"Everyone creates the thing they dread." Ultron, Avengers: Age Of Ultron

"I don't like it here, at all." Steven sighed when they entered Harrenhal. All the stones were scorched and the towers were all destroyed. Once this was one of the greatest fortresses in Westeros. Now though it was just a ruin. The dragon fire had casted a curse on it most people would say. If you would walk into the castle you could feel this presence everywhere no matter where you went. It was like it was haunting you but never did it show itself.

"We should check if anyone is here." Robb instinctively wrapped his arm around Elena's waist. He looked around as he frowned when there was no one inside the castle. It was abandoned, no sign of life anywhere. Something must've happened to his men here in the time they had left. The only thing they found though when they searched the castle was some blood spatters here and there, nobody or corpse to be seen.

"Bring him to the dungeons." Damon nodded at the guards who held Gillian in their arms. Damon walked up to Elena and Robb, looking at how Robb was trying to protect her from the haunting feeling the Castle brought.

"We shouldn't stay here too long." Damon said while looking at Robb. "When Steven says he doesn't like something, it means that something is absolutely and definitely wrong."

"We need to regroup our men, need to get ready for the next journey." Robb sighed and looked around at the broken towers and black stones. "It will probably take a few days. We'll also need to decide how many men we'll leave behind here. If we'll leave anyone here at all."

"If you ask me I'd rather just stay somewhere in a camp in the midst of the forest than here." Elena took in a deep breath. She crawled closer against Robb's chest while looking around, searching for whatever was in this castle.

"Elena is right, your grace." Steven said. "Your men must've left here for a reason. Maybe they're somewhere in the forest close by. We need to find them to know what happened."

"We'll send a party to search for them."

"Then I'll lead them" Steven proposed and already began to pack for the journey. "I'll find some good men and I'll be gone before sundown. If I'm not back in 5 days, don't come back searching for me."

"But Steve-"

"I'll be fine." Steven smiled at Elena and stroked Ella's hair when she hugged him tightly to say goodbye. "Probably finer than you when you stay here too long."

"Try not to get killed." Elena smiled at him.

Steven chuckled as he mounted his horse again. "I will try."

~

"Damon?" Elena entered the room he was in during the night. She saw him standing there, staring out of the window while in deep thought.

"Is everything okay?" Damon glanced at her with a concerned frown on his face.

"I'm fine, I just... I wanted to thank you."

"Thank me for what, exactly?" Damon looked down at her when she came to stand next to him.

"For bearing with my shit." Elena chuckled and looked at the landscape before them. "I know I've been a handful the past few days, denying the fact you're my brother, getting angry at you for nothing. Most of all though, being an ungrateful little shit."

"It wasn't that bad." Damon chuckled lightly and put his hand on Elena's shoulder. He looked back out of the window and noticed Aidan with his daughter walking there. "You've been worse. When you were little you used to cry a lot. Not just crying though, you screamed your lungs out for everyone to hear."

"That does sound like me." Elena smiled and followed Ella with her eyes as she danced around on the plain field. Damon also smiled lightly, remaining silent. "Still, I would like to apologize. I kept on thinking about how all of this was hurting me instead of even wondering how you felt about it. I was selfish."

"You had other things on your mind." Damon said. "I'll be okay. I've been through worse, as you probably already know. Luckily we still have him and all the others." Damon nodded at Aidan.

"Damon?" Elena looked up at him. "How did you come to meet Aidan? I've just been wondering this whole time how everyone knows each other. First time I met the others you were already a team."

Damon nodded. "Aidan took me in a few months after Ethan went completely dark. He was already a mentor for the rest of us, including Steven, Louis, Santana and some other people who have either died or just left.

He was like a father for all of us, still is. Only he is growing more silent and introvert than before." Damon told Elena. "He learned us new spells, taught us how to defend ourselves with normal weapons. He also gave us food and shelter when we had nothing yet he didn't want anything in return. He was lonely himself, he told us, he needed the company and the help with raising little Ella. He taught us how to take care of others and how to protect them. Most of all he taught us how to control the darkness inside of us. He gave me private lessons for more than a year."

