Chapter 37: Sealing The Door

It took a moment to get over the horrible sight she just saw. Sailor Mars was numb from witnessing the man that was her friend's protector just sacrifice himself to save them. When she first met Dan she was very angry at him for damaging her family shrine's roof, but this was the largest payback for such a deed anyone could ever perform. She watched as he made his decision to drag Jedite in. She felt so guilty for snapping at him the way she did.

The portal to the realm where Jedite's body was being held was growing stronger. Random and loose debris from around the roof started getting pulled into the portal as Sailor Mars came back to reality and began getting the rest of herself loose. Ripping the rest of the clay off her she began helping Winston get down. Once everyone was free Peter started heading for the stairwell door with Sailor Moon right behind him as he turned heel and called to everyone, "Come on! We gotta get outta here before this thing gets us!"

Egon had taken out his PKE meter and took readings as Sailor Mercury grabbed her now damaged visor and attempted to look through them. Sailor Mars yelled her disapproval to Peter over the rustling wind, "We can't leave it like this!" Ray agreed, "Yeah, it might suck us in anyway!" Sailor Venus walked toward the two geniuses of both groups, holding her hair away from her face so she could talk, "Amy, Dr. Spengler, isn't there anything we can do?" Sailor Mercury was typing furiously on her computer as Egon ran his own calculations on a pocket calculator. They both came to the same conclusion, Sailor Mercury explaining the situation first, "At the rate of expansion the portal will continue to expand infinitely unless its stopped quickly!" "Correct," Egon added, "Unless we reverse the flow and make the portal collapse on itself within the next 5.37 minutes it will become unstoppable!"

"That's using the old brain, Egon. One thing," Peter stated as he walked back, "how are we gonna do that? The packs are out of power!"

"We have one chance," the physicist said as he put away the PKE meter, "We may have enough short-draw power left in the packs to get the generators powered up. Once we get them running on low pulse we can use the power of the portal itself to both pull the rest of the sub-demons through the sphere and close it onto itself."

"What about Dan?" Egon winced at the question. He turned to see Winston walking beside him brushing what was left of the clay from his suit as he asked again, "What about Dan? We can't leave him in there!" Egon didn't want to say it. Neither did Sailor Mercury, but she spoke up, "By the time you try to get him out it'll be too late to close the portal." They heard her say it. All of them heard that. They knew what it meant. Peter couldn't believe what he heard, "You're not saying…" "You…" Sailor Mars took a step forward as she stated, "You can't be serious, Amy!"

Egon sighed and averted his eyes, "I'm afraid she is. Dan's going to have to stay on the other side of the portal." Winston marched into Egon's face and started yelling at him, "No, Egon. We have to pull him out!" "I don't want to either, Winston," the man looked back to his employee with saddened eyes, "but we have no choice." Winston snapped and grabbed Egon's suit. The Sailor Scouts gasped in surprise at the man's sudden clasping of the other's suit as Winston started screaming in the man's face, "No! We're all going home! All of us!"

Peter and Ray got between them and pulled them apart allowing Ray to explain, "I know how you feel Winston but we can't help it. Dan was a friend of all of us but we can't help him now, not unless we doom the rest of the world." Sailor Mars walked beside Winston, lightly gripping the black man's arm, "If we don't leave him, all he did would be for nothing." Winston looked to his Sailor Scout compatriot and shot her a look. His face softened as she saw the tears in her eyes. She spoke, "Winston, I saw it on his face. He knew he wasn't coming back."

"Come on," Egon called out, "We have little time. Positions."

The Scouts watched as the four senior Ghostbusters surrounded the portal. With a click of the switches the Proton Packs managed to start up, their ever-famed mechanical whirling echoing through the roof opening. They only had enough power in the packs for a startup and a short burst. The wind grew in intensity as they lowered their throwers, Egon speaking loudly over the rustling of the wind to give instruction, "Arm accelerators. Wide angle. Ready?"

