Disclaimer: I hope you have enjoyed so far. This one is to my devoted fans! *Receives cheers and applause, smiles, waves and bows* I hope to achieve world peace in my reigning year as Miss America! Thank you, thank you all for your support! Wait!!! Sorry, got carried away in my daydream! I really don't know why I'm writing here at all…oh well. Sorry that this has taken so long, as you can see, it's very long. Read on!

Changes are in Eduardo's dream and at the very end. Read on!

Part 10: The Loss

Eduardo sat hunched over in the ECTO1, contemplating his excuse for not telling them sooner. He had begun to explain it when Roland, surprisingly, told him to save it for Egon. He must have been really ticked off to say that. Normally, Roland was Mr. Get-along, now he was Mr. Shut-up-before-I-do-something-I'll-regret-later. You could hear it in his voice when he called in to Egon, telling him that the Ghostbusters were coming back to headquarters. Eduardo was almost afraid to ask him if he would stop at his apartment so that he could change.

Kylie was in the same state as Eduardo, for once. She was stunned, confused and a little afraid. She couldn't understand why Eduardo would hide this from them, and then she couldn't figure out why Roland was so angry with Eduardo. She was sure there was a reasonable explanation why Eduardo chose not to tell them about his condition. Wait! Why am I supporting him? We were fighting up until now, why do I actually feel sorry for him? This she couldn't answer no matter what she thought of. She thought back on the fight that they had back at the zoo.

* (Flashback)

Eduardo: I knew it would be a cat.

Kylie: What do you mean by that?

Eduardo: It figures that it would be a cat.

Kylie: Are you saying that there's something wrong with cats?

Eduardo: No, I wasn't. Even though it's obviously true, I was not talking about the superiority that dogs have over cats.

Kylie: Dogs are not better than cats! I thought we settled this this morning!

Eduardo: I did too. I thought we had settled that dogs are better than cats.

Kylie: No we didn't! In fact, I was about to tell you why dogs are stupid, when we were so rudely interrupted.

Eduardo: Well, I don't see any distractions now so why don't you tell me? Oh, that's right, you didn't, and still don't, have any proof, that's why you took advantage of the distraction!

Kylie: Are you calling me a liar?

Eduardo: So what if I am?

Kylie: That's it Eduardo! What do you have against cats?!

Eduardo: What do you have against dogs?!

Kylie: I asked you first!

Eduardo: Actually, I asked you first.

Kylie: Fine! I had a dog once, so I know how stupid they can be. What's your excuse?

* (End of Flashback)

He had paused then, trying to think of an answer. She thought, now, that he could have reminded her that he had been a cat once. But now she knew his reason for not liking cats. It's hard to like something that you're turning into.

She glanced over at him, thinking about how he must feel right now. She remembered getting caught after taking the ghost homing-beacon from Egon. She felt so embarrassed to face Egon, especially after giving him the disease while possessed by the demoness.

She remembered the fight that she and Eduardo had in the car, after elderly man's home. She accused him of endangering their lives by not acting sooner. Now she realized that that was a false accusation. He really hadn't known that he could have done that. Now that she had time to think about the day, everything that Eduardo had done made sense. And she realized that she had made a lot of mistakes. She couldn't even begin to count! It was giving her a headache just thinking about it! She asked Roland to turn on the radio, maybe that would distract her from her thoughts.

Meanwhile, Eduardo was remembering the afternoon himself. He couldn't believe that he had said that stuff to Kylie. He had totally provoked her into that fight (don't you wish guys were like this???). Now that he looked back on it, it totally made sense! He knew what he had to do to make it up to Kylie.

"Kylie?" he began.

"Yeah, Eduardo? What do you want?" She looked back at him expecting a full-fledged apology for his actions. He saw this and knew she wasn't sorry for what she had done. He didn't want to start another fight so he said simply, "Never-mind".

They rode silently until they reached Eduardo's apartment. He told them he'd be right back and ran up the stairs and in his door. He walked past his kitchen and into his bedroom. He slipped his newly acquired sweatshirt off and dropped it on the floor. Now his golden-brown fur was clearly visible on his arms. He then changed his baggy jeans for the original jeans he had put on this morning, the ones with the hole in them. Man, it feels so good to be able to move the tail around! He took his gloves off, revealing his padded hands and retractable claws. He tested one out by neatly slicing, in half, a bar on his headboard. Wow! That really packs a punch!

He started to walk over to his mirror but fell strait on his back. He stood back up, balancing on his toes and found that he could balance perfectly. He slipped off his shoes and saw that his feet were now transformed into those of a cat. I guess I won't be needing shoes!

