A/N: Hello.. I know people are probably waiting for me to update Living Fairytales, however this has been sitting in my computer for a while now. So to begin with I would like to thank Ferlinda the Dreamweaver for beta-reading this for me ages ago now... Please note: This is rated T to be safe, there is character death and it is a one shot. In no way does it relate to any other stories of mine, currently written/being written or in the future. Please review and let me know what you think!

Our Story

We never asked for any of this to happen… none of it. But it did happen. Nothing can change the past, nothing… I would call this my story but it's not, this is our story. I am all that's left, one of seven left to wander lost in the world, until I see them again.

Being the last of seven is no easy task. I need them. All of them. Why did they have to go, without me? We had won, yet I had lost them all. We all came together at New Olympia on those fateful days, when as a group we went from three to four, to six and then seven, after being flown in by Hermes and his griffins. None of us were prepared for what was coming, not even the psychic.

We trained hard and studied as much as possible. What do you expect from seven teenage heroes trying to save the world… A grade students?? Well some of us were, especially one in fact. We all had our strengths and weaknesses too. Our greatest downfall wasn't one of our weaknesses; it was one of our strengths. We always gave our all, and even if it didn't look like it, six of us paid the price. But that's the end; we need to start from the beginning.

Time – all the years of the past, present, and future; the continuous existence of the universe.

But that's not our definition. To us, Time equals Cronus which equals problems, which then equals the possibility of losing our lives. We dealt with so many monsters and mythological beings that a day wasn't complete for us unless we took on at least one of them. From the beginning, we were stretched to our limits. We had to take on the Typheus first. What didn't help was that none of us knew each other nor how to fight properly. We got through in the end but it was hard and on our first mission, we nearly lost a member…

A few weeks later we had taken on Cerberus, Pan and Odie taking after his ancestor and using a Trojan horse… himself. We got through and we were starting to come together as a team. Little did we know it was going to get much harder. Cronus tried so many times to get rid of us. Be it the Antikythera device, the Gorgons and Hecate, we struggled forward, developing our skills, our knowledge and the relationships we shared, not only with each other but the gods, our mentors and guides. They depended on us to save the world. It drove us crazy but relying on each other for strength we pushed through the tough times. We had to. It was our choice: fight or surrender the world to hell.

We soon settled into our new lifestyle and the way we would live for what seemed a long time, but in reality it wasn't. Cronus threw Minotaurs and crazy descendents at us and then Campe joined us, after she also tried to get rid of us. But we worked that out and then Archie released the Seeper. Then there was Odie's run-in with Odysseus' past in between the meeting with Arachne and the Kraken. Then there was the hate-filled Valentine's Day, the Chimera, crazy robots and Talos and the sirens. We were definitely living life to its fullest – we were never short on the variety of mythological beings/monsters that came into our lives.

Living together was great; the main argument was over the bathroom. But we had more to really worry about than that. Getting close to being together for a whole year, we had already taken on so much. To add to the list were giant ants, Stymphalian birds, Sybaris and the help of Echo. There were so many times we nearly died and a few of us in particular did. One of the happiest events of our time together was interrupted by Cronus. He killed Odie, forcing us to take drastic measures by going back in time. At least we found out the truth about Zeus and Mr. Suez. For that first year we fought time and his monsters. Not all of our struggles were his fault, we were young and stupid at times we caused so many problems for ourselves.

That was our first year. Our second year we tried to improve as a whole. We trained harder than ever and tried so hard to bring down Cronus; we're lucky it didn't kill us. Some of the time our friendships were strained because of the effort we put in. It didn't surprise us when Cronus attacked us next, but the creatures did sometimes. It was just after our first year when we encountered Thanatos. Then trying to make it easier for ourselves by finding Cronus we met the Graes. We also got an insight to a side of Cronus we hadn't seen before; he feared something and to us that was an important fact.

Atlanta then learnt a valuable lesson from an unsuspected place, the stars. Orion proved to be more than just a bunch of stars. But that lesson could've all been lost in an instance when we went to visit some of our ancestors in the Elysian Fields. If it wasn't for Neil and Theresa, we would've lost our memories forever. We moved quickly after that, constantly trying to out plan Cronus. His next plan had us searching for the Tablet of Prometheus, while he also decided he was going to rewind time. Yet we kept stopping his plans, but never actually defeating him. His next choice: the Garden of the Hesperides, which he poisoned and left a monster for us. Luckily though Archie and Atlanta found Pan and he was able to help us save it.

