Energy Unbound

Chapter 09

Fate Be Changed

Ari laid her hand on Rachel's forehead and closed her eyes, concentrating.

It didn't sting.

Stinging did not even come close to approaching what it felt like.

Raw power flooded into her body, ripping apart every blood vessel, every cell. She felt her blood turn to liquid gold, fire racing through her veins as the mortal material underwent the change. Her heart sped up, just increasing the spread of fire throughout her body. Her skin dried up and cracked, revealing pure energy underneath, and vaporized into the air as her body converted to that of a goddess. Her senses told her that she was drowning in lava, but there was nothing she could do except scream.

Finally the influx of power subsided and the pain abruptly vanished. She suddenly felt better than she'd felt in her entire life, despite the fact that all her muscles were sore.

Moving her aching neck to look around Rachel found that her perception had changed; instead of the rowdy sun god, she saw a man composed of light.

Cracking her neck, she rubbed the muscles in her arms. "Yeah, that didn't sting 'a little', you liar," she complained.

"Sorry," came Ari's voice, but significantly different. It sounded a lot like what Rachel always assumed the universe would sound like if it could speak.

Turning to Ari, wondering why her voice had changed, Rachel's heart skipped a beat. For she'd been replaced by a woman entirely composed of silver metal with glowing orange lines flowing over her skin. Her body had better curves than Aphrodite, her chest beyond perfectly developed. It was honestly ridiculous. Her eyes were brilliant twin stars. They glowed bright orange, piercing Rachel with their gaze. Tendrils of silver smoke flowed off her body disappearing into the ether. But what tripped Rachel up the most was that she seemed to have no garments on, nor identifications of gender beyond her clearly female body shape and rounded chest.

"What?" the silver woman asked, crossing her arms and staring at Rachel quizzically.

"Woah, Ari. You look... Damn," she replied once she could speak.

Realization dawned on Ari's face. "You can see my true form?"

"Yeah. You look... really good," Rachel replied, choking on her words.

"And you're still alive?" Ari asked, incredulous.

Rachel looked herself over, realizing that the hold on her body that Ari had was gone. She pinched herself. "I think so."

Ari waved over to Apollo, which was really distracting because of her slender silver arm. Apollo shuddered, then his face met the floor of the cave. He apparently was not expecting to be able to move again at that particular moment.

"Apollo, has a clear sighted mortal ever been elevated to the level of a god and kept their clear sight?" Ari asked him.

Apollo, being the god of truth, picked up his head and muttered "Nope," before putting his face back down with a groan and straining to get up.

Ari looked at Rachel in wonder. "It seems you're one of a kind, Rachel. Especially since you can not only see my true form despite my hiding it, but you also can survive."

Rachel raised her own brow at this. "I thought gods could look at other's true forms without vaporizing, though."

Ari nodded. "Yes, they can. I'm not a god."

"Oh," Rachel said, embarrassed. Get ahold of yourself, Rachel. You're not this stupid.

Ari looked at her pensively. "What is the matter with you?"

"Uh..."

"You look almost... smitten," Ari discerned.

Now Rachel was blushing, knowing her cheeks looked very golden due to her new blood. No, wait, ichor. What the heck is going on? she asked herself in panic, I like guys, not girls! And I'm usually much more intelligent than this!

Then Ari whapped herself on the forehead. "Of course!" she cried, "The Turning Bias!"

Apollo's eyes lit up, realizing what Ari had mentioned. "That definitely explains it."

Rachel looked between them both, still embarrassed and confused, definitely still blushing. "What's a turning bias?"

Ari chuckled and started to explain. "When an immortal directly elevates a mortal, the mortal has a small piece of that immortal's essence in them. That piece is what the immortal placed in the mortal to… eh, kickstart the conversion to energy. For the first few days that piece wants to rejoin the main essence of the elevating immortal, and usually manifests itself as a sexual attraction to them, regardless of either beings gender or preference."

Rachel felt immensely relieved. "Thank the gods," she exclaimed, placing a hand on her forehead, "I thought becoming immortal suddenly changed who I liked."

Ari kindly smiled at her, a knowing look in her eyes. "Give it a few centuries. Gender preference doesn't stick around for long, especially since divine beings can manifest as either. Or in some cases, both," she said, winking at Apollo.

He held up his hands. "I've never denied it," he defended himself, winking in return.

