Chapter 13

Xena felt the powerful grip on her arm as she was shoved backwards. All of a sudden she felt her body connect roughly with the wooden table then with the hard stone floor as the table gave way from the force of the impact. She grimaced slightly from the pain that was now racking her body. She felt a sting on her hands and lower arms and saw that she had tiny cuts along them. The wine, that she now found herself soaked with, was making the cuts hurt more as it seeped into them. She was naturally angry with herself for having been so distracted that she couldn't react to the situation. But more than that, she was angry at the thought that someone had actually believed they could put their hands on her in such a forceful manner. Her blue eyes flared with rage as she looked up to see Apollo now standing in front of her. She began to pick herself up off the floor.

Ares glared at Apollo feeling his own rage build as the Sun God stared him down. He laughed to himself at the thought that Apollo really thought he stood a chance against him. He shifted his gaze behind him, noticing that Xena was already extracting herself from the ruins of the broken table, all soaked in wine. He took a few steps in her direction but was immediately blocked by Apollo and with an impressive force shoved backwards.

Naturally, it was all it took for any thought he might have had of going easy on his brother to be quickly dismissed as he now stood between him and what he now claimed as his own. He was not known for his generous nature- he definitely didn't like to share- and he certainly was not going to share her. His brown eyes took on a darker tint as he could see that Apollo was not going to make this easy for him.

"She doesn't need any help from you!" Apollo spat out as he began to turn around. He reached out and offered Xena his hand.

Xena slapped his hand away, not wanting him anywhere near her.

"Don't touch me!" she growled with venom in her voice. She felt the pain shoot up her back as she stood up on her own. She bit down on her lower lip to try and suppress the groan of pain that wanted to come out as she steadied herself on the side of the broken table. She wasn't about to show weakness in front of him. Finally getting to her feet she shot Apollo a stony gaze as he attempted to move closer.

"Don't!" she repeated as she held her hand out signaling for him to remain where he was.

Breathing heavily from the rising anger inside her, she shifted her gaze and glanced over at Ares who was standing a few feet away. Their eyes met for a brief moment before she tore her gaze away. Every time she looked into his eyes she felt like he could see right through her. With a few hesitant steps, she turned her back on the scene and proceeded to leave the temple without uttering another word

Ares could see from afar the pain that she was struggling to hide with those few steps that she took. He was enraged with Apollo. He again started to take a few steps in her direction and, not expecting the blow that was coming, was punched straight in the jaw. The force behind the punch caused him to stumble backwards. His eyes darkened even more when he looked back and saw that it had been Apollo that hit him. He couldn't believe that he had dared to put his hands on him again.

"I've already warned you once." Apollo said as he began to advance on the War God.

Once he was close enough to him, he raised his hand to punch him again, but Ares was ready for him this time and easily blocked the blow. Putting all of his strength into a counter, Ares delivered his own blow to the Sun God causing him to fly across the room and crash into a pillar. Reappearing in front of him, he grabbed Apollo by the collar and pulled him up, ready to deliver another blow to his face, but, right when he was about to do that, Ares suddenly felt someone halt his arm. He glanced over to see Athena standing next to him, not looking all too pleased.

"I thought I told you to behave." Athena said as she released his arm.

Ares pushed Apollo away as hard as he could and turned to face Athena.

"Hey you can't put this on me." he stated with anger. "If mister Bad Poetry over there didn't interfere..." but he didn't get to finish as Athena interrupted him.

"That's another thing. Didn't I tell you to stay away from my warriors?"

She was getting visibly angrier with him. "And yet, here you are causing trouble and messing with them. Can't you control your urges to wreak havoc?"

Apollo saw that this was his chance to remedy the situation with Xena now that he had Ares taken care of. He quickly vanished from the temple.

"This is ridiculous! I'm the innocent party here. If I recall correctly, he was the one that threw the first punch." Ares said, getting more enraged by the minute.

"You are far from innocent, Ares. And whether he started it or not, you had been warned beforehand." Athena said in a stern tone.

"I don't have to stand here and take this." Ares said and soon vanished from the temple.

Xxxxx

Apollo reappeared outside the temple and looked around to see which direction Xena had gone in. He spotted her walking a few yards away.

She was fuming of course. After tonight, Apollo had certainly out stayed his welcome.

"Putting his hands on me like that." she scuffed. God or not no one touched her like that. If he thought she was being hard on him before, he had another thing coming. If Apollo was stupid enough to show himself to her again then she would deal with it but first she wanted to get clean and wash the wine off of herself.

She continued walking and saw a flash of gold light appear in front of her. She soon spotted Apollo there and just threw him an icy glare and continued to move pass him. She was tired and right now that bath was more appealing than going a round with the God.

"Xena where are you going?" he asked, concern in his eyes as he reached out his hand to touch her. She immediately stepped out of his reach.

"I said DON'T touch me!" she barked at him as she continued to walk away.

Thinking that her anger was really directed towards Ares for what he had tried, Apollo figured it was the right moment to try and calm her.

"Now just calm down. I know you're upset because Ares interrupted us just when we.."

She turned around to face him, stopping him mid rant. "There is NO WE!" she yelled at him. "Get that through your thick skull, already!"

"Xena you don't mean that." he said with a bit of desperation. "What we had back there in the temple was real. I felt it and so did you." he stared at her trying to gauge her reaction to what he had just said but all he was met with was an icy glare filled with anger.

"I felt nothing!" she replied with hatred. Moving to really sink in her words on this annoyance to her she said "The thought of being with you sickens me."

With those last words, she walked away leaving Apollo stunned. He couldn't help but think how this was all Ares' fault. He finally had everything he wanted within his grasp but that Bastard had to show up and ruin everything.

'Everything he touches he destroys.' he thought. He wasn't sure how, but he knew that Ares had just put a wedge between them. He continued to watch her as she faded from view. He knew this rift they had now was not going to be easy to mend. But after all this time he was not about to give up now that he was so close.