A/N: Here's the second half of chapter 51, as read by Poseidon. This will also be the last chapter, as I've added the afterthought/epilogue onto the end of this (it's very short, don't worry). I hope you enjoy it!

Also, thank you SO MUCH to all the incredible people who reviewed the last two chapters! You are all INCREDIBLE and I give you ETERNAL MARSHMALLOWS! At a request that, reading back, I very much agree with, this chapter is still quite dark (like basically everything I have written so far).

Finally, I realised I haven't done this yet, so I DON'T OWN PJO/HoO, OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS HERE. ANY WORDS IN BOLD ARE TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM THE BOOK THE MARK OF ATHENA. Please don't sue me, or take this down.

"Your leg." Piper knelt next to her and examined the Bubble Wrap cast.

"Bubble Wrap? That's genius," said Apollo wistfully.

"Oh, Annabeth, what happened?"

She started to explain. Talking was difficult, but as she went along, her words came more easily. Percy didn't let go of her hand, which also made her feel more confident.

Percy rested his chin on Annabeth's head and rubbed the back of her hands softly, and her shaking fists relaxed for Percy to link his fingers through hers.

When she finished, her friends' faces were slack with amazement.

"Gods of Olympus," Jason said. "You did all that alone. With a broken ankle."

"Well…some of it with a broken ankle." Percy grinned.

"You made Arachne weave her own trap? I knew you were good, but Holy Hera—"

"Why you little-" Hera started, but Zeus glared at her.

"Annabeth, you did it. Generations of Athena kids tried and failed. You found the Athena Parthenos!"

Athena smiled, a little longingly.

Everyone gazed at the statue.

"What do we do with her?" Frank asked. "She's huge."

Athena's smile was replaced with a steely glare.

"We'll have to take her with us to Greece," Annabeth said. "The statue is powerful. Something about it will help us stop the giants."

"The giants' bane stands gold and pale," Hazel quoted. "Won with pain from a woven jail."

She looked at Annabeth with admiration. "It was Arachne's jail. You tricked her into weaving it."

Hephaestus nodded in approval. It wasn't often that a child of Athena understood the mechanisms of engineering, as they were usually consumed with intellectual worlds, instead of reality.

With a lot of pain, Annabeth thought. Leo raised his hands. He made a finger picture frame around the Athena Parthenos like he was taking measurements. "Well, it might take some rearranging, but I think we can fit her through the bay doors in the stable. If she sticks out the end, I might have to wrap a flag around her feet or something."

Annabeth shuddered. She imagined the Athena Parthenos jutting from their trireme with a sign across her pedestal that read: WIDE LOAD.

Apollo snickered, but the heroes' eyes formed the phrase if looks could kill pretty well.

Then she thought about the other lines of the prophecy: The twins snuff out the angel's breath, who holds the keys to endless death.

"At least we're still going along the lines of the worst plan ever," commented Jason sarcastically.

"What about you guys?" she asked. "What happened with the giants?"

Percy told her about rescuing Nico, the appearance of Bacchus, and the fight with the twins in the Colosseum. Nico didn't say much. The poor guy looked like he'd been wandering through a wasteland for six weeks.

"Not half as bad as you guys look now," he said. The Olympians nodded in agreement.

Percy explained what Nico had found out about the Doors of Death, and how they had to be closed on both sides. Even with sunlight streaming in from above, Percy's news made the cavern seem dark again.

"So the mortal side is in Epirus," she said. "At least that's somewhere we can reach."

Nico grimaced. "But the other side is the problem. Tartarus."

" 'Problem' seems to be an understatement, young one," said Athena.

The word seemed to echo through the chamber. The pit behind them exhaled a cold blast of air. That's when Annabeth knew with certainty. The chasm did go straight to the Underworld.

Percy must have felt it too. He guided her a little farther from the edge.

Athena nodded in approval, but her eyes were filled with dread. She already knew what was going to happen.

"I don't get it," mused Poseidon. "What could- oh. OH. No, no, NO!"

"Sea spawn finally understands, I see. My daughter, and your son, coming from the depths of Hell, and you don't wonder how they got there?" Athena replied. Poseidon looked over at Percy, whose eyes showed no emotion.

