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[CASTLE BLACK]
"I should never have left her there."
"You couldn't have known."
"Of course, I could've known. They were raiding the villages close by."
"IS Gilly dead?" Arya asked, eyes wide in shock and horror.
Robb shrugged, a look of dark frustration on his face. "We haven't seen the boy or seen anyone kill her. She could have escaped."
He knew it was highly unlikely with all those wildlings, but he couldn't tell Arya that. No matter how much death she'd seen, Robb refused to involve her in these thoughts and make her worry. She was still his little sister.
Little did he know that Arya was already considering Gilly and her baby dead. There was no way she made it out of there.
"And we just cower in here while they slaughter our brothers?"
"Our brothers had orders to stay at Castle Black."
"Oh, so it's alright then?! Black Jack and Kegs and Mully chopped to pieces 'cause they broke the rules?!"
"I didn't say it was alright! I'm sayin' they shouldn't have been there."
"We pledged to guard the realms of men. We can't even guard Mole's Town."
Rickard's brows furrowed further from frustration. The Night's Watch owed no allegiance to anyone but itself and governed without any intervention from Lord or King. Yet he couldn't feel bitter about the fact that he'd let the Watch fall into disgrace while he sat as the Stark of Winterfell. Ned couldn't do much to help right after the war since he had a North to help heal as much as needed, and Rickard knew that once Benjen joined, Ned had done all possible to help the establishment. It was his predecessors who had failed him and The Watch... and probably the Kings as well.
At least now Rickard could hope that Robert would do something since he was seeing this with them.
"We can't go after them, you know that. That's what they want."
"Little Sam. As if I'd cut their throats myself."
"Get a grip on yourself" Olenna sighed. There were bigger things to worry about than the mistakes that had already been made. It was not that Olenna did not feel bad for the boy, but there were other things he needed to worry about.
"Maybe she managed to hide herself. I thought one of you was dead, you went North with Mormont and no one came back. Not for ages. But then you did."
"She survived Craster and he was the worst shit I've ever met. She survived the long march to the wall. She survived a white walker for fuck's sake. She might've got out."
"Exactly" Robb nodded. The girl was a survivor, and survivors hardly went down in silence.
"If they hit Mole's Town, then we're next. Mance's army must be close.
The statement sobered all those who were worrying about Gilly, the worry now shifting to the Night's Watch. If that army broke through...
"A hundred thousand."
"And there's what, 5 of us left."
"If you're counting Black Jack, Kegs, and Mully. A hundred and two."
"How do a hundred and two men stop a thousand?"
"You don't," said Brandon the Elder softly. He saw no way that the Night's Watch could come out of this alive. Which meant he'd be watching another nephew of his dying. He wasn't sure whether he could do it another time, another death. He was not the kind of man to break at the death of a loved one, but seeing his father die, his brother and then his nephew, he wasn't sure how much more his control of his emotions could take. He may have had the Wolf's blood in him, but that didn't mean he was a man who openly cried or broke down.
[MOAT CAILIN]
"Bracken. Mmm, strong. As long as they're in the sea. But when you take them out of the water, no bones. They collapse under their proud weight and slum into a heap of nothing. You'd think they'd know that. Unfortunately, they're not very bright. What do you tell them?"
"I'm Theon Greyjoy, son of Balon, heir to the Iron Islands."
"Say it like that and nobody will believe you" Yara muttered with a scowl. "Your eyes show your fear and your posture is that of a man defeated."
"That's because I am a man defeated and I am afraid" Theon threw back with a grown. "He castrated me, tortured me to the point where I'm listening to him without complaint or otherwise."
"And what are you really?"
"I'm Reek."
"And I use some other name!" Theon leaned back scowling. "That is not me, that is not Theon Greyjoy. Expecting to still see him is foolish."
Yara frowned, reaching out and patting Theon on the hand.
"You are still Theon Greyjoy. That won't happen to you his time. If not the Starks for their selfish reasons, I will come down on the Bastard and split him in half with an axe, from his head to his balls. Then I'll feed him to his hunting bitches."
Theon snorted. He appreciated his sister's words and appreciated what she wanted to do with those words. But those were just words, and words were wind. He himself is an example of that, breaking an oath to Robb. He saw no freedom from this fate, not until that bastard was dead.
He would personally see to Ramsey's death, just so he could fight his fate. He refused to go down fighting.
"That's right. Until you're rotting in the ground. Remember what you are and what you're not. Bring me, Lord Kenning."
[Theon approaches the castle on horseback. He is stopped by a GUARD but is allowed in after he's told his identity. Theon enters the castle walls. Inside a lot of people are sick or dying]
"Stubborn bunch, these Ironborns" Jaime chuckled. Even sickness and abandonment haven't made them pliable.
"I'm Kenning, commander of this garrison. And you say you're Theon Greyjoy? Why should I believe that?"
"I was born on Pike to Balon Greyjoy. His third and last-living son. I am your prince. I swear it by the drowned god. What is dead may never die."
[EVERYONE chorus 'What is dead may never die']
"And if you were my prince, why are you marching with a Bolton army?:
"Lord Bolton took me captive after Winterfell. He sent me to treat with you in good faith as your fellow Ironborn."
"And what does Lord Bolton want?"
"You are fading from sickness. You are badly outnumbered and you're hundreds of miles from the sea. Lord Bolton implores you to protect your men and abandon this fortress you can no longer hold. Do this and he will be just and fair with you as he is being with me."
Theon snorted. Just and Fair his ass.
"He wants us to surrender?"
"My own father, your king, surrendered years ago to Robert Baratheon. I watched him bend the knee. There was no shame there. He fought with honour, as did you."
Robert rumbled. He should have killed the man that day.
[Kenning falls to the ground. His men pick him up. He spits blood in Theon's face]
"No shame fought with honour. Only a whipped dog would speak this way. Or a woman. Are you a woman boy?"
"Only an Ironborn would spit on that" Tyrion snorted.
"I'd say the Boltons and Freys would as well from what we've seen" Jaime mused, "and let's not forget our father dearest as well. Honour and everything."
Tyrion snorted.
"The Ironborn will not surrender. You go tell your master that, Theon Greyjoy. Or whoever the fuck you are. What in the hell are you muttering?"
[One of the MEN kills Kenning with an axe]
"If we yield, we live? Is that what it says on this paper here?"
"He was their commander!" Robb exclaimed.
"They grew desperate, sick and dying. Their commander basically told them that he didn't care about that and was ready to let them all die to hold Moat Cailin" Stannis reasoned. "Even the most loyal of men turn on their liege when their liege cares more for orders than his people."
As the Karstarks and Boltons turned on me, Robb thought with a scowl.
[Cut to MAN'S body with no skin and his eye cut out]
"You didn't really think I'd let them go, did you?"
"Promises and oaths mean nothing to these Boltons" Robert spat in disgust.
"Some people just look out for their interests over others" Renly mumbled, eyes shooting to Lady Olenna and Margaery.