Hey y'all! So, no this is not a new fanfiction unless the feedback turns out to be good... I hope you guys like this one! Also, this first chapter is for Mafalda because a couple of months ago, she told me she wanted to read something that had to do with gladiators (or at least I think so)

Her Façade

A female gladiator named Caroline has not had the easiest life, but one day her life takes a turn that she never expected. Her ability on the field has caught the prince's attention and without knowing what he is getting himself into, he takes her away only to learn that she is a woman. Suffice to say, a love story of the century begins.

Enjoy!

The sound of the horses hooves against the wet pavement brought the little girl out of her slumber and as she slowly opened her eyes, she looked around the tent. She realized that her parents weren't there and as she was standing up, she heard the screams coming from outside.

Her bright blue eyes widened in confusion and even though she knew that it would be best if she hid, she didn't. Both of her parents were warriors and she intended to follow in their footsteps because she believed that what they did for the village was far more important than anything else.

As the little girl made her way outside, she stopped in her tracks when she spotted her father fighting the men with his favorite sword.

She was mesmerized at the sight and though she saw the people that she knew dead on the wet ground, she couldn't get herself to move her feet.

Caroline cried out when she saw a sword plunge through her father's back, but he continued to fight until his last breath. As her father died, she shook her head frantically because the life she knew would now change forever.

Caroline's mother spotted her daughter and she quickly ran over to her. As soon as she reached her, she shielded her from the soldiers.

"Mama?" Caroline said, hoping that she would hear her.

Before her mother could respond, a soldier pushed her to the ground and she held onto her daughter tightly.

"Mama?" Caroline whispered.

"Shut your eyes, sweetheart. Stay still and shut your eyes. Pretend that you are-"

"Okay," Caroline responded as her mother moved away from her. The blonde lay on the floor without so much as a movement and her eyes were closed. She couldn't see what was going on, but she could hear the soldiers ordering the rest to sit in a single file line.

She heard them getting into the single file line and she listened intently. She heard the sound of a horse's hooves stopping beside her and she slowly opened her eyes. The man on the horse looked down at her mother and she looked up at him. Caroline could see the movement from the corner of her eye and before she knew what was going on, the man slit her mother's throat.

Liz fell to the floor in a heap and before she took her last breath, her eyes met her daughters.

"I love you." Liz mouthed weakly. "Get back at them." She added before she took her last breath.

Caroline wanted to cry for her parents lives, but she knew that she couldn't disappoint her mother and so she shut her eyes as soon as she got a good look at the man that slit her mother's throat.

"Kill them all." The same man ordered and Caroline squeezed her eyes shut because she couldn't bare to see the people that she knew get slaughtered by those savages.

As soon as the other villagers were all dead, the soldiers began piling them up and Caroline felt one of them grabbing her by her nightgown. The blonde made sure to stay quiet as he walked over to the pile of corpses and threw her on them.

The next morning, Caroline's eyes shot open and she sat up on the corpses. As she climbed down from them, she spotted her mother and father laying a short distance away from one another. She walked over to her father first and she pressed her lips to his forehead before she made her way to her mother, kissing her on the cheeks.

After that, she felt the moisture building up in her eyes, but she blinked them back. She then inhaled a deep breath and she walked over to her father's sword. She picked it up and took a handful of her golden curls in her hand. If she wanted to survive, she had to make sure to look like a boy. If anybody would find her, they would surely kill her or send her to a brothel, but perhaps if she looked the part of a boy, she would be sent some place else and have the chance to avenge her parents and neighbors. Caroline walked over to the still-burning fire and she chopped her hair off and watched it get engulfed with flames.

As soon as that was done, she made her way into David's tent and grabbed a tunic that was around her size as well as trousers. David was one of the boys in her village and he seemed to be the only one that she ever got along with. If such a thing wouldn't have happened in her village, they would surely marry.

The blonde shook her head before she removed her nightgown and pulled on the trousers followed by the tunic. Once she was dressed, she made her way out of the tent with her father's sword in hand.

