AN: Our ride is slowly coming to an end. I sincerely hope someone out there is enjoying this story. I appreciate all of you for reading anyway. Once again, I don't own the characters (see chapter 1 for disclaimers). Warning as usual for Ghostbuster-style action and some language.

6

The Dead Zone

"Why would she do that?!"

Janine woke to her now-familiar nightmare: Her daughter was missing, in the hands of a Toltec demon, only this time she was the reason. The rescue and the past twenty-four hours might have been nothing but a dream-if the demolished vehicles strewn outside the warehouse, the walls adorned with Jillian's scribbled numbers, and the nightmarish splatters of blood on the bed Janine had abandoned didn't prove it had all happened.

Erin, Janine, Ray, and Hawkins were now in the warehouse's kitchen, gathered at the table, trying to regroup. Kevin busied himself seeing what he could do to get the antique Ecto-1 back on its wheels. Abby had called to tell them that she had stabilized the containment unit with the portable reactors from the new Ecto-1. Erin had brought her up to speed on their situation, and Abby was headed to the warehouse with Patty and Winston.

The Vogaite specters had disappeared as abruptly as Voga Ra'El. Erin figured they had Holtzmann to thank for that as well.

Ray had given Janine one of his old plaid shirts to change. He didn't waste his time trying to get Janine to a doctor. They'd all seen how complete Voga Ra'El's healing power was, and she wouldn't have gone anyway. He brought her a glass of water and kept refilling it while they talked.

The fifth time he topped off her glass, she caught him looking at her neck where the gash had been. "Ray, I'm fine," she said.

"Janine—you were dying. She didn't know what else to do," Erin told her. Everyone understood why Holtzmann had saved Janine, but they were still left with a problem-the whole world was going to have a problem if she built the fifth device for Voga Ra'El.

Janine simply vented her fear on the red-haired woman. "Voga Ra'El has my daughter again! I don't care what happens to me, you should have stopped her! Does she think I want to be responsible for the end of the world?!"

"I tried!"

"Janine, this isn't helping. She knows we can stop Voga Ra'El, but not if we're all dead! She didn't just save you, she bought all of us time." Ray reached to take Janine's hand, trying to calm her. "We'll find Jillian. As for our Toltec buddy-we stopped him before, we can stop him again."

Erin chewed her fingernail nervously. "I'm not so sure."

He was surprised at her answer. "What?"

She had been considering this since the ghost attack on the firehouse. "We contained him before, and his little minions almost killed all of us to rescue him. If we put him back into the containment unit, they'll come after him again…this isn't going to stop unless we send him back into the tenth dimension and make sure he can't crossover again."

Ray wouldn't mind killing the gaseous bastard one bit, before Voga Ra'El permanently killed one of his family. "I'd love to hear how you plan to do that."

"If that machine Holtz built can bring him here, it can send him back," Erin figured.

Janine would have been happy to personally escort Voga Ra'El back through the barrier. Even when Jillian had been rescued, he and that Raina witch had still been able to mess with her daughter's mind. Janine had seen it while they were in the S.U.V.-those few seconds when Jillian had almost crashed the car because they had found their way into her mind.

Then she recalled: "Jillian said something in the car-when that Raina bitch was messing with her mind. She said 'paradox'."

Erin's brow furrowed. "Paradox?"

"Does that mean something?" Janine asked.

Erin got up from the table and walked over to the wall where Holtzmann had recopied the equations from the apartment. She began to study the numbers, searching for something that would lead her friend to the bizarre comment.

The rest of the group followed her. Ray joined Erin in examining the equations from this new perspective. "Jillian said the fifth device that Voga Ra'El wanted was meant to let him enter whatever dimension he wanted at any point in its timeline that he wanted."

Erin nodded. "Let's assume he wants to go back on this timeline to the point where he was defeated and sent into exile." It was a place to start, anyway. "He'd have to either prevent his own defeat-"

Ray finished, "-which would create a time paradox, since his ability to travel back to prevent his defeat depends on his being sent into the tenth dimension to tell Jillian how to build the machine. The paradox would destabilize this timeline."

Janine just wanted to be sure she was following their reasoning. "By destabilize you mean-?"

"Apocalypse," Ray was blunt.

Erin continued, "Or he goes back in time after the point of his exile and defeats his enemies."

"Which alters our timeline, and we're back to Apocalypse," Ray said.

Erin moved along the wall. "Either way, Voga Ra'El goes back in a vaporous state. He couldn't be thinking of possessing his own body, or else-"

Hawkins guessed, "Paradox?"

"Sort of. Either it stops with Voga Ra'El erasing himself or the paradox again destabilizes the whole timeline. Doesn't matter, as soon as he crosses over, as soon as the portal on that machine closes, our timeline ceases to exist one way or the other. We may never be born, which means no Holtz to build his machine and set him free…" Erin was mostly thinking out loud.

Hawkins, Janine, and Ray chorused: "Paradox."

Hawkins didn't understand the endless equations or string theory, but he got the gist of their warning. "Basically, the apocalypse isn't coming from the machines, it's going to be spawned by the paradox he creates trying to change his own history."

Erin had made her way to the section of numbers that sketched details of the fifth device. "Wait, what's all this?"

Ray wasn't sure what she was asking. "Jillian was copying the equations from the photos you sent."

Hawkins turned his back to the wall. "I officially didn't see this or hear that."

Erin shook her head. "No, no, I've been staring at these numbers for two days. Something's off here. Right here."

Janine had spotted something as well. "Ray…" Something was lying on the floor at the base of the wall, not far from where Erin had stopped. Janine picked up the object and held it up for Ray to see.

"What's that?" It looked to Erin like a mini version of Abby's 'mind-reading' helmet.

"My Spectral Possession Recall Device. We didn't get a chance to try it with Jillian. Not where we left it."

Janine was glad—the idea of Jillian playing with mind-alerting gadgets was unsettling. But if Jillian moved it- "You think Jillian used it?"

"Not possible. I didn't have a chance to go over the device with her. She wouldn't know how to work it," he said.

Well, that was the most ridiculous argument Janine had heard. "Ray, she reverse engineered an interdimensional portal generator by watching videos on YouTube. I think she can find the 'on' button." She tossed the device to him.

