When the night is coming down on you, we will find our way through the dark.

"Thought they'd never stop coming." Robb sighed in exhaustion, sitting down against a tree while looking at the Guardian in front of him. He still couldn't keep his eyes off her wings, they were immense and pearly white. He saw that it took Elena a great effort to move them since she wasn't used to having them yet.

Above all though Robb couldn't get over the fact that he finally admitted to himself that he liked her. She finally gave him a reason why she did what she did back at the Kingsroad. 

"Thought you'd never give me this sword." Elena chuckled while swaying the weapon Robb gave her after she had asked for it a million times. Elena's legs while trembling in exhaustion, she had used her powers too much and she knew that soon she'd fall into a long sleep. The reason she didn't tell Robb was that she didn't want to sound weak, not now when they could finally talk without yelling at each other.

"You didn't give me much of a choice, we'd have been dead if I didn't." Robb looked at all the wildlings they had killed. He almost felt regret but then he saw Elena's torn dress. He felt sympathy for Elena, seeing the way she walked and her expression. Anger built up in his stomach just at the mere thought of those men touching her soft skin.

"How far did they come?" Robb asked softly.

"Luckily not far." Elena sighed and sat down against another tree. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the cold wood, trying to keep the images of the savages trying to rape her out of her head. "Apparently I can't take care of myself anymore."

There was a moment of silence, Robb looked at the wounds he had gotten from the fight while he was deep in thought and Elena sat there with her eyes closed, trying to stay awake. He then looked at her again, silently taking in her face. It was the first time he really looked at her, he realized. It was then that he noticed just how beautiful she really was. 

She wasn't perfect. Her eyebrows were a little too thick, she had a scar on the right side of her cheekbone and the freckles covered almost half her face. To Robb though these imperfections suddenly seemed exactly right.

"Why didn't you tell us what you are?" Robb asked, a small hint of anger was lingering in his voice.

"It wouldn't have changed anything." Elena said, still sitting with her eyes closed. Robb sighed, knowing he would never get a solid answer from her. 

"Guess we should be going then, we still have that order to deliver." Robb said and walked towards his horse, he wanted to leave and to go home. He could already feel the hatred towards Elena boiling up again. He heard Elena stand up, walking with soft and weak steps and a few seconds later a loud thud.

"What are you doing?" Robb asked while readying his horse. He strengthened the saddle, making sure it wouldn't fall off of his horse.

"Elena?" He turned around when she didn't answer.

"Seven hells." Robb saw her sprawled across the forest' cold floor, her nearly white hair scattered around her head and her eyes closed, small whimpers falling from her lips.

"Elena?" He knelt down in front of her and tried to get an answer, fearing she was dying. He looked for wounds but didn't find any. Robb lifted her head from the ground with an arm around her shoulders until she was lying in his arms.

"Elena, com'on answer me." He placed his palm against her cheek, his thumb against her neck, trying the find a heartbeat. It was there, only it was too soft and slow.

"Too much... power." Elena mustered out but couldn't open her eyes. She felt the darkness taking over her, pulling her into an endless abyss.

"I will take you to measter Luwin, just stay with me alright?" Robb lifted her up with one arm around her shoulder while his other was beneath her knees. He lifted her on his horse before Robb himself mounted it.

"Don't you die on me now, I will fucking kill you if you die." Robb growled, worry filling his stomach, making him nauseous. He turned his horse and quickly drove off back towards Winterfell.

~

"Where's needle?" Elena asked Arya when they were in their tent. Arya would sleep in Elena's tent because she simply didn't have one for herself. Robb also liked the idea of Elena watching over Arya after everything. Now that he finally had her back he didn't want to have the change of losing her again.

"Someone stole it from me." Arya said while staring at the soft sheets of the bed they were sitting on. She remembered the moment, the soldier who had stolen her sword only to kill her friend with it. She remembered the exact words he had said and the exact way he had killed her friend like it was branded into her mind.

"We'll take it back soon Arya, I'm sure of it." Elena tried to lighten up the mood. She knew that Arya had changed a lot since the last time she had seen her. Arya was more silent now and the look in her eyes was cold instead of painful. As she came to think of it, Elena realized that something similair had happened to her.

"You're sure? How could you be after we've lost so many?" Arya suddenly lashed out at her older sister, Elena was not truly her sister of course but Arya always thought that Elena was the sister she had always wanted.

"Arya." Elena sighed and looked towards her, the clothes of their mother in her hands. Robb couldn't get rid of Catelyn's belongings, he couldn't accept it just yet. After all, his mother had been his most trusted adviser. Now that she was gone he was clueless.

"I know we've lost many and I know we will lose more, but does that mean we have to lose hope too?" Elena sat down next to Arya with Catelyn's dress still in her hands. "We will avenge mother, father, Brann and Rickon, even Robert Baratheon. We just have to be patient."

"And the butcher's boy, we will avenge him too." Arya said and looked at Elena, a hopeful look finally finding its way onto their faces.

"I've missed you Arya." Elena smiled at her with tears in her eyes. Arya nodded but then suddenly wrapped her arms around Elena and buried her head in the warmth of her chest.