He continued over to his mirror and noticed that his hair length was down to his shoulders. He would have to fix that later. He examined himself and kind of liked what he saw. WAIT! What am I saying? I want to be back to normal! He backed away from the mirror and hurried out of the apartment without locking the door. In fact, he didn't even use the stairs! He jumped over the railing and fell the 10 feet to land on his (feet but I figured that it wasn't needed, you know "fell 10 feet to land on his feet"? Sounds a little corny huh?). All four of them actually.

Kylie saw the whole stunt. She sat staring at him in his crouch; Just like Pagan when he jumps off the bookcase in the living room. She was still staring at him as he stood up strait and strolled over to the car. It was now that he was up close that she noticed his other changes. She swore that if there had been a movie, TeenCat, he would have played the part purfectly, excuse the pun.

He opened the door with his now padded hands. Roland cringed at the scratching sound of Eduardo's claws on the door handle, but was too awed to scold him for it. Garrett was in much of the same state. He had been chewing on a candy bar when Eduardo had appeared, now his mouth was hanging open with a partially-chewed Crunch bar still laying on his tongue.

Eduardo looked in and asked, "Kylie, you gonna move over or not?" This shook them out of their amazement enough for Kylie to scoot over and Roland to start up the car and pull into traffic.

Kylie couldn't help looking at Eduardo. She wasn't amazed at his looks; well, not really. She knew what a cat looked like. What amazed her was that he had been able to keep it hidden so well. Sure, she had suspected that something was wrong, she wasn't totally dense, but that it was something so extreme as this… She could see his tail twitching out of the corner of her eye; his ears were turning this way and that, picking up all the sounds around him; his eyes were just staring strait ahead; his hand/paw was softly tapping a beat on the seat, in the same time as his foot/paw was. She chuckled to herself as his head started nodding to the same beat.

He must have heard because he turned his head to her and asked, "What you laughin' about?"

"Nothing," she responded. She made a note to herself that she would have to make sure Eduardo was out of the house if she was saying something about him; cat's hearing was very acute.

Eduardo was hurt, if Kylie wasn't laughing at him then she should have included him in the joke; in the all likely case that she was laughing at him, she shouldn't have. This was the very reason that he hadn't told the Ghostbusters about his little secret. It seemed like it was taking forever to get to the firehouse, couldn't Roland hit the gas?

After forever had passed, they finally arrived at the firehouse and pulled into the garage that the Ghostbusters had seen so many times. They all got out and were greeted by Egon and Janine; that is, all except Eduardo. He stayed sitting in the car, waiting for the inevitable. It came when Kylie said, "Eduardo! Quit being such a crybaby, get out of there! What are you, scared?"

That got him out of the car as quick as a flash, or a cat in this case. "Shut up Kylie!" he yelled over the top of the car.

Janine gasped and clutched Egon's arm. Egon just adjusted his glasses and said calmly, "Now I understand the urgency, Roland. Come up here, all of you, and rest. I'm sure Janine will make you something to drink while I look to Eduardo's interesting predicament."

Garrett rolled over to the elevator while the others walked up the stairs to join Janine in the kitchen. Eduardo grabbed a cup of the already made coffee and walked back out to Egon's lab. Kylie watched how he walked on the balls of his feet. It was amazing how cats could balance on those like it was nothing. As a future experiment, maybe she could try walking on hers all day. Then again, that wouldn't be much of an experiment considering how many people wear high heels, the idiots. She calmed herself down and focused on her cup of hot chocolate.

Meanwhile, Eduardo was getting poked and prodded by Egon. So many questions, so hard to answer with fingers inside your mouth. But the questions kept coming and coming. When did this start? Did you notice anything unusual during that time? Did you notice anything unusual before then? What about last night? Does this hurt? How about this? Did you notice anything different about the cats you encountered? When was your last change? Why did you hide this from the others?

The last question was the only one that Eduardo didn't answer truthfully. Even though Egon was a total nerd, it didn't mean that he didn't know about a relationship. Or did it? He and Janine still weren't dating even though she hinted all too often. This point was pointed out to him when they dealt with that bug dude. That was so gross!

He was forced to put the memory behind him when Egon started pulling on his tail. He knew he was just examining him but he just couldn't control himself. It was like a primal instinct. He turned around and lashed out at Egon, claws bared. Luckily Egon had expected this and had pulled it and ducked behind his desk before Eduardo, despite his speed, could rip him in two. Unfortunately, his lamp couldn't do the same. It got sliced in half and fell to the floor, the bulb smashing.

