The last thing Agron remembered was pain.
"Fuck the gods!" Agron turned toward the voice he had not heard since Batiatus' ludus fell at the beginning of the rebellion. "I knew you were a fucking idiot; I did not dream you would prove it so completely."
"Duro?" Agron gaped at his brother. "How? Have I fallen to the afterlife?"
"I stand only surprised that you have not." Duro said. "Many times I figured your lack of wits would see you there; but you yet cling to life."
"Then how do you stand before me?" Agron asked.
"You stand upon the line between the two." Duro sighed. "Yet you do not deserve the suffering the Romans would see you endure for their fucking entertainment. I risked making attempt to speak to you since you stand here with me now."
"Where are we?" Agron asked as Duro walked over and sat down on a large rock.
Duro settled himself before answering. "We are between life and death." He pointed to a river flowing in the distance. "That is the afterlife on far bank. I chose not to cross; to wait for you to join me. When the ludus first fell I thought you would fall to Roman blade in every confrontation with them. You gave no thought to your life."
"You were torn from my side." Agron said. "I was without heart."
"Mother was right; father dropped you on your head as a babe." Duro snorted. "Do you think I saved you only for you to cast yourself from life? Again you prove fucking idiot! I wanted you to live."
Duro sighed and shifted on the rock to find a more comfortable position. "Eventually you did find reason to live again. Though what madness seizes little Nasir's brain I know not. He could do better."
"You know of Nasir?" Agron asked.
"Of course I know of him!" Duro answered as if it should have been obvious. "What do you think I have been doing the past couple of years? I have been following you all around the damn Roman lands and watching your fucking rebellion fall apart since Sinuessa. And watching you lose what little mind you yet hold!"
"Still tongue!" Agron said; Duro's words striking a nerve.
"Nasir would follow you to the afterlife and you think the Cilician is of import to him?" Duro snorted. "You knew the Cilician meant nothing to him yet you push the man destiny made your own away from you because you feared he would fall into the arms of that fucking pirate!"
"I would have him live." Agron said. "I only want him to know joy in his life."
"And you think he knows joy? Even now Naevia relates word of Crixus' defeat to Spartacus; and your death to Nasir." Duro asked. "She saw you fallen in a pool of blood; and assumed that life had fled from you. The Romans also believed you fallen from the world until the made attempt to drag your corpse from the field and you cried out in pain from injury."
"But if I still live why am I here with you?" Agron asked again.
"Because I will not see those Roman shits granted what they desire." Duro answered. "I would have them fail in tearing life from one of us."
"My injury stands so severe?" Agron asked.
"The one inflicted upon the field of battle does not." Duro said cryptically.
"Then why do I linger tween life and death." Agron planted himself in front of Duro with a determined look on his face.
"I would keep you from the afterlife brother." Duro said standing up. "You need not know what they have done. Come I would see you distracted from such concerns."
Agron found himself following Duro along the shores of the river when he heard someone call his name. Turning he saw Donar standing on the far shore. He had barely taken a step when his arm was grabbed bringing him to a halt.
"It is not time for you to take that journey yet brother." Duro cautioned. "There is no returning once you cross to the other side."
"The pup speaks truth brother. It would also make for an impossible path for your heart to follow." Crixus said as he held his hand out toward Agron. "It is reason I wait here; for Naevia to join me. If you cross now; Nasir will be lost to you."
"Crixus; my last memory you yet fought the Roman shits." Agron said.
"I stand fool for doing so." Crixus said. "I desired to see Rome fall or fall to glorious death myself. I know now that such is no thing to be desired. Spartacus attempted to break words of wisdom which I did not heed. My chance is lost brother; you yet hold chance to see this thing to its proper end."
"To see Rome fall." Agron nodded.
"No you lumbering oaf! Rome is fat and lazy; its bloat increases each day. Eventually it will fall under the weight of its own greed." Crixus said. "To gain freedom; to take your heart far from Rome and its influence. To live free of shackle and lash where Rome cannot touch you. That is the proper end."
"You advise to flee from Rome?" Agron snorted.
"Had I heeded Spartacus words; we could have all been crossing the Alps into Gallia or Germania with Rome humbled by her failure to subdue us. All of the things I wished for Naevia; a proper home, children upon a day; sacrificed to my own pride and thirst for conquest." Crixus said. "Only now with their loss do I realize the importance they held. Yet Naevia holds me to heart; and would honor me after all that I have seen snatched from here."
"You are not the only one to be honored you fucking Gaul." Duro snorted. "Spartacus and Gannicus to take the sands once again in memory of brothers fallen to the afterlife; even if arena be only seats of dirt carved from a hillside at the edge of a cliff."