"I can't read this. Hestia, you carry on." Hestia took the book and read from where Poseidon left off, her voice square yet sympathetic.

Her arms and legs trailed spider silk like a bridal train. She wished she had her dagger to cut that junk off. She almost asked Percy to do the honors with Riptide, but before she could, he said, "Bacchus mentioned something about my voyage being harder than I expected. Not sure why—"

"And, this is where it all goes wrong," Leo said cynically. The demigods took deep breaths, one by one, and curled their hands into fists, or held hands with those nearest them. The despair in their eyes trapped in light from the room.

The chamber groaned. The Athena Parthenos tilted to one side. Its head caught on one of Arachne's support cables, but the marble foundation under the pedestal was crumbling.

"No," Athena shook her head in defeat.

Nausea swelled in Annabeth's chest. If the statue fell into the chasm, all her work would be for nothing. Their quest would fail.

"Secure it!" Annabeth cried.

Hephaestus started muttering frantically about support cables and pulley harnesses.

Her friends understood immediately.

"Zhang!" Leo cried. "Get me to the helm, quick! The coach is up there alone."

Frank transformed into a giant eagle, and the two of them soared toward the ship.

Jason wrapped his arm around Piper. He turned to Percy. "Back for you guys in a sec." He summoned the wind and shot into the air.

"I should have got you back, I should have been quicker, I should have carried you all at once," Jason cried.

"This floor won't last!" Hazel warned. "The rest of us should get to the ladder."

"That's it, get out of there!" Aphrodite was biting her fingers frantically.

"Shut up Aphrodite, you know it DOESN'T WORK!" Poseidon roared.

Plumes of dust and cobwebs blasted from holes in the floor. The spider's silk support cables trembled like massive guitar strings and began to snap. Hazel lunged for the bottom of the rope ladder and gestured for Nico to follow, but Nico was in no condition to sprint.

"I'm so sorry," Nico said, on the brink of tears.

"Don't be, it was never your fault," replied Annabeth. She, too, had glistening eyes.

Percy gripped Annabeth's hand tighter. "It'll be fine," he muttered.

Annabeth sobbed. She reached out for Piper, who was also crying, and they grabbed each other's hands.

Looking up, she saw grappling lines shoot from the Argo II and wrap around the statue. One lassoed Athena's neck like a noose. Leo shouted orders from the helm as Jason and Frank flew frantically from line to line, trying to secure them.

Leo looked drained. "All that effort seems so STUPID now! Why did we ever BOTHER with the STUPID statue?" He grabbed a stone from the floor and hurled it across the room. Jason shook his shoulder hard.

"Here we go," Percy muttered. He and Annabeth clung onto each other, their breathing quick and ragged.

Nico had just reached the ladder when a sharp pain shot up Annabeth's bad leg. She gasped and stumbled.

"What is it?" Percy asked.

She tried to stagger toward the ladder. Why was she moving backward instead? Her legs swept out from under her and she fell on her face.

"Her ankle!" Hazel shouted from the ladder. "Cut it! Cut it!"

"Cut her ankle? What are you talking about?" chided Hermes. "What's happening?"

Annabeth's mind was woolly from the pain. Cut her ankle?

Apparently Percy didn't realize what Hazel meant either.

"That makes three of us," Hermes chuckled.

"You honestly haven't realised yet?" Percy whispered furiously.

Then something yanked Annabeth backward and dragged her toward the pit.

"NO!" cried Apollo, Hermes, Demeter, Ares and Artemis simultaneously.

Percy lunged. He grabbed her arm, but the momentum carried him along as well.

"Help them!" Hazel yelled.

Annabeth glimpsed Nico hobbling in their direction, Hazel trying to disentangle her cavalry sword from the rope ladder. Their other friends were still focused on the statue, and Hazel's cry was lost in the general shouting and the rumbling of the cavern.

Annabeth sobbed as she hit the edge of the pit. Her legs went over the side.

Aphrodite squealed in horror.

Too late, she realized what was happening: she was tangled in the spider silk. She should have cut it away immediately. She had thought it was just loose line, but with the entire floor covered in cobwebs, she hadn't noticed that one of the strands was wrapped around her foot—and the other end went straight into the pit. It was attached to something heavy down in the darkness, something that was pulling her in.

