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“Bring me his head!”. A mad boy king commanded, bringing the start of the downfall of the House of the Wolf and all of humanity with them
“No”. A million voices chorused into the void of the astral realm.
“ The King in the North!” A young man with a wolf’s soul was proclaimed
“Not again”. Old, young, grave, high, low…many voices sounded as one.
“ You know nothing, Jon Snow”.
“Another reality going the same way”. Leaves in the wind, water raging down a river, lava spilling down a fiery mountain, sounds of nature accompanied them
“Or he will bring me yours” A red wolf sowed her fangs from the first time from under her dove disguise.
“We the Old Gods have seen it all one time and a hundred more” The ethereal voices lamented.
“ Better the wilding south of the wall than the wilding adding to the numbers of His army”. The new Lord Commander of the Wall proclaimed, the soul of the Old Gods’s chosen shining with determination and conviction.
“It wouldn’t be enough!” Thunder sounded in the voices of their proclamation, the images of the reality they were observing accelerating on their progress.
A young wolf king betrayed.
A commander murdered by his brothers and later resuscitated by a demon masquerading as a god of fire.
A fierce she-wolf lost to the God of Death, they of many faces. But a God of nature at least.
A three eyed wolf ensnared by the false Raven
A red she-wolf sold to the flayed man, suffering horrors before escaping with the wolf-kraken.
A young pup brought down by the arrow of the flayed man, soul screaming from his older brother that was just out of reach.
A wolf king ascended form bastard, son of the wolf and the star—son of the dragon and wolf in as many other realities.
A wolf king meeting a dragon queen.
A dragon lost to the Night King. The wall destroyed.
A battle where Winter once Fell. Sometimes lost, sometimes ‘won’. But never enough, the death-wolf swings the dagger—the golden lion swings his sword—the hound—the bear—the kraken—the—the—the. But it’s the wolf of fire, the white wolf son of the ice of the wolf and the fire of the star—ice of the wolf and fire of the dragon— that must swing the final blow.
A three eyed raven trapping a three eyed wolf is invaded by the soul of the Great Other, ready to revive as the new Night King.
The Old Gods of nature averted their million eyes from the image of that reality, like they have done a hundred and more times with many other realities before that one. A sea of gashes inundated the kaleidoscopical reality that was the astral plain, each gash a window to a different world that belonged to the vast multiverse of worlds that suffer from the prophecy of ice and fire.
Each gash was black, the world destroyed, the magic that sustains that universe alive extinguished by the Night King when it destroyed the heartworld.
The multiverse was a delicate tapestry. Each universe almost identical to the other, small changes their only differences. The character of a person, the gender of another, the parents of other…But they all have something in common. No matter how many planets have life in them, there is always one planet, one world that it’s the heart of that universe. Snuff the life of that world before another heartworld can be born in that universe and said universe is destroyed.
Planetos was that first heartworld for the multiverse the Old Gods oversee. And they have tried everything they could to save it. Even gods have norms and regulations, their interference limited but for small things they can interfere with. The dragon wins instead of the stag in one universe, their chosen is raised as a prince in another, the quiet wolf is born a woman in one and as the eldest in another…They have tried everything. But nothing works.
Only a few universe from the tapestry remain, the gashes showing the occurrences of their heartworlds still bright and alive. Should they die, the Old Gods, those without names and those the mortals still remember (Manny Faced God. Mother Rhoyne. The Valyrian Gods; Arrax, Aegarax, Balerion, Caraxes, Gaelithox, Meleys, Meraxes, Shrykos, Syrah, Tessarion, Tyraxes, Vermax, Vermithor, Vhagar…) will die with them. Their multiverse snuffed from the great tapestry of the realities, a black mark on the divine fabric.
They must do something if they want to prevent such a fate…even if that something is to bring another variable form another multiverse, another reality. A disturbance on the veil that separates the different multiverses bring the many eyes of the gods of nature to bear.
“The universe of the monstrous gods, avatars of their power among mortals.
Time and Space someone is playing with.
Dangerous for them
An opportunity for us?
Maybe
Nothing we have to lose
Act quick we should, before they stop playing with the foundations of reality”
Lucas exhaled in relief after reaching the summit. The journey towards the peak of Mount Coronet still as strenuous as all the other times he made it before.
“No time to stop, the train will soon reach its final destination”.
Lucas snorted at Ingo’s words.
“Where has gone your reluctant to come with me?”. Lucas asked.
“Saying goodbye is always hard, but finding what awaits at the next station is always exciting”. Ingo proclaimed.
“I suppose that’s true. I just dream for proper plumbing, of not having to shit in a hole anymore, and of finally enjoying proper showers were to feel the water running down my back”. Lucas sighed wishfully.
Ingo hummed at the young man’s words.
The two finished climbing the steps to the ruins of the temple. Luca’s battle against Dialga, Palkia and Volo and Giratina having left its irreparable mark on the ancient construction.
A year and two months had passed since Arceus has transported one Lucas Diamond into the past of the Sinnoh Region. To a time when the region was known as Hisui, where humans and Pokémon were at odds with each other. Lucas has accomplished the tasks put ford by Lord Arceus, and now he was going to reap the reward. Returning home.
To his mother’s warm hugs
To his team’s exuberant presences. Sun’s pranks, Melody’s songs, Neyen’s haughtiness, Dussi’s calmness, Sirrush’s power and Luck’s protectiveness.
To Cynthia’s lectures and the preparations for him to finally take the mantle of Sinnoh’s champion.