Ray made a face at her. "In any case, she didn't have time. Hawkins and I carried you upstairs, then Erin and Kevin showed up. Jillian couldn't have been alone more than five or six minutes."

Erin wasn't buying that argument either. "How long would it take for her to do something with this device? Assuming she found the 'on' button?"

"That depends on what she wanted to do with it."

Erin turned back to the equations, now comparing them to cell phone pictures that Holtzmann had printed out, searching for discrepancies…and finding some. "Wait! Ray, look here!" She pointed to a string of numbers right above the spot where Janine had found the memory device. "These numbers don't match the original equations. Holtz changed something. Right here where Janine found your memory do-dad."

Ray looks at the pictures and compared them to what Jillian had written on the wall.

There was the sound of a car pulling up to the warehouse and doors slamming. Seconds later, Winston, Abby and Patty walked in, Abby calling: "Erin?"

Erin waved, but didn't turn from the equations. "In here."

"The containment unit is fine. It's stable for now. We made Rorke baby-sit it," Abby said. She rounded the corner from the kitchen into the living area and saw what was distracting the group.

Patty grumbled, "Oh good. Once again, Holtz takes off and leaves us with a wall of math."

Ray waved for Abby. "This is the section on the schematics of the fifth device. Abby, look at this. You've done some engineering, right?"

Abby didn't want to oversell her skills in that area. "I'm nowhere in Holtz's league."

Erin explained to her, "Holtz changed the schematics and she deliberately left the memory device here so we'd see it. Whatever she changed, it's got to be some kind of message for us."

Abby scratched her head. She supposed she was more familiar with Holtzmann's methods of engineering than the rest of them, so she'd take a shot at it. "Oh boy-okay…" She pointed to one span of numbers. "…this part here has nothing to do with schematics. Not exactly. This relates more to my field, to astrophysics…this is what you'd find if someone was programming a computer to navigate in outer space. I think-" Abby didn't get to stretch her mental muscles on an astrophysics riddle as often as she did a supernatural dilemma. She hoped she was misinterpreting what her friend had done. "I think-if Holtz programs that machine with these parameters, it's going to command the machine to lock into a dimension that's devoid of life. A dead zone. A universe that can't sustain life in any form."

"One of those micro-rips back at Spook Central crushed Voga Ra'El's human followers when they fell inside. Remember, Janine?" Erin asked.

Janine cringed. "Vividly."

Abby had been outside, she hadn't seen that part but it sounded horrible. "Good example of a dead zone. She could send Voga Ra'El to a dimension where gravity crushes him, into a massive black hole, a supernova…well, you get the idea. The machine would probably generate micro-rips like the ones we saw until it found the dimension with the conditions Holtz asked for."

"So, Holtz is going to program a booby trap into her own machine? So she can kill Voga Ra'El? And she used that memory do-hickey to hide her plan inside her own subconscious so Voga Ra'El wouldn't know? God willing?" Patty was impressed-but she was still going to give that girl an ass-chewing when they found her. She supposed Holtzmann didn't have too much time to plan, but if she could draw all these numbers, she could have at least sent them a text to fill them in on this suicidal plan of hers.

Janine had to sit down again. "But, if Voga Ra'El takes Jillian with him through the portal into a dead zone, she'll die, too."

Erin hated to be the one to say it, but… "I think Holtz knows that."

Abby sat down beside Janine on the couch. "We've got to find her before she finishes that device and opens the portal."

Hawkins figured it was time to jump back into the conversation. He stepped back over to the group. "The Vogaites stole the pieces of the other machine and the Eye. Holtzmann could reassemble them anywhere in the world."

Ray disagreed. "That's not exactly true."

Winston had been silent up until this point, but he hated it when Ray was cagey. "Which part?"

Ray had to backtrack for the younger Ghostbusters. "We call that old apartment building 'Spook Central' because it was specifically designed to attract and amplify supernatural activity along the ley lines."

Architecture and ley lines. Patty was pleased they shifted to subjects in her wheelhouse. "Like the Mercado?"

"Yep. I'm guessing that's the same reason Voga Ra'El's playmates chose it as the spot to open the nexus to the tenth dimension. The Eye of Tezcatlipoca probably draws power from the ley lines, too," Ray said. "If that's the case, they'll want another building that can amplify the power of the ley lines."

Patty had seen a laptop on the kitchen table. She went to the computer and started searching the internet. "The architect of your 'spook central' was Ivo Shandor…he only designed that one building, but get this: His grandson, Eruch Shandor, is some kind of real estate mogul. It looks he's got buildings all over the country. Look here-he designed the Points Resort in Key West, the Nexus Hotel in Boston, the Altamont Tower in Las Vegas…and the Hidalgo and the Mercado."

Erin moved to read over Patty's shoulder. "If Voga Ra'El knows we're onto the Hidalgo and the tower on 77th, he'll probably head to one of those other sites."

Hawkins was already pulling out his phone. "I'll have the local police check those buildings for activity."

Abby glared at him. "No offense, Hawkins, but I think we'd rather do this without Homeland Security's help this time. I don't trust you guys. Rorke shot Holtz." The look in her eyes warned that Abby didn't plan on letting that go. Ever.

Hawkins didn't blame her, he planned to line out his partner privately for that dipshit stunt as soon as he got the chance and hope he could keep the Ghostbusters from breaking ties with the agency after this business with Voga Ra'El was over-but in the meantime, these ladies had to understand he had a job to do.

Patty took pity on Hawkins. He had made a good point. Besides, they needed to stay on his good side. He was going to have to help them straighten out the mess Winston and Janine had created revealing the existence of the original team. "Me, either. But you're okay, Hawkins."

Hawkins pointed out to Abby, "How do you plan to get to Boston or Key West or Las Vegas in time to stop Holtzmann without our help? Did Holtzmann build you a transporter that I don't know about?"

"That's a 'Star Trek' thing, right?" Erin asked. She also defended him. "Guys, he's right. Hawkins, make your call, but nobody moves on Voga Ra'El without us. Got it?"

It was a step in the right direction. Hawkins stepped outside to set the search in motion…and to call in a favor to have a jet on stand-by.

