16 Reality

Author's note: Hey guys, I am back with a new chapter, and it turned into a 3.8k piece. I remember promising chapter of 2.5k words, and I realized I really suck at writing those, especially in a setting like Planetos.

13.85k/40k words - Deadline: 6/11-22 at 10 pm CET.

I enjoyed writing this chapter a lot, because I feel like it really set the world created by G.R.R.M into perspective. It's actually frighteningly similar to Harry Potter in some aspects, but I will explain my POV further in the latter author note.

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Winterfell, The North - 289 AC

POV | Eddard Stark

Eddard Stark was a man under immense pressure. He was going to war, and he had asked his bannermen to meet at The Neck. His wife had retreated to her personal chambers, and she had not left them since they welcomed Benjen and Aegon home.

'At least Benjen and Aegon have agreed to stay for an extra amount of time. Should keep the kids occupied and give Catelyn some room to breathe. If only she would tell me what's wrong…'

Two strong knocks sounded from the door, and he called for the person to enter.

"Father." Aegon greeted, as he looked towards the corner of the room. Eddard stiffened slightly in shock at the term, he had never heard from his nephew before. Not that Aegon seemed to notice.

Aegon turned towards him and smiled a sad smile. Before he proceeded towards the corner in unnatural silence. Ned broke out of his slight trance and returned the greeting. "Son. What can I do for you?"

Just as Aegon reached the corner, he set into rapid motion as he unsheathed his sword and stabbed through an Old Map with no actual value.

Eddard would have protested, if he were not so shocked by the sound of a sword penetrating flesh and the scream of pain he heard. The guards stormed into the room, weapons drawn, they looked slightly confused when they saw that their Lord was unhurt.

Eddard asked hurriedly: "Jon, what was that?"

Aegon snarled back. "That is a spy, betraying his liege lord for coin."

Eddard's expression grew solemn. "Drag him out."

Aegon stuck his hand through the ruined map, and pulled a young man out by the hair, blood dripping from his shoulder wound. The man cried out in pain. "Shut up. No one wants to hear you whine, I barely scratched you."

The grown men in the room looked at the young boy with incredulous eyes. All their thoughts seemed to unite for that fleeting moment. 'You skewered his shoulder like a piece of lamb!'

Eddard shook the thought away quickly and returned to his usual stoic face.

"Who paid you?" His voice was Ice.

The man seemed to cower. "The Lannister's milord." He whimpered. "Please don't kill me, I have a fami-ugh."

Aegon kicked him in the side and grabbed him by the hair. "Stop lying." His voice a perfect imitation of Eddard's own. His aura turned positively menacing, and Eddard felt for the slightest of moments, that he was caged in with a wild beast before the feeling disappeared as suddenly as it had come.

"I am not-ugh." Another kick. "I can smell your deceit. Don't try our patience."

Eddard looked at his nephew with a contemplative look. This was a side he had never seen of the boy and whilst he was sad for the loss of innocence, he knew boys turned into men, when they had killed for the first time.

Aegon having already fostered among hardened men, would only have amplified this quality. 'It might be sad today, but it is better for his future, as filled with strife as it is sure to be. Besides, Aegon doesn't do anything without thinking it through for potential consequences. Him showing me this aspect of himself, is an effective way to show his decisiveness when dealing with threats towards the family. More effective than telling me anyway.'

The man dropped his act. "I won't tell you."

Aegon shook his head, in what would look like sadness to the average onlooker, but Eddard knew him well enough to know that his nephew was livid. Suddenly the door burst open and in trotted Hel and Freya, walking in circular patterns around the man, whose demeanor changed from calm to full of panic.

"Hey my dears. Did you smell dinner?"

Both felines crouched down as if ready to pounce, and they growled menacingly whilst their eyes glowed green and blue. Aegon asked one last time. "You can be supper, or you can tell us for whom you work. Who?" Eddard leaned back in his seat, he was content to watch for now.

