Thea was currently fast asleep next to Roy in their shared home when suddenly, she sensed a shift in the veil that was so powerful, it not only woke her up, it cause her to sit straight up in bed, her instincts going off like an alarm and she barely had time to brace herself before Artemis pulled her into the void.

"What is going on? What was that energy pulse I sensed?" Thea asked the goddess.

"Something has changed. Ares has grown more desperate than I thought, since he made a very desperate and very stupid decision." Artemis said.

"What do you mean?" Thea asked.

"When he realized that his vessel couldn't handle his power since it wasn't prepped like you were, he took a much more drastic course of action. He forced himself out of the void and used Machin's body to regain his physical form, killing Machin in the process." Artemis told her.

"Wait, could you do that to me?" Thea asked.

"If I truly wanted to, yes, at least until I regain my full power and true form, but I never would, since Ares does not realize the price that his decision required." Artemis said.

"What price?" Thea asked.

"When Ares took over a mortal form, he essentially became mortal." Artemis said.

"Wait, what?" Thea asked.

"The price to take another's form as his own is that while he'll retain his godly strength and power and longevity, he gave up his immortality, since Ares only transferred his spirit into the body, not his essence. If he dies now, there will be no chance of return." Artemis said.

"Where, at least there's a silver lining. Does he know that?" Thea asked.

"Unknown, but you can't leave anything to chance. Especially since now Ares will be looking for any way to gain an advantage over you." Artemis said.

"I don't like the way you said that. There is a way for him to do that, isn't there?" Thea asked.

"Unless you get to it first." Artemis said.

"What is it?" Thea asked as Artemis told her everything.

The next morning, Thea called a team meeting at Titans Tower to let the team know what she'd learned.

"What's going on?" Dick asked after he, Kory, Garth, Donna and Roy had all taken their seats around the meeting table, which Thea stood at the head of, though they had to keep the doors closed and the room's soundproofing on, since Thea was having Wayne Enterprises renovate and upgrade the tower into a more proper headquarters for the team.

"Does it have something to do with why you shot up like a cannon in the middle of the night last night?" Roy asked his girlfriend, who nodded.

"The reason I reacted like that was because I sensed that something had changed and it has. I spoke with Artemis last night and she told me that Ares has escaped the void." Thea said.

"What? That's impossible, it's way too soon for that." Donna said, since she knew more about this than anyone besides Thea.

"Besides, if Ares could leave the void, wouldn't Artemis be able to do that too?" Dick asked.

"Not the way Ares did it, especially considering how stupid he was to do it. Ares decided that instead of burning through vessels like Machin, he'd do it himself and actually took over Machin's body as his new physical body. He's flesh and blood again." Thea said.

"So the god of war is back. Great." Kory said.

"Fortunately, there is a silver lining, since Ares didn't realize that there would be a price to pay for what he did." Thea said.

"Meaning?" Garth asked.

"He's mortal now. He unknowingly traded his immortality for a new body. He may have all his strength and powers, but now if he dies, he stays dead." Thea said.

"So we hit him hard enough, he'll go down?" Dick asked.

"Yeah, but that still won't be easy. Especially if he actually does know somehow." Thea said.

"He'd look for a way to restore his immortality before he could attack us." Dick said and Thea nodded.

"And what's worse, there is a way for him to do that." Thea said.

"How?" Roy asked.

"An artifact called the Kronos Stone." Thea said as Donna looked up at her.

"I thought that was just a legend." Donna said.

"So did I, but according to Artemis, it's real and we need to find it before Ares does." Thea said.

"Wait, backup, what is this Kronos stone?" Garth asked.

"One of the oldest and most powerful weapons ever created in the history of the universe. Not even the gods know where it came from, but it was first found by Zeus's father Kronos, who used its power to help solidify his station as king of the titans, since the stone amplifies the power of any god who uses it." Thea said.

"So what happened to it?" Garth asked.

"I'm getting to that part." Thea said, glaring at him.

