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"What do you know about my father?" Adrena was defensive, and her eyes flared with anger. Jon grimaced, trying to find a way to tell her the information he had without upsetting her too badly. The last thing he needed was her trying to kill him or worse, her hurting herself in the process by moving.
"When I was a boy, maybe ten or eleven, my half-brother told me about something he watched my father do. He told me there was a man, Archer Vlakov, who my father killed. He told me about the little girl who watched them burn her father. It made me sick to my stomach. And when you told me your name, I knew it was you- you were the little girl."
Adrena sat there in silence, taking it all in. She refused to look at his eyes, not wanting to see the look of pity he wore lately. She didn't want him pitying her; she definitely didn't need it.
"As I watched my father's body burn to a crisp, I vowed to kill Ned Stark. I spent years training myself to be a great fighter and an excellent assassin just so I could get the job done." She paused, swallowing the thickness in her throat. "Then, Joffrey had him beheaded. I figured that would help ease the constant pain in my heart, but it didn't and I decided that I needed to end the Starks once and for all."
Jon watched her curiously, studying her face as she spoke. She was talented at hiding her emotions and he figured it came with the act of being an assassin.
"I have to get closure, Jon. I've somehow wired my brain into thinking that if I don't kill you and your family, then I will never be okay." She finally dared to look up at him and saw him grimace, almost like he was afraid to say what he needed to. Jon let out a sigh, running his hand through his hair.
"There's something else you need to know, Adrena." She waited expectantly, nervous to hear what else he had to say. He took a deep breath, preparing himself for the words that would leave his mouth. She grew impatient, playing with the fur blanket once more and biting her cheek.
"You're father... he wasn't a good man. He raped and killed two of our women, and when my father confronted him about it, he tried to kill my father."
Adrena's whole world came crumbling down from those two sentences. She had believed for years that her father was one of the good ones- that he was pure and innocent in all aspects. But hearing this new information brought on a realization that she hadn't ever noticed. She remembered vaguely the woman that gave birth to her and how she had been four when she died. Her father had told her he had important business to attend to and then when he had come back, her mother was found dead. It all clicked and she started to remember bits and pieces that as a kid she had ignored but now it all fell into place. Jon was right and he was telling the truth.
The nine years she spent planning her revenge felt useless and pointless. She had spent all this time training herself to murder innocent people for a man who didn't deserve it. She felt like everything that kept her grounded and steady had crumbled and she was slowly falling.
"Adrena, hey, are you okay?" Jon's voice broke her out of her thoughts and she realized her breathing was shaky and choppy. She glanced up at the man, shaking her head slowly.
He moved towards her slowly, as to not frighten her and placed a hand on her shoulder. The simple contact brought down her entire walls she had built for years and tears poured from her eyes. The one man she had looked up to, the man she had spent years planning to avenge wasn't who she knew him as. Her entire agenda, half of her life, was spent avenging him and now, it was pointless.
Adrena let out a sob, seeking out Jon's arms in her weakest moment. He brought her into his chest, his hand gently caressing her hair as he shushed her. It was a side of him that she had never seen and it felt odd with him being the one to see her finally breakdown after holding it together for so long. The man she had known for two weeks was the only one there for her at that moment and that upset her beyond explanation. She had no one else but a man who she spent the past few years planning to kill. And even then, did she really have him? He should've killed her and moved on, like she had planned to do to him
"Please, leave." She muttered, pushing him back with her eyes still wet with tears. He shook his head, not wanting to leave her alone when she needed someone. "Jon, please just go."
Her voice cracked and he looked at her with a unreadable expression before solemnly nodding. He took one last look at her before walking from the room. Once he had shut the door, she broke down once again. The pain in her torso was nothing compared to the pain in her heart. She truly was all alone. Seeking revenge for her father's death made her feel like he was with her and now, she didn't want him to be with her. She was forgetting her mission to kill the Starks; they were innocent, he was not. He deserved the death he got, she came to realize.
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author's note: this is so short i'm sorry i got blocked when writing this
