Disclaimer: I don't own the team, but their children belong to me. Hmmm…. May have to re-word that one. I also own this idea! So don't steal that either!

This is the second to last chapter, peoples. And an incredibly crappy one at that. So don't be mad.

Chapter dedicated to Always A Legend, Jasmin-Newfie, Suk-fong, dizzy5, iheartyou07, princessofoyownworld, and story goddess for all having this story on their favorites list. Thanks for the support guys!

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The next morning, Odie had gotten up early to make breakfast. He didn't think anyone could sleep over Neil's loud snores, but apparently he was wrong. Herry was curled up cozily with his teddy bear (that he THOUGHT no one had seen him pack) under the crook of his arm. Jay was crouched into a ball in a bottom bunk, with Theresa snoozing above him, her long hair falling in her eyes.

When he checked on the kids, Odie saw that they were all crammed in a master bed that was most likely meant for the adults of the cabin. Every so often, once of the children would shove another further away from him or her in a tired manner.

Atlanta was still sleeping as well, her blankets covering her red head entirely. Archie wasn't in his bed, though.

'Must be going to the bathroom,' Odie decided. He walked into the kitchen and over to the refrigerator.

He heard a noise, and looked over to his right side. Archie was standing beside him, his arms folded over his chest. Odie screamed loudly and jumped about a foot in the air.

"Shut up!" Archie whisper-yelled. "Do you want to wake the whole house up?"

Odie shook his head. "What are you doing up for, anyways? It's six o'clock!"

"Couldn't sleep," Archie told him, "Had a weird night."

"Oh?" Odie said, "How so?"

Archie told him the whole story, from the tea to telling Atlanta that he loved her while she was sleeping.

"Jeez," Odie groaned, taking a carton of eggs from the fridge, "Bad form, Arch. Bad form!"

"Why?" Archie asked, "What are you talking about?"

"You can't just blurt things out like that," Odie told him, "ESPECIALLY to Atlanta. For all you know, she could've been awake and she might've freaked out and that would have totally ruined the relationship you two currently have. And do you want that?"

"No," Archie muttered.

"Didn't quite hear that," Odie said, cupping a hand to his ear.

"NO!" Archie yelled, being quite more loudly than he meant to be.

"And you tell me to be quiet," Odie said under his breath as he cracked a couple of eggs into a large bowl and began to whisk them with a fork.

"God," Archie whispered. It was at that moment that Jay walked in, closely followed by Theresa.

"What's all the noise in here about?" Jay asked, "In case you haven't noticed, there're seven sleeping kids in the next room that I'm not sure we want woken up!"

Someone started crying down the hall, and it was long before six more cries joined in.

"Argh!" Jay exclaimed in exasperation, "Come on!"

He motioned for the others to join him and they all went down the hall to where the children were now awake.

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While her friends were all trying to calm the children down, Atlanta was lying on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. She didn't feel as crappy as she did yesterday, but at the same time she wasn't going to be kicking any monster ass anytime soon.

What had happened last night? Did she dream Archie's whole speech? And if she hadn't, it wasn't….they couldn't…….

Truthfully, Atlanta didn't know how to react. She didn't even know if she felt the same way. There were so many things to love about Archie. How he laughed at the jokes she told, even if they were totally lame, how he absolutely detested water, yet loved sitting inside and looking out at the rain, how he had tears in his eyes when they had watched, "A Walk to Remember", but turned his head before his friends could see him crying at such a sappy movie.

But he was so….so…..so Archie! Her best friend, her partner in crime! How come she didn't even have one hint he liked her in that way?

"I lo-, I really care about you"

"You don't remember the ki-, kind things I said about you?"

DARNIT!

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"Come on, kid," Jay said to Danny as he pushed him into the kitchen.

Danny stopped and stared up at the ceiling, his eyes wide.

"They're coming back," he whispered.

Jay leaned down beside the small boy. "Who's coming back? You're kind of scaring me, Danny."

"The monsters," Danny said quietly, "And that mean man!" He dissolved into tears and buried his head in Jay's chest.

Jay was confused for a second, and then realized what was happening. "Danny, it's okay. Was it a nightmare? Did you dream that?"

Danny didn't answer, he just continued crying.

"It's okay," Jay murmured, rubbing the child's back, "It wasn't real."

Danny opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted when he heard Herry shouting in the next room.

"Christy! Come on! You have to eat something!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Christy screamed, stomping her fists onto the table. A second later, Jay heard a shattering noise. He ran into the room, pulling Danny along with him.

"What broke?" their leader asked, edging into the room. He looked down at the floor at saw a smashed plate near the end of the table.

"That's it," Herry told Christy, "You're grounded!"

The little girl stared at him, and then cocked her head to one side.

"What's grounded?" she asked.

"Never mind," Herry grumbled.

Archie watched the scene as he sat in a chair off to the side, bouncing Tommy on his knee.

"Whatsa matter?" Tara asked him, cupping her chin in her tiny hands.

"Nothing," Archie said, "I'm just tired."

"Me too," Tara said, giving a dramatic little sigh, "Josh snores."

"Do not!" Josh shouted from where he was eating his eggs.

"Do too!" Tara yelled back at him.

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"DO NOT!"

"DO TOO!"

"ENOUGH!" Theresa bellowed, "Can you both PLEASE be quiet? I need to concentrate!" Theresa's head was down, her eyes closed.

"Why?" Jay asked, sitting beside her, "Are you having a vision?"

"I think so," Theresa muttered. All of a sudden, her eyes shot open and she gave a gasp of surprise.

"Cronus!" she exclaimed.

"Told you," Danny said through a mouthful of cereal.

