Chapter 6: Guilt

Ecto-1 sat at the light waiting for the signal to turn green. They had just left the hospital in South Staten as questions started to circle, "How," Kylie started, "how is Lita's energy signal in Staten Island? Is that where these Order guys Dan talked about are sitting?"

"They have to be," Darien agreed, "My question is where was that pulse of light coming from? It had to be at or near this Order's location."

"Maybe near," Roland added, "I recognized the direction we were facing when the light pulsed. It was Harlan Airport." He sighed as he looked at the red light, " It has to be the place then."

Kylie was confused, "The airport is the place?" "No," he looked at her in the rear-view mirror, "Staten Island is the place." Kylie thought about it, "Yeah. I see it. One thing though…"

"Why the cement plant." Amy concluded. There was silence. Roland kept looking at the light, it's red glow becoming the visual representation of his mental blockage. Why would that cement plant be the cause of there being no energy in Manhattan? Why would there be no attacks in Staten Island until Hacker was tagged? Lita being captured in Manhattan and her energy being found in Staten? It kept milling over in his head…

Amy had decided to add to the conversation to tie in other information, "On top of that, do you think it's possible they would have taken that book to that cement plant?"

Kylie looked over, "If they did, why would they do that? It's not like opening it there would matter, the guardian would still come out."

The street light turned green.

Roland had it suddenly hit him.

"That signature!" Everyone looked at him over his outburst. It flooded his mind vividly, "When me and Garrett scanned the structure for the concrete storage dome there was this weird pulsing over our meters! I thought it was the arc welders! Is it possible the structure was interrupting the background PKE field?"

Kylie remembered her interview with the worker, "That guy said they inspected the tower and didn't find any damage after the earthquake. He said they decided to work on it anyway."

"It's been known there are structures that absorb energy," Amy said as she checked her computer again, "We have encountered them before."

"So have the Original Ghostbusters," Kylie added. She scooted from her seat in the back and looked at Roland, "Do you think we should check the plant out? I think we'd better go now and report back to Egon everything we've found out."

Darien looked back from the front passenger seat, "Wait, what about the others? We're not going to go at it alone, are we?"

Roland finally pulled forward on the empty street, "No. If that pulse came from the airport, that means Dan got Lita out. They needed her for something."

Amy added, "The sacrifice."

"Exactly."

"Hold on," Darien looked back over to Roland, "If Dan got Lita away from them, who are they going to use as a sacrifice?" Everyone looked back and forth at each other. The tension just skyrocketed inside the car, Darien finally agreeing with the two Ghostbusters, "We better go. The less of us there are, the more we can stay hidden."

Dan sat beside Lita's bunk and looked her over. Lita was now out of her uniform and in her regular clothes. Dan had also removed her hair tie so as she could rest her head properly. Everyone still at the firehouse stood and sat nearby as Dan explained what happened, "After that, she passed out. I brought her back here as fast as the truck could take us."

Janine walked into the room with a cold washcloth in her hand. She forced her way between the crowd and handed him the cloth, "Is she going to be okay?" On the other side of the bunk Egon had pulled an older style PKE meter out of storage to check Lita over. He looked up from his screen to watch Dan fold the washcloth and place it on Lita's forehead. He sighed and looked to Janine to answer her, "She's nowhere near as drained as Dan was a few weeks ago. Her base PKE is just below normal exhaustion levels. She'll recover quickly." He watched as Dan took her hand and looked longingly at her. The worry on Dan's face spoke volumes, "Daniel," he reassured, "she will be okay."

"Leave us alone. Now." Egon sighed again as he stood. He looked to the people in the living quarters and spoke softly, retracting the antenna on the older style meter, "They need rest. Let them be. We'll set up additional sleeping bags for all of you." Everyone filed out of the room with Garrett coming up the rear.

Garrett watched. He couldn't see Dan's face, but there was a feeling; an air surrounding the man before him. It was sticky and dark; a feeling of grief. Against his better judgement - something that was easy to ignore as a thrillseeker - he rolled his chair closer. He placed a hand on Dan's shoulder, "Dan, they told me the truth about O'Leary's. I never realized..."

Dan raised his head. The stress suddenly went through the roof as the man slowly released Lita's hand and grabbed Garrett's. Without turning, Dan's grip tightened worse than any vice; it was like a hydraulic press.

