Commander Alpha

Chapter 28

Percy's POV

The familiar feeling of rushing into battle greeted me as I sprinted to meet the approaching group of monsters and titans. I knew that my job was to take out Tartarus first, but I couldn't find him anywhere. My sword sliced through monsters left and right as I explored the army, but I didn't see him. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but I was leaning towards bad. Maybe they had realized what an important member of the army Tartarus was and hid him away somewhere. That would make my job much harder. I decided not to worry about it for the moment, and just focused all of my energy on killing monsters left and right. At one point I was up against the Minotaur. He must have recognized my scent, as he bellowed and charged at me. I guessed that the big guy didn't learn his lesson. With one fatal swipe, the Minotaur was dust on the ground, blowing on the wind. I wheeled around and stopped an Empusa attack as it was millimeters from hitting me.
Later, I saw the seven, Luke, and eventually Zoë rejoin our fight, although I never saw Emma. I guessed that her fight was taking a while, which made sense, as she was the Chaos Warriors' newest and youngest member, and Nyx was a primordial. As I fought, I thought about the prophecy. As much as I didn't want to admit it to myself, I was kind of hurt that I was not at all mentioned. I'd been part of the past two great prophecies, but at least not being included meant that I didn't have a specific enemy to face. The Chaos Warriors not mentioned in the prophecy, including me, helped the gods and campers with the monsters.
I heard Bianca screech and felt sadness so strongly ruminating from her that it automatically went over the mind link. I was about to find her when a crack opened in the ground beneath me and I began a familiar descent into the place that had forever scared me. Tartarus.
I knew that I was falling much faster than I had been with Annabeth, so I would hit the ground harder. I wouldn't die, but it would still really hurt. As I fell, part of the last line of the prophecy suddenly made sense. "One will fight his foe on an unfair terrain" The only primordial not described by the prophecy was Tartarus, and fighting in Tartarus against Tartarus was more than an unfair fight.
After what must have only been several minutes, I saw the floor of Tartarus fast approaching. I prepared for what was going to be a hard landing. As soon as I hit the ground, I rolled to absorb the shock. Nevertheless, it still hurt. I winced as I got to my feet, surveying my surroundings. All around it was barren, no landmarks of any kind in sight. I knew that, with some energy, I could teleport out of there, but I decided to wait to see what Tartarus had in store for me.
I explored, searching for anything that looked familiar, but nothing did. I figured that I was in a different part of Tartarus than I had been with Annabeth.
"Ahh, the famous Commander Alpha." A voice taunted. I spun around and found myself face to face with Tartarus. I almost had a déjà vu moment as my grip on my sword loosened. I had faced some terrifying things in my time as Commander of Chaos' army, things that would make the ordinary mind go insane, but Tartarus still topped my list. "Or should I call you," he paused. "Percy Jackson." I tightened my grip on my sword.
"Nice place you've got here." I sassed, trying to pretend I wasn't as scared as I was. Tartarus laughed, and the ground beneath my feet shook.
"I see you have your same sense of humor, Percy Jackson." Tartarus rumbled. In lieu of responding, I charged him with my sword drawn. "Ah, ready to die, are you?" I growled and was the first to attack. I slashed at his head, but he dodged it, drawing a sword of his own.
I had no idea how long we fought, it could have been minutes of hours, and I wouldn't have been the wiser, but both of us were tiring.
"You know what Percy Jackson, I'll make you a deal. If you willingly come with me, then I will spare your friends and bring back the ones you have lost. If you do not, you will not only fight me, but all of us." Tartarus spread his hands wide, and as he did, Kronos, Gaea, Nyx, and Atlas appeared around me, closing me in a deadly circle. I laughed.
"Yeah, like I'd come with you."
"You might what to reconsider your decisions, as you do not know of the consequences of this war." I could tell that Tartarus was not bluffing.
'Chaos,' I demanded. 'Show me what he's talking about.'
'Are you sure?' Chaos's voice sounded immediately. 'You need to have a clear-'
'Show me.' My vision was taken over by images of events happening on the surface. I watched as Leo slumped to the ground, hit by a heavy rock. I saw Hazel's leg so badly broken that it made a V-shape. Annabeth was flung so far in the air, I almost lost sight of her. She hit the ground with a nauseating 'thump', and lay still, aside from the shallow movements of her chest. These images alone would have been enough to sway my decision, but they kept on coming. Zoë was unconscious with serious-looking cut on her leg, Luke covered in her blood and carrying her to the infirmary. Beckendorf falling to the ground, overpowered by a joint attack by several Hellhounds and Hydras. Silena rushed to his rescue, but he was still badly hurt. The last scene was by far the worst. Bianca, her face as white as the body's beside her, gently closed its eyes. I didn't understand what I was seeing for a second, but then it clicked.
It was Emma. The hopeful part of me said that maybe she was just knocked unconscious, but the realistic side of me knew that wasn't the case by the sword sticking out of her stomach and the stillness of her body.
When my consciousness came back to Tartarus, my face was slick from tears. I reigned in my emotions, remembering the consequences of what would happen if I didn't.
"So, what's it gonna be?" Tartarus asked. I knew that I would never be able to take on all of the primordials at once. I decided to take the deal. After all it was a trade of my life, which I would lose anyway, of all of the lives of the people who had lost in the war. I was about to open my mouth and accept the proposed deal when I was interrupted by Atlas.
"I say we just kill the kid, why are we refraining?" His question reminded me of the last line of the prophecy. "And when tempted by the enemy, he must refrain."
Not having any sort of plan, I said, "No."
"Excuse me?" Nyx said, bewildered. Apparently they hadn't been expecting this answer. I worked up some confidence.
"You heard me. I said no." Atlas grinned evilly.
"Let's kill him!" As the primordials advanced on me, I felt thankful that my part of the prophecy said nothing about winning. The extra energy I was expending keeping my emotions in check wasn't helping either. I stopped. What if I used my emotions to my advantage. I'd never considered using the whole exploding thing in battle before, as I was afraid I would hurt one of my army, and/or explode everything even remotely close to me. Here, I didn't need to worry about it. Deciding that I was probably going to die anyway, I gave it a try.
I closed my eyes, concentrating on gathering all of my emotions that I'd been keeping closed up. I started to shake from all of the power I was containing.
"Here you go, ex-Poseidon spawn." Tartarus taunted. I didn't realize what he was doing until I was covered in a liquid that began to burn me. Water. I used the pain to further feel the bomb-like reaction waiting to be unleashed. When I could no longer hold of it in, I let myself go. My eardrums immediately burst from the power released, and I teleported out as soon as I could, the horrible sound of exploding primordial ringing in my ears. Instead of teleporting to a place, I teleported to a person. Luke.

Hey guys!  So, I've finished the rest of the story, so comment if you want me to just spam post the last few chapters up here today.  Thanks, and enjoy!
- Krispy