Then it hit Rachel. She was immortal. Unaging. Her friends and family would pass her by, getting older and older as she stayed forever young. She'd have to watch them die in front of her. Everyone she cared about would eventually be gone. She glared at Ari, malice present in her eyes, the look of wonder vanished from her face.

"Why did you do this to me?" the redhead growled. She brought her hands to her eyes, trying to cover up the fresh stream of tears now freely flowing down her face, and fell to the floor, leaning against the wall.

Ari looked like she felt a pang of guilt. "Nothing I can do would compensate you for this, so I won't try. Just know that immortality, godhood even, is not as bad as it seems. Especially being a major goddess uncontrolled by Olympus's rules. And your... I want to say sacrifice, but you didn't die, so... aid is the term I'll use, will be crucial in preventing catastrophe during the time before I call the Olympians on their shit."

Rachel just glared at her.

Ari sighed. She'll come around eventually, she assured herself, even as she caught Apollo's scathing look. He was right, she deserved their anger, but this was for the greater good. They'd just have to see that.

Ari walked over to the still hovering essence of the Fates and the trapped Spirit of Delphi. Rachel was a goddess now, and she was about to become extraordinarily powerful. Ari just hoped she'd agree to help without having to resort to other methods.

"Apollo, you want your snake back?" she asked.

The god of the sun raised his eyebrows, but was still glaring at her. "Yes."

She nodded, then thrust her hand into the green smoke. The wail of Delphi was heard, much louder this time, and she slowly withdrew her hand, clutching something. When her hand was clear of the smoke, it carried a green, very angry cobra that was thrashing about.

"Shush, young one," Ari said, scolding the snake, "or I'll have to make you."

The wail promptly stopped, and the snake stopped writhing around. It seemed to glare at her, but Ari paid it no mind. She walked straight to Apollo and put the snake in his hands, then returned to where she was. The previously green ball of smoke was now white, and resembled the essence beside it more than smoke.

Ari gathered the essences and approached Rachel, guilt eating at her. Stop it, she chided herself, you wouldn't even blink about something like this before.

I'm not the same as I was before, she argued.

It's for the greater good, her sense of purpose stated.

But what of her good?

One girl's discomfort to save the lives of a planet of billions. There is no decision to be made.

She should have the choice, her conscience argued back.

Ari suddenly felt a headache. This must be what the Olympians feel when their personalities are warring with each other, she thought.

She sighed, and kneeled on the floor next to the Rachel. She realized there was no way she could go through with this if she didn't know the new goddess was okay with it. "Look, Rachel, this is extremely important. You stepping in like this allows me to take the peaceful route with the Olympians."

Sniffling, she looked up, still with hate in her eyes. "Who cares? Do it the other way. You don't have the right to do this to me," Rachel cried. Her voice was apparently still locked into 'deity' mode given the pulses of power that raced forth from her mouth with every word.

Ari set down the essences, placing her hand on Rachel's leg. "You don't want me to do it the other way. For the same reason you don't want to be immortal."

A glare was the only response, but she seemed to be listening.

"What exactly do you think would happen to the mortal world if I marched into the Olympus Throne Room right now and dethroned Zeus?"

Rachel's eyes widened in terror.

"Yeah, that's what Plan B would be," Ari said, glancing over to see if Apollo was having a negative reaction. So far he didn't seem to care.

"Zeus would level cities," Rachel realized.

"Yes, and despite their misgivings for one another, Poseidon and Hades would fight against me. Entire countries flooded, armies of the dead across the world. They would hold the mortal world hostage to keep me from completing my job. Not to mention what other Olympians would do, much less the sisters of Zeus," Ari explained with an unusual patience, still eyeing Apollo warily. "Mind you, I'd get them under control very fast, but not before billions of mortals died."

"This is the only peaceful way," Rachel gasped, eyes wide. She obviously, finally realized the pressure Ari was under.

"That's why I didn't give you a choice in this matter," Ari confirmed, looking at the floor. "But I now realize that you're correct. The events that occurred, the very reason I am here, were caused by higher beings taking advantage of lower ones. I just did the same to you," she said solemnly, looking Rachel in the eyes.

"I don't have any more right to do this to you than the Olympians have to abuse demigods," she continued, shooting a pointed look at the Olympian currently there, then locked eyes with the new goddess again. "So," she sighed in defeat, "if you outright refuse to do this, I will absorb these essences and step you back down to a clear sighted mortal. But doing so makes my job much harder if not impossible, greatly increases the chance of a catastrophic war, and you will never feel the same again."

