Thanks to everyone who's still with me and reading so far. I know it's a slow burn fic, but we're getting to the place where all hell breaks loose soon. Watch this space.

Marz

May V

It was almost impossible to tell when the sun was about to rise in Manhattan.

The sky never became truly dark after sunset. The city created its own orange halo of light pollution that blotted out the stars. The only indicator was the moon; even though it, too, was rendered frail by the lights of the city that never slept, it was nonetheless a useful herald of the coming day as it began to slip below the horizon.

Rachel was sat on the brick parapet that surrounded the penthouse's terrace, leaning against the wall behind her. The French windows were open, rattling gently against the side the building in a slight breeze. Goosebumps puckered the skin on her arms but she paid no attention.

The city below her was slowly waking up. She could hear the warning beeps of trucks reversing and the rumble of traffic start to intensify, even though night was yet to fully relinquish its hold on the world. Lights began winking in the windows stacked upon windows of the buildings all around her.

She dragged a hand through her hair, twisting it as she did so to try and keep it back out of her face. Still the breeze tugged at it, once again threatening it with escape. There was no way she could have raised the energy to be irritated by it beyond letting out a sigh through her nose. A hole, a wound, gaped inside her. It felt like she was haemorrhaging. In a weird way, she wished she was. Then she could understand this feeling, this emptiness, this panic. If she was pressing her hands to a gash and watching her life slick scarlet through her fingers, this feeling would make sense. As it was, there were no outward signs to explain why it felt like someone had clawed an organ right out of her torso.

Inside, though, the she was raw. The place where the Oracle had been echoed cavernously; she had never realised how much she felt the presence until it had been taken from her. There was a compass inside her spinning endlessly, never finding north. A map shredded to confetti frozen into a million tiny blades was being scattered by the winds.

Who was she? Why was she here?

Out of the corner of her eye, a figure emerged from a flash of light that sent shadows skittering like tumbleweed. She turned to face Apollo, cuffing at her face as she did so.

"Hey."

"Hi. Rachel, I don't have long. The sun is almost due up and if I mess that up and lose the Oracle all in one day my dad will tear me to pieces."

"You didn't find anything, did you?" The look on Apollo's face was all the answer she needed. She took a sharp intake of breath and looked away from him out over the city again. Morning wore on. The first honk of that day's billion split the eerie predawn calm.

"I found something. There was a trail of sorts. I think the woman who attacked you—"

"May Castellan," Rachel said to the city.

"You know? Is… did the Oracle come back?"

Rachel gave a bitter laugh. "Nope. This was decidedly non-prophetic detective work. A mouldy sandwich was involved. It's a long story. Long night, actually."

"Oh." He paused. "Are you… are you okay?"

Rachel pulled her hands up inside her cardigan. "Am I okay?" She shook her head. "Am I okay? Someone broke into my bedroom while I was sleeping and in seconds destroyed everything. It's all gone. Yesterday, I was the Oracle. Hell, a few hours ago, I was the Oracle. I knew who I was. I knew why I was here. Then in this tiny split second all that gets taken away from me and I'm left with…" Her throat closed, choking off any further words. Despite herself, hot, angry tears burned at her eyes. She ground her teeth and took a deep breath in, looking up to the lightening sky. "Nothing."

Apollo walked over to her and bent to lean on the parapet with his forearms. "You weren't always the Oracle. And no one is the Oracle forever."

"So? I've been the Oracle for almost as long as I wasn't. This has been who I am since I was sixteen years old."

"Before the Oracle, you were Rachel Elizabeth Dare. And that's who you are now. That hasn't changed. The Oracle was always just an added extra. It wasn't who you were. This is going to sound like a line I use on dates because, well, it's a line I use on dates, but I almost never mean it. This time I do. So listen to me. Look at yourself. You are gorgeous. You are kind and smart and one of the most talented artists in your generation, and believe me I know a thing or two about art. You never give up. You tirelessly fight for humanity. You're brave. None of those things have changed. That's all you. None of that was the Oracle."

