God of War: Daughter of War

Flurry groaned as she finally came to and pulled herself out of the rubble that had fallen around her, where she found that she was still in Rhodes, the fighting had ceased after everyone saw what happened between the King of the Gods and the God of War, and a gate to the Underworld that closed right before her eyes.

"Father... how could we have been so naive to believe that Zeus would believe that we were innocent?" Flurry remarked, as she realized that this was partly her fault, her handing the Blade of Olympus back to Zeus had brought about her father dying again, especially since the King of the Gods hated all of them with every fiber of his being, causing her to sit there with her head hung in shame.

She knew they had failed, as everything they had done to prove their innocence to the rest of the Olympians had fallen on deaf ears, essentially meaning she, her family, and their allies had wasted their time trying to stop the prophecy, as Zeus just undid everything and made it so war would come to Olympus in the very near future. Another thing she came to figure out was that she had been far too naive to think that they could convince someone like Zeus, who had damned them no matter what they did, especially when they followed his orders to the letter, and now it looked like war would be coming to Greece, despite their best efforts. Such a thing made her sick, that a number of the Olympians would actually seek to bring about the advent of the Marked Warrior prophecy, despite their insistence on trying to stop it before Ares went mad, and she feared for the mortals of the land, as many of them were likely going to perish in the near future. After killing two gods, plus the Furies and every other major figure they had dealt with over the years, Flurry honestly didn't want to kill more of them, but she told herself that she couldn't continue to think such naive thoughts anymore, not after what she had seen.

War with the gods was inevitable, that much she knew for sure, though she decided to direct her anger towards Zeus, as he finally made the first move and now it was time for them to make their counterattack, but after what he had just done Flurry realized that the King of the Gods would have bared her and Deimos from Olympus.

"Flurry, are you alright?" a voice asked, where she found that Deimos and Athena were approaching her, though she had to assume that the latter had tracked down the former after seeing Zeus arrive in Rhodes, or maybe it was due to the fact that he attacked Kratos as soon as the blade was back in his hands.

"Physically, yes... mentally, well, still coming to terms with all of this." Flurry replied, which she could see was reflected on the faces of the others, they knew that they had failed to stop the advent of the Marked Warrior prophecy, Zeus had done everything in his power to start it and his actions today, which she could have stopped, would make anyone turn on him if they knew what he had done.

Athena opened her mouth to say something, as she was sure that there was something she could do to help Flurry with what she was feeling, though before anything could leave her mouth the area that Kratos had been resting in previously tore itself open, magically anyway, as the gate to the Underworld opened again, only for the God of War to pull himself out of Hades' domain, complete with a new scar on his abdomen.

"Father..." Flurry said, though in the following moment she rubbed the side of her arm and adverted her gaze, allowing her uncle and Athena to see that she really held herself accountable for part of what had just happened, despite the fact that all of them no doubt felt responsible for what had happened, as they could have prevented this from even happening as soon as the Colossus was down.

"Flurry, I am glad you are alright." Kratos stated, where everyone could see that he was displeased with their failure, while at the same time he had learned something important, plus Athena noticed his old rage had finally been rekindled after his second death, this time pointed at Zeus and the rest of the Olympians who wanted them dead, all while he focused on all of them, "We, and by that I mean all of us, were naive in thinking that we could convince Zeus of our innocence, since we showed him, and all of Olympus, that we weren't like Ares... we must learn that stubborn individuals, such as Zeus, cannot be reasoned with and that they will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Now, what happened after our foe made his move against us?"

"Zeus was forced to depart before he could unleash the power within the Blade of Olympus, to exterminate the Spartans that followed Flurry here, and the Blade itself is with him." Athena said, though when with Flurry being annoyed by what had happened, and her part in allowing Zeus to kill her father like he had, she noticed that the Goddess of Wisdom looked like as she trying to hide something from them, as if she knew who had forced the King of the Gods back and couldn't say anything, "Now, he's likely weaved countermeasures into the Olympian Gates to prevent you two, Deimos and Flurry, from using them to travel to Olympus, while you, Kratos, cannot use them on your own without your godly power... however, I should be able to open the way to our realm so you can get the Blade, and your power, back."

Kratos raised an eyebrow as he followed Athena into Rhodes, causing Flurry and Deimos to do the same without wasting any precious time, and, sure enough, she came to a stop in front of an Olympian Gate that Kratos had used to get here as soon as the battle was over, only for the Goddess of Wisdom to frown as the Gate remained sealed after she raised her hand towards it.

"I don't believe it... Zeus has locked me out of Olympus as well!" Athena remarked, which was insane when she thought about it, she had been so careful over the last thirteen years, making it seem like she was checking up on the gods that watched over Sparta and that she wasn't working with them at all, and yet Zeus, in his infinite wisdom, had locked her out as well, causing her to sigh as she faced Kratos, "Sorry for getting your hopes up. It looks the King of the Gods has gone totally mental... locking the Goddess of Wisdom out of Olympus, for no reason, isn't going to be accepted by the rest of the gods."

"Then I guess the path that Gaia told me about is our best bet." Kratos stated, something that caused the others to stop for a moment as they turned towards him, since this was the first time he had talked about one of the titans, especially since Atlas hated them and the others likely disapproved of their existence, "When I roused myself from the darkness of death, and found myself being dragged down into the Underworld, a visage of her appeared before me and told me that to get my power back I would need to visit the Fates."

