TO BE GREATER THAN THE SUM OF YOUR PARTS

Xena put her hand on Lila's arm looking at the glowing blood streams. "I'm going to get you out of this." Lila ignored her pain a part of her had been so happy to see her Xena and her sister again but now it had faded as the searing pain had set in once more. She breathed in trying to take the pain which caused everything to go out of focus for a spilt second. She shook her head, gods this hurt so much. "You…can't free me now." She raised her shaking head to the spinning calendar. "She's…attached my soul to that." Xena turned eyeing the device. "How do I free you from it? Did Akemi say anything to you?" Lila breathed in deeply. "Yes she said." She winced, feeling a sharp pain in her fractured rib.

Xena put a hand on her the young girls face easing it up. "You have to keep your eyes open Lila you have to tell me what needs to happen." She turned eyeing the warrior ignoring Ehecatl groaning. He was still lying on his knees obviously her blow had hurt him and right now he was couldn't get up, which was for the best. She turned looking at the other warriors. "How do I get her out of this!?" Amoxtli turned to Tlaloc who looked unsure for a long moment. Itzli didn't think as he came closer to Xena. "This is the Warrior Princess, she won't hurt you brother." He turned looking at the younger dark haired woman with fair skin who was Gabrielle's sister.

He eyed her for a long moment despite that they were sisters they looked nothing alike. He shook his head he didn't have time to contemplate this right now. He turned back to his brother. "Tlaloc we need to help the Blood Jaguar's sister, please help us." Tlaloc looked down for a long moment before looking up. He moved closer. "What happened to your mark of slavery?" Itzli breathed in deeply thinking about what to say he looked up meeting his brother's confused gaze. "The Blood Jaguar freed me." Tlaloc blinked in shock. "She freed you? The Blood Jaguar is a cruel hateful bitch who got me killed, why would she have any compassion for you?!"

He ignored the Warrior Princess's ice cold look. "She doesn't care about anyone!" Itzli looked up sharply. "I don't have time to go through this with you brother but I'll tell you this. The Blood Jaguar I know has a real name and that name, is Gabrielle and when we both met her she wasn't herself. She is herself now though and she's the most honourable warrior I know, she freed me willingly and I want to help her." Tlaloc blinked in shock he looked down. "This makes no sense!" Itzli turned sharply. "I'll explain everything to you brother but right now I need your help. We have to save this young woman she's innocent." Tlaloc breathed in his brother was right about that and despite how insane this sounded he would do what ever it took to save Lila.

He moved forward coming to stand next to Xena watching as Amoxtli followed. "The Star Coyote said that the device is being powered by the pendent at the centre of the spinning calendar." He raised his hand. "You have to pull the pendent out of it, only then will this device shut down for good." He looked at the tall dark haired woman she was so unlike the Blood Jaguar in appearance. She had light bronze skin and her armour was black she also wore burnt gold plating and knee high black boots. She was well built and had eyes which were as blue as the sky. She was a warrior just like lover he could tell by her sword.

The Blood Jaguar for the instant she'd been in the room had looked completely different as well. She had long blonde hair now and her out fit had consisted of a brown skirt and green halter top as well as light brown gauntlets and boots. There had been no red and black clothing at all the only thing that solidified that she was the blood jaguar were her claws which had been in her boots. He shook his head leaving his thoughts behind they could wait. "You can not shut this device down, but not while Lila is attached to it and the Blood Jaguar is in a different time." Xena turned to him feeling her anger hit home. "Why not!?" Amoxtli stepped forward. "The Star Coyote has a copy of the pendent from the calendars centre."

She put her hands together. "That copy has to be brought back in to this time only then can its counterpart be pulled free of the device. When it is, Lila's soul can be freed." She raised her hand. "We don't know how you can get that close to Lila because we can't every time we try we get hurt." She turned to Itzli. "The same goes for you, you'll get hurt if you get any closer." Itzli put a hand on his brothers shoulder "You're alive? I saw the feathered serpent kill you." Tlaloc turned slightly. "He did kill me Itzli its just he just brought me back as an un-dead slave." He pointed to his living eye. "As you can see though he's lost his power over me and it won't be much longer before I'm living again."

He turned putting his hand on Amoxtli's shoulder. "And Amoxtli is living once more." Itzli nodded as he looked at her. "It's an honour to meet you." Amoxtli smiled slightly. "You and I have met once before in the Blood Jaguar's company when you first entered the feathered serpent keep, but I feel that is a story that's better left for another time." Xena felt her eyes dart she knew that Gabrielle was wearing the merged pendent which was allowing her to get this close to Lila. She looked up seeing the golden circle which her lover had gone through which was now filled with red light. The others were showing images from her lover's life which she recognised while others she didn't.

