Pandora's Box

Branching Out

Pandora walks out on the auditorium stage. As she does, the large crowd of people drop to one knee and lower their heads in subjugation. Eventually, she gets to the middle of the stage and turns to the people. They all speak at once before she does.

"Hail the goddess reborn!"

She enjoys the sight of everyone kneeling for a while.

"Thank you all for coming. I'm glad to see that so many of you have joined the cause we're working towards. It's only with all of your help that we will get there... together." begins Pandora.

The word 'together' has them all cheering for her. She raises her hand and that has them stopping.

She continues, "You're all here to bring about the next phase of the plan. Many of you have started already, introducing your siblings and parents to our way of thinking. We need to go further than that though. For those of you who haven't helped your families, you need to do that. Those of you who have already, go wider. Any malls or parks or anywhere else that you might be able to convince people. The more of them we can bring to our side, the easier the revolution will be."

Cheers erupt in the crowd. Again she holds up a hand and they stop.

"It's time... go!"

More cheers from the crowd as they pickup baskets of golden delicious apples in front of them. After cheering for a while, they file out of the auditorium. Pandora watches them leave and then turns to Hermes standing just off stage. He's got a smile on his face as she makes her way backstage.

"You're doing it. Everything we always talked about doing." suggests Hermes.

Pandora smiles at him as she speaks, "I couldn't have done it without you. What you did unlocked a part of me that I didn't even know I had. And now that I see what I can do with all this? I understand."

"I knew you would. All I had to do was wait." insists Hermes.

They hug each other.

* * *

Hermes makes his way down the hallway on the basement level of the school. It's dark with mostly emergency lighting but Hermes doesn't seem to have any trouble. He comes up on the door to the boiler room, going inside. The sounds of screaming and pleading can be heard while he casually walks towards them.

"Please... just... let me go... I..." they try but another scream is forced out of them by what's being done.

"Don't try and plead your way out of this. You're just going to have to give in." insists the other voice in the room.

"But... I..." again the words are cut off by the need to scream.

Hermes eventually makes it to where the torture is coming from. In front of him is Ares with a hot poker pressed against his captive, the true messenger of the gods. Ares pulls the poker away from his victim and the tied up messenger stops screaming. After a few moments, the burn wound disappears as if it was never there.

"Things are going well I see." suggests Hermes with an obviously humorous tone.

Ares looks at Hermes standing next to him as he answers, "I'll get it out of him, don't worry."

"But will it be in time?" questions Hermes, "I'm holding up my end of the bargain."

"You really think she's that far along?" Ares pushes back.

"She's distributing the apples all over town. It's hard to see how we could be stopped now."

"I can think of one way." responds Ares.

"Yes, yes, I know. But I've planned for that. There's no way father and his ridiculous Hail Mary can get in the way now." insists Hermes.

"Did you seriously just do that? Declare victory before you know for sure? Come on now." Ares points out before pressing the poker to his victim again, making them scream.

Hermes takes a deep breath in frustration, "Just focus on getting what we need. I'll handle Pandora and her father's lackey."

Ares pulls the poker back again and his victim heals quickly.

"Oh I already have. I know exactly where to find it." Ares says playfully, much to Hermes annoyance, "What?"

"You already know where to find it?"

Ares smiles as he presses the poker to his victim casually despite the screams, "I've been doing this along time. Of course I got what I wanted."

"And you haven't gone and got it yet?" says Hermes angrily.

The god of war stops what he's doing, turning directly to Hermes with a disturbingly angry look. His eyes glow white for a moment.

"Excuse me?"

Hermes backs away, obviously frightened.

"Don't ever forget who's in charge here. You and I are not equals and we never will be." declares Ares angrily.

"Yes sir, I'm sorry sir." pleads Hermes in apology.

Ares stares him down for a while before seeming to let it go, "Okay, now... look after your counterpart there. I'll go get what we need."

As the fake Hermes takes the poker from Ares, the real Hermes struggles against his bonds. The god of war walks away and back to where the fake Hermes came in. Kneeling down, the fake Hermes smiles at his counterpart, casually waving the poker at him.