Ghostbusters International: Chronicles of Gozer

GBI Case File GBI-2004-22/001

Story by Fritz Baugh, Vincent Belmont, Ben King, Jeremy Hicks, TheRazorsEdge, and Brian Reilly

Original Edit by Vincent Belmont; recut by Fritz Baugh

Egon watched from the gate, as several Ghostbusters rushed hurriedly around him, checking equipment, and some of the wizards tracing great runes in the dust.

Egon saw a great storm coming overhead, he saw the lightning dance across the clouds, and the loud thundering of the ground...and he heard the fury of Gozer.

"I don't like the sound of that..." Gabe remarked.

"Good guess." Jeff Nash interjected, walking up to the site with the wounded Iain Bennett hanging on to him, and the delirious Jeremy Hicks in his arms.

"Jeremy!" Fritz said. "Is he..."

"He got the crap knocked out of him by Vince's whammy." Jeff answered. "But he's himself again."

Fritz, having known Jeremy longer than anyone there, showed visible relief.

The concern in Ben's voice was noticeable as he examined Iain. "You all right, Mate?" Dr. Seward, who had been looking over Sarah Jones (fortunately, the group had packed some blankets, and one was now covering her nudity), gave Iain a quick look-over.

"I'll live..." Iain said.

"It would be better to get you to a hospital..." Seward noted.

Louis found himself transfixed by Jeremy. He had no clear memories of his own possession, only a few vague but powerful impressions. Did I look like that afterwards?

"Vincent scoped out where we need to set us up the bomb..." Jeff exhaled, as Fritz brought a blanket for their barely conscious teammate. "167 degrees from the portal, about five miles..."

Egon immediately looked in a direction almost exactly opposite the gate. "We need to move as soon as..."

"You may have defeated the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper..." a new voice broke in. Ray gulped-it was a voice he recognized, the voice of the person who'd violated his mind the day before. "But they are not the Shapeless Destructor's only minions..."

"Oh shit." Jeff cursed.

A massive horde of entities stood there. Horrors with dangling limbs, gaping maws, and jutting teeth and horns. Monsters that both resembled demonic versions of Terran animals-and things that the fevered imagination of the maddest madman would have had trouble dreaming up.

But perhaps the most horrific part was that standing at the front, leading the mob, were a band of human beings-if, having sold their souls to primal evil, they could still be referred to as such; they were the same cult that had orchestrated the transit of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man to this infernal place. The black garbed fiend, the Herald of Gozer who had violated Ray's mind, stood in command of all of them.

"We'll handle this." Fallagar said simply, and moved forward. "The Childe of Scorpio is my responsibility."

The transformed Albrecht growled in agreement.

Ray had to fight off a weird moment of anxiety. Maybe it's because "We'll handle this" is what Qui-Gon said before he took on Darth Maul, and we know how that turned out.

The Herald laughed. "I should have known they would send you. This is your ascension, foolish warlock: the reign of Volguus!"

A blast of blue light, pure telekinetic force, crashed against an unseen barrier. A blitzkrieg of angry violet lightning served as a retort, stopped by a force field fueled by hate.

Ray tried to reach the Jeep, but he was cut off-a giant slobbering fiend lunged at him, but was hit with a blast of pure mystic energy, throwing it back. One of the Hermetic wizards had saved him-but was then attacked from all sides by six more monsters.

Back at the Jeep, Ben was transfixed for a moment, the spectacle of it all washing over him. "DRIVE!" He heard Egon shout to Winston, and the Jeep lurched into motion. He saw that Louis and Fritz were the only others to reach the vehicle as the battle swirled around them.

"Get out of here, Fuckers!" Bo shouted. "We'll deal with these asswipes and catch up later!"

"There!" Egon shouted, pointing at a spot in the throng of enemies. Egon pulled his thrower, and leaned out the window. "Full stream!"

The four proton packs sparked to life, clearing a path through the enemies.

"They're not going to make it!" Venkman shouted.

"Yes. They. Are." Elizabeth Hawthorne Stantz replied firmly. She stood in a circle of wizards, all chanting. They raised their hands to the sky, and shouted in unison: "Cari animi, adminiculum! Adsumate signo uto care!"

A wind blew across the landscape.

From the summit, Vincent Belmont looked down at a pool of water at his feet. Touching the water, he saw in the ripples the image of the onslaught.

Vincent raised the staff high.

"Vincent Belmont sends his aid…"

"Cari animi, adminiculum! Adsumate signo uto care!"

"Armored warriors who would stay, upon the winds of yesterday, come fulfill your promise bold! From Hades deep, and ether cold!"

"Not all ghosts are evil. Not all spirits desire Earth's destruction. The noble spirits, those who have given their all for their fellows, and those linked to us by love, we beg for your aid!"

Bo Holbrook was not an easy man to shock. In seven years of fighting every kind of horror imaginable-out of control geomantic phenomenon, dimensionally-unstable witches, the dark god of Halloween-but this was one of the days he was genuinely impressed.

Ghosts appeared out of nowhere, to grapple and annoy the hordes serving Gozer. House ghosts, Domovyen, eccentric old uncles, even house pets.

And two guys wearing Nightsquad uniforms.

"Get your ass in gear, Holbrook, before it gets shot off!" Shades McPherson barked at him. A spectral proton pack was on his back, and a spectral neutrona wand shot a blast of mystic energy at the ghost that was trying to sneak up on Bo from behind.

