gone girl.
━━━ chapter twenty one

❀

She stood in front of the River Styx feeling empty inside.

Her father had broken their deal, imprisoning her best friend forever and now she had to bathe in the River, which was much more dangerous than it sounded. She could potentially die if it wasn't done right, if she wasn't strong enough to take it. But at that point... she simply didn't care. She'd die sooner or later anyway.

The River Styx's current swirled with strange objects — broken toys, ripped-up college diplomas, wilted homecoming corsages — all the dreams people had thrown away as they'd passed from life into death. Looking at the black water, she could think of about three million places she'd rather swim.

Hades was behind her, waiting. She hadn't talked to him ever since he found that loophole in their agreement and tricked her. "Leave," she told him. "I don't want you here while I'm doing it."

"But if anything happens—"

"You have a Plan B, don't you?" Amaryllis snapped.

She knew all about the process anyways, so she didn't need him around. It would only remind her how angry she was and it'd be distracting. Hades' expression seemed guilty for a moment, which was strange by itself and then it shifted back to the normal scowl he always seemed to have.

"If you're sure..." he said. Before he dissolved into shadows, he whispered, "Don't be afraid, daughter", as if that was supposed to give her courage.

Amaryllis wasn't alone for more than seconds. Soon, the ghost of a man appeared out of nowhere, next to her. He was tall and buff, with a cruel scarred face and closely shaved black hair. He wore a white tunic and bronze armor, a plumed war helm under his arm. A bloody arrow stuck out of his left calf, just above the ankle.

"Achilles," she greeted him.

The ghost nodded. "I warned the other one not to follow my path." Luke, she thought. "Now I will warn you. Do not do this. It will make you powerful. But it will also make you weak. Your prowess in combat will be beyond any mortal's, but your weaknesses, your failings will increase as well."

"Yeah, I know," she told him. "And trust me, I don't want to do this, but I have to."

Achilles lowered his head. "Let the gods witness I tried. Hero, if you must do this, concentrate on your mortal point. Imagine one spot of your body that will remain vulnerable. This is the point where your soul will anchor your body to the world. It will be your greatest weakness, but also your only hope. No man may be completely invulnerable. Lose sight of what keeps you mortal, and the River Styx will burn you to ashes. You will cease to exist."

"Sounds delightful," she said sarcastically as Achilles' ghost vanished.

Mortal point. She didn't think much of it. Considering armor would be covering it well, she chose the place where her heart was, in front of her chest and slightly left to her sternum. It would be a small spot, so she probably had nothing to worry about. There was no place in someone's body more mortal than a human's heart.

Amaryllis pictured a string, a bungee cord connecting her to the world from the mortal point she imagined and she stepped into the river.

It felt like she was swimming in a mixture of acid and fire. She tried to be concentrated, but it was hard to do that when every nerve in her body burned. She was practically dissolving in the water. She saw faces — her mother, Nico, Annabeth, Will — but they faded as soon as they appeared.

For a few seconds, she was letting the pain carry her away. She couldn't remember who she was, not even her name. Her soul was getting ripped from her body and she was about to let it.

"Mar, don't forget the cord," a familiar voice reminded her.

Suddenly there was a tug in her chest. The current pulled at her, but it wasn't carrying her away anymore. She imagined the string in her chest keeping her tied to the shore.

"Hold on, Golden Girl." It was Percy's voice, much clearer now. "I'm not letting you go that easily. We're a team, remember?"

The cord strengthened. She could see him now — Percy, standing above the water on a rock. They were at the beach, she realised. She had accidentally fallen off the rock and into the water. He was reaching out his hand to haul her up, with that stupid grin on his face that made him even more handsome than usual. He was wearing a Camp t-shirt and blue swim trunks and his hair was wet.

"Seems like you really need some swimming lessons," he teased. "Come on, take my hand."

Memories came flooding back to her — sharper and more colorful. She stopped dissolving. Her name was Amaryllis Kalomiri, she knew that now. She reached up and took Percy's hand.

Suddenly she burst out of the river and collapsed on the sand, gasping for air. She looked around, searching for Percy, but he was nowhere. Just a trick of the River, Amaryllis realised. He was still imprisoned.

She felt like every inch of her body had been broiled over a slow flame, but it was nothing compared to the sadness that drowned her inside.

❀

After his nightmare, Percy woke up to the sound of someone hissing his name. He lunged out blindly and before he was fully awake, he had Nico pinned to the floor of the cell with the edge of his sword that reappeared in his pocket at the boy's throat.

He was still in that cell. He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but it didn't matter — he needed to get out of there. He needed to find Amaryllis. He needed to talk her out of her stupid plan that would get her killed.