"I was giving the old man some pretty rough time to finally get through to me." Damon chuckled. He looked down at Elena and connected their eyes. "He's the wisest person I've ever met."

"So he was your mentor?"

"He was. I always call him old man though, even though he doesn't like it." Damon chuckled. Suddenly though his expression saddened. "He's changing. All the terror, all the death, it's getting to him. He's probably afraid that he'll lose his daughter. Especially after what we just heard about the..." Damon sighed.

Elena looked up at him and frowned. "Damon? What's going on?" She noticed the fear in his eyes and the shaking of his hands.

Damon only sighed, rubbing his eyes as he waved Elena's hand away.

"Damon?" Elena repeated his name and tried to take a look at his eyes. She couldn't think of anything or anyone that could scare him except for one person.

"It's him, isn't it?" Elena's eyes widened. "What did he ask of you? What does he want?"

Damon avoided Elena's prying eyes. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does!" Elena exclaimed. "Look, Damon, I'm your sister and we're talking about our evil brother here. As family you're supposed to trust me with issues like this."

Damon looked at her familiar green eyes. "He commanded me to kill Ella. Else he will kill you, my daughter and Steven." He sighed in defeat. "I won't let that happen, never."

"Damon, look at me." Elena demanded when he diverted his eyes away from her. "We have to fight this. We can't just do everything he wants us to do. This way it'll never end. We have to fight this." Elena laid her hands on her brother's cheek. "We can defeat him, together. The others can take care of their selves."

"He's stronger, he has more powers."

"Damon-"

"No, Elena! I've tried already, okay?! Each time innocent people died because of it. I won't let that happen again, I won't." Damon protested as he ran his hands through his long black hair.

"If we don't fight him at all, innocent people will die nonetheless!" Elena shot back. "You were on your own then. Now, we have a whole army behind our backs."

Elena made him look at her when she pried his hands away from his face and held them tightly. "We can do this, together. As a team. I know we can." Elena softly laid her hands on his cheeks as she looked up at his bright blue eyes. Unlike Ethan's, his irises were full of light colors without any hint of black.

Elena was silent for a while, inspecting her brother's face like it was the first time she truly saw him. It was probably that moment that she finally accepted the fact that he was her brother. She was happy with him, more happy than she thought she was every going to be.

"Okay?" Elena whispered after a while.

"Okay." Damon answered and smiled at her when she smiled back.

"Elenaa!!!" Suddenly Robb's voice boomed through the whole castle. He wasn't just yelling her name, no, it sounded like a cry for a help. He was in deep trouble.

"Robb?!" Elena reacted immediately, running towards the door in a daze with Damon following right after her. She continued to yell his name as she followed his voice through the halls of the castle, running without stopping or taking a moment to take a breath.

"This is not you, try to concentrate!" Robb's voice rang through the walls. Elena was getting closer with every second.

"Robb?!"Elena arrived in the courtyard. What she saw though wasn't exactly what she had wanted to see. Gillian was on top of him with a knife clasped in his hands, holding it just above Robb's head. Robb though tried to push him off of him but Gillian was stronger than before, almost inhumanly strong.

"Gillian?! What are you doing?!" Elena yelled his name loudly. He looked up at the mention of his name. Gillian narrowed his crazed eyes at her as he slowly got up from Robb and directed all of his attention to her. His chest was bare, leaving the gash in his chest for everyone to see. Fresh blood was also covering his chest, blood that, Elena soon discovered, was Robb's.

"Gillian?" Elena glanced at Robb for a moment who was grasping at the multiple flesh wounds on his arm and a bite mark on his wrist. He groaned in agony loudly. "Gillian, look at me. Listen to my voice." Elena began to speak calmly but inside everything was falling apart in chaos. "This isn't you."

