Battleground

Chapter Four If you had been sitting in the audience that night, you would have seen Jem and the Holograms positioned on stage as such: At the far left was Aja and her guitar. To the right and behind her was Raya and her drums. Next was Jem herself, positioned front and center. To her right and behind her was Kimber and her keyboard. And last but not least was Shana and her bass guitar at the far right. If you had kept on looking to the right past Shana, however, you would have seen the stage curtains, but not the man hiding behind them. Positioned just off stage left, hidden in sight from the audience, was Shooter, leaning against the wall, arms folded - his default rest position - as he watched the band perform. From his vantage point he could see everything happening on stage, and thus be able to quickly respond to anything that might require his immediate attention. Though he hoped that wouldn't be the case. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with a major crisis

Closure There was only a light breeze as Minx stood in the center clearing of The Grove. Wearing only her orange tiger-stripe robe, contemplating the small pyramid of kindling set up in the fire pit before her. Without looking she could sense Jerrica walk over to stand beside her. "I'm going to ask you one more time: Are you sure you want to do this?" For a moment the uncertainty was as clear as day on Ingrid's face. She had wanted nothing more than to speak with the spirits of Rory and Phoebe one more time. But now that the moment of truth had arrived, she couldn’t help but feel apprehensive.| However, that reluctance was washed away by a sudden wave of determination. The nightmares, the fear, the guilt. She couldn’t continue letting them eat away at her soul like this.| "Yes...yes, I do." She turned to face the Mistress. "I need to do this, Jerrica. We both do." Jerrica, who was herself apprehensive at the prospect of seeing her fallen lover again, nodded in