"Whoa, whoa..." Dean said, raising his hands in the air. "Hold on. Run that by me again."

Vera was staring in awe at the large machine. "I'm... starting to remember a little bit more. My father was building this... to bring me back to life. Or bring us back, me and my sisters. I'm not sure."

"Bringing ghosts... back to life..." Dean said, still struggling. "Sorry, my... mind is just blown right now at this idea."

The ghost girl chuckled at her crush's bewildered face and pointed to the desk at the books they had looked at. "I just know that he realized something from all his research... I'm not sure what it was exactly. He learned of some way he could bring me back to life."

"Hmm..." Dean inspected the desk again, looking at the covers of the books. "I guess that does explain all the stuff about ancient magics and rituals and stuff. Maybe he was looking for a solution in those once he realized that you had come back as a ghost. But he couldn't find anything, so..." He looked at the machine. "So he made it himself."

"Maybe... I think I remember..." Vera could almost see her father's face in her mind, but it was blurred. She felt like she could see him looking at her and talking to her. She tried to remember the words, but only one came to her mind.

"Energy," she whispered. "That's what I remember. I feel like he was telling me something about... 'your energy'. My energy."

Dean looked thoughtful as he remembered past conversations with Katherine. "Mom used to say that ghosts carry the energy that a person once had. When their body dies, they leave something of themselves behind. The soul, or an energy that makes up the soul. And when it's strong enough, it leaves behind a trace and that trace is what becomes a ghost or a spirit. Maybe it was something like that."

"It had to be something like that," she agreed. She floated over to the door that led to the small chamber inside the machine. "All I know for sure is that the purpose of this machine is for a ghost to go inside here... and then... well, I don't know, but when it turns on, it's supposed to bring them... me... back to life."

The ghost girl floated down the catwalk away from the door, inspecting a series of metal levers that were beside it. "These must be the controls," she whispered to herself.

"It actually kind of makes sense... I mean, based on some theories my mom has told me about. I never believed them, but... well, there's a lot I used to not believe." Dean climbed up the metal steps and onto the metal walkway to stand beside Vera. "Don't suppose you remember how to control it?"

"Not at all," she said. She looked at the largest lever to the right that was further away from the others. It was pointed down. "This seems important. Maybe a power switch?"

"On three together?" Dean said, placing his hand on it.

Vera smiled and placed her hand on his. "One... two... three!" They pushed the lever up.

Machinery roared to life and the water below the machine bubbled as it generated power with what Dean figured were turbines under the water. He looked in through the window and blinked as lights flashed on inside. He looked again and saw that it was simply a small steel room, but there were large lights illuminating it and generating power. "Alright, so it runs on electricity. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but my mom used to say that the energy humans leave behind might be electrical in some way."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and that it might be the leftover electrical energy that was in our bodies during our lifetimes. Especially the electrical signals in the brain. The ones that tell us who we are. Some people think that's what gets left behind when we die. Remember when we did some tests with you and you flickered the lights with your presence? That's how a lot of paranormal researchers think we can sense when a ghost is nearby. It's an electrical field that you produce."

Vera continued to watch him as he inspected the machine some more. She was fascinated by his knowledge, and also couldn't help but think of how hot he was when he was talking all scientific. She became aware she was staring at him for too long and quickly looked away before he noticed, starting to mess with the other levers. She pulled one, and heard a "Whoa!" from Dean. She looked and saw him stumbling back as the metal door slowly creaked open, revealing the chamber.

"I was up close when that happened," he said with a laugh.

Vera laughed as she floated up to him. "Sorry! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Thankfully, it was slow so it didn't smack the nose. At least we know how to open the door. Although I'm not sure why he thought a door was necessary."

She chuckled. "Maybe the energy needs to be contained in here or something."

"Ah, probably. It's more for your human form than a ghost form, I guess. So if this is supposed to be a machine to bring ghosts back to life... maybe your dad was going to try and find a way to use that energy to bring you back. To restore your human form. I don't know, I'm just spitballing here."

Vera laughed again. "That's fine. You're probably way closer to the truth than I am."

As Vera floated into the chamber to check it out from the inside, Dean continued down the walkway and past the metal levers, where he found a hollow space where something was supposed to go inside. "Hey, Vera? What's this?"

