Full spoilers for God of War 2018 (not Ragnarok).
-(-)-
A god had walked a path laid out by his late wife. A god, with his son in tow, carried her ashes as they journeyed across lands foreign to him. A god sought to bury the horrors of his past, those he committed, those he endured, those deserved and those undeserved. A god took that journey his late wife laid out without his knowledge, and he saw history begin to repeat itself. A god learned the truth. For a god, for a man, for anyone, the past cannot stay buried. It will live on regardless of the will of the one who committed it. Like an infested wound, even if it heals, the poison will not disappear. It will continue, silently ravaging the one who bears it, destroying them from within and spreading to those around him.
The past... It lives. It yearns to be known. It cannot be forgotten. It cannot be buried. It can only be confronted, whether one is willing or not. Only by confronting it willingly, acknowledging it, and vowing to be better. It is the only way to truly move forward. To be better than what he was before, to teach the lessons that he would give anything to avoid anyone learning through horror as he had.
This was what the god had come to believe.
Was this what his wife had meant for him?
... No. Not for him. His epiphany, the releasing of the burdens of his mindless retribution, she may have seen it. May have intended it, even. But it wasn't for him. Never for him. He kept his doubts quiet, but he couldn't help but wonder if any of their time together had been real. Or if it was purely for the future she envisioned. The path she knew they would walk. For the future of their son to fulfil the destiny she had lain out for him. She was no god, but he could recognise the old manipulations all the same, at least when they were thrust in his face with decades old murals. He dreaded to think what he might have done if he had known sooner.
As it was... For once, the unspoken betrayal didn't anger him. All he felt was weary. Tired. She had taught him not to bury his past, and had only been able to do so for burying hers. Even so, the one thing that was any kind of salve...
She manipulated him. Not for his sake. And so far... Not to any clearly malicious purpose. But for their son. So that he would one day do as the god dearly wished. To be better. Better than him.
It was never about the god. It was about their son.
Atreus.
And... He preferred to believe, had to believe, that made it better.
If he had his choice, he would have spared Atreus. From all of it. From his true nature. From what that would mean. What it would lead to. The boy would have lived a simple life. But that was never in his future even without the giants' meddling. Atreus would always have needed to face his heritage. Kratos would always have needed to confront his past. And so here they were. Burdens lightened, with unclear fates. Because of course, even if the future had been quite literally etched in stone... Kratos had told Atreus. And he had proven it himself. Nothing is written that cannot be unwritten.
All it would take, would be sufficient motivation.
-(-)-
"Come on, Father! This is it, it has to be!"
"Hrmh."
"Ease up, Brother! You've 'ad 'im trainin' in the woods fer a month! The lad's bound to have gotten a wee bit o' the wanderlust again, aye?" The severed head attached to Kratos belt sputtered as a burly hand slapped him. "Pfftht! Well! Someb'dy's grumpier than usual today!"
Kratos ignored the comment as he turned the lever to lower the elevator that led to the top of the Jotunheim Realm Tower. The head could say whatever it liked and after having dealt with it for so long it was clear it would. It wasn't wrong, though. The once God of War was in a sour mood. Atreus had suddenly been insistent on this excursion to the Lake of Nine. It wasn't in Kratos' nature to blindly follow his instincts, at least not anymore. But something was... Off. And that only made his irritation worse. His instincts were strong, developed by experience, but the key was always to find what triggered them. The one element that was out of place. If that couldn't be found then it was more than possible it was just jumping at shadows. Something was wrong, but he couldn't place it, so it was useless to worry about it until he could figure it out.
Easier said than done. As he had once advised his son. 'Keep your expectations low, assume nothing, and always anticipate an attack.'
"Hrmh."
"Father," Atreus spoke, looking up at him for an instant before his eyes strayed again, "You're grunting more than normal. Is something wrong?"
"Keep your guard up, boy," Kratos answered cryptically.
"Oh, right, if I'm right we could be in for a fight, huh?"
It was the reason they were there. They had gone all over Midgard and the other realms they had visited, seeing to every task they could find. It was in the boy's nature and seeing as it was good experience and they often found worthwhile resources, Kratos wasn't against the undertaking. However, there was one that they had never completely managed to resolve. Brok and Sindri had mentioned how the walls between realms were unstable in places. A result of, the father and son had discovered, a Valkyrie who had escaped confinement by breaking through into another realm. Somehow.
They had gone all across the realms in search of the tears that had resulted from that one cataclysmic incident, but there was still one somewhere on the Lake of Nine in Midgard and they just couldn't find it.
But, that morning, Atreus had an idea.
