The Flying Spaghetti Monster had to deliver the baby. Percy held Zoë's hand the entire time. And no one else lived in the realm. All of the creations had died off. Apparently, they couldn't reproduce. So it had to be the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
"✡︎□︎◆︎ ❒︎ ︎ ︎ ︎⍓︎ ︎□︎⬧︎⬧︎✍︎" The Flying Spaghetti asked.
"Don't ask me. Ask her." Percy said. He rubbed Zoë's hand with his thumb. She was hyperventilating. She calmed a bit under his reassurance. "He asked if you're ready dear." he told her.
She nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Let's do it."
"✌︎●︎❒︎ ︎ ︎ ︎⧫︎📬︎ 👍︎◆︎⧫︎⧫︎ ︎■︎ ︎ ︎ ︎❒︎ □︎◻︎ ︎■︎ ■︎□︎⬥︎📬︎"
The Flying Spaghetti Monster drew the scalpel across Zoë's midsection. She breathed out as she felt the scalpel slide across her. TFSM set the scalpel down on the tray next to him and reached into Zoë.
Zoë grimaced as she felt the tendrils poking around in her abdomen. She started to see the appeal of anesthesia, but she said she didn't want any, and she was sticking to it. Percy grasped her hand with his other hand as well. She looked at him thankfully. His lips quirked up into a little smile.
TFSM pulled the baby out of Zoë. The baby instantly started screaming. You know, as a baby is supposed to because that's how you know they're breathing. TFSM picked up the surgical scissors and cut the umbilical cord.
The baby was covered in tons of blood. The FSM took the baby to the corner of the room where he washed it with a wet towel and wrapped it in a blanket. He brought it over to the couple.
"👍︎□︎■︎ ︎❒︎ ︎⧫︎◆︎●︎ ︎⧫︎ ︎□︎■︎⬧︎✏︎ ✋︎⧫︎ ︎⬧︎ ︎ ︎ ︎❒︎●︎✏︎"
"Thank you Spaghet." Percy said. "Take the rest of the day off. You've earned it."
"❄︎ ︎ ︎■︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎📬︎ 👎︎□︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ︎ ︎❖︎ ︎ ︎ ■︎ ︎❍︎ ︎✍︎"
Percy looked to Zoë. "Do we have a name?"
Zoë looked at the baby. " Yeah. Aurora."
"Aurora Morningstar." Percy muttered.
Aurora opened her eyes at the sound of her name. She had the dark eyes of her mother. Black hair adorned her head. She had a button nose, and a small mouth.
Percy was confused as to why she had no wings. He figured that she would have some, but maybe she just didn't get them. Either way, he already loved her.
Zoë fell asleep with Aurora in her arms. TFSM cleaned the cut in Zoë and patched it up before floating out of the room.
As Percy gazed at his family, he couldn't help but feel protective. Aurora had just been born, but he already knew that he would do anything to protect her.
"I swear, I will protect with everything I have." He said.
Everything.
LINE BREAK
Zoë pulled her leather jacket closer to her as she felt a chill. It was like she had a snowman breathing down her neck. She didn't know why she was feeling it. The sun was out without a cloud in the sky.
Maybe she was just nervous. Below them was a camp that would fire on them without hesitation, purely for the fact that they were Greek. But, also down there was Percy. She hadn't seen him since the night in the woods, when he made her an archangel.
God, that was weird to think about. She was now an archangel. She had gone from demititan, to demon, to archangel. Talk about moving up the corporate ladder. But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Her solid form was still unstable. Anything could cause her to burst into her true form and end up moving mountains into the ocean.
She needed Percy to help her. To help her learn to control that better, but also help her master the powers she had. She didn't know what she had now, but if she had any idea, it would be his.
She was shaken out of her thoughts by a satyr. Gleeson Hedge. The satyr was over a hundred years old, though fifty three in Satyr years. He looked like a high school sports coach. He constantly wore a gym uniform, and carried a large bat. He also screamed "DIE!" every few minutes.
That wasn't very good when they were meeting with Romans who would take everything as a threat. Zoë sighed. She walked over to the satyr.
"Hey, Gleeson." She said.
"That's Coach Hedge to you!"
"Yeah, no."
"Watch it cupcake! I was alive before your mother!"
"I highly doubt that, but go off. Look, why don't you go watch a sports cage match while we do this. There should be a new one on."
"I'm all caught up. There ain't a new one. Trust me, I would know."
Zoë closed her eyes. She felt around her. Slowly, outlines of everything around her solidified. She saw every atom in everything. She saw the atoms of the grass, the same grass that was hundreds of feet below them.
She felt the atoms and started to manipulate them. It was a painstaking process. She had only practiced twice before. The results were passable at best. She hoped that this would turn out better. But she knew, don't hope, do.
She was left with a VHS tape with a brand new cage match burned into the film. She summoned it to her hand and opened her eyes. She brought it out from behind her back. "Really? Have you seen Dynamo VS Grim Macho?" She asked him. God, those names were the stupidest part of her whole creation.
"No. I don't think I have." Gleeson said. "That's weird."
She handed him the VHS. "Well, enjoy."
Gleeson took the tape and trotted off happily to his room downstairs.