Vera flew out and over to him. The space was surrounded by a metal ring, and it looked like it was in the shape of a bottle with the top facing up. She grabbed the ring and tried turning it. It was heavily rusted, but with Dean's help, they began to turn it over until it couldn't turn anymore. Now the bottle shaped hole was upside down, and the top was facing down, and Vera suddenly noticed a small pipe that led from this bottle shaped hole to somewhere inside the machine.

An idea clicked and she turned to point to the chemistry bottles. "We need something! Some kind of... chemical. That's what all those chemistry sets were for." She flew over and grabbed an empty bottle that looked about the right size. She flew back and set it into the hollow space, and sure enough it was a perfect match.

"I get it," Dean said excitedly. "We need to put a full bottle in here when it's the other way around, so none of it spills obviously. And then we turn it over so that it pours out and sends the chemical into the machine. This has to be what makes the whole thing work." His excitement died down. "Of course, unless we find some of his notes on the subject, the odds aren't too good we're gonna find out what that is."

"You're right," Vera said disappointedly. "There's not much liquid left in any of those bottles, and we don't even know what the machine needs. That'll have to wait until later." She sighed and then flew higher and observed the machine from above, hoping to remember some kind of clue.

"Yeah, but still, this is an amazing discovery," Dean said. "This thing must have been down here this entire time. We're the first ones to bring it up in... who knows how long?"

"You're right. I know that when I died, he had already started burying himself in his research. He wouldn't accept my death. It..."

She stopped and sadly floated back down besides Dean again, who looked at her questioningly. "It pushed him and my mother apart. Not completely, but... he became so obsessed with this machine that my mom was always lonely without him. But I don't know why my sisters weren't around..."

"Maybe your death affected them badly too," Dean said softly. "Maybe they pulled away after that."

"Maybe," Vera said. "Maybe if I brought them down here and they looked at it, they might discover some memories too. Something to help us. Well... if they even wanted to help us. They've never wanted to before." She sighed and pulled the main lever, shutting the machine's power off.

"Yeah... but then again, they are the entire reason we're here right now. They may not have intended it, but their advice opened up a lot more memories for you. So who knows? Maybe they'd be open to it?"

Vera's glum expression melted away. "Yeah... maybe so."

"Either way, we've gotta tell my mom about this as soon as possible," Dean said. "She probably won't have all the answers, but she's gotta have some theories."

"You think so?"

"Definitely," he said with a nod. "My mom's the smartest person I know."

"Whoo!" Katherine cheered, holding up a whiskey bottle as she drunkenly danced and sang into the microphone on the performance stage of the local bar. "Yeah, you get one turn, and one urn, I straighten all these bitches out with one perm, Who ever gassed 'em ain't none of my concern..."

"Isn't that a Nicki Minaj song?" Stella asked with a laugh.

"Yeeep," Bertha said in amusement.

"If only Dean could see this," Lena joked with a laugh, sitting at one of the empty tables. The sisters had scared everyone out of the bar about fifteen minutes ago, leaving only themselves and Katherine in attendance.

"I can't believe she's already drunk," Bertha said, watching the usually composed woman cheer and dance around like crazy. "She's only had one drink and now she's blasted off. Someone can't hold her liquor."

"Definitely been needing to unwind for a while now. She's so obsessed with her work." Lena grinned. "Well done all around, ladies."

"Well, I mean... it's probably because of us she needed to let loose so badly to begin with," Bertha pointed out.

"Like I said, well done." They both laughed.

"It's gonna be rough," Stella said with a sad tone in her voice all of a sudden. Her two sisters looked at her questioningly. "You know... when they eventually leave and it's back to just us again."

"What, you don't think Katherine's gonna come through on that deal with Princess Bitch?"

"I think the real question is, are you actually going to let her do that? Bankrupt herself just so she can keep that old house we don't even visit half the year? Because I get the feeling you weren't planning to do that."

"When did you become all perceptive?" Lena said harshly, looking away.

"But it's true, right?"

Bertha was silent for a moment and then spoke up, "I gotta admit, the first thing I thought about was telling her not to do that. Just... give it all up and leave us behind. Don't make that kind of sacrifice for us."

"It's not really about us, though, is it?" Stella said guiltily. "It's about Vera. We haven't been doing much thinking about her lately. Obviously, she wants to have them around. And plus, she can't leave the house like we can. Who knows what'll happen if Kress destroys it? Maybe she really can't leave and she'll be stuck to a big pile of rubble forever. We can't let that happen either. Expecting Katherine to take a hit for us isn't fair."