While exploring the lake and the towers placed on it, they had found the names of Valkyries inscribed on giant braziers, written in archaic languages. They had found and translated seven of them but when nothing happened, Atreus had put it out of his mind.
But there were eight. The Jotunheim tower. They had never checked it, so eager they were to complete their quest. Clearly the names meant something, and with the Jotunheim tower itself having passed between realms, maybe it held the key to the final tear.
"Father, look!" Atreus exclaimed as the elevator clunked into place at the top of the tower.
"Atreus..."
"Careful, lad!"
"Right, sorry," the young god said, slowing his steps as he approached the nearest brazier. "Ready, Father?"
"Always," Kratos answered, a hand on the handle of each of his blades, ready to call the axe if it would be more appropriate.
Atreus laughed. "Right. Let's see... Gondul." Above them, the great braziers atop the tower ignited and on the platform between them sat the final realm tear. "That's it! We found it!"
"Indeed." Kratos stared at the small rip in reality, jagged and angry. Difficult to comprehend much like the others had all been. Yet also... Different.
His instincts bellowed, the sound of rushing blood in his ears. Screams of warning, of danger. His senses sharpened. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the sensations...
The feel of the wind on his skin. It wasn't blowing in that direction before. It had changed direction toward the tear. And the tear was growing. "Boy! Secure yourself!"
"What? Woah!" The pull suddenly grew stronger, sweeping Atreus off his feet but not before he could grab hold of the brazier's stand. "Father, what's happening?!"
"Rrrragh!" With a throw of one of his blades, Kratos anchored himself to the elevator handle, dragging himself to it and holding on. "Head! What is this?! This did not happen for the others!"
"I don't know!" Mimir shouted over the rushing winds. "Could be it's why this one was so hard to find! Perhaps someone knew and worked harder to keep it contained!"
"Then how do I stop it?!" Pulling it shut with his raw strength? What difference would that make when the pull it was creating was only growing?
"When it's this strong? Odds it'll shut on its own! Just hold on until–!"
"Father! I'm slipping!"
Kratos' eyes locked on his son's fingers, desperately gripping the structure and barely holding on. Decisive as always, the father drew his other blade. "Atreus! Grab hold!" Judging the pull of the tear, he threw one of his paired blades that it would arc to pass his son as it was drawn toward the rift.
Only for the pull to grow stronger mid-throw. The blade veering wide to point unerringly at the void on the other side of the realm tear.
"FATHER!"
"ATREUS!"
Watching his son's hand come loose, dragged toward the rift, Kratos grit his teeth, knowing what he had to do. But before he could pull on the blade anchoring him, before he could cast himself into the void of his own will to protect his son, there was another voice. He didn't hear it, but he felt its effects as twisting vines bound him to the wall. As more crept from below the edge of the tower to grab Atreus before he was sucked into the rift.
"ATREUS!"
"I'm fine!" his son shouted. "But... I can't move!"
This had happened before. Kratos knew what this was. Who this was. His eyes searched, only to find her in an unexpected place. "Freya." Anchored to the tower just as he was, though more loosely bound to allow her wings and limbs to remain free.
"Freya?! Brother, what's happenin'! Ah can't see!"
"She saved Atreus," the god answered, as if to reassure himself as much as inform his body-lacking companion.
"Of course," the goddess answered casually. "Once I saw you two coming this way, I knew exactly what must be done."
An ominous statement. There were many ways she could have phrased it that would have been less open to interpretation. "Freya..."
She laughed. It was quiet, barely audible over the roaring winds. But a singularly unpleasant sound all the same. "I had... So much time. To think. Your visit to Jotunheim, your long absence from these lands, so long to just think about what you had done, what you wrought, what I wrought by helping you. My boy," the laughter broke into a wholly different sound. Smile still on her face tinged with madness, tears rolling down her cheeks. "My precious boy. Gone. Because of you. Because I helped you. Because I saved you. Saved him!" She sniffed, swallowed. "This was the conclusion I came to."
"No..." Mimir realised it just the same as Kratos did. "Freya, don't do this I beg you! The boy's done nothing wrong!"
"Don't?" she echoed. "Don't. Of course, Mimir. That's the point." She stared at Kratos, letting him see the epiphany of despair behind her eyes. "Thanks to my beloved husband, I can cause no harm by blade or spell. But this, I won't do any harm. I won't need to." She watched as the father struggled against his bindings, tearing free of some. "Do you want to kill me, Kratos? Oh, of course you do. That's what you are. You're a monster. The only solutions you can conceive involve murder."
"Baldur would have killed you!" Kratos barked even as he continued to fight the vines binding him.
