A New Hope (Books I - VI)

Chapter 2

Winterfell - Year 300 - The Crypts

"He never had to teach you much, but me... You remember me at sixteen? All I wanted to do was crack skulls and fuck girls. He showed me what was what." Arya silently caught up to the two men in the middle of conversation as they were walking slowly down the stairs to where Lyanna's bones were laid to rest.

"Well it's not his fault you never listened." Arya cut into the conversation, wanting them to know she was there. Robert broke into a laugh, and Ned followed suit after getting over the shock of seeing her.

"Yes well, I was never a quick learner. I need you Ned. Down at King's Landing. Not up here, where you're no damn use to anybody. Lord Eddard Stark, I would name you the Hand of the King." Ned kneeled down at the feet of the King in shock as Arya moved to the King's side.

"I'm not worthy of the honor."

"I'm not trying to honor you. I'm trying to get you to run my kingdom while I eat, drink, and whore my way to an early grave. Damn it Ned, stand up." Robert waited for Ned to rise before continuing his rant.

"You helped me win the Iron Throne, now help me keep the damn thing. We were meant to rule together. If your sister had lived, we would have been bound by blood. Well, it's not too late. I have a son, you have a daughter. We'll join our Houses." Ned seemed shocked, and Arya could understand, Ned was never meant to be the Lord of Winterfell, he was never meant to be one of the most important people in Westeros. Let alone, the second most important person.

"Ned, Robert needs you. I need you. I need my brother. I know that we haven't spoken since Harrenhal. But I love you, and Robert and I need you help with the Lannisters. I love Jaime, but he doesn't heed my advice as much as he used to. I got distracted with raising my children. And Jaime was forced to spend much of his time with his father, and Tywin is changing him. And not for the better I think. Besides Jaime, Robert was forced to marry Cersei by Jon. It was supposed to be good for the realm, and I suppose it has helped the realm to stay together, but without Jon to curve her desires, she will destroy everything you, Jon, and Robert have struggled to build." Ned looked at Arya for a long moment before Robert slowly started moving down the hall again, heading towards Lyanna's grave.

When they finally reached it, Robert placed a feather in the hand of her statue, tears in his eyes as he looked at Arya. He slowly moved aside so that she could visit her sister, the one that she never got to say goodbye to, because she was too upset about her miscarriage, and angry that her brothers were upset with her about being nice to Jaime. She could barely remember her sister's face, but she knew that the statue was almost perfect, Ned must have spent a lot of time with the stonemasons to make it look so much like her.

"Did you have to bury her in a place like this? She should be on a hill somewhere with the sun and the clouds above her." Robert said, as he looked back up at the face of the only woman he had ever truly loved.

"She was my sister. This is where she belongs."

"She belonged with me." Robert moved forward again, reaching out to touch the statue's face as Arya held the hand with the feather. Wishing that the statue was real.

"In my dreams, I kill him every night."

"It's done, Your Grace. The Targaryens are gone."

"Not all of them Ned. Viserys and Daenerys are still alive. They are in Essos, being harbored by people loyal to their claim. If any one of those people give them an army, it won't be long before they come back here to reclaim their father's throne." Arya was looking back at Ned now, needing him to realize how much they needed him.

"Ned... we need you brother. I need you. We need to fix the things that are broken in this country, before it cannot be fixed. And we need your help to do it. And Jaime and I have thought of a way to do it. Along with Robert's preposition of Sansa's marriage to Trentan, Jaime and I thought it would be a good idea to marry Rickon and Haleigh, my youngest, once they come of age of course. Everyone knows that we had a falling out at Harrenhal, but if we could mend that wound, maybe things could get better. With your help."

Winterfell - That Night - The Great Hall

The majority of the guests in attendance of the welcoming feast were drunk, including the King. It was disgusting really, that he could talk so much about wanting to mend the realm and all of that, and still hurt his wife so badly by groping other women in front of her, and everyone else of any importance to the realm. Arya was beyond blessed that Jaime had never done anything like that, in fact, during any public event he was always very diligent about making his love, and his claim, known.

"Have you seen Tyrion yet? I haven't seen him since we arrived." Arya asked quietly to her husband, as the Queen was seated quite close to them, and she didn't want to start another argument about how 'Jaime blatantly disrespected her in front of the bloody Starks' as she had said earlier.

"I saw him before the feast, he had apparently been busy in the whore house when we arrived, but he said he would be at the feast, so I don't know where he is right now." Just as Arya was about to let it go, her favorite brother-in-law strutted through the entrance, and made his way over to them, to take his seat at Jaime's side.

"Where the bloody hell have you been?" Arya asked jokingly as the man took his seat, Tyrion quickly gave her a wink before properly adjusting himself in the chair that was, sadly, to big for him.

"Well I was taking in some air, had to get away from Cersei's screeching you know, and I had a lovely chat about what it means to be a bastard with your brother's bastard son. Now what I found very interesting is that he looks suspiciously familiar, and not because he looks like your brother. I think you should talk to the bastard, and your brother. It could just be me being very drunk, but I think there's something there." Arya knew that Tyrion would probably not remember this conversation in the morning, but she couldn't help but be intrigued. Drunk Tyrion was still about ten times more perceptive then most people. so even if it was nothing, she felt like she needed to look into it.

"Arya!" Arya heard a voice scream her name, and it was a voice she had never heard before, but upon further inspection, she realized that Sansa was yelling at little Arya, because apparently, Arya had thrown food all over her. Arya watched the interaction in amusement as Robb, the eldest boy, picked up little Arya and began to shuffle her out the room, with Elia in tow.

"I think you're right Tyrion. I think I shall talk to my brother about his bastard, pardon me." Arya said sweetly as she rose to talk to her brother that was sitting next to Cat, looking very tired, and very displeased with everything going on around him.