Ray, Peter and Winston stared in shocked awe at the sight of their injured friend. The three flashlight beams quivered with fear as they focused on the bloody jumpsuit that covered Egon's beaten body. Every drop of blood that fell from his still bleeding wounds glistened in the light before splashing down and collecting in the blood puddle that had long since formed since the beginning of his torture.

"We need to get him down!" Ray urged as he raced over to Egon, blood splashing up from the floor and onto his boots and legs. Examining the chains up close Ray hones in on the thick metal shackles that crushed into Egon's wrists. "Unfasten the locks on his wrists!"

Winston moved in and wrapped his arms around Egon's chest. Holding Egon upward he was able to take the deadweight off of the shackles so Ray and Peter could free Egon's wrists.

"Got it." Ray confirmed as he unsnapped the metal shackle on Egon's left wrist. Carefully he lowered Egon's bleeding arm down until it was draping limply over Winston's shoulder.

"He's free." Peter unfastened the second shackle and helped Winston support the full weight of Egon's unconscious, broken body.

"I got him." Winston was able to easily lift Egon up into his strong arms.

Egon was completely unaware of the arrival of his friends. His entire body was cold, limp, heavy and nearly lifeless. As blood dripped down from his cold, pale skin his head lolled back against Winston's broad shoulder.

Carrying him 'bridal-style' Winston moved Egon away from the dangling metallic chains and over to the far wall. Kneeling down he cradled Egon's body in his arms. "He's cold. Possibly hypothermic."

Peter moved in beside Winston and practically pulled Egon away from the safe arms of the marine and held onto him in a tight hug. "He's dying!" Putting hand beneath Egon's neck and head he pulled his friend close to his own body in attempt to offer some form of comfort.

Winston pressed his fingers against the side of Egon's neck and found the thready pulse. Placing his hand gently down on Egon's chest he could barely feel the weak breaths that trembled beneath his palm. "His ribs are broken, three on the left and four on the right. Congestion in both lungs means he either has a nasty infection or fluid building up from trauma."

Ray unclipped the PKE meter from his belt and waved it over Egon. The small display showed the weak vital signs compared to his usual healthy biorhythms on record. "Internal bleeding..." Ray quietly stated. "in his chest and abdomen. His heart rate is too fast and his blood pressure is too low."

"Broken left wrist," Winston continued to list Egon's numerous injuries, his voice become lower and lower with each word. "dislocated left shoulder, multiple lacerations across his body..." Gently Winston pressed his fingers against Egon's swollen eye and tried to check his pupils. "fractured orbit, can't check his pupilary response but it'd be best to treat as if he has a concussion until we can confirm anything."

"What can we do?" Peter asked feeling helpless as he held Egon tighter against his chest in a protective hug.

Winston's instincts as a paramedic kicked in full gear. "Apply pressure to the wounds, elevate the legs and keep him warm. He's in shock."

"How do we do that? We don't have anything with us but the proton packs and flashlights!"

"Like this." Winston pressed his hands down on the torn fabric of Egon's jumpsuit and pressed the garment down against the most severe lacerations that marred his chest.

Egon groaned in response but never opened his eyes.

"We need to get him out of here!" Peter practically yelled. "Let's move! NOW."

The doors of the room slammed shut as the siren and her ghost lover encroached upon the Ghostbusters from the sanctuary of their shadows.

Ray jumped and grabbed onto Egon's arm protectively. "I don't think we can leave."

"We have to!" Peter refuted like a temperamental child. "We'll find a way and take Egon with us."

Winston gave Ray a glance that spoke volumes of uncertainty. "Peter," Winston put his hand on the psychologists shoulder. "he's already dead, his heart just doesn't know to stop beating."

"No!" Peter refused to believe. "You don't know that, you can't know that! You're not a doctor!"

"...I am..." A weak voice hoarsely interjected.

The three Ghostbusters looked down in absolute shock as Egon somehow managed to fight his way back into the waking world. His dried, cracked lips stained with blood barely moved as he spoke in a whisper.

"...Winston... what is... wrong with me?"

Swallowing his grief Winston respectfully told Egon the truth about his condition. "You're suffering from severe blood loss and severe blow to your head. Your heart is weak, your lungs are congested, you're hemorrhaging in your chest and your abdomen. Broken ribs, hypothermia... Impending infection."

"He's right..." Egon admitted feebly. "There is-" A harsh cough tore through his battered body which caused Peter to hug him tighter while Winston pressed down on his chest to try and keep him steady. Blood spattered from Egon's lips as he tried to cover his mouth with his arm, but he didn't have the strength to move.

Peter ran his hand through Egon's hair while Winston and Ray gingerly pressed down on Egon's chest and uninjured shoulder until the coughing fit passed.

Egon opened his one good eye and struggled to focus on the caring faces of his friends looking down at him in the dark room. "...You have a good bedside manner... Peter." Giving one final faint smile Egon closed his eyes and his head rolled to the side. "Thank you, for finding me..."

"Egon?" Peter called his friend's name defiantly. "Egon! Open your eyes! Come on man, please! Wake up! You're strong! Stay with us!"

