lords Stark and Arryn brought their armies into battle against Lord Hand Jon Connington. Not only did they drive off Lord Connington, but Lord Robert emerged from hiding after nursing his injuries and severely injured Lord Connington in battle.
King Aerys not only dismissed Lord Jon Connington for his failure, but exiled him from Westeros under the assumption that he was incompetent. It was a wonder that the Mad King didn't simply have him killed. Apparently the King was lucid enough to know that if he did that, the armies led by Lord Jon Connington would have every reason to rebel, similar to how the Starks and Baratheons did.
A couple weeks after Rhaenys' third birthday, the Deadbeat Prince returned from his rape nest. Apparently he managed to impregnate the 15 year old girl, or he got word that the kingdom was falling apart in his absence.
Like Rhaenys had said to herself in her mind many times, he was a deadbeat.
But unlike her, everyone else around the keep was rejoicing that their beloved prince had returned to take charge of their armies. Surely now they would win, with their beloved deadbeat prince at the head of their armies!
And that mood lasted short of two months, when the Battle of the Trident occurred, and Rhaenys' deadbeat dad died at Lord Robert's hands. But not before the deadbeat managed to wound Lord Robert.
Two weeks after that battle, King Aerys sent his wife and son to Dragonstone for protection, since news was that the rebel armies were marching on King's Landing.
Rhaenys knew that the mad king had prepared a contingency in case the city's defenses didn't hold. There were barrels and barrels of wildfire stashed around the city, ready to be ignited by the alchemists. If the Mad King Aerys couldn't have his city, then everyone of those traitors would burn with him. And since he sent away his Queen and son, his line would be able to rebuild afterwards.
Rhaenys spent every possible moment with her mother and younger brother. She knew what was coming in the sack of King's Landing, and she had a plan to avoid it, since no one seemed to be willing to help them escape due to the Mad King's insistence that they stay as a hostage to Dorne.
That more than anything made Rhaenys hate her grandfather and feel like cutting all ties with him. That he would force his daughter-in-law and his own grandchildren to their deaths with him in blood and fire was despicable.
In the middle of the sixth month the Lannister's army was allowed entry into the walls of King's Landing, and they promptly betrayed their Mad King, running amock and sacking the city. Rhaenys was in her mother's room with Aegon, holding a rope out for her mother to grab onto.
"Mama, hold onto the rope and brother and don't let go, no matter what," Rhaenys explained.
"Fine, my beautiful little princess. We'll play a last game." Rhaenys saw that her mother was humoring her odd request because she didn't expect her to live, being the daughter of the deadbeat.
What her mother didn't know is that not even she would be spared by the animals that Lord Tywin called knights.
But the moment that she and her mother and brother were all holding the rope, Rhaenys activated the portkey. It had been a very troubling thing to make a month ago. It knocked her unconscious once more to do it, but she had done it in the evening and so no one noticed her falling unconscious.
The hooking sensation behind her navel was as expected, but her mother and brother didn't fare quite so well, screaming up a storm.
And then, after a short trip, they landed in their rooms in Dragonstone.
Smiling up at her mother, Rhaenys felt proud that she had saved all three of them.
She then went back to acting like a three year old and refusing to answer any questions about what she had done or where she had gotten the magic rope. She just acted confused about what they were asking her. Let them come up with a theory about what happened and what she did, or was led to do by the gods.
Rhaenys didn't particularly care, as long as her family was safe.
Now they just had to escape from Dragonstone before the Usurper's fleet could be built and sent after them at Dragonstone.
But at least Rhaenys was on the right track to staying alive and accomplishing her missions in this world.