The image of Apollonia of them both on the sand she recognised as well as golden werewolf running through the night street of Messene which had been the first time that Gabrielle had taken that form. Her lover had told her about that event some days after the war with king Lycaon had ended. The other image which she didn't recognise was off a group of people moving through the snow with two small children behind them. She could tell it was the very young Gabrielle with her sister but it wasn't a memory that Gabrielle had mentioned to her. Nether was the one next to it which was off a teenage Gabrielle watching a woman dance at a festival in Potidaea.

The last window showed the short haired woman in her red clothing at a Greek tavern looking in to her tankard as if hoping to see something in it the depression and pain all too obvious in her eyes. She breathed gods this was truly showing her lovers life she eyed the red portal again before turning back to Lila who was coming around again. "Lila, where in time did Akemi go?" Lila swallowed. "After our mother…before I was born…to when Gabrielle was about…to be born." She tensed in agony. "It's my fault…I told her where to go…she threatened to kill my friends. I didn't want to betray my sister." Xena shook her head. "It's okay it's not your fault I know Akemi I know how she is."

Lila shook her head feeling the guilt and pain as it churned in her stomach. "You…don't understand…the feathered serpent showed me what Gabrielle did I saw how unkind she can be. I saw that she had stolen my daughter from me in the future to save you. A part of me wanted to betray her because she's not my true sister and she's from another life time just like you." Xena breathed in sharply gods this was just what her lover had said would happen, this was what she had been afraid off all along. Now that fear had become a reality. She breathed in deeply gods if only Lila understood the full truth of what she had been given. If only she knew about what had happened with Gurkhan's men and that they killed her parents as well as her husband and stolen her daughter.

She didn't have time to explain this now all she could do was help out her lover's sister who looked confused and hurt on so many levels. She breathed in refocusing her thoughts as she gently raised Lila's head trying not to cause her pain. "Gabrielle cares about you deeply Lila and so do I. We may not be from your time but we don't love you any less." Lila winced painfully. "I knew that and I betrayed you both, you must hate me." Xena shook her head taking hold of her good hand. "No I don't hate you Lila." Lila blinked in confusion as she looked up meeting Xena light blue eyes there was no hurt or hate in them only concern. This wasn't the reaction she was expecting not from Xena at least.

The Xena she knew had a fire some temper yet the woman in front of her who was taking care of her showed none of that. She was so calm and focused about it all. She suddenly felt even more confused as she felt the taller woman's hand move as she began to check her body for broken bones what in Tartarus was going on? Why wasn't Xena mad with her? She'd betrayed them both to Akemi Xena should hate her for that shouldn't she? Nothing about this was making sense. It felt like the woman in front of her was a different person and not the person she remembered. She tried to think only to feel the pain hit her body again with enough force to make her scream.

"Traitors!"

Ehecatl stood up opening his eyes ignoring the pain. He watched as the other warriors raised their weapons. "Akemi will have your heads!" He moved forward only to stop as the whole room began to shake violently. He turned just in time to see the central skulls eyes glow red along with all the other skulls as they all spoke together. "The tree of life grows, in the land of mystery, there we were created there we were born. There he by whom all things live spins the thread of our lives." Xena looked up watching as everything around her started to shake this wasn't good at all she could feel it deep in the pit of her stomach. The others grabbed on to the temple pillars as everything shook even harder. The twelve warriors who couldn't get through fell over each other painfully. She turned eyeing Itzli. "What is this, what's going on!?" Itzli breathed in grabbing on to the nearest pillar. "I don't know!"

8

Quetzalcoatl flapped his wings harder it was true that he could teleport just like the other gods, but he hated doing it. What was the point anyway? He'd been born with wings so there was no point in not using them. Vermin in generally were always far more terrified if you landed near them rather than teleported. Maybe because it gave them a sense of scale and that you were their god and you have all the power. It also scared the hell out of them when you showed your huge feathered wings to them. That was always also the tiring thing though, vermin loved to be given a sense of scale with out it they never got the big picture.

May be Manaia was right maybe he was bored of his position of king of the gods. He'd not had a challenge in eons no other god would rise to him and very few mortals dared to take him on. It was one long drawn bore, a part of him missed the time when he had been young and free and could do as he pleased a go to what ever land he wanted. Yes the boredom had finally set in there was no denying it he had felt it for the last hundred years. He just hadn't wanted to admit it, to himself until now. This was the first challenge he'd had in centuries if you could call it that it was more like going to pick up his property which wasn't all that entertaining.

He looked up sharply watching as the elder god's city came in to view he could see the huge spire of light breaching the heavens. He turned eye Manaia who was still following him. He breathed in as he opened his wings fully looking at the city bellow and then at the elder gods temple there was no point in landing well away from the temple. It was better to go for broke and land as close as possible to it, he flicked out his tongue as he came closer seeing the main square it was the perfect place to land. He eased his wings further back as came down smashing in to the hard surface causing all the un-dead animals to scatter along with the ghosts and guardians.