"Shades...Oh Man..." Bo breathed. It had been less than a year...he shook his head, he couldn't let this distract him.

"Forget me already?" Ernie Slaughter quipped.

"I'm trying." Bo retorted. He had to keep moving, keep joking-before seeing his old friends again, even in spectral form, brought him to tears.

Liz looked up toward the dark clouds surrounding the summit. She saw lightning flash, and something from the flank of the army of creatures that threatened them.

Hundreds of glowing figures materialized.

Ghosts. Mounted samurai warriors, English long bowmen, Roman soldiers, Civil war cavalrymen, World War II soldiers, and even a legion of 300 Spartans rising from Hades, led by their king. All of the world's long lost heroes joined the fight against the minions of Gozer. It was as if the entire Ectosphere fought against extinction at the destructor's hands.

Jeff Nash fired his rail gun again. He was out of the mood slime rounds he'd brought already. Somehow, it had ended up to him to guard the weak, shattered forms of Jeremy Hicks and Sarah Jones. "I ain't letting them get you, J...not after going through all this trouble."

"That goes double for me!" a voice Jeff never expected to hear again rang out. The slightly translucent form of John Lipsyte materialized next to him, spectral neutrona wand in hand. It hadn't even been two months since he'd made the ultimate sacrifice to save Los Angeles from Anubis.

Jeff smirked. "Glad to be working with you again, Lipsyte."

Venkman also received a bit of spectral help, if you wished to call it that: from a drippy, green, potato-shaped Class Five he was more than familiar with. "Dammit, Slimer, I'm trying to stop the undead hordes of Gozer from destroying the Earth, here! Could you slobber all over me later?"

The mountain shook, and the fury of Gozer resounded throughout the skies. Vincent walked on. When Vincent took his first step onto the summit, all went quiet.

It was a death quiet. It was a calm before the coming storm. Vincent stared at the moon. His gaze pierced the red veil, staring into the black abyss beyond, where the coming void awaited.

It emerged. As a great shadow separating from the very stars itself, its black form melted from around the scarlet moon. Great wings formed from the looming shadow, slowly taking shape.

"So..." Vincent murmured, gripping the staff with both hands, and locking one foot behind him, "...it begins."

Vincent spread his hands wide, as if to take flight. He took in a great breath, and his shout pierced the night sky, reverberating through the wasteland...

"TEMPESTAS!"

The staff flared up suddenly, and a bolt of power arced through the staff, and Vincent's body, dissipating as it reached skyward.

Thundering storm clouds swiftly rolled in from seemingly nowhere at all. The blanketing nimbus frothed and weaved, as some massive cauldron in the sky. A titanic blast of wind blew from behind Vincent; his own magic nearly knocking him from the summit. The wind stirred the storm clouds further, and the clouds became as black and terrible as the great formless shadow that resided above them.

Almost at once, the ground was wet as the very floodgates of heaven opened, bludgeoning the ground with a torrent of rainfall.

Vincent laughed long and hard. "COME, FALSE GOD! SHOW ME YOUR DIVINE PROVIDENCE!"

In answer, the gargantuan form of Gozer burst through the cloud cover, a terrible form to behold. the wings of the black shadow seemed to stretch from one end of the sky to the other, and its body was the form of a man; skeletal, seeing no face or features, save the two crimson eyes, burning furious, like coals from the fires that burned in Hell.

Vincent grinned sadistically, and gripped the staff once again, chuckling. "Come on!" Vincent taunted, "Let's see what you false idols are made of!"

The Jeep bounced along under Winston's expert driving. Everyone else in the vehicle had their throwers ready...but in a turn of events that served more to unnerve than reassure them, they didn't encounter any opposition.

Egon and Winston looked at each other as they got their first look at their destination. "That has got to be it..."

Louis nodded, not saying anything. He could feel it.

All but Ben and Fritz could remember, even if only on a subconscious level which was the case with Louis, what Gozer's temple had looked like inside the ziggurat atop 550 Central Park West. It had been an otherworldly structure of glass with Egyptian accents, set against an angry alien sky. A flight of steps had led up to the structure and at a small landing in them there had been two plinths which was where Louis and Dana had taken their places after being possessed by Vinz Clortho and Zuul.

The temple that the Ghostbusters saw before them was like the original's bigger and much more evil brother. The structure itself hovered on a shattered piece of the landscape above a yawning chasm, an angry scar across the planet's face that appeared to go on forever. The temple was five stories high, with each level lined with what appeared to be Babylonian columns. The first level was shaped like the letter 'T' with the longest wall facing them and dominated by a large glowing arched entrance. The second level was circular and acted as a base for the third which was square and topped by row upon row of statues of fantastic and frightening creatures. The fourth level was once again round and topped by a impressive dome, and atop the dome was the fifth and final level which was then topped by a spire not unlike one you'd find on a cathedral. Maybe that's what it was supposed to be, a black cathedral build by the followers of Gozer and the souls of those claimed by the Destructor. It was impossible to guess how big the place had to be with them being so far away and that only served to make their hearts sink even lower when they saw the bridge they would have to drive across.

