Commander Alpha

Chapter 6

Percy's POV

I guess my demigod comment was true. As I thought about it in the vast emptiness that filled portal-traveling, I realized that I didn't really consider myself a Half-Blood anymore. My godly genetics had been revoked when Poseidon had disowned me, and nectar and ambrosia would burn me up, as if I was a mortal. If anything, I was a mortal with the ability to see through mist, blessed with powers from Chaos, who smelled really bad (or good? I'm not sure) to monsters.
As the portal deposited us at the top of Half-Blood Hill, I was met with the familiar scent of strawberries in the summer sun. I almost smiled, but caught myself. The memories of what happened here rushed through my head. I felt a pang in my heart. That could never happen again, for I am no longer Percy Jackson. I am Alpha. I walked over to where my warriors and the demigods were walking down the hill.
About halfway I walked into a wall. At least that was what it felt like. The wall was invisible. I looked around me to find that no one else seemed to be having the same problem I was having. I started freaking out when a realization struck me. I was no longer a demigod. I couldn't get past the boundary of Thalia's tree.
"Uh, guys?" I called. "Help?" Everyone looked back at me with confused expressions. I demonstrated my predicament by throwing myself at the boundary a few times. "Not a demigod, remember?" Piper nodded in understanding.
"I, Piper McClean, give Commander Alpha permission to enter Camp Half Blood." Unfortunately, as she said this, I was leaning against the barrier. When it came down, I clumsily flopped forward, face planting. I heard the Warriors laughing and the campers holding in a few snickers of their own. I sighed, brushed my cloak off, and continued down the familiar hill. I decided to head over to Calypso. I was wondering how she was after all of this time.
"Hey." She looked startled, looking around like she didn't think I was talking to her. After a moment, her gaze settled on my face, or, my hood.
"Hi?" She said warily. Leo seemed to notice our little exchange and slowed his pace until he was protectively in between me and Calypso. He stood in a protective stance in front of her. He put out his hand and a ball of fire the size of an apple floated above his hand.
"Hey, lay off my girl." Leo demanded, trying to make himself sound tougher, but his voice made me want to laugh. Emma turned around and jogged back up the hill to join us.
"Lay off my commander." She demanded in a terrible intimidation of Leo's voice, lighting a ball of fire easily twice the size of Leo's over her outstretched hand. Leo's jaw dropped, as well as Calypso's and the demigods surrounding us. Emma, being herself, extinguished the fire, bowed, and tripped on her way over to Zoë. I looked at my warriors to see how they were handling coming back to what used to be their home. Bianca and Zoë were both staring wistfully at Artemis; Beckendorf was looking in the direction of the Hephaestus Cabin sadly; Silena was worriedly looking up at Beckendorf; Castor was still staring at Pollux who seemed pretty freaked out at the mysterious warrior staring at him; Emma was surveying the camp; and Luke's eyes were filled with worry. He was probably afraid that the campers would find out his identity.
I heard Rachel gasp, looking straight at me from farther down the hill. Her face paled. She looked as though she'd seen a ghost. We were interrupted by Chiron clearing his throat. The quiet conversations came to a stop as everyone focused their attention on Chiron, although I could still feel Rachel's eyes locked onto the side of my hood.
"Well, I suppose we should call the campers to the Amphitheater for a meeting." He demanded. I nodded in approval. Then, I realized that he probably couldn't see me nod under my hood.
"Sure." I said simply. "I'm going to go make us a cabin. Is there an empty space of land we could use?" Chiron nodded, but told us that we could stay in the big house, but I declined. Finally, he pointed us to a patch of land on the edge of the camp border. I walked over with my warriors, the demigods trailing behind.
"How are you going to make a cabin?" Lou Ellen asked curiously. "It took us at least-" I cut her off by waving my hand at the empty patch of grass, and within a matter of seconds, a cabin had appeared out of nowhere. It was the same relative size as the other cabins, but really set it apart was how it looked. The outside was a pitch black material swirling with galaxies. I smiled, knowing it'd be much bigger in the inside. "Oh." Lou Ellen finished, seemingly at a loss for words. I looked behind me at the demigods and saw they were all thoroughly surprised. My warriors headed into the cabin, and I was going to follow them when someone grabbed my arm. I turned around to see none other than Rachel Dare.
"Hello...?" I trailed off, wondering what she wanted.
"Meet me at exactly 3:30 pm at Zeus's First. I'm trusting you know where that is?" She demanded.