"So what do we do?" Odie asked as Jay paced up and down the tiles of the kitchen floor.

"Yeah," Neil butted in, "We can't exactly fight him right now!"

"I'm thinking," Jay told them. He stared up into space before saying: "Maybe we should just…..get out of here."

"And go where?" Archie asked angrily, "Maybe Theresa's just having a screwy vision. We don't exactly know if Cronus is coming right now!"

Just then, a crashing noise came from the next room, followed by Atlanta's yell of surprise.

"And I'm wrong," Archie whispered as the team ran to assist their friend.

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Atlanta quickly rolled off the couch as one of the giants, an ugly green one, charged at her. The monster tackled the piece of furniture, but when he noticed that Atlanta wasn't on it, he gave an angry roar and raised his enormous hand, ready to bring it down…….

…….When Archie lashed his Hephaestus whip at the creature's face, leaving an ugly gnash where the weapon had struck.

"About time," Atlanta breathed as Archie ran over to help her up.

"You're welcome," Archie smirked. Atlanta looked over as more giants burst into the house, each getting fended off by Theresa, Herry, and Jay.

"We have to get out of here!" Jay yelled, slashing his sword at the giant he was fighting, "Get the kids and we'll follow you!"

Archie and Atlanta nodded, and hobbled into the kitchen where Odie and Neil were protecting their little friends.

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"Come on, munchkins," Neil said, guiding the children out of the back exit, "There's been a change of plans!"

"Where are the others?" Odie asked.

"Coming soon," Archie reassured him. He hoisted Tara up onto his back and gathered Tommy into his arms. Odie grasped Lily's hand and supported Atlanta with the other. Neil towed the other kids while he followed his friends up the large hill in the back of the house.

As soon as the group reached the top of their climb, they looked back down at the house to see if Herry, Theresa, and Jay were coming after them. They weren't.

"I'm going down there," Archie said, beginning to make his way back down the hill.

"And leave us with what?" Odie asked him, causing Archie to stop in his tracks, "A bunch of kids? An injured Atlanta? We're not exactly prepared if Cronus or those giants come up here!"

Archie sighed and went back up to his friends.

"Three minutes," he told Odie, "Then I'm going down there."

"Oh, I'm afraid you'll have less time than that!" an evil voice cackled. The teenagers whirled around. It was Cronus. Behind them stood the three giants who attacked them before, holding Jay, Theresa, and Herry tightly in their grasps.

"Put them down!" Archie barked to the creatures, "NOW!"

The giants merely grunted with laughter and squeezed their friends harder. The three in their capture all writhed in pain.

"Now this is a predicament, isn't it Archie?" Cronus chuckled, "Out of the four of you, only one is able to fight. Yes, that is a problem, isn't it?"

Archie looked over at Atlanta, Odie, Neil, and the children with concern. Cronus was right, of course, but that didn't mean Archie still couldn't fight back.

The purple-haired boy charged at the god of time, taking his Hephaestus whip out of his pocket. Cronus merely moved out of the way as Archie tried to tackle him, and grabbed the boy's arm as he turned back around. He then held one of his scythes to Archie's throat.

"Now let's settle this out like adults," he said to the remaining three heroes, "You give me the seven precious children, and I'll let the rest of your team members go. If not….." He held the weapon closer to Archie's throat.

Odie and Atlanta linked eyes. There was no answer to this question. They couldn't let Jay, Archie, Herry, and Theresa die, but they weren't going to hand the kids over to Cronus either. Atlanta gulped. There was one more option. She just hoped it would work.

The young girl limped forward.

"I've got a bargain for you, Cronus," she said, "You want the prophecy destroyed, right? Forget about the kids. Take me instead. Then let the others go. If I'm dead, the prophecy will be no more and you'll rule the world. That's what you want, right?"

Cronus considered this for a moment. If Atlanta was gone, then he would be killing two birds with one stone.

"Alright," he decided, throwing Archie to the ground and walking up to Atlanta, grabbing her shoulder, "You're a very good negotiator, my dear."

"Atlanta!" Archie cried, starting to get up.

"Agnon, stop him!" Cronus ordered. The brown giant quickly ran over to Archie and hoisted him up in the air by the leg. Archie yelled in fury and tried to punch the monster.

Cronus chuckled and began to lower his scythe at Atlanta. She shivered as the blade got closer and closer……

"STOP!" a small voice cried from the group of children. Cronus instantly stopped.

"Who said that?" he demanded. Josh pushed his way through the others and stepped forward.

"What makes you think you're in charge of me, small one?" Cronus barked at him.

"Because you're a bully!" Josh exclaimed, "And you're a very, very bad man!"

"Oh, am I now?" Cronus asked.

"Stop it, Josh!" Theresa screamed, "Just get away from him!" But Josh wasn't listening.

"Theresa's friend needs me!" Josh shouted at Cronus, "So I have to help her!"

"What a courageous little boy," Cronus mused, "I hate that in children." He turned to Atlanta.

"Now, Atlanta, I know I said I'd kill you, but you're going to have to wait your turn."

"No!" Atlanta, "We had a deal, Cronus!"

"Which I've decided to break," Cronus told her, "Gods tend to do that sometimes."

Cronus walked towards Josh, his weapon high in the air. Josh covered his face to try and protect himself. Cronus's scythe was just about to slice through the boy's head, when someone tackled him to the ground.

"No!" Cronus gasped as he saw who it was, "It can't be!"

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Dang. A cliffhanger. Don't you just hate those? I guess you'll just have to wait until the next (and final) chapter to see who's shown up to help save the day!

-GreenNoseRing