It stretched on for what seemed like miles, twisting and curving and yet completely unsupported. Like the Great Wall of China, the span featured small structures that were spaced out every several dozen feet, and each was topped with a statue of a Terror Dog. Winston hoped that they'd stay statues as gunned the engine, and the Jeep began to roar across it to the temple. There was a bridge to the glowing structure. Winston gunned the engine, and the Jeep roared across it to the temple.

The Jeep skittered to a stop, and the five jumped out, guns at ready. "Winston, the bomb..." Egon said. "Ben, you're probably the second sturdiest here-help him with it."

"Not saying much..." Ben rolled his eyes.

"Fritz-I will need your help when it's in position." Egon finished.

Fritz nodded. Then a strange smirk crossed his face.

"What?" Louis asked.

"It's amazing the things that go through your mind at a time like this. I just realized that for once I'm actually the youngest person here..."

Ben and Winston took the bomb out of the truck and placed it on the ground, near the black, pulsating crystal at the center of the structure. Egon nodded, and Ben and Winston redrew their throwers; Fritz clamped his to his belt and moved to aid Egon.

"Why aren't we being attacked? Doesn't Gozer know we're here?" Ben asked.

"Maybe not." Winston answered. "No more than one of us'd know when a virus reached our brain-it may not have expected anything to ever get past every other defense."

"I have waited over fourteen hundred years for this day..." the black-garbed woman snarled. "I will not allow anyone to stop this now-especially not you!"

She gestured. An arc of sheer telekinetic force, driven by hate, sprang forth. The aqua blue energies crashed against an invisible barrier. The target was pushed back, but the field held.

"It is not for you to decide, Lady Scorpio..." Fallagar replied, his voice firm. "And I have the utmost faith in those who will determine the future..."

"Don't call me that!" she howled. "I refuse to be bound by the games you and the others play!" This time the blast came from underneath, catching him off guard. The force drove him upward; a second telekinetic blast caught him full force, throwing him a good fifty meters into one of the numerous outcroppings dotting the dismal landscape. "I am the Herald of Gozer!"

"Torb! Sloar! Advance!" the Gozer cult's second in command, the dark wizard who'd been called "Ragnarok", called out.

"I don't like the sound of that..." Jeff muttered. A creature that reminded Jeff of a tyrannosaurus Rex…except for the fact that it had not one, but TWO heads. Muscle and sinew hung from the creature like old rags. The only things holding the creature together, seemingly, were the scant sheathes of silvery plating covering its body.

Behind it, the ground ripped asunder, exposing a creature with a gaping maw, belching fire and sulphur, with flaming tentacles, shrieking it's unholy hatred.

"Yippe-ki-yay, Motherfucker!" Bo shouted, having managed to jump on the Torb's back. It seemed to annoy the creature, and it started to try and buck him off-leaving it less able to defend itself from the angry Garou who moved to attack it.

Jeff was drawing a bead on the Sloar when something grabbed him.

"Jeff!" John Lipsyte shouted.

Jeff realized it was another Sloar. The tentacles started to burn him...it hoisted him toward its fiery mouth...Jeff struggled to avoid that fate. Dammit...to go out like this...

And suddenly, there was a flash of blue light. The Sloar howled in pain and dropped Jeff. It's tentacle was frozen.

What the fuck? Jeff wondered.

One of the Garou leaped in and sliced the tentacle off. A wizard blasted it. But just as that Sloar went down, the other grabbed the werewolf and the mage, and devoured them.

Fritz was trying not to think about Chelsea. Trying not to wonder if he'd ever get to see her again when the ground lurched violently, throwing him into the air.

He tumbled, heard shouting and a cracking noise. Before he could react, he was hanging over a precipice, Ben holding on to his left ankle.

"I got Egon!" Winston shouted; Egon was dangling from his grip.

He realized what had happened-they'd been hit with another massive tremor, and it had nearly thrown him and Professor Spengler into the gorge surrounding Gozer's heart.

"I got good news and bad news..." Louis whined. "The good news is that the bomb didn't move...the bad news is that the bridge fell apart and took our truck with it!"

"Worry...about that...later..." Winston grunted, straining to haul Egon up. It would've been easier if he hadn't been weakened by his earlier ordeal, and Egon wasn't wearing a sixty pound pack...

"I...got you...mate..." Ben was straining even more, not being in as good a shape as Winston.

"AAAHHH!" they heard Louis shout.

"Louis!" the four cried in unison.

Louis's nightmare was standing before him. The image was shadowy, and translucent, but unmistakably that of a terror dog.

"You..." it's voice came into his mind. "The spell the sorcerer worked made my Host incapable of supporting me any longer...but you...pathetic specimen that you are, you were my last Host...I won't need to take time I don't have to prepare you first, because you are already primed..."

His instincts were telling him to run. To hide. To pee himself and faint, like he'd done more than once before.

Except...

There was nowhere to run.

The bomb that was Earth's last hope was right behind him. If Vinz Clortho became solid again, he would destroy it, and secure Gozer's victory.

If Vinz Clortho became solid again, it would be a death sentence to everyone he ever cared about. Mom. Andrew. Lawrence. Ted and Annette Fleming. Janine.

"Hold still, Host...and I will make it easy..."

Dana.

The translucent terror dog leaped for him.

No. He was not going to run. He was not going to hide. This wasn't then. He wasn't helpless this time.

Louis Bartholomew Tully's face hardened into a sneer. With a shout as feral as the terror dog's, he thumbed the trigger on the neutrona blaster and fired.

