Chapter one: Jason

In which Percy's nosebleed nearly gets everyone killed

The ground shifted under Jason's feet. Slow, deep laughter like the sound of an avalanche surrounded the Greek and Roman troops. Gaea was awake.

For a horrible second, everyone was quiet. Piper, Leo, and the rest of the crew stood tense at his side, and the enemy army crawling with Gaea's ugly offspring was as still as one of medusa's statues. Then, a rift opened up in the earth, snaking towards the demigods. The battle had begun.

Jason barely managed to scramble away from the gaping pit before the Cyclopes were upon them. He drew his sword in time to parry what would have been a fatal jab and lopped his attacker's head. He went on autopilot, Slash. Dodge. Electrocute. Parry. Stab. He found himself next to Hazel, who was bending the mist to hide their position, and cutting down any monster who came close.

Jason took the short relief from the battle as an opportunity and began calling the winds to him, forming his own personal cyclone. With a yell of "For Rome!" he released the winds and sent every monster in a ten-meter radius flying.

Jason could see the rest of the battlefield now, and it made him want to throw up.

All attempt to protect the cabins had been abandoned, as there were hardly any cabins left. Massive earthquakes had torn through the battlefield, leaving nothing but wreckage in their wake. The remaining soldiers were scattered, set on just staying alive when the very ground beneath their feet wanted them dead. Nico stood in the thick of it, desperately trying to correct the damage, he closed a gaping hole in the earth before it could swallow anyone up, and collapsed to his knees in exhaustion. Leo stood nearby, forcing away the scorched ash and cinder coming from a volcano that had had most certainly NOT been there before, frantically trying to keep the scene from turning into a modern-day pompeii.

Jason's observation was cut short when a massive spire of rock erupted under his feet. "AAAUUGGHH!" he screamed, as he skidded down the newly-created cliff-face. He crashed into Hazel on his way down and they landed in a tangled heap.

Jason extricated himself and turned in time to see Half-Blood hill morph into a grinning face with horrible green eyes. Gaea. She spoke in a voice like gravel: "Foolish demigods. Did you really think you could defeat the earth itself? I have trapped you like mice. And when you are gone, the gods will be next. I will take my rightful place as the sole goddess of this world."

Jason was frozen. He didn't know what to do. How do you strike back against the oldest, most powerful goddess in the universe?

"We have to stop her." Hazel growled. "With what?" He asked, "Global warming? Litter?"

Piper's voice rang out of the fray. She was standing right in front of the evil earth goddess.

"You don't want to kill us Gaea. What's a queen without any subjects? Maybe you should sleep on this… for a long, long time."

For a second it looked like it worked. Gaea's earthy eyelids drooped.

"Queen…." She mumbled. "Subjects…."

Then she snapped back to reality with a roar. "I've had 3,000 years to sleep on this daughter of Aphrodite! You will perish now!"

Her face melted away into the grass and the hillside crumbled into a landslide. Piper barely had time to step backwards before she was buried in the rocks.

"PIPER!" Jason screamed.

He ran towards the wreckage, Hazel right beside him. He could see her fingertips sticking out from under the dirt. He started trying to dig her out but Hazel pushed him away.

"Let me."

She carefully shifted the earth away from Piper's body, and Jason pulled her out. She was alive and conscious, thank the gods, but she groaned in pain when she tried to sit up. Her right leg was a broken, bloody mess.

"Shit, Piper." Jason murmured.

"I'll be fine." Piper grunted.

"Besides, you've got bigger things to worry about."

Right on cue, campers started screaming. Jason turned to see the biggest chasm yet open up in the earth. It was easily the size of soccer field, and even has he watched, four screaming soldiers fell into the pit. "Go help them! I'll care of Piper." Hazel yelled. She waved her hand and the mist shifted, making the girls look like part of Gaea's own army. Jason nodded and raced towards the pit.