God(s) of War

Chapter 2b

Disclaimers can be found in the prologue. Everything else is just gravy! R'n'R please!

A/N: I am soooooo SORRY it took so goddamn long to update. And this time it was not laziness that did it. My old computer's main board finally gave up the ghost and shorted itself out over a month ago after I last updated. It took me this long – between work and trying to find time to get to the library – to be able to upload the next chapterI can only hope this can tide you people over until I can actually save up and buy myself a new unit. As you can see, this is shaping up to be a long one. Please R n' R.

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Back at the waking world:

Giles was worried, as was the rest of the current Scooby gang were clustered around Xander's still form in Giles's apartment. Xander looked to be sleeping peaceably, but from time to time, they could see his face scrunch up in frustration and speak in a variety of languages, Greek foremost among them. It had been especially disturbing when he arched upwards and screamed out in anguish and anger, then cursing the name of the Ares. And equally disturbing was the fact he seemed to glow as a ghost like apparition of a Grecian Battle dress armor enveloped his supine form for a few seconds of his raging in his sleep, thus making Willow faint at the sight while the Slayer felt powerless at the situation.

After that episode, the young lad became eerily silent, resembling a man deep in slumber.

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Back in Xander's mind:

Xander/Kratos was not at all pleased as time passed, and the promises of the gods seemed to hold little meaning. For ten years since becoming their champion, not even once were his desires addressed. Despair and hope silently warred within him. After dispatching the monstrous Hydra plaguing the Aegean seas at the behest of Lord Poseidon, he was given enough time to rest, then called upon to save Athens from the ever-growing ire of Ares against Athena. It looks as if even Ares's madness has appalled the other gods.

Looking on the bright side however, at least Lord Poseidon bequeathed unto him the power of undersea lightning. The fact that Poseidon let him keep that power after the sea Hydra's defeat was an added bonus.

A good thing too, for when his ship had caught sight of Athens already in the process of burning into the ground, he had a feeling he would be making use of it and more real soon.

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The moment Xander/Kratos reached the harbor, the fight was already on. He had encountered a slew of undead legionnaires that moved to bar him access to the city. Quickly dispatching them, he was then attacked by a band of Minotaurs after they had killed the two fleeing guards.

"Merciful Zeus!" the Xander part of his collective mind said in dumbfounded shock. "Ares is going all out in trying to eradicate Athena's city. This is insane, even for him."

The moment he reached the outskirts of the city gates, which lay towards Athens, he got a big surprise. The guards were screaming for help behind a wrecked gate, warning all for all and sundry that Ares was slowly decimating the city. Their manic cries were cut short as a pair of undead legionnaires jumped them from behind. Then he had his next surprise; four lower classes of Cyclops, over ten feet in height were patrolling the area between him and the broken gate leading to the city.

Xander/Kratos let loose a chilling battlecry and charged the closest monster, letting fly the enchanted blades tied to him through equally enchanted chains.

He struck the beast hard and fast, never giving it an inch in which to retaliate. Jabbing it across the mid-section, Xander/Kratos quickly rolled underneath the Cyclops and attacked it from behind. Digging his blades into the creature's tough back, then he hoisted himself up, and using the thing's neck as an impromptu trampoline, he leapt and slammed both blades into the Cyclops's eye on his way down. The blades digging deep enough to reach the beast's brain as well, killing it instantly.

By then, the remaining Cyclops had noticed his spectacular arrival and lumbered over towards him to do battle. The "Ghost of Sparta" did some fancy footwork, using their slow speed against them; he darted in and out of their combined charge, often times letting them hack each other's bits off. Once done, he moved in to finish them off, roughly going for the eyes whenever he could. That done, he quickly stormed the side passageways that opened up and out to the upper floors of a building beside the gate. Using a siege harpoon with ropes found on the edge of the building; he made his way inwards and beyond the wrecked gates while battling whatever forces Ares set up to guard them.

The grand scope of Ares's madness was not clear to him until he reached a place called "Suicide Bluffs" that overlooked the grand city. There stood the mad god of war, towering over the ancient city; trampling whatever army Athens had under his enormous feet, watching in glee as his own armies tore the city apart piece by piece.

"God of war," Xander/Kratos muttered over the carnage unfolding before him, whilst remembering clearly the same carnage he once wrought as Ares's former champion, and the grave consequences of his rash allegiance to the mad god. "For what you did that night, this city will be your grave."

Clearing his head from his reverie, he continued inwards in his quest. At present, he set his goals to reaching the Oracle of Athens for a way to stop Ares's advances, for surely, the Oracle would know of such a way. But therein also lies the problem, Ares might have already been alerted to his presence, so his way would undoubtedly be filled with Ares's vermin – excuse me, the "Army of Ares".

