The Journey Through Tartarus

Falling

A/N: this is mostly the last chapter in The Mark Of Athena I do not own any of the rights to it.

P.S: As of now I'm just trying to write the whole story there are many things I would like to go back and fix, such as discrepancies in how the Percy Jackson universe works, however, updates are slow as motivation comes in waves so please be patient with me.

P.P.S: I love that people leave comments if you have questions or even criticism but please be kind.

Chapter 1: Falling

Annabeth's POV:

As a demigod, I had seen some strange things before, but I had never seen it rain cars.  As the roof of the cavern collapsed, sunlight blinded me and I got the briefest glimpse of the Argo II hovering above. It must have used its ballistae to blast a hole straight through the ground.

Chunks of asphalt as biggest garage doors tumbled down, along with six or seven Italian cars. One would have crushed the Athena Parthenos, but the statue's glowing aura acted like a forcefield, and the car bounced off. Unfortunately, it fell straight towards Annabeth.

I leaped to the side only succeeding in twisting my bad foot. A wave of agony almost made my vision go black, I flipped back towards the ceiling in time to see a bright Blue Fiat 500 slam into Arachne's silk cocoon, punching through the cavern floor and disappearing into the chasm.

As Arachne fell, she screamed like a freight train on a collision course but her wailing rapidly faded. All around me, more chunks of debris slammed through the floor, riddling it with holes.

The Athena Parthenos remained undamaged, though the marble under its pedestal was a starburst of fractures. I was covered in cobwebs, a few strands of leftover spider silk trailed from my arms and legs like the strings of a marionette. Somehow though, amazingly, none of the debris crushed me. I almost wanted to believe that the statue had protected me, though more likely it was just dumb luck

The army of spiders had disappeared, and I certainly wasn't mad about it either, they had fled back into the darkness or they'd fallen into the chasm. As daylight flooded the cavern, Arachne's tapestries along the wall crumbled to dust, which was almost painful for me to watch almost out of respect.  Arachne had in fact been an amazing weaver, maybe better than mom.

But none of that mattered when the beautiful Greek trireme came back into view. As the Argo II descended, I could see Percy leaning over the rail. His smile was better than any tapestry I'd ever seen. Jason, Piper, and Hazel also stood at the rails beaming at me.

The room kept shaking, but I managed to stand. The floor under my feet seemed to be stable for the moment. But my backpack was missing, along with Daedalus' laptop my bronze knife, which Luke had given me when I was seven, was also gone probably already falling into the pit. I didn't care though, I was alive and the Athena Parthenos was intact and next to me.

I edged closer to the gaping hole made by the Fiat 500. Jagged rock walls plummeted into the darkness as far as the eye could see, A few small ledges jetted out here and there, on them clung strands of spider silk dripping down farther like barely illuminated Christmas tensile.  

Had Arachne told the truth about the chasm. Had the spider fallen all the way to Tartarus? she tried to feel satisfied with that idea, but it made her sad. Arachne had made some beautiful things. She'd already suffered for eons, but now her last tapestries had crumbled and after all that, falling into Tartarus seems like too harsh and end. I was dimly aware of the Argo II hovering to a stop about 40 feet from the floor. It lowered a rope ladder, but I just stood in a daze, staring into the darkness. then suddenly Percy was right there next to me , lacing his fingers with mine.