The Prince that was Promised

Synopsis: A short AU where during the Battle for Winterfell, Jon and Dany were able to put Viserion out of it's misery early in the fight, so Jon wasn't pinned down by the undead dragon later and made it to Bran so he could fulfill his destiny.

Start

High in the sky's of Winterfell

The undead monster known as the Night King rode on the undead Viserion, down from the sky towards Winterfell. With a single strafe, Viserion unleashed it's unnatural blue flames on a portion Winterfell's walls, burning some of the men and the wall. As the Night King and Viserion rose into the air to come around again, Rhaegal and Jon smashed into Viserion , and Rhaegal bit down hard and ripped off half of Viserion's neck and face, causing plumes of blue flame to spurt out from the dragon's wound. The undead dragon recovered from it's wound and both living and undead dragon bit and clawed at each other in mid-air. Jon held on for dear life while doing what he could to direct Rhaeghal. Viserion needed to be put down early in the fight or they would lose the battle here at Winterfell and humanity would be next.

Theon and the archer's protecting Brandon were able to see the two Dragons fighting in the sky.

High the sky, Rhaegal bit and clawed more at it's reanimated sibling, biting more of his neck off and clawing at it's wings with its hind legs. Viserion clawed into Rhaeghals torso and it tried to reach around Rhaeghal to bite Jon, though all that did was make the cloak he was wearing fly off. As the two dragons continue to fight, the Night King raised his hand, revealing that he was holding one of his special spears. The same type of spear that killed Viserion so he could reanimate it. As the dragons fought, the first White Walker struggled around to get a clear shot at Jon. Jon was nearly bitten by Viserion and at last the Night King had a clear shot at his enemy that had been futilely trying for years to stop him. But just as he was about to throw the spear, Drogon and Dany dove at them and Drogon wrapped both of it's claws around Viserion's neck, the sudden jerking movement causing the Night King to be thrown off the undead dragon and lose his grip on it's spear.

The biggest threat to all life on the planet temporarily out of commission, Drogon wrapped it's jaws around it's former brother's neck, and with a sudden jerk, ripped the head of the Undead Viserion off before unleashing dragon flame inside of Viserion's body. The unnatural blue color in Viserion's one remaining eye faded as the dragon was allowed to rest in peace. Dany breathed a sigh of relief. Her child and her brother's namesake had been avenged. It was time to end this war.

She found the Night King quickly enough and Drogon hovered in place. With hatred for the monster that murdered her dragon burning in her eyes, she spoke the words with as much venom as she could muster, "Dracarys."

Drogon unleashed a stream of his mighty dragon flames, burning the Night King and everything with 30 feet of him. For several moments the Winged Shadow breathed his dragon fire before cutting it's breath short. Dany waited to eagerly see the Night King, burning to ash just like all of her enemies had.

To her horror, when the flames cleared enough, she saw that the Night King was uninjured and not dying. It raised it's head and gave a small arrogant smirk, that was utterly disturbing to look at. He then picked up his ice spear, which had also survived the dragon flame. Eyes wide with panic as memories of Viserion falling from the sky and into that frozen lake flashed through her eyes, she directed Drogon to fly away. The undead monster threw his spear, but thankfully this time he missed.

Meanwhile, with Jon and Rhaeghal, the duo landed far from the battle, the bad landing causing Jon to fly off of Rhaeghal. His dragon's injuries were pretty bad, but thankfully not life threatening. The dragon would not be able to help with the rest of the battle, but Jon was just thankful that the Night King no longer had a dragon to command.

Jon picked himself up and drew Longclaw, hurrying toward where the Night King was, to see Dany and Drogon flying away in the distance. Clearly, the dragonfire had not worked. It didn't sound like Drogon was injured, as he wasn't producing the dying wails that Viserion did, which Jon breath a small sigh of relief.

He rushed at the Night King, trying to catch up to him, but the Night King stopped and Jon did as well, wondering what his nemesis was up to. The Night King turned around to face and slowly raised his hands, causing Jon to have an uncomfortable flashback to Hardeholme, before he made a mad dash for the Night King as the undead monster raised the dead all around him. Just short of reaching him, Jon had to stop as he was surrounded by hundreds of undead. The Night King merely gave a smirk and headed toward Winterfell.

