gone girl.
━━━ chapter nine

❀

Amaryllis felt like they had been flying for hours, when in reality it couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes. Once the Pegasi landed in the middle of the cabin area and they got down on the ground, they were met by Chiron, an older satyr that she recognized as one of the members of the Council of Cloven Elders and a couple of Amaryllis' siblings, even though she didn't recognize most of them. It seemed that the army hadn't reached the Camp yet, but everyone was preparing for the upcoming battle.

She couldn't sit still as Percy explained everything that they learned from the quest to Chiron. She was anxiously pacing back and forth, looking around her. Luke's army could be there any second and despite the Camp's best efforts, they couldn't possibly be enough to beat them.

"I feared as much," Chiron said. "We must hurry. Hopefully you have slowed down the Titan lord, but his vanguard will still be coming through. They will be anxious for blood. Most of our defenders are already in place. Come!"

"Wait a moment," Silenus the satyr demanded and looked at Grover like he was the scum of the earth. "What of the search for Pan? You are almost three weeks overdue, Grover Underwood! Your searcher’s license is revoked!"

Grover sighed but didn't back down, looking Silenus in the eye. He seemed so much more confident after his interaction with Pan and Amaryllis couldnt be prouder of him. "Searcher’s licenses don’t matter any more. The great god Pan is dead. He has passed on and left us his spirit."

"What?" Silenus's face turned bright red. "Sacrilege and lies! Grover Underwood, I will have you exiled for speaking thus!"

"It's true," Percy said. "We were there when he died. All of us."

"Impossible! You are all liars! Nature-destroyers!" Amaryllis took a step closer to him, a menacing look on her face, but Annabeth held her back.

Chiron studied Grover's face. "We will speak of this later."

"We will speak of it now!" Silenus said. "We must deal with this-"

"Silenus," Chiron cut in. "My camp is under attack. The matter of Pan has
waited two thousand years. I fear it will have to wait a bit longer. Assuming we are still here this evening."

Amaryllis pressed her lips together. "I'll go check up with my siblings," she told Percy and Annabeth. She didn't know what she was supposed to do – say good luck or perhaps say goodbye? This wasn't one of the Camp's games, this was the terrifying reality of a war and she knew that Chiron was right. Not everyone would make it.

Annabeth held her shoulders and stared right in her eyes. "Be careful, okay? We're not losing you for a second time."

"Don't worry, Annie. I'm careful, like, ninety percent of the time," she joked, not really knowing what to say. She glanced at Percy, who pretended to be busy studying the way Hephaestus' cabin was setting up traps. "Unlike a certain son of Poseidon."

He chuckled, visibly relaxing a bit. "Good luck, Mar. I'll see you later."

It didn't feel real. As she made her way to the woods, a son of Aphrodite signalled her to come with him. He gave her an armor and even offered to comb the tangles out of her horsehair plumes, but she refused. "My name's Henry," he told her with  a nervous smile. He looked at her as if he was coming to terms with his mortality at that very moment and just wanted to make one last acquaintance. He wasn't older than thirteen and that made Amaryllis want to cry.

She ran to the woods, where both Apollo's and Hermes' children were scattered. She didn't use a bow and an arrow so her being there was most likely a stupid idea, but she felt the need to be besides her siblings during the battle. Even though it felt like she didn't belong, Amaryllis still loved her brothers and sisters and was determined to fight beside them.

Lee was the first one to notice her. His blonde hair were a mess, which only highlighted the severity of the situation. He motioned her to come hide next to him, which she did. "Glad to see you're okay, kid," Lee said as he hugged her with one arm.

The first thing Amaryllis wanted to ask was, "Is Will-?"

"Yes, everyone's fine," he reassured her. "Not sure if that's going to last for long though."

"We'll do the best we can." She wanted to stay positive, but it was getting harder and harder to. "And it'll be enough."

He didn't seem to believe it, but he nodded nevertheless. He was the cabin counsellor, he couldn't afford to think negatively, since all his siblings counted on him. Behind the bushes there was another bow and a quiver full of arrows. "It's my backup," he explained. "Are you sure you'll be okay fighting with this sword?"

"I was never good at archery anyway," she shrugged and playfully nudged him. "You could always teach me after we're done with this shit."

The memory of fourteen-year-old Lee trying to not lose his patience and teach eleven-year-old Amaryllis how to use a bow, before she ended up accidentally firing an arrow just above Connor Stoll's head came in mind.