He started whimpering again, as the full force of Freya, Hel, and Aegon's presence hit him.

"Barbrey Dustin." Eddard stiffened in his seat. He looked towards Aegon and received a nod in return.

"Guards, drag him down to the courtyard and prepare the block.

"The Wall milord, please!" exclaimed the man.

"No." Eddard wanted him dead. Thus, he must die. Of course, the man could ask for The Wall, but that did not mean that the Lord tasked with punishing him would ever agree. Eddard would have allowed him the choice in normal circumstances, but the thought that someone could have reported his talks with Aegon to another, frightened him greatly. His whole family would be on the line in such a case.

'It seems that Barbrey has forgotten her place. I think it's about time House Stark takes back The Barrowlands and Barrowtown.' Eddard was angry. This was the first time he had experienced an actual hostile act against his family from a Northern House, and he could not help but imagine what such a man could have done to his family, if Aegon had not apprehended him.

The fact that someone could sneak around like this… 'I'll have to search all paths within Winterfell when I return.'

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Winterfell, The North - 289 AC

POV | Aegon Targaryen

"Poison will be fitting for someone like me." A broken voice sounded.

Aegon burst into motion as he heard those words. He knew exactly who had uttered them and why. 'Not on my watch.' As soon as he saw the door, he barreled into it, almost knocking the heavy oak frame off the hinges. The butt of his knife met the bottle, and it was knocked out her hands and it shattered into a thousand pieces as it met the floor.

He looked at her disheveled appearance in shock. He had never seen her with even a strand of hair out of place.

"My Lady, what are you doing?!" he exclaimed.

She looked him straight in the eyes, and tears burst out as she collapsed to the floor. He rushed over to her and put a tentative hand on her shoulder. A gentle action that only made her cry further.

'Fuck, what set her off? She looks a mess, and she wanted to commit suicide? Nothing has ever indicated such behavior. What is even going on now?'

He moved towards the door and closed it quickly. She had apparently dismissed the guards in the corridor, as they were basically alone. She was still in a heap on the floor crying and Aegon had absolutely no idea what to do now. 'At least she ain't dead…'

He tried to comprehend his current situation. They had executed the spy in the morning and his uncle was now busy preparing for war. Benjen had agreed to stay a bit longer, since he won a moons time by travelling on Fenris, but he would rather use a horse for the trip back, Aegon could not fathom why his uncle did not want to ride back on him too.

He had been walking around practicing his senses so he could control what to hear, and what not hear in a castle, when he had caught an almost broken whisper from his aunt. He was fortunately close enough for him to reach her room in a timely manner, else they would have had to prepare for a funeral as well, and he did not like the idea of seeing Sansa and Robb broken by sorrow.

He did not hold many positive feelings for his aunt, but she was not an entirely bad person. She was a loving mother to all her children. And she was terribly young. Something Aegon had never actually considered before he found out exactly when she and Eddard were born. The years of 263 and 264 AC.

She was married at five and ten, and his uncle at six and ten. She had just given birth to an heir at six and ten, when her seven and ten name days husband returned from war with a bastard son.

'Those ages really set everything into perspective. My uncle is only six and twenty and she is five and twenty. They were kids when everything happened. Kids playing at being adults.'

No matter how fast children grew in a Medieval World, it did not change the actual development of their emotional capacities, and their subpar education of values were not like the ones engrained into the memories of his young mind. 'Sometimes, I feel like the extra set of memories is a curse, and sometimes I am happy that they push me to move forward but keep my humanity.'

'I can't find it in me to hate her for how she treated me. She was an ass, but that's just how kids are, especially those with her upbringing and so called septas around her like that Mordane bitch. My uncle and everyone else not interfering just made her feel justified in her actions. Can't fault her for that. Besides… There was that one time when I was sick… Life just isn't Black or White.'

'The religion she follows does not help either. It basically justified her behavior, and with her being indoctrinated and almost treating Septa Mordane as a motherly figure of virtue… Well, bygones are bygones, especially with the mother of my siblings.'

