This story was pretty much the result of me using information in a history class at school I thought I had no use for. I originally wrote this for fun and wasn't going to publish it, but I thought you guys would probably like to see it. This is my first fanfiction and I had fun. Be forewarned, this story can get quite graphic, sort of like in the show. Please forgive any typos I may have missed. Enjoy and see notes at the bottom.

...

The brave hero will show

His tale on mosaic and bath

To take back our beloved home

And relinquish the people from wrath

...

AD 54

Agrippina stared at her servant, leaning so acutely as if she could tip out of her chair any second.

"Please tell me once more," she said as a smile stretched across her face, devoid of any sense of warmth, her sharp blue eyes were like the hottest part of a flame.

The servant bowed low to the floor. "He is dead, Empress. I have administered the poison just like you asked."

Agrippina slowly leaned back in her chair, the same sinful grin etched on her face as she stared out at the night sky from the window. The light reflected upon her, revealing dark shadows under her eyes, and the weariness of her older age. She began to laugh as if hearing the news of a dead man was a casual joke. "Claudius, that fool, my uncle was never that bright. Now I can stop this charade of our marriage."

From the hallway, frantic footsteps could be heard approaching the dark room and another servant appeared at the doorway breathing heavily. A look of sheer horror was laden upon on his face.

"Your highness! The emperor! He- he is dead!" he cried.

Not missing a beat, Agrippina's face immediately changed to one of disbelief.

"No! Please, take me to him, I must see for myself!" Agrippina sobbed as her eyes brimmed with tears.

"This way, your highness!" the servant yelled, immediately running back down the hall from which he came. Agrippina bolted from her seat to follow him out of the room, though she paused at the doorway, where the warm light illuminated her frame, and stared at the woman still kneeling on the floor.

"Thank you, Locusta. You shall be greatly rewarded," she said with a wicked grin. With the swish of her long robes she left the dark room. From down the hall she heard the pleas of a young girl.

"Father! Oh Gods, what have you done? Father, please!" a young girl lamented over the lifeless body of a thin man. His face remained as it was when he died, contorted in pain and now fading of color. A boy about a year younger walked over to comfort her.

"Please, Octavia, the people are watching," he said shifting his eyes around the room and looking very uncomfortable with the whole situation.

"You misunderstand, Britannicus! The Gods have forsaken us!" she sobbed in disbelief. Nothing her brother could say would stop the tears. She clenched the fabric of her father lying on the floor. "This was no normal occurrence."

She hastily pointed at the goblet lying next to their father's open hand where red wine could be seen splattering parts of his robes and the marble floors. It looked eerie, like blood seemingly drained from the emperor's torso had pooled on the floor all around him.

"THERE IS A TRAITOR AMONG US! A TRAITOR-"

"Calm yourself, Octavia!" Agrippina shouted, entering flanked by soldiers in the crowded room of spectators. Octavia immediately stood up as if the floor was scorching hot underneath her, and glared at Agrippina with hatred that should have crippled the woman. Agrippina slumped to the ground next to Claudius' body and hunched over him as she grabbed handfuls of his robes, her smile hidden beneath her waves of hair. She composed herself and lifted her head, her eyes shut and listening to the silence of room. Britannicus slid behind his sister, afraid maybe Agrippina would suddenly gaze upon him with the cold look of Medusa, freezing him where he stood.

"Where is my son?" Agrippina finally asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I am here, Mother," said a voice belonging to a tall and lean young man from the back of the room. His robes royal blue, lined with gold like the curls upon his head, and his eyes the cold blue like his mother's glaring back at the wave of heads turned his way. He strode to the front of the room where Agrippina stood to touch his face as tenderly as if she were handling her most precious treasure. "You do know what this means, my son."

He stared back her stoically and nodded before turning his head to the siblings. Octavia stood her ground, glowering at her husband, refusing to show any sliver of fear, though her heart pumped hard enough to engrave an imprint on her breast. One of the people in the crowd objected as if he had finally woken from the surreal scene, "Impossible! Britannicus is meant to be the heir to the throne! This is treason!"

The crowd began to mumble and the guards menacingly pushed in on the crowd, rendering them silent.

"Our dear Emperor Claudius…" she leaned down to gently lift the golden olive crown from the emperor's dead body as Octavia's eyes widened in shock and Britannicus began to tremble. She placed the piece upon the young man's head. "…has named my son, Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, heir to the throne of the emperor of Rome."