He eyed the square's empty houses for a moment before turning to watch as Manaia landed hard next to him. He eyed the other god as he shivered he didn't think as he wrapped his tail around his lower fin section. "Don't worry about this place I'm far more frightening than anything you are going to come across here." He roared causing even more skeleton creatures to scatter, he didn't think as he brought his clawed hand down full force on those who were fleeing causing the sound of cracking of bones to hit the air. He raised hands looking at the cracked bones which started to crawl away of there own accord. "See these are just parasites not much stronger than the vermin in my city."

Manaia eyed him for a long moment. "Your word would have been enough to prove the point. Are you not afraid of the city? The elder god created it, moulded it brought life to the world from this very place." Quetzalcoatl flicked out his tongue. "Every thing is over exaggerated, the elder god is well known for that." He eased up a clawed finger. "This place is just full of pathetic parasites put in place to scare mortals." He moved his lower body freeing it from the other gods. He sniffed the air as he moved forward it was hard to smell anything other than death because it was so strong in this place. He moved forward only to see two odd looking animals flying above his head in circles both were too afraid to land.

They weren't llama's they were something else he didn't think as he brought up his hand grabbing one of them out of mid air he brought it down eyeing it, he didn't want to hurt it he just wanted to look at it. It was a furry black creature, which was saddled and had feathered wings and hooves he ignored its golden counterpart as it drive bombed his head. Manaia eyed the creature in his hand. "I believe that's refereed to as a horse though when they have wings they are called Pegasus." Quetzalcoatl flicked out his tongue ignoring the golden animal as it dive bombed him again. "Where do these Pegasus come from?" Manaia eyed the horse in his grasp. "Greece."

Quetzalcoatl let the animal go watching as it flew up with the other, he felt his clawed hand close as the anger started to burn. Only one bitch could bring Greek animals here! Only one bitch knew about this place and only one bitch would even take the risk of entering this city. The Blood Jaguar had returned and she was right here, right now! He turned to temple he was going to tear it apart! His thoughts were suddenly stopped as everything started to shake all around him. He looked up sharply seeing that the elder god's temple was shaking violently. He eased his clawed hand up in disgust as what seemed like millions dead animals and ghosts moved past him.

He found himself going still as the floor underneath the main temple began to fall away. He blinked in confusion what was this? What was going on here? He hadn't read about anything like this. His thoughts were cut off as huge a river of blood bubbled up pouring up from under the temple spilling on to the ancient streets creating rivers. Huge pulsing tentacles of flesh and bone came up from this sea of blood which the temple was now floating on. Huge teeth each the size of ten men surfaced clamping on to the bottom of the temple. The whole temple was suddenly forced skyward as a huge pulsing worm like body pushed it skywards its inner mouth tentacles scratched the temples out side as it rose higher.

Its whole body was made of bone and pulsing flesh and he could see six other tunnel like openings on its worm like sections as it rose up higher. All these smaller pulsing openings had the same teeth and tentacles. The huge central mouth was wide enough to grab the whole temple but not wide enough to swallow it. It seemed that all at once hundreds of demonic beings which looked completely inhuman came raining out of all the other six mouths. They moved upwards like swarming locusts as the huge central body twitched. This was no creature though this was the seventh hell and it was spewing out its demons.

The seventh hell was now fully open along with its six other hells, he stopped still watching as the white light above the temple started to change it began to separate forming in to what looked like tree like branches made of light which blasted through the clouds. White flesh mixed with white light began to pour down from the temples top opening. It flowed down over the seventh hells opening merging with it turning the blood and flesh as white as snow in places while some of it steamed down creating veins of white in the worm's bloody dead body. The light above was forming in to huge tree like braches with no leaves which were piecing the heavens.

He ignored the blood as it ran past his hands, what was this?! He couldn't see the temple anymore it was coated completely by this pulsing tree of white light and bloody flesh. Why a tree? He roared in anger as he looked at it, he hated surprises and this was going to make getting in to the temple so much more difficult! He looked up in disgust watching as thousands more demons poured out of the six openings taking to the sky above along with the thousands more already flying above the city. The huge body moved causing more blood to spill through the streets as the seventh hell finally became still and only the pulsing of its bone and flesh could be seen.

8

Xena looked up seeing that the light above it was so blinding that she couldn't see properly. It faded away showing what looked like a white flesh coating which was covering part of the opening. The sky its self seemed so much closer and she could now see that it had spilt forming what like a tree like structure which were all piercing the heavens above. Everything was completely still now and that bothered her. She eyed Ehecatl who was looking as confused as everyone else. Itzli blinked looking around him. "Is it me or are we much higher off the ground?" Xena looked around her. "Yes we've moved its like something's underneath the temple and it's pushed us towards the stars." Amoxtli looked up slightly not being able to hide the sarcasm is her tone. "That makes me feel so much better."