Garrett wasn't a weak man. He had plenty of strength in his upper body thanks to his condition. He also had a high tolerance to pain. Both factors weren't enough for what he experienced next. The pain came quick and ever increased, the sounds of snapping heard. He held his breath as he attempted to use his other hand to free the one being crushed, trying to suppress making any noise while in pain. He couldn't pry Dan's fingers off.

Dan pulled Garrett's hand from his shoulder, his angered breathing echoing off the walls of the firehouse's sleeping quarters. Garrett's face was contorted in pain; he had a hint of panic in the pain, accumulating like the sweat collecting on his forehead. Dan's strength was relentless; it was even limitless through the power of Jupiter. Dan growled, "What part of 'leave' do you not understand, jerkoff?" He turned to look at Garrett…

His eyes were glowing.

"Holy…" Garrett squeaked out, "I've pissed off Rayden!"

"Dan!" Both men turned to a voice in the room. Raye rushed into the room and approached them quickly. She saw what was happening, "Dan, let him go!" Dan looked to her, his eyes ceasing their glow. He looked back to Garrett, then to the man's hand in his. Looking back up, he harshly threw Garrett's hand away. As the parapallegic gripped his own hand, Dan looked back at Raye, "Keep him away from me, or I'm gonna put him in the dirt." He went back to tending to Lita.

Raye and Garrett looked to each other, Garrett rubbing his hurt hand. Raye took hold of Garrett's chair handles and maneuvered their way out of the room. Once in the hallway with the door closed behind them, Raye realized, "Now I know why you wanted to leave. I forgot how protective he was of her." Garrett kept rubbing his hand as he watched Egon and Janine roll out additional sleeping bags. He couldn't shake it. The glow in Dan's eyes made his blood run cold; it made him regret what he did more.

She felt it, "Garrett?"

Without saying anything, Garrett ignored the pain in his hand as he took hold of his wheels. He pulled away from Raye's grip and rolled out of the room. He witnessed a side of himself he never thought he'd see. It hurt worse than his hand. He rolled to the elevator, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

Eduardo sat up from the couch as he watched his fellow Ghostbuster leave the room at a quick pace. He saw it as Garrett rounded the corner. He was surprised by what it was he saw. Mina walked to his side, her sensing what he felt. She answered, "You did see it." Eduardo looked up to her. Without a word spoken by him, she answered again, "His eyes; they had tears in them."

"Eduardo," Egon had finished laying out more sleeping bags as he addressed his student, "It's time you took over guard duty." He stood up and looked at the Latino, "It looks as though Garrett isn't in his element." He looked to his professor, then to Mina. He nodded, a look of determination on his face, "Yeah. I'll get a pack outta storage." He kicked off the sheets revealing him sleeping in his clothes, his foot still bandaged. He stood and quickly limped to the firepole. He was about to slide down before Mina intervened, "Eduardo, stop!" she turned to Egon, "He hasn't fully recovered from our fight today. He needs rest!"

"No, it's okay," Eduardo had kept approaching the pole, looking back, "I'll do it." He turned back and rode the pole down to the garage.

Janine stopped straightening out another sleeping bag and stood, a look of perplexion on her face, "That's strange."

Egon nodded, him thoughtfully stroking his chin, "Indeed."

Mina turned to the both of them, "What? What's strange?"

"Eduardo's not exactly the, 'willing to work' type," Janine explained, "You usually have to bribe him to get off the couch." Egon concurred, "He has been acting unusual since all of the Sailor Scouts arrived. Being your Knight, he may have a heightened sense of duty."

Mina tilted her head, "You mean… this isn't what he's like normally?"

"I had assigned Eduardo to the SERVe program because I had hoped Dan's work ethic would force him to acclimate," Egon handed pillows from the couch to Raye and Serena as he explained further, "He improved some, but your arrival has changed his disposition," he turned, "Drastically, if I were to state the magnitude."

"If you mean his anger," Serena stated, adding herself in, "he became really aggressive when that big zombie thing tried to hurt me. It was like a memory surfaced." Egon looked back at her, "You mean when Darien awoke them?" She shook her head, "No. We weren't together; it was just me and Eduardo."