Agrippina stood triumphantly and glowered at the crowd as if daring anyone to challenge what she had stated. Her guards pushed further on the crowd. Some of the senators shuffled uncomfortably as the room stayed deathly silent, aware to the punishments that befell men who defied the emperors. They stiffly stared back at Nero until one person bowed, then a wave of people began leaning forward, bowing to their new ruler. Britannicus lowered his head to focus on his sandals while Octavia begrudgingly bowed, though it looked as if it pained every muscle in her body to do so and Agrippina smiled.

"Now men, tell the people of Rome, we shall rejoice the new and mourn the old in the streets tonight."

...

AD 68

The carriage jostled to a stop and Eren immediately woke as his head thumped the back of the person he was crushed next to. It was crowded and he could barely feel his legs as they were numb from being pushed up against his body for hours. The chains that bound his wrists and ankles clanked loudly while everyone in the carriage tried to stretch as much as the restraints and limited space would allow.

Eren could taste his reeking breath as he tried to breathe through his mouth, avoiding the stench of all the bodies in close proximity. He could feel raw sweat and dirt caked on his skin from not bathing in days. His hair lost its shine, dusted with flakes of crusted gravel and who knows what else. He glanced up towards the sun and squinted as the scorching heat hit his face. If it wasn't for the dirt built up on his skin, he probably would have been sun burnt a long time ago.

The carriage continued to roll until they were inside huge walls and the streets were bustling with people. Eren was not easily orientated back to reality when he took naps, but this was different; there were more people than Eren had ever seen in his life in one location. There had to be thousands of them. He could see vendors selling everything from expensive robes to small toys for children. Eren stared in awe at how lively everything was, his eyes roaming in every direction of the city, not knowing where to rest his eyes.

There was a blonde girl staring at him intently from behind a taller man, carrying what looked like clothes. She appeared ethereal, like a vision, and he swore he was hallucinating. When Eren's eyes met hers, a shock so intense raked through his body and up his spine like a blade was suddenly taken to his nerve endings. He shouted and clutched his head, startling the others in the cart, though when he lifted his head, the pain was gone along with the girl.

Once the carriage was inspected by soldiers in armor Eren had only heard of in stories, the carriage jolted again and they were led down a ramp behind other chariots.

"Get out you peasants! Hurry up, move!" A man about two feet taller than Eren with a white beard and hair shouted at the slaves leaving the cart. He looked disgruntled at how slow some of them were moving, and pushed a small child in front of Eren. The child lost their balance and fell down the ramp face first, almost bringing the whole line of slaves down with them. Eren growled and tried to jump at the older man, but his chains restrained him.

"Oy!" he yelled his teeth grinding so hard together he probably could have crushed them.

"What are you going to do? You are nothing but a dog," the slave master spat at Eren. He smiled, as if trying to further provoke him, then turned to a soldier approaching him from the crowd.

"How much are you charging this time for these slum dogs, Zacklay?" the soldier asked staring bemusedly at the slaves still coming out of the carriage.

Zacklay scoffed, "Not much, this batch is just as useless as the others. I will give you five hundred sestertii for each of the slaves and I will let you have that rough looking runt over there for an as. He looks like he will not last long anyways." Zacklay glared at Eren as he received his money from the soldier.

Eren didn't like people very much and this man was not helping him like them any better. The days where Eren sat in the forests on blissful afternoons in Germania seemed so far away, as if they were a distant memory, not even real to begin with. All he could remember was that he was enjoying a peaceful day with his mom while she reprimanded him to do his daily chores of picking wood for the fire. After being outside in the backyard for half an hour, he had heard a loud crash and his mother's heart dropping scream.

As soon as he had stepped in the house, all he had seen was blood on his mother with a knife in hand, sprawled on the ground in a heap of blood. Thugs from the different valleys were in his house and Eren had immediately recognized them as human traffickers, ones he thought would never appear in the dense bogs of their territory. The thugs hadn't wanted the older woman, because they wouldn't fetch as decent of a price, so they merely killed his mom like she was a worthless animal.

Without hesitation, or maybe just his pure instinct, Eren had picked up the blade and stabbed the first one he could get his hands on. He cried, and all he saw was red, red, red; it was satisfying. The men had begun to punch Eren to the ground and he already knew he would have bruises and scars if the next morning would come. He dealt with bullies around his village, but these men were stronger than the kids from down the stream, and he was easily taken down.

At eighteen years of age, Eren could still barely master his fighting skills. Next thing Eren knew he was shackled in a moving carriage that resembled a cage: the humans inside it nothing but mere livestock to the others standing by on the outside. There was no time for hot tears of frustration; Eren was focusing on a way to escape and get back to his home.

