Editing ToG Necessary Evil - Ape Maximus (section)

===Background===
Appius Maximus Maximillius stumbled, feverish and starving, as great apes regarded him placidly. His legion had acclaimed him emperor, but they never reached Rome. The survivors of the battle fled south, through Syria and Egypt to the unknown lands beyond Nubia, their numbers ever dwindling until Maximus alone remained, finally falling to the ground in a cave. He crawled toward a glitter of green, a green gem. He touched it, and the green swelled to fill his eyes, his mind.

Appius Maximus Maximillius opened his eyes. The gem was in his hand. But it was not his hand. He dropped it and put a hand to a face that was not his face, a furred body that was not his body, as the gem fell to the cave floor next to something that might have been ancient rust mixed with the dust of bones.

Appius Maximus Maximillius looked at his new legion, their arms unfamiliar but a legion nonetheless, as they proclaimed him emperor. The gem now mounted on his baton - whatever it was, wherever it came from - gave him power, the power to read minds, lash them, shape them. The power to force the new Pax Romana this new, mad world he found himself in so badly needed.

Appius Maximus Maximillius stared at the television as the picture abruptly cut out, replaced by the mindless panicked babbling of the studio talking heads. His hand went to his baton, the gem on it long replaced with colored glass, the real article now on a short, study chain around his neck. That capering clown Jackdaw had taught him that. He had also given him the ridiculous name the plebeians called him now. He would not be missed. There had been worthier foes; Columbia, for example, who had smashed his latest plan and dispersed his latest legion. She, too, appeared to be dead. He granted her a moment of respect in his head as he went into motion. He tamped down a flash of anger. These aliens – he stepped clear of the window as a shockwave shattered it, yes, the Air Force base, as he expected – these aliens were conquering what should be, would be, the new Roman Empire. But he knew well that conquest is one thing and rule another. And that empires fall.

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