"Perhaps being stuck between life and death baffles brain." Agron said. "Your words do not make proper sense."
"Spartacus holds games in our honor, you stupid fuck. He and Gannicus, Naevia, Lugo, Saxa, others who escaped with us from Batiatus ludus take to the sands to spill Roman blood as sacrifice to us in the afterlife." Crixus said. "Even your wild little dog dons armor and readies spear to kill in your name and prove you fool for your words of useless house slaves when we saw his Dominus villa fall."
"Do not fucking cast that look." Duro said. "Nasir is better with that spear than many I can name who trained from childhood."
Agron was about to answer when he heard Donar shouting his name again. Crixus glared across the river at the man before grabbing onto to Agron's arm. "Come we must move."
"Fucking dead people!" Duro grumbled as he made a rude gesture in Donar's direction. "It is not yet his time!"
The trio set off along the bank of the river once again. Every so often Donar would call out and he had now been joined by Brictius of all people.
They soon reached a bend in the river where two more people waited. Oenomaus was easily recognized yet the smiling woman at his side was no one that Agron knew.
"Agron, I have heard many stories of you." The woman said with a smile. "Both from my honored husband and from you hero-worshiping younger brother. I am Melitta."
Agron nodded at her before whispering to Duro in shock. "Doctore stands married? Why has he not crossed if they are reunited?"
"I also await a brother." Oenomaus said. "I must settle things with Gannicus. I cannot rest until I know the rift between us repaired. Such can only be with the breaking of words between him, my wife, and myself."
"I fear you will not recognize him." Crixus said. "He is no longer the man you once knew."
Agron chuckled before adding. "He now stands sober and faithful to the little thing as Saxa calls her."
"He has found love?" Melitta asked. "A prayer I made many times on his behalf is now granted by the gods."
Oenomaus and Melitta now fell in step with the group.
"Duro where do we go? You say that I cannot cross yet there is destination in mind." Agron said then glanced around at the others. "And we collect others like flies circling honey."
"There is a destination before us brother; yet the journey grows more difficult now." Crixus said. "We would lend support to see it to proper end."
The group had walked along the riverside for quite some time. Other than the growing group of dead rebels on the other shore (which now included Nemetes and Sedullus of all people) the way had been easily trod.
Agron let out a huff. "I do not know why you thought this journey so difficult; or why you all insist that I need your support."
"Agron shut up." Duro said. "You ever think yourself invincible. Do you remember how you got that scar upon chest? You said you could walk back to the village after being gored by that boar's tusk; yet I was the one who ended up dragging your nearly dead bulk through the forest. You were just as insistent that you needed no help then."
"So you have always been a stubborn ass?" Crixus snorted. "Why do I not stand surprised?"
Agron suddenly doubled over in pain. Duro grabbed his brother. "The difficulty begins."
Agron gasped for a moment before straightening up. "What sorcery was that?"
"You begin to feel the pains you were shielded from as you step closer to life." Oenomaus said. "This is the most danger ridden part of your journey; and the point where most men fail."
"Pain, a thing we all are well acquainted with is it not?" Agron said. "It is a part of being a gladiator; I will deal with it."
"It is not just the pain brother." Duro said as another voice began calling out from the other bank. One that Agron had not heard for many years.
"Agron, turn deaf ear to her." Crixus said. "She only wants you to cross over."
"No; she is my mother." Agron said as he found himself looking at the woman who was rattling off a spate of German begging him to come and rest; escape the pain.
"If you go; I will follow brother." Duro said. "But you will never see Nasir again; is it worth it? You would condemn him to an eternity of anguish without you and yourself to the same."
"You once told me that you understood that a man would risk all to set eyes again upon his heart." Crixus said. "I risked all for Naevia will you now do less for Nasir."
Agron turned from his mother and took another step forward and hissed as he again was hit with a wave of pain. Duro lifted his brother's arm to his shoulder.
"That's it brother; keep moving forward." Duro said. "The pain takes you closer to your heart. Hold on to that and don't turn back."
"Almost there brother." Crixus voice encouraged.
Agron found his steps slowing as the pain grew worse. Each step was a struggle and soon he felt exhaustion joining the pain.
"A man is never too weak or too wounded to fight, if the cause is greater than his own life or death." Oenomaus said.
Agron felt himself stumble. "We enter camp. I will see you to loving arms brother." Agron must have been imagining it because the voice was not Duro, or Crixus, or Oenomaus; it was Spartacus voice encouraging him.
He felt a hand touch gently touch his face. "The gods return you to my arms."