Victoria awoke in the dark morning hours feeling much better. Her body wasn't nearly as sore as it had been yesterday morning and her head was no longer throbbing as it had last night. She knew that the transformation was not yet complete and that it would take another night or two, but it was nice to know that it became less painful as it went on.

She stretched out her tired limbs and stood up. What she needed now was a shower to wash off the sweat from the night before. Grabbing a fresh set of clothes, she walked straight through the curtains that served as her door and drifted up the stairs. It wasn't until she was outside of the room where the Ghostbusters slept that she actually let her feet touch the floor.

She paused outside of their door for a brief moment, contemplating going in and choking all of them in their sleep right then and there.

'No,' she thought to herself. 'We'll have plenty of time for that later, when we are one. Then we can make Egon Spangler suffer to our hearts content.'

She opened the door and tip-toed between down the aisle between the beds to the bathroom on the other side. Ray, Peter and Winston all sleep soundly in their beds while Slimer slept hovering over the air between Ray and Peter's bed, a small stuffed bear held snuggly in his arms and a nightcap on his head.

Victoria had to stop herself from laughing aloud at the ridiculous sight. It didn't take much effort once she noticed that Egon was not in his bed. She shrugged, determined that it didn't matter where he was. The imbecile had no clue as to what was going on and it would probably take a meteor the size of Lake Huron landing on his head to give him a clue.

She went into the bathroom, locking the door behind her and turned the water on to near scalding before stripping her clothes off and stepping in. It felt good. She glanced momentarily at the bandage that was still wrapped around her arm from where the brick hit it before ripping it off and inspecting her arm. Not a bruise, not a scratch, not even a blemish remained.

With that out of the way, she let her body relax under the pressure and steam of the water for a good twenty minutes before cleaning herself up. When she was done she dried off and quickly got dressed. Looking at the sink she noticed her hairbrush and with barely a wave of her hand it pulled itself up and began brushing her hair.

It was in mid-brush when Slimer, sleepy and not totally cognizant floated in and began brushing his teeth. He had already put the toothpaste on his toothbrush and began scrubbing his teeth thoroughly when he finally noticed the floating hairbrush next to Victoria. The brush floated down and back to his place on the counter.

"Uh oh," Slimer whimpered as he realized what was going on.

Victoria's eyes glowed a deep, burning red so bright that they drenched the room in the color. Slimer, his body shaking started to back away, hoping that he could slip out of the room when he felt himself stopped, though not of his own free-will.

"Now, now, now. Where do you think you're going, your great green gelatinous gob of goo?" Victoria's voice no longer sounded like the sweet second soprano it had been when she had first appeared at the firehouse. Rather, it had been replaced by a deep baritone the dripped malice.

Slimer felt himself thrown back against the wall. He opened his mouth to scream when Victoria smile and waved her finger in front of him.

"Uh, uh, uh… I wouldn't do that if I were you. Or you and your gutblustering friends might find yourselves going to pieces." As if to emphasize the point she flicked her finger and a slice of ectoplasm flew from Slimer's stomach. Somehow the little ghost manage to control the urge to cry out in pain and instead took to whimpering uncontrollably.

She walked up to him and gently stroked his face. Something in the touch seemed oddly familiar to him and Slimer cringed automatically at the contact.

"You won't tell them what you saw, correct?" she asked.

"No…," he shook his head.

"Good. Because if you do, they will die and it will be all your fault." She didn't bother telling him that they were all going to die anyway. It seemed a bit pointless to her.

"Now," she continued once more in her 'normal' voice. "I'm going to go out for a while. I have … things … I need to do. I am trusting you to keep our little secret a secret." She grinned evilly as she walked out, leaving the frightened ghost behind.

Slimer felt the invisible force that had gripped him loosen as she left, though the gash in his stomach remained, and probably would for a few hours at least, if not longer. Slimer floated down through the floors until he had himself hidden completely in the dark shadows of the metal stairs leading down to the containment unit. Sliding back against the wall his body continued to shake.