Patty studied the map. Rationally, she knew they had to wait for the police. They couldn't go search three different cities themselves. "So, what—do we wait for a call, or do we split up and cover each of these sites or pick one and hope the hell we guess right? It's going to take time to get across the country, and we don't have much time to waste."

Janine had crept up behind her so quietly that when she spoke, Patty jumped. "Vegas."

"What?" Erin asked.

Janine said it again. "They're going to Las Vegas. The Altamont."

Abby had to know: "You're basing that on what?"

"On nothing. It's a hunch. If I were Voga Ra'El and I was trying to buy time for Jillian to finish that device, I'd take her as far away from us as possible," Janine explained. It was more than that-she just knew. Maybe it was an after-effect of the ghost healing her, but she almost felt the damn specter like a nagging sensation in the back of her mind.

Erin wasn't going to question Janine's instincts about her daughter. She shouted to the government agent in the doorway. "Hawkins—have the security guards at the Altamont check their roof."

Patty sure hated to be the one to point out complications, but she had one more question. "And what are we going to do when we find Holtz? If Voga Ra'El decides he's tired of being a ball of gas and needs a host, you got any idea for pulling a Toltec ghost out of our baby girl?"

Abby squirmed like something had just crawled up her leg. All eyes turned to her; she avoided their gazes. "What? Abby, if you have an idea, spill it," Erin pressed.

She balked, "It's dangerous."

"As dangerous as an interdimensional cross-rip spawned by a massive time paradox?" Winston pointed out.

"All right…hang on." She hurried to retrieve the now-empty ghost trap that had contained Voga Ra'El. "The neutrino net in this trap could potentially be designed to grab on to a specter but allow a living organism to pass through."

Janine shook her head vehemently, and Winston argued, "If Jillian passes through a net of proton streams, she's going to be deep-fried."

Fascinated with the theory, Ray took the trap from Abby and started poking around the device. "No, Abby's on to something here. If you adjust the density of the beams…" He paused just long enough to grab some of his tools from the work bench before settling at the table for serious tinkering. "…made a few adjustments to the power flow…she'd get burned, but probably no worse than a bad day at the beach."

Janine yanked the tool out of Ray's hand. "You are not shooting my daughter with proton streams."

"Ray, I'm with Janine." Winston knew it was useless trying to stop Ray once he got an idea in his head. "How would you test it? You can't use Jillian for a guinea pig."

In answer, Ray fired up the trap and shoves his arm into the net. Five sets of hands converged, trying to yank him away from the beams.

"Ray!" Janine grabbed his arm, expecting to see burned and blistered flesh (or a bloodied stump), but he was right. It looked like a nasty sunburn, but he was otherwise fine.

"You don't think I'd do anything to put my goddaughter in danger?" Ray asked her.

Erin was thrilled. "Okay, this could work. Abby and Ray, fine tune that net. Hawkins-?"

Hawkins was putting away his cell phone. "Bingo!"

"They found Holtz?" Abby didn't look up from her work.

"Security at the Altamont reports a device like Holtzmann's being assembled-by ghosts-on the roof. They're under orders not to approach but to very quietly evacuate the hotel," he said.

Patty clapped Janine on the shoulder. "That was a helluva hunch."

"Hawkins, how fast can you get us to Las Vegas?" Erin wanted to know.

"I knew you'd ask. I have a plane on stand-by."

The woman nodded, but said nothing. She moved back to stare at the schematics on the wall.

"Let's go get our girl. We can finish this on the way." Ray grabbed a duffel bag from the closet, and together he and Abby started packing up his tools and the trap. "Janine, you coming?"

She glanced back at him. "Can you build one of these?"

He blinked. "Maybe. Why?"

She pointed to the modified trap. "And I need a remote control for that. It has to operate without a foot trigger. I think I have a plan."

GBGBGBGBGB

At first, the Las Vegas tourists thought the strange events were part of the shows that the hotels of the Strip put on to draw people into their casinos—like the dancing waters at the Bellagio or the fake volcano at the Mirage or the pirate ship battles at TI.

So, when the ghosts suddenly started flying along the Strip, people pulled out their cell phones and snapped photos, took selfies with the specters in the background, and tried to figure out which of the casinos was putting on the show. Drivers stuck in the ever-impacted traffic along the main drag craned to see the ghosts from their windows and with their mirrors. Most of the folks assumed the show was ghost-themed because Halloween was only a few days away.

Wanda Jenkins from Massapequa had hopped a plane to Vegas with her boyfriend the day she'd turned twenty-one. She'd spent her birthday wandering from casino to casino along the Strip, attempting the impossible task of seeing everything in one day. Her boyfriend, Declan, was tagging along, complaining about wanting to actually try some of the casino games but humoring her in hopes that there still might be sex in his future that night.

"OMG! Declan, are you seeing this?" Wanda had her cell phone out, live streaming the ghost show on her Facebook page.

Declan was sitting on a bench in front of the Bellagio, wondering how people got so worked up over these crappy street shows. "It's so fake—they use laser projectors. Look, I'll show you."

He stood on the bench and waited until one of the fake ghosts swung in his direction. Declan held out his hand for the laser ghost to pass through.

His hand came away covered in slime and the skin of his arm broke out in goosebumps at the sickening cold sensation when the "projection" touched him. "Agh! Nasty!" he cursed. How did they do the slime trick? He wondered. The worse part was Wanda laughing as he frantically tried to wipe the sludge onto the bench, his shirt, and his jeans.

He didn't see the second ghost glide up behind him until the specter lifted him from his feet and dropped him into the lake in front of the Bellagio. He screamed his indignation.

Wanda got the whole thing on live stream, laughing so hard she was afraid she might accidentally pee a little. "So fake…" she called to him.

He made a rude gesture at the brunette, effectively taking sex off the table for the night. "Shut up! Help me out—"

"Don't tell me to shut up, you jerk! Get yourself out." Wanda made rude gesture in return. "And sleep in the lobby tonight." She turned her camera to address her Facebook friends. "You guys were so right about him-"

Declan's foul mood hit full on snit when the lake's fountain jets activated and water started spraying, hitting him from multiple directions. Security guards, drawn by the chatter of the crowd, and spotted the man in the lake. They helpfully shouted for him to "get out, the fountains were on" while he treaded water and tried to figure out which direction to swim amidst the powerful spray. Someone finally had the sense to yell for the fountains to be shut down.