All three men made quick adjustments to put the devices on their backs before signaling. They called out, "Ready!" "Okay, take aim…" Egon drew in a breath, "Fire!" Four proton streams rang from the throwers, ripping through the air and striking the surface of the portal. The ground started to rumble as a thunderous growl filled the clearing as the beams tore into the fabric of the very space of the portal. On the top of each Proton Pack was a red mode selection switch. Egon reached behind him and called out to the others, "Go to Inversion Mode on my mark… 1… 2… 3… Now!"

All the Ghostbusters reached behind them and depressed the switches on their packs switching to Inversion mode. The packs vibrated with power as the beams reflected off the surface of the portal and over the sides of the building. The beams went wild and struck the other buildings surrounding the tower. Egon called out another command, "Change modulations to frequency 117.286 MegaHertz. It'll make the beams attract to the tower's supports and act like a magnet for the rest of the entities in the building!"

Changing settings on the fly the beams attracted to the support structure of the building and throughout all of Starlight Tower the stray sub-demons became attracted to the building's structure. The demons began becoming pulled, some of them attempting to resist by falling to the floor and digging their claws in only for gashes to be left in the floors. The captive people under Jedite's influence became depossessed as the energy force was pried from their bodies and subsequently dragged to the girders of the building. Additionally the Ghost Traps loaded with the essences of the demons that were trapped suddenly opened throughout the building as those demons as well joined their brethren.

Back on street level Luna and Artemis were still under Ecto-1 when they saw the proton streams fly over the edges of the building and become attached to the steel structure of the tower. After the PKE meter explosion, another explosion on a higher window, and the green lightning burst on the roof they kept their eyes to the sky, watching as the destruction reached higher and higher into the building. The sky had darkened, the clouds blotting out the moonlight above leaving the only lights to reign in the backdrop of the night sky being the Scouts' powers and the Ghostbusters' equipment. There was a horrible tension as even at the ground level there was a massive uptick in wind. Luna kept holding her breath as the clouds that blacked the sky out were starting to swirl in a whirlwind. They didn't know of the portal on the roof but they knew something was amiss.

"Okay," Egon called to the others again, "switch back to capture mode… now!" All four Ghostbusters reached back to the top of their packs again and depressed the red switch again. Throughout the building the demons destabilize back into clay dust as the energy that made them up compacted into balls of light and began riding up the supports of the building. They passed floor by floor to the roof where they finally entered the portal. For each ball of light entering the sphere more of the green smoke emanated and covered the roof. They were making significant progress.

The packs began sputtering again. Once back in capture mode the generators on the pack were being bogged to the point what was left in the packs batteries, "We're running out of power again!" Ray exclaimed. "Capture mode is pulling too much resistive draw on the generators!" Egon explained as he watched the streams start to narrow, "The packs are shutting down again!" "Fantastic," Peter quipped, "Unless we get a set of jumper cables, we're in trouble, right?" "Okay," Winston had a hint of worry in his voice, "so, what'd we do?"

That was when all of the Ghostbusters felt something grab each of their Proton Packs. Each looking over their shoulder they found their respective Sailor Scout taking hold of the devices; Egon to Sailor Mercury; Winston to Sailor Mars; Ray to Sailor Venus; Peter to Sailor Moon. They heard Sailor Mars call out to their team tactician, "Are you sure this is gonna work, Amy?" "Yes," Sailor Mercury said as a look of concentration came over her face, "Just focus!" With that the crystals embedded in each of the girls' tiaras started to glow as their energies started to loom around the Ghostbusters' equipment and seeped into each of the packs.

The packs started to vibrate as each of the beams changed colors corresponding to each of the Scouts' powers; Egon's turned blue with aquamarine arcs; Ray's turned orange with yellow; Winston's turned red with violet; finally Peter's changed to white with pink. Each of the girls called for their powers…

"Mercury Star Power!"