To Riley’s small smiles when accomplishing a task to learn to use his Aura.
To Professor Rowan’s stern but approving gaze.
To Barry’s endless energy.
To Dawn’s gentleness.
Legendaries, but he misses them so much. Lucas tightened his hold on his bag, his gaze traveling momentarily to it. A smile spread through his face just by thinking on the reactions he will get for its content. Books on all and any topic—like Stantler’s evolution training—, different metals and gems, plans like the ones to build your own PokéBalls, seeds from extinct plants (like the apricorns that not longer grew on Sinnoh), seeds to medicinal plants and other edible flora. He was sure that professor Rowan and Cynthia would be really interested in studying all the things he was bringing back. But most important of all: his new team. The one he has built on his dangerous journey through Hisui.
An unmistakable presence washed over the temple. A light shone at the end of it, where Dialga and Palkia appeared not too long ago.
“You ready?” Lucas asked while turning his gaze towards Ingo.
“…I still don’t remember. What if..?” Ingo gazed at his feet, his hat obscuring his face.
“ Hey, don’t worry. Your memories are returning. And I’m sure your brother will still love to have you back, memories or not” Lucas put a reassuring hand on the older man’s shoulder.
“Brother, eh? What a strange station name” Ingo’s perpetual frown lifted into a small smile, the man starting to walk towards the golden light.
Lucas followed while quietly laughing at Ingo’s strange turn of phrases.
Approaching the light both of them stoped in front of it, seeing how it condensed to form the body of Arceus. Their presence become more prominent, their power unmistakably even while using their avatar, though Lucas gave thanks that they used it, still remembering that first meeting before the All Father God chucked him into the past. Then, it took everything on Lucas to stay conscious.
Arceus faced them with their solemn eyes. Whiteout a word, a tear on time and space formed between the God and the two mortals. The two took a step towards their literal future.
“This is a historical moment, Josh. A truly amazing day! As you can see, we are now flying over the peak of Mount Coronet where Arceus itself has appeared on the ruins of Sinnoh Temple!.”
Millions of people and Pokémon all over the world had their gazes glued to the screen of their TV’s, where different takes of the temple where being shown. Journalists dressed on clothes to sustain the cold of such altitudes were crouching at the side of the open doors of helicopters, from time to time another helicopter from a different news station would appear or a RotomCamara would zoom pass.
“We don’t know why Arceus has decided to appear, the Sinnoh League has been quick to cordon off the place and restrict access to the mountain.”
From Kanto, to Hoenn, to Galar and Paldea, to Alola and Unova, no matter if it was day or the middle of the night, all TV’s were on and transmitting the same news. People were woken on the middle of the night by frantic friends or family members to turn on their televisions, workers stoped their labor to see the news on any screen they could.
“The Sinnoh Elite Four and Champion Cynthia herself are right now at the submit. Although the five have approached Arceus, no conflict or actual interaction seems to be occurring between both parties.”
Subway Boss Emmet gazed at the screen with almost lifeless eyes, bottles of beers all around the living room while his many Joltik observed him with worried gazes.
“It hasn’t been but four years since the Ruins of Sinnoh saw the appearance of other three mythical Pokémon Gods. Palkia, Dialga and Giratina appeared by the machinations of Team Galactic, just for the organization to be stoped by the brave intervention of Champion Cynthia and, at the time still just a regular but promising trainer, the tragically disappeared Champion Lucas.”
Barry Pearl tightened his hold on the RotomPhone at the journalist words, his gaze filling with tears at the mention of his best friend, and said tears spilling when he alerted his gaze from the phone to the grave he has been visiting. Joanna Diamond read the inscription of the stone, the date of death for just three months ago. Dawn Platinum squeezed his shoulders, her presences a steady comfort.
“We don’t know if something like that day with Team Galactic is happening right now, but- Wait! Something’s happening! Arceus is moving! Is that…”
…
“…a portal! Brace yourselves, we don’t know what could cross”. Cynthia barked while getting in a ready stance, her Garchomp digging her claws onto the ground.
The Elite Four quickly followed her orders, their own Pokémon at the ready beside them.
“I see a shadow, something is coming through!”. Flint warned.
The gazes of the five powerful trainer’s didn’t waver from the portal, a breach on time and space Cynthia was sure it was, although they made sure to not ignore Arceus presences (like if ignoring literal God was possible!). Her mind couldn’t help but to bring at the forefront two similar portals from where Palkia and Dialga appeared four years ago, then it was a young trainer that accompanied her.
The figure finally became visible. A tall man with silver hair and goatee beard appeared, his hair covered by a tattered train conductor’s hat, all his clothes were tattered really. But for a pink kimono shirt that Cynthia has only seen on museums and history books.
Something about the man was vaguely familial to Cynthia, but she couldn’t put her finger on what.
“Train has arrived at destination, and a committee awaits the passengers. Please wait till all wagons enter the station” The man said while gazing at them one by one before turning to look at the portal with expectation.
“Subway Boss Ingo?” Lucien questioned with surprise, having managed to identify the man were Cynthia wasn’t able too. “You disappeared three years ago!”.
“Ingo is my name, yes” The man, Ingo, confirmed. His gaze momentarily flicking towards Lucien before returning to the portal.
…
Emmet jumped from his seat, his eyes wide while looking at the image of his disappeared twin on the television, a smile appearing from the first time in years while tears streamed down his face.
…
“Wait, have you said passengers? Is someone else coming through?” Cynthia asked while taking a step froward.
