Hermes and Apollo: Saviors
The sun shines brightly today in Greece. Apollo's room, beautifully decorated with sun ornaments reflects the sunlight all over the room and makes the room feel comfortable and warm. And yet, despite such a good atmosphere, Hermes is ruining it all with his gloomy expression. Apollo knows he can't just ignore him.
"Is there something bothering you today, Hermes?" asks Apollo. Hermes' hands can't stop moving frantically. His legs keep shifting from left to right.
"Well, there are a LOT of things bothering me! It's about Ares!" Apollo is quite surprised to hear that. He thinks everyone forgot about Ares at this point.
"Oh yeah… We still haven't found him… There is still no information about where he is other than his blood under the rubble of an avalanche…"
"We all know that! And you also concluded that Ares must have been kidnapped! That's why I have been searching and searching… But why did everyone else stop looking?! We will never find him at this rate!" Hermes seems very frustrated with the condition they are in right now. He is a God, and yet he is helpless at finding Ares.
"No offense to you, Hermes, But Greece is huge! If we have no reference point on where to look for him, it would be just a waste of time."
"Maybe it will be a waste of time, but it has been 13 months since he disappeared! This is already worse than wasting time! Imagine how he must be waiting for someone to find him..."
13 months already? Time sure does fly, Apollo thinks. "Or maybe he is already dead. You don't know that."
Hermes feels like he was struck by lightning and he turns very gloomy in an instant.
"I know you are a God of Truth, but that is too dark. We need to at least have some hope that he is still alive…"
Apollo feels just a bit bad that he makes Hermes upset like that. "Well, you can ask Hades or The Fates in that regard. Hades knows everyone that has died and will die soon. Ares should be the same".
Hermes takes a deep breath. He isn't truly calm yet, but knowing there was hope was enough for him. "Fine… I will put that on my to-do-list for today…"
"What else are you going to do today?"
"The usual. Watching over trading, watching over people that have long trips, leading people to Hades, and then also looking for Ares. For the past 13 months, I have been checking on each corner of Mount Olympus, Athens, and Thrace. I have talked to people in Thrace. Nobody saw him, and even they are afraid Ares has abandoned them. I told them Ares is very sick and I don't know when he will heal. Everyone is sad when they hear it, but at least they are not panicking or anything. They give him more sacrifices wishing for Ares to get healthy again. I know I lied, but I can't imagine what would happen if I told them the truth. They could have become highly suspicious of their warring neighbor and then attack them so they could interrogate them about Ares. These people need him, Apollo. Ares is one of the few people who care about them"
Apollo was silent for a long moment. Apollo looks at Hermes in disbelief. Despite nobody else even bothering to look for Ares anymore, Hermes somehow still persistently looks for him. It could be because compared to others, he can run quickly to each corner of Greece. But still, he doesn't have to do it.
"Hermes, I don't understand. Why are you still looking for him despite there being no clue of where he is at all?"
Hermes looked at Apollo with a shocked look on his face. "Isn't that obvious? He is my friend! I want to find him!"
"Friend, huh… I'm pretty surprised you said that."
"Huh? Why is that surprising?" asked Hermes confused with his statement.
"You can't pretend he has no bad reputation. He is rageful, violent, a coward, and just simply an emotional mess. Also, he always loses in war"
"Don't you cry a lot when I steal your cows?"
"WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT THAT HERE!"
"See, you are just the same as Ares!"
Apollo flushed red from embarrassment. "N-No! I am angry because there is justification for it! While he is angry randomly and without reasons to be angry"
"Oh, that. Ares said that he has an issue with controlling his anger and he tries to control it. Well, he still hasn't figured out how to do it yet. But we are trying many things, really!"
"Of course you would know that. You are a God of communication after all. I'm a God of knowledge, and yet I never heard of this."
"Knowledge did not equal knowing and understanding other people's problems, Apollo". Apollo feels that Hermes questions his integrity.
"Are you trying to say I am a fool for not knowing his issues?"
"I'm just trying to tell you the truth, Apollo. Aren't you all about that?" said Hermes in a mocking tone.
Apollo can't let someone get away with embarrassing him. "As someone who claims to be trying to help Ares, you seem to be doing a pathetic job at that.".
The tension in the room is getting heavier and Hermes begins to raise his voice. "You're the one who talks! You don't know anything about Ares' condition! It's not something you can heal just like that!" After that outburst, Hermes immediately takes a few steps back away from Apollo. Fighting is the last thing they need to do here.