The next two days passed by slowly and she had a lot of time to think to herself and she knew exactly what she was going to do. She was going to kill her mother's killer by etching his face in her head.

Soon after, she was awoken by the sound of footsteps and before she could make a run a for it, an ugly man grabbed her.

"Look at what we have here, gentlemen… A boy that can't be more than of seven years." He said.

"What do you suggest we do?" One of them questioned.

"What we always do! We take him as a slave."

"Sounds good." He smirked.

The ugly man nodded before he looked down at Caroline. He grabbed her father's sword and she lunged at him, but before she could do anything, the sword met her cheek and the man slid it down, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

"I am in charge around here, little boy." He spat.

Caroline put her hand to her cheek and she felt the wetness there and suddenly she realized, that the life that she always wanted was not going to occur. She always dreamt of finding a dashing man, but now she doubted she'd ever be looked at because of the scar that would surely stay on her cheek.

Shaking her head, she felt the shackles on her hands and before she could protest, she was being pulled away and the last image that she got of her village were of the corpses and the home that she no longer recognized.

Eleven Years Later:

She sat on the chair and her blonde curls cascaded down her back. She impatiently tapped her feet on the floor as she waited for Alaric to arrive.

As soon as she heard the door knob turn, she jumped up. Alaric came into the room and he set his things down on the desk before he sat down on one of the chair with his lips in a thin line.

"You wanted to see me?" She questioned.

"I did want to see you, Caroline." He nodded. "Take a seat." He added, motioning to the chair across from him.

The blonde did as she was told and looked over at him with her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Caroline…" Alaric started. "I am setting you free, so I need you to get up right now and follow me out of the door. You are free and so I want you to go."

"I have a competition, Alaric- a competition that I have to win."

"Darling please…" He sighed heavily. "You do not seem to understand that I am giving you a chance to live a normal life. One where you do not have to wear a helmet just because you want to hide your feminine features."

"You know that that is not the only reason why I wear a helmet. You know what your men did to me when I was still a child."

"Yes, I know…" He said. "I know that you have a scar on your cheek, but it is barely visible anymore."

"Alaric, I cannot leave now. I cannot just become somebody that I am not. I do not even know how to act like a lady because for most of my life, I have been with you and the others. I cannot just get up and leave. Where do you expect me to find shelter?"

"I will help you with everything. I will find you a flat in town and I will get you a job someplace. I will also help you with money and I do not care how long it takes- all I want is for you to live the life that you always deserved."

"No," she shook her head.

"Caroline, do not force me to take you to some flat and lock you in there. You are like a daughter to me and I love you with all my heart which is why I kept up your charade. Do you really want our relationship to become strained because you are too stubborn for your own good?"

"Alaric, you are like my father and I know that I do not act like I am thankful to you for everything that you have for me, but I am."

"I know," he sighed heavily. "At least promise me that you will think about it. That is the least you can do for me."

"Okay," she told him immediately because even though she loved being a gladiator, she always did crave for the life that she could have had if her parents were still alive. Hell, Alaric was nice enough to buy her a couple of romance novels just to show her how it could have been, but if she was being honest to herself, she knew nothing of being a lady even though and could not picture herself as one.

"Promise me that you will think about it well, Caroline."

"I promise, Alaric. I do not know whether I am ready or will ever be ready to become a lady, but I will think about it."

"Good," he sighed in relief and the tension in his shoulders seemed to disappear.

"Now I have a match to attend, so if you will excuse me, I must warm up."

"Darling, you do not have to fight in this one. Take time to think and relax a little. Surely, your muscles are sore after having back to back matches these past five days."

"I am fine, Alaric. My anatomy is not like yours and I have competed during my monthly flow before which was never a problem."

"I have a hard time believing that."

"Well you do not have, too. Also, read assured that my monthly flow is not taking place at the moment, so I am perfectly fine."

Alaric shivered as she spoke easily of her condition that occurred monthly because he believed it to be too much information.

Caroline shook her head before she walked over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

With a sigh, Alaric wrapped his arms around her because he was worried.

"Be careful, my dear."

"Always," she reassured him with one of her signature smiles.

