Fanfic / A Ghost In A Strange Land

A Ghost in a Strange Land is a crossover fanfic between Fate/Grand Order and God of War Ragnarök, written on Space Battles by CrimsonEyes.

Following Ragnarök, Kratos is ambushed by several former servants of Odin bent on murdering him — or, if they cannot do that, casting him out of the Nine Worlds entirely.

The latter option succeeds, throwing the God of War in Singularity F.

Kratos is done with war and only craves for peace. But if he wants to go back to Midgard and his son, he will have to fight yet again.

This Quest contains the following tropes

• Actually Pretty Funny: Cu can tell that Kratos is a god and comments that when Olga Marie finds out, she will probably hit the bottle. This actually causes Kratos to laugh.
• Adaptation Expansion: Chaldea has more visible staff than in canon, several of whom appear in the interlude chapters between Fuyuki and Orleans.
• After the End: Thanks to Lev and his unseen "king", all of human history has been incinerated.
• Alternate Timeline: Kratos is rather astonished to learn Greece still lives in the Nasuverse, since his godslaying rampage turned the whole country in a wasteland in his dimension.
• Always Need What You Gave Up: Kratos left the Blades of Chaos behind before visiting Sindri, thinking he wouldn't need them. After getting ambushed by Odin's followers and then having to fight Servants, he regrets that decision, noting his fights would be easier if he still had them. Fortunately, since they are a Clingy MacGuffin, they eventually follow him to Chaldea.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • Jalter has lost her left arm to GoW!Baldur rebelling against her, having been summoned into Jeanne's brother Jean, but combined with Nasuverse!Baldur.
  • Berserker Lancelot loses both of his hands when he tries to grab and usurp the Blades of Chaos, only for a spirit, confirmed by the author to be Athena, to declare him unworthy and make the Blades burn his hands off.
• Apocalypse How: Just like in canon, Humanity is "gone", in the past, present and future all at once with only seven singularities temporarily existing giving the heroes a chance to avert this.
• Back from the Dead: Technically, all Servants are this; Since they have been pseudo-resurrected through summoning ritual magic that brings them temporarily back to the world of the living.
• Barred from the Afterlife: Kratos considers the Throne of Heroes to be this in a sense. While Kratos does consider the concept in some way an honor, he also notes this means everyone is abducted from going to their respective afterlife. Not only does this prevent heroes from meeting their loved ones and friends from the afterlife (those who weren't allowed entry in the Throne), they're also forced to be summoned for either a magus or the land for eternity. Naturally, Kratos doesn't like this.
  • Baldur from God of War experienced this. After dying, the God admits he had no idea where he was other than he was in a void - not Hel - up until Jeanne Alter called on him through Lev's machinations. It's implied that Baldur was in his world's Throne of Heroes, but even then nothing is clear and is left ambiguous.
• Broken Pedestal: Olga has the traumatizing experience of realizing that Lev, the person she trusted the most, was directly responsible for the destruction of a good part of Chaldea, the death of most of the staff, and is complicit in the incineration of human history. Worst of all, he remorselessly revealed that he already killed her physical body in reality when she Rayshifted and would've consigned her to a fate that would cause her soul to endure the agonizing pain of infinite deaths, if not for Kratos and Cu saving her in time.
• Brought Down to Badass: While some Servants obtain supernatural powers based on the legends surrounding them and the class they are summoned into, others — like Caster Cu — end up being much less powerful than they were even in-life due to their arsenals being restricted by their Servant class and/or incompatible Masters, though they are still enormously powerful supernatural warriors.
• Clingy MacGuffin: It doesn't matter if Kratos traveled to another universe, the Blades of Chaos will follow him wherever he goes. Given that he feels that he actually needs the blades for the trials to come, he doesn't mind on this occassion, though.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • In the Orleans Singularity, Lev loans Jalter a drop of blood from Kratos to use as a summoning catalyst. She sacrifices Martha as part of the ritual.
  • Kratos' party arrives too late to save Marie Antoinette and Mozart from being killed by Vlad and Carmilla.
• Did Not See That Coming: Deconstructed. Neither Cu or Odin expected a God from another world to come while Ritsuka is put out of action. This forced Cu to stay with Chaldea since Ritsuka has to be active in the Lostbelts eventually. Unfortunately, because Odin only bothered seeing the result of Ritsuka winning and entering the sixth Lostbelt, he never actually saw what occurred in the Seven Singularities. Meaning Cu is going in blind in what dangers may occur. Not helped further when Lev mixes things up by having Jeanne Alter summon Go W!Baldur which further messed things up.
• Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment: Kratos is horrified to learn Herakles has been summoned as a bloodthirsty Berserker in Singularity F and decides to put an end to his misery, out of respect for his alternate half-brother. It's also implied to be the reason why Cu Chulainn firmly keeps quiet about being a vessel for Nasuverse Odin, in order to not get messily slaughtered by the Ghost of Sparta.
