Thank you all of you guys for all the support until now from all the lovely reviews that you all let me

This chapter was a little difficult to write what concerns names…Chinese names. I found it hard to give these gods names so I did a little research. So the names aren't mine I just burrowed them a little, just for this chapter.

The Woutai Mountains are real and on google they look really beautiful I think in reality too since China is quite fascinating at least to me.

Enjoy! And yes Ares is back!

26. Trapped

"You can't empower us all, you know that. Now give us back what you stole from us!" Lei Gong- God of Thunder in this part of the earth- exclaimed.

They had managed to catch Ares in one of their thickest forest in Chin- probably that being the reason why Ares was there in the first place- looking for a place to hide, thinking that the thickness would provide enough cover- and it did, but not for long.

When their king the Jade-emperor received the news that the Sacred Arrow had been stolen, he gathered his most trusted fellow gods and sent them on their way, to find the one responsible for such crime and retrieve the arrow that they protected so much.

Now Ares stood in a clearing surrounded by the search party consisting from their God of War -Guan Yu- , Zhu Rong the God of Fire, Hou Yi God of Archery, Matsu Goddess of the Sea and Dizang ruler of the Hell.

"There is no escape." Guan Yu uttered. "Give us back the arrow and you can leave this land and go back to Greece."

"Dahak is coming for this world not just Greece." Ares said, anger in his voice. Why were these gods so stupid? He was doing them a favor really.

"That's not your call to make. You can't just come here and steal from us." the Goddess of the Sea added. "That arrow is very important for our people."

"Of course it is." Ares added with sarcasm in his voice. "I mean, it's an arrow, right?"

"Not just any arrow, so give it back!" Hou Yi said as he started preparing his bow.

"You can't kill me."

"No, we can't, but we can keep you…"

A blinding light appeared right out of nowhere and in its wake left a tall, bearded Chinese man. He was a God too, of course.

"My king!"

Right away, every one of the present gods bowed to the new comer…well all except Ares…

"So you are the thief? Ares – the Greek God of War!"

"The one and only!"

The God only flicked his hand and a powerful wind came towards Ares crushing him into a tree.

"Now…as I have been told you are the one causing problems to my family, to my land, to Me!" the God said, approaching the now fallen God of War. "Why is that?"

But Ares didn't respond.

"We can keep having this conversation this all day, if that's what you want. I'm home, I'm not the one finding myself on another realm, having my powers leaving me by the second."

"I'm not giving you anything back…that weapon happened to be on your soil but it doesn't mean it's yours."

"Ohhh but it does and you are going to give it to me or you're not going back and you can't do anything about it!"

Seeing that Ares wasn't cooperating at all, the Emperor decided to push him a little bit more.

"Dizang, give our guest a taste of our own…Tartarus was it?" he sarcastically said watching Ares's reaction.

"If you think that will scare me you are wrong." Ares uttered with disinterest.

But he knew though that this wasn't a really bright situation, that Xena was waiting for him, his children, the entire Greece if you want and he was on the brink of losing a fight - apart from the fact that he already had that weapon and it was no chance in hell they could force him to say where it was. Consequently, as a last resource he thought about his sister, hoping she would hear him, that she would come. She was after all his only hope to assure him a transport back home since he could barely feel his powers anymore. He did use a lot of them for searching and then retrieving the arrow from the cave.

"My pleasure!" Dizang answered his master while coming towards Ares but right before bending to touch Ares's arm and take him, Aphrodite's pink hearts filled the air and she made herself visible.

"Ares!" She smiled at seeing her brother after days of worry, but then looked around and took the scene in. "Oops!"

"Who are you?!" Dizang asked the beauty in front of him.

"Me?" She helped Ares up. "Why I'm the Goddess of Love, of course! Who're you?!" She giggled.

Ares gave her a look that said 'are you really doing this now?'

"I'm…"

"Doesn't matter." the King responded. "What's the occasion? Did you come to your brother's rescue?"

"My brother's rescue? What did he do this time? He's been such a bad boy lately!"

The King scrutinized her face looking for a possible lie but it appeared that the blond was clueless.

"What did you do Ares?" she turned to him taking him by his shoulders and helping him up.

"Just stole something." And when he ended his sentence with a smirk they were already gone, leaving all the gods stunned in the middle of the forest.