Ingo didn’t response but he needn’t too, for a new shadow appeared from the portal. A young man, a teen really, not older than seventeen materialized.
“Lucas…” Cynthia whispered with astonishment while her Elite Four gasped, even the news’ helicopters seemed to breath in surprise.
He has grown since the last time she saw him. Now reaching a height of meter seventy eight with corded muscles replacing his previously gangly form, Lucas Diamond has grown over the year of his absence from wherever he has been. His clothes were of an ancient style like Ingos’s kimono shirt. Of blues and oranges, Lucas wore an open kimono shirt of his own espousing his chest and lower torso wrapped in orange bandages, his trousers were of a darker blue and were tucked into orange leg warmers with wooden getas. He has even let his hair grow, having it gathered into multiple braids put into a ponytail that exposed an undercut.
‘He looks like an ancient delinquent’, Cynthia couldn’t help but think with a wet laugh, her eyes misting.
“Hey there, Cynthia. Everyone” Lucas greeted with false casualness, his smile still the same that Cynthia remember’s even if it didn’t hide completely the new hardness on his grey eyes. “It has been so-”
Cynthia felt herself go pale, her eyes locked with that of her protege’s.
“Blessed Cresselia” Bertha swore in horror
A branch of pure white bark pierced through Luca’s chest from the back and went back to the portal the young man has just crossed.
“What?” Lucas asked whiteout understanding, gazing at his own chest while clutching the branch than now impaled him.
They all seemed to still, even Arceus, not knowing what it was that was happening. There wasn’t blood, where there should be the wound, light was being emitted. The branch seemed to absorb said light, growing five additional branches that spurted blood-red leaves. A cluster of said leaves at the end of each of the six branches glowed, six PokéBalls materializing between each cluster.
Cynthia finally reacted at that, leaping towards the young man.
“LUCAS!”
But it was too late. He was yanked back onto the portal while Arceus roared in anger; the mortals, humans and Pokémon alike, crashing on their knees at the God’s exploding rage.
…
Barry and Dawn collapsed before the grave of the mother of the friend they have just lost for a second time, sobs braking their bodies while they hugged each other.
“ Promise me, Ned”
Ned hugged his sister’s corpse, her last words reverberating like a mantra on his mind. Approaching the crib, the dead body of a baby girl greeted him.
…
Ned Stark woke with a scream logged on his throat. Sinking down on the furs of his bed, the new Lord Paramount and Warden of the North gazed with empty eyes at the ceiling with the last words of his little sister ringing on his ears and the image of the dead body of his niece still lingering on his mind. Exhaling in exhaustion, he looked at the empty spot on the bed.
Ned was still getting used to sleep in what used to be his father’s, and mother’s before she died, chambers. In the North it was costume for husband and wife to share the same chamber and bed, the concept of separate Lord and Lady chambers being an Andal tradition. But Catelyn refuses to share space with him since he came back to Winterfell from the war. And he can’t blame her really. What woman wants to raise her husband’s bastard?
But he couldn’t leave his son behind, not with Ashara dead and her family rejecting their son for being Ned’s. Two promises broken, promise of a future together to one and the marital vows given to another. ‘The honorable Ned Stark indeed’, he snorted with derision.
A babe’s cry sounded through the castle’s night air, quickly joined by another pair of young lungs. Exiting the bed, not caring from the chilly air caressing his naked torso—Ned gave thanks to the hot spring’s water running through Winterfell’s walls. Only imagining how much colder the castle could be gave him chills—the young lord of nine and teen namedays exited his chambers and made way towards the nursery where he found a frantic wet-nurse trying to calm both his sons.
“M’Lord! I’m so sorry, I don’t know what ails them…They are feed and changed and-”Ned raised his hand placatingly to stop her rambles.
“ Do not worry Palla, babes cry” Ned placated while extending his arms towards his crying son on her arms.
The wet nurse hesitated for a moment before passing Robb along, probably thinking on the property of it all, while clearly doing all in her power to maintain her gaze out of her Lord’s naked torso — now, Ned was lamenting his decision to not put something on, at least to save her the embarrassment if not himself from it.
“Hey there little wolf, what is the matter hmm?” Ned spoke softly to the auburn haired babe.
Baby Robb hiccuped some more before quitting now that he was being held on his father’s arms. Big blue eyes gazed at Ned from a round baby face. Ned started to sway and rock in place, but Robb wasn’t the only babe that needed attention.
“Help me with Jon, please” Ned requested, making sure to position Robb for it to be easier to carry both babes at the same time.
The wet-nurse complied, hurrying to take Jon out of his crib and helping Ned to hold him alongside his brother. Just like Robb, Jon quieted the moment Ned had him secured on his hold, the two babes taking hold of each other while leaning their little heads towards their father’s chest. Ned started to sway and rock the babes again, pacing slowly around the nursery while the babes were drawn back to sleep by his humming voice and the sound of his heartbeat. Ned forgot the presence of the wet nurse gazing at him with open fascination and surprise, his focus completely stolen by the two small bodies resting against his chest.
“What are you doing?”
Ned turned, finding his Lady Wife on the doorway clearly having gotten out of the bed herself.
“My Lady” Ned greeted her in the same soft voice she had used.
Catelyn gazed at the babes, clearly still waiting for him to answer her question. Her gaze softened when she shaw their son sleeping against him, but her eyes turned hard as the North’s ice winds when she gazed at Jon. Ned withdrew a sigh, knowing that another discussion about Jon was in order. Although the North wasn’t Dorne, their treatment of bastards was much improved to that of the other Seven Kingdoms. The scorn that a Lord’s wife usually directs towards the child is frowned upon by the North’s inhabitants, said ire actually expected to be directed towards the spouse guilty of bringing said child to life. ‘The North Remembers but Doesn’t Blame the Children for the Sins of the Parent’.
