The Hidden Follower

3.

    Just then Peter walks in, rubbing his eyes. He sees Clovis awake and runs to hug him.

       "Hey sleepy," Clovis says with drooping eyes, the effect that occurs whenever Peter comes in contact with someone else when he's tired, not that Clovis's eyes weren't already drooping.

       "Delta can you tuck me in, pleease!" Peter begs.

       "Of course, come on bud." Picking up Peter, Delta yawns not being able to resist his power as much as she could the cabin.

       "You want a bedtime story today or do you just want me to sit here."

       "Sit here, please?" Peter reply's once again yawning.

       "Alright. You make sure you wake up in time for dinner and wake up the others. Okay?" Delta says softly her voice soothing Peter.

      "Obviously, I'm the only one in here with an alarm clock," Peter says in a confident tone.

       Delta smiles at Peter then goes to tell him to have sweet dreams, but when she looks down he's already asleep. She kisses him on the head then walks back to the others.

      "I was sleeping you know," Clovis says clearly annoyed.

     "You are always sleeping," Annabeth said with an emphasis on the always.

      "Snape much Annie." Delta taunts, she heard Clovis whisper a small good night.

      Delta zoned out. She started thinking about random things her thoughts always ending up with him, still making sure she had a sense of the conversation. She only completely comes back though when she hears her name.

     "Have you tried with Delta, because if she can't do it then I can't do it?"

     Delta guessed they were talking about Jason's memories since the mind was pretty important with her family.

    "Clovis my specialty is madness, not memories." There you go, folks. She was blessed by the wine dude, the same God who hates children and has only had two in the last twenty years (at least at this camp). Yeah that one, not too impressive until you've seen him in a fight, it is awesome.

    "What do you mean memories aren't your thing, you helped with Peter when he got here." Clovis challenged.

   "That was still madness you idiot. All I did was bring out his better memories to stop him from going completely insane, less than half of it had to do with memories."

       Annabeth cuts in, "It doesn't matter Delta he's still right, you're are the best person with memories we have, can you at least try?"

      "You're lucky you've got good puppy eyes." Delta responds sighing, "I'll do it." She turns to Jason. "Close your eyes this might hurt at first but you'll forget the pain and you'll forget the memories I go through if I find any."

       Delta walks toward Jason putting the pads of her pointer and middle finger on the left temple of his head.
Closing her eyes Delta slowly enters his mind, careful not to damage it.

       When Delta opens her eyes she's in a black room that looked that it had too many layers of paint with a grey undertone, smirking she bends down and brushes her hand against the floor. Picking up her hand she looks at the black dust on her fingers, then looking down to the floor seeing a clear memory where the dust came off of. She puts both her hands on the ground, takes a deep breath, and counts to five. By the time she finishes counting the black dust is gone, Jason's memories no longer scattered all over his brain, they were organized.

         Delta focuses on the floor returning to its normal grey color. Once again taking a deep breath she focused herself on important memories, the ones that would tell the most about Jason. Apparently Delta over-focused because memories started to flash before her eyes just slow enough so that she could see what they were, understand them, and figure out why they were important.

        She first saw a toddler Jason in the woods crying and calling for Thalia, Jason's sister not that he knows that anymore. The scene changed and Delta saw Lupa training a still small but now armed Jason in the Wolf House

         The scenery changed to Camp Jupiter, younger-looking Jason greeting a roughed-up-looking brown hair girl. Delta smiled knowing instantly why thing memory was important to Jason.

         Bacchus' statue was then shown, a Reyna and Jason talking to each other next to it, slowly they both leaned toward each other and closed the distance between them, fireworks off in the distance when they pulled away a huge smile was laid upon Jason's face. "A little cliche don't you think." Said an also smiling Reyna, Jason only leaned in for another kiss.

        A purple and yellow paint-colored Jason was then shown looking about 10 feet away from him. "Seriously guys, paint really!" He calls with a slightly annoyed face.

"S-Sorry Jason." A male figure calls back.

"Don't be sorry, it's called a prank war for a reason. Come on your an octagon, not a square," she puts her hands on her head."No being an L7 got it? Loosen up a bit, be confident in yourself." A girl tells the stuttering boy. "Relax Jason, it's just paint, besides your only upset because you and Reyna are too busy sucking each other's face off or on some cheesy date to think of a good prank!" She then calls to Jason.

Delta tried not to laugh at the memories of the pranks done between the four teens.

Delta then covers her ears hearing a scream, it was Jason having a nightmare of a past quest tears were rolling down his face while he was thrashing in his bed, she couldn't handle the pain he appeared to be in, Delta skipped over the memory.

Delta saw tears again this it wasn't Jason's, it was Reyna's.
"I know Jason, I get it, just know I love you and I'll always love you. I'll miss you."

"I love you too Reyna so much, that's why I'm doing this, I can't afford you being in pain because of me."

Delta showed a sad smile at the scene knowing how heartbroken the two were when they broke up. It was a year ago when Jason had to go on a quest that he could have died while on it, not wanting to hurt Reyna he broke up with her. Delta knew for a fact Jason didn't do the best he could've in that quest, he didn't have as much to fight for anymore, a reason to not die. He may have thought he was doing the right thing, but it just made him less motivated. It also made Reyna cry when he left, they ended up being awkward when Jason came back. Reyna being Reyna bounced back quicker than Jason, becoming a Praetor not long after, she still loved him though. Jason however took longer to heal you could see his red eyes clear up after about a month and got comfortable with his position as praetor with Reyna.

Jason had wanted to get back with Reyna he really did, but he couldn't bring himself to do it, he couldn't bring himself to hurt her.

Those kids were like Harry and Ginny
except they never got back together.

More memories flashed, the titan war mainly, Delta couldn't bring herself to watch that.

Suddenly something sparked Delta's attention, it was memories of Jason, the elf who Delta still didn't know the name of even if he looked familiar, and Piper all of them blurred, but they were there.

Delta decided she'd seen enough and brought the black dust back into Jason's head, hiding his memories again.

Delta's eyes open and she looked into Annabeth's own eyes faking a somber look.

"Nothing."

~~~~~~~~~~~~•~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Written: February 8, 2021
Published: February 13, 2021
Edited ————— —,———