Lee chuckled. "Sounds like a horrible idea, but I'm in."

Suddenly the ground underneath them started trembling and silence fell over Camp. At that moment, Amaryllis felt like their heartbeats were the only sound that could be heard.

"Lock shields!" barked someone.

And then, the Titan lord’s army exploded from the Labyrinth.

❀

The archers had managed to vaporize a few of the giants, however their happiness didn't last long. While they drove the remaining Laistrygonians away from the woods, the dynamic shifted once a wave of dracaenae surged from the maze and most of them made their way to the forest, to eliminate the archers.

Amaryllis was the first to jump from the bushes, just to find one of the serpent women in front of her. Her sword was much more deadly than the dracaenae's spear, but the fight was far from easy. While she was trying to remain focused on her own fight, she was trying to keep an eye our for her siblings too. They were all holding their ground – she noticed the Stoll brothers and Kayla fighting together, Will was smacking a bunch of monsters to the face with his bow and Nia, having photokinesis, at some point managed to manipulate the light in order to blind them long enough to distract them and kill them.  She couldn't see Lee anywhere, until she spotted him running towards the camp, probably to help with the giants.

Amaryllis decided to follow him through, as she slashed and stabbed her way out of the woods. "Lee!" she yelled, but got no response. She had a very bad feeling and it was growing stronger and stronger, like a voice screaming inside her head.

She wished she could turn invisible again, just like she had done in the Labyrinth, but it's not like she knew how she did it in the first place. Her body had gone into autopilot, she hadn't realised that she had saved two young demigods until after she did. She felt blood running from her nose and into her mouth, but she simply wiped it and continued. She couldn't afford to freeze like the last time.

Amaryllis had lost Lee in the crowds, when a very familiar face appeared in front of her. His wet black hair covered most of his face, however she recognized him from the black eye patch over his left eye. Ethan Nakamura – the guy they had met in the Labyrinth. The traitor Percy had refused to kill. A dark part of Amaryllis' raging soul was now hoping that he had killed him.

It was one thing to have to fight monsters, but demigods? It took a toll on her mentally, because she knew some of them. They were children, just like her. But at that moment, her worry for her brother overshadowed any feeling of pity she might have felt and she was getting pretty angry at the fact that Ethan was slowing her down.

"You," she growled. It must have caught him off guard to see her again, which Amaryllis took advantage of to push him back. He managed to get up just in time to avoid the hit of her sword, but all she wanted was to find her brother. "Leave me be or I'll stab your other eye out and fucking feed it to you."

She didn't know how that happened, but suddenly the young boy dropped his sword, face contorted with fear. She didn't wait for him to get his senses back – she knocked him out using the handle of her sword and ran towards the path that she had seen Lee follow, towards the entrance of the maze.

A little further from the entrance she noticed a short but easily recognisable boy fighting three empousai all on his own, protecting a body that was laying behind him. It was Michael Yew, her other brother, who was bravely protecting someone who looked a little bit too similar to Lee. But it couldn't be, because she could practically feel that whoever the person was, he was dying. And Lee couldn't be dying. He couldn't.

Amaryllis ran next to them, noticing how Michael's face lit up when he saw her. His Camp t-shirt was full of blood but she was pretty sure it wasn't just his. He looked like he really needed help, like he was one blow away from losing consciousness. Amaryllis attacked one of the empousai, aiming for the head. There was no reason for her to act civil, not when her brothers were in danger. If they wanted war, they'd get it.

The mix of rage, agony and fear created a rush of adrenaline that helped her take down one of the three, while also trying her best to avoid the other's hits. But it was pointless, because that caught the attention of more monsters that were slowly coming their way. It was only Amaryllis and Michael against all of those freaks and even though they were holding their ground, they couldn't last much longer like that.

Michael groaned as one of the empousai sweeped him. "Your neck!" she heard her brother scream and instinctively she used her free hand to touch her neck. Her first thought was that she was bleeding out from an injury, but as her fingers traced her necklace, Calypso's necklace, she felt the crystal burning.

Once she touched it, a bright white light came out of it, creating some sort of an energy field around them that separated them from the monsters around them. It looked like they were inside a bright protecting bubble that no one else could pass. Amaryllis found herself scoffing at the realisation that Calypso had casted a protecting spell over the crystal that she used for the necklace. She had managed to save her life without even having to leave Ogygia.