"Want... to... rescue," Nico choked.

Anger woke him up fast. "Oh, yeah? And why should I trust you?"

"No... choice?" he gagged.

Percy wished he hadn't said something logical like that. He let him go. Nico curled into a ball and made retching sounds while his throat recovered. Finally he got to his feet, eyeing Percy's sword warily. His own blade was sheathed. He suppose if Nico had wanted to kill him, he could've done it while he slept.

"Where is Amaryllis?" he asked. "Isn't freeing me against your family's plan?"

"Mar doesn't know I'm here," Nico answered, lowering his head. "Look, you need to believe us — our father didn't say that he was going to keep you here forever. He tricked us. All I wanted was to know what happened to my mother and Mar was only trying to keep you out of trouble."

"And that worked perfectly," Percy said bitterly.

Nico narrowed his eyes and Percy suddenly felt guilty. Amaryllis did what she thought was right — she'd rather be the hero of the Prophecy, not because she cared about the fame and glory, but because she didn't want him to die.

He would have done the same thing.

The realisation that she was keeping so many secrets from him still stung. She was a daughter of Hades — somehow it made no sense and made absolute sense at the same time. Percy always thought that Mar looked like a stereotypical daughter of Apollo, with her tan skin, blonde hair and sunny, comforting presence. She looked nothing like Nico, who was as pale and creepy as a young ghost. How could she, the brightest, most caring person he knew, be a child of the scariest, most cruel god?

She had betrayed him. He knew why she did it, but it still didn't make it okay.

"Mar has probably already bathed in the River by now," Nico said and Percy clenched his jaw. "We need to get you out of here, before the guards wake up—"

"Take me to the River," he said. The son of Hades blinked in surprise. "I still need to do this. She can't- I won't let her do this by herself."

Nico nodded. "Fine." He pointed at the wall. A whole section vanished, revealing a corridor. "Come on."

He led the way. Percy hesitated but followed after him. He didn't trust him — while Mar's intentions were selfless, his were selfish. But Percy couldn't escape without him, so he just gritted his teeth and tried not to start an argument.

He wished he had Annabeth's invisibility hat, but as it turned out, he didn't need it. Every time they came to a skeleton guard, Nico just pointed at it, and its glowing eyes dimmed. Unfortunately, the more Nico did it, the more tired he seemed. They walked through a maze of corridors filled with guards. By the time they reached a kitchen staffed by skeletal cooks and servants, he was practically carrying Nico. He managed to put all the dead to sleep but nearly passed out himself. Percy dragged him out of the servants' entrance and into the Fields of Asphodel.

He almost felt relieved until he heard the sound of bronze gongs high in the castle.

"Alarms," Nico murmured sleepily.

"What do we do?"

He yawned then frowned like he was trying to remember. "How about... run?"

❀

When they reached the beach of the River, Percy noticed a blonde girl laying on the black sand, looking at the black water like she was trying to decide whether she should jump in or not.

Thankfully Mrs. O'Leary, his hellhound, had found Percy and Nico and had carried them to their destination, otherwise Percy doubted he could carry the son of Hades for so long. Nico slid off Mrs. O'Leary's back and crumpled in a heap on the black sand.

The moment Amaryllis noticed them, her expression shifted. She seemed to be going through all five stages of grief in seconds, until she finally saw her brother and rushed next to him.

Percy thought she looked great. There was a faint glow around her and she carried herself with much more confidence than before. She looked... powerful, more than ever.

He realised he was staring, but thankfully, she didn't seem to notice. "Ambrosia," she said sharply. "Percy, ambrosia. Now."

He quickly took out a square of ambrosia — part of the emergency god-food he always kept with him. It was a little bashed up, but Nico chewed it.

"Uh," he mumbled. "Better."

"Your powers drain you too much," Percy noted.

He nodded sleepily. "With great power... comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later."

"Uh-huh," Amaryllis caught him before he passed out again. "Nico, you stupid- what the hell are you two doing here?"

She seemed angry that Percy was free, which offended him quite a lot. "Great apology, thanks."

"I didn't mean-" She sighed. "Percy, you know-"

"No, you'll listen to me now, okay?" he said, pointing a finger at her. "You don't get to make the decisions for me. What if I'm the hero of the Prophecy, huh? What then? You'll have gotten yourself killed for no reason. Do you really think I would let you sacrifice yourself for me?"

"No. That's the point."

