"If I didn't have you I there would be nothing left, a shadow of a man who could never be his best." - One Direction, Drag me Down

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Elena yelled when she landed right next to Jon. He was already on the other side of the Wall, between the forest and the gates to Castle Black.

Jon sighed deeply and stopped walking, looking at Elena. His face was drained, he looked absolutely exhausted both mentally and physically.

"I have to put an end to this slaughter." Jon looked down, remembering Ygritte's face when she died in his arms. Even though Olly had shot her, Jon didn't blame him. He knew the boy did only what he thought was right and nothing more.

"By walking to the enemy's camp on yourself? How in the heavens is that going to help anyone?!" Elena was furious, Jon would just put his life on stake so easily even after who they had already lost.

"Someone has to do something." Jon said, a frown forming on his face.

"You think suicide is going to fucking help?"

"You don't even know what I'm planning to do." Jon protested.

"Does it even matter? Think about Arya, Jon, how do you think she'd react when she finds out you just walked into the enemy's camp and let them kill you?" Elena knew that Arya and Jon had always been close. It was the smallest of things that showed it, Jon always ruffling her hair and smiling whenever they were together.

"They know me." Jon said. He wasn't sure about how the free folk would react when he'd come back dressed fully in black again.

"You betrayed them." Elena narrowed her eyes at him.

"What do you want me to do, Elena? I can't just sit back there waiting for the next attack! We're talking about thousands of lives that are at stake here." Jon raised his voice. "If you had the chance of saving thousands of people, wouldn't you do it too?"

"How do you plan on saving those thousands of people? Are you just going to walk there and say "hey lads, let's stop the fighting, shall we? Why don't you go back and team up with the white walkers while we sit here safely behind the wall?"" Elena crossed her arms before her chest and lifted one eyebrow after she had rolled her eyes.

Jon closed his eyes to try and contain his anger. He knew Elena was only trying to save his life but at this point he didn't care about his life anymore. "I'm going to speak to Mance Rayder." Jon said.

"Oh really?" Elena chuckled angrily. "Sure, I'm certain that those savages will just let you talk to their king after you betrayed them and killed their brothers."

"I have to try." Jon said.

"How could you do this? Do you even have the slightest idea of how Robb feels about this? How Arya who missed you the most will feel about this? How I feel about this?! You can't just leave us after everything we've been through!" Tears of frustration filled Elena's eyes and dropped down her cheek, she angrily wiped them away with her arm.

"I have no other choice, you know this." Jon sighed and laid his hand on Elena's shoulder when tears continued to stream down her face. "I know that Mance will never surrender, not when he has come this far. But if I can kill him, they will have no leader anymore, the free folk will scatter without their king. Don't you see? Mance is the only thing that keeps them together."

Elena nodded silently but refused to look at her friend. If it had been up to her, she'd probably do the same. Her life for a thousand others seemed like a fair trade. "I will go." She looked at Jon.

"No, they will never let you see Mance. They know me. Besides, Mance will want to hear my reasons for abandoning him. I can convince them that I came for a deal because I'm a brother of the Night's Watch. You're just a Northern girl for them, Elena. They'd probably rape you before you can even set a foot in their camp." Jon stated and sighed when he saw the lost look in her eyes. "I'm the only one who has a chance to reach Mance. I have to go."

"I'm going with you." Elena stated.

"Elena-" Jon protested.

"I'm going with you." Elena repeated stubbornly. If he was to go into the enemy's lair, at least he will have a guardian by his side to protect him.

Jon nodded, knowing that Elena would never let him go alone. "Stay close to me." Jon sighed and walked towards the free folk's camp with Elena trailing behind him.

~

"You're wearing a black cloak again." Mance stated and looked at Jon as he came walking towards him with his hands in the air, Elena following him.

"I've been sent to negotiate with you." Jon said, ignoring Mance' remark. They were surrounded by other free folk, all of their lances and spears pointed at Jon and Elena.

Mance nodded and walked into his tent. Jon took it as an invitation and entered it also while holding Elena's arm. He knew he couldn't leave her outside, the wildlings were already looking at her hungrily. To be honest, Jon didn't blame them. The armor that Elena wore showed her curves even more than normally.

"It appears my trusting nature got the better of me. It has happened before. I was hoping your loyalty was real when you pledged yourself to us, Jon Snow. I truly was." Mance said and sat down on a bench in his tent. Other wildlings were still surrounding Elena and Jon, their gazes fixated on them.