A part of Xander's sarcasm surfaced for a short while as they both shared a universal thought; they both hated being right on that score all the time.

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Crossing the war-torn city was a challenge in itself as he had to find alternate routes in search for the Oracle. Along the way, Aphrodite had gifted him with the power to freeze his enemies for short time after he killed Medusa and offered her head to the goddess. Then as he roamed inwards, he was again gifted with another power, this time from Zeus himself. The almighty king of the gods had personally gifted him with the use of his mighty thunderbolts. And on a slightly strange side-note: Xander/Kratos also came across a creepy sort of gravedigger that spouted some non-sense drivel about digging a grave for him. Only then after applying the gifts the gods gave him at opportune times, the search had become a bit easier until he finally found the Oracle. And it pissed him off when right just when he had found her; Ares's damned "pet" harpies swept her off away from him. Letting loose a groan in annoyance, he gave chase, momentarily ripping one of them to shreds with his bare hands when they dared to get too close. He impaled another harpy with one of his blades; using the creature like a flail, he swung the impaled harpy in a wide circle, clearing a path before him as he slammed it bodily against its kind until it died.

He almost lost sight of her for a few minutes until he heard a scream by one of the courtyards. When he stepped out, he found that the harpies left her hanging, literally, from a length of rope high above what used to be an enclosed garden/waterfall. Wasting no time, he quickly made his way towards her just in time to break her fall.

And with that simple act alone, he had set in motion, events that would lead to his own downfall.

"Kratos," The Oracle said, "As Athena herself had foretold, but you are late, perhaps too late to save Athens. Or is it Athens you have come to save?"

After thanking the "Ghost of Sparta", the Oracle was a bit curious, so she touched her rescuer's face. In that instant, the Spartan's past was laid bare to her. And when the Oracle looked into his soul, she saw a beast as well as a man. Once a captain of a spartan army, Kratos had begun his command with only fifty soldiers, but soon his numbers grew to the thousands. His tactics were brutal, but effective. Drunk by power, he was feared by all, except one, his wife was the only one to brave his fury. His desire for conquest knew no bounds, but that which he desired would ultimately consume him.

"By the gods!" The oracle gasped. "Why would Athena send one such as you?"

To which, Xander/Kratos replied; "Stay out of my head, woman." He growled, grabbing the hands touching him.

"Chose your enemies wisely, Kratos." The Oracle admonished. "Your brute strength alone will not be enough to destroy Ares. Only one item in the world will allow you to defeat a god: Pandora's Box. Which lies far beyond the walls of Athens, hidden by the gods across the desert to the east. But be warned, Kratos. Many have gone in search for Pandora's Box, none have returned."

And then she showed him to an abandoned entryway, which led to the sewers of Athens.

"Follow these sewers till you reach the end of the tunnels that leads to the east." She said. "And once you have reached the exit leading to city entrance, go up and turn right, towards the walls that point to the Desert of Lost Souls. There you will find the first clues in finding Pandora's Box.

Nodding to show his understanding, Xander/Kratos stepped through the doors and went on his way. He should have stayed a little longer, for if so, he would have heard her last words meant only for the other soul joined to his: Xander Harris.

"Take care, young Alexander." The Oracle said, for not only did she see Kratos's life, but also glimpses of the young man who would one day share the Spartan's memories in the future. "For the mantle you will don will be both a great blessing, as well as a great curse."

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On the way towards the desert, he saw Athena's statue leading away from Athens. Xander/Kratos went towards it and spoke. "The Oracle spoke of Pandora's Box, can it be real?"

The statue glowed, announcing the presence of Athena as she answered. "The Box exists, it is the most powerful weapon a mortal can wield."

"And with such a weapon," Xander/Kratos said. "I could defeat Ares."

"With the Box," the goddess continued. "Many things become possible, and so it is hidden well; far across the Desert of Lost Souls. There is safe passage through the deadly sands, but only those who hear and follow the Siren's song will discover it. You must find the Siren's Kratos, for only they can guide you to Kronos, the Titan."

The Spartan paled in shock. "A Titan lives!"

"Kronos is the last." Athena explained. "Zeus has commanded him to wander the desert endlessly. The temple of Pandora chained to his back, until the swirling sands rip the very flesh from his bones. Stay true to the song of the Siren, Kratos. Your journey begins here. Pray it leads you back to Athens, with Pandora's Box."

So Xander/Kratos gritted his teeth and shielded his eyes against the harsh winds as he strode through the Desert of Lost Souls, the howling winds and poor visibility made tracking anything a near-impossibility. He could only hope that the Athenian Oracle and Athena herself were right about this. Those blasted Desert Sirens ought to be around here somewhere. He grunted in surprise as he tripped over a piece of broken masonry directly in front of him. Staggering upwards, he was able to make out a broken-down statue of a forgotten king, finding the head he tripped over lying on the ground beside it.