"I'm sure we can find it." I said. She nodded and something flashed in her eye. Was that a look of... Hope? I wondered what she could be hopeful about, but decided not to worry about it. I mean, how could you understand the girl who hit the Titan lord with a plastic hair brush? I still make fun of Luke for that one.
I walked into the cabin, closing the door behind me, and looked around. I've got to say, I did a pretty good job. The living room itself was easily twice the size of the exterior of the cabin, and a bookshelf took up a whole wall. There was a gigantic flat-screen TV on the wall hooked up to every video game you could possibly want. Luke and Castor were already picking up controllers and leafing through the games. I glanced at the wall clock and it read 3:12. That left eighteen minutes until Rachel wanted us to meet her.
'Meeting in the conference room.' I mind-spoke. I heard mumbles and grumbles, so I added, 'It will only take five minutes, ten tops.'
'Where's the conference room?' Caster asked/yelled. I, along with a few of the other warriors, grimaced.
'Little quieter next time, and it's in the room with the door that says 'Conference Room' in bold letters off the living room.'
'Oh.' I walked into the room followed by everyone else that was in the living room at the time. Within the next minute, the rest of my army entered as well.
"Why'd you call us here?" Beckendorf asked.
"Rachel Dare told me that she wanted to meet us at Zeus's First at 3:30 and it is currently-" I checked the clock. "-3:15."
     "Do you know why?" Emma asked.
"No, but my best guess would be that it has something to do with a prophecy." I stated, pausing to look around at my warriors. They all had their hoods up except for me. "You guys can take your hoods off you know."
"But what if some demigod walks in?" Bianca questioned.
"The door is magic, only the warriors and Chaos can open it, and even if it's open, they won't be able to walk through it unless they have our permission. Also, no one except for us can see through the windows or the door, if it's open." I explained. Emma checked her watch.
"It is now 3:17 roughly. Should we get going?" She asked.
"Sure-" I answered before I was cut off.
"Won't she be suspicious if we know exactly where Zeus's First is?" Silena reasoned.
"Yeah." Beckendorf agreed with his girlfriend.
"I've never been there before. I could lead us so it looks like we don't know where we're going." Bianca suggested.
"Sounds good." I decided. "Feel free to ask campers for directions, but do it formally. Also, use your judgement and ask the more trustworthy campers. We don't want to be lead on a wild goose chase. We'll correct you if we stray too far." I instructed. I looked at the wall clock. It was currently 3:19. "Alright, let's go."
When we were out of the cabin, we formed two orderly lines behind Bianca. We walked for a while before she stopped and asked a camper whom I didn't recognize where Zeus's First was. They pointed us in the right direction. We walked there, only getting lost once or twice, and made it with two minutes to spare. Rachel was already there, leaning against a rock. Her eyes lit up when she saw us.
"Why did you call us here Miss..." I trailed off, pretending to not know her last name.
"Dare." She finished. "And you're alive!" She did the most unexpected thing, she jumped up and wrapped her arms around me, squeezing me so tight that I was pretty sure my internal organs were going to start squeezing out through my eyes.
"Can't..... Breathe...." I rasped. She let go and I saw that her eyes were filled with tears.
"Are you okay Miss Dare?" I asked. She rolled her tear filled eyes.
"Cut the act Percy, I know it's you. I can see through your hoods. Kinda." She explained like it was obvious. I stiffened at the use of my real name.
"I'm... not... Percy." I said through clenched teeth.
"Off course you are! You also have Silena, Beckendorf, Castor, Emma, someone that looks freakishly like a girl Nico so I'm guessing that's Bianca, and someone I don't know personally but I'm guessing he's Luke." She named every single person in my army. Rachel frowned. "Why did you leave?" She asked me.
"Why would I stay? All of my friends abandoned me, my girlfriend was cheating on me, and everyone else hates me. I'm no longer Percy Jackson. I am Alpha." I growled. That shut Rachel up. "Now, we have stuff to do, and we will be leaving." I turned around and started walking back to the cabin. My warriors followed behind me, and a couple stayed behind for a second to talk to Rachel before jogging to catch up to me.
'That was... eventful.' Luke said.
'That was sort of mean Percy. I mean, it wasn't Rachel's fault. She was one of the ones who stayed by you, right?" Zoë asked. I nodded and grit my teeth. Suddenly, I stopped feeling angry at Rachel. They were right, it wasn't her fault. Now Emma on the other hand... I stopped, and looked at Emma who was whistling innocently behind me.
'Stop.' I demanded. She frowned but nodded. The flood of anger rushed back into me, but this time I wasn't sure who to be angry at. I closed my eyes, praying that we could just get the war over with and leave.