The shot slammed the shocked demonic minion dead on...it howled indignantly, writhing in the beam.

"Not. This. Time."

With a fluid motion, like he'd been doing it for years, his left hand found the ghost trap lashed to his proton pack, and threw it.

No. More. Nightmares.

He stomped the pedal, and the cone of light sucked the weakened, yelping Vinz Clortho into it's innards.

"Holy cow..." Winston breathed.

Louis stumbled. He felt just about ready to faint.

"Well..." Egon, himself gasping for air, clasped a hand over Louis's shaking shoulder. "Well done, Louis."

Winston helped pull Fritz up-at one point, the younger man was about ready to try to hit the emergency release on his pack. "Glad I didn't have to blow it..." Fritz said with a weak smirk. "I'd hate to have to listed to Joey complain about the $10,000 hit to the budget..."

Vincent swept the staff over his head, and his shout shook the mountainside.

"FULMEN!"

A white bolt of lightning danced across the clouds, and lanced out at Gozer. The stroke of lightning pierced it, and tore gaping holes in its wings. Its mammoth form fell from the sky, crashing on the wastes below.

Vincent had only a moment to wait before a great shadowy skull loomed over behind him, and opened its abyssal maw. Vincent spun around, and grew wide eyed. Reflexively, he held the wizard's staff aloft. A cascade of ebon fire poured forth from the jaws of Gozer, engulfing the form of Vincent.

"TUUM INFERNIS IGNIS NON INJURIS MAGUS!"

The flames instead parted around Vincent, the tumultuous heat only forcing sweat to trickle down the sides of his face.

Gozer reared up; his great mass an eclipse, blocking the little light that the scarlet moon had to offer. Darkest shadow and fierce flame surrounded Vincent as its enormous claws gripped the sides of the mountain. Its tremendous roar shook the ground on which Vincent stood, and Vincent's footing faltered. Yet, he stood firm.

"TU NEQUEO PRAETERIRE!"

The great beast loomed, but fell back. Vincent raised his arms higher, and wider.

"TU NEQUEO PRAETERIRE!"

The beast raised a mighty claw in defiance, and it fell with terrible strength and speed. The great black claw exploded into white fire, and it howled in unholy pain, raising its still-burning hand to the skies.

A blinding white light shone from the staff, and Vincent held it high.

"SACRES IGNIS! EXIRE, ET FALSUM DEUM CONSUMERE!"

Blue fire erupted from the staff, and engulfed the shadow, and the flames silhouetted the great horror of Gozer. It was a fearsome deity indeed. Its skeletal form burned and writhed, and it clutched its horrific skeletal face. Its titanic ebony wings withered away, consumed by the exorcist fire.

Vincent stood triumphant, but felt weak. He felt the hot wetness and the copper taste of blood on his lips as it trickled from his nose and beyond his chin. The hair on his temples turned a flat grey, and Vincent's weather beaten face had taken on an aged look. He fell to one knee.

The great beast tried once again to crush Vincent from beneath its clawed fist.

Vincent used both hands to raise the staff above him, and gave a shout. His bellow resounded for miles around.

"SEPARARE!"

And the staff came down, sundering the summit. The fist of Gozer came down, as well, landing its blow. Gozer fell into the chasm below, and Vincent fell from the mountainside, his cry of pain drowned by the great thundering pain of Gozer, and the sundering of the mountain...

Iain cleaved a Torb in two. Excalibur was soaked with the ichors of a number of enemies he thought Professor Spengler would have trouble keeping track of.

The black garbed Nephandus-"Ragnarok"-who had performed the ritual that tore open the hole to Gozer's realm, shouted a curse. Black fire played on his hands, and shot them at Iain like a blowtorch...

Excalibur shone, and the black fire was deflected.

Both were surprised by this turn of events, but having been on the battlefield before Iain recovered his wits quicker. It's the sword of Arthur...the magic of Merlin or the Lady of the Lake is watching out for me.

In another circumstance, he might have hesitated-but he was at war just as he'd been in Iraq a year before, and in a swift motion he swung the sword...

The cultist's head and body flew in separate directions.

"We're committed now, aren't we?" Ben said, taking a moment to look at the gaping chasm surrounding them, including where the pathway they'd driven across used to be. The pathway-and the vehicle itself-were still falling, for all they knew.

"There's no turning back now." Winston nodded, gravely. "But we knew it could come to this all along."

"So did John. And Ernie, and Shades." Fritz added, taking off his glasses, and putting them in his left chest pocket.

"I got no regrets." Louis said, sounding more confident than any of them-Egon and Winston included-could ever remember hearing him. "I just beat the monster that's haunted my nightmares for the last twenty one years-as far as I'm concerned, I'm going out on the highest note I ever could!"

"All I need is finish the final sequence..." Egon said. "As soon as I push this button, the overload starts." He looked at them. "There was no need to prime the remote trigger, so sixty seconds is all that we will have."

All four men looked at each other, and nodded.

Professor Egon Spengler nodded back, and jabbed the button with his gloved hand.

Activation -60

Ridiculous sub creature... The voice of Gozer roared. I sense the stench of all of those who ever opposed me about you...the ones who were not gods...and the one who's sorcery defied me before them...

The blast of hellfire swirled around, pounding through the wizard's Parma Magica...Vincent's coat and flight suit were on fire...

