Ta-da! Opal's oneshot! Is it just me or does the writing style change halfway through? Anyway, please R&R!

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, just Opal

The Cycle of the Sun

They say that beauty is the mask of centuries of pain. They say that when the sun sets, all hope is lost. They say that light is the only source of good.

Good, she thought bitterly. What's the difference between good and bad? Heroes and villains? Sun and moon, night and day? What's the difference?

She was standing at the top of Half-Blood Hill, watching the sky, as she had watched so many times. Not so long ago had she stood here all day for months, waiting for some sign that he was not dead. He's dead, she'd heard. We just have to . . . forget.

But she hadn't forgotten. She hadn't forgotten the desperation on his face as he told her to fly for her life that night on the Princess Andromeda. She hadn't forgotten the stunts he'd pulled—the way he'd done Pegasus' track on Olympus. She hadn't forgotten the gleam of his black feathers. She hadn't forgotten his trademark stupidity.

She watched the sky, as the bright sun sunk lower and lower towards the horizon. Her wings shuffled against her sides, itching to be out in the sky, but she couldn't bring herself to move. She was afraid that if she did, he'd come back, and then . . .

She closed her eyes. Blackjack wasn't her dad. He wasn't her mum. He was . . . Blackjack. Blackjack that was impossible to find in the night; Blackjack that was such a jerk at times and awesome as heck other times.

She looked out over the sea and remembered the time she had asked him about his secret. He'd blown up at her. He didn't know anything about secrets. It was probably that he missed his dad or something. Something small, insignificant and embarrassing. Not like hers.

The sky seemed to look at her, daring her to come, as it always was. She shook her head. No, she thought. Her forelock covered her right eye, because that was the window to her secret. The eyes are the pathway to the soul, someone had told her once. Yeah, she thought sadly. Just sometimes the soul isn't something someone wants to see.

"He won't make it back," said a voice from behind her. She didn't move. She knew who it was. "And you would know, huh? No. He always comes back."

"The Night Pegasus has bitten off more than he can chew. Get used to it."

"What about the questers?" she asked evenly. Ever since Blackjack had left, she had been talking to her; telling her that he wouldn't make it back. It was becoming maddening.

"They might. But not all of them. The Pegasus will have died along with them."

"Selene, be quiet."

"Helios was an old fool. My brother had it coming."

"Your brother isn't my problem. Why haven't you faded as well?"

"I am known among mortals as the ruler of ocean tides. I am used in moon patterns. I still have sway over mortals. Alas, I no longer have any claim over the moon. Artemis has possession of that now."

"You were always stubborn."

Selene hissed. "You're as arrogant as my brother. He was too arrogant to change with the western civilization; that's why the gods abandoned him as the sun god—that's why he was replaced. He was an old-fashioned fool and everyone knows it."

"He was the lord of the Sun."

"He was a fool!" Selene snapped. "Go then, follow the sun. See where it takes you."

She glared back at the goddess. "Are you—?"

"What? Insane?" Selene smirked and pulled out a silvery candy. She flicked it into her mouth. Opal looked at the goddess's sharp features, blonde hair so pale it looked white and her silver eyes. She was wearing marble jeans and a frilly business-grey blouse. She had so much silver makeup around her eyes they looked like markings.

They may well have been.

"Tell me, Opal, why do you stick around with that good-for-nothing Pegasus that leaves you all the time to go on his merry adventures? The one that makes you worry for weeks? Why bother with him when there are heaps of colts falling over themselves to get your attention?"

Opal looked away. "And you would know?"

"Ah, he's good-looking, is he?"

Opal swung around. "What is it with you?"

Selene smiled wickedly as she sucked on her candy. "Why?" she jerked her chin towards the sun. "Follow it. I know you're dying to."

Opal looked away from the goddess. "I can see why Helios found you annoying."

"If he had been around he would have killed you. You shouldn't exist."

"I didn't have a say there," Opal didn't like talking about her life. It was the one thing she hid with her secret—her life was her secret. She lifted her face to take in a long breath of the breeze. Selene laughed bitterly behind her. "If you had any sense, you'd turn that Pegasus in."

Opal froze. What was she talking about?

The thought of Blackjack falling back into the Titans' hands . . . she remembered him being the horse she thought nothing could beat. She'd been wrong. The Titans' had whittled him away. She could hardly believe what she'd found that night on the ship.

"You're working for them, aren't you?"

"Me? Work for the Titans?" Selene burst out laughing. "Those idiots are worthless. I don't take sides. I wait it out and enjoy the end result."

"What if the Titan's win?" Opal swung back to her, her wings opened slightly.

Selene eyed her with boredom. "If the Titans win, I'll get that baby Kronos back in line. My father will help. Hyperion is strong. Takes more than one to defeat him. And besides, I give the Titans something no one else can—information. Where everyone is, what everyone's doing. The moon is no longer mine, but . . . I don't let go easily. I can still see what the moon sees. And it sees all."

"I can't call you a traitor because you were never on our side."

"What is your side, Sun Pegasus? The demigods of Camp Half-Blood? Don't you realise how divided they are. There are two sides, in the end: the one that wins and the one that falls. Get used to it."

Opal dropped her wings. They tumbled to the ground. The sign of surrender. "What do you want, Selene? Why are you bugging me?"

"Choose the winning side," Selene said, her eyes glistening. "Help the Titans. You're a sun Pegasus. The Sun sees even more than the moon. Helios was too old fashioned to help, but you—"

"Forget it."

Selene smiled cruelly. "I don't forget that easily, filly. If you choose against us, you face the entire wrath of the Titans. If you choose to help the Titans . . . your friends may be spared."

"Blackjack is too important to just kill."

"He'll be enslaved to the Lord Kronos. The Night Pegasus at the side of the Titan Lord of Time. And you will be spared as well. You can have a happy ending."

Opal scoffed. But it was tempting. It nagged at her mind, as if saying, choose. Choose. Blackjack can be alive. He can be there without you worrying about him.

But that was never the case with her. It never would be.

Opal dropped her head, letting her forelock fall off her eye. She looked back up at the goddess. Her eye she kept hidden shone brightly at the goddess's face. "That's my answer."

"Blackjack has made a mistake," Selene said. "He has wrecked the deal the Titan made with him. He's a goner. Kronos with torture him and then enslave him with half a mind. You can undo that. The Titan will respect you. You can save him."

Opal could believe that Blackjack had done that. He messed up everything. But this? She glared at the ground. Would he have done this to himself?

"Yes, he would have. And he has condemned many to death."

Opal froze. How could he have done that? He wasn't that. That wasn't Blackjack. It wasn't.

"It was. He made the deal to save the life of that colt. And he broke the deal when he escaped. You have to choose. Many will die either way."

"So there's no point," she said darkly. "I could jump off this cliff with my wings tucked in or I could choose yes, and the answer would be the same?"

"Blackjack would be insane, and you would be dead, or Blackjack will be helping the Titan and you would be there. Choose."

Opal narrowed her eyes. "I choose the path of the sun."

She swung around and jumped off the ground, beating her wings strongly to gain altitude. She turned towards the sun and kept going. She had to see where the sun went.

WHOOHOO! Yay! Yeah, this is set in . . . chapter 16, when Blackjack sees her with the sun. Right, now that we have that done, I can work on the rest.

Please R&R,

-Owl