"I'm sick of people paying for our mistakes." -Captain America, Age of Ultron.

"You're mad at me."

"Obviously." Elena didn't turn around to look at Robb. She didn't want to see the pain in his eyes, the pain she had caused. She hated it, despised it to cause him pain but she also couldn't lie.

Of course she was angry. They had had something back in Winterfell for years. Yes she didn't listen to him and yes she did what Robb exactly told her not to do. But after 7 months he had forgotten her completely and married another when he had told Elena he wanted to marry her. 

It pained her a lot, especially now that she had lost Catelyn too. It also made her feel selfish and stupid. Robb had been through a lot more yet here she was being angry with him just because he couldn't stay alone in a dreadful year like this.

Elena turned around to look at Robb when he didn't reply. He had his head bowed, his body resting on his arms which were leaning on the table. Then she noticed a single tear falling down on the map of Westeros.

"Robb?" All her anger disappeared as she ran to his side. She softly laid her hand on his shoulder while the other directed his face towards hers by lifting his chin with one finger.

"What did you want me to do?" his voice was broken. "I thought you were dead, Elena. All I could feel was pain, it got even worse when father died. I-"

"Eddard is... dead?" Elena's eyes widened as she took a few steps back. Robb looked at her, he thought she knew that already. Robb pulled Elena closer while he nodded. She took a few steps back after brushing him off, keeping distance between her and him.

"How did... he..." Elena could barely speak. Eddard Stark was like a father to her and now she had lost him too.

"Joffrey beheaded him for treason he didn't commit." Robb turned away from Elena again. He couldn't bear to see the tears streaming down her face.

"Why?" Now Elena felt like even more a failure.

"I don't know, Elena. All I know is that Sansa and Arya are being helt captive in the capital with no way out."

"No..." Elena stuttered as her legs almost gave out under her weight. She cast her eyes down to the floor with numerous thoughts storming through her head. How in the seven hells was she going to save Sansa and Arya? While still keeping Robb safe? 

"So that's why you started a war." Elena concluded. At first she had no idea why Robb had called his bannermen to war. Now she finally understood.

"We have to save Sansa and Arya and we have to avenge my father." Robb stood tall again, regaining his hope and determination. He knew he had to win this war, no matter the cost. He had to pull through whatever shit he was going through, with or without Elena. 

"Where are Bran and Rickon?" Elena gathered her strength and blinked the few tears away.

"We don't know. We couldn't take them with us. Bran can't walk and Rickon would never leave him. After all, there must always be a Stark in Winterfell. But then Greyjoy betrayed us." Robb spoke with venom in his voice. He trusted Theon, yet he betrayed him and took his castle.

"What?" Elena felt even more defeated. Was Robb truly the only Stark she succeeded to protect?

"They burned down Winterfell after they had surrounded the castle. We don't know if Bran and Rickon have died with it or if they escaped." Robb clenched his fists. "Either way we can't search for them, the Karstarks have abandoned us and apparently the Boltons have turned against us."

"How in the heavens did all of this happen?" Elena exclaimed as she threw her hands in the air. Their situation had become hopeless. She almost lost all hope. Almost.

"Rickard Karstark had killed 2 innocent Lannisters boys when I clearly ordered him to stay away from them. I... I had to make an example, there was no other way." Robb stuttered, clearly still frustrated by the whole situation that had played out. "Then his people turned against us." You could see the regret in Robb's eyes. He knew he shouldn't have done it, otherwise he would have had a much larger army now.

"So Roose Bolton saw that the situation was hopeless so he chose for the winning side and betrayed you." Elena finished Robb as she came to stand beside him, looking at the map.

"More or less." Robb sighed. "I have failed, I shouldn't have beheaded Karstark, I shouldn't have married Talisa, I shouldn't have started a war in the first place."

Robb bit on his lip as his eyes were trained on the map before him. His shoulders slumped slightly as he sighed in defeat. "Now look at me. The Young Wolf they call me, they say I can never be killed. They couldn't have been more wrong."

"Don't give up just yet." Elena put her hand on Robb's arm, soothing him. "We will see what happens after the battle of the Twins, then you can decide if we are hopeless or not."

Robb looked at Elena for a while. Her eyes green like leaves, golden hair and skin as pale as snow. When you first see her, she looks like an average woman. But when you look closer, you can see just how beautiful she actually is.

"You've changed a lot." Robb said, remembering the scared girl from the Kingsroad.

~

Several years ago.

"The truth about being a lord is that everyone in your castle is a child you need to protect, the woman scrubbing the floor, the maid cooking your dinner, the orphan boy stealing food to survive. You have to protect every single one of them." Lord Eddard Stark told his son. They were riding over the Kingsroad, he was showing his son just how large the north was.
Robb remained silent, he didn't know just how to respond to his father's words.

"One day you will become lord of Winterfell and I won't be there to guide you when you do." Ned said and stroked the neck of his horse. It was becoming restless, like all the horses his guards were riding on.

Suddenly a guard who had been riding ahead came riding back fast.

"My Lord." he could barely muster out, he had been riding on top speed so he was out of breath. "We've found something."

~

"What is this?" Ned said as he stepped off of his horse. Dead men were scattered around the road. The Lord followed the path of corpses into the woods, were it came to an end. Only there was a woman, sitting on the ground while craddling a dead man in her arms.

