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Chapter 3: Words of Cooperation

Some days later …

Somewhere in the South East Riverlands

"I don't like this," Robert whispered over to his mentor while prodding his air glider into the earth with pent up energy.

"It is a good sign that they want to talk. It means they wants something from us," Jon Arryn replied quietly back as he watched the Lannister contingent rumble their way towards them on a wave of moving earth.

The old Lord looked over to his left to closely watch Eddard's reaction to the Lannister's arrival. He had been inconsolable when the news had broken that Catelyn had been captured.

Ned watched the three Lannisters come to a stop before them and mirror the rebel's stances.

Tywin stood opposite Jon Arryn and they mimicked each other's calm and controlled demeanours, while Cersei was opposite Robert and clearly shared his displeasure of discussions over violence as both fought to remain still and not slide into fighting stances.

Kevan Lannister stood before Ned Stark but the young water bender's attention wasn't on the Lannister general but focused on where the three earth benders had come from.

He could feel her presence.

Cat is just over there, he shouted to himself but had to restrain his immediate impulse to go to her. Tywin Lannister had called this meeting for a reason and honour dictated that he hear why before any fighting started.

"Why are we here?" Robert blurted out, his impatience getting the better of him.

"What's the matter? Do you have a whore waiting for you back in your camp?" Cersei shot at the black-haired Rebel leader having heard the rumours of Robert's tastes.

Robert seemed taken aback by the feisty reply at first then he started to laugh and a gleam appeared in his eyes, "You are a fierce one. I wonder if you fight like you talk?"

"You could find out right now," Cersei goaded but a stern look from her father shut down her desire for a brawl.

"That's right listen to your father," Robert baited to the hot-headed blond lady as he observed the exchange between father and daughter.

Remarkably Cersei managed to keep her mouth shut as she shifted her focus to her feet.

"We aren't here for a fight my Lord," Tywin said composedly.

"Then might I inquire why you are here Lord Lannister?" Lord Jon asked in a serene voice that instantly calmed the atmosphere between the two parties.

Tywin looked from each man to the next, gauging their possible reactions before he gave the Vale Lord his answer, "I want to join the Rebellion."

Jon Arryn took his counterparts words with a thinking sigh as his wizened mind looked for the potential traps and pitfalls in the Lannister Lords statement.

Robert was about to unleashed his opinion but Eddard Stark, surprisingly, got there first, "Why would you want to join us? You are Aery's man. An old friend of the Mad Kings. Why would you go against him?"

A stark silence befell the Lannister trio as the rebel leaders awaited an answer.

Cersei simply looked away while Kevan kept the same unmoving expression he had carried throughout the meeting but a sadness had entered his eyes. Tywin took an uncharacteristic pause, like he was collecting himself, before he stepped forward and looked Jon Arryn in the eyes, knowing Robert and Eddard would follow the old Lords lead.

"Aerys Targaryen murdered my son in the Throne room as he berated my lack of leadership on the day Rhaegar died on the Trident. It is said that there was nothing left of my son when he was finished. Just ash that was swept up by the wind."

After a beat of stunned silence Jon Arryn looked to his two young wards and the appalled expressions on their faces made Jon Arryn's decision for him.

"I am sorry for your loss," Lord Arryn said as he moved towards Tywin's stilled form, "It is a terrible thing to lose a child. Especially to someone you trusted and fought for. Let us join our forces together and rid the world of such a monster."

Jon Arryn extended his hand out to Tywin but before the new alliance could be confirmed Eddard interrupted.

"You still have my wife. I want her back before I pledge my men to fight alongside yours."

"Entirely reasonable," Tywin replied as he raised his hand into the sky which in turn was mirrored by a large piece of rock sprouting out of the ground and climbing many dozens of metres high so it could be seen my all around.

It took a but a few seconds for Eddard to be able to make out Catelyn rushing towards their location on a small tsunami that she effortlessly rode to their location. She had no guard and she seemed completely fine with the situation in front of her like she knew what was going to be said.