Resisting the urge to kick it into oblivion, he plowed forwards once more into the desert sands until he came upon another statue – this time, it was Athena's. And around the area was a haunting melody that permeated the air – driving a chilling calm in the face of the sandblasting winds. Barely visible beyond it were huge doors that appeared out of the sands as if by magic. Loitering around the area was what made that sound as well - a svelte looking female, her windblown hair covering her face, her body covered with tattered clothes – and she was singing. Curious as to what a woman was doing here, he neared her enough to be able to touch her. The warrior immediately stepped back as she lurched forward, allowing him full view of her distorted face.

The Desert Siren attacked, her windblown hair revealing the distorted face of nightmares. Grotesquely shaped mouth full of fangs opened wide in a silent scream of perversity, eyeless sockets seeking nothing and everything all at once – and this time, they sought the interloper known as the "Ghost of Sparta", hands and claw-like fingers outstretched in a manner that was neither benign nor beseeching. Xander/Kratos dodged a hastily thrown plasma burst coming out of her outstretched hands. Reacting instinctively, he used low powered charges of his thunderbolts to stun her, then closed in for the kill – ripping the Siren's head off with hi s bare hands to effectively silence her. Once done, the Siren's essence or spirit exploded out of her body and flew straight to the huge doors barely visible in the distance, setting alight one of the hidden jewels imbedded in the doors' recesses. He neared the statue of Athena once more and heard Athena's voice saying that he must first destroy the rest of the Desert Sirens guarding the doors as sacrifices for safe passage beyond the swirling sands. And he'd have to find them first to do so, two more to say the least.

"Great." Xander/Kratos said. "How in Zeus's name do I find anything in all this?"

The Spartan sighed; it seems there was no escaping this. So with a doubtful, yet determined stride, he went in search for the last two of the Desert Sirens guarding the doors leading onwards for hi quest.

Once all of the three guardians were dead, their released spirits served as the key to open the hidden doors, showing him the way even from a great distance. Satisfied that his eyes were not playing tricks on him, he ran through it and came out of The Desert of Lost Souls.

The chambers within gave him a brief respite, but he knew he had to carry on. Getting back on his feet, he came to the rear of the building and saw a large horn sitting in front of a perpetual sandstorm that glared behind it. He blew on the horn and the sands blocking his egress parted before him like the red seam, allowing him safe passage through. Mildly pleased at the blatant show of power from the gods, he made his way across the sands, his own personal Moses between the walls of sand. On the other side, he saw an even bigger horn standing close to the edge of a very high cliff. Shrugging, he blew on that as well and got the biggest shock of his life.

Kronos, the Titan defeated by his own son, Zeus, came lumbering into view from out of the swirling desert. The huge giant was crawling on all fours, with Pandora's Temple chained on his back, as Athena had said. The area that housed the temple itself, was a veritable mountain with sheer cliffs on either side. And the temple, the temple looked to be work of art, a combination of madness and sheer brilliance. The vision left him in awe. He waited for the lumbering giant to come near, he then took a running leap and snagged one of the smaller, broken chains pinning the mountain to the titan's form. Once finding a safe handhold, he began to climb.

The ascent took three days for him to even reach the outskirts of the temple grounds, resting briefly at certain intervals, he continued his way upwards. Once at the landing leading upwards, the desolation he saw around him brought home the reality that this was a journey in which he would have to succeed, or die trying in the attempt.

As he was about to attempt scaling the huge gate leading to the entrance of the temple, caught sight of a figure hauling corpses into a bonfire just off to the side of the far right of the temple. Curious, he moved closer to better inspect the morbid task. Upon closer inspection, he found an animated corpse dragging another corpse and showing into the bonfire.

Now that, he thought to himself, is a cruel sense of irony: a cursed corpse burning other cursed corpses that either littered the temple grounds or that the "body burner" (as he dubbed the animated bag of flesh and bones as it flambéed his dead comrades) had carried them here. As soon as that thought gathered, it was quickly dismissed as he saw harpies arrive and deposit a few more bodies into the pile while the "body burner" hoisted another corpse into the flames. He also noticed that a few of them had been fairly recent, indicating that he was not the only one who had braved the temple in the last few days.

The body burner looked up at the unexpected noise of someone drawing closer and was mildly amused that another benighted fool was once more about to do the dangerously impossible: attempting to plunder the Temple of Pandora of it's carefully guarded secrets.

As daunting as the scene looked, it did nothing to dissuade the former Spartan. In fact, it made him even more determined to do whatever it took to get Pandora's Box and confront Ares once and for all. After the body burner had threw a skull up towards the harpies circling the pyre, commanding them to open the gates leading to the temple proper, he bid Xander/Kratos farewell and returned to his duty of disposing the other dead warriors.