Rachel looked to Apollo. "What does she mean, Apollo? About not feeling the same?" she asked. Ari noticed she'd dropped the 'Lord' bit.

The sun god had a pained expression on his face when he replied. "Once a being becomes immortal, they're aware of much more information about the world than before," he said. "If they're made mortal again, their mind will remember that extra information but is cut off from it, so you feel a constant void that you can't ever fill," he finished solemnly, shuddering, "Not to mention the headaches."

"Speaking from experience, Apollo?" Ari asked him.

Apollo nodded. "Father likes mortalizing us for a while when we piss him off too greatly. It's not a fun experience."

Rachel tried to hide her smile. "Mortalizing?"

The sun god glared at her. "Yes, mortalizing."

Ari started to chuckle, winking at Rachel. "That term is certainly very… mortalizing, Apollo," she managed to say through her laughs.

Apollo just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Oh, shove it, you two," he scowled.

Ari smirked and Rachel lost it. Her voice rang out in laughter, Apollo rolling his eyes. Both the older deities waited until she was finished, then Ari got them back on track.

"So, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, what is your answer?"

"I need to ask you a couple of questions first," Rachel replied.

"Certainly."

"If I do this, how would I appear normal? Surely if Camp's Oracle suddenly became a goddess, people would notice," she reasoned.

"Ah. Well, that's actually rather simple. I would place an... illusion of sorts on you that would make you appear mortal and cloak your presence from everyone," Ari explained.

"If it's that easy, why don't you do it?" Rachel asked. "Surely having power over Fate would assist you?"

"You have an excellent point, Rachel," Ari said, rubbing her chin in an attempt to figure out how to explain it. "Hmm. Well, Fate is linked to Terra, and linking myself like that would not be a good idea."

"Why not?"

"My... power level, I guess you could say, would crack this planet like an egg if linked fully, so I'd only be able to marginally utilize the influence of Fate. It would not be enough to help me, and would likely show my presence here like a beacon in the night."

Rachel had a giant grin on her face.

"Whaaaaaaaat?" Ari hesitantly asked. She knew those kinds of grins.

"Is your power level over nine thousand?" the redhead asked. Without any hesitation.

Ari promptly brought her palm to her face, while Apollo burst out laughing. "You did not just make that joke," she groaned.

Rachel only smiled further, receiving a glare from the silver being.

"Mortals," Ari grumbled, dragging her hand down her face in mock agony. "For the record, it's 'over eight thousand'." When the hand had dropped, she shook her head as if to clear out the stupidity. "Any other questions, Rachel?"

The girl sighed. "I've been kind of guessing up to now, but what exactly are you going to do with those 'essences' as you called them?" she asked as she pointed to the hovering orbs of energy.

"Right. Those are basically all the powers, titles, knowledge and etc that come with Fate and Prophecy," Ari said, pointing a thumb at each essence in turn. She ignored Apollo's grimace when she mentioned the latter.

Rachel nodded her head, beckoning Ari to continue.

"Basically, I will integrate these into your own essence, making you the new goddess of Prophecy and Fate, though your first domain would still be shared with Apollo," she explained, nodding to the mentioned god.

"Wait, the goddess of Fate? Aren't there supposed to be three? And will I look like they did?" Rachel asked, disgusted.

Ari chuckled. "Both the number of goddesses of Fate and their appearance was meant to make them humble and turn down their individual power. As you saw, that worked splendidly," she snarked. "So no, you'll stay the same as you are now, just with the power over everyone's lives and the course of Fate itself."

Rachel's eyes bugged out. "But that would put me-," she began.

"Above the level of the Olympians, yes. Far above. You will essentially become a Primordial," Ari said, finishing her words for her.

"Wow," Rachel said, voice barely audible. Then something occurred to her. "Will I have to take up knitting? Because I really like painting, but I've never even touched a needle."

"Bah ha ha!" yelled Apollo, having just recovered from the previous laughing fit.

Ari glared at Apollo, but looked at Rachel with a motherly expression. "Only if you wish it. Personally, I've always found knitting to be incredibly boring," she said, humoring her.

"But won't I have to create, measure and cut everything and it's parent's life strings?" Rachel asked, confused.

