Chapter Text
Many years ago
Shoshannah crept through the villa until she reached her intended destination. By this time of evening, the whole household, save the guards, was meant to be asleep. She could see her beloved without the dominus or domina catching her, or punishing her for misbehaving. For all she knew, tonight would the last night they could be together.
Without knocking, she opened the door to his quarters. “You should not be here.” Her beloved, Jacob, said as she closed the door.
“I had to come. Tomorrow is an important day.” Tomorrow, Jacob would be entering the gladiatorial arena once again. Hopefully, if fate was kind, he would leave that fight a free man. “Tomorrow, you could be free. This could be the last time I see you.” She looked away.
He reached out and took hold of her chin. “Do you believe I would leave you behind?” he sounded hurt.
“I hope, if the gods are kind, that you will win tomorrow and be a free man. And enjoy the freedom you fought so hard for.” She admitted honestly.
“It would not be true freedom without you.”
“Are you nervous?” She asked him after it was quiet for a few moments.
“I always am. Every time I enter the arena, it could be the last time.” He sighed. “At the beginning, I hoped it would be. I would not have died a free man, but I would not have lived as a slave any longer.”
“What changed?”
“I met you. I found something to live for. A reason to find my way back home.”
“Do you believe we will ever see them again? Our homes?”
Jacob, like many gladiators, had come from Thrace. His village had been attacked by the Romans during a war with a neighboring village. Most of his family were killed, he and his sisters, and many others, were taken as slaves. For his ‘reprehensible behavior’, trying to protect his sister, he’d been condemned to die in the arena. Shoshannah was from the east. Her people had been at war with Rome for years. When they lost, her whole family was taken as slaves.
“I hope we will.” He answered. “You should go, before you are caught.”
She turned to go when the door opened. “What have we here?” Sextus, one of the guards, said from the doorway. He had a devious glint in his eye. “Gladiators are not permitted….company the evening before a fight. I should go inform the dominus. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“No.” Shoshannah said forcefully. She knew what Sextus was implying and she wouldn’t do it. He had always made her feel uncomfortable. His eyes lingered on her body too long, his gaze felt predatory. “Do what you will, but I will never do that.”
“You overestimate your importance. Do you truly believe that, given a choice between you or his freedom, that any man, including Jacob, will choose you?”
“In most men, I do not. He is not most men.”
This angered the guard, who took a step closer to her. “No, but tomorrow, one way or another, he will leave this place and you will not.” He said sinisterly. He walked closer with every word. “Will you be this brave then? I suppose you will, you believe he will win tomorrow and then free you. Too bad the beliefs of a slave mean nothing. I doubt he will make it until morning.”
Sextus turned, and before either could react, stabbed Jacob in the gut. She gasped and fell to her knees.
“Jacob?”
“I will see you in the morning.” Sextus said as he sauntered from the room.
“Run.” Jacob gasped out.
“What?”
“Run, my love. Find your way home. Be free. For both of us.”
“No, no- I- you cannot die yet. I will-“
“I have killed enough men to know I will not survive this wound.” He admitted. “I am already dead.”
Shoshannah looked at the sword, then at Jacob, then back at the sword. “We did not have enough time together in life. I hope we will in death.” She murmured as she reached for the weapon.
“No. you must live.”
“There is no life without you.” Taking a deep breath, she stabbed herself in the abdomen. “I love you.”
“And I you. In this life and the next.” With one last admission, Jacob closed his eyes and they never reopened.
“Oh, my love. If only we met in another time and in another place.” A few moments later, Shoshannah’s heart stopped beating.
Years later, and hundreds of miles away, a blonde woman sat up gasping. Felicity Smoak’s mind reeled as she replayed the dream she’d just had. It felt real, so real. Not like a dream, but like a memory.
“Have I had that dream before?” Everything about it, the man she was talking to, the wounds her dreamself had, it all felt so….familiar.
With no other explanation, and no answers, Felicity rolled over and went back to sleep.