White flags. The token of peace. Why was he carrying one, Jaime Lannister, the one who probably started it all by throwing Brann out of the window back in Winterfell. Elena had heard the stories about what happened in King's Landing, about Cersei and the High Sparrow. About the queen who was still locked up somewhere while the priests waited till she confessed.

Maybe it was because they're tired too, Elena thought, with everything going on in King's Landing they also can't deal with it all anymore. She walked down the stairs of the wall and towards the courtyard, completely ignoring everyone's conversations as she was too caught up in her own mind.

It was highly unlikely though that the Lannisters would beg for peace. They were in the advantage now with their army standing right at the doorstep of the already broken castle. Robb's army was weakened and as were his guardians.

Especially me, Elena thought as she knelt down in the mud next to Gillian's body. She felt like she couldn't breathe, couldn't think clearly. She sat there, looking around at the courtyard and the people. Ella's body had already been removed from the floor but her friend was still there. "Remember the first time you told me to never give up?" Elena looked down at her hands that were folded in her lap. She swallowed the lump that was growing in her throat as she started to process everything that had happened that day. Gillian, Ella and Aidan were all gone. Her own best friend's body was laying on the ground next to her, with her own Arrow in his chest.

"It was that day that I was planning to run away from Winterfell. I was lonely, sick. I knew I would never become a Stark like them. I was even more an outcast than Jon was. Then I had that big fight with Robb. I cried and I cried, but you were there." Elena let a single tear roll down her cheek as she looked at Gillian's face. His eyes were closed, a few drops of blood in the corner of his mouth.

"That's when you first told me." Elena chuckled sadly and took one of Gillian's ice cold hands. "You may have not known it at that time but it helped so much. You were Always there even though I probably rarely was there for you. But I did listen, you know. Always when there was something drastic going on, I would repeat it in my head over and over again. "Never give up". After some time I even heard your voice saying it if I concentrated well enough. And it Always helped. I did everything I needed and I never gave up, just like you told me."

Elena remained silent for a while, holding Gillian's dagger in her hands and twisting it around. "Now though, I don't know what to do." She looked up at the sky, droplets falling down on her pale skin as it began to rain. "You were Always the strong one, the one with the plan. After you were gone it was Damon who took the lead, not Robb or anyone else. Now he's gone too, and as is Aidan and Ella."

"Never give up." Elena repeated. "But what if giving up means peace, what if giving up means surrendering to the Lannisters and probably saving a whole lot of lives from a horrible death?" She looked down at Gillian again, half expecting an answer from him. "Knowing you you would choose to fight. But you don't know how it feels to be a guardian, to have this instict to protect everyone but yourself. If surrendering means protecting all of those people, is it really giving up? I mean, you're not giving up on the people, you're only saving them. The only thing you're giving up is your own life. But compared to all those others, thousands of people, mine isn't really worth that much."

Elena remained silent again for a few moments. "You would probably hit me right now telling me to stop talking like this and then make some stupid joke to try and lighten the mood if you were here. Like you Always did." Elena chuckled softly. She watched as bowmen started to climb up the wall and take their positions, as swordsmen started to barricade all the gates except one. 

"You know, I knew it this whole time. I've known it since the day you told me to leave Robb. You were Always so kind, so selfless that I thought that I wouldn't be enough for you. That's why I never told you." Elena squeezed Gillian's hand, trying to swallow the lump in her throat but it wasn't going anywhere. "All this time I pretended to not know how you felt about me to try and shield you from the truth. The bitter truth that all this time I also loved you."

Elena fell silent again, looking at Robb who was deep in conversation with Steven. Silent tears flowed down her cheeks but she didn't care anymore. "I guess that's what we always did, isn't it?" Elena looked back down at Gillian. "Keeping secrets from each other thinking that in doing so the other wouldn't get hurt."

Elena thought about the many secrets Gillian had kept from her. He lied to her about her family, her true heritage, about who she was. All this time Gillian had known that she was Aemon's bastard daughter and that she had two brothers. But how he knew that was a mystery to her. Compared to the secret she kept from him though, that didn't matter so much.

"In the end though, we always get hurt." Elena whispered and then broke down, clutching herself onto Gillian, never wanted to let go.

~

Winterfell, 5 years ago.

"Jon!!" Gillian yelled from accros the courtyard as he entered the castle on the back of his horse, trotting towards his friend. He gracefully leapt down from his horse and envelloped Jon in his arms before letting go and smiling at him. 

"Karstark, didn't expect to see you here." Jon smiled at him kindly, his hands on both Gillian's shoulders. 

"Yeah, well. I couldn't wait till I received word from Elena telling me she's back from King's Landing so instead I went here so that when she comes back, I already will be here." Gillian explained as Jon led them both to one of the benches in the courtyard where they sat down next to each other. "I mean, after 2 weeks alone with Robb I think she might need me to tell all the horrible stories about their time together."

Jon chuckled, looking at his friend fondly. "You might be mistaken, my friend." 

"Of course I'm not mistaken." Gillian huffed and frowned a little but then smiled at Jon again. "I think I know her better than any of you do. She hates your brother with all her heart. Especially how he walks you know."Gillian imitaed Robb by sticking his chest out and looking very serious, his eyebrows in a frown and his mouth in a thin line with his hands glasped around the sword on his waist. "I am lord Stark and you will do everything I say."

"Well, I won't argue with that." Jon laughed and then elbowed his friend. Gillian joined him soon after, dropping the facade.