You are not a God either...

A tendril physically slammed Vincent into the stratum wall.

But I am.

And all of them-all of the pretenders, all of the fools who ever laughed at me, all of the pathetic, simpering mortals on your world. All of Xodiac's offspring will fear me. Iaoue Himself will grovel for my forgiveness...

AND I WILL NOT GRANT IT!

Vincent screamed as the demonic monster slammed him into the wall of the chasm again, feeling his bones grind and break under the horror's attack.

Ray Stantz gripped his proton thrower. It was hot in his hands, even through his gloves-as they guy who'd built and programmed it, he knew exactly how to disable the auto-shutdown.

Liz Hawthorne Stantz was right beside him.

"I always said I knew I'd never die alone..." Ray said out loud.

"You never were." she replied, knowingly.

Vincent felt the pain engulfing him.

"...Look at you, you hypocrite...didn't the Bible, YOUR book you hold so dear say 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live?' Deuteronomy 18, verses 10 and following: 'Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritualist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you." Adam retorted.

Was Bestler right? Have I been living a lie? How could a just and loving God condemn his servant to Hell for being born with the Gift? WHY?

He realized, through the fog of pain, that Gozer had stopped beating him.

The demonic bird creature looked away...

...to the direction, Vincent knew, its black heart lay.

WHAT...IS THIS? the horror roared. THE SUB CREATURES DARE?

The Destructor started to more to leave...

NO! Vincent's mind screamed. He could not allow the monster to leave. He could not allow the monster to save itself.

He felt the tickle of a familiar, but dangerous power. Twilight...the uncontrolled flow of magic through a magus's body. A power that could warp him...or even destroy him...

But any other alternative was now gone.

His grip tightened around the Staff of Merlin. It glowed with a bright, white light. He weakly pulled out the rosary hanging around his neck, and wrapped it around the staff.

God help me...I ask not for the power to save myself. I ask not for the forgiveness of my many sins. I even ask not for you to smite this unholy horror. I ask you for the power to stop this monster long enough for my friends to succeed-because I know they will! Give me this strength, even if it costs my life!

Gozer looked back at him.

Vincent Abraham Belmont felt the power course through him. The magic burning his body from the inside out; a spell of a dozen magnitudes or more, of a kind a human body was never meant to contain...

"THY WILL BE DONE!"

The form of Vulguus Zildrohar, Gozer the Gozarian, the Lord of the Sebouillia, ripped apart in a blaze of white fire. The mighty demon howled his insult and pain to the skies.

Blood and ichors stained the fields. The bodies of many a werewolf, and many a wizard, and uncounted demonic hordelings, lay piled on the ground.

Peter Venkman spared a glance, seeing King Albrecht literally rip a hordeling in half.

He saw Nate Inugumi and Gabe Martin about to overwhelmed by two giant trolls.

He made one desperate glance, hoping to find Ray in all of this. He was never going to see his wife or his children again, but it would be nice to see his little brother (in spirit if not in blood) one last time...

Slimer squealed, and pointed.

The summoning circle that the Hermetic wizards had used to call Slimer and all the other friendly ghosts had been forgotten about in the press of battle.

But it was glowing. And a shape of the purest white light began to appear...

"Fifteen Seconds!" Egon shouted.

Regrets? Winston Zeddemore thought to himself. That I won't watch my daughter grow up. That I won't be there for Kaila. But I know I will see them again some day...

It's attention is clearly back on me...I will not survive it long, but it will be enough. It has to be enough.

Goodbye, Jill...

The white light blasted into the skies, heading toward the heart of Gozer

"ZERO!" Egon shouted.

The globe of elements began to vibrate. The whine of the attached cyclotrons reached deafening intensity...

Matter and anti-matter. Fire, Earth, Water, and Air, and mana. Science and Magic. All met, for a fraction of a second, in a metaphysical orgy of conflicting forces, pushing against each other and all around them...

...Reaching a indescribable climax that had reality itself howling an orgasm of pain as it was ripped apart.

NOOOOOOOOOO! The horror shouted, as the very fabric of it's dark realm began to shred, the shockwave of force spreading from the temple in which the creature's black heart lay.

The shock wave slammed into it, blasting the monster apart, like a sand sculpture in a wind tunnel. As it was destroyed, its shape seemed to shift...for just a moment, a Tyrannosaurus...a Sloar...a human woman with severe features...

...and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, who smiled at him gratefully, and mouthed the words "Thank you" as he was shattered into nothingness.

Vincent Abraham Belmont nodded in return, waiting for the shockwave to claim him. They did it.

But instead of the destruction he expected, his world was engulfed in white light...

Are we alive? Louis wondered to himself. Or is this what death is like...

He thought of Dana, and Janine, and his family...he'd miss them.

From the white light, an image appeared. Female, with long blonde hair...familiar, somehow. Not actually there...more like a dream the he had forgotten...

"While it takes time, you find someone else. Someone all your own-someone who loves you and only you. Not Peter Venkman or Andre Wallance. Not Egon Spengler. You."

Even the voice seemed familiar...almost like Janine's daughter Eden, now that he thought about it...

