George raised his eyebrows slightly as he surveyed the group. He managed to pick out a familiar face. "Hello, Roger," he said. "It's been a long time."

Roger nodded politely.

"Wait," Meredith said, "Does this mean that George is a Guardian, too?"

George looked at Meredith as though she had said something completely crazy.

Susanne cleared her throat. "I can see that I need to do some storytelling."

Mercy was now sitting up, rubbing her head. "Oh, I feel like... I don't know what I feel like, but it's bad," she said.

Anaera patted her on the back and glanced back at the tree. "I hope that tree wasn't especially important," she said, sounding slightly sheepishly.

"Uh, er... no, not especially," George stammered. He swallowed. "I can replace it..."

He motioned for them to follow. Susanne quickly fell into step beside him and began talking. "I am so sorry about this, and I promise we'll be out soon. We just needed a place to rest for a couple of hours or so. That psycho, uh, witch, knows exactly where my dorm room is. And she nearly killed Mercy."

"The next time you get a chance, you do realize that I want to know exactly what this is all about."

"As soon as I find out myself. We're supposed to be fighting each other, but --" she turned to look at the other girls "-- we've found that we enjoy each other's company. And we're better off together. There are two others, Celly and Nyx. You've met them."

"Ah, those. Shall we call our security guard to come on duty?"

"Wouldn't do any good. They've got these powers..." she shrugged, and tried to fill George in on some of the events. "Oh, and... besides Celly and Nyx, there's the matter of their Guardians... I don't know much about Nyx's Guardian, but Celly's Guardian is... okay. I think. The only trouble is that wherever he is, Celly is or soon will be."

"I'll let you know if we get an intruder."

"It's okay, I'll just plug in my computer."

"Plug in... what, you've broken through the security codes again?"

"Well, I have to admit, they were better this time. Next month, when you change over again, I can help you."

George sighed. "Okay, okay. Olivia!" He called as he opened the door and they went into the house.