"Wait a minute, Raye inquired, "this happened before Darien and Mina got to you?" She nodded, pigtails bouncing, "He said, 'I'm not going to let you or the other Scouts get hurt again.' After Darien unlocked his mind, he got more angry."

"There's something we're not remembering," Mina shifted her eyes around as though she was trying to recall something, "Why was he so angry at Darien?" She looked to the pole Eduardo slid down. She sighed an aggravated sigh and began walking to the pole.

Eduardo was finishing attaching the Proton Gun to the main cable of the Proton Pack he was wearing when he heard the sound of someone sliding down. Touching down on the floor Mina dismounted the pole and approached him. He sighed as he holstered the gun on their pack, "What are you doing down here?" he closed the spare equipment locker before looking at her, "You and the others really should get sleep."

Mina spoke softly, her approach slowing, "Eduardo, what happened?" The Ghostbuster rolled his eyes and shrugged in exacerbated annoyance, "I donno," he turned, "I guess because Dan asked me…" "That's not what I mean," she interrupted him, "What happened… In the Moon Kingdom?"

Eduardo's eyes widened.

Mina put a hand to her temple, yelping in pain. A flash - an image - crossed her mind's eye. She saw herself as Sailor Venus being held in Eduardo's arms, injured and bleeding. She was still.

Her's wasn't the only body she saw.

She looked back to him shocked. She saw the aftermath of the war with the Negaverse through his revived memories. A look of sorrow came to her face, "Oh, goodness. Oh my goodness…"

"I can't let it happen again," Eduardo closed his eyes and vigorously shook his head, "When my dad died, I realized if I went through with being a cop…"

"You're trapped between your fear of failure and your fear of death," Mina choked, "You witnessed it so many times." She watched Eduardo. He had an upset expression, his eyes still closed and he was breathing through his nose. She now knew and understood why he was angry at Darien.

Still, there was something more. She heard in the chaos Eduardo had been wanting to talk to her, but she wasn't sure why. He felt like he was falling apart, more now than before and she felt it. She knew he was supposed to perform sentry duty, but Mina knew he wasn't in his right mind. There was only one way to correct this, "Is there somewhere we can talk?"

Ecto-1 sat parked behind a darkened bar that was closed. In the bar's windows were NYC building permits. This was, in fact, the bar Issac Hacker crashed through just before the weekend started. Roland had decided parking too close to the plant would give them away; the Ghostbusters' vehicle being designed to be an attention-grabber on purpose. Seeing the car was an obnoxious rolling billboard, they hid far enough away to accomplish their task.

In the front of the bar both Amy and Kylie stood at the edge of the parking lot and scanned in the direction of the cement mill. Kylie had removed her trap harness to become more stealthy, but the green display of her PKE meter lit up her white face in the wet darkness, her facial expression as a result was clearly seen, "This is absolutely amazing! It's like an ectoplasmic whirlwind! All the missing PKE in the state has to be heading here!"

Amy's face was equally lit from the aquamarine blue light of her computer, "The energy density is greater than anything I've seen recently. It may not just be New York state!"

Roland and Darien rounded the small building and joined the rest of the party, "We covered the car," Roland stated as he stood beside Kylie, "Found a painter's tarp around back. I hope they don't mind us using it."

"We're approximately one half mile away from the facility," Amy turned her computer to the side allowing the rainwater that built up on it to run off, "If we move quickly, we should get there in 15 minutes." Kylie tied her wet hair into a ponytail after putting the PKE meter on her belt, "Alright, the plan is we get there, take readings, then get out fast. No matter what we see, we do nothing."

Darien ran his fingers through his hair, "I don't like the idea of standing idly by while these people are destroying the world." Roland agreed, "Neither do we," he placed his hand on Darien's shoulder, "but we can't risk engaging when no one knows where we are. We have to know what we're up against." "I know," the Japanese man said with a sigh, "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

There was a beep. Amy looked back to her computer and saw something alarming, "We better get going. I'm seeing an increase in activity!" "They must be starting some kind of ritual," Kylie looked over Amy's shoulder at the screen, "We don't have long." With that, Amy closed her computer as all four of them began walking into the heavy rain, breaking into a mild jog shortly after.

The intersection of scientific curiosity and abject horror about to be tread upon. For the sake of the world, they must stay to the end, for one missing detail could be all it would take to fail...

Failure. An option. A valid option. An option no one wished to take…