Chapter 72: Chapter 72: 7 Year Time Skip
Aiden and Dacey's wedding went off without a hitch, ushering in a new and improved North. Using his technology Aiden began making massive changes all across the realm, especially in the north.
New roads were built that connected every town and castle, this would provide quicker transport of goods and soldiers all across the north. The North began having major changes as more time went by.
This was mainly due in part by Ned adopting Aiden's idea of a schooling system for not just nobles but commoners as well, a more educated population will do wonders for the economy. New breakthroughs in technology began to slowly come out in certain fields such as medical, shipping, and military weapons.
Not only that but thanks to the effort of Aiden Ned and Mance Rayder developed a alliance between the Northerners and Free Folk, this made both factions even more prosperous than ever.
The Night's Watch had gone thru serious changes as well, they had basically been disbanded and converted into a police force, instead of remaining on the Wall, they now travelled the realm taking care of bandits and any who broke the law. They no longer had to deal with wildling attacks or the Others thanks to Spawn.
As the years progressed Spawn had grown in strength, his absorption of the White Walkers and other Wights had profound changes on him. Using the excess levels of energy he was receiving his suit actuall mimicked the White Walkers, it used its reality warping abilities to create a necroplasm reactor within both Al and the suit itself.
By doing this it gave Spawn a near infinite amount of energy, though he could still run out it didn't require him to absorb the energy from creatures of the night such as demons or the undead. It could gather the energy directly from Hell if and when needed, the reactors were connected directly to Hell's dimension.
The Targaryen children also had now become adults, all four had become excellent warrior's and magic users thanks to being taught magic by the Children of the Forest as well as the kryptonian androids.
Rhaenys and her brother were specialized in both fire and water magic, since they had not only Targaryen blood but also having the blood of the Martell family who descended from ancient water sorcerers.
Daenarys had command over fire magic as well as having one of the strongest bonds with her dragon, she was a pure blooded Targaryen so she also had developed the ability of Dragon Dreams. This gave her precognition, allowing her to peak into the future.
Aegon VII however was even more special, not only did he have high potential for both fire and ice magic, he had the abilities of a skinchanger. His bond with his dragon was unmatched, he could warg into not only his dragon, but he could bond with several other animals.
Using the zoo within Kandor, Aegon bonded with several creatures. He had his direwolf, a basilisk, a Panserbjørn (the large white bear from the Golden Compass Universe), as well as a large shadowcat.
All four of them were one man armies in their own right, able to cast magic spells mid combat, as well as being highly trained in various advanced martial arts from modern Earth. They had in fact lost interest in the throne for a long time, it wasn't until a recent letter was delivered to Winterfell that changed everything.
The south too had changed completely in that same seven year timeframe. It had actually changed hands, no longer was the Lannisters in power. Now it was ruled by a man by the name of Daemon Blackfyre the sixth of his name.
He was a descendant of the House Blackfyre who after losing to the Targaryens were exiled to Essos. After being exiled along with the various supporters who followed, they created a mercenary company and called it the Golden Company. Daemon was the head of the mercenary group.
When Tywin had become desperate, due to the increasing power of the Faith Militant which was headed by the High Sparrow, he made the mistake of letting the Golden Company into not only Kings Landing but also the Red Keep.
Tywin had multiple assassination attempts on his life, not only from the Faith Militant but also from Cersei herself, all of which failed but when one came very close he decided to bring in the mercenaries.
Cersei blamed her father for many things, after Tywin took over as Hand he had began to try to reeducate Joffrey, to make him into a better king, he did this by limiting his contact with who he felt turned the boy into what he was, which was Cersei herself.
This however had the opposite effect, Joffrey in fact became even more cruel and ruthless due to Tywin's methods, in turn Joffrey's cruelty also began to turn towards his own mother, something that didn't happen previously.
Cersei blamed Tywin for this rather than seeing that it was her own doing that created the monster that Joffrey had become, this was caused by her own teachings and manipulation of her son. He had watched her whore herself out to many men, thus creating jealousy and hatred towards her. She had hired many assassins to try to kill her father, but they all failed. Then when the Golden Company came within the castle that all changed.