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Out in the real world:

Giles was getting worried, it had been at least over a day since Xander had collapsed, and there was still no sign of him waking. Another thing to be worried about was that the young man was undergoing some sort of physical change. Whereas Xander began as a young man on his way to having a muscular physique prior to this incident, to actually getting the build most athletes trained for months almost overnight as his body was surrounded by a soft golden glow. No, while he didn't actually become overly large like that Arnold chap who played in the Terminator movies, he looked to be more like a world class athlete. Judging by whom Xander went as, Giles could only surmise that Xander would eventually have the physique of a true, natural Olympiad.

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Back in Xander/Kratos's memories:

The cursed Spartan had survived all of the dangers the mad architect had devised into the Temple of Pandora; at last he stood in front of his goal. At last he understood why the huge box in front of him was so sought after. It's raw power barely visible inside the box's myriad confines.

He had finally found Pandora's Box.

Xander's inner mind was awhirl with awe at the size of the thing. This Pandora chick must've been over thirty feet tall or more, he thought. The box's itself looked like a grand coffin that was nearly chest level to him. It was made out of some unidentifiable metal that gleamed even in the dim light of the torches surrounding the chamber keeping it from the outside world. Its glass-like sides barely showing the unfathomable energies within that glowed with a fiery kind of divine light. A foreboding sense of unease rippled through his very core and he wasn't sure if it was his own thoughts or Kratos that sensed that this box was too much power for either man or god to wield.

"Now how the hell am I going to get THAT thing out of here!" The sudden thought struck the combined spirits of Xander and Kratos. There was no way he was going to drag that huge box back through all the traps, puzzles, and monsters that still littered his way to get to the box in the first place. The fact that at least a fourth of the way to this very chamber were water hazards made him groan out loud. Not to mention the damnable fact that he was inside a man-made mountain which was affixed on the back of a dethroned Titan sentenced to spend its last days crawling across the desert floor. If only Pathos Verdes III was still alive – the mad architect, the one who designed this accursed temple in the first place, he'd strangle him with his very own entrails! As it was, Xander/Kratos used that certain mad genius's own petrified skull as one of the keys for entering the box's chamber. Too bad he didn't have Icarus's wings to help him out, but it was doubtful that he'd be able to even lift it and fly it out of here. He was going to have enough trouble dragging or pushing the thing out anyway.

Just as he reached out and touched the box, a loud rumbling reverberated across the temple and the chamber he was standing in lurched and sank downwards. The Xander part of his 20th century mind hazarded a guess that the entire Box chamber also doubled as a freight elevator.

At least getting it through the temple would be easy, he thought, so now he'd only have to worry about getting it beyond the temple doors, off the mountain, and off the Titan's back altogether.

Simple really.

Yeah, right. As if anything about this latest mission was a walk in the park.

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Once the freight elevator settled down in the entrance chamber, he slowly began pushing the huge box out of the temple. The cursed Spartan was thinking of ways of how to bring it back to Athens. But then, something massive struck him, sending him slamming back into the far wall, pinning him above the entrance leading into the first of the temple's insane puzzles. The pain sending him screaming as he futilely struggled to free himself from what appeared to be a piece of a massive broken pillar.

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Back in Athens a short while ago, when Ares had gotten wind that his former chosen avatar had found Pandora's Box.

"So little Spartan," Ares said, pausing in his rampage to glance unerringly towards the direction of Pandora's Temple. "You have recovered Zeus's precious box, but you will not live long enough to use it. I will see to that."

Then the god of war picked up one of the massive fallen pillars that strangely looked like an oversized stake, and let fly with a slight grunt towards the direction of the temple. The pillar flew straight and true.

"Goodbye, Spartan, may you rot in the depths of Hades for all Eternity."

Piercing the air across the desert like an ancient guided missile, it struck the surprised Spartan without warning as he was pushing Pandora's Box towards the exit. The broken pillar slammed into him, sending back and pinned him to the far back wall. And as the life bled out of him, the nightmares that plagued him for ten years never leaving him even in death. The Ghost of Sparta had failed.

And with that failure: his death.

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Out in the real world:

Giles was alarmed when the glow surrounding the young man suddenly grew brighter and then started pulsing, acting like a heartbeat. Xander's face was screwed into extreme pain and for a few seconds, he sat up, eyes slamming open and he screamed. The glow flared, engulfing the young man completely. Then suddenly, he vanished, and then reappeared with a soft steady glow as it was before the flare-up, seemingly asleep once more.

But Giles also noticed one thing, which made him cry out in shock.

Xander wasn't breathing.

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TBC