Gillian began to laugh with the knife in his hands, walking slowly towards Elena while narrowing his eyes at her. "This was Always me. I've Always wanted to kill him after everything he has done. He killed my father, stole you. The world is better off without him."

"Gillian, please. Just put the knife down and we'll forget about this." Elena closed the door behind her so Damon couldn't get in. She slowly and carefully extended her arm towards Gillian and opened her hand so he could lay the Knife in it. "Please." She whispered with tears in her eyes.

"Everything is clear to me now. Like it never was before. It now all falls into place, like pieces of a puzzle. It's simple but cruel." Gillian answered as he grasped the knife even tighter. "You Starks, Targaryens and Guardians are what's wrong with this world. You kill people while trying to desperately protect your own without noticing how you're destroying everything and everyone in your path."

"Elena, kill him!" Robb yelled when he had somewhat recovered from his wounds. He was trying to get back up but his foot was broken from the fight he had with Gillian before.

"You were doomed to fall." Gillian raised his knife at Elena, his eyes unfamiliar and the smirk on his face inhuman. He got closer to Elena until he was standing right in front of her, looking down at her green eyes without any sign of recognition in his.

"We can fight this, Gillian, if you'll just listen to me."

"It's not him, Elena! He died in Dreadfort, he never came back!" Robb tried to desperately protect her, stumbling through the courtyard, falling every step he took. He had to get to her, no matter how many times he fell.

"You need to pay your debt." Gillian said and then suddenly drove his knife into Elena's belly. She screamed in agony and surprise, falling to the floor with blood seeping through her wound. Gillian raised his bloody knife to hurt her again, not even showing the tiniest bit of regret.

"Elena!!!"

She blasted him away without any second thought, her hands covering her face to shield herself from the knife. Gillian was sent backwards until he hit a wall but soon got up again without showing at least a grimace of pain. He smirked at her again and grasped the knife from the ground, walking towards her slowly.

Then he was running. Elena knew that he would kill her. As quickly as she could she grasped an Arrow and her bow, nocking an Arrow and then drawing at Gillian. It all happened so fast. He was suddenly in front of her again, pushing to bow to the left right on the moment she was going to shoot.

Without giving her even the slightest chance of recovering Gillian grasped Elena's neck and lifted her up. He blocked her airway by clenching his hand around it.

"Get off of her, you bastard!" Robb yelled angrily as he tried to get up again. When he fell down for the tenth time though he decided that it'd better to just crawl.

"Gillian, please." Elena choked. She was already seeing black spots in her vision.

"Gillian Karstark is dead." He smiled, tightening his grasp even further.

Until suddenly his eyes widened and his grasp loosened. Elena fell to the floor, trying desperately to catch her breath to get rid of the black spots covering her vision. She looked up to see a sword poking out of Gillian's chest, his hands grasping at the metal.

For a moment it seemed like he was going to die. Only then Gillian turned around towards his attacker and pushed Jon away with all his strength. Jon's body collided with the wall and landed right next to Robb. Only Jon didn't stand back up.

Gillian walked towards Jon as he took his sword out of his body. He lifted it as he came closer and closer, ready to pierce it through his body.

"Hey!" Elena yelled.

Gillian stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned to look at her. His eyes landed on the arrow that was pointed right at his face. They lingered there before he glanced at Elena's eyes.

"You're too late." Gillian smirked and quickly grasped one of the knives from his belt and threw it at the man before him.

The arrow flew towards its target. But Gillian was right, it was too late.

(IT TOOK ME 32 FUCKING MINUTES BEFORE I COULD FIND THAT PICTURE SO YOU BETTER FUCKING ADMIRE THAT LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT BEFORE CLICKING THAT FUCKING VOTE BUTTON (seriously guys, just click on that cute little button) OR ELSE I WILL COME TO YOUR FUCKING HOUSE NO MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE AND SLAP YOU WITH A CHOCLATE CREAM CUPCAKE(that stinks, believe me. And if I made it they're probably disgusting too so you'd better do what I told you.))