Chapter Five
Hazel
A/N: Here's chapter five! Sorry for the wait, school caught up to me. This chapter takes place right after Annabeth's Pov, enjoy!
Hazel sat in a circle with the rest of the survivors while Annabeth laid out the plan of attack.
"We need to get Gaea to attack on her own." Annabeth said. "So we'll need a team to take out Gaea's forces while she's still incapacitated, Reyna, Clarisse and I can lead that team, and Frank can show us where the base is. We'll need as many people as possible, so if you're up for volunteering, please stand."
Hazel and Percy started to get up, but Annabeth smiled and shook her head at them.
"We need you guys for part two of the plan: Keep Gaea out of the picture until we can take care of her army. We know she can't attack in this state, so we're going to need anyone good with wind, water, earth, or explosives to keep her from healing herself. Keep her from repairing the damage, reopen old chasms, whatever you can do. That means you two, Jason, Leo, Ni-" She stopped herself before she could say Nico.
"… And anyone who's good with Greek fire needs to stay here and keep her busy."
"But how do we take her out?" Dakota asked.
Annabeth faltered.
"If we can get her to show herself, concentrate most of her energy in one place, and then attack, we might be able to put her in a coma for another 3,000 years." Clarisse filled in for her.
"Might?" A camper asked.
Clarisse threw up her hands. "Hey, it worked before didn't it?"
"Yeah, when all the gods were there to help."
"What I'm more worried about." Piper cut in. "Is how we're going to get her to show herself in the first place. I learned the hard way that she doesn't handle charmspeak well."
Silence fell over the group. A pit formed in Hazel's stomach.
"We need to bait her, don't we?"
Annabeth nodded.
"No way." Percy said, glaring at Annabeth.
Leo stood up, ignoring Percy. "Sounds like something I can handle. I'll lure her out from the Argo 2, so maybe I could get away."
"Leo you don't have to-" Hazel protested. Leo stopped her with an almost imperceptible shake of his head.
"It'll be fine. Just as planned." He said while looking from her to Frank. Hazel nodded. He had the physician's cure for exactly this reason. It was the best way.
Annabeth cleared he throat. "Alright. Frank? Whenever you're ready."
Frank stood up. "Okay. Guys? You might want to back off a little."
The other demigods scrambled back as Frank transformed into a huge dragon with two rows of spikes down its back.
"All volunteers for the attacking team, climb on!" Reyna shouted.
The demigods around her hesitated a moment, then practically rushed dragon-Frank, pushing and shoving for a spot. By the time Annabeth, Clarisse, and Reyna joined them, and Frank took off for the enemy base, there were only a handful of people left.
Hazel looked around at the rest of them. Aside from the rest of the seven, there were a few Hephaestus and Hermes kids who had managed to salvage some Greek fire, and some people so injured that they wouldn't be any help either way.
She drew herself up to her full height, (which was a grand total of five feet three inches) and said "Attention soldiers! Let's kick some goddess ass!"
The ragtag group of heroes cheered as they turned to the battlefield. Hazel drew the remainder of the pile of celestial bronze weapons to her and directed them towards the biggest chasm, which was slowly repairing itself. Payback time.
With a yell she sent the daggers and swords hurtling into the earth around the chasm like a volley of bronze arrows. With a crushing motion she drew them back together, taking the solid ground with them and making the chasm collapse in on itself. She drew the weapons back to her side while Percy sent in a massive wave that covered the entire battlefield. When the water receded it took about half of the beach with it.
It felt a little silly to be attacking dirt, but this particular dirt had tried to kill her and the best friends she'd ever known, and that was all the incentive Hazel needed.
For a minute, nothing happened. Then for an instant Gaea's snarling face appeared in the mud, and the earth smoothed itself over impossibly fast, hills and cliff faces crumbling to fill the gaping holes created in the battle.
Hazel stumbled backwards, a sense of dread settling in.
