A/N: Axel & Daenerys versus The Night King & White Walkers. Fight!
-x-X-x-
"Daenerys."
Axel's voice cuts through the air, but honestly he needn't have bothered. Even as he's slicing ice spear after ice spear down from the sky with Winter's End, Daenerys is already doing her duty. They'd discussed this after all. They had a plan.
Hopping off of Drogon and summoning more of her power, the last Targaryen is covered in scales in an instant, her wings and tail flowing out of her body along with the claws and draconic horns. At the same time, an unspoken command sends her children flying back away from them, towards the top of the Wall.
Axel covers their retreat of cover, continuing to deflect and block the magical javelins of the Others as the Night King and his White Walkers try to take even one of Daenerys' dragons down. If he didn't know any better, he'd say there's a tinge of desperation to their actions. Almost like their entire plan hinged on managing to turn one of the dragons to their side.
The grin on Axel's face only grows as Daenerys' children disappear over the top of the Wall, flying down to rest on the other side of the massive seven hundred foot tall fortification. As they do so, Daenerys grows noticeably stronger, drawing on more of the power from her three dragons and blazing with inner fire on almost the same level as when she and Axel had fought over Blackwater Bay months prior.
She can go for about ten minutes like this without endangering the lives of her sons. But then, they won't need ten minutes, Axel is confident of that much. He and Daenerys fly forward side by side… and as expected, the Night King along with every other White Walker in the forest clearing down below opens their mouths as wide as they can and begins to scream.
Fortunately, the high pitched sound they're using to harm Axel doesn't have any effect on Daenerys. She's perfectly fine, even as it hits Axel like a battering ram to the chest.
However, within a moment of the pain starting… it diminishes greatly as the Seven steps up and does their part. They've had months now to prepare for this… for another round against the Great Other's Champion and his secret weapon. The Seven were able to somewhat suppress the debilitating effects of the high pitched noise even back when the Night King first ambushed Axel with it. Now? Now they were a lot more prepared.
Axel likes to think he sees a flicker of disappointment in the Night King's inhuman glowing eyes as he and Daenerys continue to move forward. He bares his teeth in a rictus of a snarling grin, even as he lets out a bark of laughter.
"Sorry! Did we spoil your plan? Such a shame! Guess you'll just have to die disappointed!"
… Unfortunately, the Seven's countermeasures aren't perfect. While he's not doing as badly as last time, the screams of the Others are still having an effect on him. The Seven can make it so he can still fight and move… but he can't move at his fastest speed right now, otherwise the Night King's head would already be off his shoulders and his body would have already collapsed into snow.
Instead, Axel is limited to around the same speed as Daenerys… and the same speed as the White Walkers as it turns out, because as their ice spears come flying through the air at the two of them, Axel is still able to cut them down with Winter's End, breaking the magical javelins apart. It just takes a lot more effort than it was five minutes ago.
"Axel?"
Daenerys' concerned voice makes him smile and wave her off.
"I'm fine. Let's finish this. And Daenerys? Don't die."
"Yes, my King."
With that, they reach the outer circle of the White Walkers. A row of the inhuman ice demons steps forward to meet their charge, crystal blades raised in defense… only to fall to Axel's sword and Daenerys' claws. Sure, he might be limited in speed right now, but neither he nor Daenerys are nearly as limited in strength.
"Hah! Is this all you have?! You're going to have to do more than that!"
He's reminded of his first encounter with the White Walkers. How he cut through them all so damn fast until the scream started. Well now he's repeating history. However, this time the scream has already begun… and he's still winning.
More than that, every single White Walker they cut, hack, and slash their way through is one less high pitched scream in Axel's ears. Every Other that dies is less pain and more speed. He's picking up momentum by the moment, moving faster and faster in a straight line towards the Night King.
Eventually, he starts to leave Daenerys in the dust. But that's alright, he trusts her to have his back. And they need to end this now. Every moment that Daenerys' dragons have to be off the field is a moment where the millions upon millions of undead are able to assail the Wall without fear of dragonfire.
