Commander Alpha

Chapter 24

Jason's POV

    The campers, Gods, Hunters, and Warriors stood united at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill.  The Romans were facing another attack, yet on a much smaller scale, so they weren't here to help.  The majority of the attack would be occurring at Camp Half-Blood.  I stood grouped together with the seven, or the six,waiting for Gaea.  I could see Percy at the head of the Warrior's orderly ranks, his cloak billowing proudly over his armor.  The role as Commander oddly suited him.  He was closer to his army than any Commander I'd ever seen.  They were more like a family than an army.
     I looked up the hill.  I was just beginning to see the ranks in the titans' army as they marched closer and closer.  The gods were standing protectively in front of their children, and the Warriors were before the gods, watching the monsters nonchalantly.  I guessed that they'd done this millions of times before.  It was hard to believe that they were more powerful than the gods, especially knowing that they were demigods that several campers had known before they died.  I would've thought they were lying about the whole "more powerful than the gods" thing, but they were Chaos's right hand unit. 
     "Surrender now or suffer," Tartarus boomed.  His voice alone was more unsettling than the entire army in front of us. 
     "Cliche much?" Percy asked.  The titans must have taken this as a "we'll take the suffering, thanks." as they charged us, screaming.  The side of the gods rushed them as well, a battle cry echoing through our ranks.  The seven and I slashed and hacked our way to Gaea, monsters disintegrating around us.  After a minute, we found her.  Her eyes were only slightly open, a slight smile on her face.  She was standing in a small clearing.  I could tell she'd been expecting us. 
     "Ah," her voice resonated in my head.  "Jason Grace.  Hazel Levesque.  Piper McLean.  Frank Zhang.  Leo Valdez.  Annabeth Chase.  I've been expecting you."
     "Great," Leo started. He took a teddy bear from his tool belt and threw it at Gaea.  "Go to sleep!" The teddy bear bounced harmlessly off of her , and Gaea laughed.  The sound was almost scary.
     "Leo Valdez.  Always a fiery one, I see."  Leo smirked and lit a fire over his palm.
     "Fire is my speciality." He said.
     Gaea's tone turned taunting.  "Was it your specialty when you started the fire that killed your mother?"  This single sentence had more impact on Leo than everything I'd ever said to him combined.  His face contorted with rage, and a blast of white-hot fire burst from his hands, several times hotter than anything I'd ever seen him produce.  The heat made the rest of the seven fly backwards, and my clothes began to smoke.  When the fire disappeared, Gaea was gone.  In her place was a pile of molten slush.  Just as I was about to congratulate Leo on his work, the pile of mush began to wither and reform.  Oh, right.  She would reform as long as she was touching the ground.  Oops.  As this was happening, Hazel, Annabeth, Jason, Frank, Piper, and I picked ourselves off the ground. 
     When Gaea's body fully reformed, she had a smirk on her face.  Leo had regained composure, although I could see the fury behind his eyes.
    "You look happy for someone who just was turned to mush, and is about to be again." Leo aimed his hands at Gaea.  A small wisp of smoke curled from between his fingers.  Gaea smiled.  "What the-"
"So naïve, young demigod." She said.
"My powers, are they-" Leo couldn't bring himself to finish the question.
"Gone?  No.  I'm afraid they are only, well, exhausted for the time being.  But yes, they will return." This didn't seem to calm Leo.  A chill went down my back.  Leo had played right into Gaea's hands.  She'd just eliminated one of our most destructive players. 
"Uh oh." Hazel muttered.  Gaea took this as a que to start attacking.  Annabeth and I rushed forward at the same time, preparing to meet her.  Gaea thrust her hand out, and a column of dirt rose out of the ground and smacked Annabeth and I.  We both flew backwards at the force of the attack, hitting the ground hard.  Frank let out a war cry, and the rest of the seven ran forward, attacking ferociously.
For a while, we seemed to have the upper hand.  Once Annabeth and I recovered enough to rejoin the fight, it was six to one.  Gaea was forced onto defense.  Our good luck didn't last forever, as we were tiring.  We'd been attacking her with all we had, and were paying the price.  Everyone was red in the face and panting, while Gaea was revitalized by the ground we were standing on.  The first to fall was Leo.  With his fire powers gone, he had to fight with a sword, which was not something he enjoyed doing.  Gaea flung a large rock at him.  He attempted to knock it out of the way with his sword but missed.  The rock hit his head, and Leo was down.
"Leo!" Piper shouted.  She backed away from the battle for a second and moved his body away from the action.  While Piper was still out moving Leo, Hazel was left with twice the space.  Gaea took the opportunity to try and hit her with a tall column of mud and stone.  Hazel attempted to run away, but the ground swallowed her foot.  Her momentum carried her forward in spite of her trapped limb, and I heard a loud crack.  She screamed in pain, and the Earth released its hold on her leg.  Whimpering, she managed to drag herself back next to Leo and get the attention of a passing Apollo camper medic.  That left only Piper, Frank, Annabeth, and I. 
"Jason, get her off the ground!" Annabeth shouted.
"I'm trying!" Since I'd first laid eyes on Gaea, I'd been trying to separate her from the Earth.  She had obviously learned from her mistakes, as she made sure to keep each foot was always anchored in the ground. 
"Wait, I have an idea!  Try the la-" With a lucky hit, Gaea blindly hit Annabeth, who was behind her, with a hit that sent her flying. 
"Annabeth!" Piper screeched.  One of Gaea's dirt things hit me and I fell, my gaze on the shimmering waters of the canoe lake.  Suddenly, I understood what Annabeth had been trying to tell me.  I stopped the upward winds that had been trying to pry her off the ground.  This move made Gaea confused, and I used her moment of hesitation to summon a hard gust of air that pushed her backward. 
"Frank!" I called, and he knew what he needed to do.  He transformed into a bull, and rammed himself into Gaea's chest as hard as he could.  Gaea realized what was happening a moment to late, as she hit the lake with a splash.  I wasted no time, summoning the winds and pulling her into the air, the job made easier when she wasn't on land.  I used wind to pick Piper up and bring her next to me.
"Swear on the River Styx that you will never wake up, and if you do, you will never fight against the good of mankind again." Piper's charmspeak was so powerful that it made me want to swear to her terms, and she slapped me on the arm to knock me out of it.
"I swear on the River Styx that I will never wake back up, and that I will never fight against the good of mankind again." I could see Gaea's rage on her face a she obliged to Piper's commands.
"Good, now go to sleep." Piper and I would've fallen out of the air, had Frank not turned into a giant eagle and slowed our fall.  "Not you, idiot!" Piper said, swatting my arm playfully.
"Damn, you're getting really good at charmspeak." I said, fighting to keep my eyes open.  Frank yawned.
"Agreed."  We watched as the Earth came up and wrapped around Gaea, pulling her beneath the surface.  I rubbed my eyes.
"Can we go to sleep now?" I protested, feeling exhausted from our fight.  Piper and Frank didn't look much better than I felt.
"Not when there's monsters that need fighting!" Piper chirped.  In perfect synchronization, all three of us turned and raced back into battle.