"Mars Star Power!"

"Venus Star Power!"

"Moon Crystal Power!"

The vibration on the Proton Packs increased significantly to the point they kicked when the power increase launched. The power confused everyone with a pack, Egon looking over his shoulder, "How is this happening?" "When Dan attacked Jedite with his accelerator," Sailor Mercury yelled over the sound of the packs, "he concentrated the power of Jupiter into it!" "Dan tripped the thermal breaker on his pack when he dove out the window," Ray corroborated, "He probably didn't know it, but he was supplying the power to the pack!" Sailor Mars spoke over the noise and punctuated the conversation, "Just call it a 'Power boost'!"

The highly increased power output forced the portal to shrink at a rapid rate. The wind continued increasing as the size of the portal decreased. The Scouts' powers spun the generators so fast the power systems were becoming overtly overcharged to the point the overload alarms started sounding. The thrower tips were starting to smoke as the pitch of the packs whirling increased in frequency. Sailor Venus felt Ray's pack shaking in her hands, the red warning light on the power gauge blinking after the power needle pegged, "Guys, I think we're overdoing it!"

"Egon, we have to shut down!" Peter pleaded with the physicist, "If these things go…"

"We have to hold it!" the bispeckled man yelled, "If we shut down now and the portal isn't closed we may not be able to restart the packs! We have to follow through!" "What about the girls?" the psychologist asked. "Yeah," Winston interjected as well, "The Scouts don't need to risk their lives for us!" He heard Sailor Mars behind him yelling out, "We're with you until the end, Winston!"

"She's right!" Sailor Mercury yelled, "We only got this far because of you! All of you! I'm not forgetting what Dan sacrificed!"

Peter looked over his shoulder to the girl holding his equipment, "What ya say, Sailor Moon? After we lock down this portal, we find an all-night snack bar? On me?" He smirked at her. Sailor Moon looked over the edge of his pack and saw his smirk. It had been a very long and emotionally draining night. After all of the bad things that happened she knew he wasn't saying this lightly; if anything he was using his ever famous sense of humor to laugh at the concept of death. It was actually contagious enough for her to start smirking back, "You're on, Dr. Venkman!"

The portal had now shrunk so small it was but a compressed version of itself. It was refusing to properly fold onto itself. It shrunk little by little, more and more. When it looked like it wasn't going to cooperate…

BOOM! The portal finally collapsed.

The outward explosion knocked everyone off their feet and into surrounding walls. Debris was thrown all around the roof as pieces of the floor and even chunks of the ecto-charged clay of the destroyed demons smashed into the concrete walls of the control rooms all around. The eerie green smoke that had lingered the whole time now became so dense it was keeping everyone blanketed in the darkness.

The sky began to clear. The thunder and lightning abruptly stopped as the clouds scattered revealing the moon's light through the green haze. Sailor Moon sat up first, pieces of clay and concrete falling off her body as she steadied herself. She could barely see anything through the smoke that lingered but was able to see Peter sitting beside her. She flipped over and crawled on her knees to check on him, "Peter? Peter, are you alright?" Peter pushed himself up and rubbed the injury on his arm as he attempted to regain his senses, "I'm getting too old for this. Serena, never get old; it's terrible." "That's what my mom keeps telling me."

After helping Peter get to his feet Sailor Moon started calling out for everyone, Peter soon following suit. Peter hollered as he looked around, "Hey, is everyone alright? Olly Olly Oxen Free!" They heard a shuffling from around them as they heard Winston mutter, "Ugh, it feels like I got shot out of a cannon." They looked behind them and saw Sailor Mars helping Winston to his feet. One by one the remaining Ghostbusters and Sailor Scouts stood and walked to where the portal sat. There was a crater in the floor where the explosion took place. Sailor Moon walked to the edge of the destroyed floor's indentation and peered into it.