Ben removed his glasses with one hand and wiped his watering eyes that stung from the nearly blinding light. I'm sorry, Junior... I'm sorry, Andrea

The Herald of Gozer stood, robes in tatters, a few straggling strings of red hair framing the dark green eye showing from under her torn hood, glowering contempt for her opponent. The scythe of pure psionic force rose over her head, ready to cleave off another limb if given a chance.

The Lord of the Steady Wind stood there, expression more serene, as another blast of pure electric force arced and swirled in his outstretched left hand.

She suddenly turned, as the skies were filled by white light.

"NO!" she howled.

"Fulmenius gladio!" he shouted, driving the attack home.

She stood shocked-in more than one way-for a moment, she looked less angry, less inhuman...and more like a frightened child. She didn't resist as the lightning blade tore into her abdomen...

I told you they would do it...

The man called Zandrik Fallagar allowed himself just a second of satisfaction as the white light consumed them both...

Vincent gasped in awe.

A giant woman, pale, the size of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, with flaming hair and wings, stood looking down on him. "Seraphic Radiance..." he realized.

He saw everyone else, and knew that they would be all right.

The Seraphim nodded, and the light became brighter than the Sun.

The beating of white wings, and he lost consciousness, a soft voice in his ears...

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant..."

GBUK Headquarters
7:45 AM GMT

All at once, Rosey could've sworn she'd gone deaf as she could no longer hear the half-dozed screeching Containment Unit alarms.

She opened her eyes and she could see that Ben was as equally perplexed. Whilst dust still trailed down from the ceiling and the fluorescents swung from side to side it was as if they were in the eye of the storm, but all of the Containment Unit diagnostics were okay even if not 'peachy', and the machine was humming contently to itself.

An uneasy silence hung over the building and perhaps the world, even Mary Sue was stunned into a rare moment of quiet reflection... Leaving the two young adults to wonder 'just how many might have survived?'

Tonnes Quarry
7:45 AM GMT

"Mrs. Spengler!" Joey Williams shouted. "Look!"

"The portal!" Kylie shouted. "What's it doing?"

The swirling tear in the sky began to distort and shrink. An unholy howling could be heard from it.

Then a blast of white light streamed from the hole in the sky, striking the ground a good quarter mile away from them.

When the light faded, the hole was gone. The darkness in the sky began to fade. It became just another late spring morning in England.

"What just happened?" Robert shouted. "Did we win, or..."

Janine unholstered her particle thrower. "Only one way to find out..." she said, gesturing toward the impact site.

"What's that noise?" Eduardo asked.

"Sounds like whistling..." Tommy Simpson commented.

Recognition dawned. "The bloody Colonel Bogey March!"

Ghostbusters, magi, and werewolves were in formation, like a triumphant army. Which, actually, they were. At the point, the four Founders of Ghostbusters International, the only beings to have ever gone up against the ancient horror more than once-and come back to tell about it both times.

Unsurprisingly, the scene disintegrated into chaotic shouts of triumph.

"Well..." Eduardo told Kylie, deadpan. "They're not dead."

"We came, we saw, we blew his fucking ass up!" Bo Holbrook yelled, lighting a stogie. Jen Spengler rolled her eyes, but gripped his arm a little tighter.

"You gotta stop scaring me like that!" Janine chided jokingly, the worry melting away.

"I'm sorry." Egon replied simply, just content to be with her again.

It didn't take long for it to turn into a group hug, which even Louis was invited to join.

"You're such a glory hog." Iain remarked at Ben as the spectacled Ghostbuster approached, but the statement was underpinned with a broad grin as he heartily hugged his comrades, sending dust pluming from Ben's head and shoulders and causing Tommy to wince in pain.

"Ow. Ow. I pulled my shoulder muscles, Iain." Tommy pleaded, but still exhilarated and euphoric.

Jill pressed through the crowd until she found who she was looking for. Vincent Belmont was being supported by Gabe Martin and Nate Inugami. He looked so pale-for a moment, her heart stopped again...until he looked up at her with weary-but joyful-eyes.

"I think we lost the connection before you heard my answer..." Jill told him, tears in her eyes. "The answer is yes..."

Morgond, the Magus Dominus scanned the crowd. He shook his head gently, with a little bit of sadness in his eye, for he knew that at least one face was not in it...

"It may not be candy and teddy bears-but we'll take it!" Winston quipped. He looked at the horizon, at the Sun shining its golden light on a brand new day. A day the world very nearly didn't have. "I love this planet!"

New York City
3: 45 AM EDT

Sleep was just about to finally overtake the nervous and scared children when they were jolted to attention.

"This is Vernon Fenwick, Channel Six News, and our affiliates at Sky News in England have just told us that the mysterious hole in the sky that appeared above Tonnes Quarry, south of London, has vanished. And..." Fenwick held his hand to his earpiece. "And that we are receiving live, raw footage that shows members of Ghostbusters International, having apparently dealt with the situation..."

Images began to play across the screen. Perhaps no one in the room was more joyous than Eric Stantz, seeing not only the father who had disappeared the previous evening, but...

"Dad and Mom?" he laughed, tears in his eyes. "Sometimes she surprises even me..."

The Spengler Twins held onto each other and squealed as the pan of the camera found their parents, holding each other in much the same way.

And when Peter Venkman winked at the camera, a weary Cheshire grin in place, Oscar, Jessica, and their mother, shook their heads, and hugged each other tight.