Each and every second that passes, the living of Westeros are being forced to expend more and more of their resources against what might as well be an endless tide of corpses that want to kill them and everything that Axel cares about.
But if the Night King dies… surely that will all end. If Axel can cut the Champion of the Great Other down, then the armies of the dead will cease to operate… right? At this point, they don't know for sure but Axel does know one thing. It's the best option they have. And more than that, he really fucking wants to get the inhuman bastard back for that damn ice spear.
Narrowing his eyes as he closes in on his prey, Axel flashes out Winter's End and kills three White Walkers at once, lessening the pain in his head yet again. The Night King is only a dozen steps away now. And Axel is ready to close that in less than a second.
But before he can… the Night King turns to him, revealing what the other Champion of a God has been doing all this time. He hasn't just been screaming. He hasn't been chucking ice spears at Axel either. Instead, in his hands… is an orb of pure, white energy.
Axel's eyes widen and he snarls as he launches himself forward before the Night King can do whatever it is he's trying to do. Unfortunately, as much of his speed as Axel has reclaimed, it's not quite enough.
The white orb expands out from the Night King just before Winter's End can stab through the bastard's head and where it and Axel's sword meet… Axel's sword is what's flung back. And so is Axel himself, the white of the orb expanding and buffeting him, throwing him away from the Night King and across the clearing in the process.
"AXEL!"
Daenerys is by his side instantly of course, covering him even as he grunts and pushes himself to his feet. The moment he does, Axel comes face to face with their newest problem… the white orb has become a white dorm of swirling magical energy that stretches all the way to the edge of the clearing mere feet in front of them.
This was- Axel's eyes widen and he acts on instinct, Winter's End flashing out to cut through an ice spear as it exits the barrier, stopping the damn thing from skewering him… again.
"Oh that's just fucking dirty…"
More projectiles are flung at them, forcing Axel and Daenerys to retreat up into the air to put some room between them and the barrier's edge so they can properly see the spears and deflect them before they can be hit. However… that's easier said than done. Because Axel realizes… the orb, or rather half-sphere, is still growing… still expanding outwards.
"Fuck. This is their plan for the Wall."
The Wall might not be in danger of collapsing thanks to the Seven, but it also wasn't magically supported or protected anymore. And if this much concentrated magic hit a magicless fortification… Axel knew which would win. And it wouldn't be the seven hundred foot tall, one hundred league long wall that has stood for eight thousand years.
They'll rip right through it until that dome of theirs has expanded high enough to carve out an entire section of the Wall… and then Westeros will be in far more dire straits than ever before.
With a growl, Axel flies down again, slashing at the white barrier with Winter's End. Unfortunately, his sword does nothing. Even punching it… he can't break free. It's fighting him even with his immense, normally unstoppable strength.
After a beat, he has to retreat again, the ice spears once more flying out of the white barrier to try and skewer him. Moving back to Daenerys' side, Axel furrows his brow in consternation.
"… I think this is why I'm still here, my King."
What? Shooting Daenerys a confused look, Axel grunts.
"What are you talking about, Daenerys?"
"By all rights, you should have killed me back on Dragonstone. I was a delusional, easily manipulated girl who sacrificed men, women, and children in the name of power. All because I thought I had a purpose. All because I thought I had a destiny… to rule."
Axel frowns as he blocks more of the spears while Daenerys speaks, with the white sphere growing the entire time.
"I know better now. I'm no Queen and I was never meant to be one. But maybe… just maybe I really am this… 'Azor Ahai'. Maybe R'hllor didn't just try to prepare me to fight you… he also was preparing me to fight the Night King as well."
Another glance over at Daenerys reveals her looking down at herself… and at flames that were beginning to gather in her clawed hands, her entire body glowing brighter and brighter by the second. His eyes widen as he understands. What better to fight ice… than fire?
"… It's worth a fucking shot. But Daenerys?"
She looks at him, eyes glowing a more molten sort of orange than Axel has ever seen.
