Jason Grace: After the Burning Maze

Resurrection

A/N Sorry this took so long to get up! I just got to boarding school yesterday and we have very limited tech-time. I'll post a header photo later on but for now, I feel like I owe it to you guys to publish the chapter first. Hope you like it!

I woke up to a cold piece of cloth being pressed up to my forehead by the young woman and the familiar sound of Scarlett's laughter.

"Nice of you to join us," she teased as I blinked a couple times, clearly bewildered by her almost normal state. "Eleanor here was just telling me about her pathetic joke of a boyfriend. Can you believe he was in an a cappella group called the 'Acapollos'?" They broke out into another fit of girlish giggles but I couldn't laugh with them. Something about this situation didn't seem right. Not only was it unusual for a woman to die in childbirth during this day in age, but with a man that never was there for Rosalie's birth, who wanted to name a son Jason after his half-brother, and took part in an a cappella group called the "Acapollos". Something was off but I couldn't quite place my finger on it.

"Cool," I mumbled, glaring up at Scarlett who seemed to be really enjoying herself.

"Oh, Jason don't be such a killjoy!" She shoved me playfully but I caught her wrist in my hand and forced it down slowly. A lump formed in her throat and her jaw clenched shut. Seeing her beautiful features so distressed bothered me, but not enough to make me completely want anything to do with her.

"Eleanor, could you excuse us for a moment?" Scarlett asked dryly,

"Of course," she scooped up Rosalie and left to play in the river.

"What is your deal?" We both asked at the same time. Scarlett smiled to herself while I scoffed,

"Why are you normal now?"

Scarlett sat cross-legged on the floor, white dress spilling around her, "I guess kids just have that effect on you. I don't know how but after I made contact with little Rosalie, everything reversed itself and I became myself again."

"But you seem," I paused, "Nicer now..."

She scoffed, "Was I not this nice before?"

"Oh glad to see you kept your sense of humor."

She laughed a bit to herself and took my hand in hers, I sucked in a bit of breath a bit at this sudden movement.

"Look, Jason, I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you by drinking from the Lethe. I got sick of the pain and sitting around all day and I thought, well, since I was so bored, if I drank from the Lethe then I wouldn't know I was bored anymore because I wouldn't have anything to compare it to. I thought I could test it out with one drop of the milky water to entertain myself but one drop turned out just as powerful as a cup."

"If the explanation is so complicated and you need to spend an hour justifying your actions, you probably shouldn't have done it."

"I'm not denying that it was a selfish thing to do. But I'm over that and I'm sorry. Can we move forward?"

I can't deny that I wanted to. Every ounce of me wanted to move forward, to live peacefully with her, to spend time with Rosalie together, to put this part behind. But something in me was holding me back.

"I can't make this choice now,"

Her eyebrows scrunched up, "What choice?"

"I can't decide if I want to forgive you now. Who's to say this," I gestured at her, "Isn't all a facade you're telling to get me to forgive you?"

Worry pinched her face, "Jason, if I didn't care about you I wouldn't want your forgiveness."

I halted my anger. Scarlett was making sense and I did want to move forward. After I sat still for a while, she awkwardly started moving her lips around and making all sorts of strange noise.