The others came running, Janine in the lead. She ran to Egon and asked him if he was hurt or anything and helped him to stand up. She made a thorough examination of her own, decided he was okay, but still stayed by his side.

"What in the heck happened?" asked Garrett, gesturing to the broken lamp on the floor.

"I provoked the inevitable," replied Egon, staring hard at Eduardo. Eduardo was just standing there, claws still extended, staring at the clean-cut lamp. He couldn't believe what he had just done. He had tried to gut Egon! "Eduardo?" He looked up at Egon. "Now do you see why you should have come to me sooner?"

Eduardo just stared at him. There was a crazy look in his eyes, Kylie noticed it right away. She slid over to the proton guns, just in case. She was right to do so. Eduardo lunged at Egon, nearly faster than she could pull the trigger; but not quite. Eduardo was caught in midair and thrown into the wall, knocking him unconscious.

"Oh my God," whispered Janine. She clung to Egon harder than ever, digging her nails into his arm.

"Janine? Could I have my arm back please?" She eased her grip just a little but still held on for dear life. Egon gave up and continued, "Kylie, nice job. At least this way I can do more tests that he wouldn't let me do if he was awake." He turned to Roland and Garrett, they were still staring at Eduardo, laying limp on the floor. "Roland, Garrett, could you lift him up on the table for me?" Egon asked. They finally came out of their daze and did as asked.

"Now what?" asked Kylie.

"Now I suggest that you all get some rest. I'll be running some tests and I'm sure that you aren't interested in that. Besides, you've been out all day long." Egon looked to Janine, asking her silently to do what she did best, worry over the kids. He knew she was worried about them too, and figured this would give her something to do.

The others bought it and left, even Janine let go of Egon's, now numb, arm. Kylie, however, stayed behind with Egon. She walked over to where Eduardo lay, breathing slowly, his tail not twitching anymore. Egon took a small sample of fur from Eduardo's arm and placed it on a small dish. He looked up at Kylie with a raised eyebrow, turned and sat at his microscope, his favorite place to be.

Kylie answered his look saying, "I want to know why he kept it from us. I figure if I ask when he first wakes up he won't have time to make up a lie." Egon nodded and returned his eye to the microscope lens.

It was true that Kylie pitied Eduardo for his problem, but she was still furious at him. He had lied, had kept secrets from his team. She had to hear his reason. Maybe I'm being to hard on him. I mean, I critique him a lot more than he does me. Maybe I should lay off a little. No. He lied to me. Maybe he deserved this. Then she stopped and reconsidered. She looked down at his unconscious form. No, no one deserves this.

Eduardo started to stir, causing Kylie to stop thinking about right and wrongs. She stepped back a little, just to make sure that he wouldn't attack her right away. He sat up, clutched his head, moaned and lay back down on the table. He ran his fingers through his hair, meeting up with his ear. He moaned again and said, "Ah man! I guess it wasn't a dream."

Egon looked over, acknowledging that Eduardo was ok for the most part, and returned to his work. He was now at the computer, on the Internet, looking up something or other. Janine was apparently keeping the others in the other room because there was a lot of complaining.

Kylie took her opportunity now. "Okay, Eduardo, why didn't you tell us?" She braced herself for one of his lame excuses. What she didn't expect was the truth.

She didn't get all of it but she got a lot of it. Eduardo squinted up at her and sat up, throwing his legs over the side so he was facing her. It was a good thing that he had been prepared for this all day, it was a bad thing that he was still a little disoriented. "Well, Kylie, I didn't want to hold you back or have you guys worrying about me back here. I figured that I could hold out until we got back here and then have Egon look at me. I didn't want to bail on you guys either. I figured that you'd need my help, after all, I am Ecto-man." He smiled at her and waited for his lashing. Throwing a joke in there would either be a good thing or a bad thing.

It was a bad thing for Kylie. She giggled. Oh my God! How could I have done that?! Now he won't take me seriously! Great job Kylie! She sighed and shook her head. "I don't buy it Eduardo. You lied to us. You said everything was fine. Everything isn't fine. Don't you remember when you lunged at Egon? How could you endanger us like that?"

"Oh yeah, like I knew that would happen? Cut the c***, Kylie. You don't know what I went through all day."

"You're right, I don't because you won't tell me." She figured she had him pinned, there was no way he could get away now. It was either tell the truth or get nailed for lying. Unfortunately there was one loophole and Eduardo found it.

"You don't want to know. You couldn't handle it!" He was shouting by this time, they both were. This brought in the other Ghostbusters. Eduardo glanced over, stood up, and walked out of the room. Kylie just starred after him.