"You're still not allowed to fucking die, you understand me? Your life is NOT yours to spend. You belong to ME."
"… y-yes my King."
With that, they move forward. Like before with the dragons, Axel plays defense. And Daenerys… Daenerys lets the fire within her burn hotter than it has ever burned. Gouts of flame explode from her hands and mouth almost the same color as the white of the sphere. And where the flame hits… the sphere buckles.
His immense strength couldn't effect the barrier. Valyrian Steel couldn't either. But the stolen flames of a beaten god… that's something else entirely, apparently.
When a hole appears in the dome's barrier and through it Axel sees the Night King's inhuman features, he doesn't even hesitate. Lancing forward, he slips past under Daenerys' white-hot flames and soars forward, eye on the prize.
At the end, he likes to think that the Night King's eyes widen and his stupid face is in shock as Axel reaches him and drives Winter's End through the bastard's chest and out the back.
For a heartbeat, everything goes still as the scream of the Great Other's Champion cuts out. Axel sneers into the Night King's dimming eyes and twists his Colossal Sword before slamming the White Walker down into the snow.
The moment he hits, he dissolves like all the rest, becoming nothing but more snow and armor as his corpse collapses on him.
From there, slaughtering the rest of the White Walkers is easy. The dome of white, icy energy that the Night King had summoned dissipates on its own and Axel is able to cut down every single Other that remains, moving faster and faster until there's no more screams, no more pain.
Then, he moves to Daenerys, finding her barely managing to keep on her feet. She'd taken a lot of out herself and her dragons with that last maneuver, but the smile she gives him tells Axel that she and her children will be alright. If she'd had to burn out any of the dragons to win, she would be inconsolable right now.
"You did good, Daenerys. You did good."
Her smile grows wider still as she leans on him for support, letting some of her power flow back out of her. Axel, meanwhile, looks to the Wall. He expects to see the corpse pillars collapsed. He expects the undead to have fallen along with their masters.
"No…"
… But they're still coming. They're still rising up the Wall's surface all across the entire span of it. The Night King and his White Walkers might be gone, but the undead are still mindlessly attacking the Wall wave after wave.
Axel's jaw clenches as he thinks furiously for a moment. In the end… his eyes turn northward. To the Lands of Always Winter.
Could they win from here? Sure, probably. Would it be without deaths, without casualties? Axel didn't think so. Daenerys and her dragons were spent at this point and would need time to recover. And the Wall would run out of resources sooner or later. In the end, they could clean up the rest of the undead… but it would come with a cost.
Or… Axel could finish this himself. One last fight. He can feel the Seven pulsing in the back of his mind in agreement. If anyone can do it, if anyone can finish what the First Men and the Children started eight thousand years ago… then it's going to be him. A Starborn just like the Great Other.
"Daenerys… can you make it back to the Wall under your own power?"
"Y-Yes… yes, I think so. Why… what are you going to do?"
Smiling thinly, Axel rolls his shoulders.
"Get back to your dragons. Help them and once they've recovered, help the Wall push back the undead. In the meantime… I'm going north. It's time this 'Great Other' and I had a chat."
Daenerys opens her mouth… but in the end, she doesn't speak. Instead, she grabs him by the shoulders and pulls him into a deep kiss, one that Axel happily returns. When they pull apart, the last Targaryen has the audacity to try and look commanding.
"You're not allowed to die, Axel Baratheon."
Of course, she loses it a moment later when her face drops into full blown pleading.
"… Please don't die."
Smirking, Axel shakes his head.
"I'm not going anywhere. Now go. Your destiny isn't fulfilled until every last stinking corpse is put back in the ground where it belongs."
Daenerys jerkily nods and begins to make her way through the air towards the Wall. Axel watches her go for a moment… and then turns himself north, floating up into the air. No more screams. No more pain. No more weakness. Just him and everything he is. Westerosi. Starborn. And really, really fucking done with this shit.
-x-X-x-
A/N: Next time… the Great Other.