"The Halfhand ordered me to join your army and bring back whatever information I could to Castle Black. He made me kill him so you'd trust me. I was loyal to him and to my Night's Watch vows." Jon sat down also but Elena kept standing, awkwardly looking around the tent.

"All your vows?" Mance looked deeply into Jon's eyes, he knew what Jon and Ygritte did in that cave. "She wasn't enough to turn you, eh? Were you enough to turn her?"

"She put three arrows in me when I escaped." Jon sighed and looked down. He hated talking about her.

"Did you see her again in Castle Black?" Mance asked.

"Yes."

"And?" Mance urged.

"She's dead." Jon said and looked at Mance.

"Your doing?"

"No." Jon was done talking about her but he knew that if he wanted to kill Mance, he'd first have to make him trust him.

"We'll drink to her." Mance said and immediately one of his men in the tent got him two drinks, ignoring Elena.

"Of all the ways I'd kill you, poison would be the last." Mance sighed when Jon looked at the mug.

"Ygritte." They both said and toasted.

"So you're here to strike a bargain?" Mance asked and sat back.

"Turn your army around and go home." Jon said.

"You know I know you're low on arrows, you're low on oil, you're low on men. How many are left, fifty?" Mance objected, thinking he could easily defeat the Night's Watch.

"We have a 10 000." Jon said. "And we have 6 guardians to guard the Wall."

"I showed you everything I had. The whole army, 100 000 strong. And what did you do, you fired on us with everything you had. It wasn't much." Mance said, remembering last night.

"As soon as I saw that, I sent 400 men to climb the wall at an unmanned stretch 5 miles west of here. A lot of them will die climbing but most of them will be over by the end of the day." Mance continued.

"It's me being honest with you, Jon Snow, which is more than you've ever done for me. My people have bled enough, we're here to hide behind your wall just like you. We need your tunnel." Mance leaned forward so he could look Jon deeper in the eye.

"Now we both know Winter is Coming. If my people aren't south of the Wall when it comes in earnest, we'll all end up worse than dead.
You want to strike a bargain with me? Here's the bargain; you go back, open the gates to us and I swear to you that no one else will die. Refuse, and we'll kill every last man in Castle Black." Mance said, looking at Jon, waiting for his answer. But he did something else entirely.

Jon grasped for his sword which led to all the wildlings yelling at him, Elena unwrapping her wings and aiming her hands at the wildlings.

"Oh, so that's why you're here. I reckon you could do it before any of them could stop you. They'd probably kill you and your friend of course. They'd kill you slow but you knew that when you came here." Mance said, looking between Jon and Elena who were both ready to kill if need be. "Are you capable of that Jon Snow? Killing a man in his own tent when he's just offered you peace? Is that what the Night's Watch is? Is that what you are?"

Jon hesitated, thinking over Mance's words. It wasn't what he is, killing a man like that. But it was something that needed to be done to protect his family and country.

There was a long silence, everyone was prepared for attack, looking at each other closely to await their first move. Only the wildlings were waiting for Mance's command and Elena for Jon's. Only she got freaked out by a Thenn that was winking and smirking at her.

Suddenly a horn from outside startled everyone in the tent. Immediately it was chaos, the wildlings grasped Jon and Elena, trapping their protesting bodies while yelling at them.

"Are you attacking us?!" A wildling yelled in Jon's ear as he held his arms behind his back.

"Just like you said, we don't have the men!" Jon objected while struggling in the hold of his captor. He surrendered and looked at Elena, a Thenn was holding her body tightly, chuckling at her protests to try to break free.

Mance ran outside when the horn blew twice, everyone else following. There was an army galloping towards them, the soldiers dressed in iron. The battle cry filled the air as they attacked the wildling camp from both sides, trapping the free folk.

Many wildlings were slaughtered, they were unprepared. Elena, who was still struggling in the Thenn's hold, looked at Jon who was standing there without a captor.

"Jon!" Elena called him. "It's Stannis." She said when he looked at her.

"Stand down!" Mance yelled at his men that were standing around him. He knew he was lost the minute he saw the army. "I said my people have bled enough and I meant it."

Within no time the wildlings were alleither dead or captured except for Mance and the people surrounding him. Stannis got off of his horse while ser Davos was beside him and walked towards Mance, the fiery heart on his breastplate clear and covered in blood.

