The stress of saving her classmates and the break down of her relationship with Jemma has pushed Pandora to the breaking point. And the corruption of the box isn't helping anything either. She's then offered a way out by the person she's worried abo...
Pandora turns over in bed, lying on her back and slowly waking up. She can't help but smile. After a few moments, she sits up and stretches out with a look of pure joy. Not long after, there's a knock at her door. That makes her frown just as she runs a hand through her hair to make herself presentable.
"What?" an annoyed Pandora yells.
The door opens and her father enters, clearly concerned, "Good morning."
"What do you want?" Pandora's annoyance still quite obvious.
"We need to talk about how you spoke to me yesterday." suggests Jove.
Pandora scoffs at the idea, "What about it?"
"I understand that you're frustrated. Protecting The Box and going through high school isn't exactly easy. But you've done a fantastic job." begins Jove.
"Gee, thanks." Pandora responds dismissively as she gets out of bed and starts getting ready for the day.
"I'm sorry that I haven't been as helpful as I probably should have. You were doing so well, I wasn't sure you needed me." Jove explains further.
"Uh-huh..." Pandora responds, clearly barely listening to her father as she chooses a shirt before pulling it over her head and putting it on.
"Or maybe I should've but I always thought that your mother would be here to do it. Maybe I thought that trying to step in was replacing her, or giving up on the idea that she'd come back to us." Jove adds to his confession, slowly closing the distance between him and his daughter.
"Sure..." is Pandora's only response, finally choosing a pair of jeans and stepping into them.
"Whatever the reason, the truth is I've failed you." declares Jove as he brings The Box out from behind his back while Pandora is too wrapped up in herself to care, "But I'm going to fix that, starting now."
Jove turns sections of The Box, similar to the way Uni did not long ago, and the clicking noise causes Pandora to finally pay attention to her father and turn to him. She sees The Box in his hand and looks confused. Her father finishes what he's doing and thrusts it at his daughter, expecting something to happen... but it doesn't.
Pandora's eyes glow with a black light for a moment before The Box has a similar glow. She looks straight at her father with black glowing eyes before knocking the Greek artifact out of his hands. It goes flying across the room away from them both.
"What the hell are you doing?" an angry Pandora accuses before her eyes finally stop glowing, "I thought we settled this."
Jove looks at his daughter, then at The Box as it rolls to a stop on the floor at the other side of Pandora's room, then back to his daughter.
"I'm done with that stupid box. Whatever you were trying to do, it didn't work. So let's just... get the HELL out of my room." Pandora angrily declares.
There's a long silence between the two as there's something of a showdown between them. Pandora's eyes flash a black light.
Jove sighs before responding, "I'm sorry Dora. I wish I could've saved you."
Pandora scoffs, "I don't need saving."
She leaves her father standing in her room on her way to school. He turns as she walks out her door.
"Yes, you do."
* * *
Jemma watches the world go by as the bus she's sitting on makes its way towards the school to drop off the students. She's clearly not in a good mood as someone sits down beside her suddenly.
"Hey," declares Sarah as Jemma looks at her with a similarly negative mood, "You still doing your thing?"
"My thing?" questions Jemma back.
"Your whole moody thing about Pandora?" Sarah explains in a somewhat cheerful way.
"If you mean am I still worried about her? Then yes. I'm still doing 'my moody thing' about her." responds Jemma.
"Come on, you're just being paranoid." insists Sarah.
Jemma sees something out of her window, which makes Jemma turn to face her companion as she speaks, "Really?"
The bus comes to a stop outside the school and students begin to file out. Sarah and Jemma make their way out to see Pandora is handing out apples to people as they come off the bus with several other people, including Amber, handing out similar looking apples. Both Sarah and Jemma stop to watch Pandora, Amber and the rest of them handing out apples.
Jemma turns to Sarah, "Still think everything's fine?"
Sarah scoffs at Jemma, "They're just apples," before walking over to Amber and taking an apple when it's offered, "Chill out."
Sarah leaves Jemma standing in what looks like a small swarm of people handing out apples to the others going to school. She bites into her apple and a black light flashes in her eyes. Suddenly, an apple appears in Jemma's face and it takes her a second to see that Pandora is the hand offering it to her.
"What's this?" Jemma asks suspiciously.
"It's a peace offering." suggests Pandora in a strangely cheerful way, "I know we haven't been on the best of terms lately. I want to change that."
Again Jemma looks at Pandora suspiciously, "With an apple?"
"What's that old saying?" Pandora asks rhetorically before in an obviously joking tone she adds, "An apple a day makes friendships better?"
"Not sure that's the saying." responds Jemma.
"I was making a joke, you know? A cheesy one? Like before when... look, the point is, I want us to be friends again.
"That's all? Just friends? Because I thought, we were more than just friends." Jemma says with concern.
"We are... or, I mean... we were. I just... I thought friendship would be the least complicated thing I could offer you, at least for right now. And this apple is going to be the way we get to that. It's going to fix everything." insists Pandora, getting increasingly frustrated as she explains, "Just... take it."
