The Red Wedding does not happen and Robb receives word that Jon Snow has been betrayed by his men.
The raven came to them while they were at Moat Cailin, having just taken it back from the Ironborn. Robb had been looking over a map, discussing how next to take Winterfell. Ironborn had taken control of it, at the command of Theon Greyjoy.
Greyjoy. Robb's heart wrenched every time he thought of the man he had considered to be his brother for all those years. His heart burned for vengeance every time he thought of how his brothers had been murdered at the hands of Theon Greyjoy.
Not all my brothers, he reminded himself. As soon as Winterfell was retaken, Robb would take his army to the Wall. Jon was Lord Commander, he would welcome them. The Night's Watch had asked for help from all the lords in Westeros. Stannis Baratheon had been the only one to truly come to their aid. He had helped defeat the wildlings when Mance Rayder's army marched on the Wall. He had been there to see Jon become Lord Commander. And he was now marching to join with Robb and take Winterfell.
It made Robb angry to think that Stannis Baratheon was managing to do everything in the North that Robb should be doing. He wondered if perhaps Jon resented him, for abandoning Bran and Rickon, for letting Stannis help the Watch. He had been meaning to send a letter to his brother, but so far he had been unable to find the words to say to his brother.
Dark wings, dark a saying had never rung truer.
Lord Commander Snow has been betrayed by his men. He is gravely injured. He is in the care of the wildlings now. We will return once we have enough men to control the rebellious Black Brothers.
Robb had thought he could no longer feel such pain as this ever again. He had thought that his father's and brother's deaths would have made him harder than Valyrian steel. But to know that his brother - his twin practically - had been betrayed by his own men hurt in a way he thought he would never feel before.
His mother found him, his head in his hands, tears running down his cheeks.
They did not march to the Wall. As much as Robb would have preferred to see his brother, to be sure that his brother was healed and lived to fight another day, he had to return home.
The battle did not take long. Between his forces and Stannis' the Ironborn stood no chance. He executed Theon himself, with a sword that was not Ice. But not before Theon admitted to him that his brothers had escaped, that they were probably headed North to find Jon. That only gave Robb another reason to ride to the Wall, to be with his brother.
It was nearly ten days later that they finally set out for the Wall. He would only bring with him a force of two hundred. The rest would rejoin them at Castle Black with Stannis. Robb had to stop himself from riding as fast as his horse could go to reach the Wall.
Hold on Jon. You will not leave me like the others. I swear I will come.
He wasn't willing to admit to himself that he was too late. He wasn't willing to accept that his brother would die without him. They'd grown up together, spent nearly every moment together, it only seemed right that his brother would die by his side. He wasn't willing to tell himself that this was yet another promise he could not keep to those that mattered most to him.
It wasn't until they reached Castle Black to find most of the wildlings and Black Brothers standing before a pyre and those who weren't looking at him in pity and grief that he could finally embrace it all.
He knew that the body burning on that pyre was his brother's. He knew that the five heads that were adorned on spikes above the gate were the heads of his brother's murderers. Seeing that justice had been done already did not bring him any relief from this relentless pain. He had not been with Jon when he died. He had not been the one to swing the sword that would kill the traitors.
He had failed his brother. And that pain would haunt him forever.
"The next time I see you, you'll be all in black."
"It was always my color. How long do you think it will be?"
"Soon enough. Farewell, Snow."
"And you, Stark."