Peter walked up behind the girl and put his hands on her shoulders as she spoke, "This isn't right! After all he did for us!" Sailor Mercury was helping Egon toward the damaged spot in the roof. After the man saw the destruction it finally caught up with him what he had just done, "It's my fault. Had I not provoked him all because of this whole energy signature thing I had to study…" Sailor Mercury looked up to him as he removed his glasses and started clearing tears from his eyes. Yes, tears; real tears. She asked, "What signature?"

"Jedite's dream messages," his voice cracked, "I knew about it the moment he ran into the lab and told Ray and myself. Every time it spiked…" he hung his head in guilt, Sailor Mercury holding his arm to console him as he weeped, "I'm a horrible man."

Sailor Moon heard the scientist try hard to hold back. She gripped the locket that held the Silver Crystal - the key to her powers - as she heard the crying and groans from everyone involved. She started talking as she closed her tear soaked eyes, "Please, it can't end like this. If I could only bring them back." Peter sighed, "Serena, wishing for it isn't going to bring them back. I know you're hurt…"

The green glowing smoke that had been hovering around the roof the whole encounter began to drift and permeate through the building. Floor by floor the smoke wafted its way down and began hovering around the bodies of those possessed by Jedite's energy. The smoke penetrated the bodies, those people no longer being brain-dead as they began to awake. One by one the men and women that were abducted sat up and looked around at their surroundings to find themselves in the office building.

On the 50th floor the smoke hovered over Darien's body before making its way into it. After a moment Darien began to awaken, doing so with a start. He quickly sat up and pulled the suit jacket off his head. He looked at it with curiosity, "What…?"

The smoke collected above Sailor Jupiter's body and hovered above her and it slowly absorbed into her body. The pool of blood under her began to pick up off the floor and unspread from the puddle under her body like it was being pulled back into her body. The color rushed back into her skin as her tiara's crystal began to glow. Her eyes opened slowly as she took a breath of air. She took her hands from her chest and started to pick herself up when she felt her hand grasping something. She switched hands and looked into her other hand to see what it was. It was small and made of a brushed metal body. It took a moment but she realized she was looking at Dan's lighter.

As everyone looked and mourned at the edge of the crater Sailor Jupiter stumbled her way around the antenna array base to see the others looking over the destruction. She spoke weakly as she held herself up on the side of the building, "Where's Dan?" The sound of the voice at first confused everyone. The Scouts and Ghostbusters exchanged looks before looking behind them to make their discovery, Sailor Venus taking a double take as she looked back, "L-Lita? Is that you?"

One by one everyone began rushing toward her as she answered her fellow Scout, "Yeah, it's really me." Winston was not expecting this, much like the others, "We thought you died!" "I was dead," she stated as she put her head into her hand, "I can't remember much…" She shook her head then asked again, "Where's Dan?" Winston looked back to the crater in the roof's floor. He closed his eyes and sighed as he turned back to her. He had his head down, a look of discomfort on his face as he began talking, "Lita, I don't know how to say this, so I'm just gonna say it," he looked back to the Scout of Thunder and spoke softly, "Dan was thrown into a portal Jedite created."

Sailor Jupiter tensed up. She already didn't like where this was going, "Did you pull him out? Where is he?" "We didn't have enough time," he explained, "and to get him out it would have been too late. We had to…" the hired Ghostbuster looked pained to say it. Sailor Jupiter started looking at the others with her on the roof and saw how much everyone else looked with sorrow and regret on their faces. She looked back to Winston, a tear streaking down her cheek, "No. No, you're lying! It's not true!" The pain he saw on the girl's face started to hurt him, but Winston tried to console her, "Lita, I'm so sorry…"

Sailor Jupiter looked back to the object that was left in her hand. She thought back to earlier that night when Dan took the lighter out. She remembered what he said, "If I know I'm not coming back, that's the only time I'll leave this lighter with someone else." He sacrificed himself. Without anyone saying it she knew what it meant to have this piece of Dan's family history in her hand.