"Who are they?" Gillian spoke after a long comfortable silence when 6 people entered the courtyard of Winterfell. They seemed odd, there were 4 males and 2 females, one little girl. They were all in complete armor except for the girl who ran after a stray dog, yelling "loki" as she did so. 

"I don't know, maybe I should inform my fa-... Lord Stark about this." Jon said. 

"Do that, I'm going to talk to them." Gillian and Jon both stood up, Jon walking towards the Castle while Gillian sped towards the odd group. One of them saw him walking towards them, him having hair that looked like gold and had blue eyes. 

"Can I help you?" Gillian asked when he arrived, inspecting each one of them closely. 

"Well, yes, thank you my lord. We're looking for Elena Snow." The one with the blond hair stated as he smiled at Gillian. 

"She's not here." Gillian answered and then frowned even more. What did they want with his Elena?

"Right... Well, will you be so kind as to inform her-"

"Oh, shut up Steven." The big one with the black hair growled and pushed Steven aside and came to stand before Gillian, towering over him while his blue eyes stared down at him intimidatelly. "Where's she?" 

"Hello to you too, grumpy." Gillian huffed. "I think I would rather talk with the blond guy here, thank you very much." Damon rolled his eyes in response while Steven cracked and stiffled a laugh.

"I like this guy!" A rather cheerful lad pushed both Steven and Damon aside so he could look at Gillian. "Louis is the name. The respected Leader of this little company and the fastest man alive."

"You wish." Damon huffed and crossed his arms before his chest.

"Pleasure." Gillian shook the hand Louis had offered. Behind them the older man yelled when his daughter went out of sight, still chasing after her dog. He sighed, excused himself and ran after his little girl. "So what do you want with Elena? Is she in trouble?"

"Not at all, of course not." Steven quickly ranted.

"Steeee-ven." Louis dragged out the first syllable. "Didn't your mother tell you not to lie to strangers?" He playfully slapped Steven's arm with a smirk on his face. "Shame on you."

"Wait, she is?" Gillian grew worried. 

"Seven hells, you guys really can't handle anything, can you?" A woman pushed Louis aside and looked at Gillian with her green eyes. Her black hair hanged before her eyes.

"Look, whoever you are-"

"Gillian."

"I don't care." Santana snapped and then continued. "We're kind of on a tight schedule since my sister's murderer is walking around unharmed. So can you please just tell us where Elena Snow is so we can stop him?"

"How in the seven hells can Elena help with that?" Gillian took a step back, looking at the strangers before him. They seemed like trouble, especially the dark haired man who looked dangerously at him.  "Look, I'm not going to put her in danger by telling you guys where she is. Especially not when I don't know who the hell you are or who this sister of yours is."

"Aww, he has a crush on your sister, Damon." Louis nudged him and smirked as Damon rolled his eyes in response. Gillian however grew even more confused.

"Shut up, Louis."

"You shut up." Louis pushed Damon again. He was clearly taunting him, that Gillian knew, especially when a develish smirk appeared on Louis's thin lips. "Damon is a pussy!" Louis yelled at the top of his longs and then sprinted away. 

"You little-" The other words were lost to Gillian as Damon chased after Louis.

"Are they always like that?" Gillian looked at Steven.

"Yeah, they are." Steven smiled softly, looking at Damon and Louis. "But you know, they kind of grow on you after some time. They're like family, you know?"

"That's really sweet of you Steven but we really need to get back to the subject." Santana interrupted and turned to Gillian again. "I won't ask again, pretty boy, where is Elena Snow?"

"I won't tell anything unless you explain everything there is to know." Gillian stated and crossed his arms stubbornly. 

"I warned you,-" Her hand reached for something on her belt but Steven took her wrist before she could grasp it.

"Santana, please, he's only trying to protect her." Steven looked deeply into her eyes.

"Just because lover boy here thinks he's smart doesn't mean we have to waiste time on him."

"Lover boy?" Gillian raised his eyebrows. 

"Just think about your family, Steve, they'd want you to come back home as soon as possible, right? The only way we can do that is by killing Ethan and the only way to do that is to use Elena as bait." Santana said. "Your son and daughters are waiting for you, don't you want to see them again?"

"Bait?! Are you crazy?" Gillian's eyes widened.

"They know what I'm doing and they know it's what needs to be done. They'd want me to handle this the right way." Steven said.

"Dammit Steve, why do you have to be so goddamn uptight and-"

"Hey, don't ignore me!"Gillian stepped between Steven and Santana. He looked at both of them intently before speaking clearly. "No one is going to use Elena as bait, not on my watch, understood?"

Steven and Santana exchanged glances. It seemed almost as if they were talking to each other mentally. Which they were actually, but Gillian didn't know that was possible at that time. 

"If we tell you everything, IF we do that, will you tell us where she is?"Steven asked.

"Depends if it brings her in harm's way or not." 

"You might not like what you hear." 

"I don't care." Gillian said stubbornly. 

Steven sighed and closed his eyes as Santana threw her hands in the air and walked away, cursing to herself. Steven nodded and led Gillian to the Godswood where they both sat down. He folded his hands in his lap as he looked at Gillian. "This might take some time."

Author's note

Hey guys, me here. I just wanted to say some things. Lately school has been bombarding me with a lot of projects and group assignments so I'm kind of stressed out right now. The low amount of votes didn't really help, like, at all. Last chapter there were 2... Can you guys pleaseee go back and vote on that chapter and then go back and vote on this one? I really put a lot of effort in this story and lately I've been doubting wheter or not to finish it because I really don't have the time. So pleaaase vote (maybe because I updated early? :)) ) 

And I guess I will see you little guardians next chapter!