Ned knows that Jon’s situation isn’t the norm even for the North. Cases like his bastard ancestors: Sara Snow sister of Cregan or Brandon Snow brother of Thorren, where the two were raised alongside their true born siblings, came to be when the mothers of the Lord and the King, respectively, were already dead. But Catelyn’s time as the Lady of the North with his bannermen will be much easier if she directed her ire solely towards him instead of Jon.
“ The two were crying” Ned gave as an explanation.
“Crying babes are a woman’s responsibility” She explained like if the concept of a father soothing his children was foreign to her, and maybe it was.
“I don’t know about that. I still remember my father soothing me back to sleep after a nightmare as many times as my mother did”
“I didn’t take your father for that kind of man” Catelyn visibly flinched at her own words. “Sorry, I didn’t meant to disrespect his memory”
“ Don’t worry, my Lady. And I suppose you are not wrong, my father was certainly a hard man, not exactly the image of a nurturing father” Ned waved her apology off, ‘He wasn’t much nurturing after mother’s death’ Ned didn’t say.
A not quite uncomfortable silence descended on the nursery. A wet-nurse looking anywhere but at the young couple that seemed to be having some kind of family moment, a shirtless young Lord rocking two babes to sleep, and a sleeping coat over a nightgown wearing young Lady that didn’t seem to be able to think of anything else to say. Old Gods preserve them, but that sounded like the start of a bad joke.
Luckily the silence was quickly broken by hurrying footsteps.
“ My Lord! My Lady!” Three and ten name days old Jory Cassel burst through the door of the nursery.
“ Jory! Lower your voice! Babes are sleeping here” The wet-nurse chastised the young guard in training.
The two babes started to fuss from the ruckus but Ned managed to calm them and prevent disaster.
“So-Sorry. But it’s urgent!” Jory exclaimed but managed to keep his voice calmer.
The boy was panting, his cloths rumpled and his breath short. It was clear that he came running from wherever it was that he has been before.
“ Urgent? at this hour?” Catelyn asked in disbelief.
“ It’s the Weirwood, my Lady Stark. My Lord, it’s-it’s shining!”
“ Shining? What nonsense are you saying?”
“ Pardon me my Lord, but it’s not nonsense. Look!” Jory pointed towards the window.
They all turned to look and, sure enough, beams of light were passing through the closed curtains. Ned gave Robb to Catelyn, who clutched him to her chest protectively, and Jon to Palla the wet-nurse, who took some steps back from the window.
“ That’s not possible, it’s the hour of the wolf. The sun shouldn’t have come out yet” Ned approached the window with caution.
Reaching for the curtains he threw them open letting the light stream through. The windows of the nursery gave view to Winterfell’ godswood and, sure enough, there in the middle of the three acres of forest the Weirdwood heart tree shone like the sun.
“ Uncle Rodrik bade me to fetch you, my Lord. That..That isn’t normal”
“ No, it is not, Jory”. Ned confirmed with a sake of the head before closing the curtains with a resolute move. “Go wake my brother, and I want guards with my sons and Lady Catelyn till I learn what is happening”. Ned ordered, turning to Jory to give him a commanding look.
“ At once, My Lord” Jory ran out of the nursery to relay Ned’s orders.
“ Ned…”
The Lord of Winterfell paused at the door at Catelyn’s call, that was the first time she called him Ned since he came back with Jon.
“...Be careful”.
“Of course…Cat”. Ned gave her a nod and tried for a smile, something he was sure came out awkward.
Ned rushed out of the room to go put on something more protective than the nothing he was wearing and to grab Ice, leaving his family behind in the nursery. Armored footsteps approaching the door he just excited the only thing that gave him some relief, knowing that his family was now somewhat protected. Because, what can mortals do when Gods made their presence?.
…
“ Ser Rodrik!”. Ned called when he reached the entrance to the godswood.
Winterfell was quickly waking, it’s inhabitants rushing around or congregating on the courtyard to get a better view of what was happening, torchers were being lit, the dark of the night being chased away by every new light that was lit around the castle (much that at the moment was unnecessary, the Weirdwood having taken the place as their source of light at the moment) In the distance, Wintertown was going through a similar process, its inhabitants waking to gaze at the spectacle that Winterfell was becoming. Ser Rodrik, Winterfell’s master at arms, was commanding the guards and soldiers around, making sure that nobody entered the godswood to investigate.
“ My Lord! Glad you are here. The heart tree just started glowing, we don’t know what’s happening”.
“ I see that. Has anyone entered the godswood?”
“ No, my Lord. I didn’t think it prudent”
“ Ned!”
Ned turned to see his little brother rushing towards him, still latching a cloak around his shoulders in his hurry to reach them.
“ What is happening? Are the Old Gods waking!?”
“ Let us hope that is not the case”. Ned half prayed. “Ser Rodrik, take ten guards, let’s go see what it is truly happening”
“ Are you coming, my Lord?” Ser Rodrik asked, trepidation and disapproval clear on his voice.
Ned gave him a look, his answer clear.
“ I’m going too!” Ben announced with a hard look on his eyes, his shoulders set.
“ No”
“ What? What do you mean no?”
“ Exactly that, Ben. No. You will stay put, you hear”. Ned turned to give a harsh commanding glare to his younger brother.