Athena's eyes burned with fury. "When I find that wretched spider, I will tear her to pieces and scatter her to the corners of Tartarus myself."

"No," Percy muttered, light dawning in his eyes. "My sword…"

But he couldn't reach Riptide without letting go of Annabeth's arm, and Annabeth's strength was gone. She slipped over the edge. Percy fell with her.

"You are brave, Percy," commented Zeus. He seemed too out-of-it to care as much as he should have done. Percy felt sick at his distance and indifference.

Her body slammed into something. She must have blacked out briefly from the pain. When she could see again, she realized that she'd fallen partway into the pit and was dangling over the void.

Percy had managed to grab a ledge about fifteen feet below the top of the chasm. He was holding on with one hand, gripping Annabeth's wrist with the other, but the pull on her leg was much too strong.

No escape, said a voice in the darkness below. I go to Tartarus, and you will come too.

Percy and Annabeth shuddered at the memory.

Annabeth wasn't sure if she actually heard Arachne's voice or if it was just in her mind.

The pit shook. Percy was the only thing keeping her from falling. He was barely holding on to a ledge the size of a bookshelf.

He flexed his aching, worn fingers subconsciously.

Nico leaned over the edge of the chasm, thrusting out his hand, but he was much too far away to help. Hazel was yelling for the others, but even if they heard her over all the chaos, they'd never make it in time.

Annabeth's leg felt like it was pulling free of her body. Pain washed everything in red. The force of the Underworld tugged at her like dark gravity. She didn't have the strength to fight. She knew she was too far down to be saved.

"Percy, let me go," she croaked. "You can't pull me up."

His face was white with effort. She could see in his eyes that he knew it was hopeless.

Hestia paused for a moment. She shrunk into the form of an nine-year-old girl. "There is always hope, Percy. Look at yourself now."

Percy shook his head. "We have what, ten minutes? In less than ten minutes we'll be back in Tartarus, and everything will be the same as it was before. What do we have?"

"You have hope, Percy," Hestia insisted. "That is more than most people have, believe me. Find the Doors of Death. Close them. Come home."

Percy burrowed his head in Annabeth's shoulder.

"I'm so scared."

"Listen to your bravery here, Percy. You still have that. You always will." Hestia turned back to the book.

"Never," he said. He looked up at Nico, fifteen feet above. "The other side, Nico! We'll see you there. Understand?"

Nico's eyes widened. "But—"

"Lead them there!" Percy shouted. "Promise me!"

"I—I will."

Nico looked determined. "Hestia's right, Percy. Keep your end of the bargain!"

Below them, the voice laughed in the darkness. Sacrifices. Beautiful sacrifices to wake the goddess.

Percy tightened his grip on Annabeth's wrist. His face was gaunt, scraped and bloody, his hair dusted with cobwebs, but when he locked eyes with her, she thought he had never looked more handsome.

Aphrodite sighed, and muttered something about the strength of love.

"We're staying together," he promised. "You're not getting away from me. Never again."

"Never," whispered Annabeth.

Only then did she understand what would happen. A one-way trip. A very hard fall.

"As long as we're together," she said.

She heard Nico and Hazel still screaming for help. She saw the sunlight far, far above—maybe the last sunlight she would ever see.

Then Percy let go of his tiny ledge, and together, holding hands, he and Annabeth fell into the endless darkness.

A huge roar tore through the room.

A chasm fractured in the centre.

Two demigods tumbled, in each others' arms, into the endless darkness.

The other six heroes flashed out into the shadows.

Deafening silence rang around.

A/N: Woohoo! Or not, you know. I didn't plan most of that, but I like how it ended. I was a little wary of the OOC-ness of some of the gods, but actually I think it's OK. Please leave a review!

Also, I have a wonderful plan for a longer fanfiction, which I will be writing over the next few weeks. I have a full plot written out, so it won't be one of those 'writer's block - hiatus' stories. When I say wonderful, it's a torture fiction, so not sunny or rainbows. But wonderful in terms of the plan I have for the plot.

Thanks for reading!

~ FlamesOfHestia