This is an alternate ending to The Mark of Athena,  so in other words, if Percy and Annabeth hadn't fallen to Tartarus. I am not by any means saying that I don't agree with the real ending written, because even though it breaks my heart, I know that the fall was crucial to the plot. This is just an idea I had and I thought it would be fun to write. Also: THE ITALIC PRINT AT THE BEGINNING IS ENTIRELY RICK'S WORK AND WORDING, I'm just putting it in so the story doesn't start at an odd time. My additions are in regular print.

Annabeth had seen some strange things before, but she'd never seen it rain cars. 

As the roof of the cavern collapsed, sunlight blinded her. She got the briefest glimpse of the Argo ll hovering above. It must have used its ballistae to blast a hole straight through the ground. 

Chunks of asphalt as big as 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 force field, and the car bounced off. Unfortunately, it fell straight toward Annabeth.

She jumped to one side, twisting her bad foot. A wave of agony almost made her pass out, but she flipped on her back in time to see a bright red Fiat 500 slam into Arachne's silk trap, punching through the cavern floor and disappearing with Chinese Spidercuffs.

As Arachne fell, she screamed like a freight train on a collision course; but her wailing rapidly faded. All around Annabeth, 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. Annabeth was covered in cobwebs. She trailed strands of leftover spider silk from her arms and legs like the strings of a marionette, but somehow, amazingly, none of the debris had hit her. She wanted to believe that the statue had protected her, though she suspected it might've been just luck.

The army of spiders had disappeared. 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 walls crumbled to dust, which Annabeth could hardly bear to watch - especially the tapestry depicting her and Percy.

But none of that mattered when she heard Percy's voice from above: "Annabeth!"

"Here!" she sobbed.

All the terror seemed to leave her in one massive yelp. As the Argo ll descended, she saw Percy leaning over the rail. His smile was better than any tapestry she'd ever seen.

The room kept shaking, but Annabeth managed to stand. The floor at her feet seemed stable for the moment. Her back-pack was missing, along with Daedalus' laptop. Her bronze knife, which she'd had since she was seven, was also gone - probably fallen into the pit. But Annabeth didn't care. She was alive.

She edged closer to the gaping hole made by the Fiat 500. Jagged rock walls plunged into the darkness as far as Annabeth could see. A few small ledges jutted out here and there, but Annabeth saw nothing on them - just strands of spider silk dripping over the sides of the sides like Christmas tinsel.

Annabeth wondered if Arachne had told the truth about the chasm. Had the spider fallen all the way to Tartarus?  Arachne had made some beautiful things. She'd already suffered for eons. Now her last tapestries had crumbled. After all that, falling to Tartarus seemed like too harsh an end.

Annabeth was dimly aware of the Argo ll hovering over to a stop about forty feet from the floor. It lowered a rope ladder, but Annabeth stood in a daze, staring into the darkness. Then suddenly Percy was next to her, lacing his fingers in hers.

He turned her gently away from the pit and wrapped his arms around her. She buried her face in his chest and broke down in tears.

"It's okay," he said. "We're together."

He didn't say "you're okay" or "we're alive". After all they'd been through over the last year, he knew the most important thing was that he were together. She loved him for saying that.

Their friends gathered around them. Nico di Angelo was there, but Annabeth's thoughts were so fuzzy, this didn't seem surprising to her. It only seemed right that he would be with them. 

"Your leg." Piper knelt next to her and examined the Bubble Wrap cast. "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. When she finished, her friends' faces were slack with amazement.

"Gods of Olympus," Jason said. "You did that all 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 - Annabeth, you did it. Generations of Athena kids tried and failed. You found the Athena Parthenos!"

Everyone gazed at the statue.

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

"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 in admiration. "It was Arachne's jail. You tricked her into weaving it."

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.

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

"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 wondering through a wasteland for six weeks. 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 Epirus," she said. "At least that's somewhere we can reach."

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

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. Her arms and legs trailed spider silk like a bridal train. She wished she had her dagger to cut that junk off.

"Percy, can you cut this off?" she asked him, showing him a strand of the web.

"Of course," he responded, pulling out Riptide. He had wrapped his arms around her again a few minutes ago, and until he let go, Annabeth hadn't realized how much he was supporting her. When he knelt to slice the silk around her feet, she about fell over. She managed to steady herself with a hand on his shoulder. He looked up in alarm. "You okay? Is it your ankle?"

She gave some sort of movement of her head; not really a nod and not really a shake. Everything in her vision was starting to swim and her legs felt as though they would give out any moment. Percy quickly got to work and Piper came over to help with her dagger. The rest of them started forming a plan to get the statue on the ship, but Annabeth was hardly listening.

When Percy and Piper were done, they stood up. Percy took Annabeth back in his arms and gently removed the loose webs from her hair. She breathed deeply, trying to clear her head. Piper started talking with the others.

"Okay, we'll be right back," Jason told Percy. Then he took Piper in his arms and flew up to the ship. Frank turned into a huge bird and grabbed Leo in his talons, and also flew upward. Just as the four of them started securing the Athena Parthenos with wires and hauling her up to the bay doors, the cavern started to tremble worse than ever. More debris started to rain down and the floor shook violently.