The corners of Rachel's mouth quirked up into the start of a smile, but it was squashed flat before it could take hold. "I could be Joan of Arc crossed with Monet crossed with Mother Theresa and it wouldn't make any difference. I barely remember myself before the Oracle." She paused, swallowed hard. "And nor does anyone else."

"What does anyone else have to do with it? If they can't see how amazing you are underneath the Oracle then that's their loss."

"Is it? Do you want me to count how many friends I had before I was the Oracle? How many people accepted me for being a great artist and kind and smart and whatever the hell else you said I was? Because I can count them, and it won't need a calculator. Before I met Percy and everyone else, before I came to Camp… there was hardly anyone."

Apollo frowned. "No one? There must have been some people."

Rachel sighed. "Some, sure. At my stupid fancy schools there were a couple of people who really got me and were like me, but mostly I didn't fit in with all the rich kids. Anyone who was old money looked down on me because my father had the audacity to work for a living and not just inherit a pile of cash. Plus, they hated that he had more money than all of them put together even if he didn't have the family tree and dorms named after him in the Ivy League. And then even among people who were there because their money was new, it still wasn't easy. I felt like I was speaking a foreign language sometimes. The way people would look at me, it was like I was always committing this huge crime and I never found out what that was."

"I'm sorry. I had no idea."

"It's not your fault. And why would you know? Why would anyone know? People just seem to think having money makes your life so easy but that's bullshit. It's this curse. It's this huge wall made of bullion between you and everyone else. I couldn't find anyone to connect with at school, so I drifted through. I spent all my time on community projects and other charitable stuff trying to make friends there by pretending I was just this normal person who liked donating their time to charity. But then I always ended up getting too involved and asking my father to make a donation, which meant I had to leave because I couldn't take lying to people's faces when they got all excited about this sudden cash.

"Do you know how hard it is to finally find some people you click with and who get you and who you really like and then spend all your time with them living a lie? How could I be friends with them when I couldn't tell them I had a trust fund, even if I didn't want it or ask for? How would they look at me knowing I could write a cheque and buy all of their homes with change to spare?" Her eyes welled up again and she scraped her sleeves across her face, leaving angry splotches in their wake.

"If they couldn't see you for who you really were and love you anyway then they sound seriously dumb and not worth getting upset over." Apollo was looking perplexed now, like he was trying to follow an individual running stitch across an entire tapestry.

Rachel shook her head. "They weren't dumb. Don't say that. That's not fair. They were just normal people living normal lives and they had so much that I wanted and couldn't have because of some accident in biology that gave me my parents and their money. And maybe they would have accepted me if I gave them the chance but I never felt like I could give them the chance. I was always scared to out myself to them in case they turned their backs on me."

"That was a long time ago, Rachel. Now you have plenty of friends. You have this huge network of people who see you for who you are. Like it should be."

She could see that he still didn't get it and let out a frustrated sigh, shaking her head. "They all came into my life pretty much at the same time as the Oracle. My whole relationship with them is based on me vomiting green mist at them from time to time. Now it's just me and I am empty inside. I can't see the future. I can't give prophecies. What use am I to them? Why are they doing to bother with me without the Oracle?

"I've got Percy who can control the freaking oceans and Nico who can raise the dead and Will who can nail a bullseye with an arrow from a mile away while treating a million battle wounds and a hundred other demigods who are all part of this huge, complicated and amazing world. A world that doesn't include me anymore. I'm back to being sixteen and this friendless mess who doesn't fit in anywhere and never will. What am I supposed to do? Start over? Where? How?" Her voice cracked and she put a hand over her mouth, stifling a sob.

Apollo pushed himself off the brick parapet and walked over to her, pulling him towards him into a hug. Rachel blinked at the sudden contact. The shock of it dried her eyes immediately. She wasn't sure Apollo had ever hugged her. Come to think of it, gods weren't big on giving out hugs to their own children, let alone random hangers-on. Still, she eventually felt herself melt into it, resting her head on his chest.

