"I'm very sorry, your Grace… Very sorry." Tommen's servant sulked away. Pate had always been the most loyal of Tommen's retinue, but yet even he betrayed him in his melancholy. He heard the door shut behind him and the door was barred preventing Tommen from leaving his chambers. He had been thoroughly betrayed. His mother had betrayed him, Pate had betrayed him, the Gods had betrayed him. And he was too naïve to see it before it was too late. He grabbed his crown into his hands and turned it, feeling the golden jewels encrusted into it. He fiddled with the crown for another moment before turning and sitting the crown on the table with his uneaten breakfast. He turned to face the window and stalled for a moment before he made his decision.
He stepped to the window sill, there was no hesitation nor regret. He had lost nearly everything when Cella was sent to Dorne. He starved himself with guilt when the High Sparrow seized Margaery and his mother. He had been thrown into a depression after Myrcella died. And now, his wife was gone too and he had nothing left to live for. He did not jump, he simply leaned forward. Letting physics do the work as he closed his eyes. The breeze brushed against his warm face, a warm summer day now felt cold.
He was free, he felt free for the first time in many moons. He would rejoin Margaery and sweet Cella. Myrcella's laughs filled his ears. She was taken too soon. The purest person on the earth was taken too soon. He remembered playing with Myrcella in the gardens to hide away from Joffrey when he had gotten mad or wanted to hurt Myrcella and Tommen in a way that siblings shouldn't. In a way that would have likely had Robert kill Joffrey if he ever found out. Tommen thought his mother knew but she chose to ignore it, he hoped she didn't for if she did Tommen would know that his mother never truly cared for him or Cella. He remembered trying to calm Cella after Joffrey had his way with her to no avail those wounds never healed. He remembered watching as Olenna dropped a small crystalline object into Joffrey's cup, he let his brother die because he couldn't bare to live with Joffrey for another day. He remembered wondering if she was going to do the same to him at his wedding.
Margaery's voice calmed his racing heart, she did not deserve her fate. He wondered if Margaery would be pleased or disappointed with him. He hoped the former but he knew it would be the latter. He had let her and Uncle Kevan's killer continue to live, and the words of his wise grandsire came to him 'A good king must be just… Orys the first was just. Everyone applauded his reforms, nobles and commoners alike. But he wasn't just for long, he was murdered in his sleep after less than a year by his own brother. Was that truly just of him? To abandon his subjects to an evil that he was too gullible to recognize?' Tommen abandoned his subjects to his mother. The mother he once loved and believed to be pure of heart. Under that facade of a loving mother, she was just as ambitious and cruel as Joffrey. I have failed…I have failed as a husband, I have failed as a brother, I have failed as a king. May the gods bring me justice. I hope you still love me in the afterlife Margaery…
He awoke, his first moments in the afterlife. He wondered how he would be judged. Sweet Cella must be here! The person he had wanted to see most in the afterlife, it had been so long since he had seen her last alive. It had been so long since he had heard her voice since he made her laugh. But no. An old man greeted him, the father… Tommen thought. Upon closer observation, it wasn't the father. It was…Pycelle? Why is Pycelle here? Tommen wondered. The first person I see in the afterlife is Pycelle? The gods really are cruel… Tommen liked the maester somewhat but he was far from who Tommen really wanted to see. Myrcella and Margaery…
He wanted to speak, but his words came out in incoherent wails. The wails of a baby. A baby? Tommen was dumbstruck, he felt himself become smaller. The long legs he once commanded felt like they were inches away from his face. Something was wrong, something was so very wrong… Pycelle handed him to a woman. Mother? She looked younger and had a wide grin across her tired and sweaty face. Tommen wanted to yell at her, but only more incoherent wails came out. She has long hair again? Is this just a dream? Is Margaery still alive? "His name will be Tommen." Mother said as she held him in her arms. Tommen felt confused, This dream feels real.
Over the next several years Tommen accepted his new reality. He had been born again, the gods or some type of magic had brought him back to life. To either live out a hellish life yet again or to save those he loved from certain death. His first threats were domestic. But the Dragon Queen to the east was assembling or at least would be assembling a vast host of Dothraki and unsullied warriors. I won't fail the gods…I won't fail Margaery…I won't fail Cella…I won't fail Grandsire and Uncle Kevan. He vowed.
Joffrey was less cruel than Tommen remembered him to be. Joff was two years older than him and yet Tommen was stronger, smarter, and more likable than him. Tommen was able to contain his brother… for now. He hadn't hurt Cella or Tommen the way he used to. The way that was so unnatural and went against all the laws of gods and men.