Then the excited chatter turned to cries of alarm, then screams. Declan saw that the crowd was no longer paying attention to him. They were pointing to the water. Some were running away.

He noticed the water felt strange and hesitantly looked down.

He was swimming in what he could swear was blood-if he didn't know this Vegas stuff was fake, fake, and fake. The red liquid shooting from the water cannons couldn't be blood. It was red dye. This was a really tacky Halloween stunt.

Just to be safe, he swam as fast as he could towards the security guards and tearfully begged them to get him out of the lake of not-blood.

One of the men in the crowd was watching the on-line local news feed about the show going on all around him. He elbowed his wife. "Something's up. I heard they're evacuating the Altamont."

That escalated the tension in the crowd around him. Many gazed from the lake of blood to the hotel with the distinct purple glass that towered over the other buildings on the Strip. Sure enough, the wraiths that dogged Las Vegas Boulevard seemed to be originated from the strange blue glowing light radiating from the roof of the skyscraper.

And then the ghosts suddenly multiplied exponentially, descending upon the pedestrians and vehicles. They doused the sidewalks with green slime that made it nearly impossible for people to run away without slipping. Cars start having accidents when the frightened drivers could no longer see out slime-soaked windshields.

Above it all, a black helicopter circled.

GBGBGBGBGBG

The Ghostbusters had crossed the country in record time aboard what Hawkins called "A jet, that's all you need to know". The plane landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California (Patty had been wildly excited to visit the base where the Space Shuttle used to land). Next, they were ushered onto a helicopter and flown to Las Vegas.

They saw the chaos beginning on the Strip below, but no sign of micro-rips or a trans-dimensional portal. Yet.

Hawkins sat in the co-pilot's chair, listening in on the LVPD radio frequency as the city police tried in vain to restore order in the middle of the escalating supernatural event. "Don't get too close to the Altamont." He didn't want a repeat of the copter crash from their first tangle with Voga Ra'El. "We're cleared to land on the helipad at the Encore. It's the closest to the Altamont."

"Aw, man, what happened to the Aladdin hotel? There was this guy with the most gorgeous blue eyes who used to hand out flyers there. And when did they put all those damned skyscrapers up?" Patty was staring out the window at the lights of the strip. It had been years since she and a group of friends from the MTA had hit Las Vegas. It wasn't anything like she remembered. "Remember when they put some imagination into these Vegas resorts? Like the pyramid at the Luxor and the castle at the Excalibur and the Eifel Tower at the Paris? All these new places are just big glass boxes. I can get that back home. Look-is that little group of skyscrapers leaning like that on purpose or did the contractors make a big mistake?"

Abby had spent the cross-country flight helping Ray work on the trap and the duplicate of Voga Ra'El's final device. She wasn't up for small talk. These gadgets had to work properly if they were going to save Holtzmann. "Maybe we can talk about the decline of the Vegas Strip after we find Holtz and stop the Apocalypse?"

"We were talking about architecture before we left New York. It's on my brain now."

Erin was studying the boulevard below, trying to plan a path between the Encore and the Altamont. "How are we going to get through that mess down there?" They wouldn't be able to get there by car with all the accidents blocking the boulevard. The sidewalks were jammed with pedestrians, and the ghosts had turned it all into a slip-and-slide by dousing it all in ectoplasmic goo.

"Anything but another plane ride," Winston complained. His guts still felt like Jell-O from that ride on Hawkins' super-jet.

Ray and Abby inspected their work and exchanged nods. Ray passed the modified trap and the portal device to the woman seated next to him. "You sure you know what you're doing, Janine?"

Janine tucked the smaller device into her coat pocket, but she'd have to carry the trap. She hadn't donned the coveralls or brought another weapon this time. "I'm the only one who has a chance of getting near Jillian. They'll kill you guys before you get within ten feet of the building."

"What makes you sure they won't kill you, too?" Winston asked.

Janine stared.

"Let me guess: A hunch?" Patty said.

The helicopter landed, and they piled out, all gazes turning to the direction of the Altamont Hotel. Ghosts circled the roof and blue light glowed, but the sky above was calm. "Well, the good news is the micro-rips haven't started yet, which means the portal probably hasn't been activated yet," Erin said.

They took the freight elevator down to the main level, drawing a few disapproving stares from the kitchen staff as they passed through on the way to the lobby. The guests were crowded around every available window, watching the madness outside. A few paused to offer disapproving stares at the Ghostbusters, the tattered jumpsuits, and their bulky fear.

Ray and Winston tried to clear a path through the mass of bodies. "Excuse us, please. Stand aside, please. Ladies and gentlemen, this is an emergency situation. Please remain indoors for your safety," Ray kept up a dialogue.

"Let's move it, people!" Abby wasn't concerned about being polite.

"Nice earrings. I got some just like them at Wal-Mart. Where'd you get yours?" Patty tried complimenting a nervous-looking older woman.

The woman gave her and offended huff and walked away.

Patty shrugged. "Guess she don't shop at Wal-Mart."

Finally, they made it out of the building and raced for the pedestrian overpasses on Las Vegas Boulevard for a better vantage point.

From the street level, the scene was more insane than it had appeared from the sky. A few ghosts had donned suits of armor and stolen horses from the Excalibur and were riding down the street, attempting to spear cars and pedestrians with spectral lances. A man ran, screaming, from a wedding chapel, pursued by a, decomposing ghost in a white wedding dress. Ghosts continued to slime the cars, causing more crashes.

Shaking her head, Erin reached for her neutrino wand and fired up her proton pack. "All right, let's try to herd them back towards the Altamont."

They team divided up: Abby, Patty, and Winston on one side of the street, Erin, Ray, Hawkins, and Janine on the other side. They put a stop to as much of the spectral melee as they could, but the entities that they could chipper, stop with the proton grenades and shotgun, or chase back towards the Altamont were drops in an ever-growing supernatural bucket.

