"Where's Elena?" Robb asked, a frown on his face. They were in the new council tent, they had set camp somewhere near the Kingsroad. It was only a matter of time before the Boltons realized that they were marching towards Winterfell. Within a few days' time they would arrive there, then only a few days and they will attack the never fallen castle.

"I don't know, I haven't seen Damon either." Steven frowned too, he was also invited to attend the meeting together with all the other guardians, except for Ella of course. The poor girl was still exhausted from all the power it took to heal Damon that morning.

"Your grace, we will have to start the meeting with or without them. Stannis will be here any second, he won't like it to wait, especially not for a woman." Rickard Karstark said. All the other bannermen were there, all of them looking at Robb expectantly.

"Have you seen her this morning?" Steve whispered to Robb. He was actually really worried, he knew that with The Dark One somewhere close to them it wasn't safe for anyone to be alone here.

"Yes, when I woke up. I haven't seen her ever since." Robb whispered back, looking around the council table. The lords were all looking at him, expecting him to say something. He would've if his mind wasn't set on Elena.

"I'm sure Damon is with her." Steve muttered. He wasn't actually sure, he just wanted to give Robb some hope. He was the king after all, he couldn't cancel a council meeting only because someone went missing that morning.

"I'm sorry but that doesn't calm my nerves at all." Robb took in a deep breath, trying to get the sick feeling out of his stomach. He wasn't well at all, he kept on seeing those visions the Dark One made him see. To be honest, those visions weren't calming his nerves at all.

Stannis barged into the tent with the Red Woman and Ser Davos behind him, not saying a word while walking towards the other end of the round table. He sat down silently, also looking at Robb expectantly.

"Your grace." Robb addressed him with his jaws clenched.

"Stark." Stannis said curtly. He never addressed Robb as the king he was. Steven still didn't trust him at all, he knew Stannis didn't like the thought that Robb was king of the North. Robb stared at the Baratheon, thinking that he would start the actual council. Instead the king remained silent, looking at the map in front of him.

"Where is your lady guardian?" Stannis finally spoke up after a way too long moment of awkward silence.

"She's not here." Robb stated curtly. Steve took in a deep breathe, thinking about where she could've gone. He knew she was furious but he knew for sure she wouldn't risk her life now.

"So, Winterfell." Robb began finally, breaking the awkward tension. All of the lords let out a deep breath in relieve. "The Boltons have rebuilt it all, together with the walls and towers. It is almost impossible to take now."

"Luckily we have guardians." Robb looked to his side, at Steven. Steve straightened his back, standing up tall.

"Roose Bolton has too. Ramsay is one and so is the Dark One. We don't know if the Dark One fights for the Boltons but he obviously isn't on our side." Steven stated, looking around at all the men that had gathered there. "Ramsay will be easy to defeat IF we can see through his schemes and traps. He has no powers anymore, I made sure of that."

"If we want to take down their defence, we will have to take down their guardians first. So I recommend to send a party to the castle, sneak in and kill Ramsay before he has any chance to defeat us." Steve looked up when Elena entered the tent together with Damon. Everyone fell silent, looking at the distressed expressions on their faces.

"Elena." Robb's face lit up at the sight of her, his worry now replaced with confusion when he saw the scratches and cuts covering her whole body.

"Don't mind us, just continue." Damon said bluntly and helped Elena get to the other side of the table, next to Robb. Steven squinted his eyes and looked at Damon, seeing that his eyes were darker than they normally were.

"How do you plan on getting these people in the castle?" Stannis spoke up and looked at Steven. He jumped slightly, he was lost in his thoughts after seeing Damon's dark eyes.

"We will have to send guardians, I recommend Louis since he's fast and can hide well. He also kills easily." Steven responded while looking at Elena stumble through the tent. When she arrived next to Robb, he whispered something in her ear. She only shook her head in response and casted her eyes down to the floor.

"Since Damon is wounded I think I will have to go too." Steve offered and looked back at Stannis.

"No." Elena spoke up, making everyone turn to look at her. "No offence but I don't think that your super strength is going to be of much help when you're sneaking into a castle."

"She has a point." Louis shrugged when Steven looked offended.

"I will go with Louis and kill Ramsay. It was something I had to do for an old friend of mine anyway." Elena sighed at the thought of Gillian. She remembered the exact words he had written; "before Ramsay harms more innocent, I want you to kill him." And that was what she was going to do.

"When you have killed Ramsay, open the northern gate." Robb commanded. "We will have to do this at night so we have the element of surprise."

Everyone nodded, listening to Robb's plan while looking at the map before them.

"I will lead my army through the Northern gate when you've opened it. In the meantime one of you will have to fly south to open the southern gate, there you-" Robb looked up at Stannis. "Can lead your army into the castle. This way they will be surrounded."

"Steven." Robb looked at the guardian next to him. "Can you make sure nobody passes the eastern gate?"

"It'd be my genuine pleasure." Steve nodded.

"Great, then we will have all of the exits sealed." Robb sighed deeply and straightened his back. War had always been one of the things he was good in, thanks to his father.

"What about the Dark One?" Damon asked, crossing his arms before his chest. "Undoubtedly he will interfere."

"I've got you to take care of him." Robb said. "Aidan, Louis and Elena may be able to help you with that."

"We will figure something out." Damon nodded. Steven raised his eyebrows at him, Damon wasn't really acting like himself. Normally he never wanted to talk about his lost brother, let alone bring him up.