Her sobbing was heart wrenching and Aegon could not bear to watch it without doing anything.

He sat down in front of her and pulled her into a hesitant hug. She reciprocated immediately, as if she was starving for some sort of comfort, her entire body was trembling in fright, fear, and regret. 'At least if I'm reading my senses impressions correctly.' The difference in their sizes was almost non-existent since she was only 5'7", decently tall for a woman, but nothing more.

Her warmth enveloped him as she apologized to in small gasps for air. "I'm so sorry." Gasp. "I broke." Gasp. "My promise." Gasp. "Family first." Gasp.

He rubbed her back gently and he could feel her heartbeat through her back with how hard it was beating. Her face was resting on the crook of his neck, and he felt slightly embarrassed by the close proximity. 'Is this what a… Stop.'

"It's okay. I forgive you." He had thought that was what she wanted to hear, but she just pulled him in tighter and started crying even harder. 'What the fuck did I do wrong?'

That was when Aegon realized his third wish should have been the ability to understand women. 'I would have been elevated to Godhood.'

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??? - ???

POV | ???

"Could he have wished for that?"

"Haha. No."

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Winterfell, The North - 289 AC

POV | Aegon Targaryen

Lady Catelyn kept murmuring apologies to the point where Aegon was actually feeling bad for her. 'Would a distraction work?'

"How did you find out?" His question seemed to do the trick, as she visibly tried to pull herself together. 'Wow. Got to note that down for future use.'

"The secret communication between you and your uncles was the first part." She whispered. Her chin was still resting at his shoulder, so she did not really need to speak up. Not that it would have made a difference whether she whispered or shouted unless he was in Wintertown.

He nodded ran a soothing hand up and down her upper back, which seemed to give her the comfort she needed to continue.

"I've been trying to make sense of it since I was six and ten. Who ensnared my husband? It just didn't fit. Thinking back on it, he always told me that you were of his blood, not his son, at least not when we were alone. I was just too angry to see the difference. The few times I did… I thought he meant that you were Brandon's son."

She took a deep breath and tried to compose herself. "That was my greatest fear."

Aegon was kind of, maybe, yes, he felt like a bit of a dick right now. He asked her softly, "why?"

"Because it meant that they both lied to me. Betrayed me." A bit of ice entered her voice here. "If you had been Brandon's son, then he lied to me, when he said that he would stray no more."

Aegon almost scoffed at the thought but managed to stop himself in time. Somehow, she picked up on it, at least if her next words were anything to go by. "Of course, I knew that it was an empty promise, but at least he would do it out of sight and not make my dishonor known to the entire Realm. If you were his son, though… Then it meant that you could stake a claim on Winterfell, taking Robb's birthright and it also meant that Ned did not trust me with the secret."

"I would ne-," "I know!" she interrupted in a surprisingly strong voice. She pulled back from the hug and cupped his face in her small hands. "I know how much you love Robb and Sansa. I know that you care too much, to ever do anything like that."

She grabbed the hem of her dress and clenched as she looked down at her fists. "Sometimes you were just as wild as Brandon, just as talented, if not more talented with weapons. Like a mix of Brandon and Arthur Dayne. Who could you parents be but Ashara and Brandon?"

She shook her head and whispered. "Sometimes you would just sit brooding away from everyone else, almost like a copy of Ned. It was driving me mad."

When Aegon tried to think it through from her perspective, he was actually feeling quite bad. Mainly because he was playing on exactly those things to keep the ruse. After the talk with his uncle in front of the Weirwood, he had realized that giving himself silver or grey eyes would have been much better for most things. At least no one would ever have considered him Rhaegar's son if he did not have purple eyes…

Grey eyes would also have allowed Ned to keep the ruse of his mother being lowborn. Getting Ashara mixed up in his ruse might have been a terrible idea considering very few women could ever hope to compete with her beauty. 'The fact that Ned still loves her, probably isn't helping matters… Not that he doesn't love Cat too. It's just a shitty situation all over.'

