Commander Alpha

Chapter 25

Luke's POV

    "Cliche much?" I rolled my eyes at Percy's ability to be sassy while on the verge of death.  The titans charged us, and the warriors began to run as well.  I rushed forward, and was stopped by a firm grasp on my arm.  I wheeled around to see Zoë looking absolutely terrified.  I was immediately concerned, as Zoë was never the one to be scared, or at least, show how scared she was.  We'd faced much worse enemies, but she'd never looked this shaken.  Her hand was clammy on my arm, she was shaking, and her face was completely drained of blood.
    "Zoë!"  I suddenly felt panicked, seeing her in this state.  "Are you-" Zoë cut me off by doing the last thing I would ever expect.  She kissed me.  For a second I stood completely still, afraid to move.  I thought that maybe this as a mistake, maybe she didn't mean to.  Finally, I melted into the kiss, wrapping my arms around Zoë's waist.  We stopped kissing, but I didn't let go of her.  We held eachother tight.  I closed my eyes and prayed that it wasn't a dream.
    'FINALLY!" A voice in my head screeched, and Zoë jumped apart in surprise. 
    'Silena,' I thought warningly.
    'As much as I appreciate this union of my OTP, I'm afraid we have a war to fight.' Percy's voice echoed in my head. 
Zoë blushed.  'Since when are we your... OTP?"  We'd only taught her the definition of the trm after Silena's whole "Percabeth OTP" flip out.
'Since forever.  Now, go get in there!' Percy said.
"Right, well," I looked at Zoë awkwardly. 
"Good luck." She kissed me on the cheek, her eyes sparkling.  She sprinted off in the direction from which we could hear Atlas bellowing.  I stood, stunned, for a minute, holding my cheek where Zoë had kissed it.  A human scream knocked me back into reality.  I turned in the direction of the scream, and saw a crowd of demigods moving in slow motion.  With barely a second thought, I sprinted toward the area.
When I got there, I found a crowd of demigods surrounding Kronos, all of whom were moving slowly, Kronos using his influence on time against them.  I wasn't horribly concerned, as I knew that Kronos could only keep up this level of time manipulation for so long, and the demigods seemed to holding their own pretty well, considering time was slowed for them.
"Demigods, clear out." I commanded.  A few of them looked ready to object, but realized that I was a Chaos warrior who could blast them to smithereens in the blink of an eye, and they did as they were told.  I pressed a button on a bracelet I was wearing, and time sped back to normal.
    "What the-" Chaos had made me the bracelet because he'd had a premonition that I would have to face Kronos again.  "My powers, they-"
"Wow, they're not working?  I never would have guessed!"  I thought to myself that I'd been spending too much time with Percy, and his horribly timed sass was beginning to rub off on me.
Kronos seemed to brush off the defectiveness of his powers on me.  "Well, nevertheless, you don't stand a chance against me!" He boasted, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.  I so badly wanted to reveal my identity to him and smack it in his face.
"Yeah, and why's that."
"Because I can only be defeated by the Castellan boy, and he's dead!" I stopped.
"How do you know this." I demanded.  Kronos shrugged nonchalantly.
"Overheard part of a prophecy.  So, what's it gonna be?  Run away with your tail between your legs, or die fighting an impossible fight against me?"  I smirked under my mask.  In lieu of answering, I charged Kronos, my sword drawn.  He raced to meet me, and we began to fight.
The endless sounds of our swords clashing echoed in my ears as I focused on my task.  I pushed the kiss to the back of my mind.  The only thoughts on my mind were: strike, stab, roll, block, kick.  Kronos was an amazing swordsman, but then again, so was I.   I was the only person, including Chaos himself, who could consistently win against Percy in sword fights.  It seemed for a while that we were perfectly matched, both getting a few good hits in, but nothing close to fatal.  Finally, in a moment of desperation, Kronos lunged at me.  As the sword skimmed my adam's apple, a face was projected into my mind's eye.  Zoë.  I saw her laughing, the slight smile she wore when teasing the other warriors, the fierce, protective look she got in her eyes when she was defending the ones she loved.  I dodged Kronos's strike, but just barely.  Using a newfound surge of adrenaline, I jumped forward and stabbed him in the stomach.  He doubled over, clutching his gut with the sword still in it.  He looked at his hand as it started to fade.
"Impossible." He gurgled, his mouth full of blood. 
"You sure about that?" I knelt down next to the titan and lifted my mask just enough for him to see me. 
"You." He growled.
"Me." I agreed.  "Have fun in Tartarus." I ripped my sword from his abdomen, and Kronos disappeared completely.  I stood for a minute, catching my breath, until the sounds of screams and swords clashing started drawing nearer.  Feeling like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, I rejoined the fight.