Author's Note: Hello, hello! Obviously I do not own any of the characters, I'm just a poor, sad soul who's been hurt by Game of Thrones and it's bad writing this year. This story was originally published on AO3, but... I've been on for 2/3 of my life, in the end it felt wrong not to post it here, too.

Jaime isn't sure when he realized that Cersei was a lost cause, but he has known it for quite some time. Perhaps it was when Tommen flung himself from a window and she seemed not to care. Perhaps it was sooner than that. Perhaps it was even after, when he'd realized there was no hope for his 'sweet sister' after all.

But even as he tries to embrace the side of him that is still honorable, still good , he cannot get their babe out of his mind. He had thought there was no hope, that there was no way he could keep Cersei alive long enough to save their child…

But she is winning .

And the longer he stays in the North, the longer he realizes that this dragon queen they have put their faith in is no better than his mad sister. What hope is there for the world, if the bloody Starks get Aerys's daughter on the throne and let the world burn?

His child, though… maybe if he can save the child, there might be hope for a better future for Westeros.

And if there's not, well, fuck them all. He's given everything he has to protect them and what has it ever gotten him? Kingslayer, Oathbreaker, man without honor . Jaime did not make the sacrifices he did, did not live a life so scorned, just to have the people make the same mistakes, putting their trust in the wrong people all over again.

It's not Cersei he's running to, when he vanishes in the middle of the night. It's the child, the one who might be kinder than Joffrey. Braver than Tommen. Who might look at him with love in their eyes, the way that Myrcella had just before she'd passed.

Let Westeros have their queens of fire and ice. Let the whole thing burn for all he cares now. There are few that he loves that he leaves behind, but maybe it's worth it, if it's not too late to take his child away from all of this after all.

He cannot sit in the North and pretend at a new life any longer. As blissful as those moments with Brienne were, as much as he aches for that to be his reality… he has unfinished business he must attend to.

When he is captured by Jon Snow's forces, Jaime is sure that the gig is up. He doesn't know how this will end for everyone else - whether Cersei will see the dragon drop from the sky, whether she will watch her enemies scream while they're engulfed in flames of green, or whether it'll be the dragon queen who takes the city with fire and blood.

He is too tired to care anymore. His life has been a long one, a hard one, where he has walked the line between black and white, good and evil, and has done hateful things in the name of love, dishonorable things in the name of justice. It is too much, too many burdens for one man, and he knows how this ends now.

The Starks will not let him live. Daenerys Targaryen will not let him live. Cersei had wanted him dead, too; it had been a long shot to come here and beg her to protect their child anyway, and now his chances have gone from slim to none.

And then Tyrion enters, and Jaime wonders if it is a dream. Or perhaps death has already taken him, and this is what things look like on the other side.

Only Tyrion is not a vision haunting him. Tyrion is warm and real and there , and though he says much , there is but one thing that stands out to Jaime.

Growing up, Jaime had been all that Tyrion had . Now, Jaime is all that Cersei might have. He is the only person who had kept his brother from succumbing to darkness, from dying alone and unloved. And as Tyrion releases him, it's understood - he's the only person that can provide that for Cersei now.

He won't be able to save the baby after all. But despite all the bad, despite what she had become… there had been good in Cersei, once. There had been a bond between them that was battered and bruised, but not fully broken. Jaime knows he will die, knows that she will do the same.

Maybe he was always meant to offer her some peace in her last moments. If their fates are sealed already, maybe he just needs to be that beacon of hope for her one last time.

He doesn't love her, not as he once did. But she is his other half, his family , and she is hated for the very same acts that some love the dragon queen for.

Life has not been kind to the Lannisters. But as Tyrion unchains him and Jaime treads the familiar path towards Cersei, he thinks that at least they can leave this world being kind to each other.

The path to Cersei is not an easy one. And Jaime would be a liar if he pretended there were not times along the way where he wanted to close his eyes and transport himself to a place that should have been colder and bleaker, but instead had been filled with warmth.

He can't let that stop him, though. There is no turning back now, and he could not have lived in peace in Winterfell knowing that his child had died and he hadn't even tried .

As he lays bleeding out, though, thinking Euron Greyjoy has killed him after all, it's not Cersei's golden blonde hair and wicked emerald eyes that flash before him. It's hair more like straw, and eyes more like sapphires, and soft hands cupping his face and a pained voice urging him to stay .

Jaime rolls over, stay stay stay echoing in his mind, and grabs Widow's Wail. It's not time to leave this world yet .

Every breath is filled with pain as he leaves Euron behind and pushes forward on his course. His breathing is ragged, his hand is covered in blood when it comes away from his side. But Jaime has come this far. There is nothing waiting for him if he turns around, nothing but fire and blood and more people who want him dead.

Will they want his child dead, too? There is a small sliver of hope, that maybe he can still slip away, vanish the way he entered, appeal to Jon Snow and Sansa Stark and voices of actual reason. Prolong his and Cersei's deaths, just long enough to let their child enter the world.

It is a hope that he knows most likely is in vain. But he needs something to cling to, lest he give up before he even reaches his twin.

Have you ever run away from a fight ? Jaime had asked, on that cold, fateful night. He'd always run to them, always wanted to be in the thick of things, but he promises the gods that if they let him out of here, if they let him get Cersei and his child to safety, that he will run away this time. Run away, and never come back. Never let more blood spill at his hands again.

They're so close. So close, and Jaime is so tired. Maybe… maybe he just needs to get Cersei through this path, and then he can have the rest that he so sorely craves. He could lay his life down now, knowing that Brienne was safely in the North, Tyrion was alive outside the gates, and that Cersei was able to flee with his child.

Maybe, maybe, maybe…

Maybe not . The realization that their path is blocked hits him as heavily as the rubble has hit the underbelly of the Red Keep, and he wants to succumb to despair.

A life wasted . Tarnished honor that none but Brienne will ever know the truth of. Humoring Cersei and her cruel whims until things had gotten to this point. Things coming full circle, with him killing a crazed Targaryen to protect the people only to die at the hands of another, no matter how indirect.

Beside him, Cersei breaks. He can see it on her face, the moment that a woman who has showed little softness since the death of their first son crumbles. Instinctively, Jaime wraps her in his arms, the way he has always done.

"Nothing else matters," he tells her, as she sobs for the loss of their child, the loss of their lives… the loss of all she's ever held dear. He says the words less because he believes them, and more because he wants to calm her. What does it matter if they don't ring true the way they used to? Even someone who has done monstrous things deserves peace in the end.

He wants to laugh bitterly at that, but what's the use? He's failed everyone who's ever believed in him. He failed Tyrion by not stopping this before it came to the horrors that flew above. He'd failed Cersei and their child, who he'd been too late to save. He'd failed Brienne, who had put her own honor on the line to promote his.

He'd wished once to die in the arms of the woman he loved. He'd thought it would be like this, here with Cersei, but it's not.

All the same, Jaime clings to her for dear life as more rubble collapses around them. How I wish that I had just died at Winterfell , he thinks, and then his world goes black.