She eyed the twelve elite who were getting up they began to smash against the barrier which had been holding them back again. She could see the leader staring back at her through the golden light his red eyes narrowing as he hit the barrier again. So long as those bastards stayed trapped then they'd all be fine. Xena turned back eyeing Lila whose eyes were darting she put her had back on her arm. "Its okay I think everything stopped shaking now." It was strange how easy it was for her to speak gently to people. It came so much more naturally now and a part of her liked it. Sometimes it was so much easier to control a situation when you spoke softy.

Her younger self would never have believed that to possible but she did it now. She had calmed down so many times through her lovers gentle words. Now it meant even more to understand what Gabrielle had been trying to teach her from the beginning which was that you don't always have to be aggressive when helping people. She looked at Lila. "How are you holding up?" Lila looked up ignoring the pain. "I'm fine." Xena moved her hand feeling the younger woman wince painfully. "You're doing well I just want you stay awake for me if you can." Lila looked up slightly not being able to stop her next question. "Lector is he all alright?"

Xena looked at her. "He's fine, he misses you a lot and when all this is over you're going to see him again." Lila coughed painful gods she was so happy to hear that she feared the worst for so long time. A part of her had been afraid that when he had been hit by Quetzalcoatl that he may have been very seriously injured. She looked feeling a slight confusion she hadn't expected Xena to say that the Warrior Princess she knew wasn't all that emotional. "You, you're not like the Xena I remember." She winced feeling her fractured rib play up. "You're so different." Xena looked at her for a long moment before speaking. "In the other life time which I came from I've had a long time to learn some really important things."

She checked Lila's lower chest feeling a slight fracture under the skin. "Like to respect life, love and peace." She grinned slightly. "You know all those things your sister has was always been trying to teach me." Lila blinked now she was even more confused Xena was the kind one and her sister was the angry one, it made no sense at all. Ehecatl sneered reading his axe only to stop as he watched something appear behind the shield of gold it was hideous pulsing limb. It spewing out blood as its huge hook moved past the twelve ignoring them as it rammed its self in to the golden light going right through it, coming out intact on the other side.

He felt the fear him in an instant he knew what it was just from the smell it was a part of the seventh hell. Amoxtli watched in horror as the seventh hells tentacle hook ripped through the golden light with no effort causing it to blast outwards in a shower of gold dust. All off the twelve elite instantly moved through the tear. Xena looked around watching as the last one of the elite warriors came through the gap. This wasn't good she turned eyeing Lila. "I'll be back I just have to sort something out." She eased herself up slowly raising her sword watching as the pulsing bloody limb was suddenly blown apart causing blood to spatter across the room as the golden light reappeared creating a seal once more.

She watched as the leader smiled raising his weapon. "I can see why Gabrielle never liked you, you just don't give up." The leader laughed as he eyed her. "We the best the seventh hell has to offer, that is why it opened the door for us." He turned smiling evilly in the peasant warrior's direction. "That traitor of peasant whore over there will tell you all about our persistence she's felt it first hand." He laughed meeting her terrified gaze before turning back feeling his teeth grind together as he met the Warrior Princess's ice blue eyes. "Now tell me where the Blood Jaguar is, before I cut out your spine!" Xena smiled as she raised an eyebrow. "She's not here right now but if you want you can leave a message."

The leader sneered slightly. "Do you honestly think you and your pathetic group of traitors are going to kill us in battle?" He eyed her up and down. "In fact what makes you think that you can even take down one off us, let alone all of us?" Itzli laughed watching as the leader turned to look at him he eyed the big man in disgust. "She'll kill you all because she's the Blood Jaguar's lover, you stupid bastard." The leader eyed him for a long moment. "Oh and I should be scared of a comfort blanket? I'm so unimpressed." Itzli slowly stepped forward so he was by Xena's side. "Yes I'd be very afraid of her lover if I were you, are you bastards as dense enough to think that the Blood Jaguar wouldn't have an equal as a lover?"

The leader eyed him. "Your bluffing your her loyal slave you'd say anything, if it meant keeping you hide!" Itzli shook his head he was so looking forward to this fight. "My, my your really slow if you haven't noticed my slavery scars are gone and trust me when I say you have as much to fear from the Warrior Princess as you do the Blood Jaguar, though I prefer to call her by her real name, which is Gabrielle." The leader eyed him for a long moment as he stepped closer. "Oh you are so good but we'll see how far your claim goes." He twirled his axe eyeing the Warrior Princess and then the other warriors. "I'm so looking forward to tearing you all limb from limb it's going to make my day in a way none of you can imagine."

End of part 109

Silvermoonlight