"Hmm. I guess it didn't help that I knew all along and was just playing into the ruse to keep others far away from my actual parentage." Catelyn's head snapped up at his casual admittance, and her expressive blue eyes met his sad amethyst.

"Ned told you. When?!" He raised a hand to calm her down. He could see that she was drawing hasty and wrong conclusions once more.

"He never told me." He could see that she was about to interrupt so he raised a challenging eyebrow and allowed his commanding aura out. While she seemed dismayed by the silent command to let him finish, she did decide to follow the unspoken command. "I always knew."

The confusion on her pale, but beautiful, features was visible now.

"I remember everything since my birth. My mother. My uncle promising to keep me safe. Everything. When I finally understood the words said, it was pretty easy to make sense of my memories." He could have lied to her, but he really did not see the need. The cat was out of the bag anyway and he was going to advice his uncle to be truthful anyway.

He was simply happy that Barbrey Dustin was the only one who cared enough about his true parentage to have an actual spy trying to find out the truth. Roose thought he had one in Domeric, and Lord Ryswell followed his lead. The South was truthfully not that interested in their news, and they mainly relied on merchants to get general rumors.

From what he had gathered through his slow extension of his ravens south of The Neck, the only rumors about him were that he had helped The Heir of Winterfell slay a hundred Wildlings or that his uncle had sent him to The Wall so he could help kill all Wildlings North of The Wall, and that he might be given a castle should he accomplish his noble quest to redeem his father's honor.

'Drunk people are wild!'

Catelyn had stood stuck still since he mentioned his long memory, until she collapsed back on the edge of her bed. Tears were welling up in her eyes, and she asked hesitantly. "Do you remember the only time you ever got sick?"

He nodded slowly. "It was short and painful." She shuddered. "I was eight and ten, and I thought you were going to die, the only death I had ever seen at that point, was the death of my own mother. Every day before your illness I had prayed for your disappearance, and every second of your illness I was at your bedside praying that the seven would make you healthy again." She started crying silently as she remembered his suffering.

"I promised the Gods that I would treat you as my son, as long as they allowed you to live through it." He walked over to the chair by the wooden table and pulled it up in front of her and sat down so they could see eye to eye.

"I do remember. Uncle Ned was at Torrhen Square settling a dispute. He was quite busy until Sansa came around. Having to consolidate his rule and all." He answered with a faraway look in his eyes as he reminisced. He looked into her eyes again before he proceeded.

"I remember your prayers as well. Heck, I'm fairly sure that I understood most of them at that point." She shuddered again before she closed her eyes and continued sobbing.

Aegon did remember her prayers and he was capable of understanding everything at that point. His emotional development was not that good at that age, but it was a scenario that he had definitely allowed to fill his tank of resentment when she did not live up to her promise. He did not remember that happening in canon, so the prayer and promise caught him by surprise.

At that age he still thought that he was all knowing because he had read the books sporadically and watched the series a few years past. An error he had continued living by until his talk with his uncle in the Godswood.

A small traitorous part of his heart was still disappointed and sad that he never got to feel a mother's or even a female relatives love. The hug he received just before was the first he had received from a woman since he could walk. Unless Freya and Hel counted. 'They'd tackle me to the ground and slobber all over my face if I told them, it didn't…'

"You know, I used to resent you quite a lot." That got her attention immediately.

"I even used to refer to you as Lady Trout in my mind." He chuckled and she let a strangled laughter escape her mouth as well. "I was that terrible, wasn't I?" She let out humorously as she looked at him with a sad smile.

"It was a bad situation, My Lady." She shook her head slightly, "you don't have to call me that in private. Catelyn or Cat would be fine. I don't think you're the type who would call me mother or aunt anyway. Not after what I've done. The best I can hope for is that you will eventually see me as an aunt or maybe a friend."