"What the fuck?" Michael asked her, but didn't wait for an answer before falling on his knees. He held Lee's blonde head in his bloody hands and let out a sob. Amaryllis immediately rushed next to him, finding Lee's hands and holding them tight, even though they both knew it was too late.

She felt hot tears running from her brown eyes, fighting to take a breath. She couldn't move, she couldn't take her eyes off her half brother's dead body. Lee Fletcher had turned eighteen last month, and was now dead. His blue, blue as the clear sky, eyes would never open again. He would never annoyingly call her kid again or teach her how to use a bow and an arrow correctly. She wondered if he still wanted to become a poet, if he still liked to eat dessert first, if he still found the colour black to be insufferable. Amaryllis had barely talked to him for four years, but she remembered everything.

"He died like a hero," was the only thing Michael could mutter, before continuing to sob. Despite being seventeen, he looked like a little child at that moment.

Amaryllis wanted to comfort him, although she was still at a loss for words, when the most horrifying sound that she had ever heard in her entire life stopped everyone from fighting. She looked around, her mind immediately rushing to the worst case scenario, when she realised that, whatever that sound was, had made the Titan lord's army to run for their lives. The enemies, including the empousai that up to that point were still waiting for the energy field to die down, ran back to the Labyrinth and the tunnel rumbled shut.

"The battle is over!" she heard someone scream at the top of their lungs and suddenly, she felt like she could breathe again. The protection spell died down and with it, Amaryllis lost her consciousness.

❀

The burning of the shrouds was the most awful experience of Amaryllis' life. There were quite a few deaths – less than expected, but still one too many. It was scary to see the Camp, usually a vibrant, cheerful place be so depressing. Everyone was mourning someone – a friend, a sibling, a lover or just an acquaintance that they wished that they had talked more with while they could. Amongst the names of the dead, Amaryllis noticed the name Henry that belonged to the young son of Aphrodite that reminded her to wear an armor. She was probably one of the last people that child had talked with.

Lee was wrapped in a golden shroud without any decoration. That's how the rest of the cabin had decided that he would have liked it. Michael decided to say a few words to honor the dead and most importantly, his brother. He had a way with words, like most of the children of Apollo, so it was no surprise that everyone ended up tearing up. Amaryllis spent the entire ceremony by Will's side, who hadn't stopped crying ever since he found out.

After the ceremony Percy approached her. "I am really sorry about Lee," he said. "I can't imagine how you feel right now."

She nodded as a thank you, but she immediately choked up. "I think I'm still in shock. I- I can't stop seeing his face."

"If I can do anything to help-"

"I don't think you can, Percy," she told him but it didn't come off as rude. It was simply the truth – nothing Percy could do would bring Lee or any of them back. "But thank you nevertheless."

"Don't mention it. We're friends, aren't we?"

That was the first time Amaryllis smiled after everything that happened, because she knew that in her darkest time, at least she had someone to rely on.

"Of course."

She spent the rest of the day in the infirmary. She hadn't been injured as bad as others, but she still wanted to help as much as she could. Despite not having vitakinesis like some of her siblings, she could still feed them nectar and stitch them up. Amongst her patients, Nico Di Angelo had to be the most annoying type of patient, the kind that insisted that they were fine when they very clearly weren't. At first he only agreed to go to the infirmary as long as Amaryllis was the one to look after him, since he felt comfortable around her, but eventually she let Will take charge, since he had more experience on the medical field, not to mention powers.

At noon, the Council of Cloven Elders held an emergency meeting in their sacred grove. It was filled with satyrs, dryads and naiads, who were anxious to hear what had happened. Despite her mental and physical exhaustion, Amaryllis had decided to attend to show her support towards Grover and because, of course, she was an eye witness of what happened in that cave with Pan. She was stood by her friend's side, next to Percy, Annabeth and a lovely dryad, Juniper, that apparently was Grover's girlfriend.

Silenus needed a lot of persuading, but in the end he agreed to hear Grover and the rest out. One by one they explained to him what they saw and after that, some other random demigods were called in as witnesses of the strange sound that drove the enemy forces away. Amaryllis was informed by Annabeth that it was Grover who caused it.

To be honest, Amaryllis never saw Grover as some kind of badass warrior, but there he was, saving all of their lives.

"It was panic," insisted Juniper. "Grover summoned the power of the wild god."

"Panic?" Percy asked.

"Percy," Chiron explained, "during the first war of the gods and the Titans, Lord Pan let forth a horrible cry that scared away the enemy armies. It is- it was his greatest power – a massive wave of fear that helped the gods win the day. The word panic is named after Pan, you see. And Grover used that power, calling it forth from within himself."