"I would tell you that you are smart and gorgeous and kind again but apparently you went deaf to all sense when you went blind. So instead… Rachel, I might not be very good at the whole relationships thing. And I don't know how it works between humans. But to me, I don't think you're giving anyone enough credit here. You're not giving yourself enough credit by thinking you can't be amazing without the Oracle, which is crap because you are amazing. Oracle or not. And you're not giving your friends enough credit, either. They're not going to ditch you. I've seen the way you all are together. That's not something that's going to evaporate just because you aren't the Oracle anymore."

Eventually, Rachel nodded. "You're right. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to have a meltdown. I just… I feel like I don't know who I am suddenly. I don't know how to make it better."

"You'll figure it out. Whether the Oracle comes back to you or not, you are Rachel Elizabeth Dare and that is something special in its own right. Don't forget that." He broke away from her and glanced over at the pinkening horizon. He shifted from foot to foot and walked away from her, looking out at the lightening sky. His fingers twitched.

Rachel followed his gaze. "Go. I don't want your dad to tear you a new one because of me."

"Not until I know you're going to be okay."

"Thank you. But I will be. Just promise me you'll keep looking for the Oracle?"

Apollo's shoulder slumped. "I will, I promise, but the trail has gone cold for now. Wherever May is, I can't find her. That means she's somewhere totally out of my domain. Somewhere sunlight can't penetrate."

"Like the Underworld?"

A halo of fire burst to life around Apollo's head. Rachel jumped and scrambled off the parapet as an unbearable wave of heat leapt from nowhere out of his body and bowled over her. His eyes were glowing like two mini suns; just a fleeting glance had left her seeing spots.

"Hades? You think my uncle messed with the Oracle again?" His voice was a guttural growl. His billboard-worthy features were contorted into the ugliest of snarls.

"Whoa, hey, calm down," Rachel said, walking slowly towards him, palms outstretched but with her eyes firmly planted on the black slate of the terrace. It seemed to be the only surface that was capable of absorbing the supernova Apollo was throwing out; all other surfaces were glaring it back at her like a rotisserie oven. "I didn't mean that at all. Hades would never pull that again. Besides, what's his motive? Last time, he did it because Zeus had just killed the woman he loved and none of the gods respected him enough to give him a throne on Olympus. What has happened that's even close to two of those things?"

The flames around Apollo died to an angry crackle of sparks. "True. But why mention the Underworld, then?"

Rachel licked her lips. Apollo didn't know the prophecy had got to her in a dream before May stole the Oracle, so he didn't know what it said. Percy had made them promise not to tell anyone, but this wasn't just anyone. It was the freaking god of prophecy. What was she supposed to do? "Well…" she said slowly. "There's not just Hades down there, is there? You know as well as I do that there are things down there that even Hades has no control over. I mean—"

Apollo's head gave a nervous jerk. It looked like he was straining to hear something. "Okay, gods, I am coming." He looked at Rachel; the sparks around his head poofed into nothingness. "I'm sorry, I have to go. You'd think Helios would do this one favour for me after all this time but he's still bitter that the mortals slowly conflated me with him and he got worshipped less. I can't help it if I'm just better than him. Better looking, better at driving the sun chariot, but whatever. If I'm not there in ten seconds, he's going to my dad. He's always been such a sneak. And Titans wonder why we don't like them? I'll keep looking for the Oracle. Take care."

He vanished so quickly and the light burned so bright that Rachel felt her skin prickle. It would have done under factor 50. All that was left of where Apollo had been standing were wisps of smoke coiling from the charred slate of the terrace, which had fractured from the heat.

Orange exploded in the eastern sky, usurping the pink. Rachel drew her cardigan around herself and leaned against the wall, watching the day break.

She wondered how many more times she'd get to watch the sun rise. If Tartarus did rise and trigger the apocalypse, then the number of mornings left for her and everyone else on the planet to see was exactly the same.