"Since when do we care about being fair to humans?" Lena shot back and Stella glared at her.

"You know... there's a really easy solution to all this... we're just avoiding it," Bertha said.

"Give that Kress bitch the scare to end all scares?" Stella asked with a wicked smirk.

"Obviously! And tell her to leave that place alone and never come back or she'll face consequences. Simple, right? So why are we avoiding it?"

"Because then we'd have to admit that Vera's not the only one who wants them to stay," Lena muttered, bad memories returning to her. "And that we're okay with them doing their research on us. That we've gone totally soft and are letting humans stay in our spot. Not me, though. Sure sounds like what you two are doing."

"I mean..." Stella looked at Katherine again. "She is pretty fun. And as we already established, she was pretty badass to even consider doing something that drastic for us and Vera."

Bertha nodded. "And we did all this." She motioned to the bar around them. "Just for her. We would NEVER have done that for anyone just a few weeks ago. Heck, you were the one who suggested it."

"This is a one-time thing," Lena said with a dismissive shrug. "And only because she's sticking her neck out for us right now."

Stella was nodding along with Bertha, ignoring Lena. "And she still believes in us, for some reason. After all we've done. We've always said we do what we do because humans will never understand us. They won't ever get what it's like, so it's not worth it. But let's face it... she does get it, and she gets us. She hasn't been trying to get us to cross over for a while now. We've just been pushing her away all this time."

They both looked expectantly at Lena, who scowled. "Great, so we found one person who doesn't treat us like a sickness to be cured, but..."

"Oh, come on, sis," Stella cut her off. "That asshole was just one guy too. Unless there were a bunch of other possible boyfriends you never told us about?"

"Don't be stupid."

"So I'm right," Stella said with a grin.

"She's got a point, Lena," Bertha said, placing a hand on Lena's shoulder. "Look, let's face it, you've always been the leader of this little group. When we heard what that guy did to you, we were pissed off too. We vowed to stick together as family, so we followed you and your decisions to stay away from people, other than when we're scaring the pants off them. And it's always been fun, and not much even has to change. But... it just seems like you're the only one who's still trying to push people away. Just because of what happened so long ago."

"Long ago for you, not for me," Lena snapped with a heavy sigh. She held up her hand as her sisters tried to reply. "I'm gonna think about it. But until then, we don't go and mess with Kress. Not until I say so, if I say so."

"Even if Katherine decides they have to leave?"

"If that's what she decides, so be it." Lena said with crossed arms. "We can always scare anyone who tries to tear our house down away, anyway. Katherine and Dean don't have to be part of that deal. And if I say one day that we should scare them out of the house, that's what we're gonna do. Got it?"

Stella shook her head and sighed. "Fine. But until you make your decision, I'm gonna bombard you with all the positives to letting them stay."

Lena groaned.

"Number 1, it definitely can't hurt to have some Dean eye candy around the house more often." Stella giggled.

"I'll second that and third that!" Bertha declared as they laughed.

Lena agreed, but didn't say anything.

They looked up as Katherine stepped down the steps, nearly falling into a table. "That wass awessssome..." she slurred, taking another drink as she stumbled over to the sisters' table, pulling up a chair and sitting down.

"You know, girlssss..." she slurred. "I've been thinking... you got a good point about ussss... I mean... it's your housssse, right? Not ourssss. It's been yoursss for yeeearsss... me and Dean... we're intruding on your ssspace... and we have no right to make you leave..."

The sisters looked at each other a bit guiltily.

She nearly fell forward and the sisters caught her, leaning her back in the chair. "Well, we've been talking, and..." Stella said.

"You might have a point," Lena interrupted as Stella glared again. "And we're not promising anything, but... we also think you're... well, you're not that bad. That's why we did all this, after all."

"Awwww... You're jusssst ssssaying that..." Katherine mumbled, wiping tears from her eyes. "Bring it in, girlssss!"

"No, no hugs," Lena said. "We're not there yet."

"Too late!" Katherine put her arms around Lena's and Stella's necks. "Thanks for thissss, girlsss. You're like... the annoying daughterssss I never had..."

"Yeah, yeah," Lena muttered. "Don't get all..." She screamed in revulsion as Katherine kissed her on the cheek, immediately turning herself incorporeal again and floating away, rubbing at her cheek while her sisters laughed.