"The Fates... wait, like traveling through time?!" Flurry inquired, as there were tales about how the Fates could allow one to go back in time to change their story, to rewrite it, which required tampering with the Threads of Fate or Life, as it had a few names it went by, though that also required gaining an audience with the Fates themselves, who were notorious for not allowing anyone to visit them.

"Yes. Go back to when Zeus attacked, claim the Blade of Olympus, and then kill him." Kratos said, as if it would be as easy as that, though everyone knew that was just the basics of the plan since it meant they would have to kill literally every foe on the island that the Fates were supposed to call home, though at the same time he glanced at Deimos and Athena as Flurry made sure her equipment, "Deimos, I know you might be thinking of coming with us, but you should focus on the people of Sparta, because once Zeus realizes that I'm alive, and that we're heading to deal with the Fates, he'll lash out at anyone whose associated with us, just to anger us... Sparta would be his first choice."

"Agreed. I was hoping that this day would never come, that we'd need the emergency plan, but now I'm glad that we went through the effort to create it." Deimos stated, causing Kratos to raise an eyebrow for a moment, as he was expecting an argument or something from his brother, or even something about stopping and not letting his anger get the better of him, be it at his death or Zeus attacking him, before Deimos rested a hand on his brother's shoulder, "Kratos, I know that you and Flurry have this in the bag... you don't need me weighing you down. While you deal with the Fates, and whatever they put in your way, I will ensure that the people are safe and that Zeus doesn't get his way while you two are gone."

"And I'll do by best to try and convince the other gods to let me back into Olympus, or at least distract Zeus so he doesn't do anything stupid... after today, I have my doubts that he'll listen to anyone." Athena added, showing that she was going to continue working with them to bring Zeus down, because now that everyone seemed to be focused on bringing about the Marked Warrior prophecy, and potentially the doom of Olympus if that part of it was true, she wanted to be on the side that she knew was going to win, "But still... Gaia? Really? You know she has no love for Olympus and will just use you to bring Zeus down, right?"

"Yes, but if we manage to reach the Fates, do not worry: we will leave the past alone." Kratos replied, because he figured that one or more of the titans might try to use his hatred or anger for Zeus against them, to convince him and Flurry to go back to when both forces waged war with each other and bring the titans back into this world, to use their full power to bring down Zeus.

"...And if Zeus flees back to Olympus, or does something that enrages you to the point that fury takes hold?" Athena asked, which caused Flurry to raise an eyebrow for a moment, as it almost sounded like she was suggesting something without actually saying it, like she knew something and didn't want to spoil anything for them, or maybe it was just her simply overthinking what was going on lately.

"It would depend on what that 'something' is... right, brother?" Deimos remarked, as he knew his brother better than most people did, save for probably Flurry and Athena since they had spent more time interacting with him than he did, so he knew that Kratos' reaction depended on what happened when he eventually faced Zeus again.

Kratos gave them a grunt, sounding a little gruff in the process, even though there wasn't much Zeus could do to him at this point in time, not after everything he and Flurry had been through to reach this point, so he doubted that he would do anything overly drastic, like Athena was suggesting. Bringing the titans, with their full terrible power, back to this point in time would be dangerous for everyone, both gods and mortals alike, which meant it was something they wanted to avoid at all costs, so for the time being he focused on the Fates and the dangers that would be waiting for him and Flurry when they reached their destination. Athena stared at him for a few moments, clearly wondering if it was alright to allow him and his daughter to embark on such a journey, especially with the target being the Fates and the potential power to travel back in time, before deciding that she trusted Flurry to make that decision, because while they might have been naive in thinking they could convince Zeus of their innocence she trusted her to make the right call. With that in mind both she and Deimos left the pair alone as they headed out to round up the rest of the Spartans, so they could get them to Sparta and start moving everyone before their foe made his move, as Hecate might help them get there before Zeus moved to attack the city and it's people.

While they departed from the area, however, Flurry followed her father as he headed back up to where Zeus killed him not all that long ago, though he came to a stop before reaching their destination, something that caused her to realize that there was one more thing that they needed to talk about.

"You are distracted, Flurry." Kratos stated, though he already knew what was going on right now, she was too focused on the mistake that all of them had made and had barely registered what he had said upon his return to the mortal realm, and no doubt would for some time, at least until they made this right.

"I... made a mistake, and it got you killed... I shouldn't have given the Blade back to Zeus." Flurry admitted, because it was just hard to accept that her father was fine with her making such a mistake and not tearing into her for bringing about his death like that, despite the fact that they had been waiting for Zeus to move against him.

"You made a mistake, that is true... but so did Deimos, Athena, and I, in thinking that we could turn Zeus from the path he has set himself on." Kratos said, where he turned around for a moment and faced his troubled daughter, causing him to place a hand on her shoulder as they focused on each other, as he knew that, once she got over the block that was currently in her mind, she would be back to her old self in no time, "We made a mistake... and now it is up to us to fix it. If I blame anyone for this, it is Zeus, and we already have a plan on how to make him pay for what happened here today."

Flurry let out a sigh of relief for a moment, as her father had greatly matured since their early days together, where he was filled with rage and little else, before nodding her head as they resumed walking towards the summit, where an ashen coated pegasus with flaming wings was waiting for them, to which Flurry opened hers as they prepared to embark on the next important journey of their lives.