Then came a deafening roar, the grind of metal groaning and breaking. It had come from the direction of the giant High Roller Wheel. The enormous Ferris wheel was tearing itself from its base-with the help of several serpent ghosts. Specters crowded into the cars, cheering with excitement as the wheel began to roll down Las Vegas Boulevard. Pedestrians scrambled to get away from the overpasses before they were demolished by the wheel and drivers abandoned their doomed vehicles out of self-preservation.

"I love this town," Winston grinned.

"Don't laugh. They're probably going to bill us for all this damage," Patty groaned, "unless all this crap magically reassembles itself like the Mercado did…if that wheel comes back, see if they'll give us a lift to the Altamont."

At the sound of renewed scream, Abby abandoned her efforts to corral the specters. "Now what?"

A ghost-possessed tiger, escaped from the Mirage, was chasing more hapless folks down the street. The hotel's famous volcano was spewing rivers of slime. The tiger spied the Ghostbusters among the masses and charged at them, snarling.

Erin wasn't about to fire her nuclear weapons at the cat. "Good news, Ray—you're going to get to test out the neutrino net."

"I can't use it on an animal. PETA will sue us!"

From the other side of the street, Abby shouted, "I'm willing to risk it!"

Janine set the trap into the cat's path and stumbled back, standing behind Ray, who prepared to fire his proton pack if the net didn't work. The tiger leaped, and the modified sensors in the device deployed the neutrino net. It worked perfectly-the specter was torn from the cat, entangled in the net, and the tiger hit the cement, unconscious but unharmed save for some singed fur.

"Looks like it's working fine," Erin said. Ray released the specter-they couldn't spare the trap and containing it was a wasted effort amidst the current tidal wave of paranormal activity.

Somehow, they had managed to navigate the chaos until they were only a block away from the towering Altamont. Up close, from street level, they couldn't see the rooftop at all.

Janine's gaze was fixed to the Altamont's roof. "Jillian's up there." She took the trap from Ray's hand.

"This Jedi mind stuff you've got going on is starting to scare me," Patty told her.

Just looking up at the dizzying height of the building nearly gave Abby vertigo. "We should have taken our chances landing on the Altamont's roof. That is a long way up."

Erin asked their architecture expert: "How tall is it?"

Patty answered without hesitation. "Tallest building on the West Coast. Eighty stories."

Winston gaped. "Eighty? Okay, I love Jillian, but if I have to climb eighty flights of stairs, I'm going to have a heart attack. You got an idea how we're going to get up there?"

"We could try that?" Ray pointed to a pirate ship, which the Vogaite ghosts had liberated from the Hotel TI and were now floating down the Strip. They gleefully fired slime from the ship's cannons.

Patty refused, "Uh-uh. I draw the line at the Jolly Roger. That's undignified. Unless Colin O'Donoghue is flying the boat. Then I'll think about it."

"Ray, Peter, and I once crossed New York City riding in the Statue of Liberty," Winston said.

"That's worse than riding the ghost boat," she said.

"I say we try the elevators. What's the worst that could happen? Other than ghosts cutting the cable and us plunging eighty stories to our very bloody deaths?" Abby suggested.

"Yeah, other than that?" Patty added.

Erin interrupted, "Okay, okay, we'll figure it out when we get there."

The Vogaites were aware of the Ghostbusters' approach. They began to form a line between the paranormal exterminators and the Altamont, ready to defend their master. Erin glanced to the woman standing beside her. "I think you're up, Janine. We'll distract them as long as we can."

"Be careful," Ray added. There was more he wanted to say. Jillian's advice still echoed in his mind. But this wasn't the time or the place. He settled for giving her hand a squeeze as he returned the trap to her.

With a nod, Janine approached the ghost army, alone.

GBGBGBGBGB

The ghosts did nothing to challenge her. Some growled, a few licks their vaporous lips as if they'd have enjoyed taking a bite out of the human's flesh, but they parted to make way for her just as she'd hoped. She found herself standing alone in the roundabout at the entrance to the deserted Altamont Hotel, but she didn't approach the doors.

Instead, she called to the silence around her: "Where are you? I know you're here."

In answer, Raina Chaix was suddenly behind her, quiet as death. Janine trembled, remembering what happened in her last encounter with the woman. Despite her intuition, Janine still half expected the dark-haired woman to attack. However, Raina held back.

"Mother of the Calmanani-" Janine saw the woman's lips move, but she heard the words inside her head. It was invasive and disgusting, but it had to be endured. "-She made us pledge to spare your life. However, if you interfere, you will die."

Raina extended her hand, and the ghost trap flew from Janine's grip into the woman's outstretched palm. Janine spoke quickly, before the woman got it into her mind to demolish the device. "There's a flaw in the machine Jillian built. If you open the portal, you'll all die."

Cold blue eyes stared into Janine's, as Raina tried to see into her mind and gage the truth of her words. Raina found only sincerity in the woman's heart. She was afraid for her child. She was speaking the truth about the flaw in the portal.

"The Architect deceived us?" Raina asked. "That is not possible."

"You'd know if I was lying," Janine accused her.

Raina nodded. "You deceive me. You intend to return my master to this device?" she asked about the trap.

"Like I said, you'd know if I was lying. I wouldn't bring it to you if I intended to put him in it," Janine snapped. "I just want to see my daughter one more time. Take me to her and I'll tell you how to fix your magic portal. I don't care what you do to me after that."

The ground began to shake. From the rooftop came the rumble of machinery. The pale blue light suddenly flared brilliant white and three beams of light shot into the night sky. Janine and Raina both knew what it meant. Voga Ra'El's trans-dimensional bridge was being activated. In a few minutes, it would find the dimension he wanted…

…or the dead zone that the Architect had programmed it to seek.

"You're running out of time," Janine taunted Chaix.

Raina saw the truthfulness in Janine's heart, but her instincts still cried out that something was amiss. There was no choice to be made-Raina had to warn her master, permit him to sort out whether this subcreature or the Architect herself was deceiving him.

She took Janine by the arms and vaulted skyward, swiftly scaling the side of the building.

GBGBGBGBGB

He had waited so long-an eternity-for this moment.

