The 4th Gate

There really isn't much to say.

We've reached the fourth gate.  I suspect this place is beginning to grind down on Hal, he's not normally this doom and gloom.  As long as we can keep it together for the rest of the trip, we'll be fine once we're free of Duat.  Looking around, I keep half-suspecting that R'lyeh is going to rise from the black waters and Cthulu is going to jump out and yell surprise at us before we're devoured.  I certainly wouldn't be surprised at this point, given the bloody snake in Helheim.

But we're here.  Hurt but unbroken.

I've...well, taken my spot at this point as the stand in for Isis.  As I've said, I'm not happy about it, but it is what it is.  Fate is going to keep pushing me this way, then fine, let it.  I'm not going to be the McKenzie who decided to go home when things got a bit dicey.  When we're free of Duat and Imhotep has whatever his plans are in place, then we can get back on track.  I'm starting to understand a bit more just how big the stakes are, too.  If Zeus is so desperate as to go through a titan to get what he regards as his, he'll make mistakes.

I just need to play my own cards right.  Which means finding a way to keep Aphrodite from just snapping her fingers, given her absurd levels of being able to twist people to her will.  I need to figure out where Athena stands as well.  The most I'm going to hope for there is neutrality, though.  With her out of the war, Zeus loses the last of the bulk of his military thinking.  Sure, there will be his children and other Dodek scions who side with Olympus, but I'm confident enough that without Ares or Athena, he can't, in the end, win through force of arms.

I just hope he has the bloody sense to see it himself.

Boat's moving again.  Need to cut this short so I can help guide us through.

Fallen

What else is there to say?

I suppose technically Rufus isn't dead.  His soul is perfectly preserved.  But none of this would've happened without me screwing up.  I expected to lose people in this war.  I'd be a bigger fool to think we'd all get through unscathed.  But to lose Rufus to such an incredibly idiotic mistake...damn it.  I really should have known better.  Wasn't even getting outmaneuvered in the field.  It was just stupid.

It's times like this my talents had leaned towards death.  Then maybe I could do something about it.  I don't know what, mind.  But there could have been something to set this right.  Now?  I don't know.  And I don't even have time to start working on it.  I can turn ideas over in my head, sure, but we've got the rest of the mission.  It's probably what he'd want too.  Doesn't mean I wouldn't rather be looking for a way to set things right, though.

And to think, this isn't even the worst of what we were told to expect.  All because the Egyptians couldn't be fucking bothered to send their own people down here.  I should have held on to that point.  An entire band of their own would be better served down here then a mishmash with only one Pesedjet.  The real objective of Egypt should have been left to us, not this...busywork.  I suppose it's my fault for letting the planning get away from me.  Just one more on the pile.  If it were at all possible to simply leave this to the Pesedjet I'd do it.  Get back topside, actually cut the Greek lines home, and force Goras to lay down his weapons.  Guess that's objective two, because I don't see us getting out of here any time soon.

I can't wait to get out of this fucking hole.  I'm getting tired of all this underworld bullshit.  I've got my own things to answer for since opening my mouth in Troy.  But the Dodekatheon and the Pesedjet now have more.  At least the High Court is shaken out of it's funk.  As soon as we're out of here I need to speak to dad or the Morrigan.  Get a feel for how the wind is blowing now.  Soon as the Greeks are stopped here, we need to talk to the Yazata.  I know full well what happened the last time the Persians tried to take Greece, and that's what I need now.  A long, drawn out, knock-down fight.  I want Olympus bled dry before it's time to move directly on it.

Damn it.

I'm sorry, Rufus.  I'm so goddamn sorry.  I'll make this right.

Overboard

Shit.

I really should have known better.  I recognize that.  I didn't need Hal commenting on it.  But we were going to be jumped either way, damnit.  I...damnit.  Most of our overboard can be retrieved.  Rufus, though...damnit.  If I have to turn this fucking boat around to go find him, I will.  We can deal with Olympus without the Egyptians if we have to.  I am not abandoning one of our own because I was an idiot.  Anyone else who doesn't like it can have Hal carry them to Ra's boat.

This whole trip was a bad idea anyway.  I know where it went wrong, though.  This bloody insistence on shoring up Egypt's defenses.  That wasn't the goddamn plan.  The entire point of fighting in Egypt was to make sure Goras couldn't fight.  Not to face him on the open field.  I don't think anyone else knows or cares why I'm trying to make sure Greeks are the spearhead.  Anyone else's banner in front and it's another pantheon meddling.  Olympians in the vanguard?  It's their fight with foreign aid.  Ok, Fate might say this is my gig.  But that just means I get to fight that my way, and that starts with turning as many Greek loyalists against Zeus as I can.  And Goras would make one hell of an asset.  If I convinced Ares, I can convince him. But this bloody insistence on an open fight is madness.

And if it comes to an open fight, I won't be able to get him to switch sides.  It's not just him we need, but his people too.  The more we kill, the less likely anyone else is going to want to join us.  Oh, no doubt others will argue we wouldn't take the blame, or that we don't need Goras' troops, or him.  Or that hey, it's the Pesedjet that would be the focus of their ire.  But that's because they aren't, or haven't been, paying attention to Fate at all.  Andrew maybe, but he's going to be focused on his homeland.

But the rest of it doesn't matter.  The whole bloody mess is my doing anyway.  First from even letting the plan break from what I was trying to do, then with that stupid crap on the boat.  There may not be time to fix the first one - and no military campaign can be run perfectly.  But the second was fixable.  It was just a matter of getting the damn boat turned around.