Now it was Ari's turn to laugh. "Heavens no, Rachel! Our domains are supposed to run without our attention on them. In fact, those of us with absurdly massive or expansive domains rarely ever contemplate the entirety of them at once. No, domains will alert you when there is a problem, and that's when you are required to deal with them. Of course, you can manipulate your domains any time you wish, but that's your decision."

"Then why the scissors and string and weaving?"

Ari shrugged. "Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos liked the scare factor, I guess. Plus, you saw how much manual control they exerted over everyone's lives."

"Good point," Rachel said.

"Are you prepared, Rachel?" Ari asked, the stars that were her eyes turning a brilliant shade of blue.

Rachel gulped. "I guess so," she said, and raised her head, closing her eyes.

"Alright, here they come," Ari said, and then promptly shoved both essences into Rachel's chest.

Compared to what her body had felt like when she became a goddess, this was nothing. Her mind complained a little as new information flowed in from her domains, but all she suffered was a minor headache. She saw the past, the present, the future, all at the same time. It was a little like the feeling she used to have as the Oracle, that sense of seeing everything, everywhere and everywhen, just before she would black out and spit out another prophecy. But now it was controlled, and controlled by her. Sure, she felt Apollo's influence, but it seemed he didn't really do much in this domain besides listen. That was fine, because it meant she could bathe in time itself without him interfering. It seemed they were connected through the shared domain, for she felt his irritation at her assumptions. He did manipulate the domain sometimes, the feeling said, less like a message and more like she was in the sun god's mind. Or whatever part of it was linked to Prophecy.

Suddenly, she could feel every being on Earth, capable of scanning their lives, their destinies, like an open book. It dragged her out of Prophecy hard, temporarily closing the connection with Apollo. This was her primary domain; Fate. She could rip pages out, change some around, or destroy the books entirely. Given that destroying was likely her perception of cutting the life thread, she refrained from doing it manually. Still, she could feel thousands of books ripping themselves apart at the seams every moment, and she knew with a sad heart those people were heading to the Underworld. If she wanted, she could reach out, suspend the destruction. She could even do it indefinitely; but her new knowledge included the importance of death, the recycling of energy the universe needed to keep going. It was fine to do for a small number of people, but on a mass scale was not wise. It simply unbalanced the order of things. Plus, those that died were often in great pain, wishing for the end, so she let them go.

"Rachel, you're crying," Ari said softly, placing a hand in the girl's shoulder.

Rachel's attention was snapped back to the cave and her body instantly, leaving her a little stunned. She knew she looked shocked, and wiped her tears on her arm. "I'm just getting used to the feeling of letting all those people go," she sniffled.

"I know what it's like, trust me," the silver woman admitted, eyes downcast.

"How?" Rachel asked, an incredulous look on her face. "How can you possibly know what it's like?"

"Because I feel it too, Rachel. Just on a much larger scale," Ari sighed, running her hand through her hair. "You're the Fate of Terra, you deal with this planet. I feel the lives of planets themselves, stars, galaxies. All across the universe. Even now, stars are blowing up, taking untold amounts of planets with them. Galaxies colliding, black holes forming, catastrophic impacts wiping out life. The agonizing pain that ripples out from those events," she said, shuddering, "It's almost too much to bear sometimes. So I try to ignore it."

"What, you're the Fate of the Universe, then?" Rachel scoffed.

Ari shook her head, silver hair flowing around her shoulders. "No. Planets and higher beings don't have Fates. They answer to something much deeper; my mother. She is Energy, the energy of the universe. I'm her daughter, so I get a little of the pain of destructive events. She gets it all."

Rachel gasped, her hands at her mouth. "That's horrible, Ari."

"It is the way of things. But enough about me," Ari said, a hint of that pain in her voice, "Let's talk about you. How does it feel to be the Primordial Goddess of Fate and Prophecy?"

Rachel winced at her lengthy new title, but looked inside, at the lives of everyone she now had control of, the expanses of time she could look upon. "It's definitely interesting, I'll give it that," she declared with a chuckle, "though the link with Apollo is going to get tiring very quickly."

Apollo seemed offended. "Why would it get tiring, Red?" he asked.

She looked the sun god directly in the eyes. "Because you're annoying."

Apollo huffed and stuck out his tongue.

Ari shook her head, just chuckling at their antics. They seemed like brother and sister, and given Apollo's real sisters, he deserved to have one that would treat him like a brother. She would have to have a talk with Artemis about her attitude towards men and her twin some day.

"Rachel, there is something else you must know about being the Goddess of Fate," Ari said.

