Victoria held out her hand in protest. "I don't want to hear it, hentai."

"You need help," Susanne shook her head.

"What is she doing here? What are you guys doing here?" Seth ran his hands through his hair at the sight of Susanne and his charge together and the lack of swords, glaives and ki blasts being used.

"Someone mind filling me in on this?"

The girls looked at each other and shurged.

"He's your Guardian, you tell him."

"Yeah, I will, once his zipper's up." Nyx raised an eye brow at Seth who turned around and zipped up his pants, his cheeks glowing red.

---------------

From the distant recesses of his abyss, a voice echoed out. He thought he heard it call him by name. He questioned whether his ears were deceiving him or whether his sanity had begun to deteriorate. The only other person he communicated with was her. But the girl refused to respond to him and he found himself conversing on his own. The man came to grips with his fate, the power once he once held was lost.

It called again.

A trick. A game put on in his expense, he reasoned.

He was cast away. The others were fully aware of his deeds and would have no part of him. Some were frightened while the others were more disgusted.

Something glowed faintly in the farthest end of the abyss. Without human apendages, he mentally swam, or rather floated towards it. As he neared, the flashes grew brighter and its warmth intensified like a fantastic sun come to illuminate his bleak universe.

It spoke again, he knew this time that it summoned him.

*What do you want of me?* The man asked his soon-to-be savior.

*I've come to take you from here.*

*Leave me in peace. I've done my crime, now let me be.* He turned from it.

It called him by name. *Your time here has ended. The chapter is written and so one must begin anew. It is the Circle. None can break it.*

Though he protested, he could not escape the ever expanding radiance of the blue sphere which enveloped the void til all disappeared in a blinding flash and only memory remained.

--------------

Seth walked along side his Otaku. Looking back over his shoulder, he could see Susanne a few feet away, contemplating.

"Are you sure this is wise?" His eyes glancing back at the other girl.

"Does it matter?" Victoria reached into her trenchcoat. Seth dropped to his knees, covering his head with his arms, reminding Vic of the "drop and cover" pose children were taught to practice incase of an earthquake. "What's the matter with you?" She drew out a pack of Reds and placed one between her lips. On its own the tip of the cigarette lit up.

"Oh." Seth straightened up. "Well, for a second there I thought--Hey! Since when did you take up smoking?"

"Now is as good a time as any." They continued to walk through the camping grounds, towards some parked big rigs filled with Woodstock '99 prapharnalia.

"Why would you turn your back on Celly?"

The hentai's inquiry made her stop in her tracks. She had thought of the fuku girl as her friend. *Friend* The word was tugging at her. Celly must know by now, she thought. Mercy would not have wasted time in telling her the good news and that would be the end of that. So much for friendship. Alliances were made to be the better evil.

"Yes." Victoria replied evenly. She didn't *hate* Celly, she rather liked her. But she couldn't stand the soap opera and the comaraderie. She wasn't soft.

She reached into HammerSpace and pulled out two gallons of gasoline and handed one to Seth. The two cloaked figures began unscrewing the gallons and dousing their contents around the big rigs. Vic then drew out several other contraptions, small, rectangular black boxes resembling cell phones and stuck it to the side of the big rigs.

As Metalica's Lars Ulrich pounded the last drum beats of "Enter Sandman," marking the end of Woodstock 99-- two figures casually strode away from the parked vehicles, one tossing a lit cigarette over her shoulder.

From the distance, the crowd roared.....

A fuku clad girl and her companions searched for some good eats....

Three other young women combed through the mosh pits and crowd surfers wondering what the hell was going on...

And a woman snapped her fingers causing five time bombs to go off simultaneously in a massive explosion, setting part of the crowded airforce base ablaze.

to be continued................