Benjen seemed ready to argue, but luckily some sense entered his skull for the first time in his life and simply nodded sullenly. Ned took the step that separated them, taking hold of the back of his brother’s skull to touch foreheads. Ben closed his eyes at the gesture, taking hold of his brothers arms and gulping with concealed anxiety.
“ Everything’s gonna be alright”. Ned promised before separating. “Stay here, you are in charge of the guards till Ser Rodrik and I return, make sure nobody else enters the godswood”
Benjen nodded resolutely.
…
Winterfell godswood was a massive walled forest, three acres of untouched trees, plants and foliage inside Winterfell own massive walls. Always giving a foreboding feeling to the followers of the New Gods and a sense of calmness and belonging to those of the Old. This time, Ned thinks he can somewhat understand what Catelyn means when she says she doesn’t fell welcome here. The godswood should be encroached in darkness, but the light of the Weirdwood tree was bathing the woods with the glows of the sun itself, and that light was giving a pressure Ned has never felt before while entering this or another godswood before in his life.
Seeing the heart tree at the distance, nothing seemed amiss if they ignored the light it was emitting. But that quickly changed the moment the stoped before it, like if the Old Gods themselves have been waiting to their arrival.
Stepping forward with arm outstretched and eyes skirting, Ned almost fell on his back when he gave a step back in surprise. The holes that made the carved face of the Weirwood shone brighter than the other parts of the three, the light shining through the mouth seemed to suddenly grow. Ned and his guards gazed in astonishment as how the mouth of the carved face opened wider and wider, the branches of the three started to groan and leaves were lifted by the sudden winds. Some of the guards fell to their knees in prayer, and Ned was tempted to join them.
“ By the Gods” Ned whispered in astonishment.
Suddenly, something came crashing through the mouth of the three, almost knocking Ned over.
“ My Lord!” Rodrik exclaimed while unseating his sword.
“ It’s that a person?”
Sure enough, a boy, or a man really — with how tall he was —, was groaning on the ground while struggling to get himself on all fours.
“ What happened?” The stranger asked between a coughing fit.
The coughing intensified, transforming into a reaching sound that quickly become a torrent of regurgitation. Ned rushed towards the stranger at that, helping him not to fall on his own sickness.
“ Oh, Uxie. My head…” The man groaned in pain before seeming to take notice of their presence. “Wha..Who are you? Wha..?”
He was clearly disoriented, gazing at the guards—some of whom seemed to be debating if to kneel and pray to this new figure—before his eyes stoped on Ned’s face with a look of uncertainty and mounting dread.
“ My Lord, look! The glowing, it is stoping!” One of the guards shouted.
The strangers head quickly turned towards the Weirdwood three whose mouth was closing and glow was dimming. Horrified realization seemed to crash onto the stranger.
“ No…No, nonononononono. NO!” The stranger tried to rush towards the tree, shrugging Ned’s arms roughly on his haste and chasing to the ground. “Nooo! Bring me back. BRING ME BACK!”
The stranger collided with the now normal looking Weirwood, the woods now just illuminated by the torches some of the guards brought with them.
“ Bring me BACK! I finished. I finished! You hear!?”
Ned hearth clenched, he may not know what has truly happened, but that kind of desperation in the voice is something he has only hear in the aftermath of a battle from the cries and pleas of wounded soldiers.
“ My Lord..What are your commands?” Ser Rodrik questioned, his sword now lowered while he gazed at the young man with growing pity.
“ My Lord, what are those?” One of the guards interrupted before Ned could answer.
Gazing at the guard, Ned saw him pointing towards some objects that seemed to have accompanied the stranger on his travel. Six strange metallic balls, almost all of them colored in white and red, doted the floor of the forest, while another six balls of a more wooden make but with he same color pattern had spilled from a semi open traveling bag.
“ I don’t know, but don’t touch-” Ned started to warm the guard that had started to reach for the strange devices, but was interrupted when two of them, one of the metallic ones and one of the wooden’s suddenly popped open.
They all screamed in surprise and fright, their swords at the ready again but their bodies paralyzed. Two monstrous animals materialized from the lights that exited the contraptions: a monkey — like those Ned has only seen illustrated pictures of while studying under the Maester at the Eyrie about Essosy animals — but with a mane of living fire atop its head; and the other a strange cross between an otter and some kind of seal that was using black colored giant seashells as armor.
The two..animals..ignored their presence, rushing towards the stranger that was still punching his knuckles raw on the trunk of Winterfell’s Weirdwood while crying his eyes out. Ned shouted in alarm to try and warm him, but the animals only pried the man from the Weirwood with a gentleness he didn’t expect.
“ Ronin, Sun”. The man sobbed while clinging to the two strange beings like they were his only lifeline.
The two monstrous animals hugged him back, both exchanging a frown in what Ned managed to identify as wariness towards each other but a mutual understanding that the man they were hugging was more important at the moment.
“ They are intelligent”. Ned noted in surprise, the look and expressions the two exchanged way too human for the two of them not to be intelligent creatures.
“ Of course, why not? A glowing hearth three, a sobbing man not older than fifteen called by the Old Gods themselves, and now two intelligent monsters, one of them that is on fire might I add! I should return to bed before-!” Ser Rodrik exclamations and profanities were interrupted by a sudden rupturing sound originating from…the sky?
Ned and his guards fell to their knees at the sudden pressure that bore upon them, screams of surprise and terror could be heard from the direction of the castle. There, up in the sky above the castle, a tear has opened, a creature of pure white with the body of a sheep with an elongated neck floated above with an almighty presence.
