To fight some writers block I decided to work on a future About Her chapter. I like to imagine Joshua and Caesar were already having problems and frequent arguments before losing the First Battle of Hoover Dam. That defeat was just the straw that broke the camel's back. And of course, I imagine them fighting like an old married couple.
“For how long are you going to allow others to whisper in your ear?” The Legate said. “I'm the one who earned you an empire, and now they come like parasites and vermin to feast on what I conquered. Worst of all, you allow them to poison you against me. They’ve done nothing but leech on my efforts. Those… men,” he said the word ‘men’ with every ounce of contempt he could gather, “you sit in your council would be chasing molerats with spears if not for me.”
“You are the only one poisoning my ear!” Caesar snapped, pointing at him with anger. “You have no allies but me, and it's all your own damn fault. Through the years I've done nothing but defend you, and in turn you give me reasons to listen to your enemies. How many times do we have to do this?” He was fuming, pacing around his chambers like a caged animal. “How many times do I have to hear my council before I finally decide to listen? How long until I say ‘enough'?”
Joshua stood impassive to his outburst. As far as tantrums were, this one was rather tame.
“Say something! Speak to the mighty Caesar or I'll get my Praetorian guard to cut out your tongue if you don't intend to use it!”
An animalistic part of him, self-destructive and primitive, wanted him to call the Praetorian guard, and so Joshua kept his silence.
“Speak to me at once!” Subtle desperation cracked his voice, much to the Legate's satisfaction.
Joshua licked his lips, taking his time in answering. “Have I ever given you reason to doubt me? To listen to, as you named them, my enemies?”
“Plenty of times, and I always chose to turn a blind eye...” Caesar massaged his temples. “Goddammit, the fucking headache I got because of you… You think I'll always forgive your transgressions, right? That you can do whatever the fuck you want, and I'll always be there to justify your actions.”
“My transgressions?” Joshua scoffed. “You've been sending me away for the past five years. Utah, Texas, Mexico. Almost to Denver —”
“Yet you couldn't even solve the Hidebarks problem.”
“And you want me to do everything for you. Keep order in your empire, expand your territories, wage war —”
Caesar slammed his fist against the table. “The Hidebarks —”
“Wage war against the NCR,” Joshua raised his voice. “Stop mentioning some savages anyone from your council could have dealt with. But no, you do everything halfway, expecting me to finish all that you started and clean after your messes. Like it happened with the Blackfoots 30 years ago.”
“That was your damn fault, Legatus, it's only fair that you were the one to fix it.”
“And now you want to take over Vegas when the Legion’s capital is still half-built. Who’s going to finish the palace in Flagstaff? The heirs you don’t have?”
“Fuck you.” They spat at the other with rage and venom.
The Legate felt a vein on his forehead pulsing, and the bullet wound in his chest burning as his impulse to hit something grew louder and louder.
“Legatus, you will take the dam, and I won't hear more of it.”
“As always, you want me everywhere but be by your side. Anything but listen to me. You never do. You only listen to yourself and the echo you created in your council. And have I complained? Have I failed you in my tasks? Yet you rather surround yourself with animals as long as they call you god.”
Caesar held his stare — not long ago even Caesar had feared him to some degree, which only served to fuel Joshua's own arrogance. After all, what kind of god was the Son of Mars if he was frightened by a man?
“About what?” Joshua picked up the abandoned mug with coffee he'd been drinking. It was cold, the dark liquid creating a vortex as he swirled the cup. “You've always been afraid of listening to me, so why should I listen to you?”
“How many times are we going to have this argument?”
“As many as it takes,” Joshua jabbed, “until you listen to me.”
“The war is coming, and I'll need you at your best, or I won't need you at all.”
“You always needed me, since the beginning. You wouldn't have been able to talk the Blackfoots down if not for me. Without me no one would have heard the words of the Son of Mars,” Joshua reminded him. “There would be no Caesar, and no Legion, without me, Edward.”
He knew the use of his name got under his skin. Caesar's face turned red, and Joshua looked at him with twisted enjoyment. “What do you think will happen when I realize you're no longer needed?”
The Legate raised his eyebrows. “You’ll be dooming the Legion. None of those animals can protect you like I do.”
“In your own words, I don't allow you to be by my side, so what do you protect me from, exactly?”
“Careful now, Legate,” Caesar pointed at him. “You'll do as I command or I'll find myself a man who will, understood?”
“That’s what you do best, find men who do as you wish.” Joshua saw an opening and went for it. “Yet you couldn’t even manage to find an heir.I guess it's no surprise that you can't find anyone like you who isn't unbearable..."
“What’s surprising it's that you found a bitch willing to stand you for more than a year.”
The mug Joshua was holding exploded in his hand. He didn’t notice, he only heard the fragments breaking as they hit the floor, and it wasn't until Caesar called him by his name and pointed at his hand with worried eyes that Joshua noticed the piece of ceramic stabbing his palm. The pain soothed him, as if the rage was being drained from his veins. It was a repugnant color, the black liquid trailing down his forearm mixed with the bright red of his own blood, but it helped him anchor himself.
"I'll do what must be done," Joshua said, transfixed on the droplets splattering on the floor.
The Legate didn't react when Caesar grabbed his hand and pulled the piece of ceramic from his palm, the Follower he once knew stepping from behind of the shadow of the Son of Mars for the first time in years. "I'm not demanding anything anymore, Joshua, I'm asking." The sound of his name on Caesar's lips gave him an unexplainable nausea. He would probably be the last one to use it. Joshua realized, too late in life, a part of him hated the man he'd devoted his life to. "I'm the one who needs you now. I'm the one who's here. You can't fail me.”
