285 A.C.

A knock came from the door, making Livia turn from her place in the balcony.

"Come in." She called out, moving towards the inner chambers to see her brother, Jaime enter the room.

It had been a fortnight and three days since Robert and his retinue left for Winterfell. A few weeks that felt like an eternity since she let the love of her life go.

Every day had been harder than the last. Waking up was painful without his arms around her. Going to sleep was difficult when she only heard silence instead of his heartbeats.

The year began so silently as if the realm was holding its breath before something terrible was going to happen.

Jaime stayed behind, much to Robert's insistence, claiming that he would only be comfortable leaving, knowing that one of the best knights in the Seven Kingdoms was there to protect her.

"Livvy," Jaime started, as she waved him to the solar where she still had her lunch of elk meatballs stuffed with sour cherries.

Livia stuffed one in her mouth before turning to look at her brother with an expectant look. "Yes?"

Jaime wrinkled his nose at her. "First of all, that is disgusting. How can you eat something like that?"

"You are a man therefore you do not have the right to judge a pregnant woman's cravings. Besides our mother ate lime alone when she was pregnant with you and Cersei." She retorted, her hand on her belly.

He chuckled, shaking his head before turning serious. "Livvy, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"What about?" She asked, getting worried.

"I saw the way you looked at the king and don't bother denying it. You love him, you do love him." He took in a deep breath before continuing. "So why did you let him go?"

Livia sighed, taking her brother's hand. "Can you believe that I think that Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark loved each other?"

"You believe that? Why?" He asked in disbelief.

"They loved each other enough that they damned the world for their love. For once, I just want love to be selfless and good and happy. Brother, if I forced him to stay, I would only suffocate him. He deserves to heal, he deserves to move on from the past as I have. He can't do that if he stays here." She answered, breathing in a shaky breath.

"What changed?" Jaime asked.

'Everything.' She thought.

"I have known only two things in my life. Family and duty, but I know it is not enough." She answered, smiling sadly at him. "I love him and I want to be with him but selfishness is not in my nature. For once, love outweighs my duties. Most of all, I want him to be happy, to be free. We do things we do not want to do for the people we love."

He closed his eyes before whispering. "Yes, we do."

Before she could ask him what he meant by that, the doors to her chambers burst open and in comes Thisel, looking panicked.

"Thisel, what is the problem?" Livia stood, as the young girl ran to her, already starting to weep. "What's wrong?"

"The R-Red Keep has b-been infiltrated." Thisel stuttered out.

Jaime immediately drew his sword as Livia's guards entered the room. "Protect the queen with your lives."

They all nodded and Jaime was gone before Livia could stop him.

Livia turned to Thisel once more, forcing the girl to look at her. "Who? Who has infiltrated the keep?"

"I-I do n-not know, my queen. But they w-were men i-in orange sun-sunbursts." Thisel answered, fully sobbing then and there.

Orange. Sunbursts. That could only mean one person.

Oberyn Martell has attacked the Red Keep.

°•°•°•°•°•°

"To the throne room. Now!"

Livia commanded as she walked, her pace going steadily yet her pulse beating out of control.

Thisel was holding on to her arm, sobbing profusely as guards surrounded them to protect their queen.

"Get everyone to the throne room!" She told a few of them as everyone scattered and the screams of the people of the keep filled her ears.

What in seven hells was Oberyn thinking? The Oberyn she knew would never have done this. He would have been patient, biding his time to take his vengeance. He wouldn't have involved hundreds of innocent people.

As they reached the throne room, the rest of her ladies surrounded her, Thisel embracing one of them and releasing her hold on Livia.

She spotted Cersei who looked terrified. "Livvy, they're going to kill us, aren't they? They're going to kill us."

"Hush, sister. They will not. Trust me." Livia said, but Cersei looked anything but convinced.

Livia looked forward, seeing the looming Iron throne before her. Moments from her past, the trauma of being trapped in this exact room rushed in.

But she knew that none of it was her fault and she returned to the present. She saw all of the men and women, looking to her for guidance.

At that single moment, she wanted Robert, needed him by her side. But he was not there.

Still, she will not waver. She strode forward, climbing the steps before settling down on the throne. A true monarch.

The doors to the throne room burst open, soldiers in orange flooded the room as the people cried out. Livia's soldiers stood to attention, their spears pointed outward.

But it seemed an unfair fight, what with most of the capital's soldiers dispatched to other parts of the realm with Livia's aid, some of them gone home to visit family, the remaining were divided into two, half of them with Robert and the other in King's Landing.

The soldiers in sunburst outnumbered their own, three to one. Clearly, they had been hiding out in the capital. Livia had not even had a mere thought of that possibility. When she saw Oberyn those months ago, she had thought that was the last she saw of him.

It seemed she was wrong.

The nobles cowered like the cowards that they are. Her ladies sobbing openly, imagining the possibilities. Livia imagined them too but she pushed them to the back of her mind. She couldn't get distracted now.

The soldiers in orange drew their spears, her own soldiers tensing. Livia clutched the arm rests tightly, her knuckles turning white.

She watched as soldiers parted to make way for a hooded figure dressed in black.