'He's headed for Bran!' Jon realized as the undead around him began to advance on him. Jon cut down many of them with his swordplay skills that were honed by from constant training. But just as the ones behind him were about to overwhelm him, a blast of Dragonfire burned the undead and Jon had to shield his face for a moment before he saw Dany on Drogon. Drogon then burned a path for him, all the way toward Winterfell. Drogon landed abruptly for a moment.

"He's going after Bran!" Jon shouted to Dany.

"GO!" Dany urged him and he didn't want to leave her, but one of them needed to stop the Night King. If they failed here, all of humanity was doomed. He ran as hard as he could, not turning around as Drogon and Daenerys herself were soon to be assaulted by legions of the undead.

Jon hurried through Winterfell as the many on the side of living that remained were being assaulted by the newly raised undead. Tired and wounded many of them were not faring well. He wanted to help them but if he stopped, the Night King would get away and kill Bran, bringing the Long Night. The undead tore apart the castle, trying to kill as many of the living as possible so they could rise after their dark lord was victorious in his battle. Jon cut down many of them again before he caught the back of the Night King and his six White Walkers. Quickly looking, he remembered a shortcut into the Godswood that he had found as kid. When the hurtful comments of being called a bastard by Lady Stark were too much to bear for the day, he would use this path to sneak into the Godswood so he could be alone.

He finally arrived just in time to see the Night King stab Theon with his own spear. Wasting no time, Jon moved forward an cut down two of the 6 Whitewalkers with a single blow. The Night King saw this but paid it no mind, as his legion would soon overwhelm the Jon. Jon cut down three more Whitewalkers before they could draw their weapons. The last one was able to and was able to block several strikes from Jon before Longclaw caught that Whitewalkers face and that one died as well.

Jon took a second to scan the Wights yet none of them even looked his way. He wasn't going into look a gift horse in the mouth as he rushed the Night King, missing that the Wights eyes were whited out, as Bran possessed them.

Jon yelled at the top of his lungs as he swung Longclaw, hitting the Night King, cutting him across his left eye and knocking him back and away from Bran. Jon didn't understand why the Night King had not died immediately like the other Walkers, but he was given little time to ponder it. The Night King on the other hand was annoyed. He had been mere seconds away from killing the 3 eyed raven and ensuring the Long Night would never end. This human before him had been getting in his way years now. He survived Hardholme. He survived that expedition of his North when the Night King ambushed him, and just now, he survived his freshly raised undead. The Night King pulled himself to his feet and pulled out his sword with a snarl.

Jon yelled at the top of his lungs as they clashed. The Night King forced Jon back and went on the attack. The Night King swung to decapitate Jon but he maneuvered his head out of the way. The Night King swung again at Jon's chest but Jon managed to block the blow. Jon stepped back and swung at his enemies head, but the Night King ducked under strike and stepped across Jon's left side, delivering a shoulder charge to his stomach, causing Jon to fall on his back.

Jon got up quickly and swung at The Night King's neck but missed. They both swung at each other and their swords clashed. Already tired from his earlier fighting and getting desperate, Jon unleashed a flurry of strong attacks against the Night King for a few short moments, putting the undead monster on the defense, but the Night King was able to block them all. Finally, the Night King was able to parry a winded Jon's overreaching blow away and kicked out his knee. Jon tried to rise but The Night King delivered a fierce kick to Jon's chest, knocking the wind out of his chest.

Jon coughed as he hit the ground. He was tired and he didn't have much energy left. Once he shook the cobwebs out of his head, he looked to see Night King standing over him. Jon swung Longclaw knocking the Night King's sword out of his hands. He tried to swipe at the Night King again but the Night King caught Longclaw and pulled it out of Jon's grasp. The Night King pondered just killing Jon with his own weapon like he had with Theon, but Jon made this personal. The Night King would end his nemesis's life with his own two hands, as the monster tossed Longclaw aside before reaching down and choking Jon.

'I'm sorry everyone.' He said silently to himself. 'I failed.'