Daemon used Cersei to gain power, all the while Cersei thought it was her that was gaining more power by using her body to try to control Daemon and his men, but he was mearly having his fun with her while making it seem as tho he was working for her.
Using the Lannisters as a stepping stone, Daemon and Varys began to slowly take over all aspects of the city. They even captured Stannis and Dragonstone, winning them the approval of the people by reopenning the shipping lanes.
When they did try to capture Shireen and her mother however, they had mysteriously disappeared from the castle. Shireen had used her bracelet to ask Aiden to come save her and her mother when the castle fell, which Aiden did just so.
After the Golden Company gained the admiration of the people by not only defeating Stannis, Daemon used his own ships to bring in much needed food from his territory in Essos. By the time Tywin had realized Varys and Daemon's plan it was too late.
He ended up "slipping" from his balcony in the Tower of the Hand in the middle of the night, falling to his death. The morning after Joffrey and Cercei had called a meeting in the throne room to name the new Hand of the King, Cersei had the biggest smile on her face thinking all was going according to her plans.
This was when Daemon had made his move, he killed Joffrey along with his Kingsguard and took Cercei prisoner to be used as a hostage, only Barristan Selmy and Sandor Clegane just barely escaped the ambush, both had been severly wounded. Had Jaime not set up a Phantom Teleporter before leaving with half of the Lannister army for emergency use, neither would've survived and escaped.
This was when Daemon revealed his true identity as Daemon VI Blackfyre, being of the direct line of Daemon I Blackfire himself, the bastard son of Aegon IV Targaryen and his cousin Daena Targaryen who was ligitimized just before Aegon IV died.
This revelation shocked all in attendance since many believed that the Blackfyre line had ended with Maelys Blackfyre, better known as Maelys the Monstrous who Barristan Selmy had killed many years ago during the War of the Ninepenny Kings.
He was called "the Monstrous" due to his freakishly large size and strength, also because he had a small extra head that was attached to his neck. This was what remained of his twin that he absorbed while in his mothers womb. Maelys had taken over the Golden Company after killing his cousin Daemon V Blackfyre.
Many believed that he was the last of the Blackfyre due to he had only one son named Maenor, who Maelys himself sacrificed to the fire in an attempt to hatch a clutch of dragon eggs before he began his invasion of Westeros which had failed.
The Targaryens had learned of Maelys plans and gathered their forces to launch a preemptive strike on Maelys who was at the Stepstones, taking them completely by surprise, thus defeated them.
What they didn't know was that Daemon V had a son, not even Maelys knew of the boy. After Daemon's death, many of the generals who were loyal to him had left the Stepstones and raised Daemon VI, knowing that Maelys would've used the boy as a sacrifice to try to hatch his dragon eggs again, and continued the Golden Company elsewhere.
They trained the boy in combat and taught him everything from from survival to management, raising him into the perfect leader and king. The goal of the Golden Company was always to retake the Iron Throne, they hid Daemon deep within the group, knowing that Maelys defeat along with much of his forces was a opportunity like no other. With the world thinking that the Blackfyres were gone, they could make arrangements in the dark, thus Varys was sent to Westeros to infiltrate the royal council so they could keep tabs on when the best time to strike would be.
They began to recover the Golden Company over time, making it into the number one mercenary group once again. Now all that effort had paid off, they accomplished what no other Blackfyre had done before, they now held the Iron Throne.
Once Daemon made it known who he truly was, this caused many houses to bend the knee. The Vale and Stormlands bent the knee to him very quickly, they were long time Blackfyre loyalists, especially the Brackens, and Baratheons since they had strong ties to the Blackfyre line in particular.
Renly knew he wouldn't be able to have any chance to put forth a claim to the throne, so he came to an agreement with Daemon before bending the knee. He knew the Tyrells wouldn't bend the knee, so he agreed to do so in exchange for a pardon for Loras Tyrell which Daemon agreed.
Daemon did so because he knew the throne was in really bad shape, it was heavily in debt and the kingdom was fractured. He had to focus much effort on fixing the economy before going to war. This was why the North had such a long peace.