Stopping right before her soldiers, the figure looked up, his hood falling and revealing his face.

Gasps and sounds of indignation filled the throne room but Livia only smiled grimly.

"Greetings Prince Oberyn."

"Hello Queen Livia."

°•°•°•°•°•°

"Pity we weren't able to prepare for your arrival but then again, we didn't know you would be coming."

Livia raised an eyebrow, covering up her fear with a tone of malice. The anger making the Lannister in her surge.

Oberyn laughed but it was devoid of humor, the sound echoing in the throne room. "There you are, my precious lioness. I had thought marriage had blunted your claws."

She smirked. "I thought we already spoke of my marriage the last time you were in the capital."

"We still disagree. Which is why I am here of course." He answered, leering.

"Is that truly why you are here? If so, could you not have sent a raven instead?" She mocked.

Everyone turned to their queen in shock. How could she talk so calmly, even mocking the man who had attacked the keep?

"You would probably ignore it, knowing you." He retorted as she tilted her head to the side.

"And attacking the capital? Breaking into the Red Keep? Storming this place with soldiers? Do you think doing this made me understand your side?" Livia asked, her voice raising with each word.

Oberyn frowned, before a sly smile made its way into his face. "No, but this might."

At his words, men entered the throne room, restraining a man who was struggling. A man beaten so badly, his eyes were swollen and his nose broken.

"Jaime!" Cersei's voice echoed throughout the throne room, seeing her twin battered and bruised.

Livia turned to Jaime, meeting his eyes and silently asking if he was alright. In turn, he nodded before coughing, his whole body shaking.

Livia's eyes widened and turned to Oberyn with a glare. "How dare you do this? You of all people kn-"

"It is but a mere part of my own pain. Your brother is alive, my sister is dead. Now do you hear me, Livia? Do you?" Oberyn sneered, dragging her brother by his collar.

The Oberyn she knew was gone. The boy at the docks who comforted her was gone. The man in front of her was a stranger, an enemy who had openly threatened her brother.

"What has happened to you, Oberyn?" Livia asked, her anger subsiding. Had she done this to him?

Oberyn sent Jaime sprawling, groaning with pain. "All that has happened has been your family's fault! Rhaegar Targaryen left my sister but it was your father who ordered her murder. Perhaps Tywin Lannister shall pay with his son's blood."

Oberyn drew his dagger, about to press the blade to Jaime's neck.

"No!" Livia exclaimed, standing up from the throne. "I will never forgive you for this. Never."

She watched with anticipation as he slowly withdrew his dagger from Jaime's neck.

Oberyn threw her brother back to his men before he turned to her once more. "Of course, there is another way."

Of course there was. That was what all this was about anyway. He wanted her to leave with him, to go to Dorne, to leave Robert. That was what he had always wanted, ever since that dreaded day of the tourney.

Everything in her rebelled against it, memories of being a political prisoner surged through her mind, but did she have any other choice. Should she refuse, many people will die including her brother and her sister.

Livia walked down from the throne, each step echoing like a goodbye. But she will not lose hope, Robert would come for her, he promised he would.

Her eyes looked to the side, at her ladies, making Oberyn turn to where she was looking and giving her enough time to pull the necklace free from her neck. She clutched it tightly, the horns of the stag digging into her open palm.

When she reached the landing, she whispered to a familiar soldier, pressing the necklace to his hand. "Fendrel, take the fastest horse from the stables and ride to Winterfell. Tell the king what has happened, tell him where I am and tell him...tell him that I love him."

Fendrel turned to her with wide eyes. "My queen,"

She gave him a look and he moved aside. All the soldiers moved aside until nothing more stood between her and Oberyn.

"Very well. I shall go with you peacefully." Livia uttered.

Jaime made a sound of protest and the people of the throne room cried out.

Oberyn and Livia continued on as if they heard nothing.

"Is there really such a thing as peace?"

"There was."

Livia's hand unconsciously dropped to her stomach, making his eyes soften.

"Do not worry. Your precious capital won't be damaged and your brother will be set free." Oberyn answered, leaning in and whispering. "I won't hurt you, Livia. Especially in your state now. How could you think that of me?"

She frowned, pain evident in her voice. "I do not know what to believe in anymore. You attacked King's Landing. You've changed, Oberyn and I don't know if I can trust the man in front of me."

His face filled with shame and he finally looked away. He turned to her, grabbing her by the crook of her elbow and dragging her along with him. "I love you, you know."

Livia couldn't help but laugh bitterly. "You do? Well, it doesn't seem like it. Whatever your twisted perception of love is, let me tell you now that what you feel for me isn't love."

Robert never said those words but she knew that what he felt for her was good and genuine and kind.

Oberyn saw her as something connected to the good things of the past, it was an obsession, not love.

Before she could utter out another word about what she thought as they exited the keep, she felt a piece of cloth pressed to her nose.

Struggling, she caught a whiff of nightshade.

She vaguely registered Oberyn's voice in her ear. "I promised I would save you."

As she descended in the darkness, she could only think of Robert.

'Keep your promise. Come home to me.'

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