Chapter the Third
By GirlX2
"Concentrate Raymond!"
"I am!" Ray snapped irritably. "Maybe you'd like to try reverting your molecules sometime."
The altered Ghostbuster had been trying for the last hour to revert to his former self through sheer force of will. Sarah sighed patiently at his outburst.
"I know you are. Its just…I don't know how well your friends are going to accept this if you don't gain at least a little control over yourself."
Ray said nothing, but his face grew worried.
"Try it again." She said calmly. "Rome wasn't built in a day, but it shouldn't take much longer to see some results."
Ray let out a small growl of frustration. Rage was boiling in his blood.
Sarah watched him, her eyes slitted.
'Just a few more hours, and he'll be at the brink.'
-
"What do we do when we find Ray?" Winston asked as he drove the Ecto-1 toward the firehouse.
"It depends on weather or not Sanguine is able to sway him to her side."
"Ray wouldn't turn against us." Peter said defiantly.
"Perhaps not." Dena didn't sound convinced. "Either way, both he and Winston will need to be trained to control their gifts."
"I'm telling you, I'm not a tele-whatever." Winton said.
Casually, Dena picked up a random piece of equipment and cocked her arm, as if to throw it at Winston.
"Nothing's gonna happen." Winston looked at her. "Go ahead and throw it."
Dena didn't reply, but threw the gadget into the back seat-straight into Egon's face. The blond threw his hands up to shield himself.
"Egon!"
As the other two Ghostbusters cried out, the device halted, as if hitting an invisible wall, and hung in midair.
The three men stared at it, speechless.
"You were saying?" The dragon smirked. She plucked the machine from the air. Egon lowered his hands, breathing shakily.
Winston, now fairly pale, turned back to the road.
'Don't do that again.' Peter's voice hissed into Dena's head.
'I needed an example. Egon is the most venerable one, thus the most likely candidate for a reaction if placed in harms way.' Dena replied on the private link.
'I don't care. Do it again, and I'm gonna get very ungentlemanly.' Peter squinted at her.
Dena chucked silently and turned forward in her seat.
"So how do I control this…thing?" Winston asked shakily.
"Now that you've recognized the fact that you are a telekinetic, it should be fairly easy to control you're ability." Dena said smoothly. "You just need to flex your ethereal shields as you would your physical body."
"Huh?" Winston was too freaked out to try and interpret her advice.
"You need to practice." Egon clarified.
"Precisely. In time, Winston will be able to make shields, manipulate object-perhaps even fly." Dena said.
"Fly?" Winston's mouth went dry. "No way. I may be crazy enough to work with these guys, but my feet are staying on the ground!"
"You fly the Ecto-2 regularly." Egon pointed out.
"Yeah, machines I can deal with." Winston shivered. "But flying by myself? What if I 'hit the wall' when I'm in the air?"
"Watch were you're going, and you won't have the problem." Peter cracked.
"This isn't funny Pete." Winston said. "You may be used to having a 'gift', but I'm not!"
At this, Winston slammed on the brakes of the car. He was shaking slightly.
"Hey, I'm sorry." Peter said softly. "It's cool Zed."
"We can help you come to grips with this." Egon added. "Peter is a psychologist, and with Ray and my knowledge of the supernatural…"
Egon trailed off after realizing what he'd said.
"We can worry about me later." Winston eased the car back into forward. "Lets just worry about getting Ray back."
Dena stared at them curiously. "So, this is the fabled 'pack mentality' of humans. Protecting weak and injured members, even if the damage is internal."
"Yeah, being a human has got its perks." Peter replied sarcastically.
"Dragons engage in similar behavior, between young and mates." Dena admitted. "But never for the other dragons you contact."
"That's depressing." Winston said. "You have no concept of friendship?"
"We did once." Dena said with barely hidden rage. "After human slaughter your friends, you stop making them."
An uncomfortable silence fell over the Ectomobile as the Ghostbusters continued toward the firehouse.
-
"This isn't working." Ray growled.
"You are trying too hard." Sarah said sympathetically. "Just rest for a while. We'll try again after we arrive at your home."
Ray started slightly, realizing how late it was.
"Gosh, its dusk already!"
