Hey, everyone!

THIS IS THE FINAL CHAPTER OF MY Mark of Athena! Thank you all so much for reading and being loyal to me!

Okay, I won't talk too much, and just let you guys read!

Enjoy!

Chapter 48

Annabeth

Annabeth turned to run, but Gaea's stone hand grabbed her waist and lifted her into the air, right in front of Gaea's glass eyes.

"Who's the coward now, Annabeth?" Gaea hissed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think we both need some fresh air," And Gaea climbed up of the ledge, and climbed up the clay wall of the cave, Annabeth screaming as the cave shook like there was an earthquake, chunks of clay rock falling down on all the demons that had just built Gaea's current body.

Gaea finally climbed out of the hole in the ground, and she cackled and laughed as she stepped on a building, and Annabeth recognized right away; the jewelry store Annabeth had passed on her way to find Gaea.

Gaea had just killed maybe twenty people.

As she walked through town, crushing buildings, people, stepping into traffic, Annabeth could hear the screaming city above them.

Annabeth soon realized that Gaea was walking the way that she had come from to find her.

Which meant she was trying to find her friends.

Annabeth got really angry, really fast, and she screaming in frustration and pounded on Gaea's stone fist.

"Oh, don't be spoil-sport, Annabeth," Gaea chided as she killed more people, crushed more buildings, and broke through an electric power line. Then Gaea stepped into an open field and started running, and Annabeth realized she was closer to them than she thought.

And then, she saw them.

Six, tiny-looking people, standing maybe hundreds of feet below her, the ground around them for maybe a mile golden from the demon sand.

Gold, Annabeth thought, and then it hit her. The sword!

She drew the sword from the slit in the back of her shirt, and stabbed Gaea's hand with it.

It pierced the stone like it was butter, and Gaea shrieked as her hand started smoking. She released Annabeth, and Annabeth was dangling from Gaea's hand by the hilt of the magical sword as Gaea continued to shriek and started to swing her hand.

Annabeth dragged the sword through the stone and Gaea shrieked louder.

Then, the sword went completely through her hand, and Annabeth, the sword, and all the fingers on Gaea's right hand when plummeting toward the ground.

As the ground rushed toward her, so did her friends.

She prayed to Athena her death would be quick and rather painless when she hit the ground, but then she saw Jason flying up to meet her.

He grabbed her, and as she was in his arms, he said, "Percy sent me, if you're wondering." And then they started their quick but steady descend to the ground.

As soon as her feet touched the ground and Jason let her go, the first thing Annabeth got was a hug from Percy.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" he asked, and he backed away and looked her in the eyes.

Then his expression turned grave when he saw her nose. "What did she do to you?"

"Nothing, Percy, I slipped when I was climbing a wall to get the sword. I'll be okay, it's not bleeding anymore."

He kissed her gently, and then he let her go. "We have a Gaea to fight."

She smiled, but then she said, "I think you mean I have a Gaea to fight. This is my quest, remember? She might want to kill you, too, but I have to do this alone."

Percy looked upset. "I know you do, but I don't want you too!"

"Percy, Jason, get everyone to safety. I'll be back. I promise," Annabeth said, and she turned and walked back over to Gaea, who had finally regained control of herself, and her hand wasn't smoking anymore.

"You sick little peasant!" She spat.

"'Peasant'?" Annabeth asked. "Seriously?"

"Die!" Gaea shouted, and dropped her left fist onto Annabeth.

She rolled out of the way and stabbed the fist.

This time, cracks shaped like a spider web appeared and broke her fist into tiny pieces.

She backed up as the pieces smoked and Gaea screamed again.

Why isn't Gaea dying? Annabeth thought as she calculated the damages she'd made.

I guess it doesn't spread farther than a small section of her stone body, Annabeth thought as Gaea regained her composure and came after her again.

So, how do I, Annabeth thought as she rolled out the way of another flying stone fist, get to her heart? Or do I target her brain? Does she even have either of those?

She hacked at Gaea's arm with the sword, and this time, her entire arm smoked and melted.

She screeched, and then Annabeth thought of a way up to kill her.

"You call yourself powerful? A sword I could buy at Michael's is melting you to pieces! You're much more pitiful than I thought!" Annabeth taunted.

Gaea screeched in rage and threw another fist down.

Annabeth rolled out of the way and then turned and climbed up onto the stone fist.

Trying to balance, she ran up Gaea's arm as Gaea's fingerless stone hand swatted at her, breaking off the stone behind her, ruining her escape plan.

"You're making me break myself! Stop running, foolish demigod, and just face your death!" Gaea shouted.

Annabeth had finally made it up Gaea's arm and was standing on her shoulder. Gaea smashed a fingerless fist on the shoulder as Annabeth rolled out of the way and in next to the base of Gaea's neck.

Gaea tried to grab Annabeth, but the only arm she had left had a fingerless hand on it. Annabeth couldn't help but laugh before she knelt and stabbed Gaea's stone chest where a heart on a human would have been.

Cracks spider webbed across the left side of her chest, but it didn't shatter, and Gaea laughed.

"You honestly think I have a heart? I'm made of stone, girl! I'm the spirit of the Earth!" Gaea continued to laugh, and then Annabeth thought for a second.

She doesn't have a heart, and she said she's the spirit of the Earth, so she also has no brain. Wait, isn't the spirit another name for the soul? And Annabeth thought of something she never would have thought of in a situation like this, Medusa says that the eyes are the gateway to the soul. That's how she turns people to stone.