"Look, I'm just trying to tell you that Ares' problem is more complicated than it seems… And I don't think you care to know more" That is quite true. Apollo cares more about learning every knowledge the world has to offer. But learning other people's problems is not his highest priority. But still, Apollo hates if there is something he didn't know.
"Well try me then. Tell me what Ares' problem is".
"Let's start from the beginning. At first, I thought that Ares simply had anger issues or hated people. But I decided to talk to him about it. He told me that he can sense other people's emotions."
Apollo is trying to hold back his laugh, but that sounds like the most ridiculous power someone could have. "Seriously? Sensing emotions? I know Gods like us have many absurd powers, but that sounds like the most unnecessary power ever! This must be a joke!"
"Say whatever you want, but I am not lying! I even tested his power!"
"Oh really? How did you test it?"
"We walked around the Olympus to look for people for Ares to test his power on. Then we passed through Athena with her usual calm composure manner. But then Ares told me "She is mad about something". I didn't trust him at first because Athena didn't look mad at all, but we approached her. She looked normal at first, but as Ares kept on pushing all of her right buttons, she eventually revealed that she was angry about not getting a perfect score in the class. He couldn't have done that if he can't tell what words make Athena react a certain way".
Apollo goes silent after listening to Hermes' explanation. If he explains it that way, that power can be very useful.
"I see… Interesting power… Can be very useful in certain scenarios… This doesn't explain why Ares went ballistic randomly".
"You see, it's not random. He can sense multiple emotions, but he can sense negative emotions the best. And depending on the intensity of the person's emotions, their emotions will be multiplied on him and make him either have a mental breakdown if the main emotions are fear or sadness, or they make him attack everyone if the main emotion is rage. In short, it's a double-edged sword power."
Apollo stands in silence as he contemplates Hermes' words. Everyday Ares has to avoid people with negative emotions, and if he fails he will go ballistic… And he can't even predict where the negative emotions are coming from. That's why…
"So that's why he leaves the Olympus often..." Apollo said his mind out loud.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I never really care about learning about other people's problems unless they told me first, but I do like observing other people. I noticed that Ares left Olympus a lot to train outside. I did follow him at one time and asked why he didn't train inside Olympus, and he told me that he didn't like the atmosphere in the Olympus. I didn't think much of it back then, but now, it only makes sense..."
"See, I told you so! At least for his case, he is not mad for the sake of getting mad! He is afraid that people will laugh and judge him if he tells them about these issues, that's why he never really told anyone about this. As a friend, I just want him to know that I am on his side and will help him through all the problems he is having. This is why I have to save him! Please help me!" Hermes hopes that this will convince him. Despite Apollo often saying that he didn't care about others' problems, he will always be the one who jumps first if someone asks for help. Apollo is the man of action more than words.
"Yeah, I understand now. I suppose I can give him a second chance. But we still don't have any clue about where to look. Olympus has many enemies, and to find the possible suspect would be highly difficult."
"You can help me collect information. Maybe there is another clue that the other Gods haven't told me or I didn't grasp."
"Aren't you the God of communication? You're supposed to be able to make everyone want to tell things to you!"
"No, that sounds more like brainwashing. As a God of Communication, I can know when certain people want to listen to me or not. You know I am not a miracle worker, and not every god is fond of me. For example, Athena. With my communication skill, I realized that our conversation will eventually derail into arguments."
"That is true. Almost, if not all Greek Gods are pretty stubborn people."
"You are also good friends with her, so that's helpful."
"True… Fine, I'll ask around then. Don't hope for much since it has already been 13 months since he disappeared…".
Hermes doesn't hear the last thing that Apollo said and jumps in excitement.
"Thank you so much, Apollo! I knew you'd want to help! I'll be back in a week or less! You better find some good information by then!"
Apollo watches Hermes leave his house in his excitement.
"There he goes…" He immediately lists down all the Gods he will go and meet later on. He also attempted one more thing.
"... Still nothing…" Apollo has the power of prophecy and predicts the future. He tried to use it to find Ares from time to time, but his power works randomly. He can't decide what prophecy will appear before him. It doesn't matter what his power shows him as long it was an important clue to find Ares. It can be where Ares is, it can show someone that knows Ares whereabouts, or it could be when an important event related to Ares' disappearance would happen. It could even show him if Ares is going to die soon or not. Sadly none of that shows up in his vision yet. He sighed.
"I hope we are not too late…"