"There's no point, Mar! You kept this from me! If you hadn't, maybe- I don't know, maybe we could-"

"You're such a hypocrite, Percy," Amaryllis snapped back. "You're angry at me for keeping secrets? What about you? You didn't tell the whole truth about the Prophecy to your mom, you didn't tell Annabeth about the curse of Achilles-"

"That's different!"

"It's not! It's you, protecting the people you love. That's what I did!" He saw the tears in her eyes and froze. They were nose-to-nose with each other. "You're my best friend. I refuse to let you die."

"Well, I refuse to let you die. Guess you'll just have to deal with it."

Nico coughed. All this time, he was silently watching the two arguing like he was watching a ping pong game. "Sorry to interrupt, but if you want to get into the water, Percy, you'll have to do it now." He was basically half-asleep at that point.

Amaryllis sighed. "You shouldn't do this."

"You did, didn't you? And you're fine."

She pressed her lips. "Okay. There is only one way to stay anchored to your mortal life. You have to..."

The ghost of warrior appeared out of thin air between them. It was a man that looked scarily similar to the god of war, Ares, upon first glance. The first thing Percy noticed was a bloody arrow in his heel.

Amaryllis rolled her eyes. "Hey, Achilles, no need for your lecture. He's a stubborn little shit, he won't listen to you."

The ghost raised an eyebrow towards Percy, who nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty stubborn."

Achilles sighed, gave a look that seemed to mean I hate my job and vanished.

"As I was saying," Amaryllis said, not even bothering to explain what had just happened, "you'll have to imagine a spot of your body that will be your mortal point, your only weakness. The thing that will keep you grounded in your mortality."

"Uh... right."

He wondered where Amaryllis' spot was, but he didn't want to ask. Instead, Percy tried to think about his own mortal point. Before he could change his mind, he concentrated on the small of his back — a tiny point just opposite his navel. It was well defended when he wore his armor. It would be hard to hit by accident, and few enemies would aim for it on purpose. No place was perfect, but this seemed right to him, and a lot more dignified than the armpit or something.

Amaryllis chewed her bottom lip nervously. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"Sure. Wait for me on the shore. If anything happens to me..." He hesitated. "Well, maybe Hades will get his wish, and you'll be the child of the prophecy after all."

The girl looked away, not looking very pleased about that. While he understood the reasons why she did what she did, he still couldn't just move on from that so easily.

He took one last glance of his best friend and stepped into the river.

❀

When Percy finally got out of the river, Amaryllis let out a sigh of relief and rushed next to him with Nico following her. Percy's skin was full of blisters, but it was slowly returning back to normal.

"You're hurt!" Nico said as Percy got up.

"I'm fine... I think." He looked at Amaryllis strangely. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Pulling me from the river," Percy said, like it was obvious. The siblings looked at each other, knowing Amaryllis hadn't even come close to the river while he was down there. "I, uh, took your hand. And stuff."

Amaryllis tried not to look as surprised as she felt at the realisation that both of them saw each other pulling them back to mortality. She knew why she saw Percy — she knew she had feelings for him and she was tired of kidding herself — but she didn't understand why Percy would see her, especially after what she did.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, not wanting to have that conversation at that moment. They didn't have the time to discuss their feelings towards each other anyways.

"Do you feel stronger?" Nico asked both of them.

Before he could answer, a voice boomed "There!" An army of the dead marched toward them. A hundred skeletal Roman legionnaires led the way with shields and spears and behind them came an equal number of British redcoats with bayonets fixed. In the middle of the host, Hades himself rode a black-and-gold chariot pulled by nightmare horses, their eyes and manes smoldering with fire.

"You will not escape me this time, Percy Jackson!" her father bellowed. "Destroy him!"

"Father, no!" the siblings shouted, but it was too late. The front line of Roman zombies lowered their spears and advanced.

Mrs. O'Leary growled and got ready to pounce, but Amaryllis put her hand on the dog proactively, despite it being ten times her size. "No, girl. Stay back, okay?" The hellhound whined, but nodded.

Amaryllis and Percy locked eyes for a second and they agreed — they'd both get out of there. The plan had already gone to shit and she knew she could never convince Percy to stay out of her way. But there was also no way she'd let her father kill the boy that she cared about more than anything in the world.

She drew Alala, her Celestial sword that had been renamed as Katara in an attempt to get fully detached from the person who helped her name it in the first place. She quickly summoned her second sword, Skia, from the shadows. It was longer than her first one and as black as one could imagine. It was made out of Stygian Iron, which meant that only children of the Underworld deities could wield it. Stygian Iron could absorb and destroy the monster's essence, which most of the time prevented a monster from reforming and it could hurt mortals as well as immortals, unlike Celestial Bronze.

With a sword in each hand and anger that could not be easily subdued, Amaryllis attacked.