"Find them!" The king yelled.

xxx

"Dite Wutai Mountains!"

"What?"

They were still in the vortex when Ares told his sister the next stop.

"But that's Chin still? If those guys catch us…"

"Just go there NOW!"

"Ok…ok..."

Within seconds, they landed at the foot of the Mountains.

"What are we doing here?"

"No time to discuss this. I need to take something from here and it must be quick, as you said we don't want to be caught…Take my hand and you will know where exactly to transport us."

Aphrodite did as her brother said and let her mind be filled with images that he showed through their bond the specific location they needed to get to and soon they were in front of a waterfall.

"Perfect!" he said and took a dive in it.

"Ares?" his sister asked a bit worried some minutes before Ares resurfaced with something in his hand.

"Ok…now take us back home!"

Dite smiled, taking Ares's hand in hers and vanished from that land, relieved that her brother was all right, that he was back in one piece.

They landed in one of his archery rooms. Ares looked surprised but he didn't have enough time to think or do something else cause right then and there he was squeezed to dead by his sister.

"So I'm taking it that you missed me?"

"Duhhh, of course!" She kissed his cheek. "Let me see you! Did they do something to you…why did you call so late?"

"I'm ok." He replied bored but he was so glad to be back. "It took me some time to find it!"

He looked in his hand and his sister finally understood what they had been doing in those mountains.

"You hid it!"

"Of course! Just after I found the arrow I wanted to teleport myself back but I couldn't, not anymore, my powers were too weak so I hid it and tried to hide myself too…I didn't plan a meeting with them but in the end they found me and then you came. I was lucky!"

"Of course…I'm your sister, you are the luckiest!" Dite smiled with all her face and then looked at the weapon in his hand.

"It's so…strange. I may not be an expert but I do know arrows are bigger than this." she said, casting a curious gaze over the small golden box in which the arrow was kept.

"Well this is it!"

Ares opened it to let his sister see it.

"Wow…it's not so big but it sure looks as more an accessory than a real weapon."

"For you maybe…I hope though that this is all we need, that we can beat Dahak with it." Ares said even if he had his doubts.

"Me too…"

"Ok now…I will talk with you soon, I need to see Xena first!"

Dite didn't even have the chance to speak one more word because he was already vanishing for the room, not thinking about the fact that maybe he couldn't teleport himself since his powers were still regenerating now, being still fragile but nothing mattered more for him that moment than seeing his family again. He even let the weapon in that room with his ditsy sister, careless someone might say, and it was, but he needed to see Xena and then they could talk about what they would do next, what they had been doing while he was away, and answer all the questions they had but first…his Princess.

xxx

Their room was dark now…of course it was since it was night time in Macedonia but he didn't even notice that, he was too caught and excited to see her again, see them again. He approached the bed where his beautiful, wonderful, brilliant princess was sleeping peacefully and wanted in fact to wake her up, he sure knew that she would have wanted that too, but she was sleeping so wonderfully that it was a shame to do so. He only entangled his fingers into her hair, caressing it slowly before making up his mind. He would take his place beside her soon enough, being tired himself but since he was here and their daughter was just some paces away he would see her too even if she must have been sleeping just like her mother. So he saw it better to walk to the door, opening it slowly, careful not to wake either one of them and let himself into his daughter's room. Eve was as he thought, sleeping on her bed, the other one being empty since Adam was with Dite. Ohhh he sure wanted to see the boy too, maybe just after kissing his daughter.

He advanced towards Eve's bed and just looked at her…Oh his heart was so back in place now that he saw them and they were all alright.

His little princess looked just like an angel, a little angel…He couldn't let it pass so he bent and kissed her cheek slowly, while caressing her slightly undulating strands of hair.

"I missed you so much!"

The girl fussed around and opened her eyes ever so slowly and when she saw a totally stranger near her face, her eyes widened, jumping out of the bed and looking afraid at him…maybe he was the bad man that was coming after them.

"Stay away!" she said with tremor in her voice, taking her coverlet around her as to protect herself.

"Eve!" Needless to say Ares was shocked about the child's reaction to him…He for sure wasn't expecting that.

The girl didn't wait anymore and when she saw that the stranger was coming towards her, she yelled as if she had been bitten by a snake…she hated snakes…And of course soon after, Xena stormed into the room finding her daughter with a tall, dark stranger.

"Who are you and why are you here?"