AU Oneshot 1: In which Sansa agrees to marry a Frey for the sake of her brother's alliance.

This could ideally be read as an AU to the story I post within the Game of Thrones forum, a Blackwater AU where Sansa escapes with Sandor and makes her way to her family at Riverrun.

Warning for major character deaths, tragic themes and suicide in this part.

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They find her perched on the windowsill in a crouching position, arms braced against the enclosure, the long sleeves of her gown spread out like wings.

"Lady Sansa, please step down from the window." The man who they have made her husband says, a fear evident in his voice as walks towards her, one hand out in a calming gesture. He is not the worst of them, she knows this, but he is one of them nonetheless.

It has been two days, two days since they killed her mother, her brother… Sandor. Killed them at what was meant to be her wedding feast.

She had assumed that she was the lamb being brought to slaughter, oh how wrong she was.

"Do not come any closer." She warns him, and her voice does not waver once. He lifts both his hands now to show that his intentions are safe, even as others appear in the doorway behind him. She cannot remember his name in that moment, she does not wish to.

They killed her mother and her brother in the hall below, their friends and bannermen with them. Sandor had made it all the way up the stairs to her room before he had been cut down, killing at least thirty men, eighteen Freys among them. She had heard the noise outside the room even above the music and had moved to open the door even as her husband tried to stop her, even as Sandor Clegane had been cut down outside to die at her feet.

She had held him, seen the light leave his eyes as they had looked into hers. Screamed as they pushed her back into the room, locking the door behind her.

She does not know what they did with his body, she only hopes they have not burned it. Of her mother and her brother… she does not wish to know.

For a day she asked after her family, but she is not naïve now as she had been at King's Landing. She could see the evidence of the carnage from her window as she sat alone in that room, she knew what had occurred.

When Sandor Clegane had taken her from King's Landing she had not imagined that she would be exchanging one cage for another, that she would be leading the other wolves to slaughter.

She should have refused when they asked it of her. Family, Duty and Honour have brought her here.

"There is nothing to fear, Sansa." The man who they have made her husband tells her, approaching slowly. "You will not be ill-treated. I mean to be kind to you."

She lets out a laugh, her last laugh, hoarse and bitter to her ears. The sound of it reminds her of him, of all that she has lost. There is nothing left to her now except one final act of defiance.

She is not sure that she believes in the gods anymore, nor in heaven nor the hells. She only hopes that wherever she goes, that he will be there, along with the others she has lost.

Little bird, he used to call her.

"You shall not have the North through me." She tells them.

And then she flies.