"What is this?" Eren asked mainly to himself.

Outside of the carriage Eren had immediately stopped to stare at the structure before him and his jaw dropped in awe. It seemed to be a humongous stadium, which was big enough for the shadow that fell from it to engulf Eren and the other slaves. He was unsure of how anyone could have built something so overwhelmingly complicated and large. There were numerous archways and at least three different floors, where inside they seemed to be bustling with waves of people. The architecture was intricate, especially under every arch and column; who knew what other mysteries lurked inside.

"Be good performers," Zacklay grunted, shaking his moneybag in a greedy manner. "You lot should be honored you get to die here in Rome. Most gladiators do not even get the chance to see the damn stadium."

Eren continued to stare in amazement until the young soldier who paid Zacklay stepped to the front of the crowd. With a patch of brown hair on top of his head and a face like a horse (well, at least in Eren's opinion) he grinned mischievously at the slaves.

"Make haste, trash! Line up, we are heading into the stadium!" he yelled waving his arms to move them forward. Eren could tell this man obviously enjoyed his job and it pissed him off immensely. The soldier tugged at the chains binding the captives together and began herding them to the huge structure. "I am Jean Kirschtein, the greatest warrior in Rome. Not that any of you dogs need to know, you will probably be dead soon. I am also good with the ladies around here, so if any of you actually survive and want to have some fun, stick with me." The soldier was smug and barely looked to be a year older than Eren himself. Either way, Eren definitely didn't like him. He scoffed under his breath and this did not go unnoticed by Jean.

"What? Do you have something to say?" Jean growled.

"You are a pompous mule—"

"To hell with you. I bet you twenty sestertii you cannot last in the arena ten minutes!"

"Oh really?"

Jean's stature loomed over him menacingly as he lifted Eren by his rags, and Eren head-butted him with a growl. The soldier was going to retaliate, but the man was interrupted by a booming voice from the stadium.

"You will see the horrors you have walked into," Jean growled.

Regaining his composure, and pretending no one saw what just happened, the boy cleared his throat. Eren grimaced and felt the chains being tugged again as they left to follow the citizens going into the stadium. They soon parted with the crowd, and were led through a narrow tunnel. Some people looked at them in disgust and upturned their noses like they smelled putrid (which they probably did) as they passed. Others shook their heads in pity and Eren's blood boiled as the people looked on doing nothing.

Once inside, it was dim and they were left in a tight room. Huddled, dirty, and with dust falling from the ceiling. Rumbles could be heard and felt above the chamber, and Eren listened intently as the shouts of what seemed like a myriad of citizens in the distance. His attention then turned to Jean, who smirked at a man walking toward them.

"Ah, Rome's star," his voice monotone. Eren looked over to the guy striding their way. His jaw dropped at how short the man was, definitely below Eren's stature, and laughable compared to the large horse the man had by his side. The man's posture and haircut was clean, showing the way he carried himself was important and organized. Eren would've have laughed if the expression on the short man's face partnered with his panoply didn't look like it could lay them all flat in less than a second. His facial features were sharp and the powerful glare he made seemed to be etched onto his face.

He immediately turned to Eren's gaping expression and looked him up and down as if he were simply a dirty mutt no one wanted. "What the hell are you staring at? Shut your mouth before a beetle flies in," he spat. Eren immediately snapped his mouth shut, eyes wide as he stared at the short man, not prepared to say anything. People in Rome proved to be quite bold and rude already, but this man seemed to be on a different level, and Eren was still caught completely off guard. Some of the slaves cringed at the aura he exhibited around him.

"Do not scare them too much, Levi, they are dim," Jean laughed placing a hand on Levi's shoulder, showing him off as if he was some sort of prize. He then pointed at Eren. "Especially that fool. My bet is that he will die first."

"Be quiet, Jean, you are not far off from them either," the smaller man snapped as he shook Jean's hand off his shoulder. Eren laughed and earned another glare which shut him up immediately. This man didn't appear fond of anyone.

It hadn't even been fifteen minutes since he arrived in Rome and Eren already made three enemies, not a very good start, but he didn't particularly care; he was going to get out of there. Eren became distracted when what sounded like an announcement rang out from the area above him. The crowd cheered and Levi glanced upwards, leading his horse out into a long tunnel with light at the end of it. Eren could see rose petals falling around him.

"Time to get you all fitted into armor," Jean said. He glanced at the group who looked halfheartedly at him because most of them didn't even stand a chance of fighting. They hadn't eaten in days and their muscles were still cramped from being in shackles. "Eh… never mind, just retrieve weapons."

