That was a lot braver than Hazel really felt. She was shaking so bad she could barely maintain her tower.
"Miss Levesque," Gaea rumbled. Her voice shook the walls of the buildings around them, threatening to crumble. "You are powerful, but I am the earth itself. Bow now, and perhaps I will spare you." Below Hazel, Annabeth stumbled to her feet beside Reyna, and Jason stood next to a girl Hazel had never seen before. The battlefield was frozen, like Gaea was the goddess of time and not the earth. She was so overbearing their previous conflict seemed totally obsolete.
Hazel glanced around at the demigods below, both Greek and Roman. They're so small and fragile, she thought. Hazel was really the last line of defense, and she wasn't a strong one. But Gaea didn't know that. She tried to kill Hazel once to prevent this, which meant that on some level Gaea was afraid of Hazel.
Hazel tightened grip on the earth below her. "I don't bow to anyone. But I have a deal to offer you. Go back to sleep and leave us alone, or I will destroy you."
Gaea shook her head in amusement. "You're strong, but you're not stronger than me. I'm a primordial goddess!" She spread her arms and whole chunks of the ground ripped out and buildings crumbled. "I raze cities with my bare hands, I lay waste to continents, I create forests and grasslands and you think you can beat me? Me?" The goddess laughed.
Gaea was right. Hazel was still half human, a blip on the cosmic scale. Her only hope was that Gaea was asleep for a millennia and would take a moment to reach her full power. What other choice was there?
"I'm getting tired of hearing your voice," Hazel growled. "Let's get this over with." She reached deep into the earth, stepped forward, and flung two tons of rock into Gaea's face.
The goddess flew back a hundred yards into a building, crumbling the brick in cloud of mortar. She likely wasn't expecting that.
"Get out of here!" Hazel yelled to the demigods below her. "I'll handle Gaea, you have to unite the camps!"
For a moment, no one moved. Annabeth's eyes were wider than quarters and Reyna seemed to have forgotten how to speak. Behind them, pieces of building fell away as Gaea pulled herself stone by stone from the rubble.
Hazel turned back. "Go!"
Annabeth and Reyna turned and ran, followed by the other girl and Jason.
Gaea laughed and the ground rumbled again, nearly throwing Hazel from her tower. "My roots go much deeper than yours, Hazel Levesque. Not even the gods could beat me."
"That's the thing," Hazel said. "I'm not a god." The gods might be powerful, but their egos controlled them, limited them in ways Hazel didn't have to worry about. She wasn't afraid to die. She'd done that already.
Hazel took a deep breath and flung a tidal wave of dirt across the gardens. Gaea spread her arms and the earth flew to both sides of her, crashing into the buildings of New Rome. Hazel prayed the mortals had evacuated, but she didn't have much time to think about it. Gaea hurled another blast of rock at her, forcing her to leap from her tower. She extended a hand and raised a platform of stone to land on, rolling to her feet.
Back where the two demigod armies stood, chaos ensued. Some demigods ran, other rallied to Annabeth and Reyna. But their movements were slowed, and Hazel realized the whole chunk of land they stood on had sunk nearly a foot. Their shoes sucked downward and tripped them on occasion, only the ground Hazel stood on was firm. Hazel realized something else too. Gaea's movements were sluggish and eyes glazed over, like she was groggy from a long nap. A nap of several millennia. It would explain why Hazel was still alive, why the surface of the earth hadn't been razed. As long as she didn't wake up fully, they had a chance. So maybe hitting her with rocks isn't the best idea, Hazel thought grimly. But what else could she do?
Apparently nothing, as Gaea flung more chunks at the base of Hazel's tower. Hazel intercepted them with, then flung them back at Gaea who smashed them with fists of earth.
"You foolish girl," Gaea intoned. "You must realize how hopeless this."
Hazel's breath left her, like she'd been sucker punched. Gaea's voice was her mother's. "You don't control me anymore!" Hazel yelled. "You don't get to hurt me!"
"My dear, I can hurt you in ways you can't even imagine." Gaea sneered and hurled a chunk of black rock, smashing Hazel's tower and sending her tumbling to the ground.
Hazel covered her head as tons of rocks collapsed around her, smacking her left and right. When the dust cleared, she lay on her back in a pile of rubble. She wheezed and craned her neck to see her assailant.
In no hurry now, Gaea chuckled as she approached. "I told you. Why are you still fighting for the gods? The man who never cared about you or your mother? You would have been much better off with me."
Gaea was right, the demigods had united, in theory healing the gods. Where were they?
Gaea raised a hand and Hazel sunk deeper into the earth, trapping her arms and legs under the soil. Only her head was above.
"I offer you this now. Join me, and I'll let you live to see the destruction of your earth. You won't have to run anymore."