Sarah nodded. "You've put up a valiant effort Raymond. In time, you will be able to control the transformation."
"Well, I sure as heck can't control it now." Ray said, depressed. Hours of trying to shed his beastly form had only resulted in tiring himself out.
"I'm sure the presence of your friends will get things rolling." Sarah said smoothly.
Ray said nothing, but Sarah could read his expression clearly. The were-felis was deeply troubled about going back to his friends in this form, especially after the fight they'd had. She smiled benignly, and began riling his fears.
"I'm sure they've forgiven you by now." She cooed. "And even if they haven't, they'll understand when we arrive. You've been though much Raymond, and if your friends couldn't see that, it troubles me somewhat."
"Its not their fault." Ray said quietly. "Egon's been recovering these last few months-I coulda sprouted an extra head before they noticed something was wrong."
"Of course." Sarah continued in her saccharine tone. "He and Peter share a special relationship, don't they? My mother spoke of it."
"Peter rescued him after Merdaf shattered his mind." Ray said in a monotone. "All I could do was attack Merdaf-I've never been so angry in my life."
Ray was staring out the window at the fading sunlight, so he didn't see Sarah bristle at Merdaf's name. Her blond hair streamed back, as if in a high winds. She barely contained a snarl of rage.
"And you killed him." Her voice took a cold edge.
"I didn't mean to!" Ray said instantly. "If I'd known…"
The Ghostbuster trialed off, troubled.
Sarah turned from him, getting her rage slowly under control.
'He's suitably distracted and distressed. Soon he will be mine and I can end this pathetic charade.'
With a frozen smile pasted on her face, she turned back to him.
"Let's go now."
-
Peter paced as Dena studied the books piled around her.
"This one has what I need." She pulled out a maroon tome, placing it next to her book.
" 'The tome of unlawful knowledge'?" Egon said doubtfully.
"Between that and 'The tome of the unknowable' I have the spells I need." She opened the book she'd brought.
"That's 'The tome of the unknowable'?" Peter demanded. "We've been looking for it for months!"
"I found it before any of you were born." Dena replied coolly. "I decided to keep it safe myself."
Peter glared at her, but didn't reply.
"Ray's been tracking it through history." Winston said. "He was frustrated because he couldn't track it down."
"We fought about it right before this whole thing happened." Peter said sourly.
"I removed it from the Vatican over a century ago." Dena told them. "I didn't think it would cause a rift between you."
"Yeah, well, it did." Peter snapped. "And now Ray's with that psychopathic bitch, and she's doing God knows what to him."
'Calm down.' Egon's warning tone whispered through the Ghostbusters's head. 'She's just trying to help.'
'If she wanted to help she would have left the damn book where we could find it.' Peter replied curtly.
Dena watched the two men argue silently.
"Do they do that often?"
"Not arguing, no." Winston sighed. He raised his hands. "Guys, would you just calm down-"
As he spoke, the two men were forcefully pushed away from each other. The psychic conversation stopped as they stared in amazement at Winston.
"Uh…" Winston dropped his hands sheepishly. The force dissipated.
"We're gonna have to watch ourselves now that Winston has 'the force'." Peter's anger melted into amusement.
"I concur." Egon's eyebrows shot up in an amused expression.
"If the three of you are done being foolish, I can begin scyring." Dena said. Without waiting for a reply, she began to sketch a design onto the wooden floor.
"That's not blood, is it?" Winston asked, slightly green.
"I didn't kill anyone." Dena skillfully avoided answering the question. Slowly, the redhead finished drawing a pentagram. She took a piece of chalk from a small pouch at her waist. She drew a circle around the star
"A protection circle." Egon murmured, carefully studying the ritual.
"There are more dangerous things out there than your friend." Dena stepped inside the star. "And I don't what them knowing what or where I am."
'The circle isn't meant to protect the scryer.' Egon whispered to Peter and Winston. 'Its to keep dangerous entities in the circle.'
'She is trying to protect us.' Peter realized. Unable to add his thoughts to the conversation, Winston merely nodded.