Catelyn collapsed her wave a few metres from the backs of the Lannisters, only Kevan had turned to see her arrival and offered her a small nod as she flowed her water back into her hip bottle.

She walked up to Tywin and stood side by side to him while giving Eddard a warm smile, "Is all agreed?"

"It is," came Tywin's curt reply which signalled that she could return to her allies.

Catelyn paused for a few seconds before inclining her head towards the man that had taken her prisoners, " I am truly sorry for your lose. I know Jaime would have made you proud."

"And how do you know that," Tywin replied without looking away from the three men in front of him.

"We fought against each other at a tourney at Riverrun a few years ago, before he was given the white cloak. He was younger than me but we were evenly matched until I lost my temper and sent ice shard all over the place. Jaime's first action was to protect those that were watching us with a few earth walls, not himself. None of my shards found a spectator but one found Jaime and-"

"You healed him straight away and declared him the winner. I remember."

"You were there?"

"Yes, I wanted to watch my son and propose a match between him and you."

Catelyn fully turned to Tywin at this new piece of information, "Did nearly killing Jaime put you off the match?"

"No. It confirmed to me that the match would be a good one but you father declined my proposal in very bold language."

"He never said anything," Catelyn murmured as the mighty earth bender turned towards her and locked his green eyes on her blue ones.

"It is time for you to return to your husband."

Catelyn slightly nodded before quickly crossing over to Eddard and they embraced in a loving hug before Catelyn shot Eddard a worried glance, "Where is my father? Did he .. did he not-"

Eddard shut down Catelyn's line of thinking instantly keeping a hold of her shoulder, "No your father is fine he just didn't trust himself to remain calm in the presence of Tywin Lannister and didn't want to jeopardise the negotiations for your release."

Catelyn let a small chuckle escape her mouth, "That sounds like him."

Eddard looked down at his wife with deep fondness, "You get your stubbornness and wilfulness from him you know."

"I know," Catelyn whispered back as she lined herself up between her husband and Lord Jon.

Tywin who had been watching the couple's reunion closely decided it was time to conclude the parlay, "Are we agreed then? We will join forces and destroy House Targaryen?"

"We are agreed that we will join forces and march on King's Landing. When we get there Aerys Targaryen is yours but his family is ours. The Dornish will want Elia and her children back which we can use to sue for peace between Sunspear and the Crown."

Tywin now took Jon's offered hand, knowing that Robert was the intended King to be despite his obvious fiery nature.

A week later …

Harrenhal, North shore of the Gods Eye lake, South East Riverlands

Tywin dodged the thrown boulder with ease and trapped his prey underneath a rumble of rocks.

Mace Tyrell had not exactly presented him with a challenge. Tywin was about to move onto a cluster of Tyrell soldiers that were charging at his men at the flank but his attention returned to the pile of rocks the Warden of the South was buried under.

They started to tremble and shake.

Tywin coated himself in a protective layer of earth before the rocks started to fly at his person. He heard men behind him screaming as the flying projectiles struck them and no doubt shattered their bones.

Tywin twisted the earth around him so it became like amour so he could see in front of him.

What he saw was not a welcomed sight.

Olenna Tyrell was passing her son, who looked half-conscious, to some Tyrell men. She eyed Tywin with her sultry eyes. She may be a woman approaching her sixth decade but you could feel the power radiating off her as she pulled herself into a wide stance and started to move her arms and hands in synchronised movements.

Three swirling pillars of earth burst from the ground and rapidly made their way towards Tywin. He dodged the first by manipulating the earth flying towards him so that it missed him slightly and pounded into the ground beside him. Then he jumped to avoid the second one, landind on the moving earth snake so that he could start to run along it. The third pillar smashed into the second one cutting off Tywin's route to Olenna. He tumbled to the floor but his earth amour protected him and allowed him to roll so that his momentum wasn't slowed as he rushed at his opponent.

He got close enough to see Olenna's smile before she sunk and disappeared into the ground.

What the fuck? Tywin swore as he looked around him. This was a new move.