"What is it, Ari?" she asked, curiosity evident in her eyes.

"When a being's essence reaches about seventy percent energy, you will feel it happen. Your urge will be to instantly travel to them, declare them a god or goddess, and give them at least a part of, if not the entirety, of their first domain."

Rachel crossed her arms, but nodded. "Where are you going with this?"

Ari smiled, her plan might work after all. "In order to prepare for fixing Terra, I'm going to have to utilize a much higher portion of my power than I have been. Since there's no place I could possibly hide that much energy output, I devised a plan. Turn all demigods the world over into minor gods. That amount of energy everywhere would easily cloak the amount I require."

Rachel looked dumbfounded. "Because the Olympians wouldn't notice something that huge happening right under their noses, to their own children," she deadpanned.

"Despite your sarcasm, you're right. Whoever the genius was that designed the system keeping track of energy output on this world made an error. It only alerts the gods if there's a spike of energy. It doesn't seem to care if the average energy level, everywhere, goes up. And heaven forbid there's anyone actually manually keeping track."

"Wow. That's a design flaw," Rachel commented.

"Indeed. I wish I knew who it was that created such a flawed system,", Ari mused.

Apollo snickered quietly, obviously hoping neither of them heard him.

No such luck.

"Have something to add, Apollo?" Ari asked, knowing he was keeping something from them.

"...I may know who designed that system," he admitted.

Rachel was curious too. "Well, tell us sun boy!"

Ari laughed at the nickname. Apollo glared.

"Designed by Athena, built by Hephaestus," the sun god announced, still glaring at Rachel. "And don't call me sun boy!"

"That kind of screw up is amazing blackmail material," Rachel commented, ignoring Apollo's glare. Ari was laughing too hard to hear her.

"Goddess of wisdom... making that big a fail... oh existence, my sides hurt," Ari managed to get out in between her laughing fits. When she could finally speak in complete sentences again, she wiped tears from her eyes and smiled at Apollo. "Thank you so much for that, Apollo. I'll be sure to hold that over her for eternity."

"She's father's favorite, so I've got no qualms about it. Have fun," he replied, freely giving permission to torment his half sister.

"Yes, well," Ari said, clearing her throat in an attempt to get back on topic, "my plan would have worked with the previous Fates too, except for one minor detail."

Rachel gasped, realization hitting her like a truck. "The domains."

The silver woman nodded. "Pretty sure Zeus would notice, detector or not, if the Fates complained there were too many new godlings."

Rachel began cracking up. "I can just imagine them now, flashing all over the place, handing out domains left and right, complaining the entire time about how many new gods there are," she said, falling over because she was laughing so hard. "They'd say something like 'ZEUS! WHY ARE THERE ALL THESE NEW GODS EVERYWHERE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!' Oh gods that would be amazing."

"Yeah. Which is why I needed someone else to be the goddess of Fate. Someone I could persuade," Ari struggled out, her face still displaying a wide grin. She was obviously finding it incredibly hard to resist laughing along with her.

"Consider me persuaded," Rachel gasped, sitting back up, wiping tears from her eyes. Then something occurred to her. "Wait, Ari, all demigods? Doesn't that include my friends?"

Ari nodded.

"My friends are going to become gods," Rachel realized, pushing a hand back through her hair. A look of surprise mixed with happiness was evident on her face.

"Yep! Though only minor gods. Can't make them full-blown ones or they start intruding on their parent's domains," Ari confirmed.

Rachel's lips broke into a huge grin. "Now I'm actually excited to be immortal. Let's do this thing!"

"Alright then. I'm going to begin now, and the urge might be overwhelming. So," she said, jerking a thumb at Apollo. "If the pull is too strong, grab Apollo."

Rachel nodded, then rearranged her limbs into a relaxed position. She took a couple of deep breaths, closing her eyes, then looked directly at Ari's twin blue stars. "I'm ready," she said.

Ari nodded, then looked inside to her primary domain, the one she shared with her mother. In a split second, her awareness spread over the entire planet. She felt pinpricks of energy, one part of a two part essence bonded to that of a mortal. There were hundreds of them worldwide but they were primarily clustered on Long Island and in San Francisco. She locked on to every signature, adding them to her mental list.

But there was something off; the planet seemed to flicker, signatures disappearing and reappearing at random. For a split second, a dense group of extremely powerful presences, just shy of godhood, appeared clustered on the southern tip of Norway, but then they were gone, and the planet stabilized. That was odd. Ari archived the incident for herself to review later.