"Great." Robb let out a deep breath and looked up at Stannis. "Any objections?"

"You forget one thing." The red Woman said, throwing a letter towards Robb. He took it in his hands and opened the unopened letter. He looked back up at Melissandre before reading the letter.

"What?!" Robb suddenly yelled.

"What is it?" Elena took the letter when he was done reading, scanning the words.

"Sansa Stark has married Ramsay Bolton." Elena read out loud, it was one of the sentences in the letter from a spy in Winterfell.

"Why would she do that?" Robb groaned in defeat and laid his head down in his hands.

"I don't think she had a choice." Steven muttered.

"This gives us all the more reason to attack them as soon as possible." Elena said, replacing her grieve for hope. "Louis and I could rescue her before you take the castle."

"I can't risk your life now." Robb sighed deeply and looked at Elena. "But I can't risk my sister's life either."

"If we want your sister safe, we will have to get to her as soon as possible. We will be too late to protect her from any harm, most likely Ramsay has already done unthinkable things to her." Damon smirked an then frowned when he realized that those weren't exactly the words Robb would like to hear now.

"If we march now, as quickly as possible, how much time will it take us to get to Winterfell?" Robb asked.

"2 weeks tops." Glover responded.

"Your grace, if we do this, the men will be exhausted by the time we arrive. They won't be able to fight." Tallhart said.

"I will not sit here waiting while my sister is being tortured there!" Robb yelled, banging his fists on the table. Elena took his hand, trying to calm him by rubbing circles on his palm.

"We have to help her." Robb said after trying to calm himself down. He looked up at all his counselmen.

"We're leaving tomorrow morning." Robb commanded, ignoring the fact that Stannis also had a opinion in all of this.

"Is there a problem, your grace?" Robb narrowed his eyes when Stannis muttered some things he didn't understand. Elena grasped Robb's arm and tried to calm his anger.

"I'm not entirely sure if this is going to work." Stannis said after a moment of silence. "This whole plan relies on the guardians. What if one of them isn't truly on your side?"

"If you have a better idea, do speak up." Robb growled. "Until then, all of you are free to go, this meeting is over."

Everyone stood up and walked towards the exit. Robb grasped Elena's arm and mentioned for Steve to stay. When everyone left Robb let out a deep sigh and looked down at Elena.

"What happened to you?" Robb asked, his voice much softer and gentler than before. He softly traced one of the cuts on Elena's cheek.

"The Dark One got me." Elena said and looked down, remembering how she actually just gave herself to him by running alone in the forest.

"What did he do?" Robb suck in a deep breath.

"I don't know, all I remember is waking up on the cold hard ground. Damon found me there." Elena looked up at Robb with sorrow in her eyes. It was all her fault, she shouldn't have been so stupid to basically just give herself to him.

"Steve." Elena's eyes widened when she found out that her pockets were empty. "He has the doll!"

"Are you sure?" Steven asked with fear evident in his blue eyes. Elena nodded in response, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Fuck!" Steve cursed loudly and slammed his fists on the table. He took in a deep shaky breath to try and calm himself down.

"What are you talking about?" Robb frowned, his grip on Elena's arm tightening.

"The doll, it's..." Steven sighed, deciding that now that the Dark One had it, it was time to tell the truth. "It was the Dark One's actual body. Now that he has it back, he's even stronger than before."

"What are you talking about? Do you mean that he was cursed?" Elena turned around to face Steven.

"Yes, by Damon. He took his brother's soul out of his body and cursed it so that it became a doll. He thought that this way he wouldn't be able to hurt more people after his family's death." Steven sighed. "But he didn't know that his brother was able to take over other people's bodies."

"This is all my fault." Elena stuttered. "I ... I... I basically handed it over to him when I faced him alone."

"You did what?!" Robb's eyes widened.

"I'm sorry, I just... I got so angry and I..." Elena sighed when she saw the anger in his eyes.

"It's okay." Robb whispered and planted a soft kiss on her forehead, one of his arms snaking around her waist to pull her closer.

"Does Damon know he has the doll?" Robb asked while looking at Elena.

"I don't think so, he didn't mention it." Elene responded.

"No..." Steve's eyes widened. "You can't be serious."

"What?" Robb frowned and looked as Steven started pacing.

"Shit!" Steven yelled and threw the thing closest to him away with all the power he had.

"Steven!" Elena shrieked when the chair he had thrown basically fell apart into a billion of tiny pieces.

"No! No! No!" Steven yelled, pacing faster with his fists clenched and tears of frustration ran down his cheeks.

"Steven?! What's going on?!" Elena asked. Robb instinctively wrapped his arms around her small frame when Steven threw another chair against the wall in anger and frustration.

"Don't you see?!" Steven yelled at her, blood flowing down his fists after he had hit the wall in frustration.

"What?" Elena almost whispered, she was freaked out by the way Steve had changed. She never thought he was capable of doing such violent things.

"It's wasn't Damon who you just saw." Steve said with clenched teeth. "It was his brother who just attended our entire meeting."

Author's note

OOh snapp, What the hell is he going to do?

I know and you don't... (insert evil laugh here)

This chapter is dedicated to Saraadam23 for her rain of votes a few days ago! :)

So for this chapter I will pick a random someone from the voters so go on and click on that button. (Right now, I dare you!)

See you guys next chapter!