Los Angeles, California
12: 45 AM PDT

"Repeating, Sky News in England is reporting that the mysterious hole in the sky has disappeared, and the members of Ghostbusters International who went into it have apparently returned..."

There were whoops of victory all around her, but Chelsea Aberdeen couldn't join in. Yet.

"There's J!" Chad exclaimed. "And Jeff!"

"Who's that with Doctor Stantz?" Leon wondered.

It wasn't until the camera panned to one shell-shocked face, looking straight at the camera-as though Dr. Fritz Baugh was looking through the thousands of miles straight at her-that she felt a wave of relief and gratitude. She broke down in tears, saying a silent prayer of thanks.

June 12th, 2004
Four Days Later

The winds blew calmly over the headquarters of the Ghostbusters UK.

The membership of Ghostbusters International was assembling once more-this time, thanks to the generosity of the Magus Dominus, the Order of Hermes would be supplying a teleportation spell to get the lot of them back to the United States.

With a couple of notable exception...

"You sure you want to do this, Spengs?" Venkman asked. His old friend was rechecking the air surfaces of the ECTO-4, a half-eaten Twinkie in his hand. "The teleportation circle is a lot faster..."

"True." Egon agreed, finishing the Twinkie. Unlike Venkman, he was back in his familiar blue flight suit. "But the ECTO-4 has to get back home somehow, and it would take a rather gruesome amount of magical resource to teleport it-so why do so when it can get back to New York under its own power?" He gave Venkman a mischievous look. "Besides, it's not like I'm traveling alone this time."

Janine appeared with a clipboard, wearing her matching flight suit. "I wrote down all those numbers like you said, Egon-and they look more or less like what you said they'd be." She handed him the clip board as Venkman smirked and rolled his eyes. "Now can we get goin'? The Twins' fifth birthday's tomorrow, you know..."

"Yeah, well, just don't crash into the ocean when you're distracted." Venkman said cheerfully. "If you died like that after surviving the Second Coming of Gozer, I'd have no choice but to belly laugh rather inappropriately at the funeral."

He left them to finish preparations for takeoff as he walked back to the assemblage. Yeah...I got more reason to get home quicker. My wife's still back home, probably ready to kill me for all this...

Ray and Liz had already left-the Magus Dominus himself had ordered her to take a month off after this. It was too good a chance to pass up, and they'd already arranged to teleport home, collect Eric, and spend a month with her family in Nova Scotia.

"I have to once again offer my congratulations, Vincent." Fritz said. "August, you said?"

"That is correct." Vincent nodded. "Jill and I decided we'd wasted enough time over the years...seems to be endemic to Ghostbusters romances, doesn't it? Anyway, we hope to have everything wrapped up here so we can return in July and finalized everything after that."

"I suppose to everyone else, it might seem sort of shotgun." Ben Sr. chuckled. "Though let me remind everyone there are dangers to getting married too quickly..."

"Then what about you, then, Dr. Baugh?" Ben Jr. looked at him conspiratorially. "I understand you've run up quite a bill conversing with Miss Aberdeen..."

"Erm..." Fritz looked away. "Let's not get a head of ourselves. We've only been actually dating a few months...I haven't even known her quite three years yet..."

"Looks like they're about ready go to, Fritzy..." Bo came up, slapping him on the shoulder. "Unless you want to stay here and learn how to drink tea and call soccer 'football', we'd better get moving."

"Think how good it will be to see Miss Aberdeen in person again." Vincent smirked.

"Ye Gods, we won't see them for a week after this..." Jeff rolled his eyes. "Hey...anyone seen Jeremy?"

There were some worried looks all around.

"How in the hell did you deal with having done that, Mister Tully?"

Louis looked around at Jeremy.

"Um...you can call me Louis..." Louis replied nervously. "Considering that we're both in a club with only two or four members, depending on how you look at it, I'd feel weird if you kept this 'Mister Tully' stuff."

Jeremy nodded. "Okay..."

Louis sighed as he wiped his glasses. "As to how to handle it...well, I threw myself into my work, chased a few gullible Eastern European models...and spent twenty one years waking up at least once a week with screaming nightmares. That help?"

"So much to look forward to." Jeremy smiled wanly.

"At least you have something I didn't-someone to talk about it to. Someone who really does know exactly what you went through." Louis told him. "I couldn't even talk about it to Dana, really, though we tried a time or two. Um..." Louis looked around. "Speaking of Gate Keepers, how did it go, yesterday?"

"Hah?" Jeremy was shocked. "How did you know.?"

"I wish I could say it was some special Keymaster insight, but I just happened to be heading to pee when you snuck out..."

The events of the day before played over again in Jeremy's mind's eye...

When he entered, he noticed that there were less than ten students in the entire building. That there were few chairs and most of them were filled with parents waiting for their children; he decided to lean against a bare wall until class was over.

That took about fifteen minutes.

"The little buggers still won't put the sparring equipment away by themselves. They have no idea how much this stuff costs," she stated to no one in particular.

"Well, you know they could balance the budget for this place. Give you some time off," he said as he stooped over to help her pick up.

She didn't look at him. "That would be so kind of them. But I'm gonna hafta close this place down if business doesn't pick up before long."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure the neighborhood will miss it."

"Not really. The neighborhood seems to want this place to go because they say that the violence at schools and at the parks seems to be rising, and they blame me."

"That's just wrong of them. And how do they know that it's your students?"

