#queensguard

Ser Barristan is at once a true knight, and the exemplar of the failure of a knight. He was a zeal guardian to three different kings, risking life and limb to protect them from harm. He is one of the most skilled swordsmen alive, and is skilled in horsemanship and jousting. Not only is he skilled in combat, but he can train and lead other men, and advise rulers. Yet, when Robert Baratheon took the throne, Barristan's loyalty waivered. He took a pardon, and went on to serve Robert until his death, betraying the lineage he swore to protect. He only chooses to return to Targaryen service once he has been dismissed from the Baratheon Court.

Perhaps his foundation being shaken woke Barristan up, and reminded him of where his loyalty truly lied. But if his own dishonor is what it took, and not the murder of a woman and her two children, or the burning of king's landing, then I don't think I trust his values. It feels more likely that he saw the horrors of Aerys II, and decided that Robert was the better option. Perhaps he hoped that Viserys' time away from the throne had taught him a kindness that his father lacked. Barristan would have been sorely dissapointed.

Wolf felt like he was floating, drifting in a hazy fog, disconnected from his body. They had come earlier, taken his daily blood draw before injecting his next dose of the nanite serum. It had been a woman today, one he knew only briefly in passing. She was a more recent addition to the research team, he could tell by the way she excitedly babbled about how the work the scientists here would be revolutionary, and wasn't it such an honor to be contributing to such cutting edge advancement.

Dull, teal eyes had been the only part of him that had moved the entire, brief visit. He had stopped flinching at the needles nearly a decade ago. It had been almost as long since the last time he had tried to resist. That had been one of his earliest, and most painful, lessons about his world. Resistance was futile, full cooperation made everything run smoother.

It meant the pain stopped sooner.

It meant that his mind could return to its aimless wandering.

Most days it felt like the only thing keeping him sane. Time was strange, distorted, when he viewed the world this way. Hours slipped away with no change to the drab four gray walls of his cell. Wolf would have remained like this until they came for him again. Until they decided to cut him open again, to watch him bleed, to observe his reactions, both physiological and psychological. That was his life. It wasn't much of a life, but it was predictable.

Boring.

Something in the steady hum of the ventilation system faltered for a moment, it was the heartbeat, the pulse, of this world. Wolf blinked his eyes, suddenly become more aware, more alert as the hairs on the back of his neck bristled. He became aware of his body again, the way the thin scrubs rubbed against his skin, the way the thin mattress on the floor was only just softer than the steel floor. His world was being disturbed, Wolf could feel it deep in his bones, the microscopic nanites in his blood practically vibrating with anticipation.

Hesitantly he reached out with his consciousness, the AI immediately responded by pushing through the firewalls that would normally lock him out of the lab network. If the researchers caught him they'd punish him ruthlessly, but he couldn't resist the urge to know. Immediately he realized nobody was going to notice his indiscretion. He couldn't hear any alarms within his metal box, but every security system in the building was blaring a shrill warning.

Intruders were breeching the lab.

Terminate Project Codex

The words flashed across the screen. He felt an icy fist grip his heart. They were going to destroy him to prevent their asset from falling into the hands of outsiders. Fourteen years of enduring their poking, their prodding, all for them to kill him now?