"What in the seven hells happened here." One of his guards said as his eyes wandered over the corpses.

Ned bowed down next to a corpse, examining his wounds. He hadn't been killed by a sword nor by an arrow. All Ned could see was water, small pools of water on the forest' ground. Only there had been no rain the past weeks.

"Father." Robb silently called him, looking at the woman. No men had dared to walk towards her or even mutter a word in her direction. Eddard walked towards the woman, she had golden locks, that's all he could see. She was silently whimpering as she held onto the dead man's body.

"My lady?" Eddard crouched down in front of her. He scared her, that he saw when she jumped a little after hearing his voice. She slowly looked up at him, her eyes were bloodshot from the crying and her body was red with blood.

But Eddard knew she meant no harm. The bodies laying on the ground were Northerners. All he didn't understand was how or by whom they died. Eddard reached towards her golden locks to put it behind her ear. There was a tiny mark there, of an eagle.

Then he knew what she was. He knew who had killed the Northerners and how.

"Help me." The woman said pleadingly.

"Robb." Ned called for his son, who now walked towards him.

"Yes father?"

"Bring her to Measter Luwin, see that he takes care of her." Eddard stood up and walked towards his horse.

"But father, we don't know who she is." Robb protested as he looked down at the woman.

"I do." Lord Stark said and then quickly mounted his horse and sped away.

~

"You changed too you know, probably more than me." Elena said and looked up at Robb. She remembered the arrogant boy she met the first day she was in Winterfell. She remembered the hateful words he spoke and the way he held himself, as if he was better than all the rest. Now here he was, a king who dreaded the war and hated killing prisoners. 

"Your grace-" A man stumbled into the tent. "Pardon me, your grace." He quickly said. Then he noticed Elena standing there and quickly added. "My lady." with a smile she recognized too well.

"What's wrong Gillian?" Robb stood up tall, remembering to look like a king and not some man who just lost everything. 

"The scouts have spotted a Lannister army coming our way, they will be here by sundown." Gillian regained his position and caught his breath, he had been running towards the tent.

"Then we have no time to lose." Robb said. He nodded at Elena and then left the tent, probably to give the men orders to get to their positions.

"Gillian!" In a blink of an eye she had run towards her and engulfed him in a tight hug. "I missed you." She whispered against his tunic.

"Elena." He bowed with a smile after softly pushing her off. "I thought we were going to die at the Twins yesterday, glad you came to stop that." The usual playful light played in his eyes. 

Elena laughed at him while he grinned. Back when Elena lived in Winterfell, Gillian would come by every now and then. They had become great friends, they knew almost everything about each other.

"Have you found the item I was looking for?" Elena asked, going straight to the point.

"Well it's been a year, I had enough time. It's in my tent, if you would like to follow me." Gillian stepped out of the King's tent after he made sure Elena was following him. He then softly took her hand in his, savouring the feeling of her warm hand engulfing his. He had to be honest with himself, even he had feared that he had lost Elena. Yet he knew deep inside that she never died.

"Any word about the Dark One?" Elena smiled and softly gave his hand a squeeze.

"Nope, nothing. Why do you even think he's still alive?" Gillian looked at her over his shoulder.

"Because someone so powerful cannot be killed easily." She sighed. She had hoped he was dead, but she knew he wasn't. He could have killed an army on his own so he probably was still alive after being shot by a stable boy.

The two arrived at the tent where Gillian immediately began searching for the book he had found for Elena.

"Here." He handed it to her after he had found it between his personal belongings. He had kept it save through the year, he didn't believe Elena had died. He knew her too well, he knew that she would never give up her live to save but one while she could save so many others. Plus she had told him about her healing powers and the side-affects. 

"Are you sure this is it?" Elena asked while turning the book around and examining it closely.

"Yes, definitely." Gillian had stolen it on his own. He had always been a great thief, only he stole only from the rich. "What is it you want to know exactly?"

"Well, you know every last one of my kind has been killed by the Targaryens except for the Dark One and me?" Elena said as she flipped through the pages of the old book.

"Yes, that much you told me."

"They didn't kill the Dark One because they couldn't do it, he was way too powerful and at that time their dragons were all dead."

"Continue." Gillian leaned on a desk in his tent while looking at Elena.

"Well, what I'm trying to find out is why they kept me alive, they knew I existed and they knew who I was."

"Maybe they just didn't want your kind to be extinguished?" Gillian shrugged.

"Why? They killed all the others because they formed a danger to them. Won't I be even more dangerous now that they have killed my family?"

"You've got a point there." Gillian sighed as he sat down next to Elena. "But you know we are going to battle in a matter of hours, right?"

"I know... I just, I'm scared." Elena sighed and closed the book. "So much depends on me, if I fail the battle is lost."

"You've never lost a battle before, why worry about it now?" Gillian laid a hand on Elena's shoulder to comfort her.

"Because I have lost battles, Gillian. I failed to protect my family. Catelyn, Brandon, Rickon, Sansa, Arya, Eddard and who knows maybe Jon." Tears started to built up in her eyes. She looked up at Gillian, desperate for hope.

"Then don't fight to win, fight for revenge tonight."