Just to check, she extended her presence into high orbit, and located a demigod she had missed on the mortal International Space Station. She included him in the list too, hoping that his internal grumbling about 'being up here for a year' would subside once he figured out what had happened to him.

Ari opened her eyes, observing Rachel and Apollo staring at her. She smiled, drew in a deep breath, and began. Little by little, she poured power into their godly essences, converting their mortal energy as well. She took it much slower than with Rachel, for it would do no good if hundreds of demigods woke up in their sleep crying out for their parents in agony. At the rate she was going, it would take a good minute, but all of them would notice only a slight stomach ache, if they were even awake to begin with.

"How are you doing, Rachel?" Ari asked, sneaking a glance at the young goddess of Fate. Her face was a little golden, a large amount of strain present in her eyes, but she grit her teeth and just nodded back.

"Apollo, comfort her," Ari ordered, then closed her eyes again. She heard him sit down next to Rachel, and he began to sing a hymn. She wasn't sure if it was doing any good, but she was almost done at this point, a measly ten percent left to convert to energy. She suddenly felt Rachel grab her leg, holding on with a steel grip. Ari opened her eyes to see Apollo's arm caught in her other hand, grimacing at the pain, and Rachel's face was in pure agony.

"Hurry... up…," Rachel ordered, crushing Ari's leg tighter to prove her point.

"Almost there, Rachel. The pull should stop once I'm done," Ari said, grasping Rachel's arm to comfort her. 78... 79... "Eighty percent! Done!" Ari cried out in joy. She felt the grip on her leg relax, and Rachel curled up into a ball.

Just to make sure, Ari sent a wave of energy over the list of demigods, applying a light essence cloak to them all. They should for all intents and purposes appear just as they had before, red blood and the presence of a demigod.

"Well done, Red," Apollo praised, kissing the girl on the cheek. Rachel abruptly unfurled and hugged the sun god, shocking the Hades out of him. It took a couple seconds, but he returned her hug, patting her on the back.

"Please tell me we don't have to do that again," Rachel pleaded.

"We don't have to do that again," Ari parroted happily, "I shouldn't have any more need of Fate's assistance."

"Thank the gods," came the reply, a groan uttering from her throat.

Ari and Apollo seemed amused about something.

"What?" Rachel asked.

"Well, it's just you're a goddess now, so hearing you thank yourself is a little funny," Ari chuckled.

Rachel just rolled her eyes. "I'm new at this. Cut me some slack."

"Gladly," Ari agreed with a smile. "We've got three more things to handle. Rachel's disguise, the mortals the proverbial cat dragged in, and secrecy."

Apollo choked on air. "What was that last one?" he asked.

"I can't very well have you going around Mount Olympus telling everyone about me existing."

"Of course not," Rachel said.

"But my oath..." Apollo trailed off.

"The one binding you to the King of the Gods, right?" Ari assumed.

Apollo nodded.

"That can be solved easily," Ari said, straightening her back. "I order you not to reveal my existence to anyone, anything, or any being in any way, shape or form, without my direct permission. The same goes for Rachel's new state or what happened to all demigods tonight."

Apollo felt a tug inside his essence, confirming the order he was given. "What the Hades?"

"Simple, Apollo. My authority overrides dear old Thunderhead's, and as such if he ever commands you directly to spill the beans, you will literally be unable to comply," the silver being explained, "In fact, there is nothing in existence that can override that order, so you're all set."

"Aren't you going to do the same to me?" Rachel asked.

"Do you believe it necessary?" Ari countered, glaring dangerously.

Rachel gulped audibly. "Nope. Not at all. Secret's safe with me," she said with a shudder.

"That is what I thought. Plus, you are so powerful now only much higher beings could override your will, so I'm not worried about that. Now come here," Ari told her, holding out a hand. Rachel obliged, scooting closer to the silver woman. "Put your hand in mine."

Rachel did so, but a golden blush crept up her cheeks. Ari just smiled at the embarrassed girl, before placing a finger on the center of the back of the Goddess of Fate's hand. Travelling around and out she traced the shape of a swirl, which began glowing orange when Ari removed the finger. Rachel felt her presence disappear, contained entirely inside her own body without leaking to the outside world. Her power and domains were still intact and available to her. As she watched her hand, the swirl vanished.

