Song: Ramin Djawadi - into the fire.

Warnings: angst, arguing, threatening to kill, dragons, flashbacks of the good old days. Character death. Lots of confusion.

•••

'She has been seen, traveling on dragonback... what if she decides to come here?' Alicent tells her son. Panicking already about the upcoming war her son started.

Technically he is the one to act first in a war that's been brewing for years. The first act was crowning her firstborn, Aegon, King, but Aemond made sure the "blacks" will retaliate against the "greens"

'Then I shall deal with her...' he replies to her, perhaps if he believes in the lie that he could actually harm Y/n, he himself will start to believe it.

'That girl is as reckless and violent as her alleged father! She beat you in battle once before!'

'Mother, you must not worry, we have dragons, Aegon is a king with many people siding with him...she would be foolish to come here, on dragonback, all on her own... and she is anything but foolish..'

Another lie that slips from his lips, she is indeed no fool when it comes to strategy. She is smarter and more cunning than the majority of the people in Kingslanding, but she wouldn't let this go for the life of her. Even he knows that.

He doubts if he's able to stop Y/n from actually ending him, he couldn't ever physically harm her. Y/n is his only weakness. He also doubts if she could go through with, would she be able to kill him? He's rather not know the answer to that.

Aemond thinks back to the day Y/n beat him for the first time in the courtyard. He couldn't even be mad at her as she looked down upon him.

'Beat by a beautiful woman, don't be too surprised...' she smirks as she presses the edge of the blade into his neck, straddling him.

'Perhaps I judged you too quickly...' he cocks his head to the side with an equally big smirk.

''Perhaps?' She lets out a chuckle. She lets the dagger dig in a little deeper, not enough to draw blood, Alicent will have her head for it if she did.

'I did judge you too quickly, I yield!'

'Sȳz valonqar' she pets his cheek before getting off of him.

It's then that he truly fell in love with Princess Y/n Velaryon (Targaryen) , and he screwed everything up, badly.

•••

'Stay calm, defend yourself if attacked..'

Osiris gives Y/n a nudge which indicates she understands what she just told her. Y/n gives her a pet before she turns to walk away.

Her head turns upwards to look up to the castle, it was once her home, but she does not see it that way anymore. She stopped seeing it like that since hearing of her grandfather passing.

She sees him standing in one of the many windows, he's watching her with a stoic look on his face. Y/n however can sense his unease. He must know why she is here and what she came to do.

He steps away from the window just as Y/n starts walking. He rushes down the steps towards the back entrance of the castle. He needs to hurry before the guards see her and then seize her as well.

The door opens just as she sets foot on the stairs leading up to them. His whole body freezes, seeing her up close has had that effect on him before.

'Aemond..' Y/n's the first to speak. He steps aside and ushers her in, closing the door behind her in a haste.

It stays silent as he takes her to his room. Safely away from the many guards roaming the castle. He doesn't need her to get caught and send to his brother, Aegon has never liked the princess, he sure will kill her now that Viserys is not there to protect his daughter and his grandchildren.

'So it is true then...' she says, 'it is war between our families... cannot say I am surprised...' she strides around the room. Everything is still the same, dark and brooding as she has described it many, many times.

'Yes... my father told my mother that he wanted Aegon to be king, not for your mother to be queen-'

'And you believe that? Even you cannot be this big of a fool... he was drinking milk of the poppy... he was in so much pain...you saw how he was at the family dinner..'

'I cannot change this...' He steps closer to her, his calloused hand finds its way to her cheek. Cradling it like it's the most fragile thing in the world.

'Is it true? Was it you who killed Lucerys?' He watches her eyes change, the love she had for him is being taken away by something else. Something much darker and yet the tears are starting to show.

One tear manages to escape while she awaits his answer, but in a way the silence tells her all she needs to know.

He's about to wipe her tear away when she flinches and pushes him right against the chest. He stumbles back as she takes a shaky breath.

'I can't believe you! Why? Is this because of your eye?'

'No, well it was at first but I didn't have full control of Vaghar...it was an accident! I swear it to you...'

'I do not need your false claims! Not when I had to find my brother and his dragon as floating pieces in the sea!' She shouts before taking a deep breath, obviously trying to calm herself.

He watches her move back and forth in his room. She obviously does not know what to now. She's debating, he can tell by the way she murmurs to herself.

'I am truly sorry, I never meant-'

'Do you honestly think a lousy apology will take away what you did? My brother is gone because of you!' She stalks up to him and yells it right into his face. She pushes him again and yet again he stumbles back. 'And I used to remember you and your mother both vouched the saying, "an eye for an eye", you took his life, only fair of me to take yours...' She takes out her dagger.

She's about to strike when the loud banging on the door interrupts them. 'What is going on in there?!'

Aemond does not think twice to push Y/n against the wall with a hand over her mouth to make sure they have no reason to come in. 'Everything is fine!' He tells them.

'Are you sure, Prince Aemond?'

'Positive...'

'Very well...' the sound of metal clinking gets further and further away, but only when it's gone does he release Y/n from his grip.

Confusion fills her features as she looks Aemond straight in the eyes. His eyes are tired and sad. It is like he wants Y/n to kill him.

'Why didn't you tell them I was in here?' She asks, her voice soft in contrast to the voice she used to yell at him earlier.

'I do not want them to capture you, Aegon will have you killed if he gets the chance...' He replies. His hand instinctively makes its way back to her cheek and she again allows him to do so.

