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Commodus stared at the bust of his father that stood within the emperor's tent. He could remember a time when he looked up to his father with a near hero-worship, but that view became tarnished when the man refused to accept his love for Candace. And it was lowered even further each time he honored Maximus ahead of him, his own son.

He turned as he sensed someone coming up behind him, hardly surprised to find himself looking into the face of his father. "Are you ready to do your duty for Rome?" Marcus asked.

"Yes, Father," Commodus said. He had been imagining the things that he would do as emperor for years. The first being to see to it that Candace should be honored as his consort. But his father's next words crushed that dream.

"You will not be emperor."

Commodus struggled to keep himself composed. Everything could still work out like he had planned, he tried to reassure himself, as long as the man chosen as emperor would be willing to support his love of Candace. "What wiser, older man is to take my place?" he asked.

"My powers will pass to Maximus," Marcus said. "Who hold them in trust until the Senate is ready to rule again. Rome is to be Republic again."

"Maximus?" Commodus bit out the word. So, the man was to be honored again? He would have been nothing more than any other humble citizen if Marcus hadn't taken such a special interest in him!

"Yes," Marcus said. He reached out a hand to touch his son's cheek but the man turned his head away from him. "My decision disappoints you?"

"You wrote to me once," Commodus said, "listing the four chief virtues. Wisdom, justice, fortitude, and temperance. As I read the list I knew I had none of them, but I have other virtues, Father. Ambition, that can be a virtue when it drives us to excel, resourcefulness, courage, perhaps not on the battlefield but there are many forms of courage, devotion, to my family, to you."

A strange cloud seemed to pass over Marcus's face at the last few words. "Your devotion is not with me," he said, "nor any of your other family members, save Candace."

So that was the problem was it? Wasn't it always…

"I have told you before," Commodus said, "that we tied together with nothing more than sibling devotion. The same that ties me to Tessa-"

"Don't lie to me!" Marcus snapped. "Not anymore. You are far closer to her than a brother should ever be to his sister. It clouds your judgment. If you became emperor, you would rule solely through your devotion to please her, and forget all else."

"Father, what you say isn't true," Commodus said. "I am not lying to you! My love for Candace would distract me no more than my love for my other sisters."

"Truly?" Marcus asked.

"Truly," Commodus responded firmly.

"Then let me send her away," Marcus said.

That response had been the last thing that Commodus had expected. "W-What?" he stammered.

"If Candace shall not distract you," Marcus said, "then you should be able to exist without her presence in Rome. I have had constant marriage proposals thrown at me for her, which I have withheld from answering for your sake. Allow me to marry her off to some man that can take her faraway from Rome."

"And then I can be emperor?" Commodus said.

"Perhaps," Marcus said. "If you prove that you can live without her."

Live without her…would such a thing even be possible? To rule as the emperor in Rome with all the power he had ever wanted while Candace was married off to a man that would keep her far away from him. A man who would be able to love her freely, in every way. A man that she might possibly be able to come to love over him…

"You know what my decision will be," Commodus said.

"I know," Marcus said. He tipped his head back, closing his eyes with a low sigh as he sunk down onto the cushioned couch. "I suppose it was just the hope of an old man."

"Then I'm sorry, Father, for I must disappoint you," Commodus said. Then he fit his hands around his father's neck.


Maximus burst through the emperor's tent hardly hearing the words that Commodus spoke to him. The sound of soft weeping surrounded him. Tessa had the youngest Princess, Candace, gathered in her arms, letting the girl cry on her shoulder as she let loose tears of her own. He wasn't surprised to spot Lucilla weeping in a corner by herself instead of taking comfort from her sisters. She had never gotten along with any of her siblings as far as he remembered, except for Tessa, and even that was rare.

No one moved to stop Maximus as he moved towards Marcus's body, bending down to press a kiss to the man's brow. "Father," he murmured.

Commodus was talking again as he rose back up. "Your Emperor asks for your loyalty, Maximus. Take my hand. I only offer it once."

Maximus turned around to see Commodus there with his hand outstretched. He locked eyes with the other man for a few moments before brushing past him out of the tent. Lucilla moved like a shadow after him along with a soldier that Commodus sent after Maximus with a sharp nod.

Commodus hardly had time to register the fact that Candace was in front of him before his head whipped to the side with the force of her slap. He stared at her in open shock, clutching a hand to his cheek. The two of them had gotten into their share of arguments before, but neither of them had ever raised a hand to the other.

"I know what you did," Candace spat. She stormed out the tent before he could say a word to her.

Then Tessa was before him, taking the hand that still hung by his side so that she could bring it to her lips and place a kiss upon it. "Hail Cesar." Her voice was completely unlike her-dull, expressionless. "I hope it gives you all that you wanted."

He felt numb as she swept past him out through the flap of the tent, leaving him to still clutch at his cheek.