Go to them...

Maximus lay on his back on the arena floor. The pain was fading with every breath that he took. With every heartbeat he could feel his lifes blood pump onto the sand. He was dying. And he was glad.

Maximus smiled as his home appeared before him. He slowly began the long walk home, his hands brushing the long stalks of corn that he grew on his land "Almost time for harvest..." he though idly to himself. Suddenly the vision swam and faded. His home replaced by Lucillas beautiful tear streaked face mere inches from his own as she knelt in the dirt and grime of the arena floor. "Lucius is safe." He said softly. It wasnt a question, he knew that with Commodus gone, no harm would befall the Empress and her son. He smiled, but a sudden pain made his vision swim. His breath grew shallow, his heartbeat feint. "Go to them..." she whispered. She had ben his for a short while, and he could still see the love burning in her eyes.

Maximus gasped. There was so much he wished to say to her, to Juba. To her son...he blinked rapidly as he felt his body grow light, his head swam. He stared into her eyes. Such beautiful eyes that were so full of love and sorrow that it pained him more than the wound in his side that was killing him. But as he stared into her eyes...into her soul. He knew that she would fulfill the dream, knew that they would be fine, living their lives free of Commodus' tyranny. And so he smiled as he died.

Slowly he walked up the hill, his hands brushing through the stalks of corn that swayed sofltly in the sun. A noise startled him from his reverie and he looked up sharply. There stood his wife and son. Their bodies unmarked by fire or blade, and beyond them his house. His home. Taken from him for so long. Now his for eternity.