Winston put a hand on her shoulder only for her to pull away and pivot on heel to walk backwards away from him. She tripped on a piece of the roof floor that was sticking up causing her to fall into the crater. She winced as she attempted to pick herself up. The wind picked up for a gust, delivering Dan's Chicago Blackhawks hat to blow into the crater with her. She opened her eyes and saw it land right before her, the picture of an Indian head on the front of the hat clear in her view. She got onto her knees and picked up the hat, the tears rolling down her face as she brought it to her chest and hugged the hat. She looked up at the rapidly clearing sky, speaking just above a whisper as she cried, "No…"

Ray watched as the girl looked to the floor and began to cry heavily. He felt a hand on his shoulder making him turn to find Sailor Venus looking at him with sadness. The occultist and the Scout of Love looked back to the crater as he spoke softly, "Dan…"

Egon felt the most guilt of the whole situation. After this many months and even having Dan willing to give him a second chance, he felt he failed the young man that was his junior. He felt he knew why Dan did what he did, "This is my fault!" Sailor Mercury still didn't understand and asked him, "Dr. Spengler, this is hardly your fault…" "Yes, it is!" he yelled, "I didn't believe in him enough. I manipulated him," he took out his PKE meter and looked at it with disdain, "all for some stupid readings and data! He saved our lives months ago and I never properly thanked him. I apologized; I admitted fault in being short-sighted; I never changed my ways and still treated him as under-capable. I made him feel underappreciated and it's all my fault he did it," He looked to his accompanying Sailor Scout, "He sacrificed himself to prove his worth. Now he's gone, and all I have is this stupid meter!" He raised the meter above his head with the intent to throw it to the floor and smash it, the Scout of Ice watching on in shock as he had it high above him.

The meter flashed and buzzed.

Surprised Egon brought the meter back before him as he saw it going wild. Sailor Mercury looked over to the meter and saw what Egon saw, "Wait…"

Sailor Mars put her hand to the side of her temple and sucked air through her teeth. Winston looked in time to see her start to fall forward to catch her and hold her up. He asked concerned, "Raye, what's wrong?" "I-I feel something coming."

The last of the green glowing smoke started to gather at the epicenter of the crater on the roof, right beside where Sailor Jupiter knelt. The smoke started to take the form of a human body. In a silent flash of light a frost covered body dressed in green armor appeared sprawled out on the floor.

Jupiter Knight had returned.

Everyone took notice and all of them sighed in relief. Winston shouted in excitement as he saw his fellow employee back with them, "He's back!"

Jupiter Knight's eyes snapped open as he took a large gasp of air, his whole body clenching up as he tried to overcome the pain of the cold he had been subjected to. The gasp of air and Winston's shout caused Sailor Jupiter to look beside her to see her Solar Knight laying beside her. The surprise overwhelmed her, "Dan?!" He coughed and tried to clear his eyes before looking up to her, "Okay, now I know I'm looking at an angel." "No, Dan," she grabbed his hand and held onto it, "It's me! I'm alive!" She reached down and wrapped her arms around his frosted body. He could feel her warmth as she picked him up and embraced him, whimpering softly as she spoke, "I thought you disappeared. They said they couldn't get you out of the portal Jedite opened."

Jupiter Knight could feel her tears falling on him. He strained to stand and once on his feet, he put his arms around her as he spoke, "I wasn't expecting to come back. In order for Jedite to be locked away, I had to drag him deep into the other realm. That was when I heard Serena's voice calling me back."

"Dan!" Jupiter Knight saw Sailor Moon running toward him. He quickly released Sailor Jupiter and turned to the girl running at him, "SereNUGH!" Sailor Moon wrapped her arms around his midsection after a near full-speed tackle. She cried for joy as she spoke, "Dan, I thought we lost you, too!" "Serena," Peter came up behind her as he looked at the look of contorted pain on the man's face, "I think he's about to lose his spleen if you don't turn him loose." She heard Jupiter Knight groan, speaking with strain, "What Venkman said." Sailor Moon backed off the man and flinched as she cleared the tears from her eyes, "Sorry. I'm just so glad you two are okay!"