"That was his choice! My choice! You had no right!" she screamed back at him, her mood shifting in manic snaps. Just as fast as her fury came, it vanished. "Struggle. Fight. Kill me. The outcome will be the same." The vines anchoring her slackened, letting her drift further away, closer to the rift, closer to Atreus. "It took a great deal of work to get to this point. With my dear husband's curse I have more familiarity with realm tears than maybe anyone save Tyr. Finding this place, finding this tear, destabilising it. Can you imagine it? But Then, wait for you to find it. That part didn't turn out as I hoped, but a little whisper in your son's ear and here we are!"
She once again moved closer to Kratos. So close he could break his bonds and snap her neck. And she knew it. "Kill me, Kratos. Do it. I am the only one keeping your son free of being cast adrift into the realm between realms. My dying here will not save your son. All it will do is prove your true nature. Either way... You get to experience it just as I did." Her hand grasped his chin, forcing him to look at Atreus as he dangled helplessly from a group of grasping vines. Attempted to cut himself free and climb ruined by the continuously shifting tendrils. "Watch, Kratos," she commanded, staring at his furious, desperate expression. "Watch just as I did. Watch as someone tears what you most treasure from you. As I tear the heart out of you. I can't harm you by blade or spell, but this..."
The vines holding Atreus loosened just a little as the realm tear began to shrink. "ATREUS!"
"FATHER!"
"This," she whispered, "Hurts more than anyone but a parent can ever know."
"Ahh!" The vines around the boy slipped loose.
"RAHHHHH!" At that same moment, Kratos pulled on the rage that had fuelled him, saved him, so many times. The rage, the desperation, the need. Not to destroy, but to save his son. He shoved Freya away as he let the rift pull him in, reaching out for his son. "ATREUS!"
His fingers brushed those of the boy. Saw the fear in his crystal-blue eyes.
More vines snared Kratos' leg and pulled just once.
And the boy was gone.
"RAHHHH!" A kick to set him free, to dive toward the rift... The rift that was now small enough that all it did was tear away a strip of flesh covering his skull.
The pull ceased.
The god, the father, dropped to the metallic floor of the tower. Staring at where his son had just been. "A...treus..." Reaching out a hand, there was nothing. Empty, unbroken air. "Atreus..."
"Freya," Mimir whispered in horror, "What have you done?"
"What I had to do," she answered, all of her vines gone from her and from the tower. "After what you all took from me, I could do nothing les–hrk!"
Her words had been silenced by the grip of a god of war, more importantly, the fury of a father who had just lost his son. Kratos pinned her to the wall by the hand wrapped around her throat. His teeth grit, his eyes narrowed, his expression a hateful sneer. "You...!" His expression, his hatred, his rage, faltered. It burned him still and he knew it would. Forever. So long as Freya still lived, there would be a seed of hatred for her in his soul. "Was it worth it?" he growled.
"Kill me if you will. It doesn't–"
"Was it worth it?!" he demanded a second time. "Now that you have your vengeance, now that you've hurt me, did it help? Do you feel satisfied? Is the pain of losing Baldur any less than it was before today? Did it bring him back? Did it let you heal? DID IT DO ANYTHING BUT MURDER MY SON?! THE ACT WAS MINE! YOUR RETRIBUTION BELONGED TO ME!"
"And I delivered it!" she answered, choking out the words.
With a heavy breath, his grip loosened, released her to leave her gasping for air. "You did." He turned his back on her. She could still no longer harm him directly. So hindered, he felt no threat from her. With heavy, burdened steps, he walked toward the elevator again.
"You stay your hand?" Freya asked. "You? No. Don't walk away from me, Kratos. You'll kill me. You'll reunite me with my son! Do it!" She walked after him, growing frantic as he grabbed the mechanism handle. "DO IT!"
The god paused. "Vengeance. I know more than most on this subject. You will forget the pain you caused me. The satisfaction will fade. But the suffering you inflicted on Atreus, the boy who begged for Baldur's life." He yanked on the wheel, leaving his parting words as the elevator descended. "That will stay with you until the stars fade from the sky. Trust me," he insisted, as he disappeared from her sight. "I know."
Freya didn't follow. Didn't even seem to move for a good short while, until a god of war and the self-proclaimed smartest man (head) alive watched her wing away in the direction of her woods.
"I must say, Brother," Mimir eventually spoke. "For standin' silently for a good few minutes, you're takin' this... Worryingly well. I'm... Sorry about your boy."
Kratos chin rose, ignoring the severely bleeding head wound as it began to close of its own accord. Looking off into the distance at the other realm towers. Methods of travelling between realms. The gates to the realm between realms. "Do not be sorry. Tell me a way we can find my son."