Percy made the River explode, a black tidal wave smashing into the legionnaires. Spears and shields flew everywhere. Roman zombies began to dissolve, smoke coming off their bronze helmets. The redcoats lowered their bayonets, but she didn't care. Amaryllis charged at them, with Percy right behind her.

A hundred muskets fired at both of them, point blank, but all of them missed. Amaryllis crashed into their line and started hacking with both of her swords. Bayonets jabbed, swords slashed, guns reloaded and fired — nothing could touch her. Her mind was on autopilot, as she slashed the redcoats to dust, feeling a primal sense of satisfaction as she did. She had never felt more powerful in her entire life. Her swords didn't even feel like weapons anymore, just extensions of her body.

She didn't have to look back to check on Percy. She could tell he was doing just fine on his own. Both of them were fine warriors, but the curse of Achilles had turned them invincible.

Percy broke through the enemy line and leaped into the black chariot. Hades raised his staff. A bolt of dark energy shot toward him, but he deflected it off his blade and slammed into him. The god and the demigod both tumbled out of the chariot. Amaryllis saw the boy plant his knee on her father's chest, staring in shock and amazement. He was holding the collar of his royal robes in one fist, and the tip of his sword was poised right over Hades' face. There was no one left to defend Hades, they were all destroyed.

Hades swallowed and looked at Amaryllis expectantly. "Take him off me right now."

"You broke our deal," she said coldly.

"You are breaking our deal right now, daughter," her father said. "Your mother- I'm the only one who can restore her memories."

Blackmail, she thought. But his tricks didn't affect her anymore. She knew he wasn't someone to be trusted.

"I'm done listening to you. I'll fight the war, but I will not fight for you, or Olympus in general. I don't care about the gods," she said, clenching her swords. "I'm fighting for my real family, my friends."

"Just because I'm a nice person," Percy snarled at Hades, "I'll let you go. But first, tell me about that trap you mentioned earlier!"

Hades snarled and before Percy could do anything, he melted into nothing, leaving the boy holding empty black robes.

Percy cursed and got to his feet, breathing heavily. Now that the danger was over, Amaryllis realized how tired she was. Every muscle in her body ached. She looked down at her clothes, that were slashed to pieces and full of bullet holes, but she was completely fine. Not a mark on her, or Percy for that matter.

Nico's mouth hung open. "You just... you just—"

"I think the river thing worked," Percy said.

"Oh gee," Nico said sarcastically. "You think?"

Mrs. O'Leary barked happily and wagged her tail. She bounded around, sniffing empty uniforms and
hunting for bones. Percy lifted Hades' robe and dropped it in the water. "You're free," he said, watching as it swirled away and dissolved in the current.

Amaryllis turned to Nico. "You need to talk to our father. Find out what's going to happen to Mount Olympus and convince him to help."

"After what happened?" The boy sighed. "I'm pretty sure he hates us both right now."

"He's still counting on Amaryllis to be the hero," Percy said. "And he also owes me for letting him go. You owe me too."

His ears turned red. "I told you I was sorry." He turned to Mar. "Please... let me come with you. I want to fight."

"You'll be more help down here," she told her brother. "You're the only
person who might be able to get him to listen. He needs to fight."

"That's a depressing thought." Nico sighed. "All right. I'll do my best. Besides, he's still hiding something from me about my mom. Maybe I can find out what."

"Good luck," Percy told him. He still didn't seem to trust him completely, but Amaryllis hoped that he had at least accepted the apology.

Amaryllis put her arm around her brother and hugged him tightly. He was still getting used to the concept of physical contact, but he had learned to accept that it was his sister's love language. He hugged her back, hesitantly.

"Be careful," he told her. "Please."

The uncertainty and worry in his voice reminded her of how young he truly was. Sometimes she forgot.

"I will be, don't worry," she said and managed to give a weak smile. Then she turned to Percy. "I'm coming with you."

"I know."

Amaryllis sighed. "Look, Percy—"

"We don't have to talk about all this right now," he said. "Can you shadow-travel?"

She nodded. She was tired, but she could definitely get them out of there. It was the least she could do. "Where are we going?"

"To get this war started," he said and she sensed he wasn't as confident as he looked. "It's time we found Luke."

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒.

▊mar and percy being each other's anchor? percy not being able to be mad at mar because he's so in love with her (although he hasn't realised it yet)? mar risking everything for percy? nico being the third wheel and knowing his sister loves percy and hating himself for also liking him? hades being a shitty father? i love angst.

▊get used to the percy povs because there's going to be a lot of them :)

▊any thoughts/predictions?

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