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[THE WALL]
[The weather has worsened for the climbers. They shout to be heard over the howling winds. Each blow of the axe takes great strength to penetrate the ice.]
"Oh," Jon muttered with wide eyes. He'd forgotten he was going to do this.
[YGRITTE buries her axe in the wall, but a great crack opens across it. The ice wall cracks and pops to her right as the fissure travels across it. Suddenly, a huge swath of the wall gives way, taking three wildlings with it. They scream amidst the roar.]
"Gods" Lyanna muttered in horror, clasping her son's hand tightly. That could have been Jon for fuck's sake!
[ORELL digs his axe deep into the wall. TORMUND does the same, bracing himself in a wide stance. The wall under YGRITTE and JON gives way and they fall amid an avalanche of ice and snow.]
"No!" Lyanna's grip tightens, her eyes wide from horror. This time it was Jon. Her son had lost his grip and he was falling.
[TORMUND prepares for the force of their fall on the rope that tethers them together. ORELL loses his grip on the wall. He dangles, trying to gain purchase with his climbing axe. TORMUND holds on as best he can.]
"We've gotta cut them loose!"
"No!"
Lyanna mirrored the call with one of her own. Her son was still alive, dangling over death but he was still there. If that bastard cuts him off...
[ORELL unsheathes his knife and begins to saw at the rope that connects him to YGRITTE and JON. They hang and dangle helplessly far from the wall, swinging back and forth. ORELL continues to cut through the rope. JON finally swings far enough to plant his axe in solid ice. At the same moment, ORELL cuts through the rope and YGRITTE plummets, limbs spinning. Her fall halts when the rope to JON goes taut.]
A shuddering breath escapes Lyanna's wobbling lips and she relaxes some. Her son was still not out of danger. But he was alive!
[Jon tries to cut the rope beneath him. YGRITTE hacks her axe into the wall. She climbs up to JON. He reaches out his hand. They strain to connect, then clasp hands. JON pulls YGRITTE up to safety. They embrace, panting and exhausted. JON looks up to the sneering ORELL. They all begin to climb again.]
"That fucking bastard" Lyanna seethed from anger. That Wildling had done it on purpose! He'd cut them off on purpose! She had no doubt that he even caused that avalanche on purpose.
Lyanna turned sharply to her son now.
"You really won't join the watch right" she asked.
"I will not join the Watch" Jon replied.
The mother's form calmed some and she continued to grip her hand tightly.
On another side, Ned had watched it all in silence, horrified silence to be exact. He'd been the one to send Jon to the Watch, after knowing the state of it. What had he put his nephew into?
[KING'S LANDING, GARDENS OVERLOOK]
[LORD TYRION LANNISTER and QUEEN CERSEI LANNISTER watch SANSA and LORAS from afar.]
"I don't suppose there's anything we can do about this."
"We can have them both killed."
"It's hard to say which of the four of us is getting the worst of this arrangement. Probably Sansa. Though Loras will certainly come to know a deep and singular misery."
"Father doesn't discriminate. We're all being shipped off to hell together."
"It's odd to see you and Cersei talk so civil" Jaime noted with a frown.
"We may be at each other's throats most of the time, and may hate each other all the time, but we can be civil with one another when we both suffer" Tyrion said shrugging.
[They move inside and CERSEI sits.]
"On a boat you built."
"The Tyrells were plotting to undermine our family. I did what I did to protect our family."
"I'm your family. A member of your family who has actively contributed to that family's survival. Whether or not you or Father or anyone else wants to admit it."
"I do admit it. If it weren't for your trick with the wildfire, Stannis would have sacked the city before Father got here. Our heads would still be rotting on the city gate."
Tyrion felt an odd warmth in his chest.
"I didn't expect Cersei to be the one to acknowledge this" the former Imp muttered mostly to himself.
Jaime heard him, but he was silent.
"Trying to have me killed is an odd way of saying thank you."