"Kylie? You-"

"Shut up Garrett," Kylie said, cutting him off. With that she stomped out of the room.

Eduardo, just having woke up after a fight after driving around all day, battling cats, was in the bathroom. He did his business and washed his hands. He then realized that his fur-covered hands were soaking wet, and he might as well wash his face. He filled up the sink with water and started splashing his face with the water.

Why does Kylie hate me so much? I don't get it! What have I done to her to make her like this? Was it all the cheap jokes I made? Is this her payback for me reading her diary that one time? Wait, she doesn't know about that so that's not it. Well Eduardo, a fine mess you've gotten yourself into. She's got your number, and she's out for the kill.

He glanced up into the mirror and gasped. He could actually see his nose and mouth elongating. It looked like he had just eaten something really sour and was puckering up. Fur was growing on his face now and whiskers sprouted out of his new mussel. "Ahhhhhh!!!!!!"

He ran out of the bathroom with his hands over his face, right into Kylie who was running to see what was wrong. They collided and both fell backwards onto their butts, which was very painful for Eduardo's tail. They both had shut their eyes on contact and Kylie opened hers first. She gasped at the sight of Eduardo's face. It was exactly like Pagan's other than the color.

She quickly got up and over to Eduardo's side. She offered her hand and he took it, still not having opened his eyes. After getting helped to his feet, he finally opened his eyes and saw Kylie standing there holding his hand. He blushed (luckily the fur covered it up) and thanked her kindly. She just smiled reassuringly back at him.

Egon, Roland, Garrett, and Janine ran to the doorway just as Kylie and Eduardo started dusting themselves off. Eduardo turned to the others to show them the new development. "Hi guys."

Egon led him back into the lab for some more testing. He told the others to go get some more rest and this time Kylie joined them. Testing went on into the evening and Eduardo was getting more and more tired. Who knew that getting poked and prodded with needles and wires would be so tiring? At about 8 'o'clock, Egon finally gave up and told Eduardo to leave while he examined the results.

Eduardo walked tiredly out to what could be called the living room of the firehouse, and lay down on the couch. He found being sprawled out along the couch to be uncomfortable and so did what sounded natural; the curled up in a little ball, well, little for him I suppose, and went to sleep, his head resting on his arm.

An hour later Egon called the Ghostbusters into his lab. He started to explain but asked instead, "Where's Eduardo?"

"He's asleep on the couch, I-I let him sleep," answered Kylie, "after all, he has been working pretty hard all day."

"All right, I found something on our little cat problem." He turned back to the computer screen and started reading the article on the screen. The others gathered close to see over his shoulder. "It seems that the museum's exhibit, Egyptian Idols, opened after receiving a statue of the great cat goddess, Clyomentra. She is said to have been the first ruler of Egypt, explaining the Egyptian obsession with cats. She had the power, not only to control cats, but humans as well, and made many servants, transforming the humans into likeness' of herself. I think we now know what's happening to Eduardo."

"How could I be so stupid?!" Kylie was hitting herself in the forehead. "I read all about her after I got Pagan! She was supposedly banished by the other gods because of her constant meddling in the Egyptian's affairs. The legend is that she escaped the wrath of the gods only to be betrayed by her subjects. They were somehow able to make her mortal but she again escaped before they were able to kill her. She was able to make a potion, turning her to stone to be awakened again to one day have her revenge on humankind."

"Thank you Kylie. I was just about to say that." Egon would have smiled if not for the seriousness of the situation. "You must travel to the museum and capture the spirit before she unleashes her revenge."

Meanwhile, Eduardo was having a peaceful sleep. He was with Kylie this time, not running after her. They were holding hands and she was as gorgeous as ever. She was looking up at him with a wonderful look in her eye, he could just kiss her. As he leaned down to do so, she pulled away, sharply, loosing contact with him.

He called for her to come back and held out his hand. But his hand was not a hand, but a paw. He looked at it and gasped in horror as the fur started spreading down his arm, over his shoulder, across his chest, and met with the fur growing from the other arm. He could feel it sprouting all over his body. There was a rip and he had a tail. He could feel his ears getting bigger and moving up his head to rest on top. Now the fur had spread to his face and his jaw was elongating again. He looked down and saw what he had seen before he fell asleep, a monster.

All this time, Kylie had just watched, smiling at him the whole time, like nothing was wrong. He looked back at her and saw no fear in her eyes, he saw compassion, understanding, love. She took a step closer and started changing and then it was over. She looked just like him, only more feminine.