As they looked at the armor, ranging from full body suits to random coverings, they listened to the roars of the crowded from above. The ground rumbled and shook as dust fell from the ceiling. The man, Levi, was fighting above and creating a show while Eren glowered at the weapons before him.

"These people are monsters," Eren said gritting his teeth. All they wanted was a good show and Eren was determined to give them a good one alright. He chose his weapon and lined up next to all the other slaves, and there was a great contrast of them. One of the small children, who didn't even waste time getting a weapon, trembled and cried next to an elderly adult who also looked as if he could barely hold a knife.

The doors opened up and Levi's silhouette came striding from the tunnel, followed by the deafening noise of the crowd. Parts of him were splotched with blood, dirt, and sweat. He didn't even glance at the slaves as he walked past, but Eren could still feel the glare fixed on Levi's face.

"Great job as usual," Jean said to the scowling man and then turned to them without a second thought, "Alright off you go, die in the name of Rome."

Jean pushed the slaves up through the light of the tunnel. Eren grunted as the light hit his face and his heart began to pound harder. The noise of the crowd was deafening and he gasped at the sight. The crowd waved and jeered and there had to be thousands of people in the stadium. The colors of the people were bright, some the size of dots sitting in rows, waving pieces of cloth. Eren would've been amazed if he didn't think he was about to die.

Closest to the arena in the lower part of the stadium, the walls held an imperial box with two men. One of them was holding onto youth with light curls and a golden olive crown. He donned a purple tunic that glistened in the sunlight as he gestured to the man next to him. The other had a bald head as shiny as tableware and warm eyes, appearing to be much nicer in presence than the ostentatious one next to him. The blond haired man held up his hand and the crowd's volume slowly diminished.

The man had a pretentious atmosphere as he yelled, "As you know, I have given the people of Rome marvelous shows in the past, and fear not, we shall see another one this evening. A great sacrifice to the beasts outside of our walls, the only thing that keeps them from killing us good people. We have found many of these slaves to feed their hunger and ours for entertainment. But as fair, if any of them prove they are worthy against the power of the titans, they may live to be a part of my elite soldiers, who protect our walls. Though from the looks of this batch…" he looked down in the arena, displeased. "… this may appear to be another offering. Even if our guest, Commander Pixis, of the army in Crete says otherwise." His smug expression towards the slaves made Eren sick and he could feel the slaves pack together on his backside as he readied his shield and lance. The crowd bellowed as they knew the spectacle was about to begin and they were thirsty for blood.

"RELEASE THE TITANS!" Eren heard the smug man bellow.

Immediately from the fifty foot walls there opened large doors that showed giant human-like creatures. There was something off about them besides their hideous expressions that made them look abnormal, but made Eren's heart almost stop and blood run cold. They ran at odd angles as they roared to scoop up some in the group and the slaves screams blended with the cheering of the crowd. Eren rolled out of the way of a titan about seven meters tall, his heart pumping in his ears; everything seemed silent, and he felt as if he were running through mud.

Then Eren saw a giant paw of orange and black stripes reach out to tear across his face. He dodged it at the last minute and gasped in shock to see it was a large tiger, mostly hungry for meat, and released by the man who seemed to be in charge. Eren's right arm had a deep gashed that was losing blood at an alarming rate and he immediately began to feel dizzy. Not only was the sun blazing its rays on his skin, but the audience's cheers disorientated him. He glared up at the sky as his vision began to fade.

This was it.

This is was how he was going to die. Bleeding profusely for the entertainment of Rome.

Everything went black and the last thing Eren saw were titans reaching out for his limp body on the ground.

Then there was a white light and three women appeared in front of him wearing long gowns and tiaras that fell to the endless floor.

"Hello, Eren," one said. Eren immediately sat up and looked at his right arm: it was there and clearly intact. He didn't understand. He didn't feel like he was panicking as he had in the arena and he didn't feel close to embracing his death; he couldn't feel anything really. He was merely floating in what appeared to be an incandescent space. There could be only one explanation.

"Am I dead?" Eren blurted in a daze. He couldn't tell which way was up or down and just decided to continue to float and hopefully nothing would go awry. Then Eren's eyes widened as if he had a sudden realization. "Are you angels?"

The women didn't answer back as if pondering his question first, until one of them came forward. "My name is Sina, we are spirits of these protective walls coming to warn you, Eren. There is not much time. Maria, explain-"

"What?" Eren asked.