“ Arceus…” The stranger exhaled.
“ You dare take OUR charge!!” A voice like none Ned has ever heard thundered from the new creature, he wouldn’t be surprised if all the North, nay, all of Westeros had heard the being speak.
A ball of energy formed over the head of the creature, a foreboding feeling forming on the pit of Ned’s stomach.
“ Fuck” The stranger eloquently spoke.
…
Ned gazed at the sky, searching for another God masquerading as a monster to appear. But none did, the night’s occurrences could have passed as a bad dream if the scars of the battle weren’t so present all around the castle.
The ball of fire the white creature invoked exploded into a hundred tiny meteors that hurled to the ground.
“Judgment will be imparted!” The being condemned before launching their attack.
Ned shook his head to scape the recent memory, but not matter where he looked, something would bring him back to what happened last night. Winterfell was a beehive of activity, servants and workers moving wearily through the grounds, their bodies tense like waiting to ba attacked once more while moving debris out of the way and seeing what has been damaged and how to repair said damage. Ned was sure to find many reports on his desk to go through in the coming hours, parchments detailing what needed to be done that he will have to give his consent to.
A group of men gazed at a tangle of white roots that protruded from the ground, their faces sowed their insecurity about what to do with them since they belonged to the Weirdwood Hearththree.
Ned tackled his young brother out of the way of falling debris. Winterfell has become a war zone, and its combatants were that creature, Arceus, and the Old Gods themselves. The Weirdwood came to life in response to the being’s attack, branches lashing out and roots uprooting to defend and attack at the same time.
“ The Gods are real, and they are gonna kill us in their conflict” Benjen exhaled historically, his eyes not leaving the fight between the white being and the static but clearly living and ‘moving’ three.
A whistle of death was heard, Arceus having repeated their opening attack. Ned clutched his brother tightly against his chest, despair filling him at seeing one of those meteoritic balls of fire upon them with not time to move out of the way. A shadow darted in front of them and a dome of blue materialized. The meteorite impacted with the dome with a resounding boom.
Some kind of of bipedal canine, its coat of blue, beige and black stood before them, its stance firm and eyes hard and resolute before darting away to intercept more of the attacks the Gods were unleashing. Ned exhaled, his eyes traveling to the figure standing calm in the center of the chaos. The stranger than Ned and Ser Rodrik has just needed to carry out of the forest when all this started, stood tall while commanding the twelve creatures that materialized from those strange balls of metal and wood, guiding said creatures to protect the inhabitants of the castle and the castle itself.
“ My Lord” Ser Rodrik called while gingerly approaching, one arm bonded against his chest.
“ Rodrik, shouldn’t you be resting?” Ned questioned, his mind back to the present, for now.
“ Don’t worry yourself, my Lord. Those..Pokémon of his have been a godsend, literally apparently” Ser Rodrik hesitated around the foreign word.
Pokémon. Such an underwhelming and even childish name to call creatures of such power. And one of the few words the stranger said to them before collapsing after the Gods finished their fight.
The castle waited with baited breath, the ire of the deities, Old Gods and Arceus, finally seeming to abate. But their presence was still palpable, their pressure logging on their throats, boring on their shoulders and attacking their senses. They seemed to be conversing, not caring for the destruction and carnage that their spat has caused, but none were brave to make a sound in protest to the injustice. Gods play and spat at each other and mortals suffer in silence. None, but the stranger.
“ Wait! I don’t understand! Why!? WHY!?” The stranger called, the attention of the white God falling on him.
Ned didn’t know how he didn’t collapse at having the sole attention of such a being upon him. Maybe he was a god himself, something that Ned doesn’t discard after seeing the stranger command his creatures so effortlessly and call ford powers of his own.
“ I did what you asked of me! I..I stoped Volo! Stoped Giratina and calmed Dialga and Palkia. Stoped the collapse of space and time! I was home, you brought me home, that was my reward. Why can’t you..? Why?..Just…Lord Arceus, please. I want to go home” The stranger collapsed on his knees, his shoulders shaking with contained sobs while tears started to stream down his face.
Arceus gazed at the crying young man without a sound, but Ned was surprised to see a flicker of sadness pass through the gods eyes.
“ We are sorry”
Ned eyes almost bulged out of his head. All the happenings of the night, and he would have never thought to hear a deity apologizing.
“ What? Sorry..No, nonono. Sorry? Thats…right, Right! I just have to take care of those…those things they…they showed me. Right? That’s what I have to do? And you, or..or the strange god-tree will bring me home. Right? Thats it?”. The stranger rambled, his breathing short, ragged and coming in quick successions.
A silence stretched, Arceus not responding.
“ Right?” The stranger repeated, tears now falling like a river through his dirty face. “Ans..answer me. Right? I do that and you bring me home, Right? Arceus…Answer me, ANSWER ME!”
A shockwave of some kind of energy traveled through the area, the stranger its epicenter. Arceus, a God, didn’t flinch. A tear in the air formed behind the God and swallow the being.
“ We are sorry” The God repeated, their voice an echo left behind on their wake.
A keening sound, haunting and full of despair and sorrow, tore through the stranger’s throat. The creatures he has been so effortlessly commanding through the night rushed to him, enveloping him on their protection.
“ Has he woken?” Ned asked while trying to chase the memory out of his mind.
“ No, my Lord. And he seems to have caught a fever. That’s why I came to get you”
“ A fever? Has Maester Luwin seen him?” Ned asked while already walking towards the castle and the room they have put the stranger on.
