Chapter Eleven
"Something is wrong," Xena told them before disappearing quickly to the museum. Eve followed as well as Hercules leaving Ares unguarded.
"Michelle!" Xena called. The museum was dark as most of the lights had been turned down, Michelle would only do that if she were going upstairs. "Kiyoshi!"
"This isn't funny guys!" Eve called knowing immediately something was wrong. They wouldn't be stupid enough to play with them in such a manner not at a time like this.
"Sovann, Sovanara!" Hercules called out thinking maybe one of them would show up. There was just silence as Xena made her way into the foyer leading into the front door, she saw the door ajar and figures lying in it.
"Kiyoshi!" She ran forward and saw the twins were passed out under Kiyoshi's bloody body. Everyone came rushing to the front to see the sight.
"Michelle…"Kiyoshi moaned before passing out. He was immortal enough that a few gunshot wounds wouldn't kill him, but they would cause him great pain. He was vulnerable enough. Xena looked around as Eve pulled out Sovann and Sovanara they were fine a bullet or two had grazed them, but Kiyoshi had taken most of the hits for sure.
"Where's Michelle?" Hercules asked worried as Xena looked around with a wave of her hand the lights shined bright, but she wasn't anywhere as Hercules went further in to take a better look. She looked out the door and saw Michelle's body lying on the steps.
"Michelle!" Xena ran out to her and saw the blood pooling from her head as she checked her pulse. It was a low pulse rate, but it was there, there was time to save her.
"Dial the ambulance," Xena told Eve who stood at the top of the stairs looking down at her sister with pain. Eve did as she was told and they were all taken to the hospital, Michelle had to have the most extensive surgery of them all although Kiyoshi boasted the most injuries.
"Did you check the security cameras from outside?" Xena asked Hercules as they waited for Michelle and Kiyoshi to come out of surgery, the twins were doing fine, but had a concussion.
"Yeah I checked them," Hercules told her. He was trying hard to control himself. "You know I thought you were stupid for putting the audio on the outside camera, but now it makes sense." Xena looked at him as if he had grown two heads for calling her stupid, but she saw an anger there she knew wasn't meant for her.
"What did you see and hear?" Xena asked. Eve walked over as well hearing the way he had spoken to her mother which was so unlike him.
"At first I didn't recognize him, I haven't seen him in a long time you know?" Xena nodded. "But when I heard his voice and what he said I knew him almost immediately."
"Knew who?" Eve asked.
"It was Strife and a couple of guys I'm sure he had recruited from somewhere, they came up when Michelle was getting the mail. Strife pulled a gun on her told her to let them in or they'd kill anyone vulnerable in our family. Kiyoshi came out I can see him on the interior cameras and they were startled they just shot at him. They were frantic now desperate to invade the museum, but when he uncovered Michelle's mouth she screamed for you instead and he just shot her before running." Tears were streaming down their face now as they thought of their brave Michelle being threatened by Strife.
"That son of a bitch is going to pay," Xena told them. "No one hurts my family." They nodded their agreement. She looked at Hercules. "But you, you calm down I know what he did to Serena is making you angrier than you would normally be, and that kind of rage got you into trouble with Hera and Deinara you have to calm down" Hercules nodded, but didn't hear her. He disappeared.
"Stay with them Eve, I'm going to find Strife before he does, if he kills him in this state, he could lose everything." Eve nodded.
"I'll watch over them don't worry." Xena nodded as the lights flickered on and off.
"It's Ares, he's messing with the electricity from Mount Olympus, keep the lights on or we could lose them." Eve nodded. "Don't put your strength and power in until you absolutely have too, he's trying to drain you." Eve nodded.
"Just go you have to save Hercules from himself." Xena kissed her and she disappeared as Eve looked around watching the lights and looking for Ares to show up. There was no one however as nurses walked back and forth with or with patients and people with families waited to hear about their own loved ones.
Xena picked up Strife's trail using the security footage, it had been hard for her to watch Michelle get shot in reverse. The look on her face was terrible; Xena had never liked the idea of guns, they did more damage than a sword ever did. She saw the car and plate number Strife had arrived in. After that she went to the DMV and accessed their records it was a bit too slow for her liking, but no doubt Hercules would be popping in and out of well known hot spots for criminals, which put time on her side.
"Who are you?" Xena didn't jump as she turned around with the file in hand and the correct file to her happiness. Xena shot a harmless bolt of lightning at her making her yell and run away.
"Perhaps I should have knocked her out," Xena muttered as she looked at the address and disappeared in front of the home where she hoped either Strife or one of his buddies lived. She spotted the old car immediately it was definitely manufactured in the 1940s which didn't surprise her at all the style of Strife's clothing made her think of Janice once more. The house was made of woods, it wasn't even a house really probably a sort of warehouse that had been abandoned as it was near the train tracks, there were trees all around, but there was a very clear and definite road that led to it.