  • Defied with Medusa. Kratos admits that one of the few things he doesn’t regret doing back in his homeland was killing the GOW!Medusa. Kratos believes that GOW!Medusa and Nasuverse Medusa couldn’t be more different.
• The Dreaded: Cu Chulainn only needs to sniff Kratos' Divine aura to feel extremely nervous around the dude, as he detects the sheer amount of slaughter the Ghost of Sparta has done.
• Enemy Mine: Jalter's Servants betrayed her to follow the new Servant she had summoned (that of GoW!Baldur occupying the body of Jeanne's brother), leading her to work with Jeanne and Kratos' party.
• Exposition Fairy: Olga, Romani, Da Vinci and Kratos fill this role much of the time, often explaining the situations the team find themselves into and giving them advice or guidance.
• Face Death with Dignity: Zigzagged with Olga Marie. She reasonably has a meltdown when she's first stranded in Singularity F, yet rallies herself and advices Kratos, Mash and Cu to sacrifice her as dead weight if needed, only to have another Freak Out when Lev mentally breaks her and attempts to throw her to a Cruel and Unusual Death, then noticeably calms down as the Singularity is falling apart. And ultimately, she doesn't even die.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: When Kratos finds himself in Fuyuki, he knows absolutely nothing about the lands. Kratos is confused about Fuyuki's state but when he meets Chaldea's team he learns that he is in an alternative universe to his own.
• Foreshadowing: Cu is wary of Kratos, and when he pokes at the Spartan's memories to learn the soul-trapping spell, it's described as "two minds". Because Cu is actually a vessel for Nasuverse Odin, who obviously would mistrust the man responsible for murdering him in another timeline.
• Give Me a Sword: Kratos loans Draupnir to Cu since he lacks Gae Bolg.
• Hope Bringer: Chaldea's surviving staff is deeply relieved to have a genuine, full-blown god to help them fight mankind's incineration.
• I Choose to Stay: After Ritsuka awakens, when Romani attempts to transfer Kratos's Servant contracts to her, they all refuse. Not because they dislike Ritsuka, but because they've known him longer and feel better to be with him. Though Mash actually returns as she feels she belongs with Ritsuka, to the girl's joy.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: When Mash asks for Kratos to train her to fight better, Da Vinci bluntly tells the Ghost of Sparta she will find a way to make him rue his birth if he turns the girl into a monster. Kratos is actually quite understanding of the feelings behind the threat.
• I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: After Mash finishes off Berserker Lancelot, she starts crying uncontrollably, which she doesn't understand because he was viciously trying to kill her and she had killed before. It is because Galahad is inside her and Lancelot was his father. He hated his father, but killing him still took a toll on him.
• Jerkass Gods: Lampshaded by Mash's reaction to Kratos's past, where she's horrified to learn that the gods were so terrible that Kratos ended up destroying Greece.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Cu bluntly declares Kotomine didn't empower him with a bucketload of Command Seals because he wanted the Servant to escape the hell that Fuyuki became, merely to ensure Cu would cause more havoc for the corrupted Servants.
• Last Request: When Kiyohime is mortally wounded, she asks Kratos two things. First, he must survive and return to his home and son. Second, he must not summon her because she fears her Mad Enhancement will make her mistake him for Anchin and make her try to kill him.
• Man of Kryptonite: Caster Cu is one for Baldur because he can summon mistletoe, Baldur's weakness.
• Mundane Luxury: Kratos is flabbergasted by how decadent and lavish a single bedroom in Chaldea is when compared to the Spartan and Scandinavian amenities — as much clean water as you want for drinking and bathing, heating you can raise and lower as you please, access to thousands upon thousands of entertainment materials with a single push of a button. He outright thinks kings would struggle to achieve such luxury.
• Mythology Gag: While trying out pizza, Kratos is pleased to learn that one of the toppings is olives, having previously admitted to missing them during the events of Ragnarok.
• Not Me This Time: As she learns Kratos originates from another dimension, Olga Marie immediately starts cussing out Zelretch for being the lone adept of dimensional magic alive in the world. For all his trollish reputation in the fandom, the Marshall Wizard really is innocent of Kratos falling into Singularity F — a bunch of Odin's servants ambushed the Ghost of Sparta, and one of them had a cracked Yggdrasil Seed that caused him to be thrown away from the Nine Worlds.
• Not So Similar: As Kratos and Da Vinci discuss Mash's training to improve her fighting abilities, he compares the Italian polymath to Freya. Both women worried for a child under their care, but where Freya ruined Baldur's life by smothering him, Da Vinci understands she cannot protect Mash forever and needs to give her the means to protect herself.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The normally laid-back Romani and Da Vinci are deadly serious when they force all the surviving staff to sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding Kratos, because they're well aware of just how determined the Clocktower would be to get access to him if they knew that Chaldea had a Divine Spirit from another universe with them.
• Other Me Annoys Me:
  • Slightly subverted, in the case of Medusa Nasuverse. She finds it amusing that her GOW counterpart was the Gorgon Queen ruling over the entire race including her older sisters.
  • Baldur HATES his Nasuverse counterpart. Not just because he wasn't a warrior but because his mother didn't rob him of his senses.