'I never meant for any of this to happen, Arrax blew fire into Vaghars eyes and she went her own way... I tried to stop her I swear it...' He explains again, only this time she might actually buy it.

Her head falls back against the hard stone, her eyes close as she lets out a sigh. 'My love, my dragon...' she shakes her head at the mention of her nickname.

'That is what you are to me...' For a second he believes he has her convinced, but Y/n is a complicated woman to decipher.

'You do not go after the family of those you love...'

'I should have never rode Vaghar to challenge your brother... I admit it... but you know if you start this fight, there will be no end-' a hard punch to the jaw sends him flying backwards, this time around he falls on his back.

'The fight has already started, it started the moment you decided to after Lucerys...after you promised me you would leave them alone... insults I can handle, but Lucerys having his life brutally taken by your dragon... I cannot let that slide...' her tone sends shivers down his spine, and not in a good way. 'No matter how much I love and care for you, I have to do this... for Lucerys, for my family...' She walks over to him laying on the ground still.

She kneels down to straddle him. Just like the courtyard. This is far from playful however.

What happens next surprises Y/n however. As she is ready to jab the dagger straight through his chest, his hands glide over hers. Not to push off the dagger, but to bring it closer until the point pushes against the leather.

'Fight... don't yield, I do not accept it, fight me!'

'You know I cannot do that... I need you to run... once you're done I need you to get out of the castle immediately... promise me...they cannot get their hands on you nor Osiris...'

She nods. Her mouth suddenly dry and her voice stuck in her throat. Her eyes fill themselves with tears once again. He reaches for the eye path, he pulls it off and lays it in your free hand, then follows the gem he put in the eye.

'Use this as proof...'

He lets one hand go over to her cheek for the last time, it moves to the nape of her neck and before she knows it, he has pulled her down to let their lips meet. I'm the process, the dagger digs into his chest in a swift motion, stealing his breath away.

'Aemond?' Y/n whimpers as she pushes herself up again. She looks down to see his hand still on top of hers, holding the dagger. His other hand falls from her cheek onto the cold ground with a soft thud.

'My.. dragon..' he wheezes out before his eyes become vacant and his head falls back against the floor as well. She pulls out the dagger and throws it to the side.

'I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...' she grabs at him, pulling him into her arms and holding him against her. Soft sobs fill the quiet room up. 'Please forgive me...' she whispers.

She hears the footsteps from earlier return, she hastily gets up, pushing the eyepatch and the gem in her pocket. She rushes outside through the window. She's thankful she knows the palace like the back of her hand.

Osiris is surrounded by guards, pointing their swords at her. 'DRACARYS!' Y/n yells and Osiris lets her fire rain upon them all.

She pushes herself on top of Osiris and grabs a hold on the seat, 'OSIRIS SŌVEGON!' She commands while the guards are still fighting against the fire.

As she flies up with Osiris, she takes one last look at the window of his room. More tears cascade down her cheeks. What has she done?

•••

Once she arrives back at Dragonstone, her sadness dissipated into numbness. The eyepatch and gem burning in her pocket. She will present one of them to her parents, as proof of your deed.

'Welcome back, Sister...' Jacaerys says as she lets herself glide off of Osiris.

She has changed, Jace can tell right away just by looking at his big sister. He cannot blame her, he himself has changed upon hearing the news of their baby brother. 'Where have you been?' He asks.

'Kingslanding...'

'What?'

'I avenged our brother... an eye for an eye, remember?'

'I thought you and Aemond-' he frowns before getting interrupted.

'That has passed... and so has he, I do not wish to further discuss this...' she cuts him off rudely as the guards approach her.

'Princess Y/n, it is a relief to have you back..' the head guard tells you and you nod. 'It is a relief to be back... make sure Osiris gets everything she needs.. it's been a long ride...'

'Right away, your grace...' he bows.

'I will speak to you later..' she tells Jace before walking into the castle with a handful of guards.

A walk equally powerful as her mothers and yet as intimidating as her fathers, the guards feel the tension within her as they guide her to her parents.

The doors open and she immediately takes out the gem Aemond gave her. She decided to keep the eyepatch, because that was who he truly was, the gem was only to intimidate, which is something he learned from Otto Hightower.

'Princess Y/n Valeryon!' The guard announces making both her parents turn around at the mention of her name.

'My child...' Rhaenyra rushes over to give her daughter a hug. 'I've missed you so much, where did you go?'

'Kingslanding...' she answers as She stares ahead, not giving into the hug forced upon her by her mother. Her father catches her gaze and sees the gem laying in the palm of her hand. When her mother finally lets go, she tosses it to Daemon.

'An eye for an eye...' she tells him. 'I made a promise... I kept it...'

'What did you do...' Rhaenyra asks her cautiously. 

'He killed Lucerys... so I killed him...' she answers her mother.

Her father proudly hears his daughters words. But he knows deep down it must've been hard for her, he was one of few in the family who knew how you really felt about him, and the other way around.

'Have this melted into her armour...' he tells the guard next to him. She raises an eyebrow to him but doesn't give any comment.

'Well, you must be tired from your journey..' Rhaenyra says as she makes room for y/n to walk away.

When she does, she can't help but take a deep breath. What's done is done, the dept has been paid in full. And that armor she will wear with pride for many years to come.

Aemond knew what had to be done in the end, he owned up to his mistake, but his dragon will never be the same again. Not without hers by her side.

Aemond was right about his older brother, he will retaliate, the only question now is, how long will it take for him to reach Y/n?