Petyr Baelish had used much of the gold he had embezzled from Robert's reign to buy his way into keeping his power, however he also had to give up his most prized possession as well. Catelyn Stark became a prisoner of the crown, a hostage to be used once the crown was ready for the war to bring the kingdom back together.
Dorne too joined Daemon, Doran Martell joined for two reasons, first was to get his hands on Cersei which Daemon promised after the war he could do as he pleased to her since he was using her to keep Jaime and the Westerlands in line. The other reason was that House Yronwood, the second most powerful house in Dorne, was a Blackfyre loyalist. So had he not joined, he could've had a civil war within his own territory, something he couldn't handle at this time since House Dayne had basically stopped supporting him.
It took a total of five years for Daemon to stabilize the kingdoms under his control, he even made a deal with the Faith Militant to gain their support. He promised to allow the Faith Militant to remain, and that he would do as Baelor Targaryen did and bring back the true worship of the Seven.
He also agreed to outlaw all other religions, making the Seven the only religion of the mainland of Westeros. This was to keep Euron and the Ironborn appeased. Daemon knew he needed all the men possible in order to take on the North.
He knew that below the Neck they followed the Seven anyway, he wanted to focus on the North and it's allies, they and the Targaryens were going to be his biggest obstacle. It was no secret that the Northern warriors were the toughest Westeros had to offer, add five dragons to those warriors and you have an unbeatable army in almost any situation.
One thing Daemon and his forces had going for them was they had access to Valyrian technology. They made several excursions into Valyria over the years, even during the the initial stages of the Golden Company being founded, they had constantly scoured the destroyed lands.
They had found many ancient scrolls regarding weapons and magic. Though the magic didn't do them much good, since they didn't have many with the gift, the weapon technology however was extremely useful to them.
The Valyrian Freehold was made up of several dragon riding families that constantly fought against one another, therefore they designed weapons that allowed regular soldiers to combat dragons. The only issue with the weapons were they were difficult to move, they were mostly defensive weapons, designed to be mounted on castle walls rather than being mobile.
Over the years they were able to develop more mobile versions, but their accuracy was diminished quite a bit. With the help of the Maesters from the Citadel, mostly those who ran from Old Town out of fear of retaliation for hiring the Undying, they were able to improve on the Valyrian Ballista weapons a little bit further.
Not only that but Daemon was able to improve the conditions in the kingdoms under him, he wasn't able to payoff the debt to the Iron Bank fully but he was able to cut it in half, so even the commoners moral was much better.
This was when Daemon felt it was time to begin to slowly retake both the Reach and Riverlands. They were still thought that those two kingdoms were supplying the North with food, this was because Varys had no way to get his spies into the North. So Daemon thought he would be dealing a major blow to the North by removing their main source of food.
So Daemon gathered his forces after he released several letters to all three kingdoms, those letters demanded the North and it's allies to bend the knee. He demanded that the Targaryens be turned over so that he can wed both Rhaenys and Daenerys, and that if Aegon relinquished his claim, he would allow them to leave Westeros, minus their dragons of course. This was also when he announced that he held Catelyn Stark as hostage, he planned to try to use her as a bargaining chip against the North.
Needless to say the Targaryens didn't take kindly to this declaration, especially Rhaenys and Daenerys, they now had a newfound desire to retake the throne. Had Daemon left it alone, he could've probably held the throne for a long while, since after having access to Kandor and enjoying the North and its people they already had a throne so to speak.
The North was bigger than all the south combined, plus it had more resources, so they had become content with what they had over the years. They had known Catelyn was there, Aiden had informed them and promised that he would keep her from suffering too bad. Ned had hoped that she would've learned a lesson in her actions, so he didn't stress about her, he trusted Aiden would keep her safe.
Now however, Daemon had literally poked the sleeping dragons, Aegon and his Kingsguard had not been idle over these years, they had prepared for this battle they knew would eventually come.
While they prepared to go south, Aiden prepared to go North, he felt the Night Kings awakening. He knew that his siblings would easily be able to win, not only were they trained for war, but so had their dragons.
Two wars were about to start, one against man, another against monster. Even Elia and Lyanna would take part, though their battle was against Doran Martell.
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