Voga Ra'El stood at the edge of the roof, staring down upon a world about to cease to exist. In his mind, he had already traveled back, defeated those who sent him into his exile, rebuilt this world through careful manipulation of the timeline into the image he'd perfected in his limitless time to plan. He would thank his enemies before his dispatched them-if not for their treachery in using the Eye of Tezcatlipoca to send him into his exile, he would have remained like them: Tiny, limited in vision to the trivial matters of day-to-day human existence when there was so much more to see and know.

He gazed upon the world that was, but he saw the world that would be, the world he would create. The machines around him fired to life, energy tearing into the sky to rip the barriers between dimensions and prepare the portal that would begin his long-hoped for journey.

It was a strange feeling. The sensations from a flesh and blood body-being cold in the blast of wind at this height, the smells wafting on the breeze, the concrete beneath these hands-it had been an eternity since he'd felt anything. He had watched gravity reshape entire universes, but he'd forgotten the feel of it holding a body to the earth. He stared at the fingers, which would have seemed delicate to him even before he understood the fragility of flesh.

As the machines began to tear tiny chasms into the sky around him, he felt the terror of the tiny creatures of the streets below as they rightly assumed the end of their existence to be at hand. Their passing would not come from fire and death would not be accompanied in pain-he would reshape their timeline and they would simply…vanish. They could not die; they would never exist. That which was never born could never die. It was a merciful death.

Mercy had never been a concern of Voga Ra'El's. He had no need for it. He had always considered the merciful warriors among his people to be the weakest of the warriors among his people. It was might that he had sought from the Eye of Tezcatlipoca.

He smiled at the delicate hands of the body he had temporarily borrowed, and the consciousness that had put the notion of mercy into his thoughts. He had been teaching her, reshaping her…what an intriguing notion that he might be influenced in return.

GBGBGBGBGBGB

The ground began to tremble. The Ghostbusters staggered, grabbing for railings and walls to stay on their feet while the earthquake only fueled the panic of the crowd around them. They gazed upwards to the familiar sight of micro-rips slowly and randomly forming and collapsing in the sky above them.

"Here we go again," Patty said.

There was nothing they could do but wait for Janine's signal…except to pray.

GBGBGBGBGBGB

Janine saw, with a sinking heart, that the first four machines had already been activated by the time Raina Chaix deposited her gently on the rooftop. Raina kept her at a careful distance from Voga Ra'El's bridge devices. The woman might profess to be there to help, but if she intended to interfere, Raina would prevent it.

Janine wasn't interested in the machines. Her attention fell on the familiar black-clad figure who stood at the edge of the rooftop, gazing down at the chaos of the city. It was precisely what she had hoped not to see: Jillian's face, taut and unnaturally pale from the presence of the second soul within her body, and Jillian's blue eyes staring at her with Voga Ra'El's demonic gaze.

Voga Ra'El was far from a fool. He had expected these 'Ghostbusters' to arrive with the very trap this tiny woman with the fiery red hair now carried in her hand. That was the reason he'd possessed the body of his Architect. He did not need a physical form to travel through the portal, nor did he need to control her body to force her to accompany him. She was a hostage, crude though the necessity be. The sub-creatures who had confounded his first attempt to finish his work would not be able to send him back into their trap while he possessed the Architect, not without killing her. They'd already betrayed their weakness by proving they were not willing to let her die.

When she spoke, it was Jillian's voice in Janine's ear with Voga Ra'El's voice in Janine's mind. "I feel…smaller…in this body. I can't explain it."

Jillian/Voga slowly walked towards Janine and Raina. Voga Ra'El ran his fingers of one hand over the back of the other hand, as if he had never felt skin before. A gust of wind from the portal blasted across the roof, and he turned his/her face towards the gust, smiling at the feel of it.

Janine waited. She was aware that the opening and closing of each micro-chasm brought them one step closer to the formation of the portal that would take Jillian away and end the world, but she forced herself to wait.

Jillian/Voga stopped a few feet away, facing Janine. Voga held out her hand-his hand, Janine had to remember this was a creature controlling Jillian, not her daughter-and Raina tossed him the trap. He hardly spared it a glance before tossing it aside.

It rolled a few feet, skidding to a stop near the portal, landing on its side. Janine tried not to react, but she felt a twinge of panic hoping the cylinder would still function lying on its side.

"These minds, flesh and blood, neurons and neurotransmitters, they were never meant to contain all that I've seen." The woman had come this far for her child. Voga Ra'El owed her an explanation, the reason why he had chosen the Architect. Maybe it would comfort the woman to understand the greater purpose he had planned for her off-spring.

Or, perhaps it was the daughter who desired that he comfort the mother. The longer Voga Ra'El spent in possession of this form, the harder it became to understand where his will left off and the Architect's will began.

"I had an eternity with the whole of time as my vista and the universe dancing at my fingertips. There was no corner of any dimension I couldn't visit with only a thought. I could watch, but never partake. I've been longing to cross back, to the domain of flesh and senses…and conversation. I had eternity of endless wonders and no one to share it with me. Now, I have someone to share it with me-but it's fading. I'm starting to forget already. I gave as much of it to her as I could-my calmanani, my Architect." Voga/Jillian watched Janine carefully to see her reaction.

"The numeric language? All those equations? That was a data dump into my daughter?" Janine asked, offended. "You were using her to jot down your memories?"

Voga/Jillian frowned at her, impatient with Janine's misunderstanding. "I wanted to save what I could of all that I've learned during my exile. There were others, those who could hear my words, some who could understand them, some who could create what I showed them. Never one who could do all three. Not without succumbing to madness before they completed their task. She is…special. You know this. It's why I chose her."

"A father cares for his children. I reward my servants for their faithfulness." He gestured at the myriad specters…the souls of those who had pledged service to him during the course of his exile, pledged to serve him unto their deaths and thereafter. "Some asked for money, and I bestowed more than they could spend in a lifetime. Some desired power, and I gave it to them…within reason, of course. Some ask for death-and I grant that wish as well in due time."

Voga glanced at Raina. She looked away.

"Mother of the Calmanani-you must know that I spared you, healed you, as a gift to my child because it was her wish," Voga told Janine.

Hearing this vile entity referring to Jillian as "his child" offended Janine in every possible way. She folded her arms across her chest, letting him see her glare.