"No. You. Don't!" Leo screamed. With each word he lobbed a jar of Greek fire at the goddess, leaving smoking craters in the ground.
Apparently Gaea didn't like that.
Two spires of rock erupted from the ocean floor and shattered the watery platform they'd been standing on.
Hazel found herself submerged in a sea of white bubbles. She kicked and came sputtering to the surface, along with Jason, Leo, and a few others. No sooner had she taken a few breaths than she realized that most of the injured-including Piper-hadn't come up yet. She took one last gulp of air and dived beneath the surface. The water was thick with silt and she could barely see her hand in front of her face. Desperately she extended her senses, searching for gold, silver, anything that might have been in someone's jewelry when they went under. She remembered that Piper had been wearing a turquoise bracelet just as she zeroed in on a string of that same stone. She kicked toward it and reached out.
Her fingers touched skin and she grabbed Piper's arm, dragging her up to the air above. Their heads broke the surface and Piper coughed, kicking feebly with her one good leg while Hazel guided her over to one of the spires, which she clung to as she caught her breath.
"I'm going back, you stay here." Hazel told her before submerging herself again.
She extended her senses a second time and found a small chunk of silver. She dove toward it, swimming all the way to the bottom. Her lungs burned and she'd almost given up on finding anyone when she reached the person wearing the silver. She grabbed their collar and pushed up off the ocean floor, kicking towards the surface. When they met the air, Hazel saw that Percy had brought the water platform back along with the rest of the people. Jason and Leo rushed over and pulled her up, while Percy lifted the person she'd rescued, an unconscious roman boy who was wearing a silver earring and had an ugly stab wound in his side, out of the water. Percy laid the boy flat, and with a hand motion, pulled the water out of his lungs. The boy didn't move.
Percy placed a hand on his chest, then shook his head.
"Nothing. He's dead."
"The Physician's Cure?" Jason suggested, looking at Piper.
A lump rose in Hazel's throat. Piper didn't have the cure, Leo did, and as horrible as it was, she'd rather lose this nameless boy from her camp than Leo.
Piper bit her lip, and to Hazel's surprise, shook her head. "Let's save it. In case someone else needs it."
Hazel knew what she really meant; let's save it for one of the seven. Apparently Jason agreed because he nodded and turned towards the barren battlefield.
Hazel glanced around. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a shimmering in the air. She frowned and watched as the shimmer grew and morphed into a watery image of Annabeth.
"Percy!" She hissed. "Look!" Percy turned and his eyes widened.
"Annabeth! What's going on over there? Are you okay?" The rest of the demigods turned to see what was happening.
To Hazel's surprise Annabeth answered.
"Gaea's attacking us! We're retreating now. Start the baiting strategy ASAP. We'll try to get there to help before her army does."
Percy shook his head. "Wait! But-"
On the other side of the image, someone called Annabeth's name.
"I have to go!" She said, and her image dissipated into mist.
Leo was the first to break the silence.
"Okay. Baiting strategy a-go. Jason, can you help me get to the Argo 2?"
Jason shook his head. "That'll take to long. I can fly on my own. Let me take this one."
Before anyone could protest, Jason took off. He flew to the middle of the battlefield and hovered there.
"Come out and face me Gaea!" He shouted. He held out his spear and a lightning bolt streaked down from the sky, leaving a crater in the ground. A point of rock erupted from the ground and pierced the air where Jason had been, but he dodged it easily.
"Not going to work!" Another rock spire jutted out of the ground and he dodged again.
"Show yourself Gaea! Show me you're not afraid to fight a demigod!"
A chuckle rang out from the earth. The ground below Jason swelled and stretched until it took the form of Gaea rising out of the dirt. Hazel strained and pulled the celestial bronze weapons off the ocean floor and readied them. Just over the hill, she saw dragon-Frank flying towards them with the rest of their reinforcements. They were almost there, but weren't coming fast enough.
Jason would face the goddess alone, with only Hazel, Percy, and a wounded Piper to back him up.