As the people in the crowd were taking their seats,Niklaus Mikaelson sat down beside his brothers and they enjoyed some grapes while they waited for the match to begin.

"Why are we here again?" Henrik questioned as he looked over at his brothers with curiosity in his brown eyes.

"We need some men that are capable of protecting our family which is why we are here." Klaus told him and Kol and Elijah nodded in agreement.

"Oh," he said.

The brothers smiled at one another and a couple of minutes later, the competitors entered the arena through different entrances.

"I bet the bigger one is going to win." Kol told them as they all looked at the beast of a man that was making his way towards the center. He wore armor in the shape of a vest on his upper body and a steel knee braces.

Their eyes then wandered to the smaller form of the man that was coming towards the center and Klaus put his finger under his chin in thought.

"The smaller man is going to win." He told them and they looked over at him with curiosity in their equally dark eyes that didn't mirror his at all. While all of his brothers had dark eyes, he had blue-gray eyes which he took after his grandfather- the patriarch of the Mikaelson family.

"What makes you think that he will win? He has so much armor on himself that it will most likely be difficult to move around.

"He is wearing armor from head to toe, but from the looks of it, it seems like it is a thinner fabric. Perhaps, this gladiator does not like his body to be exposed to his opponent."

"Or perhaps, the skinny gladiator is suicidal which is why he is standing before such a large opponent." Kol told them.

"Let us watch the match then." Elijah offered as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against his seat.

The match began shortly after and the larger gladiator was able to put the smaller gladiator down with a couple of punches to the face and a kick in the ribs before he gave a final kick to the gladiator's shin.

The gasps around the colosseum were heard and the Royal Family looked at one another before a smirk appeared on Kol's lips.

"I would hate to tell you I told you so, but I did." He shrugged as he smirked at his older brother.

"Just wait," Klaus told him before he turned his attention back to the gladiator that still lay on the floor.

Caroline saw stars in her vision as she fell to the ground and she slowly drifted into oblivion because she just wanted to sleep. The blonde was exhausted after all of the matches that she was apart of, but she wasn't going to let the bully who was her opponent win because he didn't deserve it. Even though the two came from the same group of gladiators, Atticus Leison would always pick on her because she was always smaller than the rest of them. Thankfully, nobody knew that she was a woman because of the helmet that she wore at all times. Of course, there were times when the others tried to remove her helmet, but they never succeeded because of Caroline's agility.

She didn't move for a couple of minutes, but as soon as she was okay, she stood up and glared at her opponent. The only thing that the others knew about her was the color of her eyes- a cerulean blue that matched the sky on a sunny and clear day.

With speed that only she could master, she charged towards Atticus and before he could react, she punched him in the face before she yielded her sword. When she had her sword at the ready, she slashed the skin of his stomach and Atticus began to bleed.

Soon after, Atticus Leison fell to the ground in a heap and forfeited because he needed immediate attention. After all, he was losing blood quickly.

Caroline turned her attention to the crowd and her eyes roamed over the people that sat on the right side of the stadium.

Applause erupted and the blonde smiled to herself before her eyes locked with a man that looked rather familiar. She felt the fluttering in her stomach and quickly looked away because what she felt was something that she never felt before.

"He won," Kol said before he crossed his arms over his broad chest and looked over at his older brother.

"I told you he would, didn't I?" He questioned.

"Do not gloat, little brother." Elijah warned and Klaus smirked before he focused his attention on the winner of the match.

His smirk fell when his eyes locked with those of the gladiator. He could not make out the color of the man's eyes, but he knew for certain that he wanted the man to come back to the castle with him and his brothers in tow.

After all, the gladiator had the prowess necessary to lead a successful army.

"I want him to come back with us." Klaus told his brothers.

"I beg your pardon?" Elijah questioned.

"We need a man with this gladiator's ability. Surely, you all agree with me?"

"The man is too skinny, brother… We need somebody who can make our enemies fearful, not some skinny man."

"I will speak to him at one and that is final." Klaus told them before he reached for a grape.

There you have it! So, shall I continue it or not? Be honest :)

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~Hana :p