Tommen made sure not to waste his second chance, he practiced with the sword every day with Uncle Jaime and was promised one day to be his squire. He excelled in his education with Grandmaester Pycelle and the other maesters. He tried to mend whatever thing caused Joffrey to become cruel but it was to no avail. Joffrey was simply born cruel. So Tommen had decided his brother would have to die for the safety of Cella and all those who lived in the Realm.
Almost every night he dreamed of the sept exploding, it haunted him. Margaery his love. His queen. Dying in front of him every night. It only served to push him harder; he swore to himself he would not fail her again. Myrcella was just as sweet as she was in his last life. He enjoyed playing with her and gossiping about Joffrey's latest meltdown or Robert's latest drunken jape. Tommen was drawing too much attention to himself for his intellect and skill with a sword. The golden prince they called him. He toned down his achievements as he was desperate to keep events on the same timeline as they happened. He had bought several brothels over the past several years and built up a small fortune with Corlan Wode handling most of the business. A loyalty that Tommen was sure to reward vastly in the future.
It had been thirteen years since he had last seen her, and he missed her reassuring voice. Her blue eyes. Her caring touch. He missed feeling her soft lips on his in a kiss that melted his worry and melancholy away.
His thoughts often dwelled on her he had gotten Myrcella back but the other piece of his life that mattered most to him was still missing."Are you okay nephew?"
Tommen snapped out of his thoughts as he turned to his Uncle wearing his Kingsguard armor. "Yeah…I was just thinking."
Jaime looked satisfied with this answer then said "Well alright shall we begin?"
Jaime extended his right hand, a sparring sword in it. He held the sword hilt first. Tommen thought for a moment when seeing Jaimes bare hand, remembering that in two years time he would return to King's Landing with a golden gauntlet to replace his hand. He knew losing his hand changed Jaime for the better, he had become a better man, a better father. Tommen had found out the Jaime was his father when he was still in the crib as a perfectly conscious baby. Seeing Cersei get dressed down and then fucked by Jaime. A memory that Tommen tried and failed to forget. Tommen grabbed the sword and rose from the bench he was sitting on. "When will we practice with sparring swords?"
Jaime shrugged, "A few more years…your mother is unhappy enough as is with you practicing at all." Tommen winced at that, he had learned to love his mother again, but he would never forget what she did to him. What she did to her. Joffrey was still her favorite son of course, no matter how many times Tommen proved to be better than Joffrey whether it be at swords, academically, or even in handwriting. Joffrey was her golden Prince while Tommen was still her little cub.
Jaime and Tommen began to circle each other he parried a strike from Jaime and was able to launch a counter riposte. After a bladelock Tommen broke away and began to circle his opponent once more, watching for any holes in his stance or footwork. He found some but decided they were more than likely traps. Once again after Jaime Lannister unleashed a flurry of strikes Tommen found himself able to parry a dozen of the strikes. Though after several minutes of fighting Jaimes skill won out. Ser Barristan said Tommen showed great potential as a boy of three and ten. Though Tommen guessed he showed a lot of potential everywhere for a three and ten year old.
After practicing sword-fighting with Jaime, Tommen learned mathematics and Valyrian with Grand Maester Pycelle after that Tommen sat in the gardens reading stories to Myrcella. Though he was the younger brother, Myrcella often said she felt as if Tommen were the older brother. As he was stronger, wiser, and friendlier than Joffrey. Tommen felt free and trapped at the same time, he hated being trapped in a child's body though he was beginning to look more like himself in the last days of his past life.
What originally felt like a longing eventually became an obsession for being with Margaery. The Tyrells scarcely seemed to leave Highgarden and it gnawed at him, he began to slowly forget some of her features. Like the shade of her hair, her laughs, and her sly smirk. He did his best to remember her face, and her voice never seemed to leave him.
He was three and ten name days old when he learned of Jon Arryn's sickness and eventual death. This is when it started... he remembered. This is when the Game of Thrones began. His father made plans to travel north to Winterfell. All the conflict of what to do had built up to this moment, would he save Lord Eddard's life or would he sacrifice him like a piece in the Game Of Thrones? It made him sick to even think of sacrificing a man for his own gain. But he decided on the eve of the parties leaving that he would have Lord Eddard sent to the watch if possible.
The night before they left for Winterfell, he dreamed of Margaery and how they made love four times on their wedding night. Both of them were exhausted but he wanted more. He had come up with several plans with several courses of actions and memorized them all, he had to deal with all threats to his family and the Realm. He knew his actions in the coming months would be instrumental to securing a peaceful realm and his future.