Chapter 38

He was growing restless as another month had come and gone and there was still no change in his situation. He was still forced to continue to stay in that wretched land when all he wanted to do was unleash all of his pent up fury. He formed a fireball in his hand and launched it aimlessly across the room and it collided into a desk that he had set up to work out some new plans and everything that he had been working on had gotten charred to bits the moment the sphere of fire made contact with its surface. He didn't care anymore about anything, the bastard was supposed to keep his end of the bargain and get him out of that dreadful place. Instead he still found himself there with that Gods damn enchantment keeping him put and he just wanted to torch the entire land and bury it in his wrath for having to have spent yet another day away from his Chosen. Treaty be damned, Ares couldn't care less what the consequences would be and if it would finally get him out of there then he was going to destroy them all to get what he wanted.

How hard could it really have been to convince someone to just agree to something? All they had to do was tip the scales of what was already in their favor, but no, the bastard had used his desperation to get back to Xena to get what he wanted out of him. It was ok though, he wasn't going to make that same mistake twice, they were all going to pay. He had let his need for her blind him and he was angry with himself for not having stayed focused on what was really the bigger picture. They were all going to learn that no one could cross him and just get away with it. By this time tomorrow he wouldn't have to worry about any damn enchantments keeping him in the Norse lands because there wasn't going to be any land left for him to be stuck in. Looks like he would be doing the Egyptian pantheon a favor, they were going to owe him big time. The War God knew exactly where he was going to start and he was going to show Thor that he had chosen wrong in making him an enemy.

With those thoughts whirling inside his mind, the God of Thunder suddenly made an appearance and now stood a few feet away from the War God. He couldn't believe his luck, looks like he didn't have to waste any precious time in trying to find him after all like he thought he would have. Without warning, he formed a fireball in his hand and sent it flying in the God's direction and since he was not expecting the War God's assault against him it crashed into his body and sent him flying across the room.

Shaking off the shock of the attack, Thor looked up from his position on the floor to see a seething Ares standing on the other side of the room.

"What has gotten into you?!" he exclaimed angrily as he made his way to his feet.

"I told you what would happen if you crossed me."

"You need to calm down, I have done no such thing. No reason for you to act all paranoid on me."

Ares was too furious to want to stand there and listen to anything that he had to say though. He advanced on him, planning to make him suffer. He wasn't going to finish him off though, no, he wanted to make him watch as everything that he held dear to himself was destroyed and only then when there was nothing left for him was he going to kill him. Thor could see that the War God was set on causing some kind of damage like he had promised if their bargain had fallen through. He needed to get Ares under control and he needed to do it fast and there was only one way he knew how to do that and fully capture the War God's attention.

As soon as Ares was close enough to him, he made his hammer appear in his hand and swung it at the Olympian. It hit him square in the chest and the powerful blow of the weapon sent Ares speedily to the other side of the room where he collided with a pillar that crumbled from the impact. Thor immediately reappeared in front of him and placed his hammer on the War Gods chest. No one could lift that hammer but himself and the God of War tried vainly to raise the weapon off of himself. He pushed at the irritating hammer, his rage just flaring when the damn thing would not come off and succeeding in keeping him pinned to the floor.

"I am going to destroy you, there will be nothing left!" Ares hissed out as he tried to remove the wretched hammer.

"You forget War God, you might not be able to leave but I can." he stared down at Ares as he continued to try and dislodge his weapon from his chest, "Now, you are going to listen or..." with a small wave of his hand he made a portal appear and an image of Xena came into view, "... I would hate to have to kill her."

Ares scowled menacing up at Thor and then upped his attempts to get free from the weight that was keeping him tethered to the ground. He looked at the image of his Princess, his sweet beautiful Princess and then to the smug look on the Gods face as he threatened her….His Chosen. A rage like no other had consumed him at the God of Thunder's words, if he so much as breathed on her he was going to kill him. There was going to be no place that he could hide from him and if he thought that the destruction that he was going to cause was going to be a horrifying one then it was nothing compared to what he was going to do if he dared touch her.

"If you touch one hair on her head there will be nothing that will stop me from tearing you limb from limb." he growled out aggressively as he continued to thrash about to get off of the Gods damn floor. He pushed at the hammer, putting all of his energy into getting free and it started to lift a little but then it fell back down on his chest.

"She looks so beautiful when she sleeps, did you know that? Of course you do, you probably watch her every day." he replied, carelessly ignoring the War God's threat, "Have you ever noticed the way she scrunches her nose a little when she is dreaming about something? She looks so peaceful, so helpless as her mind is somewhere else, so defenseless and it would be soooo easy."

He looked down at Ares as he relentlessly tried to remove his hammer, slightly lifting it a little before it would fall back down on top of him. He watched as the War Gods eyes flickered from the girl in the portal to him several times, the desperation that was starting to form in his eyes as he tried unsuccessfully to get free and to stop him from doing any harm to her.

"She means something to you, doesn't she?" he asked, smirking contemptuously at the War God's menacing glare and his ragged with rage breathing, he took that as a yes, "I don't want to kill her but I will if you don't calm down. If you are going to take something from me then I am going to take something equally as important from you."

He watched as the God of War stared longingly at the image of this mortal, he did not look at her with cruel eyes but when his focus turned back to him he could see all the boiling rage that was held behind them as he threatened her again.

"What's it going be War God? Are you going to listen or are you going to let her die because you couldn't control yourself?"

Ares didn't even give him an answer, he just stared up at him rebelliously. He thought he was so arrogant with the way he was cowardly holding him down and threatening the life of his Chosen. Let's see him say those words without any magical objects in the way. If he laid a single hand on his Princess there was nothing that was going to stop him from annihilating this land. Instead of giving him any type of response at all he looked at Xena again for a few minutes and then shifted his eyes back to the God and just growled warningly at him.

"I'll take it that you are willing to listen. Now,..." he waved his hand and the portal of Xena had vanished, "... let's get these distracting things out of the way. I kept my word War God, if you weren't going off all half cocked you would have known that by now. Odin is not the easiest person to try and convince of something, he's very difficult. As we speak, him and Zeus are talking about everything again and I made it a point to mention how ready to lend a hand you had been with your stay here. It shouldn't be long now."

Without another word to Ares, Thor vanished from the room taking his hammer along with him and thus releasing him from its hold. The War God immediately got to his feet and opened up a portal, making sure that the bastard was not going to try and do anything to her. She was in Athena's temple looking over some maps and he relaxed a little, he was on edge now just waiting for Thor to show up in the portal as well. If he was stupid enough to show his face within an arm's reach of his Chosen then they were going to find out just how much of the embodiment of War ran through his veins. As her blue moons roamed over the parchments he noticed the slight smile that started to form on her face as it seemed that she was thinking about something. But then just as soon as the smile was there it had faded and she had gotten this look in her eyes that he had never seen in them before. She looked almost sad about something and he wondered what was making her sad. Had something again happened but yet at the same time this was not the same look that he had seen in her eyes before.

The very next moment he felt a rippling scorching warm sensation go through his body and he grunted out from the odd feeling. Once the unusual feeling had passed he felt different and he knew immediately what it was that had changed. The enchantment that Zeus had placed on him had finally been lifted and he felt his powers being returned back to normal. He flexed his hands a bit as his body got accustomed to the surge of energy that was now flowing through him once again, tiny sparks of blue light flickering off of his fingertips. He looked up at Xena, standing there within his grasp with nothing holding him back, and he didn't waste another second as he dematerialized from the room and went straight to the place where he had wanted to be for the past nine months.