“ He has, the Maester is the only person that bipedal dog of his has let near him. After Luwin explained why he was there”. Ser Rodrik explained with awed sake of the head. “That creature, all of them really, are as intelligent as any human, my Lord. And all of them have so much power; just that bipedal blue dog, the leaf covered fox and that serpent-fish thing would be a huge boon to have at a castle’s service just for their curative powers. And adding the destructive power the twelve possess…” He sook his head again, the prospect of having such creatures serving anyone an awed and daunting prospect.
“Have you observed anything beside their powers?” Ned asked, his focus sharp.
“ No much, my Lord. Luwin would be best, he has been like a child with a candy interacting with all of them. But they can talk, though only their names strangely enough. Reminds me of Walder when he suffered that fit and could only say ‘hodor’ the following three years before he got better. But more importantly, I noticed that they seem to be divided, though there’s a structure inside said divisions”
“ Explain” Ned commanded, grey eyes hard.
A division could bring upon a conflict, and Winterfell isn’t prepared to deal with such beings if they start battling each other.
“ There are two groups. Luwin commented in how they have grouped themselves between those that materialized from the metal balls and those that did so from the wooden ones. That fire monkey and the strange sea creature with the shells seem to be in charge of each group. But there doesn’t seem to be animosity between the groups, just wariness. Sincerely, it reminds me of the war, the division there was at the beginning of the campaign between the soldiers of each kingdom.”
Ned lifted an eyebrow at the comparison, though his anxiety about a possible conflict didn’t abate, only increased.
“ That division got solved after a round of brawls. I don’t think we want to know what a brawl done by these Pokémon could entail”
“ Indeed, my Lord. Though I don’t think you need to worry. The bipedal dog has taken command of the chambers we put their master in and had thrown out the other creatures beside the monkey and the shelled creature while it tends to its master using some kind of power. Though I’m sure the leafy fox and the colorful serpent have taken advantage of Luwin’s visit to scurry inside he chambers. The two had been helping the Maester with the injured, and scaring the people in the process”
“ The others?” Ned nodded absentmindedly to the guards stationed stationed on the hallway where the chambers of the stranger were situated.
“ I have seen them around the castle, helping and observing”
“ Gathering information then?”
With how intelligent they appear to be, Ned wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. It would be the smart thing to do, what with finding themselves in a strange place. It is something Ned himself would do if he found himself in their situation.
“Probably” Ser Rodrik concede.
Ned just hummed. Reaching the door, Ned decided to knock instead of barging in no matter that this was his castle—the powerful creatures behind that door made him extra cautious—. The door opened and Ned found himself gazing into the eyes of the monkey with he fire burning atop its head.
“ Infer” The monkey greeted with a nod of the head, moving away to let Ned enter.
Ned nodded back, felling strange at doing so, while trying to maintain eye contact and not let the flames dancing atop it’s head distract him. Turning from it, Ned found Ser Rodrik to be partially correct. Luwin was tending to the stranger that was now awake, while the bed was crowned by the massive colorful serpent, the leafy fox and the bipedal dog. The shelled creature stood awkwardly at the end of the bed, clearly wanting to stay close to their master but not knowing how to interact with the other creatures. Ned gazed got transfixes on the bipedal dog, in concrete in its hand-paws where a blue glow was being emitted and directed towards the stranger.
The fire monkey passed quickly through Ned’s side, hurrying towards its bed bound master.
“ Lord Stark”.
“ Luwin, I see our guest has awoken. I heard something of a fever?”
Thought not feverish, the stranger looked pale and bone tired with bags under his eyes. He looked young, now in better light Ned realized that he was a kid, a really tall — his own height really, and he wasn’t a short man by any means — kid of three and ten at max.
“ I got better” The stranger replied with hoarse voice.
“ I see”. Ned responded not knowing what more to say. ‘Recovering from a fever in minutes, why not?’.
“ Lord Lucas, this is Lord Eddad Stark, the Lord of this castle” Luwin said pointedly if softly.
“ Lucas, that is your name?”
“ Yeah, Lucas Diamond. I’m your prisoner?”
Ned gazed at the kid incredulously.
“ Why would you be a prisoner?”
“ Well, my arrival wasn’t pleasant. I was sure you would blame me for the destruction”
“ Lord Lucas, I’m sure that was product of the spat between our respective gods” Ned couldn’t help but shake his head at saying such a phrase, still incredulous about the happenings of the night. “I remember you protecting me, the other inhabitants of my castle, and my castle itself. You even commanded that giant eagle of yours to save my wife and kids’s lives”
A beam of pure energy collided with the side of the castle, right at the eight and point where the nursery was located. A scream could be heard behind the smoke the attack left behind
“ Catelyn!” Ned screamed in terror.
The wall was destroyed, letting see inside the room where a tilted floor groaned precariously. His wife was atop of it, still clutching little Robb gains her chest while Palla the wet-nurse was clutching with one arm the edge of the crumbling floor, her body dangling while she hugged desperately little Jon against her body. Their effort to stay in such precarious position wasn’t helped by the water falling upon them from the -pipes inside the wall. The watter of the hot springs that warned the castle and protected them from the harsh northern air, turning into their undoing. The guards he assigned them were trying to reach them to no vail. Ned fell his hearth leap against his chest, his breath short.
The floor buckled and the four of them fell screaming towards the ground bellow.
“ Evandor, catch them!” The voice of their salvation echoed though the destruction.