Ray wiped a tear from his eye as he watched the life draining away from Egon's bloodied body. "Peter... We'll think of something, we won't let him die! Even if it means tearing this building apart brick by brick!"

Winston checked Egon's, slowing, pulse again. "Let me carry him, I can break down the door and get him out to the car."

From the shadows the siren emerged. 'No.' She siren hissed with a dark presence weighing in her voice. 'You took my love from me, you will suffer as we have.'

Peter was angry. He had never encountered this siren before, he had done nothing to her. "What's killing Egon going to do for you? You're already dead!"

'It will make you hurt.' She replied with a coldness that was unlike anything Peter had ever heard before.

Ray shut his eyes tightly, unable to look at Egon any longer but unwilling to face the ghost herself. "You're right, this is hurting us! But why? What did we do to you to deserve this? What did Egon ever do to you!"

The ghost hovered beside the siren. 'You imprisoned... me... Egon imprisoned... me...'

"It wasn't anything personal!" Winston defended. "We didn't know anything about you when you were captured. Now we do. We know what happened to you all those years ago, but we weren't responsible for that."

'You know?...' The ghost challenged. 'Who... am I?...'

Peter glared at the ghost with abject hatred burning in his eyes, a hatred that was only matched by the coldness of the siren's voice. "You were 'The Apprentice'. Gunned down in 1937 on a rainy night by 'The Executive', your body disappeared and whoever murdered your former boss as retaliation was never identified." Looking past the ghost to the siren Peter shot her a wicked stare. "I bet it was you, Miss Olivia Hale!"

Ray and Winston didn't bother to look at their ghost captors. Egon's life was more important to them than a couple of bitter spirits with a grudge.

The siren's gaze softened as the passion in Peter's voice impressed her otherwise stone cold facade. 'You know about us. You know we were innocent.'

Peter's tone lightened. "Yeah, we know. The cops couldn't figure it out but I think I know what happened." Tightening his arm around Egon he dared to pressed his dying friend against his chest in a strong embrace. "After he was gunned down you found him, right? You took him to safety but he... he didn't pull through. Out of heartbreak you waited for 'The Executive' to leave the warehouse and you shot him out of revenge."

The siren nodded. 'This much is true.'

"But I imagine that a smart crime lord like him wasn't unarmed. You were shot too."

The ghost of 'The Apprentice' wrapped his arm around the siren's nearly transparent shoulders.

Peter studied the ghosts who held them all prisoner in the abandoned penthouse. Seeing that he was on the right track he put the pieces of the puzzle together. "You hid out here, in the penthouse. This is where you died."

The siren lifted her hand and created a small orb of glowing orange light. The light's glow fully illuminated the room and revealed that tucked away in the dark corner was an old bed. Laying on the bed were two bodies, one of a man and the other of a woman.

Ray glanced over his shoulder at the two forgotten corpses and flinched. "You were separated when he died in the alley," Ray realized with a pit in his stomach. "his spirit haunted the warehouse and the docks while your own spirit," he referred to the siren with a lilt of sympathy in his voice. "was trapped here in the penthouse because this is where you died."

The two ghosts had somehow become less grotesque in appearance, their features melting into more recognizable human faces.

Winston kept his hands firmly placed down on Egon's chest in a desperate big to stem the bleeding. "You two were separated in life and in death. We caught his ghost without even knowing about hers."

Peter felt a warm tear rolling down his face as his emotional fortitude was beginning to breakdown. "You lost your lives because of love. You let a man full of rage and paranoia tear you two apart, and if let Egon die then you're no better than the man who killed you!"

A visible flinch wracked through the siren and the ghost as the harsh truth set in.

"Let us save our friend," Peter pleaded dolefully. "and we'll make sure you two get the proper burial you deserve. You'll be together in the afterlife, I promise!"

The siren and the ghost held hands and gazed at one another longingly. The witch like appearance of the siren had faded entirely, the beautiful young woman from the newspaper article now stood before the Ghostbusters as she caressed her hand down the ghost's face. He too had regained his former appearance, his rotting flesh replaced by the warm complexion of the handsome gentleman he had once been.

'We will not... be separated again...' The ghost demanded as he held the siren's translucent hands firmly between his own. 'Help your friend... Give us peace...'

"We will!" Ray promised excitedly. "We'll contact the police and tell them where you are! They'll be sure you're given a proper burial and that 'The Executive' will be held accountable posthumously. Please! Let us save our friend!"

'Very well...' The ghost and the siren circled around the Ghostbusters and enveloped the reunited quartet in a thick blanket of darkness.

The smell of of the city filled the air as the four Ghostbusters found themselves now sitting on the sidewalk beside the parked car.

"Hurry!" Peter reacted quickly as he lifted Egon up from the ground. "Get him in the backseat!"

Ray pulled open the door and waited for Peter and Winston to settle in the backseat with Egon. Practically pulling the driver's side door off the frame of the car Ray frantically started the car and raced off toward the hospital.

"Just hang on!" Ray begged as he swerved dangerously through the streets. "Don't give up on us Egon!"

...to be continued...