SUMMARY: What if Ned questioned Jaime, after he killed King Aerys? What if something mirroring friendship was born? What if Lyanna gave birth to a little girl, a Visenya? The whole future of Westeros would change.

The smell of blood permeated the air around him, as he let the body slump to the floor. The King, dead before he hit the ground. His death brought the tally to four, including the pyromancers. "Burn them all," continued to be repeated over and over in his mind. Adrenaline was racking through his body, causing the hand holding the blood stained sword to shake in his grip. He tightened his grip and sliced the dead king's throat for good measure.

The doors to the Great Hall swung open allowing for the sound of pandemonium and smell of smoke to fill the room, followed by the figures of 6 Northmen with what could only be Lord Eddard Stark in the lead.

"Ser Jaime Lannister." Lord Stark stated hesitantly, grey eyes noticing the body of the late King Aerys on the floor, surrounded by a pool of his own blood. Jaime's green eyes, golden blond hair, and white cloak making it easy for the northern lord to identify him.

"Lord Eddard Stark," was Jaime's distracted reply, seeming to be focused on the chaos outside the Red Keep. Chaos that was the product of his father's orders. "Have you instructed the Northern Army to restore order to the city?"

"I have."

"Good." With that he turned on his heels down the hall, and out a side door, heading to Maegor's Holdfast.

As Jaime ran through hallways passing multiple doors, he hears the tell tale signs of multiple men following. "What the hell happened? Where are you going?" Eddard Stark demanded.

Without stopping Jaime answers, "Prince Rhaegar charged me with protecting his wife and children, and I shall honor his command to the best of my ability. I just hope I'm not to late."

"If your Prince commanded you to protect his family then why kill the King? He was the Prince's father?"

Upon seeing the drawbridge, Jaime increased his speed hoping that he was wrong, that his father wouldn't kill a defenseless mother and her young children. "If I let him live, none of us would be standing here right now. We'd be burnt to ashes."

Eddard nearly tripped over himself upon hearing that, with shouts of surprise coming from his men. "What?"

"I promise to explain everything after seeing to the Princess and her children. I know my word doesn't mean anything to you right now but I need to make sure they're safe. That my father hasn't ordered their deaths. That he hasn't bribed, ordered, or payed someone to kill them where they stand."

The Northmen hasten their pace, their thoughts unknowingly mirroring Jaimes. "Do you truly believe your father would order something like that?"

"Look around you, he already has. He'll do anything it takes to curry favor with Robert and prove his loyalty. My father and Cersei desperately want her to be Queen, they don't care who they have to kill that's in their way of finally achieving their goal."

One of the guards asked, "What about you? Don't you want your sister to become the most powerful woman in Westeros."

"I want the old Cersei back. Who she was before she became obsessed with power, before our mother died. I don't even know who she is anymore."

Before anyone could respond to the downtrodden answer, they heard a noise that would never be forgotten by any of them for as long as they live. A young child's terrified, pain filled scream had pierced the air, causing the men to pause in the halls of Maegor's Holdfast before rushing towards a room with Jaime leading the way.

Before their eyes was a horrifying sight. A large knight, who would later be identified as Ser Amory Lorch, was standing over the tiny body of what used to be Princess Rhaenys Targaryen continuously stabbing her, covered in her blood.

Multiple of the hearty Northmen looked ill, as their minds pieced together what must have occurred. The little Princess seems to have been hiding under her father's bed, she was then dragged out and stabbed close to half a hundred times, her wounds overlapping one another, creating gaping holes.

Before either could think their actions through, both Eddard and Jaime raised their swords and ran Lorch threw. Jaime in the chest, Eddard in the stomach.

As the knights body slumped to the floor, they heard another scream but this one was different, though similarly horrifying. It was the scream of a helpless mother as her child was killed in front of her. With barely a backwards glance to the tiny body on the floor, the men gathered themselves and ran down the hallway, and up a flight of stairs.

Upon reaching the room that emitted the scream and taking in the sight before them, a guard finally did lose the contents of his stomach. In the nursery, unidentifiable matter was smashed against a wall with a dead babes body laying unceremoniously on the floor directly below it, its head nowhere to be found. Ser Gregor Clegane was raping the body of the late Princess Elia Martell, whose head was smashed the same way as her sons, Prince Aegon Targaryen. His hands were covered in their blood, as he rutted against her corpse.

"Knock him out if you can." commanded Lord Stark in a soft voice as to not alert Clegane of their presence. The guards, Lord Stark, and Ser Jaime exchanged a few glances between themselves before letting instinct take over.