Small mounds of earth arose from the ground and were moulded into husks of soldiers. Tywin quickly smashed the closest one into dust with his earth covered hands but in the time he managed that two more appeared from the ground.

Any rebel solider that got too close, whether they were Arryn, Stark, Tully, Baratheon or Lannister where shredded by the animated mud soldiers who wielded crude spears or swords made of solid earth.

Tywin still could not see Olenna, she had not resurfaced from the ground.

How is she doing this? Tywin pondered.

The tactic was brilliant. She was somehow controlling the mud soldiers on the surface while she remained safe and unreachable in the depts of the earth.

Tywin reduced as many mud soldiers to rumble as he could manage but he couldn't seem to stem the tide of advancing mud soldiers and they were now combining with the remaining Tyrell soldiers to cut into the rebel forces vanguard line.

This was not good. The rebels were losing valuable men fighting Olenna's mud army instead of focusing on purely wiping out her remaining men.

They needed to reach Olenna if they were going to win this battle in any shape to continue onto King's Landing.

Then it hit him.

He might not know how to sink into the ground and control the earth without seeing it but he could reach Olenna. It would just require a few moments of concentration, which he wasn't going to get having to swat a mud creation every few second.

He scanned the battle field.

Eddard and Catelyn Stark were nearby, fending of the attacking attention of Randal Tarly as the hardened commander was trying to give his men more time to retreat behind the newly formed mud army.

Tywin launched himself into the air off the ground by quickly accelerating the rock below him into the air. As he fell back down to the ground, he gripped onto the rock platform beneath his feet and guided his descent towards the Reach Lord.

Catelyn was providing the defensive cover for Eddard to strike with his ice spears and water whips as they battled against Randal Tarly. The battle tested commander was wily and efficient with his movements but Catelyn thought he would not be able to compete with them for much longer. It was simply a question of energy and Lord Tarly was expending a lot of his trying to hold his ground while Eddard and Catelyn where able to rotate their attacks and pressure the Lord from different angles to split his attention.

Catelyn's premonition was correct as in the next instant Tywin Lannister had landed his earth platform straight on the Reach man's head and drove his crushed body into the ground.

Tywin ignored the water benders aghast looks, "This is war if you hadn't noticed and I need your help. Jump on."

Catelyn only hesitated for a second before she hopped onto the earth platform instantly. Eddard was less trusting but having seen his wife on the earth board he too jumped onboard and then held onto Catelyn as Tywin launched them into the air.

A few seconds later they landed in a flattened arena like area. They were surrounded by bland and nonuniformed mud creatures that swung awkwardly with their jutting weapons that appeared to have melted into their arms.

"I need you two to keep them off me so I can stop all this madness," Tywin shouted above the din of the battle.

Catelyn nodded and started to gather her water around her then proceeded to slash and cut through all the nearby mud husks near her. Eddard followed her lead and any of Olenna's creations that came near Tywin where battered back in broken pieces.

Tywin used this respite to concentrate. Olenna was below his feet somewhere, moulding her little soldiers in her minds' eye.

Tywin closed his eyes and focused on generating the force necessary to reach Olenna. He smashed his fists into the ground, causing mini tremors to ripple across the battlefield. He repeated the motion every few seconds and the tremors grew in intensity each time he brought his fists down.

Catelyn exchanged a glance with Eddard when she felt the first tremor but they continued with the task before them, destroying as many mud creatures as they could. As the tremors continued, they noticed that less and less creatures were being formed from the earth.

Whatever Lord Lannister is doing is working, Catelyn thought thankfully.

She glanced behind her to see Tywin Lannister had bashed the earth so many times he was in a small hole and was breathing heavily.

There was a steely determination in his eyes as he sucked in another breath. The Lannister patriarch roared as he raised his fists again and brought them down upon the earth. There was a rumbling sound as the earth underneath his feet split open and cracked across the battlefield.

Tywin looked down into the crack he had created and jumped into it.