She looked beautiful. But it wasn't Kylie. Kylie was standing behind this new figure. The other cat person stepped aside, allowing Kylie to see Eduardo. Kylie gasped and started running away. The Feliness snapped her fingers and Kylie was frozen in place. "So Eduardo, we meet again."

"Who are you and what do you want?" Eduardo was furious at this new figure, he wasn't sure why but something about her seemed wrong.

"I am your maker," she said with a smile.

"You're the one who did this to me?!"

"Yes Eduardo. But before you try to kill me, I have an offer to make," she snapped her fingers again and two chairs appeared, one behind her and one behind Eduardo. "Have a seat."

"Thanks but I'll-" he sat down hard and found that he couldn't get up again. Nor could he talk.

"No interruptions now. You should feel special, I usually don't make bargains with my servants. Now, about the bargain, I want to give yourself to me. Don't worry, you won't do anything "nasty" as you say. You would just be under my control. It would make it a whole lot easier for your friends, especially that one." She gestured to Kylie's frozen form. "You see, I have a complete take-over scheduled for tonight and I have to say that I don't want you to interfere and get yourselves killed." She paused again and leaned closer to Eduardo. She reached out her hand and gently stroked his chin. He found it so hard to resist, yet he knew he had to.

"As soon as I saw you, I knew you were special, the same way with your friends. You would be powerful allies to me. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to be interested in my offer. Roland would be a nice advisor but he doesn't have an interest in the felines. Garrett, well, wouldn't be much use to me as a cripple. Egon and Janine are much too old to be of much use either."

"Then why did you do this to me?" Eduardo yelled. Clyomentra was astonished that he had broken her spell, but recovered quickly.

"I did this to you to advertise what I'm offering to your friends. Or at least Kylie. She has an interest in cats, doesn't she? The others wouldn't be much help, Kylie, on the other hand, I have very special plans in her. She would be my host, and then you two would be together forever. I know what you feel for her, Eduardo. I've seen the passion that you hold for her, even when you're fighting, you love her. This could be your last chance. So, what is your answer?"

Eduardo fought and fought with his desire for Kylie. Yes, he loved her, but would he sacrifice his friends to this creature to have her? So much to think about, so little time. Even though it was a dream, he had a little headache running through his head. He clutched his forehead and shut his eyes, revealing a dream inside a dream.

He was running with Kylie, hand in hand, through Central Park. She was in her normal clothes but was gorgeous in his eyes. They were both laughing and having the best time of their lives. They finally tired and sat down to watch the sunset. He was out of breath and closed his eyes to relax. When he opened them, he was his transformed self again. He yelped and looked to Kylie to explain but there was no need. She looked at him with the same love as when they were running, not caring how he looked. To prove this she leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. He smiled and they continued watching the sunset as if nothing had happened.

He awoke from this dream and was back with Clyomentra, still waiting for his answer. "Did you have fun, Eduardo? That is what it would be like all the time, just you and Kylie. What is your answer?"

"Would she be harmed?"

"Of course not. She will be handled with the up-most care that can be given." She was still smiling at him.

Eduardo weighed out the consequences but the bad ones had disappeared from his mind. "Then, my answer is yes." She held out her hand to Eduardo and he shook it. Then everything went dark and his dream ended.

Kylie was shaking Eduardo awake. They were about to head to the museum and Egon wanted Eduardo to go along to protect the others. Eduardo looks kinda cute curled up like this, Kylie thought to herself. She continued shaking him for a few minutes. She was starting to get annoyed when he finally opened his eye and looked at her. "Good morning sleepy-head," Kylie said cheerfully. It was still that night but it was a habit she had.

Eduardo bolted up and grabbed her around the waist and into his arms. She complained and told him to put her down. He turned his head to look strait at her. His now yellow eyes, flashed red, and then back to yellow. She realized what was happening and screamed. Roland and Garrett were the first to the entryway, blocking Eduardo's passage that way. He instead leaped to the window and ducked his head out. His body would have followed had Kylie not elbowed him in the gut. He dropped her and quickly hurried out the window before any more blows could be dealt.

"What happened?" asked Roland who ran over to Kylie and helped her up.

"We lost him," Kylie replied. She looked out the window to see a figure leaping over the rooftops, toward the museum.

One conscious was just now returning there. That was harder than I thought it would be. Eduardo is a strong one. It's a good thing he isn't the brightest person on the planet. Even so, it takes a lot out of me to do that. I won't be able to on Kylie, I'll just have to rely on Eduardo for that. Now that my plans have been set in motion, I can rest. And so she did.

Disclaimer: I changed the ending because looking back at it made me realize that it was rushed. I was trying to end it and move on, which made it a little crappy. I hope this Revised Version will please you.