Gone Girl.¹

𝟬𝟬𝟲. finding daedalus

"I will not bring her back, Apollo."

The god now had tears in his eyes. Amaryllis was shocked at the realization that he really did care about his children, at least some of them. He was willing to ignore his ego and ask Hades for help, despite the fact that it was obvious that they didn't have the best relationship. It made her head hurt - for so long he believed none of the gods cared about their children, but now it was obvious that wasn't always the case.

That probably meant that Apollo just didn't think Amaryllis was worth caring about.

"I'm not asking you to bring her back. She died because of me, because I was too proud to admit that I made a mistake by giving her the gift of prophecy. All I ask of you is to make sure she gets to Elysium."

Hades struck him with a look that screamed murder. "You want me to bend the rules of the Underworld just to make sure your daughter goes to Elysium? And what exactly would I gain from helping you?"

"A favour for a favour. I'll do whatever you ask me to."

"Swear it."

"I swear it on the river Styx."

The last thing Amaryllis saw before the dream shifted was Hades' smirk.

❀

She didn't have much time to process what she saw, because Percy shook her awake. "Earthquake! Mar, wake up!" he yelled.

She opened her eyes and looking around, she saw the whole room shaking. She immediately got up and after they woke Rachel up too, the four of them started running. "Are you sure you're not the one causing it?" Amaryllis asked Percy, who shook his head.

She didn't even see where they were going, just following Rachel and Annabeth who were running first, while Percy was beside her. She could hear the noise that the marble crumbling and falling behind them made, at some point she even had to pull Percy even closer to her before a big rock fell on his head.

"Thanks," he managed to squeak and she chuckled in spite of herself.

"No time for gratitude, Jackson. Just run!"

They were running for a while until eventually they followed Rachel into a stainless steel hallway, with lights glowing from the ceiling. Seeing a little light inside the darkest place on earth was surprisingly comforting but they had to squint to see, their eyes being used to the immense darkness.

"This way!" she heard Rachel say. "We're close!"

"This is so wrong!" Annabeth said, while running with the others. "The workshop should be in the oldest section of the maze. This can't-"

"Annie, look!"

They had arrived at another set of metal doors. The Greek letter Δ was inscribed in the steel, just like in the hotel where they found the entrance to the maze. She heard Percy next to her let out a sigh of relief.

"We're here," Rachel announced proudly. "Daedalus' workshop."

"Won't you do the honours, daughter of Athena?" Amaryllis teased her with a small smile and when Annabeth pressed the symbol on the doors, they slowly opened up, revealing the workshop they had been risking their lives trying to find.