Unconditionally (Spartacus FANFIC -- Gannicus/Caesar/OC)

Chapter LIV

Gannicus Point of View

It had been weeks since I watched Jana walk alongside her brother into the sunrise towards her most certain death against the Roman legions. I should have fought harder for her to stay and leave with us, though I knew with the turmoil replaying itself within her heart she was never going to stay. Between my betrayal and her falling for the Roman, I could only imagine the confusion playing in her head and heart every moment she was awake.

We killed a small faction of Romans on our journey as I cleaned my blades off on the cape of one of the Romans I looked over at Spartacus. He had made mention to being frustrated about losing not only Agron but Jana both to the temptation of war with Crixus, though I feel we both knew it wasn't war that drove them from our arms, but the hurt yet looming within their own hearts.

"Next time, you carry bow. Too far from fucking blood." I heard Saxa say from behind me as I looked between them before moving closer to Spartacus.

"Strip them of weapons and armor." Spartacus called out, "and what supplies they yet carry."

"These men travel from the north." I told him as I looked over the bodies always looking for some sort of sign that Jana and Agron were yet still of this life. "What purpose would Crassus have there?" I questioned him.

"Those who follow him are known by mark of the bull." Spartacus said as he searched the body in front of him. "These are not his men." Spartacus spoke softly looking up at me.

We brought the man's army back to our camp to show them to the only two people we had left that could identify such things. Before Sinuessa; Jana was the only one who could truly read and understand anything Roman, she knew their markings, the symbols of their militaries. Now we were stuck with Crassus' slave and Spartacus' new pet.

"The Eagle and the Dolphin." Laeta spoke softly as her hand traced the armor. "I have laid eyes upon crest before." I couldn't help but just drink away the thought of how screwed we were. I should have just left with the others like I wanted to. I just had to be a man of my word in my relentless effort to show her that I was no longer the man that hurt her. At least I would have died with her and not with a bunch of people I hold no heart too.

"The mark of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus." Laeta spoke as I arched my brow, I'd heard that name before. "Pompey." Spartacus spoke, now I knew I had heard it before. "A master of both land and sea." She said again as I looked over towards Lugo who was yet still acting as though he had heard the name before and knew who these Roman leaders were.

"My husband spoke with deep admiration of the man." She said as I walked towards them, "Bending tongue to welcome him as Rome's greatest warrior--"

"I have heard tale of his conquests." Spartacus spoke up, "and name of Adolescent Butcher given him."

"We shall butcher bird and fish!" Lugo spoke through his teeth with anger, causing me to recall a story Jana once told me when we had laid our tent together during the first year we were reunited.

"When I was yet still a girl, rose upon my cheek... Titus told me of a war raging within the lands of my people... a Roman conquer had gone through village after village, laying waste to all that opposed him. Mattered not if they were small children or elderly unable to even move. He he no friend to the tribes East of the Rhine... his name is not feared there no... but despised beyond almost all reason."

Even then she knew the dangers of the Roman men, though she had often told me Titus and Quintius would tell her stories likely to scare her into remaining within their walls. She was after all a free woman working as a slave, she could have left whenever she wanted. The sinking feeling returning to my stomach causing me to remember that she only became a slave so that I could be free and the way I repaid her was by betraying her loyalty.