Percy looked at Hazel, then at Nico, then at Annabeth, and back at Hazel. Some sort of understanding passed between the two of them. Hazel started to usher Nico in the direction of the rope ladder. He seemed really weak and she linked arms with him to help him go faster.

"Come on, Annabeth," Percy mumbled in her ear almost inaudibly. "We've just got to get to the ship." He wrapped an arm around her waist and started to follow Nico and Hazel.

Fatigue was starting to take toll on Annabeth's body, and every step sent a searing pain through her ankle. She stumbled on the quivering ground but Percy held her upright. When he saw how much pain she was in, he scooped her up and carried her the rest of the way. She buried her face in the collar of his shirt to try to make the dizziness go away.

When the couple had finally reached the rope ladder, Hazel and Nico were halfway up. Annabeth looked at how far she would have to climb. She knew she couldn't make it that far, even with Percy's help.

"Perce, I - I can't-" she started to say but Percy just shushed her gently. He stood there with her in his arms for a few moments, trying to decide what to do.

Jason came down and landed next to them. He held his arms out and Percy passed Annabeth over.

"Meet you up there," Percy promised, starting the ascent up the ladder. Annabeth couldn't reply but she did wrap her arms weakly around Jason's shoulders as he pushed off the ground.

She must have passed out briefly in Jason's arms, because the next thing she knew, she was laying with her head in Percy's lap on the deck of the Argo ll.  The war ship was sailing through the sky. Annabeth could see Leo steering and hear Festus creaking, and the rest of the crew was still running around trying to sort everything out. Percy was stroking her hair and holding both of her hands in the other one of his.

Annabeth wanted to let Percy know she was okay as soon as possible, but she also couldn't make herself do anything but lay there for a little bit longer. When she felt the ship finally land, she squeezed Percy's hand and croaked his name.

"Oh, Annabeth," he moaned softly. "I'm so proud of you. And I'm even more glad that you're here, alive."

"Well, I'm glad too."

Percy's laugh almost made all her pain go away.

Soon, the other six demigods and Coach Hedge (where did he come from?) crowded around her. Percy helped her sit up, which set in a killer headache, but other than that, she was fine.

"Good job, Cupcake," Coach told her in the gentlest voice she'd ever heard him use. Annabeth just smiled back. "So I'm guessing your ankle hurts then? Let me look, I'm a fantastic medic."

Annabeth laid back down against Percy and clenched her jaw as the satyr unwrapped her broken ankle and felt around it. The ambrosia she'd taken still hadn't done anything.

Percy must have sensed her discomfort, because he stroked her cheek and rubbed circles on the top of her hand.

"That's weird," Coach Hedge muttered.

"What's weird?" Frank asked nervously. Annabeth saw the rest of them shift apprehensively and Percy's shoulders visibly tensed.

"The bones are completely shattered but the ankle is in the right place... I don't know how that's possible, it should be all twisted."

"That's because I already set it," Annabeth interjected. Shocked silence followed.

"You... set your own ankle?" Nico asked incredulously. Annabeth nodded.

She didn't quite catch what Percy said, but it was something along the lines of, "Of course she set her own ankle. Probably fixed world hunger too."

After Nurse Gleeson patched Annabeth all up, Percy carried her back to her room.

"No funny business, Jackson," he had warned. "I want you to come right back here-"

"Coach," Jason interrupted him. Coach sighed, waved his hand vaguely in a get lost gesture, and walked into the mess hall.

Once Percy had laid her down and made sure she was comfortable, he leaned over and kissed her. Annabeth realized it was the first time since before they'd departed earlier that day. Wow. That was the same day as now. That seemed absolutely absurd to Annabeth.

The two of them stayed that way for a long time, and she didn't want him to pull away. But eventually he did, and sat on the edge of her bed.

"I have the most amazing girlfriend," he told her. Annabeth took in a shaky breath. She would not cry again.

"I was so scared, Percy, it was so terrible." Then she broke down. Percy held her tight as her body was wracked with sobs. She started to cry out every awful detail to him, every emotion she felt, what the presence of Arachne had felt like, everything she hadn't been able to share with the others. By the time she was done, she was still crying, but Percy had tear stains down his face, too.

They were silent for a long time, just the occasional sniffle. Finally, he spoke:

"It's over. We're staying together. We're going to figure this all out," he assured her, or maybe he was assuring himself.

"But how? How can we-"

"I don't know, but we'll do it."

Annabeth looked into his startling green eyes that she'd come to love, and believed him. "Okay."

He kissed her one more time, and wiped the tears left on her face away with his thumb. "Call me if you need me." Then he started to walk towards the door.

"Percy!" Annabeth called when he had his hand on the handle, before she changed her mind.

"Yeah?" he asked, turning around.

"I love you."

His face broke into a huge grin. "I love you, too, Wise Girl."

Annabeth was glad she said that. She definitely did love him, there was no denying it.

She tried to go to sleep, her chest a little fuzzy from Percy's response right before he left. But there was something telling her that something almost went terribly wrong. 

She rolled over and tried to shake the feeling. It might have just been the stress for what was to come. But Annabeth knew in the back of her mind that that wasn't it. She'd gotten extremely good luck all day, considering the circumstances. What would have happened if her luck had run out just a few minutes sooner?