"You're the king-beyond-the-wall?" Stannis asked while looking at Mance. Obviously Stannis was unimpressed, the battle was too easy. Mance nodded simply.

"Do you know who I am?" Stannis asked.

"Never had the pleasure." Mance replied and sighed deeply.

"You're speaking to Stannis Baratheon, the one true king of the andals and the first men, king of the seven kingdoms and protector of the realm." Davos summed up while standing up tall.

"We're not in the seven kingdoms and you're not dressed for this weather." Mance said.

"It is customary to kneel when surrendering to a king." Stannis said, still scanning Mance.

"We do not kneel." Mance said even though it could mean the death of all his people.

"I'll have thousands of your men in chains by nightfall, have no where to keep them, nothing to feed them. I'm not here to slaughter beat dogs. Their fate depends on their king." Stannis said, thinking he could convince Mance this way.

"All the same, we do not kneel." Mance said stubbornly, his head held high. He had too much pride for his own good.

"Take these men away." Stannis sighed and turned to walk away.

"What's a man of the Night's Watch and a northern girl doing in a wildling camp?" Davos sighed, eyeing Jon and Elena.

"I was sent here to discuss terms with the king-beyond-the-wall." Jon answered while looking at Stannis.

"You're speaking to the one true king, boy. You will address him as your grace." Davos said.

"I know he's the king, my father died for him." Jon protested, a hint of anger lingering in his voice. "My name is Jon Snow, your grace, I'm Ned Stark's son."

"Your father was an honorable man." Was the only thing Stannis said. Then he turned to Mance again. "What do you think he'd have done with him?"

"I was this man's prisoner once. He spared my live. My father would've taken him prisoner."

"Very well." Stannis motioned for his men to take Mance, which they did in a heartbeat. Only then did Stannis see Elena.

"What about you, girl, who are you?" Stannis asked while looking at the sigil of house Stark that was painted on Elena's armor.

"I'm Robb Stark's guardian." Elena said. She didn't like Stannis at all, she just had this bad feeling when she saw him.

"Guardians have been extinct for years." Stannis looked at her suspiciously.

"Evidently not." Elena unwrapped her wings and raised one of her eyebrows at him.

"Well then, I'm sorry for your loss. Robb Stark fought bravely." Stannis said and turned to walk away.

"He's not dead." Elena smiled and watched as Stannis turned towards her again, confusion clear on his face. "Actually he's just there, on the other side of the Wall."

"Take them prisoner." Stannis suddenly ordered, motioning at Jon and Elena.

"What?!" Jon looked at him while Stannis' men held his arms behind his back.

"Robb Stark is an usurper." Stannis said while looking at Elena who was struggling in the men's hold.

"Our father supported your claim, he fucking died for you! Is this how you're going to repay him, by killing his son in cold blood?!" Jon yelled, trying to get his arms out of the soldier' grasp.

"Don't worry." Elena chuckled, her eyes narrowed at Stannis while calmly letting the soldiers hold her. "Robb will never let him get past the Wall."

"Then I will break through it." Stannis said.

"You really think he would let you?" Elena chuckled lightly. "He has 10 000 men on the Wall and another 7 000 around the North. He has 5 guardians protecting him every second of every day, including the Dark One. I don't think he has anything to fear from you, Stannis Baratheon. And if he heard you've imprisoned his brother, I don't think you have a lot of time left."

"How does he plan on defeating the Boltons and the Lannisters?" Stannis asked, stepping closer to Elena. He knew that it was almost impossible to defeat the Boltons now that they have Winterfell.

She chuckled when she heard the sound of hoofs coming their way. When she looked, she saw Robb with 200 men at his back, Grey Wind sprinting before him and the other Guardians at his side riding towards them.

Elena smirked and looked at Stannis.
"Why don't you go and ask him yourself?"

Author's note

So hellooooooooo there.

This was kind of a filler chapter so pleassseeee don't stop reaaaading!! It is extra long so that I could put all the boring shit into one chapter so next one is going to be better. (I hope)

For this chapter I wanted to ask you guys how you feel about Stannis. Some people really love him and think that he should get the Throne but others completely hate him. So I really wanted to know your opinions about him!

Thank you guys and see you next chapter!

(pleaaase click on that vote button, my school starts this tuesday and I really need something to cheer me up....)