With the element of surprise on their side, Ser Jaime led the scrimish to take down the already legendary knight. It was almost pitiful how short and easy the fight was, with minor injuries being inflicted upon them by the knight nicknamed the Mountain. Slices and scratches, deep and shallow, covered the large man's body, his blood mixing with his victims. The Lannister and Stark repeatedly delivered well placed blows to his head, causing the Mountain to succumb to blackness.

With the threats having been eliminated, Jaime almost submitted to the shock that had been trying to pull him in for the better part of an hour. But he refused to do so, knowing that it was neither the time nor the place.

Heavy panting could be heard throughout the room as Eddard finally got his bearings under him, and enough breath in his lungs to state, "Find anything that we can use to tie him up with, I want him as restrained as he possibly can be, and then some."

The Northerners scoured the rooms around them, being respectful to the dead as they searched for sheets, ropes, anything they could possibly use. They finally found enough curtains, bedding, roping, and heavy fabrics in a linen closet two doors down.

While Lord Eddard's men were on the hunt, he and Ser Jaime searched the abnormally large man for any weapons upon his person. Stripping him of his multiple knives and greatsword, he was then hogtied and swaddled to the point of complete and utter restraint. He was to be carried down the Red Keep and his restraints later changed to steel, and most likely rewrapped in the fabrics to eliminate the possibility of the Mountain escaping.

The Stark men were ordered by their lord to carry the deceased body of Amory Lorch and the unconscious body of Gregor Clegane to the great hall, while he and Ser Jaime saw to the remains of their Princess and her children. They were given explicit instructions to allow no one to remove the restraints around the Mountain, not even if Tywin Lannister or Robert Baratheon ordered them to do so.

Tears filled Jaimes emerald green eyes, as he stared down at the woman whom he had come to see as a sister, who showed him how family was supposed to act around each other. She taught him what love was, familial and other, unlike the manipulative affection his own blood sister used against him.

His time as a Kingsguard allowed him to see what could come from his unusual relationship shared with Cersei. The type of madness and cruelty that could be born from incest. Jaime decided then and there that he would never entertain the possibility of resuming his bond with his sister, no matter the scheming she would attempt to use to get him to change his mind. In the deep recesses of his mind he knew all along that she had never truly loved him the same way he loved her, that she had most likely found another lover during their time apart, if Tyrion's letters were anything to go by.

Jaime carefully wrapped the sister of his heart in extra bedding, and moved on to the tiny body of Aegon. An unprecedented amount of anger spread through him as he tucked the babies body into spare fabric. Images flashed through his mind of silver blond hair just growing in, purple eyes opening for the first time, a strong grip as Aegon held on to his finger. He shook his head, telling himself that he would reminisce later, preferably with a large quantity of strong alcohol.

Footsteps signaled Eddard's approach. Jaime turned to see the Northern lord walk to the doorway, carrying a toddler sized object, wrapped in a purple sheet. He was holding a familiar blanket draped over his arm. It was a red blanket embroidered with black dragons and orange suns. Jaime turned to the corner of the nursery where a crib lay, with a similar blanket draped over the wood. This one was a black blanket with embroidered red dragons and orange suns.

Lord Eddard spoke in response to the unasked question, "We don't know how much of this stuff will be returned to Dorne, or if they'll burn everything. I thought it might be a good idea to grab something of the childrens to give to the Martell's. Something for them to keep and remember them by."

"And Elia too. She was the one who made them." replied Jaime, his voice gruff with unshed tears.

"At some point you are going to have to explain what you meant by burnt to ashes." Eddard pointed out to him grimly.

"They make you swear vow after vow. Defend the king. Obey the king. Defend the Royal family. Obey your father. Protect the innocent. Defend the weak. But what if your father despises the King. What if the King massacres the innocent. My first week as a Kingsguard, I didn't know what to expect… but certainly not Aerys burning people alive as punishment. For crimes that would garner most a slap on the wrist or were perceived as a threat to the crown. He saw enemies everywhere, no one was safe from his wrath. But it never stopped there. See, he would grow aroused by burning people. So, the nights when people were turned to ash, Aerys would visit Queen Rhaella's bedchamber. He would beat and rape her, while my sworn brothers and I stood guard at the door. When her cries could be heard through the door, I asked Ser Jonothor Darry what to do, I mean we were sworn to protect the Queen. Ser Darry replied,"but not from him." Lord Commander Gerold Hightower once summed it up perfectly, you see he told me that I swore a vow to guard the King, not judge him. After that I coped by "going away inside." I would focus my thoughts on anything else, but the scene in front of me."