Hazel struggled against the rising dirt to no avail. This isn't how it ends, Hazel told herself. A horn blew some distance away, and Gaea turned her head.
"Seems they've finally organized themselves," Gaea said, in an offhand way. "Time to occupy them." Gaea raised her arms and hundreds of clay figures rose from the ground, hulking mounds of dirt with rock clubs and sunken obsidian eyes. They glided across the ground with incredible speed toward the demigod army.
"No!" Hazel pushed against the earth that trapped her.
"Hazel!" another voice yelled across the gardens. Hazel didn't have to look far to see Grover and the massive redwood advancing. They seemed to catch Gaea's attention too as she turned towards them and sneered.
"The Lord of the Wild? It's truly an honor. But Pan couldn't do what needed to be done. I can. Why are you on their side?"
Grover eyed her warily. "Humans are a part of nature. You know that."
"If you have a tree with one infected branch, what do you do? Purge it before it kills the rest." Gaea's eyes brightened. "They destroyed my lands, choked my air, poisoned my water. Now I will purge the earth of them."
"Not if we have anything to say about it," Redwood said, growing to her full height. She towered over the buildings, her red-brown arms and legs thicker than tree trunks.
Gaea scoffed. "You're on their side? Don't you know what they did to your forests? The fires that burn and the axes that grind your bones?"
"You do not judge a forest by the appearance of one tree," Redwood said, her ancient energy bending the air towards her. "Don't make me stop you."
"Stop me?" Gaea shook her head. "You're my child. I created you." She flicked her wrist and a wave of energy cut through the air, hurtling straight toward Redwood. She didn't have time to blink before it sliced her in half. "I can destroy you just as easily."
Hazel's scream caught in her throat as Redwood turned to sawdust, her amber eyes catching Hazel's before she crumpled into nothing.
Grover's voice was an octave higher. "You-"
Gaea flicked her other wrist and sent him flying across the gardens until he smashed into a wall.
"Grover!" Hazel cried out, desperate to move, desperate to help him. Just like that, Redwood was dead and Grover could be too. Where were the gods?
Gaea face leered over hers. "You should have helped me. You and your mother would have lived happily ever after. You could have avoided all this."
"We aren't the only people who matter," Hazel gasped as the earth squeezed her tighter.
"Apparently you don't matter at all. Where's your father? The rest of the gods?"
Black spots danced across Hazel's vision and a rib cracked, sending a starburst of pain through her side.
"They don't care. Pluto didn't care back then, and he doesn't care now. At least you can die knowing he's consistent."
Gaea was right, Pluto still didn't care. At least she'd died once before, she knew the drill. There was a certain peace in that. Hazel's breath slowed and her vision darkened, and she must have been near death because she heard voices.
"I am here, Hazel," a man's voice rang in her ears. "I'm with you." Strength coursed back through her veins and she gulped a breath of air, clearing her head.
"Pluto," she murmured.
"Use my strength," her father urged. "You can do this. For your mother."
Hazel took a deep breath, then blasted out of the ground, spaying chunks in a 5 meter radius. As she landed, her feet were solid beneath her and if she squinted she could just make out a glowing gold aura.
Gaea's eyes widened. "Impossible."
There was a cool mass beneath Hazel, a huge deposit of a mineral that wasn't there before. Plutonium.
Hazel smiled. "Not for me." She spread her arms and raised the plutonium, a chunk of black rock the size of a house. There was no way she should have been able to do that, no way she had the strength to do that. But she finally understood. Pluto was lending her his godly strength, like the blessing of Mars.
"If you can separate her from her source of power, she won't have any way to fight back," Pluto said in her head.
Hazel nodded though she knew he couldn't actually see her. Then she turned and hurled the rock with all her godly strength, sending Gaea flying backwards. With her other hand, she ripped another chunk of earth up that smacked into Gaea and redirected her upward. As she fell back to the ground, an invisible force seemed to hold her there, suspended. Hazel turned her head and saw a beat up Jason Grace, surrounded by a light blue aura, tunneling the wind up towards her. He didn't speak, but he nodded at Hazel. To her right, a funnel of water burst skyward. Percy. He grinned at her as he directed the water from the fountains in the gardens and hosed Gaea, a green aura around him. Behind them, a massive silver dragon swept downward, snatching a more of Gaea's earth people away.
"Frank!" Hazel shouted. The dragon dipped his head and smacked two more back with his tail. The spiky-haired girl Jason was with earlier joined them, shooting a bolt of lightning up into the swirling mass of air and water. Another child of Jupiter? But Hazel didn't have time to dwell on it.
"We have to find a way to kill her!" Nico yelled over the noise, materializing in front of them. He smiled almost shyly at Hazel by way of saying hello.
"I know!" Jason yelled back. "And I have a plan."