Catelyn and Eddard started destroying the remaining mud men with ease. No new ones were being created and suddenly they all lost their form and collapsed into mud piles. The water benders looked at each other with cautious expressions as the ground started to rumble below them.

Tywin and Olenna shot out of the ground. Olenna was covered in sweat and her movements were laboured as she formed her stance before Tywin Lannister. Whatever she had been doing had required a lot of energy and she was paying the price now.

Tywin struck out, throwing two large boulders Olenna's way. The Reach lady only narrowly avoided the large lumps of rock as she ducked and bended the flying rocks away from her so that they crashed to the ground behind her.

The move took her last reserves of energy and one of her knees hit the ground as she fought to catch her breath.

"Give up Lady Olenna," Tywin demanded as he watched the grounded Lady behind alert eyes.

"Giving up sounds so …. weak doesn't it?" Olenna stated as she sensed the two water benders behind her get into attacking stances, "But it is better to be considered weak than be dead I suppose."

Olenna looked Tywin directly in the eyes, "I concede. The Tyrell army surrenders."

Tywin nodded slightly at Olenna's words and moved his hands so that the earth at Olenna's feet started to creep up her so she was immobilised. The wizened woman didn't fight it and this is how Tywin knew she had truly surrendered.

Eddard and Catelyn approached Tywin.

"We will take the remaining Tyrell army as prisoners then advance on King's Landing. It is less than a week's march from here," Eddard said eagerly.

Catelyn answered for Tywin and put a hand on her husband's arm to gently calm him, "Our forces will need rest after this fight and we need to plan fully how we will take King's Landing. We will avenge your father and brother but we need to think everything through before we move."

Eddard remained silent but gave Catelyn's hand a squeeze in acknowledgement.

"Lady Catelyn is correct. We need rest and time to plot our next move. Let us finish this battle first before we start thinking about ending this war," Tywin said before he left the two water benders to escort the encased Lady Olenna to the other Rebel leaders.

Catelyn watched the Lord go as Eddard's eyes swept over the destruction left in the wake of the two most powerful earth benders to currently inhabit Westeros. The scene before him looked like it could have been one of the seven hells. Cracks in the earth, deformed mud bodies where in broken pieces everywhere.

Catelyn was sure this wouldn't be the extend, or end, of the destruction.

Author notes:

I think Jaime being killed would have definitely ended up with Tywin switching sides and I like to think the Rebel leaders would accept the extra forces as the Mad King in this universe isn't just a frail old man :P

I managed to sneak in a nice little battle scene too – I hope I described Olenna's movements well :) She basically burrowed underneath the battlefield and control the mud husks to attack which I think would take a lot of effort and that is why when she resurfaced she didn't put up much of a fight.

Reviews:

Kira444 – Opps, my bad. Yeah, I thought it was weird no one had done elemental bending in the GOT universe too. Your challenge sounds really cool! Has anyone done anything on it? It would require some thought behind how to structure the world like would the Greco-Roman mythology live alongside the Westeros lore or would they replace it or merge? Mmmm Would the noble families be demigods or the humans trying to survive in a world dominated by the gods, monsters and demigods. I'll PM you my complete thoughts later – I need some time to refine them.

ThatOneGuyUpstairs – Thanks, I will :)

Miguelgiuliano – Okay so I am not sure I understand everything because google translator isn't prefect but here I go. I know more of Aangs story than I do of Korra's but I will do my research and incorporate the moves and new bending abilities as they become relevant to the story. I think that the water element is the most versatile and sinister too and as my characters grow older and more powerful, they will explore the extent of their powers more.

RIP

Randall Tarly (Crushed to death by Tywin as he landed on him with a slab of earth)

So … I wanted this death to be a bit abrupt and demonstrate with the elemental powers that people can really just die like that …. Also, I just like killing characters and this seemed a kinda funny way to dispatch Randall Tarly :P

Next Up: Eddard looks upon the walls of King's Landing, Cersei finds herself surrounded, Elia tried to protect her children and Catelyn feels the heat.

See you next chapter!