"All right let's go see who lives here." She pulled out her sword and kicked in the old wooden door. The men inside jumped and the first person she spotted was Strife, she could never forget his face especially after seeing what he did to her Michelle.
"Good Strife I don't have to go looking for you." He looked just as slimy as he had all those centuries ago. He still moved like a snake it seemed.
"Xena, I warn you I'm not as helpless as I look Uncle gave me back some of my power. You're just an immortal you can't kill me your power is gone." Xena smirked.
"Oh Strife how funny you think that I need to kill you, no I have a very special place for you, there are many, many ways to punish a God. And after what you did to my daughter well now I'm really gonna make sure you suffer." Strife licked his lips making Xena disgusted as he gave his maniacal laugh.
"I've been killed twice now Xena and I always come back."
"Let's just get on with this!" Strife motioned for the guys to attack her and she was ready for them. They pulled out guns and they fired, but of course, they did nothing to her, but the pain was still there. A few left wounds that would heal as soon as the bullet got pulled out otherwise they did not hinder her one bit leaving everyone but Strife shocked.
"You're going to have to do better than that, boys." They yelled and attacked her with clubs after throwing their useless weapons to the floor. Xena a round house kick knocking two out easily, but the other two were more skilled as they fought. She cut their clubs in half and punched the first in the nose knocking bones into his frontal lobe. He fell to the ground as she turned and slammed the end of her hilt into his spinal cord at the base of his head he sunk to the floor as she turned to see Strife fleeing in his car. "Oh no you don't!" Xena disappeared and appeared on his roof. She plunged her sword into the top of his car and cut away at it. Strife opened the door and flung his body out of the car. Xena growled and pulled her sword out before jumping down. The car continued on and crashed into a passing train starting a bit of a fire as the train came to a sudden stop.
"Get away from me Xena, think of my Uncle's wrath." Xena growled.
"I don't give a shit about your Uncle's wrath although because you failed to get inside I imagine you're the one with the real problem." She put her boot on his chest and pinned him down easily, he hadn't done much to get away. "Now that I've caught you let's see if we can do something that might correct you behavior if you manage to escape." She disappeared to Hephestaes forge and chained him up.
"What are you gonna do, I don't know anything about Uncle." Xena scoffed.
"You think I want information from you?" Xena asked him. "Well you're wrong, any information you give me will be useless by the time I have use for it." She spotted the box she was looking for. "Ah here we got just what I wanted." She disappeared with Strife and the box to the cave where they would house Ares. The box was put in a little niche away from Ares coffin.
"This is where you plan on putting Uncle." Xena decided against rooming them in the same under water cave, instead she chose a cave, that put them up to their knees in water.
"Don't worry the water will rise in a few hours, you get to drown every three days the water rises and recedes." She opened the box and pushed him inside taking the chains off him.
"Big mistake those chains would have held me here."
"Oh I want you to be able to move Strife after all this box will mute your powers." She held out her hand and a bucket appeared. "Although I do want you to have some company, so I've arranged for a few little friends to uh join you. She turned the bucket over and at first red meat fell all over him and he was about to laugh until bugs started falling. There weren't a lot, but there were enough. "Flesh eaters, enjoy." She shut the top and put the lock on as Strife began to scream and bang on the sides of the box, not that he had a lot of room. She wrapped the chains around the box and added a second lock. "Goodbye you slimey bastard." She disappeared and found Hercules he was tearing through a well known Drug Lord's place and had several rooms that could not heal yet.
"Let's go I've found him." Hercules followed her.
"Where is he?" Hercules asked growling seeing they were back at home.
"Locked away with flesh eating bugs in a water cavern where he'll drown if the bugs don't kill him."
"You should have left him for me."
"What and see you destroy yourself I think not, now sit down while I pull out these bullets our focus now is Michelle and Kiyoshi nothing else except Ares, but he won't come down for awhile." Hercules started to speak, but she stopped him. "No, Strife is finished now you must be the father you pride yourself in being and be there for them." He nodded and started getting control of himself, he finally achieved it when she had taken care of her own wounds.
"Thank you," he told her quietly. She nodded and kissed him.
"You would have done the same for me." He smiled and pulled her close.
"I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you." Xena nodded.
"I know, now let's go check on them." He nodded and they went back to the hospital, Eve was straining to keep the electricity on not only for her brother and sister, but for everyone else who depended upon the electricity to keep running.
"I'll go make trouble for him and shift his attention." They nodded and Hercules disappeared.
"Come on we can hold him off together." Eve nodded.
"All right I can do this." Xena nodded as they both sat and closed their eyes so as not to alarm the people around them things were stressful enough.
A/n: Yes, I know I've finally updated thankfully. I hope you enjoyed this chapter after so long without any updates. I am trying to become a frequent updater again, I remember the days I had to stop myself from updating "too soon" as I thought *sigh* where has the time gone.