"I... Find him? I know where you're comin' from, Brother, but even Tyr would be hard-pressed findin' someone cast adrift in the Realm Between Realms. Assumin' he's... Well..." The head knew better than to say the likely outcome that Kratos already knew.
"I do not care. I will find him. Nothing else matters."
"... I see. Then... I suppose... Brok and Sindri wouldn't be a bad place to start. Failin' that... I've got a couple ideas."
-(-)-
Atreus had no idea what was happening. Everything had happened so fast. His father reaching for him, then... He had fallen. And then...
Nothing.
What the boy had not been aware of, traumatic as the experience had been. He had fallen into the Realm Between Realms, cast adrift, only to crash into the world tree. Through means unknown to him, for reasons unknown to him, it had cradled him, swaddled him within its ivory white branches, then cast him loose. To drift further. Further and further afield. Until he could no longer be said to exist in the realm between realms. He had gone so far beyond any one realm, he could instead be said to have travelled to the Realm Beyond Realms. A vast emptiness, inexplicable and inestimable.
There met... By a passing dragon. A great red beast of claw, fang and wing. Had Atreus been awake to see it, he might have marvelled at how much bigger it was than the dragons he had met. He might also have marvelled as it somehow decided that the ball of branches would make an excellent soccer ball and proceeded to play a rousing game of keep-up with it, bouncing it on his head, on his hind legs, on his wings, before performing a flip kick to shoot it like a professional football player to who knows where.
Who knows where, in the end, being a crater in the mountains. Well, the crater was more a result of the dragon-assisted world tree meteor crashing into those mountains.
"I've found it!" A woman shouted. A woman of generous proportions, and long white hair. "Lord Odin! I've found it!"
"Good," an elderly man answered, levitating to meet her. His one visible eye scanning the mountain for their quarry. "I'm tired of wasting time on this. I could be in a titty bar right now."
"Lord Odin! This is important!" the woman fumed. "We aren't supposed to be here at all, but a god suddenly appearing here, we can't let something like that go. If someone is breaking the rules, they can only be here to cause trouble!"
"Fine, fine. Hoooo?" The elderly man touched the golden monocle covering where his other eye would be as he looked down at the crater. "Now that's something." Descending down to the crater, he inspected the ball that obviously created it. "Strange. What is this material?"
"It's magical, no doubt about that," the woman answered.
"Where would I be without your expertise, Rossweisse."
"Lord Odin!" the woman complained, stomping her foot before tutting and looking closer at the ball. "Looks like it had a rough landing. It's broken. Is that... A boy?"
"Maybe the world decided to finally grant you a boyfriend."
"Please stop..." Rossweisse whined. "He's, I think he's waking up! Lord Odin, please help me get this open!"
"Fine, fine..."
After the ordeal it had been through, the ball of branches was relatively easy to open. Relatively, considering a former chief god of the Norse pantheon and a valkyrie were doing it. The broken branches coming loose to reveal the boy.
And the two to him as the boy's eyes snapped open. "Where am I?! Where's Father?!"
"I think you'll have to answer our questions first, boy," the old man spoke first. "A god showing up on these shores is serious business. What's your name, boy?"
"Atreus," he answered, one hand on his bow, despite how awful a situation he would be in for defending himself.
"I'm... Not familiar with that god," the woman answered haltingly.
"Sounds Greek," Odin grunted. "Who's your father, boy?"
"... Kratos."
"Ah, shit, he is pissing Greek!" Odin cursed. "What's Zeus playing at, getting one of his little godlings over here?! Ruined my Friday!"
"I'll contact the Greek pantheon and escort him to them," Rossweisse sighed. "You should return to Asgard, Lord Odin."
"Odin?!" Atreus, shouted, drawing his bow and an arrow, scrambling atop the broken wooden ball.
"Oh-ho? You have quarrel with me, boy?"
Atreus hesitated. If he did, it wouldn't end well. And really, currently, the answer was no, even knowing Odin was a monster. "Um... Maybe? I don't know. Do you have one with me?"
"Not really," the old god shrugged. "Word of advice, boy. Don't go picking fights you don't want, and especially ones you're bound to lose." Turning away, he waved, shouting over his shoulder. "I'll leave this to you, Rossweisse!"
"Yes, Lord Odin!"
The old god continued on his way, putting the foreign god out of his mind, save for one question that pricked at him.
If the boy god was Greek, why did he have Norse runes tattooed on his arms?
-(-)-
A/N: So, this is a prototype of a story idea I had aaaaages ago. When I had too much on my plate to really give it a go. But, here we are. Broadly, a God of War / DxD cross. However, it would focus far more on the divine side of the setting than devils, angels and junk (and take more than a few cues from Hades because god dammit, I want to write a story with tsun-tsun Artemis, dammit!).