He knew it was a risk to be here, it was too dangerous, but he couldn't help it. The pain of how the love of his life was taken from him and the one who killed her was so close. Jon Snow they called him, and in his former life he felt that name belonged to him, but after everything he went through, he knows now that's not who he truly is. He could hear his great uncles' words echoing in his head now more than ever, 'kill the boy and let the man be born' over and over again. Those words held such meaning for him in so many ways now. He had been back in Winterfell now for days and each one was more unbearable than the last.
****Flashback****
He remembered journeying further north with the free folk to be sure beyond any doubt that the white walkers were gone for good. Along his journey he found the last member of the children of the forest. Or rather it found him. It said it had been watching him for a while now and said it would take them to the place the Night King slept waiting for the return of the Long Night. It promised to show only him, so he left the others behind as they made their journey to an ominous castle of all ice with the Northern lights playing above. It would have been beautiful if it hadn't felt so terrifying. There the last of the Children showed the last of the dragons another hidden truth in the life of lies that was Jon Snow.
The child brought him to an altar of ice and placed his finger on Jon's brow. He saw through the eyes of someone upon a dragon flying in the sky. He saw Kingslanding, the frightened people and he felt the rider's agony and anger when their gaze fell upon the Red Keep. He knew then he was seeing through the eyes of Daenerys. He then saw her last moments in the throne room of the burned city. He saw himself and he knew what would come next and it was too much, so he tried to block it out.
"STOP IT! Don't make me see this!"
The child pressed forward with the vision as he heard its voice, "you must see what she saw to know the truth." He kept trying not to see it as he saw the blade in her chess and as she looked up to the eyes of her killer, he was suddenly shocked into silence.
"See the truth through your loves' eyes."
He looked through Daenerys' eyes at himself and he saw his own eyes, but they weren't dark grey, they were pure white. It was only for a moment, but it was there. He realized that when he stabbed her, he had been warged by another. For all the days since then he has relived that day and it never felt right to him. Despite all that happened killing her didn't feel right to him. "How?", he asked as the vision faded to being back with the child.
"You know how, you know everything. You have just chosen not to see. Now you must." He knew what the child meant; he knew the truth of who warged him. For once Ygritte's words were wrong, 'you know nothing Jon Snow', this time he knew everything, and he couldn't stop screaming in anger as tears of agony fell from him because of it. His Dany, they used him to kill her, to destroy her, and they made him believe all their lies that it was all his choice. He wanted to die in that moment holding some hope that he might join her as he grabbed for his dagger intent to end himself.
But the child stopped him, 'Briggle' it said his name was, and he offered him another way. "What was can be no more. What we want to be can be evermore. Your enemy betray us both he did. Promise to protect my tribe but left us to death. Briggle's people choose wrong friend among thee. Now the we, is only me, so I shall choose new friend to change what was."
The creature spoke almost in riddles, but he thought he understood so he pressed. "How? How can you bring her back?"
The child twisted his smile and shook its head. "Not her we shall bring back but us, back to before all walked down the path of doom. Led by the betrayers of we."
He had come back from death once before and he had to believe he could bring back Dany. So, the bargain was struck between the last of the children and the last of the dragons.
The dark and bloody ritual was performed and as he closed his eyes, he suddenly woke up in his bed in his old room back at Winterfell. When he stood, he discovered he was not a man but a boy again. He had none of his scars and he felt as if he must have been dreaming. He had seen all the other Starks, his cousins who he once considered siblings and his uncle he once saw as father, but he knew the truth of what they were and what he was.
Being around them felt so difficult to keep up the facade he had fallen into to protect himself. He went to the Gods wood everyday attempting to call for Briggle through the power of the Weirwood but found only silence. He didn't know if this new chance at life was real until he realized when he had been sent back to. The day he had come back on was the same day another Stark was born. The same Stark who he once called brother and played with and loved. The Stark that manipulated him and used him like a pawn to drive his beloved Daenerys mad and then used his power to warg him when he was confused and vulnerable in order to kill her. The enemy he was here for, Brandon Stark.
****End of Flashback****
That night he found himself standing in his newborn baby cousin's room after he climbed in through the window. He had a small knife he stole from the kitchens in his hand as he stood over Bran who was sleeping soundly. He'd been watching him all day from a distance just waiting for this chance.
Suddenly as he moved forward, "in time I see I be" Briggle whispered from the window as he entered. "Heard you I did as only I can. Old raven not see or hear us now, only we, for the bond made still holds me to thee."
He wondered if Briggle had come back with him and he was glad the creature was there so he wouldn't be alone. "Still speaking in riddles, but it's good to know the other raven can't watch us as he could in our old lifetime."
The child smiled and looked at Bran sleeping in his crib. "Come to kill little raven, have you?" He looked at the sleeping babe and thought of so many things that happened to him and the rest of his family.
"He looks so little", as he pointed the blade to Bran's slowly rising chest. "And I could kill him, right now, so easily." He squeezed the handle of the blade so tight his knuckles were white, and he wanted so much to end him now. But he pulled the blade away instead.
Briggle looked confused, "Not kill him? Betray your kind he did just as old raven betray mine." He'd been thinking about killing Bran ever since he got here but there was a reason he held back.
"The three eyed raven is the world's memory isn't it?" Briggle frowned but nodded. "So, if I kill him then will that memory die with him or stay with the old raven."
Briggle only frowned more looking away. "Fade it will. Greenseer they be. The children help preserve old til new fully gains memory. Old then passes and new takes place, change began the day when young raven came to be."
Jon realized Bran's power had been coming to him since he was born. He knew Briggle wanted to kill him because without Bran the old raven up north would just die too. But when he dies the power they held would fade as well. That was enough reason to hold Briggle back, but Jon wasn't like him. He saw the value of protecting the power that holds the worlds memory of everything, but his reason for holding back from plunging that blade into Bran's heart was more human.
"It's not enough. Killing Bran would solve so much but that's not what they did to us, to her." Briggle said nothing but looked at him curiously. "The three eyed raven, the so-called great houses of the realm, even the Night King. They didn't just use and betray us. They killed all that we loved, all that we are. They destroyed us down to the bone taking everything until the only thing left for us was suffering.
Death for us would be a release from what they did to us, so in return, we will not simply kill them, we shall ruin them as they ruined us." Briggle's sharp teeth showed as he wickedly smiled while Jon turned to Bran, "and to be clear, you may live for now, but nothing is forgiven. There will be a reckoning for all of you. The Starks, Lannisters, Baratheons, Tullys, Arryns will all suffer as we suffered. All of Westeros that spurred Daenerys even after she saved all their worthless lives will know my wrath, and then, I promise you Brandon Stark, that you will die."