At the helm was Leo Valdez. He was running around the little space, checking gauges and things. The whole thing was a complicated mess that only he could understand. Maybe Percy could, after all he was a fast learner. There was a keyboard, a monitor, a dubstep soundboard, and Nintendo Wii controllers.
Piper paced behind Zoë, practicing her lines and charmspeak. "Lower your weapons. We just want to talk." She murmured.
Piper's charmspeak was powerful. Zoë felt a slight urge to drop a weapon she wasn't holding, but she quickly overcame it.
Unlike other children of Aphrodite, Piper tried to downplay her beauty. For instance, today, she was dressed in tattered jeans, worn out sneakers, and a white tank top with Hello Kitty designs. It could've been a joke, but Zoë honestly didn't know with her. Her choppy brown hair was braided down the right side with an eagle's feather.
Then there was Piper's boyfriend, Jason Grace. The son of Jupiter. He stood at the bow on the raised crossbow platform, where the Romans could easily spot him. His knuckles were white on the hilt of his golden sword. Otherwise he looked calm for a guy who was making himself a target. Over his jeans and orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, he donned a toga and a purple cloak—symbols of his old rank as praetor. With his wind ruffled blond hair and his icy blue eyes, he looked ruggedly handsome (objectively, not really her type) and in control—just like a son of Jupiter should. He had grown up at Camp Jupiter, so hopefully his familiar face would make the Romans hesitant to blow them out of the sky.
Zoë breathed in as she looked back at the ground. Somewhere down there was Percy. They would pick him up, along with the other two of the seven, and then they would be off to find wherever Gaia was holding their daughter. They would rescue her, kick Gaia's ass, and then go home. Easier said than done.
And then there was the explosion. It almost knocked Zoë off her feet. She turned to where the explosion came from. Sitting on the deck was a block of marble with a sculpted man jutting out of it. It was only carved from the waist up and was missing arms. Yellow smoke and the smell of sulfur emanate from him. "Unacceptable!" He yelled. "I will not have weapons inside the Pomerian line. And I will certainly not have Greeks."
"Dude, that's kind of racist." Leo said. "At the very least, discrimination. Not cool man."
"Terminus, it's me, Jason Grace."
"Oh, I remember you." Terminus grumbled. "I thought you had better sense than to consort with the enemies of Rome!"
"But they aren't enemies-"
"That's right!" Piper chimed in. "We just want to talk. If we could-"
"HA!" The statue snapped. "Don't try that charmspeak on me girl. And put down that dagger before I slap it out of your hands!"
Piper looked at the dagger in her hands. Apparently she had forgotten she still held it. "Um, sure. But how would you slap it? You don't have any arms."
The statue screeched before a loud POP and a flash of yellow caused Piper to drop it. "Lucky for you, I'm still recovering from battle, otherwise I would blast this giant monstrosity out of the sky."
"Hold up. I KNOW, that you did not just call the Argo II a monstrosity!" Leo said, offended.
Zoë sighed. Well this was going just great. "Alright, let's all calm down."
Terminus turned to her. "What are you? You smell Greek, but it's very faint. Like you were one long ago. But you smell... foreign." He sniffed the air again. "Very much like that one guy."
"That one guy?" She asked.
"Showed up about a week ago. Left on a quest. Got back the other day."
"Percy." She breathed out.
"Yeah. Him."
"Whoa, what's wrong with him?" Zoë said. She slowly drew her knife. "I'd choose your words very carefully."
"No!" Terminus yelled. "No weapons on the boil inside the Pomerian lines!"
"The what?" Pipe asked.
"City limits." Jason said.
"And this entire ship is a weapon! You may not land!"
Zoë sighed. "That's fine. Jason can fly, so can I. We'll take the other two and meet with the others that way. The ship will stay up here. It's not on your soil, and we're not breaking any rules."
"What?" Terminus said, not expecting that response.
"What, you thought these were for show?" Zoë asked, flexing her bat wings.
Terminus sighed. "Just please, don't destroy the Camp."
LINE BREAK
Zoë touched the ground. She put Leo down on the ground. Unceremoniously, by dropping him on the ground. She looked around the forum, through the sea of Romans. And there he was, dressed in a suit like he always was, Lucifer Morningstar.
She walked towards him. The Romans parted like they were the Red Sea and her Moses. She reached him and threw her arms around him. He wrapped his arms around her and planted a kiss on her head.
She didn't have anything to say. What would she say? There weren't enough words in the English language to describe how she felt to be back in his arms. So she settled for making her feelings known through touch.
Percy, on the other hand, had something he wanted to say.
"Wanna go see this bar I found?"
Of course, she agreed.
A/N. What's this? An update that's not a whole month late? I must have been killed and replaced by a clone who found my outline! Nah, for real though, I'm actually pretty excited to start this section. I have some great stuff lined up. Might slow down again. Might kill myself, we'll see.
Anyways, we saw the birth of Rory. Yes, the Flying Spaghetti Monster speaks in Wing Dings and no, I will not apologize. Yes, I was inspired by The_Plauge_Dragon's story "Poisoned Blood" where the hydra speaks LOLcat. If you want to know what he's saying, you can translate it into lingojam's Wingdings translator.
Next chapter will be them at a bar. There will be some revelations in there, so stay tuned!
Thoughts?