Voga/Jillian inclined his head towards the edge of the roof, indicating the street below where the 'Ghostbusters' fought their valiant battle against his army in vain. "I spared all your lives for her. You all forfeit our arrangement with your interference."

His God-complex was nearly as repugnant as his paternal claims on Janine's daughter…but it gave her the opening she'd been waiting for. Janine addressed her words to Jillian, hoping Voga had not suppressed her consciousness completely: "Baby, I'm sorry. I can't let you die. Not again. I know what you did to the device. I know you programmed it to open into a dead dimension."

Voga Ra'El was surprised. His/Jillian's blue eyes widened; Janine felt his rage as he tried to fathom how Jillian could have done so without his being able to pull that information from her mind. His child had tricked him. He would have to deal with that later. He took a step closer to Janine, searching her mind for deception but finding none. "You sacrifice your world by telling me this," Voga said.

Janine took a step closer to him, meeting his stare. "My daughter is my world. If you were a good father, you'd understand that I'd rather have her live…even if it has to be with you. If you alter the timeline, you'll erase this world and her existence. A time paradox. You understand the tenth dimension but you don't see the flaw in your plan?"

Voga smiled at her audacity, presuming to lecture him on temporal physics. "She already said the same, warned me of you 'time paradox'. I understand the tenth dimension, you do not. Your fear of a paradox stems from limited comprehension of the nature of the universe. But, your devotion is commendable. You may die knowing your child is safe in my care; I will be as her own father. When I've made this timeline-perfect-I will still desire someone with a mind capable of sharing it."

The conversation was over; Janine sensed it. It was time to close the trap. She took a deep breath and reached into her pocket for the device that Ray and Abby had built. "This is the correct device. Ray fixed it from the equations you gave Jillian."

Raina had been watching the exchange between Janine and Voga silently. When the human woman offered her the repaired device, Raina gazed at her with astonishment.

Voga Ra'El took the device from her, pleased. He summoned his spectral followers.

GBGBGBGBGB

The micro-rips were forming with greater frequency. Some opened to places that looked like Earth, some to dimensions that were distinctly alien. The Ghostbusters watched with mounting nervousness.

The earthquakes increased in intensity. Mortar began to fall from the tops of buildings. Windows for the storefronts of the high-end casino shops shattered, setting off burglar alarms. The security guards were too preoccupied with the damage done by the ghosts, so looters took advantage of the opportunity.

"I hope they've got some good insurance," Patty mused.

The main cross-rip was growing wider. On the other side, a second planet slowly became visible…a planet that looked identical to earth.

"What is that?" Winston wanted to know.

Erin answered, "Parallel dimension." There was no way to know if it was a viable earth or the dead dimension that Holtzmann had hoped for.

The marauding ghosts saw the chasm. They chattered to each other excitedly, one-by-one abandoning their pestering of the doomed humans to make their way to their master at the Altamont.

This was the opening that the Ghostbusters had hoped for. "Let's go! There's the signal!" Abby shouted.

Unimpeded by Voga's forced, they raced across the empty plaza towards the hotel.

GBGBGBGBGBGB

The minute Voga Ra'El walked past the trap, intent upon fixing his machine before it locked onto the dead dimension, Janine thumbed the tiny remote trigger tucked beneath her sleeve.

The trap sprang open despite being tipped on its side, and the neutrino net snaked outward. The proton streams jolted Jillian/Voga. She screamed as the pain of the beams lanced through her, collapsing to the rooftop…

…ensnared in the beams, Voga Ra'El was pulled out of his host's body.

"Egon's her father, you son of a bitch!" Janine elbowed Raina in the face, breaking free of the woman's grip. She ran for Jillian.

The writhing, vaporous mass that was the real Voga Ra'El screamed into their minds, to his army: "Treachery!"

Raina chased Janine...until the moment that the portal finally locked onto the dead dimension. A massive pull of gravity from the other side of the portal began to drag everything on the roof towards the machine. Ghosts that had been happily arching in the sky were immediately sucked across the barrier, being crushed to non-existence as soon as they hit the event horizon, perishing too quickly to utter a scream.

The trap and the ensnared Voga Ra'El clattered towards the doom of the chasm. Raina grabbed one of the antennas to keep from being pulled inside as well. She stretched out her palm and the trap flew into her grasp.

Jillian was jolted awake as Janine collided with her, clinging to her daughter tightly as they were both pulled towards the cross-rip. She tried to angle them towards the massive air conditioning units, sheltering behind the boxes though the pull of the gravity threatened to tear them from their precarious shelter.

Holtzmann was more prepared for the odd feeling of waking up on a strange roof with a gap in her memory, since this was the second time it had happened in as many days. Janine was there, keeping a death grip on her. Holtzmann felt the tug of a gravitational drag, heard the screams of the ghosts overhead as they were dragged away.

Janine wasn't supposed to be there, but Holtzmann was still profoundly grateful to see her alive and whole. "Mom? You're okay?"

Janine smiled at her. "I'm fine. We got your message."

The air conditioning unit groaned against the pull of the portal. There was a fire escape nearby. With tremendous effort, the two women made their way to the ladder, grabbing onto the rungs with all their strength. They were lifted off their feet, stretching like flags fluttering in a breeze, both feeling themselves losing their grip on the ladder.

Holtzmann moved, hand-over-hand, making her way higher so she could see over the side of the building, searching for a way that they could escape before gravity pulled them into the dead dimension.

There was only one way…

She turned to Janine. "You know I'm not crazy, right?"

Janine nodded.

"Good." Holtzmann grabbed her arm and dragged her to the top of the ladder. Janine let go of the ladder and wrapped both arms around her daughter's waist.

Holtzmann took a deep breath, tried one of those prayers that Patty was so adamant about…and allowed herself to fall from the rooftop, dragging Janine with her.

Raina was too far away to stop them if she wanted to. She could not let go of the antenna without being sucked into the dead dimension herself. She felt the Architect's intention as the woman climbed over the side of the roof, felt her calmly fall away…then the presence of Architect and her mother was gone.

Voga Ra'El's vaporous form was held by the neutrino net, but the proton streams were stretching and distorting towards the cross-rip. He fought not to be drawn into the trap. "Raina!"