"This is bad," he mumbled to himself over and over again. "This is very bad…."


Victoria swept through the sleeping quarters, no longer caring if she woke any of the ghostbusters up. Her threat to Slimer would hold his tongue for only so long before someone started questioning why he was so fearful all of a sudden. At that point they would be bound to find out what had happened to her. At least now she could stop pretending to like them.

She took a small note that Winston now appeared to be up as well, since his bed was also empty. Chances were good that either he woke Slimer up or Slimer woke him up. She glanced quickly at the clock on the wall. Five-sixteen in the morning.

It was almost a certainty that Winston had not heard what had transpired between her and Slimer in the bathroom. If he had, he would have awoken the others right away. The four men were highly predictable in that regard. So much so that it was utterly ridiculous. It truly was a wonder that no one had succeeded in bringing them down thus far.

Victoria walked into the main area of the upstairs to see Winston rummaging through cabinets for something.

"Good Morning," he said groggily.

"If you say so," she replied dryly as she watched him wearily. "Any particular reason you're up so early?"

"The shower woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep," he yawned. "So I thought I might as well just get up and have some breakfast while I was at it."

"I see. Well, don't let me keep you then."

Winston paused, noting the detachment in the young girl's voice and demeanor.

"What are you doing up so early?" he asked trying to sound casual. He had to admit that Ray was right. Something about Victoria was setting off almost every alarm in his head.

"I have things to do," she shrugged with indifference and headed toward the stairs to leave.

"But you have that interview later today, right? Don't you think you should stick around here until it's time to go? Egon will be worried about you if you leave now."

She stopped at the top of the stairs. Her voice carried coldly across the room, infused with venom. "And what the hell makes you so sure that I care one iota about what you think or Egon feels? I believe Mr. Zedmore, you may have me confused with someone who actually gives a rat's ass about you lot."

The reply formed in Winston's head, but before he could speak the cabinet door slammed shut on his hand, crushing his fingers.

"Argh!" he screamed in pain. Grabbing the door with his other hand, he had to work to pry it open so he could free his fingers.

"Have a nice day." Victoria waved, smiling to herself as she descended the stairs and left. Winston gently clasped his injured hand, still searing with pain and took no notice of her exit. When the front door to the firehouse closed behind her each and every analog clock and watch in the firehouse stopped as their faces cracked simultaneously. The time read five-twenty-seven and fifteen seconds exactly.


Pain shot through Egon's temple as he jolted awake, hitting his head on the microscope that sat before him.

"Ow! What the?" He glanced around the lab, confused until he remembered that he had been testing the wood sample that Ray had cut for him.

"I must have fallen asleep," he murmured. He rubbed his neck, trying to work the kinks out when he heard someone shouting epitaphs in the other room. He peeked out of the room just in time to see Winston bent over, his hands against his stomach, and biting his upper lip.

"Winston, what's wrong?" he rushed over to his friend. All Winston could do was to hold out his hand and show Egon the already bruising fingers. "Oh my God! What happened?"

"The cabinet door slammed shut on them." He winced as Egon led him over to the table to get a better look at the hand.

"What's going on?" Ray asked as he and Peter stumbled out of the bedroom. "We heard someone scream!"

"That would have been me," Winston replied through gritted teeth.

"No bones are broken, but it is definitely going to hurt for a while. Peter, can you grab me the gaze roll and tape from the bathroom?"

"Yeah."

Egon waited for Peter to return and then started bandaging Winston's hand. "You said that the cabinet shut on your hand?"

"Slammed," corrected Winston.

"I've had door's slam on my hands before Winston, and unless they are car doors, or something heavy like that, they don't do this much damage. Care to explain?"

"I can't," he shrugged. "I honestly don't know what happened. I was talking to Victoria and suddenly it slammed shut."

"Wait," Peter poked his head between the two. "You said you were talking to Victoria?"

"Yeah and you were right," Winston continued. "There is definitely something wrong with her."

"Where is she now?" Egon inquired.