"Because the fights or whatever seem to be with kids that know karate."

"Oh. Well, you only teach it, what they do with it after they leave here is not your fault, it's theirs," he said, trying to comfort her.

"They still blame me because I teach it."

"So? They blame you because it's easier than blaming the TV. But that's no reason to give up. Just move if you can."

"I've searched everywhere around here, and there's no place that has the adequate open floor space for a dojo of this size, or any size for that matter."

"Well, you could always relocate," he suggested.

"Where? There are already more well established dojos in the area..."

"I meant to LA." he said "With me."

At that statement, she got a surprised look on her face. It was true that they had gotten close, even though it was mostly Vinz doing the talking, but part of it was the feelings that Jeremy himself felt the first time he laid eyes on her. And he knew that she was interested in him just by the way she looked at him. But he needed to know if it was love or just the animal instincts of some otherworldly dogs.

"I...I...don't know," was all she could respond with. At that point she wondered if every member of GBI that had a near-death experience with a member of the opposite sex fell in love that fast. There just seemed to be a quality about him that just seemed irresistible to her, but couldn't figure out what it was. She was trying to figure out something to say when he responded.

"It's ok if you don't. I'd understand completely. I mean it's a big step in such a short relationship, but it's up to you."

She just stared at him. Every boyfriend she had, both of them, had wanted to move in the same day they met. But they never listened to what she wanted. This American left it up to her if she wanted to move in with him. No wonder she liked him.

He took a huge chance at saying that, with a fifty-fifty chance of the outcome he wanted. But no matter what, his feelings for her couldn't be ignored.

"You could move after you get your affairs here in order. It doesn't have to be tomorrow," he added with a glimmer of hope in his eyes, knowing full well that he had to go back to America in the morning.

"I need time..." she finally said. "I'm sorry, but..."

"I understand." Jeremy nodded, feeling a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"It could have gone better." Jeremy admitted. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper with an email address on it. "But it could have gone a lot worse, too!" And she did kiss me before I left...

"Has there been any word of the Archmage?" King Albrecht asked the Magus Dominus.

Morgond shook his head, but a slight fond grin was visible under his beard. "Zandrik is very difficult to destroy-and he is of a kind that doesn't feel time the way even one such as myself does. He disappeared in the Sixteenth Century, and nobody in the Order saw him for four hundred years; we thought he'd been lost to Final Twilight. Then he turned up at the Special Tribunal of 2122 Pisces... It's just a matter of when-but he will be back, and probably when it seems least likely."

"So is this really all over?" Eduardo asked. "Is Gozer gone for good?"

"Well, technically, Uncle Egon doesn't think so." Jen answered. "A primal, supernatural entity such as that is almost impossible to completely, utterly, irretrievably annihilate. It is entirely possible that it's etheric substance may eventually recongeal." She raised one eyebrow. "But he estimated it probably won't be for at least three million years."

"Good enough for me." Eduardo replied.

Mary Sue, meanwhile, was whining. "But after all this I never got to meet Egon!"

Venkman rubbed his aching temple. "Now I really know why Spengs went home separate from us..."

"Tell Dr. Stantz we'll keep an eye on the quarry and send him bi-weekly PKE reports and then monthly ones according to the timetable he set us." Tommy asked as he shook Winston's hand.

"If I didn't he'd probably keep asking me for them." He smiled in return and then faced the two youngest members of GBUK. "Ben, Rosey, thanks for watching over things here... if your Containment Unit had blown up things might've gone differently."

"Piece of cake." Rosey joked.

He then turned to look at both Eric and Adam "And you guys should know, there's positions for both of you at the Fort if you're interested in taking a sabbatical. Just ask."

"I'll keep that in mind Winston, my contract's up with these guys in a few months." Adam smirked.

As Winston bid his goodbyes Barney and Irena bid their own.

"C'mon, you have to go to Tijuana!" Barney insisted. "There's some fine tail out there, and I mean that literally."

"As unique a trip I'm sure it'll be... I'm needed here." Leon replied, without the least bit of sorrow at missing a road trip with the Ragabash.

"I'll try find some time where I can take a vacation... I think you'll like Shannon." She smiled and let a moment pass before shaking his hand. "Thank you."

"It was for Gaia." Leon replied and the three parted company.

As the light of the teleportation spell faded, the members of the Ghostbusters UK exhaled.

"Well, this has definitely been a learning experience." Ben said.

"Please, don't tell me you're going soft in your old age?" Iain chuckled. "This is the part about all of the lessons about friendship and faith?"

"No." Ben shook his head. "The learning experience is this: next time Iain wants to go digging around in Solitary Confinement-don't let him!"

Iain pretended to hit Ben as the group turned and walked back into the former insane asylum they called home.

Semi-Standard Disclaimer:
Ghostbusters is owned by Columbia/Sony; Created by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Developed for television by J. Micheal Straczynski
Ghostbusters West Coast created by Vincent Belmont and Andy Harness; Characters are owned by their respective creators
Ghostbusters UK, Ghostbusters Arcane Division, ECTO Canada, Ghostbusters Nightsquad owned by their respective creators

Additional Notes:
Some elements of the supernatural world in this story were swiped from Ars Magica, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Mage: The Ascension; Ars Magica is owned by Atlas Games; the World of Darkness is owned by White Wolf.

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