Jemma looks at the apple, then at Pandora for a moment before moving away from them both.
"No thanks, I think I'm good for now but, talk to me after all, whatever this is, is over. Maybe we can..." Jemma begins before being cut off.
"We got a conformist!" yells Pandora to everyone in the vicinity.
All of the people handing out apples and a few of the ones who recently accepted and bit into them suddenly stop what they're doing.
"Right there!" Pandora says as she points to Jemma, much to Jemma's surprise.
Not entirely sure what's going on, Jemma looks for a way out but doesn't really find one as the people looking are all around her. An apple hits Jemma in the back of the head and she grabs her head in response. It isn't long before another apple hits Jemma from behind. Eventually, more and more apples start coming at Jemma from all sides. The apples start to break partly when connecting with her or hit the floor near her, hitting her with mushy apple bits. She tries her best to block them but the sheer numbers overwhelm her to the point that she crouches down and even tries to curl up into a ball to fend them off.
Then all of the sudden, the pelting stops and not long after Jemma feels a hand on her, which makes her look up to see Pandora with an angry look on her face.
"Just remember... I wanted to do this the easy way." Pandora says rather coldly and puts an apple down in front of her.
Pandora then gets up as Jove comes running out.
"What the hell is going on here?"demands Jove.
He rushes to Jemma's side as she starts to wipe off some of the apple bits.
"Who did this?" Jove says as he stands up to defend her, looking around at the people who only a few moments earlier were throwing apples.
Pandora steps forward to challenge her father, "We did."
That makes Jove stare down his daughter, "You did?"
"Absolutely, and we'll do it again. We'll do it as many times as we have to until people actually get it." insists Pandora, loud enough to be making a speech to everyone nearby.
"And what are we supposed to get?" questions Jove.
"This is our world now and we're in charge." Pandora declares to which she gets loud agreement from the crowd, "And if you're not with us? You're against us. Anyone who tries to stop us..." Pandora throws another apple at her father, "Learns why that's a bad idea."
Pandora then leaves her father and Jemma out in front of the school as she and the rest of her followers do the same.
As the group thins out, Jove turns to Jemma, "Are you all right?"
* * *
Jemma picks a piece of apple out of her hair as she sits in the principal's office. Jove sits down across from her in his seat.
"Are you feeling any better?" asks Jove, clearly concerned.
"Depends on what you mean by better I guess." suggests Jemma.
There's a silence between them for a few moments.
"I understand how hard this must be for you. Given the way that you feel about my daughter." says Jove.
It makes Jemma shift uncomfortably.
"Or at least, you did... has that changed?" wonders Pandora's father.
Again there's a silence before she answers, "I... I don't know. I mean, if you'd asked me 20 minutes ago? I probably would've said yes. But after what she just did tome?"
Jemma doesn't answer the question.
"Well... that makes things more difficult, but not impossible." responds Jove.
"What's that?"
"I assume my daughter told you about her... complicated life?" implies Jove.
Jemma watches Jove for a moment before responding, "You mean how she got her name? And her... inheritance?"
"That's the one. I know it can be hard to believe, after all..."
"Oh I believe." Jemma cuts her principal off.
"You do?" a surprised Jove responds.
"Yeah... I mean, I didn't at first, it sounded pretty crazy, but after the crazy things that are going on at this school? It's kinda hard to ignore."
Jove contemplates this for a moment, "And yet despite this, you have doubts about Pandora."
"Well, yeah... if I understand the myth right, she unleashed all the crazy things that are happening at this school. Which means all the crazy things that are going on? They're her fault." explains Jemma, pausing for a moment before adding, "What happened to me is her fault."
There's a silence in the principal's office for a while until Jove breaks it, "Do you hate her for that?"
Jemma is quick to answer, "No... at least, not yet. But with the way she's going? I don't know how long that will be true."
"That's something I guess."
"What do you mean?" asks Jemma with concern.
Jove pulls out The Box from his desk and sets it down on top.
"I need your help."
* * *
Pandora is sitting in the cafeteria comfortably with several hangers on around her. They are working together to feed her, do her school work and other things. Sarah approaches the group and several of the guys stand up to get in her way, like security guards. She tries to get Pandora's attention and eventually does.
"It's fine." insists Pandora, waving her protectors off.
"You were looking for me?" asks Sarah.
"Yes, I'm glad to see you've come around to my way of thinking." replies Pandora.
There's a few moments before Sarah answers, "Well you made a convincing argument."
"And that's what I want to talk to you about. You have some mutual friends of ours that need a little convincing themselves." suggests as she motions to one of her hangers on.
The student brings over a basket full of golden delicious apples and holds it out to Sarah.
"Do you think you could do that for us?" asks Pandora mostly rhetorically.
Sarah's eyes flash with a black light then she smiles, "Of course my lady."
She picks up the basket.
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