She grabbed his hand softly and gave it a small squeeze. He smiled slightly; she was not wrong about that. He did not mind calling her Cat or Catelyn though. Beside he did not mind cultivating a better relationship with her. She was not a bad person at heart. Just incredibly young and inexperienced.

"By your will. Just remember to treat me as indifferently as possible in public. We still need to keep up the façade for a while longer."

This time it was her turn to raise an eyebrow. "I'm not dumb, Jon Snow." She tilted her head slightly, it was obvious who Sansa got the habit from, and asked. "What is your true name?"

"Aegon Targaryen." A soft gasp escaped her. "No! He wouldn't!"

"He did, and it's another of the secrets behind the Rebellion that is yet to be uncovered." He answered her calmly. After years of thinking it through, he was quite sure that he did not actually have a brother. The Aegon who was proclaimed dead was most likely a ruse to keep Elia safe from The Mad King.

Everything he had gathered about her health, his discussions with his grandpa, and the letters Rhaegar had exchanged with Aemon, seemed to point towards secrets upon secrets that could only see the light of dawn, when Aerys II was dead and buried. Her being barren after her harrowing pregnancy and birthing of Rhaenys seem to point towards Rhaegar taking drastic and ultimately flawed measure to save what he could.

Rhaegar going for Lyanna seemed to be solely because of her honor and the prophecy as well. 'I don't believe that he actually loved her, though he might have been fond of her. Not that it matters anyway. I am born, and trueborn. The rest is history.'

Unfortunately, The Rebellion derailed all Prince Rhaegar's plans and most secrets died with him, Princess Elia, and Lyanna. 'Another reason I need to leave for Dorne when I grow a tad older. The Sword of Morning needs to step into the Light once more.'

According to Eddard Stark, the Kingsguard had taken up another name and was guarding the Water Gardens as his penance to House Nymeros Martell. 'He is probably the only man with actual answers, and his honor is unquestionable enough for him to be a valuable ally. I am definitely not fanboying over the thought of meeting one of my idols.'

Catelyn whispered his name and looked at his face. "With Rhaegar and you on the throne we would have had decades of peace. For what did all those people die?"

He chuckled at her question, and she looked at him befuddled by the fact that he seemingly thought her question to be humorous.

"For The Game of Thrones, of course."

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Author's note: So, I was going to explain why it is so similar to Harry Potter in some aspects.

First of all, hindsight is 20/20 - It is incredibly easy to point out people's mistakes after you have had the time to reflect on them, especially when you don't have an emotional stake in their experiences.

Secondly, age. These people are so fucking young. I'm young myself, and I know I would probably be shit out of luck in so many of these scenarios that it ain't even fun. Catelyn and Ned were damn Teens when they married and Ned left to lead a war to save his sister.

Similarly Lily, James, Sirius and Remus were fresh out of Hogwarts when they fought in that war. They had barely experienced life, and the first betrayal they ever experienced was by the hands of a man they considered family. A mistake that cost Lily and James their lives, and with James being Sirius literal only anchor to family and sanity, it is no wonder that the twenty year old chose to seek out Peter for vengeance.

Honestly, it just boils down to inexperience, innocence, and a lot of bad luck.

Yes, I did not particularly like Catelyn in GoT, but if you ever read her POV in the books, you would realize how fucking sad and heartbroken she really is. Jon's existence torments her daily, especially because Ned won't tell her a damn thing. A man she has been married to since she was 15, won't confide, what she perceives to be a simple matter, to her. Add a whole lot of religious fear mongering against bastards, a woman Ned might love more than her etc. and you get Catelyn.

When you then add people like Cersei, Tywin etc. to the world, you realize that Catelyn is actually treating Jon decently for that time period. At least she doesn't kill him or make 50 guards r*pe his wife to prove a point. She is just coolly indifferent to him. Yes, she calls him bastard to his face and disregards him entirely, but that isn't even that bad in the great scheme of things. Anyway, rant over!

See you in the next episode! S/O to MinMinOppa for an accurate prediction this time haha! I won't comment on which prediction was correct though.