Sailor Jupiter and her Knight looked at each other. The Knight approached her and put his hand behind her head to hold her in an embrace. Sailor Jupiter lowered her resistance as she answered her leader, "That we are, Sailor Moon." She closed her eyes and was about to kiss…

Egon stepped up, "Daniel, how did you survive inside the incorporeal…"

"Spengler?" the Knight turned and asked, interrupting him.

"Uh…" Egon stuttered, "Yes?"

"Shut up." Jupiter Knight quickly turned back and kissed the girl in his arms. Peter walked beside his old college friend and rested his elbow on his shoulder, "You know Egon, you were always good at ruining a moment."

The sound of police and fire sirens approached. The cat guardians turned to the noise and saw the vehicles rounding the corner with several more moving past the others to surround the other sides of the building. Among the police cars was a black sedan with American flags attached to the front fenders. The American Ambassador to Japan was among the people making the scene. The cars and trucks screeched to a halt all around the street as the black sedan skidded to a stop just beside the two Ghostbusters-branded vehicles. From the back seat a brown-haired man in a gray suit stepped. Roger Flint looked to the tower and saw the damage that was inflicted on the building, "Wha… What the…?" he put his hands to the sides of his head, "T-they just rebuilt this place! What are you jumpsuited assholes doing up there?!"

"They're saving the planet, you idiot!" Flint looked around him and wasn't sure where the snappy remark came from. He looked to his driver who was stepping out of the driver seat and started asking him frantically, "Who said that? Was it you?" His driver looked at him confused, "Said what, Ambassador?"

Under Ecto-1 Luna had her paw over Artemis's mouth again, "Will you stop provoking people, Artemis?" The white cat guardian took his own paw and forcefully shoved Luna's away from him as he whispered back to her, "He's being a jerk! I'm just keeping him up to date." Another black sedan approached and stopped behind the American Ambassador's car; this one with French flags. From the back of the vehicle stepped Ambassador Lucien. He took off his hat and looked up at the horrifying sight, "Mon dieu! Zey must be fighting a horrible creature!"

"Uh, oh!" Artemis heard the man's accent and realized what was happening, "What Mina said has to be true! It was an international incident!"

Flint marched up to Lucien and started yelling in the man's face, "Look at what those idiots did to the tower! I absolutely refuse to take responsibility for these men based on your recommendation!" "Ambassador Flint," Lucien tried to be diplomatic in his approach, "does it not matter so long as one life is saved? Buildings can be repaired! So long as one life is not lost zis night, izn't it more important the lives come back more zan glass and steel?"

"What in the blue fuck are you talking about?" Flint was clearly distraught about the situation, "I instructed those morons to stop blowing shit up! How do you think I should explain the damage and breach of security to not just the State Department, but to Prime Minister Murayama? On top of that, you shoot your mouth off to them about not only our deal, but you told them about the goddamn Sailor Scouts?! Are you beyond brain damaged you blackfooted soap-dodger?!"

Luna and Artemis were floored at the profane language pouring from the Ambassador's mouth. Luna was left with only one thought, "Artemis, you were wrong about that man; 'Jerk' is too nice a title for him, but I'm afraid there isn't a word heavy enough!"

That set Lucien off.

"Monsieur Flint! If it were not for mon previous experience with ze Ghostbusters I wouldn't have thought there were any kind men in America! If I was to only experience with just yourself, I would have a very different view of Americans! I can see you are a very selfish rongeur and I will be speaking to ze Japanese Prime Minister as well as mon Prime Minister about your conduct!" To punctuate his point, Lucien put on his hat, removed one of his gloves, and used it to slap the man across the face, "I can promise you, Monsieur, you will not hear ze last of zis!" With that Lucien turned on his heel and walked back to his car, his driver opening the door for him.