"Don't ever fall into a long sleep again." She said, her voice barely audible because she was speaking into Elena's chest.

"I hope she never will again." Robb entered the tent with a small smile, seeing the two sitting there. He didn't see Elena as a sister of his, of course not. Before she had fallen into that long sleep, he loved her so much that he wanted to marry her. He still loved her but the pain for Talisa was still too great to think of anybody else.

"I got to go, do something." Arya mumbled and stormed out of the tent before anyone could stop her. Robb looked at Elena in confusion, asking her with his gaze if she knew what had gotten into Arya.

"She blames you, for the death of your mother." Elena said and turned around to put Catelyn's old dress back.

"She's right to do it." Robb sighed in defeat and sat on Elena's bed.

"Blaming someone for something won't make it better. Not letting go is even worse." Elena said and closed the chest with Cat's belongings. "Do you remember what happened after I entered the Twins?"

"No. It's all a blur, the only thing that's clear is Talisa's face." Robb looked down at his lap to avoid being seen by Elena. "She was pregnant you know, she told me a few days before. I was so happy." He chuckled sadly as a tear ran down his cheek. "But I guess I'm just not destined to be happy."

"When I was protecting you two, after I had pulled you both under my wings, we had but one way out." Elena started telling after she had been silent for a while, still processing that Talisa was pregnant. She sat down next to Robb and took his hand in hers. "That way was to let me carry one of you out of there. Only one, I knew that I could only save one. So I looked at your mother and saw she knew that too." Elena said, turning her gaze from their intertwined hands into the eyes of Robb. "She wanted me to take you out of there, she sacrificed herself so you could live."

Robb nodded and looked down at his lap. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I don't want her sacrifice to be for nothing." Elena said and stood up. She stared at a dress of Catelyn's, remembering the way she looked. A stinging pain erupted in her heart as she thought about her. "You have to let them go Robb, Talisa and mother. You have to lead the army and leave everything behind."

"Even you?" Robb looked at Elena.

Elena sighed and looked down, knowing the answer was supposed to be yes. But the point was, she didn't want him to let her go. As selfish as it was, she just couldn't say it. So she turned around to avoid Robb's gaze.

"I have to see Gillian." Elena said as she walked outside, Robb following her immediately.

"For what?" Robb asked while nodding at some of the soldiers they passed.

"He's helping me with my research about the Dark One and why I was kept alive." Elena said without sparing a look at the soldiers they passed. 

"What do you mean kept alive?" Robb asked in confusion as he looked at the side of her face. 

"Robb I seriously don't have time to explain all that." Elena sighed and turned around to look at him. "If you don't mind I would like to speak to him alone."

"I always thought that maybe you and Gillian had something going on, seeing you two are always together." Robb looked deep into Elena's eyes, trying to see if his suspicions were true.

Elena rolled her eyes at Robb. "Maybe we do, maybe we don't. It's none of your business."

"Elena." Robb warned her. "We may be friends but I'm still the king, you can't speak to me like that when other people are around."

"You know who I am Robb, so you know I won't change the way I am." Elena said, looking back at him defiantly. When his glare only deepened she sighed and turned away, entering Gillian's tent and leaving Robb behind.

"There you are, I was starting to worry if those men were harassing you." Gillian smiled when he saw Elena, putting the book he was reading back on the table.

"If they were you would've known." Elena smiled back, her face lighting up when she saw her friend. No matter what happens, Gillian never fails to make her smile. "Any news?"

"Well, yeah. I found something about the Dark One." Gillian sat back down on the bed and took the book. He patted the spot next to him and motioned Elena to come sit with him. "You know he was once king right?"

"Yeah of course." Elena furrowed her eyebrows, wondering what he was getting up to.

"Everybody knows that The Targaryens conquered him and took the throne back by force, right?" Gillian looked deep into Elena's eyes as she nodded. If anybody came into the tent at that moment, he'd have thought that the two were a couple.

"Right here it says that the Dark One surrendered the Throne willingly, without any protest whatsoever."

"What? That can't be right, why would he do that?" Elena read the page Gillian had pointed at over and over, trying to find a sign that it was a lie. But it wasn't, it was the book a councilman from that time had written.

"So he just gave it away like he didn't want it." Elena realized and looked back up at Gillian.

"Seems so, yes." He stood up and ran a hand through his hair, something he always did when something was wrong. "But there's also something else I discovered."

"Yes?" Elena grew concerned, she didn't like the way Gillian was pacing around the tent in anticipation.

"When you were asleep, I had plenty of time. So I didn't only steal this book but also many letters." Gillian looked at Elena and stopped pacing. "Old letters from the town you grew up in."

"Go on." Elena furrowed her eyebrows, what would he possibly be looking for in those letters?

"I've always been curious about your parents. Especially because you have silver hair and your parents are both brown haired. So I read all the letters people sent to you or your parents sent." Gillian diverted his eyes from Elena, resting his arms on the desk in front of him.

"And?" Elena felt sick. The news Gillian was about to tell couldn't be good. What could he possibly have discovered? Both her parents were dead. Her father always told her her mother died birthing her.

Gillian looked back up from the desk, his eyes filling with sorrow.

"You're adopted."