His family’s descent to death was stoped by a strange purple energy enveloping them, a massive bird of prey of white and grey with a plume of the same purple energy atop its head started to circled them while guiding the four safely to the ground. Ned learned how to breath again.
“Not a Lord, just Lucas”. The boy corrected. “…how are they?.”
“ Resting, but good. You have my thanks, Lucas. You saved my family and my people. Anything you need, I will do everything in my power to give you”. Ned gazed at the boy as earnestly as he could, trying to convey his gratitude towards this stranger the Old Gods brought to Winterfell.
“…That’s a different reaction to what I’m used to” Lucas muttered. “Last time something remotely like this happened, I was accused and exiled for it”
“Exiled? Who exiles a kid barely entering manhood?” Ser Rodrik exclaimed in incredulity.
“ I’m seventeen” Lucas deadpanned while his creatures snickered.
Ned eyebrows lifted in surprise while he filled the fact that the Pokémon were apparently able to do more than just ‘talk’. He has never heard an animal laugh before.
"Seventeen? Seven and ten? You look younger. Does that have something to do with your powers?" Maester Luwin asked with barely contained excitement.
“ No?, I just drink water” Lucas said it in such a tone that Ned wasn’t sure if he was joking or not.
“ I think we have more important things to discuss. Lucas, Winterfell’s hospitality is yours as long as you need it, but I would like to know what really happened last night. If you know something, I would be glad if you could tell me” Ned requested, though his tone of voice delivered it more like a command.
“ My Lord, I know this is important, but he is still weak even with Ser Luck’s powers” Maester Luwin warned worriedly.
“ Ser?” Lucas asked with confusion.
“ That’s the proper form of address towards a man that has been knighted” Ser Rodrik explained while sending a questioning look towards the maester, his confusion about this ‘Ser Luck’ clear. “Don’t you have knights where you are from?”
“We have Aura Knights, but I don’t think they are the same as yours…”
“ Ser Rodrik Cassel, Master at Arms of Winterfell” Ser Rodrik introduced with a straight and proud back.
“…I see…What do you say Luck?” Lucas asked while turning towards the bipedal dog still treating him with those waves of power. “Are you up to be called ‘ser’?” There was humor in his voice behind the layers of exhaustion.
“Luc-Cari, lucario?” Luck answered with a lifted brow.
How he managed to to make the expression, Ned doesn’t know.
“ I suppose you are right, we technically are knights, aren’t we?”. Lucas laughs softly before the sound become a coughing fit. “...Sorry, traveling through dimensions, fighting for your life and having a higher being stuff your head with information at the same time that you have to compensate for having six extra Pokémon bonded to you, isn’t a recipe for good health. Ten ten wouldn’t recommend”
Ned exchanged looks with Luwin and Ser Rodrik, that was a funny way of talking.
“You wanted answers? I think you will be luckier talking with that god tree of yours. I only know what they sowed me while they squeezed my through the fabric of reality. An endless winter brought by something resembling a man made of ice with a bunch of reanimated corpses around him. If those are the Ghost Types you have to deal with, I really pity you”
‘Ghost types? What?’ Ned shook his head, that wasn’t important right now.
“ The White Walkers”. Ned exhaled loudly, a shiver running down his spine while disbelief colored his voice—for the Others to be real was a nightmare come true.
“ Well, I suppose they were ‘white’ and they did indeed walk. I would describe the lot more as ice-blue in color”
“ No, the White Walkers are the name of the Others. Beings of the Age of Heroes, legends” Ned explained.
“ Well, your Gods think them real enough. So real that they fucking kidnapped me all the way from my dimension”
“But how? They were defeated eight hundred years ago.” Ned questioned, stoping Luwin from trying to question Lucas for what ‘dimension’ mean.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know. You will have to ask your god for that” Lucas shook his head somewhat apologetically, though his eyes had dulled and bitterness sowed while talking of the Old Gods.
“The Old Gods have returned to slumber. The Weirdwood hasn’t moved since the end of the fight with your god”
“Convenient. And ‘my god’ is Arceus, I called them that more than once, if you wanna know the name of who to blame for the destruction” Lucas half joked while letting himself dip deeper into the pillows that were propping him uptight.
Ned was starting to get a picture of Lucas personality, half of the things he had said were tinted with a joking tone and witty remarks. It reminded him of Elbert’s personality, Ned noted with a small pang of grief for the departed Heir of the Vale he grew with.
“ But why did they bring you here?”.
“ I don’t know” The stranger whispered while closing his eyes as tears started to flow down his face.
Ned wanted to continue asking, but seeing this man, a man that has so effortlessly commanded beings of such power, a man that has summoned magical shields of his own, a man that have argued with and shouted at a god, crying like that made Ned pause. He reminded Ned somewhat of himself when he learned of the death of his father and older brother, how his world has crumbled down around him. But for Lucas, that has been literal.
The Old Gods gazed at the other size of the repairing veil, a million of eyes trained on Arceus of the million arms at the other size, their aspect totally different of that of their avatar. Not words were exchanged, their fight already finished on the mortal realm.
Only when just a small hole remained on the fabric of the veil separating their realities, did Arceus let a mote of their power pass to the other size. The hole repaired shut, the two realities finally separated like it should have always been. The Old Gods cradled that mote of power, observing it with their million eyes. They closed their own essence around the mote, absorbing the power and making it their own.
Arceus fulfilled their part of the bargain made during the fight, now it was the turn of the Old Gods to fulfill their part. For even Gods must abide by their words.