That was before our first holiday in ages, just before Archie looked through the mask of Phobus and was afraid of everything and Cronus also tried to kill Atlanta by reincarnating Lykon, the original werewolf. Then there was the run-in with mythological objects, Hades' Chair of Forgetfulness, the Chest of the son of Prometheus and Athena's aegis. Then we met Gaia, aka Mother Earth. That was interesting – Zeus, Cronus and Gaia all in one place. All she wanted was a simple 'thank you'. Amazing that something so simple made her stir up an earthquake or two. The next misadventure with Cronus' family members was with Eris. She had decided to cause conflict, and because of it we met Harmony. That wasn't such a bad thing. Staying with the topic of family members, Hermes' son Autolycus made a bargain with Cronus that involved Hercules' last poisonous arrow. This event led us to Theresa's Dad. I met him a little earlier than I hoped I would.

Moving on from family members, the next attempt we had against Cronus was when Theresa, with Morpheus' help, sent a prophetic vision to Cronus. In an attempt to trap him, we drew him to the temple of Dionysus. Unfortunately Cronus found out and set the Oneiroi after Theresa and they trapped her in a nightmare. Fortunately after a few blows to my head she woke up and she managed to use the Oneiroi against Cronus, saving all of us.

We had been living together for so long, we were so used to each other and sometimes some of the annoying habits or things others did pushed some of us a little too far. This happened when Neil decided to play a prank on Odie. A prank which caused Odie to meet Josephine X, a sphinx. We all then had to go and find him; we ended up saving the town she had taken over. Then Pirithous, an old friend of Hercules', poisoned a tree that the bees that made honey for the gods got nectar from. This caused the gods to nearly die…Well sort of, more like age really fast. It doesn't matter it was still an interesting experience. We fixed that problem, with the help of some ambrosia and moved on to whatever Cronus threw at us next.

Next was stopping him from creating and using a sceptre to enhance his powers. He had raised the ghosts of Polyphemus' brothers and bargained with them. Then there was Cronus 2.0, Odie's creation. It was meant to help us train better but we couldn't stop it and only Cronus could. Then there was the life-or-death chess game Cronus trapped Zeus into playing at Christmas. This left us needing the Cornucopia and Fortuna was never going to give it up, not easily anyways. Next Cronus released Sisyphus from his imprisonment; however Sisyphus had to find a replacement. That's where we came in. That was another interesting experience, as cheating death would be to anyone. Cronus kept throwing problems at us and we kept stopping him. He eventually tried to find the god's hide out using the Telkhines and Theresa's pendant, but ultimately, failure was only his to bear.

After that we stumbled on a lot of problems ourselves, without Cronus' help. Odie wanted to search for Daedalus' labyrinth, Adonis and Envy visited the secret wing and then while on a one of our relaxation trips, Scamander tried to kill Archie. Then Nemesis gave Neil the Midas Touch. He turned a few of us into gold and learnt a big lesson from it. The biggest problem was yet to face us at this stage though. We had completed so many missions against mythological beasts that this was so unexpected. We all seemed to be coping when truly some of us weren't.

The phantom Theresa created caused much confusion and struggle on our behalf. No longer were we fighting a monster we were fighting a friend, fighting to save a friend while trying to save ourselves and the gods. Since Theresa took all of the gods' powers, including Cronus', she was almost unstoppable. It is unbelievable that we made it through, but we did, our friendships prevailed. Even though she nearly died we were not finished fighting, not at that stage. I don't know how she came back, all I know is she came back to me, to the team. If she had died it would've been all over. But she was strong and we pushed through. Unfortunately that didn't last long. Though we had proved our bond as a team and as a family, we had not proved strong enough for what came next. I wish we had more time together after that day, not just to recuperate, but to relax and be together as seven. Seven strong, almost completely fearless teenagers, who didn't base their lives around time and what he's doing or how much they may have left. To live for just a few moments then would have been perfect, but the word 'perfect' has never been existent in our lives. Not since Cronus. The battle we had been preparing for, for so long it could not be stopped, destined to win we were and win we did. Destined to be together forever we were also and we will be. The battle that came changed all seven of us eternally.

The battle that arose on that fateful day we were semi-prepared for. I say semi-prepared because we had been training for this moment for so long, yet it came too soon. We were all tired not only from training but our recent mission against Theresa's phantom. Trying to stay strong, we pulled ourselves together but unfortunately Cronus saw this as his time to attack. We were all pretty much recovered, luckily; otherwise he would have wiped us out easily. The fight took its toll on us some quicker than others.

We were all fighting Cronus and his giants, rotating to keep the attacks unexpected. Each of the six used their strengths the way we had trained, yet strengths can be the greatest weakness and on that day they were. We had been battling for hours in a secluded part of New Olympia. The energy slowly drained out of all of us, even Cronus. Having to use his powers for so long really drained him. The giants fell before any of us luckily, and then we only had Cronus. The problem was that he is a god, he has seemingly endless power how do we defeat that? He planned his attacks to take one of us down at a time. Knowing that with just one gone he would win, but he had to be sure.