"Sorry." Garth said.

"Anyways, you know the story, paranoid that one of his children would usurp him, Kronos ate his first five kids, but his wife Rhea hid their youngest child, Zeus and, as an act of revenge against Kronos for eating her other kids, Rhea stole the stone from him and entrusted it to Zeus, telling him to keep it hidden and protect it until he was old enough and strong enough to free his siblings." Thea said.

"And he didn't notice that one of his most powerful weapons went missing?" Dick asked.

"According to Artemis, Kronos valued his scythe more than the stone, since that was his actual weapon and what he used to kill own father Ouranos back at the beginning. Plus, Rhea enchanted the stone to make it dormant and replaced it with a convincing copy. Kronos never knew the difference and then after the war between the gods and the titans began. Zeus led his siblings in the war, though he didn't use the stone at first, choosing to have his siblings and himself rely on their weapons and allies." Thea said.

"Why not use their most powerful weapon upfront?" Garth asked.

"They didn't want the Titans to know that they had the stone. Their biggest advantage was that the titans didn't know that their most powerful weapon was in the hands of their enemies. Zeus waited until the gods were already gaining the upper hand against the Titans and made them desperate enough for Kronos to try the stone. When he realized he'd been duped, Zeus revealed the real stone and used it to empower himself and his brothers Poseidon and Hades to take his own scythe away from him and use it to chop him up and send him to Tartarus." Donna said.

"So where is the stone now?" Kory asked.

"The stories never mentioned that part." Donna said.

"But Artemis knows, since she was Zeus's favorite daughter and he told her the full story. Including what happened to the stone." Thea said.

"So, don't keep us waiting." Roy said.

"After the war, Zeus realized that stone was starting to corrupt him, trying to make him as evil as his father was. That's when he realized that it's power was too corruptive, since it was too much. It's part of why he chose to split the spoils of the war with his brothers, to keep all three of them from being too corrupted by power. He also didn't want to risk the stone's power falling into the wrong hands. So he, Poseidon and Hades combined their powers to shatter the stone into three pieces, which rendered it dormant." Thea said.

"So where are the pieces?" Kory asked.

"Each brother took a piece back to their domains and had them hidden in locations not even they knew. Zeus entrusted his piece to the Amazons and Poseidon gave his to the Atlanteans." Thea said.

"What about the piece entrusted to Hades?" Donna asked.

"No idea. Artemis told me that Zeus gave Hades orders to make sure that his piece was especially well hidden, even more than his or Poseidon's, since the Underworld is even more secure than the others, that way even if the Amazon and Atlantean pieces were recovered, the stone could never be fully recreated. The only person who might know where to start looking for it is Hades and I can't exactly do that." Thea said.

"I say we focus on finding the two pieces that we actually can find. After we do that, then we can start trying to find the last piece." Dick said.

"Agreed. That's why Donna and I are heading to Themyscira later today to find the first piece before Ares discovers the stone's existence and locations." Thea said.

"I'll make contact with Arthur, see if he'll help find the atlantean piece of the stone, since I don't think Orm should know it exists." Garth said and Thea nodded.

"Great. In the meantime, stay alert. Ares still has the army Machin built for him, which means that you guys need to be on guard while I'm off stone searching." Thea said.

"Speaking of which, you're gonna have to do that alone, since I have to go to Zara's parent teacher conference tonight, which basically means I'm gonna find out how long she'll be grounded for." Donna said and Thea chuckled.

"Still happy to have a teenager?" Thea asked.

"Like you wouldn't believe." Donna assured her.

"It's probably better if I do this solo anyways, but please reach out to Diana, let her know what's going on, since we could use her help with this." Thea said and Donna nodded.

Yes, the Kronos Stone was a reference to the artifact from the Xenaverse. I've never watched that franchise, but I learned about it while I was doing research on artifacts that could help with the fight and this seemed interesting. I hope you liked the backstory I gave it.