Jaime gathered the lifeless bodies before him and motion for Eddard to follow him down the hall.

"I wasn't there when your family was burnt. My sworn brothers noticed that I was coping the worst amongst us, so they placed me on duty guarding the royal family. I had been standing guard with Ser Barristan Selmy over Queen Rhaella, Princess Elia and the three royal children in the gardens. It had been a relatively happy morning, until we heard the screams and saw the smoke. Not seconds later we could smell… the proof of what was happening. On our way back to Maegor's Holdfast, we heard more than enough rumors to know what had truly taken place. No one could openly speak their minds by that point, for fear of execution by fire, but we all knew that he had just tipped the delicate balance and forced us into a war that we could not win."

Eddard drew a deep breath in before nodding his head, acknowledging the proverbial olive branch that had just been extended to him, "Thank you for clearing that bit up, I honestly don't know what I would have done if you had told me that the supposed "most honorable knights of Westeros" had stood by and watched as a Lord Paramount and his Heir were burned alive and strangled, respectively."

"Part of me wants to believe that had I been in the throne room that day, maybe they would still be alive. That I would have been strong enough, honorable enough to stop the proceedings."

"You would have been burnt alive, next to my father, as soon as you opened your mouth," Eddard stated.

"Everything was fucked after that. You've heard of wildfire?" At Eddard's nod he continues. "The Mad King was obsessed with it. He loved to watch people burn, the way their skin blackened and blistered and melted off their bones. He burned lords he didn't like. He burned Hands who disobeyed him. He burned anyone who was against him. Before long, half the country was against him. Aerys saw traitors everywhere. So he had his pyromancer place caches of wildfire all over the city. beneath the Sept of Baelor and the slums of Flea Bottom. Under houses, stables, taverns. Even beneath the Red Keep itself. Finally, the day of reckoning came. We heard that Robert Baratheon was marching on the capital after his victory at the Trident. But my father arrived first with the whole Lannister army at his back, promising to defend the city against the rebels. I knew my father better than that. He's never been one to pick the losing side. I told the Mad King as much. I urged him to surrender peacefully. But the king didn't listen to me. He didn't listen to Varys who tried to warn him. But he did listen to Grand Maester Pycelle, that grey, sunken cunt. "You can trust the Lannisters," he said. "The Lannisters have always been true friends of the crown." So we opened the gates and my father sacked the city. Once again, I came to the king, begging him to surrender. He told me to... bring him my father's head. Then he... Turned to his pyromancers. "Burn them all," he said. "Burn them in their homes. Burn them in their beds." Tell me, if you were commanded to kill your own father and stand by while thousands of men, women, and children burned alive, would you have done it? Would you have kept your oath then? First, I killed the pyromancers. And then when the king turned to flee, I drove my sword into his back. "Burn them all," he kept saying. "Burn them all." I don't think he expected to die. He- he meant to... burn with the rest of us and rise again, reborn as a dragon to turn his enemies to ash. I slit his throat to make sure that didn't happen. That's where you found me."

Silence reigned loudly through the corridor as Eddard stumbled forward to lean against a wall, his mind unable to accept the reality of what he had just been told. "Seven bloody hells… Mad King Aerys… seems rather tame now."

Jaime nodded his head, allowing the Northern lord time to adjust.

"It still would have happened, wouldn't it have?" At Jaime's questioning look Eddard clarifies, "This thrice damned war. Even if Rhaegar hadn't taken my sister, we would have been facing war in the coming years either way."

"I believe so, though everyone probably would have been better prepared. With less blood shed on either side, and Rhaegar leading the battle to dethrone his father," Jaime confirmed.

"Do you truly believe that?"

"Lord Stark, Prince Rhaegar knew the kind of monster his father was. I think he always knew. From my understanding, he saw numerous times as a young child, the type of violence and bloodshed Aerys was capable of against Queen Rhaella. Once he was old enough, strong enough, he'd attempt to stop the beatings. This prompted Aerys to order his heir away as often as possible. But the only two who had any semblance of control over Aerys was my father, and the late Lord Steffon Baratheon. And eventually they weren't even enough."

Nodding his head, Eddard pushes himself off the corridor wall, readjusting his grip on the child in his arms. The Westerlander and Northerner continued on the path down to the Throne room, where raised voices could be heard.

"God's I need a drink… What will you do now?"

"Shed this god forsaken white fucking cloak, and get the hell out of this place. My father will be thrilled to hear that come out of my mouth."