She reached out with her telekinesis, disconnecting the fifth device from the larger machine. The portal generator shut down. Raina sighed in relief, letting go of the antenna.

Voga Ra'El seethed. Many of his followers had been lost in the dead dimension, but they could be replaced. He would repair the device himself-the Architect had made the pieces, it was a simple matter to correct her sabotage. No longer would he trust his work to humans, so capable of deceit and betrayal.

"I require a host," he summoned Raina.

She froze, blood running cold at his words. "You gave me your vow to let me die."

Voga was indifferent to her protests. He felt the approach of the ones called the 'Ghostbusters'…they were already stepping off the elevator and making their way up the stairs to the roof. If they found him in this vulnerable state, they would trap him again. His only option was Raina Chaix, and she was sworn to obey. "I require a host!" he repeated.

He underscored his commands-as he did so often when she hesitated-with a fresh lance of pain like fire burning her body, worse than the fires of perdition that Raina remembered so well. She sagged to her knees, hugging herself tightly against the pain until Voga Ra'El relented.

Tears streaming down her pale cheeks, Raina Chaix nodded. She held out her hand.

Voga Ra'El was satisfied that he'd forced her obedience.

The Ghostbusters burst onto the rooftop, weapons drawn.

"Holtz? Janine?" Erin yelled.

"Holtzy?" Patty echoed.

They found only Raina Chaix, on her knees. They were in time to see wave her hand at the ectoplasmic cloud that was Voga Ra'El, gathering him up. She gazed sidelong at the Ghostbusters as they trained their weapons on her.

"What'd you do with them?" Abby demanded of her. "Where are they?"

"Are they dead?" Erin asked, fearing the answer.

Raina's gaze flicked briefly to the spot where the Architect and her mother had plunged from the rooftop. Abby blanched and ran for the side of the building, Ray right behind her. They stared over the side, praying not to see Holtzmann or Janine dead on the street below.

"They aren't down there," Abby said. She circled back to the hooded woman. "Where the hell are they?"

Raina smiled, envious of the Architect, with so many willing to sacrifice so much for her. She remembered having people who loved her as much. Once. She wanted to be with them again, but knew her destination was hellfire and damnation.

Perhaps not.

Perhaps this time God would be forgiving.

She whispered to the humans encircling her: "You should hang on to something."

They didn't question her, accepting the warning. They ran to grab onto the antennas or duck behind walls as Raina's power swept up the fifth device and rocketed it back into its slot in the portal generator. The machine instantly recalled its previous coordinates as the cross-rip manifested once more.

If he had the ability, Voga Ra'El would have screamed as the trap-and him with it-was drawn into the dead dimension.

The feeling of him dying, of his complete absence from her mind, made Raina Chaix smile again. She lifted her head, looking at the Ghostbusters. "I remember…family."

Then, she allowed herself to be pulled into the cross-rip before they could stop her. Erin still reached for her instinctively, "No-!"

She was gone.

"We have to shut that thing down!" Abby yelled.

Ray trained his neutrino wand on the generator's power source and fired, obliterating it. The generator died and the cross-rip sealed itself.

Patty stared after Raina Chaix. "Why do the super freaks keep offing themselves like that?"

Winston couldn't have cared less about the suicide of the psychotic woman. God knew she left enough death in her wake. His only concern was Janine and Jillian. "Now what do we do?"

"I don't know. If they didn't go through the portal…but where else could they have gone?" Erin, too, went to the side of the rooftop, gazing down as if the streets below would somehow respond.

Abby's phone rang.

She froze, trading glances with Erin. "You don't think-?"

"Answer it!" the group shouted.

"Okay, okay…sheesh…" Abby didn't recognize the number…or the country code for that matter. She answered, "Hello?"

The voice was garbled and distorted, but familiar. "Abby?"

Abby could have cried. "Holtz! Where are you?!"

Everyone gathers around her, jubilant, anxious to try to hear while they traded hugs. Abby put the phone on speaker as Holtzmann replied, "That's a little hard to explain. I think-we're in Papua New Guinea."

"You're where?" Patty asked. "How'd you get to the other side of the planet?"

"Hey, Patty! Yeah, we jumped off the roof into a micro-rip."

"You and Janine both?" Ray wanted to know.

"We landed in the ocean. A pig farmer had to row out to get us…he has a house like a Hobbit. It's pretty awesome."

Holtzmann had actually had fun jumping from a skyscraper through a cross-rip that might have deposited her on another planet instead of the Gulf of Papua. If Abby needed proof that their friend was okay, that was it. Abby couldn't help but laugh. "Thank god you're okay! Holtz, keep your phone on. I'm going to have Hawkins get a lock on your location and send help."

Patty noticed something as she gazed down from the rooftop. Now that the cross-rip had sealed itself, and the paranormal onslaught was over, the crowds had gathered at the base of the Altamont Hotel. They were too far down for Patty to hear, but from the way they were gesticulating and moving, she could almost swear that they were cheering. "You won't believe this," she waved to the others.

They gathered along the ledge, following her gaze. Erin shook her head. "They think all this was a show?"

Patty grinned. "This is Vegas, baby."

GBGBGBGBGB

In the tiny nation of Papua New Guinea, Holtzmann and Janine were currently riding along a dirt road in a rickety pick-up truck…more specifically, they were sharing the back of the truck with the farmer's pigs. Holtzmann was still coming down from the buzz of her most recent near death experience; Janine was trying to keep her feet out of the pigs' poop.

Holtzmann knocked on the window to the truck's cab. "Thanks for loaning me the phone, Bexley! You might have some roaming charges."

The driver simply grinned and waved back at her. He was looking forward when they reached the nearest town to telling his friends how he'd rescued the strange women who had fallen out of a hole in the sky.

Janine had her arm looped tightly through Jillian's, mostly to reassure herself that her daughter was really there. "So, how's falling off an eighty-story building into a trans-dimensional cross-rip into the Gulf of Papua for a second mother-daughter day?"

Holtzmann mulled that before grinning. "Not bad. But, how about next time we try paintball?"

TBC…

AN: Thanks for sticking with me this far. I didn't mean for it to be quite this long, but that's just the way I write. Just the epilogue left, coming in a few days…