There was another voice from a different lady. "Our vessel has found you, Eren. Our sister, Rose, has predicted of this day for centuries and now it has come. You were chosen to protect us."

The last woman who hadn't spoken yet must have been Rose. She wrapped her arms around Eren.

"We bestow upon you this power to heal and fight. You must be the one to kill our emperor, or we risk peril."

Eren floated, dumbfounded, in midair when the women swarmed him with a ball of luminous air, glowing like the hot sun. He gasped as the bright light spread along his arms and legs in one smooth motion, and panicked as it burned hot in his veins. His chest felt like it was going to burst any second.

"Good luck, Eren, and may we meet again," they said with a hint of hope.

"No! I have to leave this place, I just want to go home!" Eren screamed.

Suddenly, Eren lost sight of them as yellow light engulfed his head. Everything swam from white to black as quickly as before.

He could feel his heartbeat again, blood pumping vigorously, his vision blurry, his state of mind filled violent with thoughts to kill- to kill the titans. Eren let out a furious roar he didn't recognize as his voice. He could see nothing but steam at first sizzling off his skin, and when the smoke cleared he saw the same titans he did before he lost consciousness. Looking at their goofy grins made him want to destroy them.

His claws met their abdomens as they closed in around him, ripping anything he touched to pieces. Some of them even tried to tear into his limbs with their teeth as they bellowed in agony. Eren hadn't the faintest idea of what was happening. His thoughts continued to jumble in anger and his emotions were a burning hot rage. He saw red again. The crowd continued to roar with excitement and he couldn't distinguish which cries came from titans or humans. It didn't matter, Eren just wanted to survive, he wanted to kill.

He punched and kicked the titans incessantly, sometimes hitting the stone walls as he used too much force to knock their heads in, losing a hand that became replaced with steam. Eren could feel his face twist into a smile, but he didn't feel happy. His chest was heavy and he desired to kill even more titans.

The exhaustion hit Eren like a tackle and he fell to the ground with a crash that shook the stadium, only to lay along the corpses of the wasted slaves, titans, and tigers. He was the only one left alive, he realized with detached horror. The fresh air hit his back like cold ice and consumed the heat of smoke coming from his skin. The sensation felt bizarre and he couldn't tell if he was dreaming.

The stadium was eerily silent as he stared up at the high walls in a stupor. The man sitting under the shaded area of the imperial box gawked at Eren, unable to formulate any words. The crowd burst into applause and cheers that rumbled the ground, and Eren could feel the bass of the hollering in his chest. They began to chant, "TITAN BOY! TITAN BOY!"

Commander Pixis whispered something in the younger man's ear and the latter's mouth fashioned into a cat like grin. Eren watched as he slowly raised his thumb in front of him while the audience continued their mantra. His hand suddenly twisted into an upward position and the stadium could have collapsed from the sheer amount of shouting the crowd blasted.

Eren tried to stumble to his feet and grabbed onto the walls for support when his head began to spin. "What is happening?"

He didn't understand, his arm had somehow healed as if it had been there all along and there were bodies of titans, tigers, and slaves littered on the ground like there had just been an explosion. The sky began to rain red petals and they blended in with the blood that splayed on the dirt.

"Did I… did I do this?" Eren asked in disbelief, feeling nauseous. Before he could even come to a conclusion, two soldiers led him off towards opposite doors from where he had entered.

He was taken out of the stadium through narrow passageways after they relieved him of his blood stained amour. The underground murmured the sounds from above and he was shoved into the back of a carriage. He rubbed his sore arm muscles and was shocked to see the same man from the imperial box sitting right across from him.

"Pleasure to finally meet you, young man," he said with a smile on his face that displayed anything but warmth. "I am Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Emperor of Rome. We must speak."

Chapter 1 Notes:

I would like to thank RabidShinji and Snow Whites Poison Kiss for being awesome beta readers! Go check out their stories, too, they're both really sweet (and talented writers).

In AD 53, Nero and Octavia (step-siblings) married.

In AD 54, Nero became the emperor of Rome at the age of seventeen because of his crazy mother, Agrippina, who married her uncle. Her uncle was the previous emperor, Claudius, and she persuaded him to name her son the next emperor, instead of Cladius' true son, Britannicus. Agrippina also had Claudius poisoned by using the stealthy woman, Locusta.

Sestertius – bronze coin worth two and half asses.

As – smallest amount of coin in Rome, probably like a penny.

Lastly, we're just not going to deal with the language barrier in this story. Everything is already too complex as it is.