And as he closed his eyes, waiting for death to take him for the final time, he heard Arya's shout as she snuck past the inanimate wight's controlled by Bran and leapt at the Night King, making it let go of Jon, who gasped for air, and turn around and grab both her throat and the hand holding the Valyrian Steel Knife, stopping her in mid air. Arya let go of the knife and caught it with her free hand and stabbed the Night King with it, but just like with Jon, he did not die. The Night King snarled before he punched her hard to the ground before pulling the knife out and tossing it to the ground.

Before he could advance on her, he was hit and pushed back by a gout of flame from Melisandre, who had somehow appeared there. Jon pulled himself to his feet as Melisandre pushed the Great Enemy back.

"It's not working. The Valyrian steel cut him twice and he's still alive!" Jon shouted to Melisandre. The Red witches eyes widen as she looked into some nearby flames and saw the answer to their problems.

"We need Lightbringer." Melisandre said in realization.

"What!?" Jon asked Melisandre in confusion.

"Lightbringer! We need to reforge the sword that brings the dawn!" Melisandre shouted.

"We don't have time to forge another sword!" Arya shouted.

"We have a sword already," Melisandre said as she looked pointedly at Longclaw. "When I break the connection, you must stab me in the heart with Longclaw so that it can absorb my life force and become Lightbringer! Arya Stark, you and Brandon must distract the Night King while this happens."

"But you will die!" Arya protested as there had been enough death already.

"I have been ready to die for years. If my death can ensure that fire triumphs over ice and brings the new Dawn, then I would give my life…gladly." Melisandre said with conviction as Jon and Arya both accepted that Melisandre was going to die.

"Now," Melisandre said just a few seconds before she broke the connection, "Do it now!" She broke the connection as she turned to Jon and he reluctantly stabbed her in the heart with Longclaw, while Arya rushed to hold off the Night King and she was aided by Bran, who made some of the wight's he controlled attack the Night King while he used the rest of his power to hold the rest of the wights back so they could not come to their master's aid. Glowing veins appeared on Melisandre's skin and receded to where she had been stabbed and as they finished, the blade of Longclaw glowed as flames emerged from the weapon.

Arya was knocked to the ground, holding her bleeding abdomen as she had been cut by the Night King after it cut down the wight's that attacked it. He stalked over to her and pressed his foot down on Arya's chest, who was struggling to breath as he raised his sword to end it, but had to block the sword strike that would have killed him. He came face to face with Jon Snow again, wielding a burning sword that he had not seen in 8000 years. Lightbringer.

The reinvigorated Jon then swipes at The Night King with two hands on Lightbringer who blocks the attack. Jon uses an overhead slash and The Night King blocks and tries to redirect the attack, but the force from the blow and the ambient magic of Lightbringer weakening him, causes The Night King to lose his grip on his sword.

Jon finishes him off by poising Lightbringer to stab him and stabs him clean through the heart. The Night King looks down at the sword, stunned that he had been killed and roars in anguish as he explodes into a shower of ice shards, and one by the one, the reanimated undead dropped to the ground, allowed to finally rest in peace.

The Battle for Winterfell was over. The living had won. The battle had been hard-fought with many tragic deaths but the Long Night had ended and the Dream of Spring could now begin.

The end

So, after I watched Arya kill the Night King, I felt compelled to write this. I mean, I still love Game of Thrones, and I have to trust that Benioff and Weiss are doing the best they can(after all, they ain't GRRM), but watching Arya one-shot the Night King with a sneak attack, while Jon pointlessly yells at Viserion as he is about to die didn't sit right with me. Not to mention, Bran seemed to be doing nothing, just sitting there like always. Melisandre at least did some important stuff during the battle of Winterfell, but the way she died ultimately had little meaning.

Plus, Jon Snow and the Night King should have fought one another. We have been building up to this confrontation since their star down at Hardholme and we didn't get our epic showdown.

So here, Jon and the Night King have their duel, Arya helps, Bran actually does something useful, Melisandre dies a meaningful death, and Jon fulfills his destiny. It's not perfect, but I would like to think I made it better than what we got.