"Preposterous!" Silenus bellowed. "Sacrilege! Perhaps the wild god favored us with a blessing. Or perhaps Grover's music was so awful it scared the enemy away!"

Amaryllis wanted to deck Silenus in his ugly goat face, but Grover sounded a lot calmer than she would have if she'd been insulted like that, "That wasn’t it, sir. He let his spirit pass into all of us. We must act. Each of us must work to renew the wild, to protect what’s left of it. We must spread the word. Pan is dead. There is no one but us."

"After two thousand years of searching, this is what you would have us believe?" Silenus cried. "Never! We must continue the search! Exile the traitor!"

Some of the older satyrs muttered assent. "A vote!" Silenus demanded. "Who would believe this ridiculous young satyr, anyway?"

Amaryllis was ready to raise her hand, but a familiar voice interrupted them. "I would."

Everyone turned to see Dionysus. He looked very different compared to how she remembered him, now wearing a suit instead of his usual Hawaiian shirts. He seemed really depressed, but it made sense considering one of his sons had died in the battle. The satyrs all stood respectfully and bowed as he approached. Dionysus waved his hand, and a new chair grew out of the ground next to Silenus’s – a
throne made of grapevines.

"Miss me?" he said to the assembled crowd. A wave of voices replied back, in the most flattering way possible – after all, satyrs adored him. "Well, I did not miss this place!" Dionysus snapped. "I bear bad news, my friends. Evil news. The minor gods are changing sides. Morpheus has gone over to the enemy. Hecate, Janus, and Nemesis, as well. Zeus knows how many more."

Thunder rumbled in the distance.
"Strike that," Dionysus said. "Even Zeus doesn’t know. Now, I want to hear Grover’s story. Again, from the top."

"But, my lord," Silenus protested. "It’s just nonsense!"

Dionysus's eyes flared with purple fire. "I have just learned that my son Castor is dead, Silenus. I am not in a good mood. You would do well to humor me." Silenus gulped and waved to Grover to start talking.

Once he explained everything, Dionysus nodded. "It sounds like just the sort of thing Pan would do. Grover is right. The search is tiresome. You must start thinking for yourselves." Ironically enough, he turned to a satyr. "Bring me some peeled grapes, right away!"

"Yes, sire!" The satyr scampered off.

"We must exile the traitor!" Silenus insisted. Amaryllis noticed Juniper next to her tense up. It was very obvious that she cared a lot about Grover and couldn't handle people talking like that about him.

"I say no," Dionysus countered. "That is my vote."

"I vote no as well," Chiron put in.

Silenus set his jaw stubbornly. "All in favor of the exile?" He and the two other old satyrs raised their hands. "Three to two," he said.

"Ah, yes," Dionysus said. "But unfortunately for you, a god’s vote counts twice. And as I voted against, we are tied."

Silenus stood, indignant. "This is an outrage! The council cannot stand at
an impasse."

"Then let it be dissolved!" the god said, "I don’t care."

Silenus bowed stiffly, along with his two friends, and they left the grove. About twenty satyrs went with them. The rest stood around murmuring uncomfortably.

"Don’t worry," Grover told them. "We don’t need the council to tell us what to do. We can figure it out ourselves."

He told them again the words of Pan – how they must save the wild a little at a time. He started dividing the satyrs into groups – which ones would go to the national parks, which ones would search out the last wild places, which ones would defend the parks in the big cities. He looked like a proper leader amongst them and Amaryllis couldn't help but smile.

"Well," Annabeth told them, "Grover seems to be growing up."

"After what we went through, I think we all have," Percy sighed.

And this is just the beginning, she thought but kept it for herself.

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒.

▊i hate writing fight scenes but i hope it wasn't that bad </3

▊my man lee's dead and this is just the beginning! don't forget that the apollo cabin suffered more losses than any other cabin during the books so.... amaryllis, honey, you have a big storm coming. i mean, is it a pjo oc if you don't traumatize the fuck out of them?

▊we're getting closer and closer to the big reveal of the plot twist 😳 im shocked but also very happy that no one has guessed it so it'll be a nice surprise 🤸‍♀️ amaryllis will finally get some answers!!

▊also there will be quite a few chapters taking place in between botl and tlo, so act two will begin when the last olympian starts!

❛ gone girl. ❜
( part 𝒐𝒏𝒆 of gone girl series )
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