While Lena was gagging, the sound of the door opening was heard and a very handsome man walked in. He had short brown hair and green eyes with the beginnings of some facial hair on his face. He was wearing a long-sleeved button-up shirt and jeans. He was in good shape and rather muscular, and he looked about Katherine's age.

Katherine giggled at the sight of the newcomer, immediately standing up. "Heeeey baby!"

She rushed over and took his hand as he saw the ghosts and his face turned pale. "These are my friendssss! Say hiiii!" She practically dragged him over to the grinning ghost girls.

"H-h-h-hi..." he stuttered in fear, shaking like a leaf.

"Boo," Lena said lazily, laughing as he jumped.

"It'sss okay! We're all bestiesssss here!" Katherine hiccupped and slapped him on the butt. "What'ssss your name?!"

"D-Dustin Graves..." he stammered out.

"What a fitting last name," Bertha said with an evil smile as he whimpered. They laughed again.

"Now, now, don't scare him off! Here... lemme get you a drrrink!" She stumbled over to the bar.

The man stood up to try and sneak to the door, only to trip and fall on his face. His shoelaces had been tied together without him realizing it by Stella. He struggled to his feet to try and hop away, but a chair was pushed behind him and he fell back into it.

"Nope!" Stella and Bertha declared, lifting the chair and floating over to the bar, spinning it in the air as they did so. They let it drop in front of the bar before flying back to the table.

Dustin grunted as it landed, too dizzy to make his escape, just as Katherine turned around and happily made her way over to him, unaware of what had happened.

After about fifteen minutes, Dustin had started to calm down while Katherine chatted with him non-stop. She was mostly telling him about herself and her journeys on the road with Dean. Unknown to Katherine, Dustin knew a bit about her from the news. He had followed her stories for a while before eventually losing track. He had always thought she was a bit of a crack pot, but now... well, the proof was right in front of him. Still, recognizing her as someone familiar set his mind at ease.

The drink she had gotten him was definitely helping too.

He was still wary of the ghost girls, but they weren't doing anything besides hanging out and watching them, clearly amused by Katherine's rambling.

"Ssso anyway..." Katherine stuttered as she continued telling him her story. "That's when we first met these girlssss... they were haunting the house and totally attacked me!" She giggled, taking a swig of her drink.

"Really?" Dustin asked, genuinely interested in how she had met them.

"Yuuup!" She said with a popping sound. "They chasssed me around and then they went after my sssson. He ssstood up for me! My baby wasss so brave!"

He smiled. "Wow, that's really nice, actually."

"Yuuup! And then they kicked hissss butt!"

Despite his confusion, Dustin let out a laugh. "Wow... uh, really?"

"Yup, it sssure made me mad! Sstill doess, sometimesss! Haha!" She glared at the sisters before chuckling. "But that wasss before, of courssse! And now we're all friendsss now."

"What did they... do, exactly?" He asked.

"Good question!" Lena said next to him, making him jump at how close she suddenly was. "Let us demonstrate!" He gasped as she pulled the chair away from the table, pushing it forward and bringing Dustin to his feet.

"Um, M-Ms. Robison?" Dustin asked worriedly, looking over at Katherine who was giggling and sitting back to enjoy the show.

"Surprise!" Stella said behind him. He turned around to get a face full of horrible breath. "Direct hit!"

"Ack! Bluh! Egh!" The man stumbled around in the greenish cloud as Bertha flew towards him, making "choo choo" sounds like a train. Her large belly bumped him, and he stumbled backwards until he fell back onto a table. "Oof!" He sat himself up on it quickly.

"Wheee!" Lena and Stella said as they spun the circular table around several times with Dustin still on it. When it was over, Dustin watched the room sway around just as Lena flew into him.

Dustin jumped up on the table and began to dance, blushing heavily as his body whirled around and his hips and butt were shaking in Katherine's direction as she cheered and applauded him. Dustin jumped from table to table with perfect grace and many impressive dance moves, all the while his face was completely confused.

Lena finally flew out of him, leaving a very confused Dustin in the middle of a dance pose where he stood on one leg. He wobbled around on the rickety table and yelled as he lost his balance and fell, only for the sisters to catch him before he could hit the floor.

He was then plopped back into a chair which was pushed back to the table in front of a grinning Katherine. "Something like that!" She chirped.

The dazed Dustin could only say, "I'm... not sure what just happened. But I'm pretty sure I can't dance like that on my own..."

Katherine giggled, handing him his drink and clinking their glasses together. "Ya jussst never know what you can dooo!"