Dena closed her eyes. Her hands fluttered by her sides in rhythmic movements. A wind that was only in the circle seemed to ruffle her clothes and auburn curls. She began to whisper archaic words. Peter couldn't understand most of what she was saying-he'd ask Egon later-but he caught the words were-felis.
Suddenly, her eyes opened in shock.
"Its too late!" Her voice changed into a roar.
-
Ray fumbled with his keys as he unlocked the backdoor to the firehouse. His 'paws' weren't the best tools for handling such things.
"Janine should be off by now. I wouldn't want to scare her by coming in." Ray told Sarah.
"Uh-hmm." Sarah said, barely hearing the words. She was concentrating to hard to bother with the niceties of conversation.
"Well…here goes nothing." Ray opened the door.
All was dark inside the ground floor of the building. The Ectomobile sat quietly in its corner of the garage. Light filtered down from the opening the fire pole created. Ray started up the stairs, with Sarah trailing him.
"Guys?" Ray called.
"Ray?" Peter's voice cried out. The brunette man appeared at the top of the staircase. The frightened look that Ray had seen after his transformation was still there.
"Uh, yeah. Its me." Ray said, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.
"Are you alright?" Peter asked levelly.
"Do I look alright?" Ray demanded angrily. Peter cringed at the shout.
"Sorry." Ray muttered, not feeling the least bit sorry.
"No, its...its fine." Peter gulped. "Egon and Winston are still out looking for you. I came back in case you came home."
"I've been with Sarah." Ray motioned to the woman behind him. "Peter…She's Dena's daughter."
"What!" Peter's shout seemed angry rather than incredulous.
"I'll explain all, but we need to talk about what's passed first." Sarah smiled sweetly.
"Of course." Peter's manner softened upon seeing the woman. "Both of you, come up here. We'll talk in the living room."
Ray walked slowly up the stirs, dreadfully aware of Peter's gaze. The older man seemed to be studying both of them.
'Why wouldn't he? I'm the freak of the week.' Ray thought bitterly.
'That's not why!' The small voice that had been bothering him all day cried out.
'Shut up.'
"Ray is being stalked by an evil entity." Sarah said after they were all seated. "My mother warned me this would happen, and I've come to protect and help you."
"That's great. Really." Peter said in a strange tone. "And, why exactly does this thing want Ray?"
"Brute strength, using him against you…who can say?" Sarah breezed past the question.
"Uh-huh." Peter said skeptically.
"In a few weeks time I can teach him to control the transformation-the entity couldn't use him if he was able to change back and forth." She continued.
"So, you want me to say 'okay, take my friend for a month and you'll 'cure' him'?" Peter growled.
"In essence, yes." Sarah said coldly.
"Peter, she saved me from that thing." Ray said.
"No, she didn't. She's what you need to be saved from." Peter stood, his eyes flashing.
"What are you-" Ray started.
"You know not of which you speak, mortal." Sarah growled, standing. Ray quickly got between the two.
'Ray, get away from her. She's not Dena's daughter-She's Merdaf's daughter!' Peter's voice hissed into Ray's head.
"What?" Ray said aloud.
"Its to late Raymond, the evil has already gotten to your friends. Get behind me." Sarah yelled out.
"But-I-" Ray's focus whipped between the two. A confused pressure was building, not only in the room, but in the transformed Ghostbusters' head. Physically, he felt a tugging-half to Peter, and half to Sarah.
"Ray, get back!" Winston and Egon burst out from behind the doorway into the kitchen, proton throwers at the ready. With them, was a red-headed gothic looking woman.
Sarah's gaze turned to the woman.
"You." She hissed.
"Me." The woman hissed back.
Ray stood in-between the men and Sarah, confusion rolling over him. The tugging was growing stronger-and painful.
"Raymond that is the evil one who wishes to enslave you." Sarah growled.
"Young one, do NOT listen to her. She's poisoned you against us." The other woman spoke quickly. "Think it out!"
The pressure had reached its peak. Physical pain drove the Ghostbuster to his knees.
"Stop this!" Ray screamed. "You're tearing me apart!"
"Ray!" The startled voices of his friends rang out.
Ray's vision clouded over red. Someone was laughing-no cackling-behind him. The tugging stopped. Everything went from red to black as Ray was flung backwards.
-
End of Chapter the Third