"Don't know. She said she had things to do. I told her that she should probably stick around until it was time for you to take her to her interview and she just snapped. Said she didn't care what I thought, or you felt."

"What did you say to her?" Ray asked.

"Nothing. I didn't get a chance to say anything. That was when the cabinet door slammed on my hand." Winston held up his injured appendage to examine Egon's work. "She must have left when it happened."

Peter eyed Egon, who sat frozen in his seat. He could almost hear the blood pounding in Egon's veins. Without a word, Egon rose up and walked into the lab.

"Egon?" Ray started to follow, but was held back by Peter.

"Don't," Peter whispered. "Give him a minute." Peter closed his eyes in anticipation of what he knew was coming. Sure enough after a few moments a loud crash emanated from the lab along with a frustrated cry from Egon.

Peter nodded at the others and they rushed to the lab. Egon stood with his hands flat on the table before him, gathering his breath. A large piece of brownish stone lay on the floor and one of the filing cabinets had a large dent in it. It was rather simple to put two and two together as Ray picked up the large rock.

"Feel better?" Peter smirked as though this were an everyday occurrence.

"Much," Egon nodded, looking more relaxed and like himself. Winston looked at Peter in confusion.

"Egon did the same thing back in college when he had problems getting his experiments to work," Peter explained.

"Unfortunately," Egon sighed. "It still doesn't solve the problem at hand."

"Which is your cousin's sudden personality switch from kind and caring science nut to the wicked witch of the west." Peter grabbed some papers off the table and start ruffling through them.

"Exactly."

"Hey, Egon. What is this thing anyway?" Ray asked as he studied the brown rock in his hands.

"It's the sample you gave me."

"No it's not."

"What do you mean it's not?" Egon looked up at Ray annoyed. "Of course it is. I should know, I've been running tests on it all night."

"No, he's right. That's not the sample he cut from the banister." Winston leaned over to get a good look at the rock. "The sample he had was actual wood and concrete. Granted they had been melted, but they were still wood and concrete."

Egon sat up straighter. "Let me see that," he commanded. Ray handed the rock over and Egon stared at it intently. "This has changed since last night. There use to be a bit of concrete on the bottom."

"What? It's morphing?" Peter asked.

"That's what it appears to be doing." He tossed the sample at Peter, who caught it deftly.

"Ow." Peter shook his hand to get rid of the sting left from the throw.

"Sorry," Egon replied as he began looking at some recent print-outs from the computer. "Damn," he muttered. "My eyes are too tired and the light in here is no good. I need to more light to read these properly."

"What about the kitchen?" Winston suggested.

"It'll have to do." Egon took the papers and went to the kitchen table to sit down and read, while the other three turned on all available lights to make it easier. After several minutes of reading in silence and rapid eye rubbing, Egon finally put the papers down, his faced in awe.

"The molecules have bonded together and reformed," he said quietly. "It's no longer wood or concrete. It's a totally new substance."

"Congratulations Egon!" Peter teased. "You've discovered a new type of rock."

"Peter!" Ray exclaimed while Peter just shrugged nonchalantly.

"That's not the worse part. According to the readings from the spectrometer, it was still changing as the night wore on, and even at the end it didn't look done yet."

"So why is that the worst part?" Winston asked.

Egon looked at his friends, his face going pale. "When was the last time anyone saw Jasper?" he asked.

"The day before yesterday," Ray answered. "Victoria was holding him right before the ecto-compressor went off …."

"Damn," Winston breathed.

"We need to find Victoria," Egon declared. "And we need to find her soon."


Victoria walked among the dilapidated buildings. The streets here were not nearly as crowded as the main streets, and of the few people that she still encountered, most were homeless. They would pan-handle, putting their hands out and begging for money. Victoria ignored their cries for assistance and on more then one occasion, she even sent a few flying into the wall, causing others who had seen it to scurry into hiding.

Finally Victoria reached her destination, an old brick building, once a grand hotel from the looks of it. She let her fingers drift lightly over the brick. It would be the perfect place for the Ghostbusters undoing.