"Ah, there goes that" Tyrion snorted when the warmth vanished.
"There are two people in King's Landing who can give an order to a Kingsguard. Did you or did you not order Ser Mandon to kill me during the Battle of the Blackwater?"
[CERSEI doesn't answer.]
"The impulse I understand. He hates me because I'm the only one who tells him what he really is. So, fair enough. He wants me dead. But his stupidity? He could have had me poisoned and no one would have known. But the king orders a Kingsguard to murder the Hand of the King in full view of his own army. The boy's an idiot."
"Oh" Tyrion muttered. Of course, it was Joffrey, that little psychopath of a bastard nephew of his.
"Give a dog some form of power and he thinks he's god. And the dog here has been made King of all fucking things" Olenna snorted. Joffrey was a problem.
"What do you want me to say?"
"I want you to tell me if my life is still in danger."
"Probably. But not from Joffrey. He won't do anything now Father's here."
"And neither would Cersei... So she means Father might do something" Jamie surmised.
"Wouldn't be surprised if he does" Tyrion shrugged.
"Seven kingdoms united in fear of Tywin Lannister.''
"Not the Tyrells. Soon they won't need to be afraid of him. Joffrey will belong to Margaery, the little doe-eyed whore."
Margaery rolled her eyes.
"And so will his children and their children. History will be taken from our hands."
"As you'd taken from ours" Oberyn added with a hum, "after killing my sister and her children in cold blood."
The Lannisters said nothing.
Joanna was still horrified by it. She was friends with Elia's mother after all, and had planned to unite their families.
"You may escape, at least. Once Jaime gets back, Ser Loras may come down with a terrible case of sword through bowels."
"When Jaime gets back, yes. But when do we think that's going to be? He's out there somewhere."
"Jaime or not, I'm truly fucked."
"Here here!" Tyrion toasted to himself.
[THRONE ROOM]
[VARYS and LORD PETYR "LITTLEFINGER" BAELISH look at the Iron Throne.]
"A thousand blades taken from the hands of Aegon's fallen enemies, forged in the fiery breath of Balerion the Dread."
"There aren't. There aren't even two hundred. I've counted."
"Yes because only the swords that are sticking out for the back and armrest were used in its making" Rhaegar rolled his eyes at the audacity of this no-name upstart to question his family's history.
"Ha, I'm sure you have. Ugly old thing. Yet it has a certain appeal. The Lysa Arryn of chairs. Shame you had to settle for your second choice."
"Early days, my friend. It is flattering, really, you feeling such dread at the prospect of me getting what I want."
"Thwarting you has never been my primary ambition, I promise you. Although who doesn't like to see their friends fail now and then?"
"It's not a fun game If your opponent keeps losing, now is it," Varys said with a smile to Gendry,
"Shouldn't matter if it's fun or not if your games influence the lives of other people" Gendry shot back with a scowl
"I suppose you do have a point" Varys concedes with a smile.
"You're so right. For instance, when I thwarted your plan to give Sansa Stark to the Tyrells. If I'm going to be honest, I did feel an unmistakable sense of enjoyment there. But your confidant, the one who fed you information about my plans, the one you swore to protect, you didn't bring her any enjoyment. And she didn't bring me any enjoyment. She was a bad investment on my part. Luckily, I have a friend who wants to try something new. Something daring. And he was so grateful to me for providing this fresh experience."
[JOFFREY'S CHAMBERS]
[Joffrey sits pensively with his crossbow. He stands and walks out, past the bloodied corpse of Ros. Her hands are tied above her head, and she is pierced by multiple crossbow bolts.]
"Fucking hell" Jaime swore under his breath.
"What the actual fuck?!" Tyrion muttered in outrage.
They all stared in silence and horror at what Joffrey had done to Ros. The thought was mutual in all their minds, young and old.
Joffrey was a monster that needed to be dealt with quickly.