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[WOODS, SOMEWHERE]
[BRAN STARK runs through the woods. A raven caws overhead. BRAN comes upon a godswood. JOJEN REED appears by his side.]
"It's creepy how he just appears in the dreams" Arya mutters.
"Do you think he can dive into my head and my dreams?" Bran asked.
Arya shrugged.
"You have to go after him."
[BRAN climbs to the high branches of the godswood until he finds the raven. He balances his way carefully to the raven. CATELYN STARK appears behind him in the tree. CATELYN grabs him roughly.]
"How many times have I told you? No climbing."
"Mother, I need to find it. It's here. It's calling me."
"I want you to promise me. No more climbing."
[She shakes BRAN as her voice rises in volume. CATELYN shakes BRAN so hard that he loses his footing and he falls from the tree.]
"Promise me! Promise me, Bran! Promise me!"
Catelyn's brows furrowed seeing her son's dream. She knew that was not really her, but what did her presence mean?
Ned on the other hand was having flashbacks that he did not care to have, especially considering the one the flashbacks were about was sitting with Jon right now.
[BRAN wakes suddenly before he hits the ground in his dream. He sits up. JOJEN watches him, wordlessly.]
"I think he can" Arya muttered, referring to the last question Bran asked her.
[NORTHERN WOODS]
[THEON GREYJOY and RAMSEY ride slowly through the woods.]
"How far is it to Deepwood Motte?"
"Not far, my lord. Your sister is waiting for you there."
"She sent you to save me?"
"Yes. I served them, the men who were torturing you. I did what they told me and waited for the right moment."
Theon nodded. He was right then, a turncloak.
"Why would you risk your life for me?"
"I grew up on Saltcliffe, my lord. I was only a boy when they took you away. My father brought me and my brothers up to the bluffs so we could watch the ship that carried you off. I remember the look on my father's face when he told us, 'That's Balon Greyjoy's last living son! And those are the words I heard over and over again when I saw what they were doing to you."
A servant from Saltcliffe? No, that was odd. Since when did the Ironborn serve anyone but themselves?
"Those men, they said my father knew what they were doing to me. Did he?"
"I-I don't know, my lord. They- they never told me much."
"He did not," Theon told himself, pushing the thought of Saltcliffe away for now. His father would never allow them to do this. He was his father's last living son, there was no way Balon Greyjoy would sit back and take it.
[NORTHERN WOODS, LATER]
[THEON and RAMSAY leap over a wall and move furtively along it in the rain. They approach a small castle.]
"My sister's men are loyal to her. We don't need to hide from them."
"Not all those are your sister's men. Some of them are loyal to your father."
"So? My father's men wouldn't want me dead" Theon asked no one in particular.
Yara watched her brother with keen interest and a bit of incredulity. How was he not suspecting anything at all?
[RAMSAY opens the lower gate leading into the castle. It leads to a long hallway.]
"I was just thinking how jealous I was when my father told Yara to take this place."
Yara rolls her eyes,
"What did he tell you to do?"
"Raid fishing villages. He didn't trust me. Thought I was a Stark. Ha. I could never be a Stark. Robb Stark always reminded me of that."
"I did nothing of the sort you complete ass!" Robb growled.
Theon chose not to reply. He had enough of talking to the Starks.
"He lorded it over you?"
"Didn't have to. All he had to do was be. Be who he was born to be. His life fit him better than his clothes."
Robb snorted.
"So you felt you were not a Stark because you felt inferior to me?" he asked with a laugh. "Of course you would. If nothing is presented to you on a silver platter you can never expect to have it! Ironborne scum through and through."
Theon glared at Robb with venom.
"I'm going to enjoy watching my future self burn everything you hold dear down" he hissed.
"That's the only satisfaction you will find. Because once we are out of here, I will make sure you get what you deserve" Robb snarls.
"For things I have not even done?" Theon snorts. "Hypocritical when none of you would punish your mother for the shit she's pulled so far."
Robb grits his teeth and stands but is quickly pulled back down by Jon.
"Do you have anything to say against what he said?" Jon whispered harshly.
Robb shook his head.
"Then sit quietly and do not give Theon anything to use against you" the boy muttered.
Theon took it as a victory regardless. And not even the glares from the Starks would dampen his mood now.
"How could someone like that ever be a brother to me? He's the King in the North."
[They reach another gate. RAMSAY works to open it with his keys.]
"And me my father gave me a choice and I made it. I could never be a Stark. But ironborn, that's what I was born to be. I paid the iron price for Winterfell. I murdered those boys."
[RAMSAY finally has worked the gate open.]
"The Stark boys?"
"Never found them. Just some poor orphans living with a farmer. I let Dagmer slit their throats and I let him burn the bodies so I could keep Winterfell and make my father proud."
"Maybe it's not too late."
"It is. My real father lost his head at King's Landing. I made a choice and I chose wrong. And now I've burned everything down."
Multiple people blinked in unison, especially Theon who suddenly lost the emotions he'd been clinging to.
"But I-"
He swallowed thickly. What was his future self on about? Everything he did was right! And his father would reward him for it he knew it for sure. He burned Winterfell, that's what Ironborne do, pillage and burn!
Yet a small part of him agreed with what his future self said, agreed that Ned Stark had been more of a father to him than his actual father was.
But his actual father did not have the opportunity! Theon argued with himself.
But when he did, he spat on him and pushed him away, the small part of him argued back.
Theon nibbled on his nails and breathed sharply as the conversation with himself ran through his mind.
[THEON and RAMSAY continue past the gate and through some doors. The room is black.]
"Yara?"
"Shh. Wait."
[RAMSAY lights a torch. The room brightens to reveal the X-shaped cross on which THEON had been tortured. THEON is stunned.]
Theon was violently shaken out of his thoughts at the revelation.
"No..." he muttered pitifully.
"I brought him back. He killed the others."
"What? No, I didn't."
[Some guards appear behind THEON. One grabs his shoulder, spins him and punches him in the gut.]
"No. No. No. NO! Not again! NO! Not again!" Theon wailed as he saw himself being wrestled back on the cross. He was out. He had escaped! No-but-how-why?! He was Yara's man! Why would he betray him?!
So engrossed in his breakdown, that Theon did not notice his sister take him away from the viewing Hall.