"I don't feel very different," Rachel told Ari, rubbing the skin where the previously glowing orange swirl had been.

"You're not supposed to. Just enough to know if it is active or not," Ari explained, letting go of the hand she had been holding. "But allow me to demonstrate the external difference."

She summoned a flat piece of metal with a highly reflective surface, and held it up for Rachel to see. She looked at her own face for a moment before she noticed her extremely red cheeks, flush with embarrassment.

Wait, RED cheeks? Rachel thought, grabbing the mirror and bringing it closer to her cheeks. They were indeed red, not golden like they should have been.

"How did you do that?" Rachel asked, very confused. "Is my blood red again?"

Ari just chuckled at her predicament. "No, it isn't. Remember, this is a disguise. While active, you will appear entirely mortal to the outside world. No godly presence, no golden blood, no glowing, even if you suffer an injury. Just plain old Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Even your voice is back to normal."

Rachel blinked, surprised. Now that she thought of it, her voice did have some kind of… powerful quality to it right after she was converted into a goddess. Only after the cloak was applied did her voice return to normal. She wouldn't have noticed either things occurring if Ari hadn't pointed it out. "Huh. You're right, my voice was kinda weird…"

"That is what I call the 'deity' voice. What happens is your voice is layered with your own power as you speak. This gives the effect of your voice sounding a lot more powerful, deep, and rich, along with kind of… bursting your power out alongside each word," Ari helpfully explained.

Rachel raised an eyebrow and gazed at her critically. "A lot like your voice sounds to me right now?" She had felt those bursts, but it was only unconsciously until right that second.

Ari jerked back in surprise. "You can hear my true voice and see my true form?" Her eyes raked over Rachel's body several times with a discerning gaze. It was all Rachel could do to keep from getting hot and bothered from the object of her sudden crush examining her like that.

"Yes?" she hesitantly offered.

Ari scrunched up her nose and examined her once more. "Hmm… I will have to investigate this further later. For now, we must continue discussing the Cloak."

Rachel nodded. "You're sure it will hide me?"

"Pretty sure. It is, after all, hiding me," she revealed.

Rachel and Apollo raised both their eyebrows. "Okay…," Rachel stated, "so how do I deactivate it?"

"Double tap the center of your hand, like this," Ari demonstrated.

Rachel copied her movements carefully, and relaxed when the orange swirl appeared for a second, then disappeared. Checking the mirror again, her cheeks were tinted gold, and she felt her presence in the air. "Testing… One, two, three, testing…" Her voice was weird again. She toggled the disguise one more time, watching amazed as her golden cheeks faded to red. "Another testing…" Normal voice. Satisfied, she handed the mirror to Ari.

"Great, now that that's done, I've got a problem to deal with," Ari sighed, eyeing Luke's prone form. "His dad will definitely notice this," she lamented, rubbing her hand through her hair to relieve stress.

"Don't worry about Hermes, Ari," Apollo said, putting a hand in her shoulder, "Just explain the situation to him like you did to me, minus the goading and freezing," the sun god chuckled.

Ari nodded her head. "Thanks for the advice. I should get back to Cabin Eleven," she said, rising from the floor and moving to stand by the mortals.

"Uh, can you take us back to my cave first?" Rachel requested.

"Apollo should do it. As far as anyone watching was concerned, you and him were the only beings of note present in this cave tonight. It needs to remain that way."

Rachel slowly nodded in understanding, then grabbed Apollo's hand. She smiled at him, signaling she was ready. Just as he was about to flash them back, however, Ari spoke up.

"Rachel, being a goddess gives you a lot of power over reality. If you want to learn about it, Cabin Eleven has a special training area. I'll teach you."

Rachel nodded energetically. "I'd like that."

"It's a date then," Ari said, a teasing look on her face.

Rachel felt her face become hot again. "You're horrible," she shot back.

"I know," came the reply, a giant smile on her face.

Rachel just rolled her eyes, and said "Let's go, Apollo," before flashing out on her own.

Ari raised her eyebrows, looking at where the girl had just been. Apollo smirked at her expression.

"Now you know why I chose her as my Oracle," he said with a laugh, before also flashing out.

"She learns fast," Ari finished for him. Then her mind was drawn back to the mortals she had kept unconscious this whole time, and she scowled.

"This is going to suck," she muttered, placing a hand on both of them. Her suit began to hum, and in a flash of orange light, they vanished, the air where they previously existed growing a few degrees colder.