As Lucien walked away Flint rubbed his face as he screamed back, "Yeah, well, I'm still in control of the purse, pal! Let's see how fast you can convince the Prime Minister to not deny payment!" Luna was taken aback by that, "Deny payment? What does he mean?"

She heard Artemis sigh. He turned to him and saw a saddened look on his face, "You have to remember, Luna, the Ghostbusters are a business first. They need payment to stay in operation. From what Egon told me last night this was a large job that needed a lot of resources and it put them in the red. If they don't get paid…" "You mean," Luna filled in the blanks, "even if they save the world, they may go out of business?" Her feline counterpart nodded his head. Now she was worrying again, "That's not fair to them!"

Sanitation trucks had pulled up, the crews unloading and beginning the clean up of the glass and pieces of splattered sub-demons. The Ghostbusters and untransformed Sailor Scouts made their way out of the building on the ground floor with Dan having his arm around Lita, escorting her out and holding her close. Flint turned to the front doors and saw the entourage walking out prompting him to start yelling at the youngest Ghostbuster among the men, "What in the flying fuck happened here tonight?! We had a strict agreement to not destroy anything during your job here! Because of all the damage you inflicted, you're getting no paycheck for this!"

Dan clearly had a look of anger on his face. He was about to step forward and say something when Lita held him back, "Please: Allow me." She turned loose from his hold and walked toward the Ambassador, a sweet smile on her face, "You won't pay the men that just saved the world?" She stopped short of the American man as she stated with her hands behind her back, "If there's anything I hate more than liars, it's cheaters, and cheating these men out of their payment," she pulled one of her hands from behind her back and very gently grabbed the man's tie…

She wrapped her hand around the tie and pulled Flint to where they were face to face, "That really ticks me off!" She wound up and punched the man in the face. Hard. Flint stumbled back and landed into the side of his limo as his driver ran to assist him. Flint rubbed his face and looked back in surprise as he watched the girl with amber brown hair and rose earrings walk back beside the clearly exhausted Ghostbuster. Dan put his hands on her shoulders and looked into Lita's green eyes, a chuckle in his voice, "God, I love you." Lita smirked back, "I know."

As she watched the two of them kiss, Serena started to think of Darien again as she began to cry. Peter had been escorting her out and heard her start to mewl again, "Hey, you alright, Serena?"

"We got Dan and Lita back. I'm glad for that, but…" Serena heard Peter sigh, "I know. If I could, I'd turn back time; change what happened." She looked up to the man with tears soaking her face, "Peter, I'd do anything, anything to get Darien back."

"Serena!"

The voice. It continued calling her name as Serena turned toward the front doors of the tower and among the people now pouring out of the building confused she saw someone starting to part his way through the crowd. She recognized the green pullover he was wearing as his blue eyes came into view. "Darien?" Peter could hear her voice change. She quickly cleared her eyes and screamed the name again, "Darien!" She left Peter's side and jumped into the man's arms, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him repeatedly. Peter walked up to both of them, smile still on his face, "Doesn't look like you needed to do anything," the both of them turned to the psychologist and he held out his hand, "Dr. Peter Venkman…"

"I know," Darien said as he took the man's hand, "We owe you our lives. We especially owe Dan. You take care of that man; he'll take care of you." "He has already," Peter stated as he motioned toward Serena, "and you take care of this young lady. She's exceptional." Serena was confused, "You know what exceptional means?" Darien looked at his girlfriend, equally confused, "You know what exceptional means?" Serena visibly started to turn red as she groaned, "After all I went through tonight; thinking you were dead, you go and insult and embarrass me in such a way? How rude!"

"Yep," Peter smirked, "she's a keeper!"

It was a very long night, but the nightmare was now over. It was time for everyone to go home.