  • Odin Nasuverse is very displeased with his GOW counterpart. Considering GOW!Odin was an abusive, manipulative, sociopathic tyrant, it's hard not to see why.
• Our Gods Are Different: In origins, personalities, and backstories, the Greek gods of Kratos' universe are different but similar to their Nasuverse counterparts. An example of this is when Kratos finds out that Greece is still alive in this timeline or how Medusa shows an instinctive hatred towards Poseidon and Athena.
• Outside-Context Problem: Kratos is, per Chladea's readings, a Divine Spirit from an entirely different universe, making him a complete unknown to them, and they in turn are unknowns to him.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Deconstructed. When Ritsuka awakens, she becomes another Master that could help Chaldea. Instead, a vocal minority in Chaldea don't even see her as potential help. Compared to Kratos, a living God who can fight Servants on par and solving two Singularities, is seen as all the help they need. In contrast, Ritsuka nearly died in one, is already known as someone who isn't even a heir, has caused some to see her as needless and show hostility towards her. This ends up feeding more into her inferiority complex which isn't something Chaldea needs. Only her determination to stride forward ensures Chaldea isn't stuck with just one Master with the other giving up.
• Relocating the Explosion: Archer EMIYA copies Kratos' Draupnir, then after embedding several copies of the spear into Mash's shield, detonates them. However, before they explode, Mash hurls her shield at him, resulting in the spears exploding in his face instead of hers.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Kratos is exhausted by a lifetime of war and battle, and having to fight to restore the Human History almost drives him into depression. He still will do it, since he cannot find a way back home otherwise.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • With Kratos carrying a soul-trapping marble on him, Olga Marie gets rescued and brought back to Chaldea waiting for a puppet body to be built.
  • Cu Chulainn is brought to Chaldea instead of fading away when Singularity F is cleared.
  • Jeanne Alter uses her contract with Kratos to hitch a ride to Chaldea.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Kratos doesn't like the Servant Summoning System because it reeks of slavery too much for his taste.
• Stay with Me Until I Die: When Berserker Herakles is mortally wounded, Kratos holds his hand until he disintegrates.
• The Atoner: Da Vinci notes Kratos has become this: no longer seeking to destroy, he seeks to make up for his past sins.
• The Storyteller: Mimir, of course. He regaled Kratos with tales of his native grounds, and that's how the Spartan manages to identify Cu Chulainn — as Puck or a relative of him, Mimir dwelled in Britain and Cu Chulainn is very much an Irish legend.
• Trapped in Another World: Kratos would love to go back to Midgard, but he needs an audience with the Wizard Marshall and it's impossible as long as Earth is incinerated.
• Translator Microbes: Kratos' bracelet given to him by Freya allows him to understand any language, and for his words to be understood as well. As a precaution in case the bracelet ever get broken, he spends a fair amount of his time learning the English language.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Cu tells off EMIYA for abandoning his Counter Guardian duties to serve Saber Alter.
  • Cu isn't impressed with Galahad dumping his abilities and weapons on Mash and swanning off without explaining how to use them. The world is at stake there, Chaldea needs all hands on deck, yet the Servant within her has decreed he didn't give a rat's ass about it.
  • Jeanne tells off Atalanta for siding with Baldur just because he has mommy issues and ignoring the fact that he is working with Lev and his allies who plan to wipe out humanity.
• What You Are in the Dark: When Kratos lands in Singularity F and stumbles upon Olga Marie, Ritsuka, and Mash facing Assassin, he was tempted to ignore them, but ultimately steps in, reasoning that he would never be able to face his son again if he ignored people in trouble.
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • Cu is very vocal about being Summoned in a Class he despises since he loses his spear and is turned into a Squishy Wizard. It forced him to fall back on guerilla tactics to survive until Chaldea dropped in Singularity F.
  • Kratos lacks access to most of his divinity as he's far from Greece or Scandinavia. Since he's the Ghost of Sparta, it doesn't do much to hinder him.
• Wrong Context Magic: When Lancelot attempts to gain control and mastery of the Blades of Chaos' capabilities with his Knight of Owner ability, his hands are charred by the primordial fire imbued therein as a side effect of trying to force his ownership of the weapons of Kratos, since Athena will not allow anyone other than the Spartan to bear the symbol of his past sins.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Da Vinci reassures Kratos that she doesn't see him as a monster, but as a man who made mistakes and wants to make up for them, and one who wants to ensure a better future for those he cares for.
• You Are in Command Now: Kratos has to take over as Chaldea's only Master when Ritsuka is stabbed with poisoned daggers by Singularity F's Assassin, putting her in a coma.
• You Remind Me of X:
  • Kratos cannot help but compare Mash and Ritsuka to his son Atreus — for Mash, it's because of her earnestness and shyness, while Ritsuka's red hair are the same shade as the boy's.
  • Da Vinci reminds Kratos of his late wife Faye when she starts disciplining Romani to eat, just like Faye did to Atreus.