Curse of Pan....

"The curse of Pan shall strike once more,

duty over love, the son must choose.

breaker of fates, he reaps what he sowed,

and face wrath upon wrath, he does alone.

He finds allies in the unlikeliest place,

for he is a chimera of two sides.

To find his destiny, he must first get lost,

enter the labyrinth, for the answers he seeks.

And when the questions fade and the quest is fulfilled,

the lord of the wild, shall return."

The oracle gave a pause, and looked at him, "The next Oracle has arrived..." and walked away.

Max sighed, he sat down and wrote what the Oracle had told him, he dozed off with an uneasy feeling. His irritation grew when he could not sleep more than a couple of hours.

----------×----------×----------×---------

The next day,

Max was having a difficult time relaxing even on his favourite branch, his favourite person in the world resting her head on his chest. Thalia was worried, she saw his expression last night, when Max came to her cabin in the middle of the night and hugged her tight.

Thalia had seen it only once, but she knew that he was worried or scared. And she also knew, she was the cause of it. Whenever Max worried about her, his hair would turn a deep shade of green, and his eyes, the darkest shade of black almost as of he had no pupils.

Thalia ding say anything, she knew he liked the silence, cause she liked it too. A million words can be spoken, without opening one's mouth, if one could understand and love the other to the highest degree.

Max broke the silence, "Thalia, I received a prophecy last night..." He went on to tell the whole thing that had happened yesterday and the reason why he was worried. "...it clearly said that I have to choose duty over love. I do not know what my 'duty' is or will be, but I know my love. And Pan's curse. Do you know what that is? It means my relationship with you will ultimately fail. FUCK! not even a single thing happened but I still like shit."

They had talked till lunch time and thought that moping around wasn't the solution. They decided to live as the days came and prepare every countermeasure they could think of.

in the evening, Max went to Chiron who was with Dionysus and explained again what had happened last night, leaving out the curse of Pan part.

"A new Oracle? Has Apollo's curse on her been lifted?" Dionysus asked to which Max just shrugged, "I'm just as clueless as you are."

"Look here Mortimer..." "Its Maximus, Mr.D."

"And its Lord Dionysus, 'Maximus'. I must say, what very Roman name for such a splendid Greek as you."... "Well I think my mother named me before she died. Her name was Camilla Morelli" "Another old Roman name. hmph... If not for your claiming I would have thought you were a Roman spy or something. Now, off you go, prepare and depart at dawn." Dionysus said shooing Max away.

Max's brain was in overdrive. He connected the dots. His mother was a Roman descendant! It makes sense given his name and his mothers, even their surnames were Italian, now the present Rome.

[wait but...The first prophecy! ] somethong struck him deep in his being. When Max got his first prophecy at the moment he got claimed, the Oracle stated that he was the grandchild of the sun. Max sprinted to his cabin, swung open his door and opened the journal he kept in his locker. He wrote all he knew about this world, all the things he remembered reading off the Percy Jackson books in his past life.

He had also made note of the prophecies he had received since he had arrived at the Camp. He went to the page and read it, "The son of the...blah blah blah...Child of the wild, grandchild of the sun...."

[Holy shit! My mom was a demigod. Grandchild of the sun...that means, she is the daughter of Apollo!No, wait. She was Roman. Its still Apollo! No wonder I liked the Apollo kids. That makes my 3/4ths divine... a semi-god? And half Roman and half greek. That makes me an abomination. I knew I was a monster with my powers...but this? Wow!]

"Way da' go, Dad! One would think that he would tell this important piece of information to HIS OWN SON!" By the time he finished he was shouting.

Sally knocked on Max's door, "Max? Are you okay? I heard shouting dear, is something the matter?" Max went to the door and opened, "Nothing mo-" Max caught himself and gulped, he almost called her 'mom', "Nothing Ms.Sally. I'm just throwing temper tantrums at my dad." He said smiling wryly.

Sally walked sat on the bed and gestured Max to do the same. "Look here Max. I know the burden you carry is high. The responsibility to protect hundreds of children is not an easy task. Why...I found it difficult raising one. I cannot even come to fathom how you are managing it."

She continued, "What you are doing here is not actually your responsibility, you do know that right? A sixteen year old should not be made to do this but you still do it. Why? Ask yourself that." Max did not take long to answer, he knew the answer already and he believed in it wholeheartedly. "You see, I met a man who had told me two things, well one was indirectly atleast... 'With great power, comes great responsibility' I live by this code, everyday. I cannot help it, its some kind od hero syndrome or something I guess." He laughed at the last bit.

"I'm curios Max. What was the second one. You mentioned he told you two things, right?" Sally asked. "He told me 'Never let her go'..." his face became solemn, he felt so powerless and sad, that he could not even bring himself to cry, "But I'm afraid, it will happen soon by the look of things. I can break other's fates, but I can never escape my own."