He attacked the weakest, only in strength, first. He knocked him over, his laptop and many other gadgets falling to the ground. Then he went for him with his scythes. The gash on Odie's chest was indescribable, blood was flowing everywhere. Next the lucky, but no luck can last forever, not even Neil's. Easily distracted and never stood a chance… That's how he was when it happened. Then Theresa, she was so strong but weak because of the phantom, she had tired quicker than usual and still gave it all. She had been using her powers to help others but this weakened her. His scythes got her too. Herry - the brawn, with strength beyond imaginable strength. He used his strength to smash a wall; unfortunately Cronus had other plans for the bricks. They landed on Herry crushing him under them.

Atlanta was his next target, but out of nowhere Archie pushed her out of the way. Archie's protectiveness had always been strength during missions; it meant they both stayed on track and he focused so she didn't get hurt and made sure she was safe because he wouldn't let her get hurt. He caught Archie's brace and Archie was never going to recover. Atlanta had moved quite a distance in that split second, but in the same way he had protected her, Atlanta then jumped in using her speed to try and save Archie. She had come from nowhere; she caught part of the attack because she could get there faster than anyone. It only made a small difference; Cronus being Cronus just conjured a second scythe. They caught the scythes at the same time; they were just lying there next to pieces of brace. They died the same way they did everything else… together. I could of stopped it, jumped in there to save them myself but Cronus was determined to keep it the way he had planned in order – he wanted me to be last and see what happened to all my friends. To witness what I never wanted to happen.

That left me, alone, struggling to cope. Everyone was down, not dead, not yet anyways, just down if I could just get Cronus to leave through his portal maybe, just maybe they would be saved. But no, he had that gleam in his eye. He knew this was it, today was the day. It was Tartarus for him or death for us. He was weak and I was weak. Fighting everyone had taken its toll on him. Grabbing my xiphos, I decided to finish him off or die trying. It was going to end. Using his scythe we battled in the blood of my friends. Out of the corner of my eye, I could still see some movement from some of them. Cronus and I battled xiphos meeting scythes all the way. I was tiring quickly and now I knew I needed to finish it, the adrenaline was no longer kicking in. In a moment of lapse, by Cronus, I managed to swing my xiphos knocking Cronus to the ground he hit his head on the way down. This was it. I took my xiphos and drove it into where a heart should be, who knows if he actually had one. I knew he was a god and that it would do no good, plus he wasn't completely conscious, but I had to… for revenge. My Xiphos pinned Cronus to the ground, holding him there, in front of my hate filled eyes. Now that he was down I rang through to Hermes who had Hera and the others gods with him. I told him that Cronus was down and so were the others.

A portal appeared near us and out walked Hermes, Ares and Hercules. Campe also slithered out. She headed for Cronus the gods for the six injured. Cronus was defeated, finally. But I was the only one conscious to witness our victory. They were all carried through the portal to the school and to Chiron. I followed covered in a mixture of dirt, sweat and blood, my own and my friends. I walked towards the others and knew then that at least two were dead, they had been as soon as they had hit the ground. I was waiting for Chiron to finish examining the others; I by far needed the least attention. While I was waiting, I started to wobble on my feet so I sat down. Then it all just went black.

Waking up from my coma I noticed I was alone. It all came rushing to me. How long had I been out? I had no idea. I could feel bandages around my body; lots of them. I tried to move and let out a yelp because of the pain. I had to find the others, if there were any. I just had to know. Wandering out into the main part of the school all the gods were gathered together, in a heated discussion. I wandered up to them, they didn't even notice. Had they forgotten about me? No, they were discussing about me.

I interrupted their discussion and they all stared. "Where are the others?" I asked. They all just looked at me, the sorrow crept over their faces, and there was no disguising it. "They're gone, aren't they?" I said next. Hera just came to me and said, "Yes Jay, they are." The tears came that very moment and reality set in like never before, I truly was alone.

The next day we had the funeral ceremonies for all of my friends. My eyes were never dry the whole time and neither were the gods. We meant more to them than they ever showed. I left the school the day after that. Walking the halls I knew I could never return. The memories would be too hard to keep away. I was heading to the brownstone, our home. I had decided I was going to leave, where I was going I had no idea. Now I had no home, home is where the heart is and mine was in Elysian Fields. I couldn't go there, not yet; the physical heart that kept beating kept me here, stranded from where I wanted to be. I had watched what made my life worth living die, I knew even though I was alive I wouldn't be living.

Now I wander all alone, but I will not be alone for much longer. I will rejoin my friends…once my team, forever my family; we will be seven once again. It may take more time than I think but it doesn't matter, we will be seven together forever. Our story will live for a lifetime, unknown to the world we once lived, but in our hearts forever it will stay. It will always be our story.

…Death always comes too early or too late…