"So, to get to Gaea's soul," Annabeth crept out slightly from under Gaea's chin and saw her glass eyes staring down at her angrily, "I have to get through the eyes." She smiled. "No problem."

Gaea tried to grab Annabeth again, and this time Annabeth grabbed her hand and held on as Gaea lifted it up to her face, so Annabeth was eye level with Gaea.

"How does it feel to be helpless, Annabeth?" Gaea taunted.

"I don't know. I'll ask you in a minute, though," Annabeth replied, and kicked Gaea's right eyes until it shattered.

Gaea screeched and tried to pull Annabeth away from her eyes, but Annabeth swung and flung herself into the hole just big enough for her to fit.

She hit some stones protruding around the inside of her shell.

She took the magic sword and started stabbing at anything and everything she saw, slashing and bashing, turning stone into chunks and liquid, filling the place with smoke.

Annabeth couched but kept going as she heard Gaea screaming.

She took a break from destroying; the air was too smoky for her to see of breath very well.

She decided to break open the other eye and get back to work.

She climbed the stones until she reached the two glass sections and kicked the remaining one to pieces.

The smoke soon flooded over there, and she nearly fell out as she continued to cough.

She made her way back down, and she continued to hack at everything.

Then, the screaming suddenly got louder. And then she realized it wasn't getting louder, but closer.

"How is that possible?" she thought aloud, and then she saw it.

Across the ledge she was on (Gaea's body went way lower than she was willing to), was what looked like a big, silver blob, coming out of the wall, and bringing the screaming with it.

Annabeth stabbed at couple more things, and then finally, the silver blob separated form the wall, and took the shape of a woman, but she rooted herself to the stone ledge, footless.

She shrieked, and glided across the ledge toward her. Then, she said, "You will die!"

Gaea, Annabeth thought as she drew her sword. Let's get this over with.

Annabeth made the first strike, but Gaea lurched backward and lunged for her again.

Annabeth parried with her sword, and Gaea's spirit began to smoke as well. She screeched in alarm and flung herself backward.

"This shouldn't happen!" Gaea hissed. Her eyes flew to my sword. "What is that? Where did you get it?!"

Annabeth didn't answer. Instead, she took Gaea's moment of shock to lunch for her heart.

Gaea dodged and smacked Annabeth, sending her flying against the wall.

And then, there was a loud creaking sound, and Annabeth and Gaea stopped.

"Um, how is this thing staying up, exactly?" Annabeth asked.

"I left it in a balanced position," Gaea replied.

"Well," Annabeth said, "I think I might have just tipped it."

And then the stone started to tilt, and Annabeth was sent tumbling toward the stone head, and she slipped through one of the eyes.

She grabbed the edge of the eye socket quickly, and as she hung there, dangling, the broken pieces of glass stabbing into her fingers and cutting them. And as she hung there, she thought of Percy.

I promised him I'd come back. There was a song he wanted to sing me. I promised, Annabeth thought, and she tried to lift herself up while the world spun around her.

She almost slipped on her own blood. She looked down, and saw the sword in her dangling hand.

She slid the sword into the tear in her shirt, and grabbed the ledge with her now free hand.

She tried to pull herself up again, but she just didn't have enough upper body strength.

Then she remembered that she was on a flat surface. She could use her feet.

She climbed Gaea's face with her feet, and pulled herself through the socket and tumbled down, trying to protect her hands.

She started pulling glass pieces out of her hands and then remembered she was supposed to be fight Gaea and fulfilling a prophecy.

She pulled out the last shard and drew her sword once more.

She saw Gaea. Gaea was just standing there, looking a little scared.

Annabeth ran up to her, and Gaea said, "Die, demigod!"

"Or, you can," Annabeth replied. "Gaea, tell me, how does it feel to be completely helpless?" And not even waiting for her answer, she shoved her sword into Gaea's chest, and she screeched, smoked, and exploded, blowing Annabeth backward, and as soon as she hit the wall, the stone statue the ground and shattered.

Annabeth's eyes blinked open, and she groaned and sat up. A couple things shifted off her, and she grumbled, "My head hurts."

"Hey, I think I heard something," Annabeth heard Hazel say.

"Annabeth?" Annabeth heard Percy say, excitedly. "Was it her voice?"

"Is she blonde? Gray eyes? Ripped clothes, dirty, and a bloody nose?" Annabeth asked.

Percy ran to her voice, pulled her up, and kissed her. They broke apart, and then Percy smiled. "Yeah, that's her."

"I guess you found her, then." Annabeth smiled, and hugged him.

"I promised I would come back," Annabeth whispered into his ear.

"I never doubted you," Percy replied.

And then they were all on her, hugging her and Piper was even almost crying.

"We did it, guys," Annabeth said. "We're all alive."

It's over, guys! They did it, and now everyone is ALIVE!

Okay, now I just want to make this clear to people: I ENDED IT HAPPILY SO THAT I WOULDN'T HAVE TO WRITE A SEQUEL TO THIS ONE, and focus on the sequel to the real Mark of Athena!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and how cool is it, that I finished my MoA (first Fanfiction story for me to ever finish!) 2 DAYS before my 1-year-anniversary on Fanfiction!

I want to thank everyone for being a reader, but I really want to thank Blondie B Happy for being a supportive cousin for when things went wrong, and for being a friend with ideas and being...well, a cousin! You'll always be the first person I go to when I look for story advice!

Thanks for Reading!